Male aggression is the main currency in Bring Them Down, an Irish rural drama where neighbouring farmers are forced to decide if they're sheep or wolves.
Starring Barry Keoghan and Poor Things star Christopher Abbot, the movie sets an unforgiving pace from the very beginning, as a brutal opening sequence lays the ground for revelations of family trauma and decades-long grudges.
Christopher Andrews' directorial feature debut is not really just about a tense territorial battle for control in a remote area of Ireland, but mainly about the inner wars of men who get caught in the cycles of violence and traditionalist masculinity imposed by their fathers.
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Two decades after provoking a tragic car crash, resulting in the death of his mother, Michael (Abbott) now lives with his demanding father Ray (Colm Meaney) and tends religiously to the family's prized ram farm.
Michael's ex Caroline (Nora-Jane Noone), who was badly hurt in the crash, is now married to Michael's neighbour Gary (Paul Ready), with whom she has a teenage son, Jack (Keoghan).
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When Gary informs Michael that he found two of his sheep dead on his grounds, past grudges and traumas between the two families start coming to the surface. Lies, incorrect assumptions, secret plots and explosions of irrational anger do the rest, as the story becomes a collection of catastrophic misunderstandings.
Much like Rodrigo Sorogoyen's 2022 award-winning thriller The Beasts, the movie explores how the kind of ire that seeps from traditionalist-masculinity mantras (defend what's yours, repress emotions, respond to every provocation, shoot first, etc) has the ability to rot everything it touches.
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When Michael's stoicism cracks, usually as a result of his father's wrath, his actions take a dangerous, disproportionate edge. Violence answers violence, weakness is not allowed and forgiveness is never an option.
In the meantime, women bear the brunt of this cycle of relentless aggression, as they desperately try to abandon this suffocating environment in one piece. As the movie shows, they don't always succeed.
Andrews does a great job at building up the tension, helped by a steady and menacing percussion-based soundtrack reminiscent of war drums.
Abbot and Keoghan are renowned masters of the quiet-but-dangerous character, so it's no surprise that here they nail every awkward silent stare. Now, it's refreshing to see layers being peeled away from their characters throughout the movie, as they become unwilling heirs of an anger they never asked for.
The story subtly and smartly adds information without ever overexplaining. It introduces wider problems beyond the characters' conflict (the community's financial struggles, farm land being turned into holiday homes, the Irish language being lost as a certain kind of modernity makes its way into tradition) that paint a more complex and compelling picture.
That trust in the viewer wavers when the point of view in the film shifts to a different character, falling into repetitions that don't really add value to the story. And there's only so much animal cruelty a viewer can take for no apparent purpose.
Although the plot feels insufficient at times, the themes of generational trauma, toxic masculinity and tradition against modernity are delivered with brutal efficiency if not always depth or precision.
As the pieces of the story fall into place and the movie enters its climactic ending, Bring Them Down finds steady footing again to offer an unexpected message about the importance of humanity over revenge.
Bring Them Down has yet to confirm a release date in the UK.
Mireia (she/her) has been working as a movie and TV journalist for over eight years. Based in the UK, she is a former deputy movies editor at Digital Spy, and previously worked for the Spanish magazine Fotogramas. Mireia's work has been published in other outlets such as Esquire and Elle in Spain, and WeLoveCinema and GamesRadar+ in the UK. She is also a published author, having written the essay Biblioteca Studio Ghibli: Nicky, la aprendiz de bruja about Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service.
During her years as a freelance journalist and film critic, Mireia has covered festivals around the world and has interviewed high-profile talents such as Kristen Stewart, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal and many more. She's also taken part in juries such as the FIPRESCI jury at Venice Film Festival and the short film jury at Kingston International Film Festival in London. LinkedIn
