PIXIE (15)
DIRECTOR Barnaby Thompson and screenwriter son Preston plot a blood-soaked road trip along the ruggedly picturesque west coast of Ireland in this blackly humorous crime caper.
Pixie (Vanity Fair’s Olivia Cooke) plans to avenge her mother’s death by masterminding a heist with smitten boyfriend Colin (Rory Fleck Byrne) and his pal Fergus (Fra Fee).
The two men don animal masks and interrupt a drug deal in a church overseen by two priests.
Bullets fly and copious amounts of blood is shed, ruining Pixie’s plan to escape the town of Sligo, where her gangster stepfather Dermot O’Brien (Colm Meaney) is embroiled in a turf war with Father Hector McGrath (Alec Baldwin) and his gun-toting posse of corrupt clergy.
The stolen narcotics tumble into the possession of nice guys Frank (Ben Hardy) and Harland (Daryl McCormack).
They give Pixie a second chance to start afresh in San Francisco by accompanying her to Dingle, where they hope to sell the MDMA to Raymond Donnelly (Dylan Moran). Frank and Harland fall under their travelling companion’s spell as they zig zag across the Irish countryside.
Pixie is an entertaining and sporadically hilarious escapade, punctuated by splashes of violence.
Hardy and McCormack are endearing foils to Cooke’s comic whirlwind, whose only binding allegiance is to herself.
In selected cinemas.