Dublin Oldschool

Set over the course of a weekend, Dublin Oldschool uses its two main characters, brothers Jason (Emmet Kirwan, who also co-wrote the screenplay), a wannabe DJ and fun-loving, drug-taking party boy, and Daniel (Ian Lloyd Anderson), a heroin-addict, living on the streets of Dublin after his disappearance to London.

Drug culture in Dublin is explored in two different ways: Jason’s drug use is seen as recreational and fun whereas Daniel’s is a cautionary tale. What becomes immediately apparent is Daniel’s reappearance is a harsh buzzkill to Jason’s fun-loving party vibes. Consequently, the promising weekend of drug-taking debauchery is tinged with the harsh reality of Daniel’s precarious situation, and for the rest of the film, Jason is thrown back and forth between the exhilarating noise of his friends and their ‘sessions’ to the deadened staidness of his interactions with his brother.

For the most part, it works. Jason’s friends are kind-hearted twenty-somethings who love to party. Drug-taking isn’t just relegated to nights, or dark dance floors, but also in communal living spaces to pass the time. As his friend Lisa (Sarah Greene) points out, although Jason is rather irresponsible, she’s able to keep her partying separate from the rest of her life, which is getting harder and harder for Jason to do.

The most stark reprobation for this group comes when the police storm Lisa’s house after a night out, intimidating everyone into revealing any drugs, and even arresting their friend Bobby (Stephen Jones) for possession. But this is later laughed off, when Bobby reveals the ketamine he was arrested for wasn’t actually ketamine, or an illicit drug at all, and he is let go without charges.

On to the next one! This group’s storyline is burnished with one last rave in the country, where Jason finally manages to complete a DJ set without being too inebriated and does a very good job, to the delight of his friends. But upon his return to the city, he realises that his relationship with his brother needs proper sorting once and for all.

Though fun to watch, the party scenes pale in comparison to the fraught relationship between Jason and Daniel. In one particularly harrowing scene, Daniel tentatively broaches the idea of Jason coming with him to visit their mother so he can begin to make amends for all his wrongdoing. Jason has to tell him that their mother died a year ago, and they couldn’t track him down to tell him. In another, Jason admits he is depressed, implying that his drug use is window-furnishing for something a bit deeper, but thinks he’s still young enough to enjoy partying and drug-taking the way he does. Daniel, however, warns him that he’s just one weekend away from being like him. It takes Jason the entirety of the weekend to put aside his self-hatred and want to take care of his brother, who does need to get clean. As for Jason, it’s hard to say.

Recently screened at the Irish Film Festival, Dublin Oldschool is surprisingly powerful, and promises a kind of salvation, even if there’s still a long way to go.

Dublin Oldschool 
Part of the Irish Film Festival 2019
irishfilmfestival.com.au