Last Bus Home
(95mins) Ireland/Germany/Australia, 1997
Produced by Bandit Films Ltd for RTE, WDR (Germany), Irish Film Board and Beyond Films.
Dublin. 1979. While the whole neighbourhood is off to the Pope’s mass, punkette Reena (Annie Ryan) ducks out with the aid of her grandmother - a rebel from an older generation. In the deserted streets of her suburb, she tracks down Jessop (Brian F. O’Byrne), a punk guitarist. Their attraction is immediate and by the time her parents return, renewed from the Pope's blessing, Reena and Jessop have sealed their unholy alliance in other ways. The Last Bus Home was my first of two collaborations with producer Paul Donovan. The film was released in France in 1998, but for reasons beyond my control was not released in Ireland until 1999, two years after its completion. Beyond Films distributed the film internationally.
“Blink and you would have missed writer-director Johnny Gogan’s deeply personal coming-of-age story on its limited release earlier this year; here’s a second chance to take a look at one of the most interesting Irish directorial debuts of recent times. Charting the rise and fall of The Dead Patriots, an uncompromising Dublin punk band of the late ’70s, Gogan tackles a period of massive cultural, spiritual and sexual change head-on - all wrapped up in a bittersweet tale of teenage love and a superb song-score from the great Cathal (Fatima Mansions) Coughlan. Driven by a fine ensemble cast led by Brian F. O’Byrne, Annie Ryan and Anthony Brophy there’s considerable ambition and an obvious passion at play here, and the finished results are truly engaging. Lazily dismissed by some critics as a poor cousin of The Commitments, Last Bus Home deserves much better.”
“A pulsating punk drama.”
“Compulsory viewing…worthy of cult status.”
“A strikingly visual evocation of punk Dublin in the late 1970s…a tightly observed and powerfully performed comic-tragic slice of suburban rebellion..a major advance by a talented young director.”
