''Cardboard Gangsters'' is a 2017 Irish

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

set in

Darndale Darndale ( meaning ''daffodil'') is an area on the Northside of Dublin, in Ireland, featuring a high concentration of social housing. It is located in the north of the sprawling suburb of Coolock. Darndale lies within the Dublin 17 postal distr ...

Coolock Coolock () is a large suburban area, centred on a village, on Dublin city's Northside (Dublin), Northside in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Coolock is crossed by the Santry River, a prominent feature in the middle of the district, with a linear ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

. It was funded by

Broadcasting Authority of Ireland The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) ( ga, Údarás Craolacháin na hÉireann) was established on 1 October 2009 effectively replacing the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) ( ga, Coimisiún Craolacháin na hÉireann). The BAI is ...

Plot

The film follows Jay and his friends as they attempt to take control of the Darndale drug trade from Murphy, who has controlled the Darndale drug trade for the last 30 years. 24 year old Jayson "Jay" Connelly, who lives with his friends in

with his friends Dano, Glenner and Cobbie; learns he is cut off from unemployment benefits due to a recent DJing gig. To make matters worse, he finds out his mother has been taking loans from Derra Murphy, the local crime lord, to pay for her debts and bills. Jay and his friends begin procure and deal drugs on Darndale territory, spiting Derra. All the while, Jay strikes up a relationship with Kim Murphy, Derra's wife, which ruins his budding relationship with Sarah, his girlfriend. Kim is beaten to a pulp over her affair with Jay. Derra invites Jay over to his house with a job offer, only to be rebuffed by Jay at gunpoint. Enraged by the insult, Sean Murphy, Derra's hotheaded son, murders Cobbie in response. Jay and his crew retaliate by kidnapping and killing Sean. Glenner flees the suburbs, leaving Dano and Jay behind. Derra and his crew hunt down and kill Dano as Jay takes his family and Sarah, pregnant with their child, on the run. While at the airport, Jay receives a phone call from Kim, asking him to rescue her from the Murphy household. Allowing Sarah and his mum to go first, Jay goes back to pick Kim up out of guilt. It turns out to be a trap: Kim betrays him to Derra's gang for murdering her son. Jay is taken to the lake where he killed Sean and executed, the last thing he sees being the plane taking his loved ones to safety.

Cast

* John Connors as Jayson "Jay" Connolly * Fionn Walton as Dano * Paul Alwright as Glenner * Ryan Lincoln as Cobbie *

Jimmy Smallhorne Jimmy Smallhorne is an Irish filmmaker who wrote, directed and acted in his debut feature film ''2by4''. The drama about a closeted gay construction worker in New York City was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival ...

as Derra Murphy * Ciaran McCabe as Sean Murphy *

Damien Dempsey Damien Dempsey (born 9 June 1975) is an Irish singer and songwriter who mixes traditional Irish folk contemporary lyrics that deliver social and political commentaries on Irish society. Damien sings in his native, working class accent in the Eng ...

as Curly Murphy * Fíonna Hewitt Twamley as Angela Connolly *

Kierston Wareing Kierston Wareing (born 7 January 1976) is a British actress. Her first film role was the lead in Ken Loach's '' It's a Free World...'', followed by a supporting role in Andrea Arnold's ''Fish Tank'' – which won the BAFTA award for ‘Best Bri ...

as Kim Murphy *

Gemma-Leah Devereux Gemma-Leah Devereux (born 9 August 1990) is an Irish actress. She is known for playing Liza Minnelli in the biographical drama film '' Judy'' (2019) opposite Renée Zellweger. Also as Lady Fitzgerald in the fourth and final season of the telev ...

as Roisin * Kyle Bradley Donaldson as Stephen Kelly * Lydia McGuinness as Christina * Toni O'Rourke as Sarah

Reception

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 18 reviews, and an average rating of 6.7/10. Moreover, it earned €550,000 at the national box office and became the most viewed Irish film of 2017.

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 5156274 Darndale 2017 films English-language Irish films Irish crime films 2017 crime films Films about organised crime in Ireland 2010s English-language films

Plot

Cast

Reception

See also

References

External links