Disco Pigs (2001)

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

BEWARE...SPOILER! After a very long period in which I have't been well enough to watch and get absorbed into good art films, I am feeling better and having a very fun summer. I've only recently discovered the amazing beauty and talent that is Cillian Murphy, and am devouring his films as fast as I can get my hands on them.DISCO PIGS is a film that is as beautiful, tender, ardent and violent as the love that seems to surge between Pig and Runt (Murphy and Elaine Cassidy). Both of them give captivating performances. I must also add that the ethereal music score by Gavin Friday and Maurice Seezer is intriguing and perfectly suited to the tone of this film.Born on the same day in the same Irish town, Pig and Runt are next door neighbors and grow up together as best friends. Their intense friendship reminds me of the one between Pauline and Juliet in HEAVENLY CREATURES. Like those two girls, Pig and Runt have created a fantasy world that they prefer to the boring, imperfect everyday world. They believe only in each other, and they are the willing outcasts, at their school, and everywhere else. They have a penchant for stealing liquor, bullying the boy who works in the liquor store and playing rather cruel pranks on any guy Runt dances with at clubs. The dean of the school is worried about this bizarre relationship, as are Runt's parents, and it is decided that Runt would benefit greatly if she were separated from Pig and sent to a trade school away from home. I found it sad that the adults seemed to care about Runt's future while they regarded Pig as a "lost cause". Both of these children should have been encouraged to develop properly many years before this.Everything changes the moment Runt shows Pig a new outfit she has made. They are fast approaching their seventeenth birthday, and neither of them are prepared when Pig suddenly sees Runt through a new set of eyes. Their perfect world is about to be shattered. When Pig impulsively kisses Runt, she is frightened and unsure of it, which hurts him deeply. The very next day, she is sent away, not even given an opportunity to say goodbye to her best friend. Though it's supremely hard at first, Runt starts to adapt to life without Pig in her very center. She begins to make new friends and find new interests.In contrast, Pig is miserable and on the verge of a psychotic break. Unable to interact with anyone aside from Runt, he is completely inconsolable, obsessed with the idea of waiting in his room until he can be reunited with the only friend, the only girl, the only anything, in his life. After a few days' search, Pig finds Runt and gets her out of the trade school and brings her home, hoping to resume their life as it was before she was sent away. But the damage has been done. The forced separation has caused a permanent and terrible change inside of Pig. And though she still loves Pig dearly, Runt has been exposed to new things. She's not the same person either, and Pig's pranks have become even more violent, and she is repulsed rather than right there with him. Pig comes to the unbearable realization that he is losing Runt in spite of his efforts to hold onto her, and ends up doing something unthinkable. Knowing that things are irreversibly changed between them, and knowing that his life is impossible without Runt, Pig decides to set his best friend free.In the end, it's true that Runt does love Pig as much as he loves her, but after all that has happened, there is no possibility. It's a very sexy, haunting and tragic story. I loved it!

Where do I begin? Disco Pigs is very typical to many Irish films-especially art films-meaning it is raw. I thought this movie was the most amazing Film I have ever seen in my life- Casting wise-Cillian Murphy is my most favourite actor and for very good reason, Pig is not an easy character to become because he is obsessive, dangerous, and still has the innocence of a child-the language and world Pig and Runt invent is poetic with twisted little games that they invent- You could think of this movie being "a more twisted version of romeo and juliet"- so these two soul mates were born only minuets apart, ignoring the world around them they vowed to always keep things the way they were, only them two, Sinead and Darren, Runt and Pig, King and Queen. Them staying in this world only made for them two-all changed days before their 17th birthday-Pig's eyes are being opened on seeing Runt in more of a romantic way-but his obsessiveness gets the best of him-ending in the most heartbreaking sacrifices i have ever seen.

There's a large psychiatric literature on the "twinning effect," which is often a beautiful thing, but in its pathologic manifestation shows up as what's called "symbiotic psychosis." In plain language, although not biological twins, the two main characters here grew up so closely intertwined that their private world disallowed the intrusion of mundane reality. "Private language" is often a characteristic of this clinical syndrome, and in the movie the heavy Cork dialect accentuated (at least for non-Irish) the barrier between the characters and the viewer. Does anyone remember Melanie's song, "We were so close, there was no room/ We bled inside each other's wounds"? Quite apropos. Also, I felt reflections of "David & Lisa," but updated and sort of run in reverse. As with much Irish literature, one has to be prepared for a view of humanity that never crawls out from under Original Sin, but nevertheless this is a serious work, very much worth watching, and deserved a better title.

I absolutely adored this film it just really got to me, I thought it was beautiful and tragic.My sister saw it and told me I'd love,we have similar tastes, so we watched when I went to stay with her.I know it's sad but I always really root for everything to be alright I really care about the characters ,I want to look after them.It's awful because Pig's not in love with Runt, he's in love with his feelings for her sorry I'm not very good at explaining things but I know what I meen.For some reason this film really spoke to me, I've never had that close a relationship or even a moderatly close relationship with anyone, perhaps that why it meant something