Writer-director John Butler knows one thing very well: Nothing good can ever happen of taking a group of men out of the city and putting them in the wild in the company of substances designed to make them even more stupid than usual. Particularly not if this endeavor is undertaken in the name of 'fun'. And yet this is exactly what happens in
The Stag.
No one makes a less likely candidate for
a wild stag party than Fionnan (Hugh
O'Conor), a set designer so comfortable in
his masculinity that he feels no shame in
micromanaging the decor for his forthcoming
wedding. But his adoring fiancée, Ruth
(Amy Huberman), feels that Fionnan really
needs to cut loose in one last bachelor's
hurrah with his mates. She recruits Davin
(Andrew Scott), Fionnan's best friend -- and
her ex -- to make the arrangements. The
gents opt for a camping trip, but what promises
to be a leisurely weekend of fresh air
and some light hiking is about to get a major
dose of testosterone. The Machine (Peter
McDonald), Ruth's notoriously obnoxious
brother, is determined to tag along.
Freshly selected as part of the Discovery program at the Toronto International Film Festival, check the trailer below. And, yes, that
is Moriarty from
Sherlock and the dad from
Moone Boy.