White Irish Drinkers (2010)

White Irish Drinkers 2010 Its early autumn of 1975 in Brooklyn and 18 year old Brian Leary Nick Thurston is killing time, pulling off petty crimes with his street tough older brother Danny Geoff Wigdor, whom he both idolizes and fears He doesnt really want to be a criminal, but he doesnt share the dreams of his old friends from their working class neighborhood either They all yearn for the culturally approved 9 to 5 Civil Service jobs with benefit packages that will carry them through weekends of beer into lazy retirement Brian doesnt want to end up in a soul numbing job like his buddies, but hes sure he doesnt want to be like his best friend Todd Zachary Booth either Todd has betrayed their blue collar roots by accepting a scholarship to college But Brian has a secret hes a talented artist In the basement of the bagel shop beneath his parents apartment, he creates impressionistic charcoal and watercolor images of the stifling city that surrounds him When he puts on his headphones and paints, shouting matches between Brians longshoreman father Paddy Stephen Lang and world weary mother Karen Allen fade into the distance But even his private world cant block out the brutal beatings a drunken Paddy inflicts on Danny Though Paddy has never been physically abusive to Brian, every time he sees his brothers suffering, his heart breaks a little more Besides his art, Brian finds respite in working for Whitey Peter Riegert, a kindly curmudgeon who runs the failing Lafayette movie theater in Bay Ridge Brians been helping Whitey pay his debts to local mobster Jimmy Cheeks Ken Jennings by bringing in rock groups to play gigs at the theater With money problems mounting, Whitey decides to call in a lifelong favor from an old friend, now the tour manager of the Rolling Stones The Stones will stop to play the Lafayette for one hour only on their way to Madison Square Garden a plan Whitey hopes will solve his loan shark problems forever The small Brooklyn neighborhood buzzes with anticipation of the Stones arrival, which gives Brian the courage to talk to pretty Shauna Friel Leslie Murphy, the girl he was too shy to approach in high school Shauna, a travel agent, is awaiting transfer to a glamorous new job in Los Angeles, and dreams of traveling the world before shes 25 She and one of Brians other friends, the college bound Todd, begin to plant new seeds of hope in Brians doubtful mind Perhaps his art could be a ticket for him out of his dead end life and into a future of possibilities When one excessively violent beating from Paddy convinces Danny he cant stay at home anymore, he tries to enlist Brian in one last scheme to rob the Lafayette on the night of the Rolling Stones concert Danny sees this as their only chance to get enough money to skip town and start them both off in a new life, somewhere far away from Brooklyn As the theater fills with revelers, Brian is torn between his love and loyalty to Danny and his real fondness for Whitey In the twists and turns that follow, both brothers must reexamine their dreams, and make decisions that will change their lives forever