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Handsome Devil

Handsome Devil

Drama · Comedy · 2017

A music-mad 16-year-old outcast at a rugby-mad boarding school forms an unlikely friendship with his dashing new roommate.

Movie details

Handsome Devil

“Follow the crowd, or follow your heart?”

2017 Drama · Comedy 1h 35m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.0 / 10

18.2K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

83 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

60 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

7.0 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

A music-mad 16-year-old outcast at a rugby-mad boarding school forms an unlikely friendship with his dashing new roommate.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Handsome Devil?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

John Butler

Written by

John Butler

Fionn O'Shea

Fionn O'Shea

Ned Roche

Nicholas Galitzine

Nicholas Galitzine

Conor Masters

Andrew Scott

Andrew Scott

Dan Sherry

Ardal O'Hanlon

Ardal O'Hanlon

Donal Roche

Amy Huberman

Amy Huberman

Natalie Roche

Ruairí O'Connor

Ruairí O'Connor

Weasel

Michael McElhatton

Michael McElhatton

Walter Curly

Court is in session

Put Handsome Devil on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.