DEADLY CUTS

Stars: Angeline Ball, Erika Roe, Lauren Larkin, Shauna Higgins, Aidan McArdle, Victoria Smurfit, Thommas Kane Byrne, Aaron Edo and Ian-Lloyd Anderson.
Writer/Director: Rachel Carey

Rating: ★ ★ ★

Life is pretty shite for the women in Pigslingtown, and especially shite for the lasses of the Deadly Cuts Hair Salon. This Irish working class enclave is ruled over by a gang of misogynistic bullies, violent scumbags who extort money from the local businesses, crippling an already struggling sector, and the four plucky gals find themselves in the crosshairs (the puns just write themselves!).

Erika Roe plays Stacey, the 2IC of the salon, a twenty-something with grand dreams of taking on Ireland’s best stylists at the AAHHair Show and turning around the shop’s fortunes. Her scissor sisters include the boss, Michelle (the still-stunning Angeline Ball, who most will remember as the blonde back-up singer in Alan Parker’s The Commitments); fiery redhead Gemma (Lauren Larkin); and, the timid but primed for a big heroic moment, Chantelle (Shauna Higgins).

One evening, brutal gang leader Deano (a truly terrifying Ian-Lloyd Anderson) pushes the four friends too far and…well, let’s just say the town of Pigslingtown doesn’t have a gang problem any more. The path to hair show glory and a new destiny seems assured for the women of Deadly Cuts, if they can keep a secret even as the webcams of FabTV follow their every move.

In her feature debut, writer/director Rachel Carey shows a lovely eye for character and crisp ear for working-class banter, but struggles with the tone of her film. Shifting gears from aspirational, feel-good drama to bawdy girl-power ode to smalltown murder black-comedy, Deadly Cuts is never all those things in the single scene. It also wants to be a little bit of a piss-take of the hair stylist hierarchy and affectatious twats that anoint themselves industry leaders, which it does sporadically but without any incisive focus.

Nevertheless, there is a lot of fun to be had in just spending time with the four friends. The chemistry between the actresses, with Roe out front as the group’s heart-and-soul and Ball pulling focus like a true movie star every time she’s on-screen, negates the film’s other shortcomings. Be warned, though, that a) a couple of acts of violence are staged with alarming detail, and b) no fecking quarter is given in its embrace of the Oirish brogue. I understood about 60% of the dialogue, so thickly accented were the characterisations.

DEADLY CUTS is in limited release in Ausstralian and New Zealand cinemas from March 17 through Rialto Distribution.