You, Me and Marley

Wart, his girlfriend Frances and their friend Marley are joy riders. The nights are filled with car thefts, insane car rides in the stolen vehicles, fights and wild parties. Their lives are self-destructive and full of violence. The only things that mean anything to them are the solidarity with the group and the next crazy exploit they can come up with. After
a meeting in which the Church and the IRA try to find a solution to the joyride epidemic, a devastating conflict flares up between the IRA representatives and the youths.

Comment:
When Roxette last year chose to name their pop album ”Joyride” I this awakened mixed feelings in Great Britain. On the British Isles the term ''joy riders'' does not give rise to positive associations. Quite the opposite. There it brings to mind a much discussed problem the British are having with their youth; the many suburban and country kids who spend their time continously and destructively stealing cars en masse and showing off by driving the stolen vehicles.
In Richard Spence's penetrating social documentary You, Me and Marley, a BBC drama that has now reached the movie theatres, this never ending chain of theft makes up the framework of a timeless
story about frustrated young people in a constant struggle with expectations and older role models that have let them down.
The environment is western Belfast. The Catholic friends Sean ''Wart'' O'Neill, Florence and Marley are caught in the jerky rhythm of the joy ride carousel. Their nights are filled with getting their hands on as many decent cars as possible, shop-lifting, despair and tough declarations of love in homes from which the father has often disappeared, to the cemeteries of the IRA struggle.
You, Me and Marley is a powerful and provoking film for and about youth. It has brilliant acting by Marc O'shea, a blunt former boxer who plays the part of Wart, Michael Liebmann as the stupidly intelligent middle class boy Marley, and first and foremost, Bronagh Gallagher who had a major part in The Commitments. Gallagher plays the part of Frances, the school girl that everyone thinks is the exception that has
a future ahead of her. But she is hesitant about ''becoming someone'' since this practically means having to move to England. She wants to stay in west Belfast, remain in a society which may be desparing and bloodless, but which is nevertheless her own.
Lars Nylin

Medverkande
Marc O’Shea, Bronagh Gallagher: Producent
Chris Parr: Manus
Graham Reid: Foto
Graham Veevers: Musik
Stephen Warbeck: Talat språk
English