The Be All and End All

As if adolescence isn’t difficult enough, The Be All and End All does a commendable job in giving perspective to teenage trials within the much broader scheme of life, without detracting from their importance. Robbie (Josh Bolt) and Ziggy (Eugene Byrne) are best friends whose main concerns centre around football and losing their virginity, when Robbie‘s hungover collapse one morning leads to the devastating discovery he has a terminal heart condition.

Instead of becoming less important, these wants become amplified, and with their only meaningful communication being exclusive to each other, Ziggy sets out to ensure his friend's dying wish is fulfilled. While the story is undermined slightly by the occasional woodenness, the convincing performances of the two central leads and their parents manage to rescue the film from turning into children’s TV drama. Tending towards realism yet also successful in its farcical shenanigans, this tragic buddy-movie captures the limbo of burgeoning adulthood in an unusually engaging way. [Juliet Buchan]