Handsome Devil

seen at the London Flare Festival on 1 April 2017

John Butler directs Fionn O'Shea as Ned Roche and Nicholas Galitzine as Conor Masters, with Adnrew Scott as the English teacher Dan Sherry. 

Ned and Conor are boarders at a rugby-fixated Irish school - another closed community (compare Heartstone), another interaction between gay teenagers (compare Die Mitte der Welt or Quand on a 17 ans). But here, with a mischievous Irish wit, Ned narrates a far less flamboyant tale than Phil does in Die Mitte der Welt - he is gay, but in his school environment there is no place for easy tolerance, though mercifully for him there is little outright violence until a crisis precipitates a mild punch-up. And Conor, unlike the beguiling Nicholas of the German film, is keeping a prudential low profile about his sexuality, hoping to fit in at his new school after a mysterious exit from the previous one 'for fighting too much'.

The two boys are assigned as room-mates, to Ned's disgust - he cannot bear rugby and Conor is a star player - but a friendship develops, partly encouraged by the English teacher who forces them into 'volunteering' for a talent evening at the nearby girls' school. there are many familiar themes given air here - the loner victim in the school; the apparent star with the possibly shameful secret; the unthinking prejudice of a group of boys; the inspirational teacher who is also hiding his personal life; the fixation on sport and winning exemplified in a homophobic coach; and all coming right in the end.

The film is charming in managing to play all these themes lightly, even with a little self-knowing parody, so that they do not seem too hackneyed. Fionn O'Shea and Nicholas Galitzine perform well together, and there is refreshingly not much emphasis on whether they are romantically engaged with one another (though one supposes that it is likely). The lessons are still about honesty to self and respect for others, but they are not too laboured, even though they extend beyond the boys' world to include the necessity for the teacher to take some risks. Andrew Scott has a ball with the part, investing a potentially stereotypical role with considerable humour.

The screening was originally on 24 March but was interrupted by a power cut after about an hour. Luckily the NFT arranged a second screening at a time that I was free to attend, and I'm glad I saw the whole film.