John Butler, an Irish IFTA award-nominated director, screenwriter and novelist, in 2017 gave us Handsome Devil, a coming-of-age story with a side of teen angst. Based in an elite rugby-obsessed all-boys Irish boarding school, where homophobia is deeply rooted in the foundations of the school and the worst thing you could possibly do is have no interest in rugby, the film focuses on Ned Roche (Fionn O’shea) an outcast due to this lack of interest and his preferred love for music; add to this questions about Ned’s sexuality and his blatant disregard of the school’s passions and it makes him an easy target for the other boys bullying. When Rugby-mad Conor Masters (Nicholas Galitzine) moves to the school and is assigned as Ned’s new roommate they strike up an unlikely friendship, until it is tested by things out of their control.
Aside from dealing with ideas of homophobia and conformism, the film also examines hypocrisy and snobbery in the Irish private school system, which is something that has come to be expected in the boarding school world. While many of the boys at the school kept their heads down and go along with whatever is said and done, the teachers also turn a blind eye to the bullying. All it takes though is one teacher’s outside the box look on life, and one boy brave enough to say what he believes to be right, for the inherent ideals of the school to begin to crumble. As long as there is money involved there will always be issues of hypocrisy and snobbery and it will take more than one film to end this type of mindset, but John Butler certainly took a step in the right direction with Handsome Devil.
The witty comedic script, paired with the immersive cinematography and the convincing delivery on the part of the actors make for an easy and enjoyable watch, with your attention grabbed from the very first scene.
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