Writer and Director: Conor O’Toole
Receiving its UK première as part of the Irish Film Festival London is Conor O’Toole’s witty take on the neorealist Bicycle Thieves of 1948. In Vittorio De Sica’s classic a man and his son scour the streets of Rome searching for their stolen bicycle. It’s heartbreakingly beautiful. In contrast Bicycle Thieves: Pumped Up takes place in modern day Dublin and is a much funnier affair despite the social inequality that the film reveals.
Mags needs her bike for work. She delivers pizzas. She’s not particularly good at her job as her temper –and her phobia of sweet corn – get the better of her. But the job brings in a wage and, with her landlord upping the rent, she needs all the money she can earn. Her bike also has sentimental value; it was once her mother’s, left to her on her mother’s deathbed. Of course, it comes as no surprise that the bike is stolen, and the film certainly picks up after the theft. Mixing comedy with thriller elements, it’s fun watching Mags and her flatmate tracking down the bike, and its thief.
O’Toole’s film is realist in its own way, especially in the scenes shot in the streets where Mags meets other cyclists and where she has angry spats with car drivers. The Irish director’s approach is reminiscent of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh in the 1990s. Like them, O’Toole finds the everyday bright and peculiar and his film is at its best when it remains in this realist style. A fantasy section where Mags meets an animated hump-backed whale is not so successful. However, another fantasy scene about an astral plane is very effective.
Roxanna Nic Liam is a joy as Mags, and her frustration and her determination quickly ensure that the audience is onside. Meadhbh Haicéid’s deadpan, calm manner as Mags’ flatmate Ailbhe is the perfect antidote to Mags’ energy, which can veer towards the aggressive at times. For a film that received little funding, the cast is huge and O’Toole admits that he pulled in as many favours as he could and the result is impressive.
But underneath all the japes and jollies is a serious message about the housing crisis in Dublin. With landlords charging extortionate rents and with many other apartments left empty or sold to foreign investors, Dublin’s renters are having a bad time. And in the final scenes O’Toole, in true Ken Loach fashion doesn’t mince his words or at least the words he gives to Mags when she meets a housing minister from the Government. It may be a heavy-handed attack on official policy, but it works perfectly in film that has verve and charm aplenty.
Bicycle Thieves: Pumped Up is screening at the Irish Film Festival 2022.
The Reviews Hub Score:
Go along for the ride!
