Garage review

Small-town simpleton Josie (Pat Shortt) is too good-natured to realise he’s a figure of fun in the rundown Irish backwater he calls home. Paid a pittance to run the eponymous petrol station on behalf of its absent owner, he’s delighted when he’s assigned a 15-year-old apprentice (Conor Ryan) he can sit and watch the traffic with. But Josie’s joy soon turns to misery when a friendly gesture is misinterpreted...

Written and directed by Lenny Abrahamson, this rueful tale mirrors the bleak inertia of his 2005 debut feature Adam & Paul without calling up that film’s grim squalor. The result is sad, sombre and darkly comic, largely due to Shortt’s well-judged lead performance and farcical vignettes that wouldn’t look out of place in an episode of Father Ted. Even at a meagre 84 minutes, though, you’ll be checking your watch.