Peter Bradshaw 

The Spin review – laughter and vinyl in wacky Irish road movie as pals try to save their record store

Bizarre dialogue riffs add flavour to this likable film about two friends on a road trip to track down some super rare records
  
  

Easy-going fun … Owen Colgan (Elvis) and Brenock O’Connor (Dermot) in The Spin.
Easy-going fun … Owen Colgan (Elvis) and Brenock O’Connor (Dermot) in The Spin. Photograph: Foxsake Films

Here is a goofy road movie comedy with some cheeky borrowings from Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity; it’s a bit broad, and the ending doesn’t exactly gel, but it’s likable all the same. Dermot (Brenock O’Connor) and Elvis (Owen Colgan) are a couple of guys from Northern Ireland who run a record shop in Omagh, County Tyrone, dealing in old-school vinyl, but they are terrorised by their mean landlord, Sadie (Tara Lynne O’Neill), who owns the lease. They desperately need cash for rent arrears when Dermot discovers online that a farmer in Cork is offering what appear to be hugely valuable records by the blues legend Robert Johnson for just £30 – not realising their real value.

Our two amigos go on a desperate southward journey to trick the poor guy with a paltry 30 quid – or the equivalent in euros – and then sell the precious discs on for what they figure will be a mouthwatering 40 grand. But does that mean they are selling their souls, the way Robert Johnson is supposed to have done at a remote crossroads?

Dermot and Elvis have various chaotic adventures on the way, but what gives the film some flavour are the bizarre dialogue riffs. Divorced Elvis has rashly promised his young daughter that he will buy her a horse for her birthday, and tells Dermot that it doesn’t have to be a new horse, just secondhand. “But all horses are secondhand …” says Dermot thoughtfully “… when you get them.” They stop at a cinema to watch a scary animated film about a shark and agree afterwards that a shark with legs is an intensely disturbing idea. Later, in an idle moment, one remarks disgustedly: “I just saw two pigeons scissoring over there.” Some easy-going fun.

• The Spin is in Irish and Northern Irish cinemas from 24 October.

 

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