Here Are the Young Men

Awaiting the results of his Leaving Cert, the final examination in the Irish secondary school system, Matthew Connelly anticipates a summer of knocking about Dublin with his mates: philosophical Rez, amiable Cocker, and twitchy Kearney. If he's lucky, he might get together with the gorgeous, college-bound Jen. But Matthew's parents insist that he find a job and plan for the future. Undeterred, Matthew and his friends seek oblivion in drink and drugs, with Kearney on a quest for sensory stimulation that further blurs the boundaries between reality and the insidious imaginative space he crams with violent video games, atrocities on the nightly news, and pornography. A visit to the United States further pushes Kearney to extremes that shock his spaced-out friends to take action that is troubling and ultimately ambiguous.