Red Roses and Petrol Trailer (2008)

Amid a haze of cigarette smoke and uneaten food, the family of Enda Doyle gathers in Dublin for his wake only to find a trail of unresolved issues and a disturbing mystery. Based on a successful Irish play by acclaimed writer Joseph O’Connor, this darkly comedic drama offers a tour-de-force showcase for Malcolm McDowell as Enda Doyle, a university librarian, poet, and rascal who is the flawed patriarch of a dysfunctional family struggling to come to terms with his death and with one another. Dazed widow Moya’s desperation to keep her family together and twenty-something daughter Medbh’s sharp tongue provide the backdrop for the arrival of headstrong older sister Catherine and her handsome but awkward boyfriend, Tom Ivers, from New York. Sorting through boxes of Enda’s books, the women discover a cache of self-recorded video diaries that might shed light on some of the secrets of Enda’s life, secrets he was never able to share with them. Black sheep brother Johnny, a brilliant, emotionally wounded slacker, brings the clan to the edge of violence with his biting recollection of long buried memories, inciting them into what can only be called unchecked family therapy. Red Roses and Petrol explores the emotional dynamics of familial relationships with sharp humor and surprising turns, taking the viewer on an intense emotional journey into the depths of what is truth and what is love. The film’s soundtrack features music from acclaimed Irish-American band Flogging Molly and Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles.