BRING THEM DOWN
Starring: Christopher Abbott, Barry Keoghan, Colm Meaney, Nora-Jane Noone, Paul Ready, Aaron Heffernan, and Susan Lynch
Director: Chris Andrews
KATIE
Bring Them Down is a tense tale of revenge and cyclical trauma with a pervading sense of intensifying rage bubbling quietly but ferociously beneath the surface. The story is simple but very powerful, thanks to the incredible performances that drive it, especially Christopher Abbott and Barry Keoghan. Director Christopher Andrews doesn’t waste time pinning the blame on a particular character instead exploring the way that each of the men perpetuates violence and refuses to take accountability. Bring Them Down is engaging but bleak, and although I was engrossed in the drama, I won’t return to it anytime soon.
QUENTIN
Despite solid performances from Christopher Abbott and Barry Keoghan, Bring Them Down is a slow-moving and unrelenting slog that was a struggle to sit through. If you can imagine The Banshees of Inisherin but bleaker, grimmer, grittier, and with absolutely zero humor, then you are picturing Bring Them Down. Overdone themes of patriarchal relationships, toxic masculinity, and the violence both can wreak are depressingly explored, and although a mid-movie perspective switch attempts to add something new to the discussion, it doesn’t do near enough to make this a movie worth suffering through, especially with the unsatisfyingly limp ending.
PAIGE
Bring Them Down is a moody and somber film featuring restrained yet impactful performances from Christopher Abbott and Barry Keoghan. With that said, this unsettling drama doesn’t have much going for it besides the aforementioned performances and the non-linear storyline that divides the tale into two perspectives, which allows the viewer to sit with both leads’ points of view. The sluggish and dreary narrative just left me not caring about the onscreen rivalry plot that turns somewhat tragic.
AMARÚ
I can’t pretend to understand the cultural and economical significance of the events that kick off Bring Them Down’s central conflict, but I do understand respect. So when shit hits the fan, which it does fairly quickly, even though I was ignorant about the circumstances of such escalation, I had no question that the antecedent was disrespect. Chris Andrew’s intense direction, Christopher Abbott’s fierce performance, and Barry Keoghan’s perfectly honed dickheadery make for a fiery start filled with feuding, loathing, and downright disdain. However, it all tapers out to a dreary whimper, amounting to catching the aftermath of a deadly car wreck, just barely missing the action.
This film was reviewed by Katie as part of Bitesize Breakdown's coverage of the 2024 BFI London Film Festival.