3131. Pixie (2020)

Starring: Olivia Cooke, Ben Hardy, Daryl McCormack

Director: Barnaby Thompson

Running Time: 93 mins

Pixie is a British film about two friends and a girl who become mixed up in a dangerous drug chase involving gangsters, priests, and a long family history that leads them to flee across Ireland to keep out of their reach.

Effortlessly charming and full of action throughout, Pixie is a comic caper of the highest order. Funny, tongue-in-cheek and energetic, it’s a film that will make you laugh and smile to no end, all the while delighting with one of the best ensemble casts of the year – headed by the brilliant Olivia Cooke.

There’s so much to love about Pixie, but that cast is easily what makes it such an enjoyable film. Olivia Cooke is amazing in the lead role, giving a performance full of swashbuckling charisma as she leads two bewildered young men across Ireland on a daring cat-and-mouse chase that’s way beyond their world.

Ben Hardy and Daryl McCormack are hugely likable too alongside Cooke, and bring an enjoyable element of buffoonery to the table, as well as gelling nicely as the film’s central trio. But it’s Cooke that undoubtedly steals the show here in one of the most entertaining performances I’ve seen all year.

But it’s not just the lead three, because the film’s supporting cast is full of surprises, including a brilliant turn from Colm Meaney as Pixie’s gangster father, as well as Alec Baldwin as the leader of a violent group of gangster priests (and Baldwin does a fantastic regional Irish accent too).

So, with such a strong ensemble cast on show all the way through this movie, there’s no shortage of charisma here, and that plays brilliantly into the film’s fun-loving caper style.

If Pixie wasn’t so full of likable, charismatic characters, it could have been so much harder to go with its adventure-style take on a heist gone wrong, but it’s an absolute joy to spend time with all of these characters, good and bad, making the whole film an effortless delight.

Complete with bursts of brilliant action, it’s a fast-paced movie that builds nicely to an enormously entertaining crescendo. However, it’s the comedy that really makes the movie sing, with consistently funny jokes and great chemistry between the characters from beginning to end.

There are a couple of deeper emotional moments that lend a little more to the story, although don’t necessarily hit home quite as strongly as seems to be the intention, but as far as being a fun Irish caper goes, Pixie is an utter joy, and one I would recommend in a heartbeat. So, that’s why I’m giving it a 7.8 overall.