The Spin review – Laughter and vinyl in this bizarre Irish road movie as friends try to save their record store | film

HIt’s a goofy comedy with some sneaky borrowings from Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity; It’s a bit broad, and the finish isn’t quite as smooth, but it’s grainy nonetheless. Dermot (Brenock O’Connor) and Elvis (Owen Colgan) are two men from Northern Ireland who run a record shop in Omagh, County Tyrone, and deal in vintage vinyl, but are terrified by their mean landlord, Sadie (Tara Lyn O’Neill), who owns the lease. They are desperate for money to pay their rent arrears when Dermot discovers online that a farmer in Cork is offering what appear to be valuable recordings of blues legend Robert Johnson for just £30 – without realizing their true value.

Our two friends go on a desperate journey south to con the poor man out of a paltry £30 – or the equivalent in euros – and then sell the precious discs for what they think will be a mouthwatering £40,000. But does that mean they are selling their souls, the way Robert Johnson supposedly did at a distant crossroads?

Dermot and Elvis have many chaotic adventures along the way, but what gives the film some flavor is the strange dialogue. Divorced Elvis has impulsively promised his young daughter that he will buy her a horse for her birthday, telling Dermot that it doesn’t have to be a new horse, just a used one. “But all horses are second-hand… when you get them,” Dermot muses. They stopped at the cinema to watch a scary cartoon about a shark, and then agreed that a shark with legs was a very disturbing idea. Later, in an idle moment, someone said disgustedly: “I just saw two doves scissors There.” Some easy fun.