16 Years of Alcohol (2003)

80% of critics liked it
(15 reviews)
58% of users liked it
(2,423 ratings)

Scottish writer and former vocalist for the punk band the Skids, Richard Jobson makes his directorial debut with 16 Years of Alcohol, the stylized psychological drama based on his own semi-autobiographical novel. Through voice-over narration and various flashback methods, troubled young man Frankie… More Scottish writer and former vocalist for the punk band the Skids, Richard Jobson makes his directorial debut with 16 Years of Alcohol, the stylized psychological drama based on his own semi-autobiographical novel. Through voice-over narration and various flashback methods, troubled young man Frankie Mac (Kevin McKidd) recalls his childhood (played by Iain De Caestaecker as a boy) growing up in working-class Edinburgh. In the '50s, his father (Lewis McCloud) was a hard-drinking good-timer and his long-suffering mother (Lisa May Cooper) eventually gave up on the family. As a teenager in the '70s, the violent Frankie falls in with a street gang and tries to clean up to impress record store clerk Helen (Laura Fraser). After some fights with his old street thug enemy Miller (Stuart Sinclair Blyth), Frankie makes an another attempt to stop drinking at an AA meeting, where he meets Mary (Susan Lynch). ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 37 min.
Directed By: Richard Jobson
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Jan 1, 2003 Wide
On DVD: May 24, 2005
Studio: Tartan Films

Critic Reviews

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle
Eventually the movie drowns in words.
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It's a carefully made movie, evocatively filmed and intelligently thought out by the director and his cast.
Derek Elley, Variety
The freely associative, poetic tone signals this isn't going to be just another grungy British pic about young malcontents and petty crime.
Lou Lumenick, New York Post
Despite reams of maudlin narration, McKidd's powerful performance as a conflicted man makes this beautifully shot low-budget feature worth checking out.
Jack Mathews, New York Daily News
The film has a poetic pulse, its ups and downs accompanied by some smartly chosen pop songs, a seductive original score and McKidd's husky voice-over narration.
Ned Martel, New York Times
This Scottish memoir of inebriation and sobriety leans heavily on the hurt of booze and rarely on the high.
David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor
The frequent narration is a nonstop string of clichés, platitudes, and truisms that should have been flung out the cutting-room window.
Ken Fox, TV Guide's Movie Guide
The voice-over is a touch pretentious and a few scenes play like acting exercises, but the film is filled with a real sense of hopeless poignancy.
Alan Morrison, Empire Magazine
Even in its most violent moments, 16 Years Of Alcohol is suffused with visual poetry.
Tom Dawson, BBC
An intense and imaginatively mounted first feature.
Martin Scribbs, Mixed Reviews
'Hello, my name is Frankie. And I am a violent man.'
Oz, eFilmCritic.com
Actually, it's Trainspotting without the predilection for 'junk' and dead babies who crawl on the ceiling.
Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film
Richard Jobson's debut is full of abiding images that linger long after the final credits.
Jason Anderson, eye WEEKLY
Moving, lyrical and ultimately devastating.

Read all 14 critic reviews

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Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]Portentously narrated, "16 Years of Alcohol" is a thinly plotted movie about Frankie(Kevin McKidd), a young man who is part of a gang of four thugs who spend most of their waking hours roaming the streets and bars. Frankie is a one-dimensional character… More
[font=Century Gothic]Portentously narrated, "16 Years of Alcohol" is a thinly plotted movie about Frankie(Kevin McKidd), a young man who is part of a gang of four thugs who spend most of their waking hours roaming the streets and bars. Frankie is a one-dimensional character whose single distinctive quality is his explosive anger but no particular cause is ever given for this.(He grew up in a dysfunctional home but the situation was not abusive.) No political or socio-economic factors are even mentioned. In the end, this movie just seems like an inferior knock-off of "A Clockwork Orange" which it references via a movie poster.[/font]