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16 Years of Alcohol

  • 2003
  • R
  • 1h 42m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
1.8K
YOUR RATING
Kevin McKidd in 16 Years of Alcohol (2003)
Home Video Trailer from Tartan Films
Play trailer2:23
1 Video
15 Photos
CrimeDrama

16 years of alcohol is about a skinhead named Frankie; his violent childhood, alcoholism and his love for Ska.16 years of alcohol is about a skinhead named Frankie; his violent childhood, alcoholism and his love for Ska.16 years of alcohol is about a skinhead named Frankie; his violent childhood, alcoholism and his love for Ska.

  • Director
    • Richard Jobson
  • Writer
    • Richard Jobson
  • Stars
    • Kevin McKidd
    • Laura Fraser
    • Susan Lynch
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.2/10
    1.8K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Richard Jobson
    • Writer
      • Richard Jobson
    • Stars
      • Kevin McKidd
      • Laura Fraser
      • Susan Lynch
    • 35User reviews
    • 29Critic reviews
    • 57Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 4 wins & 9 nominations total

    Videos1

    16 Years of Alcohol
    Trailer 2:23
    16 Years of Alcohol

    Photos15

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    Top cast34

    Edit
    Kevin McKidd
    Kevin McKidd
    • Frankie - Teenager & Man
    Laura Fraser
    Laura Fraser
    • Helen
    Susan Lynch
    Susan Lynch
    • Mary
    Stuart Sinclair Blyth
    Stuart Sinclair Blyth
    • Miller
    Michael Moreland
    • Budgie
    Russell Anderson
    • Kill
    Iain De Caestecker
    Iain De Caestecker
    • Frankie - Boy
    • (as Iain De Caestaecker)
    Lewis Macleod
    Lewis Macleod
    • Frankie's Father
    • (as Lewis MacLeod)
    Lisa May Cooper
    • Frankie's Mother
    Ewen Bremner
    Ewen Bremner
    • Jake
    Allison McKenzie
    Allison McKenzie
    • Dad's Lover
    Jim Carter
    Jim Carter
    • Director
    Gerald Lepkowski
    Gerald Lepkowski
    • Male Actor
    Marcia Rose
    • Female Actor
    Noof Ousellam
    Noof Ousellam
    • Rival Gang Boy 1
    • (as Naoufal Ousellam)
    Nabil Stuart
    • Rival Gang Boy 2
    John Comerford
    • Barman
    Colvin Cruickshank
    • Record Shop Assistant
    • Director
      • Richard Jobson
    • Writer
      • Richard Jobson
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews35

    6.21.7K
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    Featured reviews

    10timbarr-1

    Pure cinematic poetry - a must-see

    From Kevin McKidd's stunning performance to the exquisitely shot Edinburgh exteriors, this is one of the most beautiful and evocative films I've ever seen. Anyone who grew up in Britain during the 1970s will recognise much of what's up on-screen. McKidd and Jobson have captured the teenage experience of those years perfectly and reproduce the entire register of repressed emotions and violent undercurrents with unswerving accuracy.

    Naturally, it's a film about redemption - of sorts - but the tantalising, bitter-sweet promise of love and hope that permeates this film is delivered with a genuine toughness that sets it apart from the usual Brit-flick. File alongside some of the best European imports of recent years ... a wonderful and powerful movie that everyone should see.
    6Chris_Docker

    arty attempt at the 'rehabilitated alcoholic' story

    This is on one level a very gritty story of alcohol abuse and violence; on another it is an aesthetically realised elegy to hope and hopelessness. The beautiful images of historic Edinburgh are used unpretentiously as a backdrop to mindlessly savage beatings and physical intimidation, cinematic techniques involving varied use of lighting, colour, slow motion and overt symbolism. In one scene, the dead-end nature of the lives of people in a bar is demonstrated by showing them as corpses, seated with their drinks and covered in cobwebs, as the main protagonist looks on and questions his own downward-spiralling life of drink and vengeance. There is some light in the character of Helen, an art school graduate whose love might inspire hoodlum Frankie to give up his drunken brawling loud-mouthed ways, but ultimately the story of the slow and painful attempts of an alcoholic to reform himself will be too easily forgotten. The artistic attempts of writer/director and former Skids band-member Richard Jobson are what make the biggest impression – it remains to be seen whether Jobson can subsequently produce of work of creative genius rather than something that simply suggests considerable talent.
    5stensson

    Pretensions without solid ground

    One can't say that Scottish films about the 70s come to often, but this is one time too many. Kevin McKidd does the Edinburghian skinhead, who can't fight his past (or maybe that is what he actually does, beating people up). The past is a father who cheats on his mother and the son who never really get involved, never takes part in anything.

    He is somewhat rehabilitated, or is he really? There is an intellectual narrator voice here in contrast to the violent acting of McKidd. Everything becomes too obvious, but that doesn't make things easier to understand.

    A failure and only halfway interesting.
    escalation746

    Poetic and Personal Triumph

    I was not expecting much from '16 Years of Alcohol'. Perhaps an overly sentimental look back at Scottish urban life, perhaps a neo-realist bleakness. But when it started with hypnotically beautiful images of Edinburgh and a voice-over in that recognisable cadence, with repeating cycles of words drawing out every ounce of meaning from clichés like "hope"... well, I knew that I was firmly in Richard Jobson territory, and that maybe he has always been a film-maker at heart. He skirts cliché while playing with it, trying to show the violence endemic in that society and making many references to other films ('Clockwork Orange', westerns, 'Trainspotting', Martin Scorsese, etc.). It is larger than life and demonstrates how the mythic archetypes shape the characters rather too small for the roles they want to adopt.

    Kevin McKidd is brilliant as "Frankie", a character the amalgam of Jobson and his brother; I kept forgetting he was not in fact Jobson. The women are incredibly beautiful and yet have a depth of character not commonly seen in films that make women into such visual feasts. They are saviour archetypes but again somehow avoid cliché. How is Jobson doing this? There is some subtle artistry at work here. The cinematography is gorgeous and I was glad for the snippet of Skids on the soundtrack, though 'Love is the Drug' gets the best treatment in a scene that is both scary and hilarious.

    The film is dedicated to Jobson's brother, who did not escape the life of alcohol and violence and was murdered a couple of years ago. In the post-film talk at the Dublin Film Festival, Jobson revealed he had in fact run with the most notoriously violent of Edinburgh's youth gangs, until Skids took him away from that. This is quite obviously a very personal film and yet a highly aestheticised interpretation as well.

    I did not want the film to end, and would gladly have sat through it a second time immediately. Maybe it's just where I'm at in my life right now. Maybe it's because I have spent so many hours over the years infiltrated by Jobson's aesthetic. Maybe it's just a damned good film.

    '16 Years of Alcohol' won Richard Jobson the award for Directorial Debut at the British Independent Film Awards. It has received glowing reviews from Time Out, The Guardian, and Sight and Sound. It has played at festivals the world over. Forget the dismal comments of those too cynical to enjoy real film-making. See this poetic triumph for yourself.
    6tributarystu

    Arguably, a bit better than Hallmark

    Films about alcohol are usually depressing. They rob all the enthusiasm for life one might have in just a few hours and leave you staring into the void at the end, wondering what the point was. It's difficult to catalog them in any way, because a good "alcoholics movie" is one which swiftly flows along certain psychological retinues and steadily builds up to a mammoth of self deprivation.

    However, this isn't truly a film about alcohol. It's more a film about getting a life (yes, Trainspotting), portrayed in a less imaginative way. It all gravitates around love and the end is helplessly tragic, but "Sixteen Years of Alcohol" isn't that bad. Some sweet imagery and photography might make it worth your time. Also, the story resides within the soul of everyone who suffers due to lack of purpose, not only those subdued to the magic liquor. It's a borderline movie: you may very well dislike it, because the storyline is crap. Like all those films which fit into this part of the movie-specter, "Sixteen..." has good and bad parts. Just to name one, I want to recall the "Clockwork Orange" scenes, which are a homage-like rip-off, that barely prove a point. Moreover, those scenes feel terribly frustrating.

    All in all, it's not too bad and it could hardly have been better. No one need to watch it, but everyone is invited. Check out the party. 6/10

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    Related interests

    James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Sharon Angela, Max Casella, Dan Grimaldi, Joe Perrino, Donna Pescow, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Tony Sirico, and Michael Drayer in The Sopranos (1999)
    Crime
    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Quotes

      Frankie: I have always had a strange feeling about love, It seemed tricky: Happiness and sadness, ugly and beautiful, real and unreal; One thing I've always known, though, is that I have wanted to be around love, Quietly, not too much, Just enough to make my heart happy

    • Connections
      References Enter the Dragon (1973)
    • Soundtracks
      Fields of Athenry
      Written by Pete St. John

      Performed by Paddy Reilly

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    FAQ18

    • How long is 16 Years of Alcohol?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 30, 2004 (United Kingdom)
    • Country of origin
      • United Kingdom
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Frankie Mac - huliganen
    • Filming locations
      • Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
    • Production company
      • Tartan Works Ltd.
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $8,046
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $2,863
      • Mar 20, 2005
    • Gross worldwide
      • $8,046
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 42m(102 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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