‘Skintown’ review: Sparky, engaging friendship drama is set against the backdrop of Troubles-era Northern Ireland

Dir: Kieron J Walsh. Ireland/UK. 2026. 98mins

The boom in 1990s nostalgia could enhance the commercial prospects for Skintown, a sparky tale of friendship and the hunger for escape set in the Troubles-weary Enniskillen of 1994. The fragile hope for change in Northern Ireland is matched by a turning point in the lives of two young men in a film that effectively blends black humour, high tension and a helter skelter odyssey. The engaging young cast and sweep of emotion should appeal to audiences who have embraced the likes of Christy (2025), Kneecap (2024) and even Belfast (2021) following the film’s premiere in Edinburgh competition.

Sharply paced and often very funny

Director Kieron J Walsh (The Racer, Jump, When Brendan Met Trudy) brings a light, confident touch to this screen version of Ciaran McMenamin’s 2017 debut novel, adapted by the author himself. Walsh eases into the Northern Ireland of the period with a smoothly engineered soundscape of whirring helicopter blades, sirens, whistles and howling dogs. It is a place where danger and the British military lurk at every corner. 

In ’Skintown’ (actually, Elliskillentown), 23 year-old Vinny (Bafta nominee and former Screen Star Of Tomorrow Jack Rowan) has only known the Northern Ireland of The Troubles that began before his birth. He lives with his mother, ambulance driver Karen (Roisin Gallagher), while his long-absent father sends cards and letters that are never opened. Vinny’s life is a delicate balance between hope and despair. His best friend Jonty (Chris Walley) is the live wire who lifts his spirits and remains his companion through melancholy. Every night on the town depletes the escape fund Vinny has been amassing in a battered biscuit tin.

Walsh shows a good eye for period detail. There is a Groundhog Day joke, comfort in the way a Walkman can drown out the world and a shared infatuation with the warm honey tones of BBC television newsreader Laura Stuart (Sarah Paul); an on-screen standi-n for the real-life Moira Stuart. This is a world of marching bands, abandoned shops and bombed out rumble. The tension of British rule is used for both comic and dramatic effect with self-deprecating black humour the default response to the madness all around. Walsh never shies away from the bombings, violence and deaths that had become part of everyday life, a reality that helps to underpin Vinny’s need to leave. 

The announcement of a potential IRA ceasefire plants a seed of hope that change might be on the horizon. Vinny and Jonty are made an offer they cannot refuse, to make a small fortune from selling stolen ecstasy tablets at a local rave. Taking that opportunity moves the film into darker territory where the more poignant developments feel well earned.

Sharply paced and often very funny, Skintown is blessed with a smart script that effectively handles a change of tone in the final third and a talented, committed young cast who create believable, sympathetic characters. Previously seen in Young Offenders,  Walley makes Jonty a gawky, irrepressible life force while, as Vinny, Rowan shows that he has the charisma to carry a film that makes considerably demands on him in the extensive voice-over narration and the complex emotions that his character experiences. Derry Girls alumnus Jamie-Lee O’Donnell brings some sass to their friend Eileen whilst Hope Ipoku Jnr brings charm to the role of Wilson, a black British squaddie from Manchester who seems just as trapped as Vinny and Jonty. The young actors are supported by ever reliable stalwarts of Irish cinema including Michael Smiley as pizzeria owner Tony ‘ Pepperoni” Reagan, Lalor Roddy as sentimental barfly Doc and Martin McGann, whose Orangeman is an unsettling mixture of the reasonable and the menacing.

Essentially a coming of age tale that uses some familiar tropes, Skintown is no less entertaining for that. The wit of the screenplay, the freshness of the performances and the verve of the direction all combine into a film with clear mainstream appeal.