"Pixie": Gay subtext couple, Irish scenery, priest gangsters, and a bunch of butts, but no pixies

   

For movie night this week, we saw Pixie (2021).  The title makes you think of a children's fantasy about pixies, but it's actually an Irish gangster comedy.  

Pixie (Olivia Cook), the free-spirited, conniving stepdaughter of gangster Dermot O'Brien (Colm Meaney),  sends two of Da's goons to steal a million euros of Ecstasy from a rival gang of drug-running priests.

The goons happen to be her Ex-Boyfriend Colin (Rory Fleck Byrne), who isn't over her yet, and her Secret Boyfriend Fergus (Fra Fee, right).

Her plan is to sell the Ecstasy, dump the Secret Boyfriend, and move to San Francisco, where she will study photography. (You can't do that in Dublin?).  

You see where things might go wrong?

Things go wrong: 

Ten minutes into the movie, both goons and her Dad are dead (with Dad's corpse in the trunk), both the priest gang and Dad's Enforcer are on her tail.

Then two clueless doofuses knock on her door: Frank (Ben Hardy, left) and Harland (Daryl McCormack). Let's just call them Laurel and Hardy.

They mistakenly believe that she will have sex with any man in exchange for letting her photograph them (she actually photographs Frank in drag). Then they are attacked, and flee together.

Did I mention that Pixie's Stepbrother (Turlough Convery) hates her and is looking for an opportunity to take her down?

And that she has another ex-boyfriend, Gareth (Sebastian de Souza), who happens to be the nephew of the head gangster priest?

Laurel and Hardy want to have sex with Pixie.  They discuss women's body parts. They try to convince an altar boy that God wants all men to have sex with ladies. And they discuss same-sex activity only in terms of prison rape and priestly pedophilia.  

But they kiss during the beginning of a three-way (cut short by the arrival of the Enforcer).  Later, when they escape being killed, Pixie points out that it was almost their last kiss: "Isn't it romantic?"  They look embarrassed.

And at the end of the movie, Pixie leaves for San Francisco by herself, and Frank and Harland ask "Where shall we go now?" and walk off into the sunset together.  Have they become romantic partners? Or were they always romantic partners and in denial?  Either way, ending up with each other instead of the girl gives them a remarkable gay subtext. 

Beefcake: The boys strip down to go skinny-dipping, but in a long shot, too far away to see much.

Other Sights: Beautiful Irish countryside, establishing shots of Sligo.

Heterosexism: Pixie tilts her head and smiles, and every men gapes in slack-jawed lust and does whatever she wants.  Her teenage stepsister hooks up with the altar boy.

Gay Subtext: Laurel and Hardy.

My Grade: A-.