cowboyangels

COWBOYS AND ANGELS
2004 - Ireland / Germany / UK - 89 min. - Feature, Color
Director -David Gleeson
Studio -TLA Releasing

Genre/Type -Comedy Drama, Gay & Lesbian Films, Odd Couple Film
Flags -Adult Humor, Adult Situations, Sexual Situations, Profanity, Drug Content
MPAA Rating -PG
Keywords -roommate, heroin, art-school, drug-trade
Themes -Unlikely Friendships, Unlikely Criminals, Drug Trade, Culture Clash
Tones -Affectionate, Easygoing, Quirky, Gritty
Produced by -Grosvenor Park Productions / Octagon Films / Peter Stockhaus Filmproduction / Wide Eye Films
Release -Sep 17, 2004 (USA - Limited)
Released by -TLA Releasing
DVD Street Date -Feb 15, 2005
Languages -English
Subtitles -English
Screen Formats -Letterbox for 16x9 TVs
Sound -DDDD2
Aspect Ratio -1.85:1 (DVD)
DVD Sides -1
Features -Remastered from HD / Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround / Commentary with director and cast / Deleted scenes / Director's statement

Cast

Michael Legge -- Shane
Allen Leech -- Vincent
Amy Shiels -- Gemma
Frank Kelly -- Jerry
David Murray -- Keith

Plot Synopsis

A young man who moves away from his hometown finds a variety of new ideas and dangerous temptations awaiting him in this comedy from first-time director David Gleeson. Shane (Michael Legge) is a man in his early twenties who leaves the small Irish town of his birth and gets a job in the comparatively big city of Limerick. However, he soon discovers that his new position bores him to distraction. Shane also has to get an apartment, and finds himself looking for flats with Vincent (Allen Leech), a stylishly gay college student studying a course in fashion design. While Shane isn't gay, he ends up sharing an apartment with Vincent, and finds himself admiring his confidence and sense of style, not to mention his close friendship with Gemma (Amy Shiels), a beautiful girl who works at a nearby diner. One day, Shane happens upon a cache of drugs, which belong to Keith (David Murray), a neighbor involved in the local heroin trade. Keith discovers that Shane has his dope and soon bullies him into joining his gang, running money and drugs between Limerick and Dublin. Shane is more than reluctant, but knows that working as Keith's mule will pay better than his old job and allow him to follow in Vincent's footsteps and attend art school. Cowboys & Angels was screened in competition at the 2004 Los Angeles Outfest, a festival of gay- and lesbian-themed films. � Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Reviews

Carla Meyer, San Francisco Chronicle

The 2003 Irish film "Cowboys & Angels" enlivens the classic premise of innocent-in-the-city by moving its archetypal characters in unexpected directions.

Filmmaker David Gleeson's first twist is the city itself. It's not Dublin but Limerick, rendered, in a vibrant palette heavy on reds, as a modern city teeming with hipsters. Shane (Michael Legge), a 20-year-old civil servant and new arrival, is too muted for this world. Yet he's no bumpkin, despite his freckles and drab clothes. Rather, he's a young man trying on behaviors such as flirting with the young woman (Amy Shiels) who takes his order at a chip shop. Legge brings a hint of effervescence to Shane's search for his adult personality, as if this kid knows he will be happy once he's over the humps.

The death of his father forced Shane to go to work to help support his mother, denying him his dreams of art school and the sense of community that college life can afford. He envies his new roommate, the slightly older fashion student Vincent, because he is pursuing his art and because he has a built-in social circle as a gay man. Vincent, played with amused confidence by Allen Leech, informs his roommate that gay life has its drawbacks. Gleeson has upended the usual scenario of the wide-eyed straight man being shocked, shocked! to discover his roommate is gay.

The biggest difference between the characters, more than one being gay and the other straight, is that Vincent is sure of himself and Shane is not. He treats Shane like a kid brother, and he's not above making fun of the kid's squareness to his cool friend Gemma, who happens to be the girl from the chip shop. Shiels alternates curiosity and disdain in Gemma's interactions with Shane, embodying everything young men find difficult to read in young women.

Gemma is more focused on Vincent, and he does little to discourage her crush. Filmmaker Gleeson understands that sexual identity is often flexible among the young. The pair's relationship, whatever its true nature, is exclusive, shutting out Shane and leaving him open to the overtures of a drug dealer down the hall. As the drug dealer, David Murray is dangerous but also surprisingly tender, reminding us that the city can offer many types of seduction, especially for a boy without a father.

"Cowboys & Angels" gets a lot right but also grows facile at times. Just as Shane is weighing the drug dealer's offer of employment -- and money for college -- an elderly colleague talks of wasting his own life in civil service because he was scared to take a chance. Hokier still is Vincent's "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" makeover of Shane. Acting out of character, Vincent turns queeny and orders Shane to wear eyeliner and part with all his sweaters. The eyeliner's one thing, but asking an Irishman to chuck his sweaters is inhumane.
-- Advisory: This film contains sexual situations, violence.

Maitland McDonagh, Tvguide.com

Irish writer-director David Gleeson's sweet-natured coming-of-age story revolves around shy, 20-year-old country-mouse Shane (Michael Legge), who's already resigned himself to life of civil-service drudgery, and the education in life's possibilities he gets at the hands of his stylish new roommate, flamboyantly gay fashion student-about-town Vincent (Alan Leech). Young Shane has been commuting to his dreary office job in Limerick from his parents' suburban home, and is on the prowl for an affordable apartment in town. A chance meeting at an estate agent's office reintroduces him to Vincent, who was a couple of years ahead of Shane at school. Together they can afford a spacious place in a slightly rough neighborhood, which Vincent, on a tight budget, promptly transforms into a marvel of chic design. Vincent, who's in his last year at art college, has a thriving social life, while Shane gets turned away at the door of trendy clubs and nurses an unrequited crush on beautiful Gemma (Amy Shiels), who works at nearby fast-food joint SuperMacs. Though superficially very different, Vincent and Shane become friends; Vincent offers Shane a makeover that will make him a hit with the girls and even introduces him to Gemma, who turns out to be an old friend from art college. Under Vincent's influence, Shane, a talented but untrained artist, begins to consider ditching the civil service and going back to school. But what really changes Shane's so-called life is an accident: He finds a packet of drugs belonging to his neighbor, Keith (David Murray), hidden in a hallway fuse box and returns the goods intact. Keith, impressed with Shane's honesty and guileless look, offers him a lucrative gig picking up goods in Dublin and bringing them back to Limerick. As Shane becomes more deeply entangled in Keith's illicit business, it threatens his friendship with Shane and puts him in serious danger. The basic plot is the stuff of dozens of films about small-town youngsters getting a crash course in the perils of big-city life, but Gleeson's modest feature-film debut gets a boost from the unforced chemistry between Legge and Leech. The fact that Vincent is gay and Shane is straight is an issue without being the focus of their relationship; it's just one of many things that seem to divide them and winds up mattering less than their fundamental values and attitudes. Like the fresh-faced leads, the film is an unexpected charmer.