Juno and the Paycock [PG]

The streets of Dublin are rife with political conflicts, consistently being drenched in a shower of bullets. Amidst the chaos, poverty, and despair wife and mother Juno Boyle tries to keep her family together. Her husband lies and drinks, her son is sick with trauma, and her daughter falls prey to the wicked wiles of man bringing shame upon the God-fearing family. 

Easily the most depressing and dispiriting of his films, Hitchcock nonetheless succeeds in executing the drama and suspense that is and always has been apparent within societies. Underneath the layer upon layer of poor fortune and disheartening bombshells, Juno and the Paycock is a brutal and honest look at real-life genre drama and horror. A deeper exploration into the evils of poverty, politics, judgement, and the natural-born evil of humankind, this movie both appeals and repels specific parts of one’s cinematic anatomy successfully creating and engulfing its audience within a great cloud of disillusionment. 

The streets of Dublin are rife with political conflicts, consistently being drenched in a shower of bullets. Amidst the chaos, poverty, and despair wife and mother Juno Boyle tries to keep her family together. Her husband lies and drinks, her son is sick with trauma, and her daughter falls prey to the wicked wiles of man bringing shame upon the God-fearing family. 

This is a very hard film to both understand and enjoy really, even on some warped and semi-sadistic level. Hitchcock thrives to shy away from his signature cunning camera techniques and relies heavily upon the repetitive and sometimes unintelligible dialogue, wherein lies the entire story. For the greater part of this movie, it’s all talk, talk, and talk until the occasional person breaks out into traditional song amongst the film’s few lighter moments. This strategic and at-a-glance unprofessional and unappealing method of filming brings a hard-hitting layer of truth to the movie, turning it almost into a documentary rather than your ‘typical’ movie. 

On a deep, deep, deeper level Juno and the Paycock is a hard-hitting exploration into the nasty side of humanity. The various appeals to God and his Mother, the exhibitions of friends’ and neighbours’ lack of morality, and the ever-flowing string of poor fortune that hits this family is a portrait of life in Dublin within that time period. To a modern audience, this is where the film’s shock appeal comes into play and it still holds some strength even though the film itself is quite dated. A comparative look into this backward and ‘medieval’ world that was once upon a time so normal: where blood wasn’t thicker than water as it could be washed off the streets and family ties could be severed almost willy-nilly, is enough to scare but then again we’re aware of how, in certain areas, family life hasn’t changed as much as we think. 

At the end of the day, this movie may falter in sparking the enjoyment that a movie should, but it does inspire audiences to ponder. Ponder its meanings, the meanings of our own world, and practically anything in between. 

Starring Maire O’Neill, Edward Chapman, Sidney Morgan, Sara Allgood, John Laurie, Dave Morris, Kathleen O’Regan, and John Longden, Juno and the Paycock is a rather brutal and really dispiriting film that creates a good gaping hole for the betterment and filling of wine and ice cream. Filled with marital discord, scandal, drama, religion, hypocrisy, and betrayal, it’s a very hard movie to find a silver lining in. However, I think that is the purpose, and it’s nice to be able to say that a film achieves its purpose.