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Handsome Devil

 Handsome Devil
type
TVTItem
 Handsome Devil
label
Handsome Devil
 Handsome Devil
page
HandsomeDevil
 Handsome Devil
comment
Handsome Devil is a 2016 Irish coming of age comedy-drama written and directed by John Butler.Handsome Devil tells the story of two boys in a rugby-obsessed boarding school – bullied outsider Ned (Fionn O'Shea) and ‘macho athlete’ Conor (Nicholas Galitzine). Though they appear to be complete opposites, they develop a friendship after being forced to share a dorm room.
 Handsome Devil
fetched
2024-02-19T06:15:39Z
 Handsome Devil
parsed
2024-02-19T06:15:39Z
 Handsome Devil
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DBTropes
 Handsome Devil / int_1779f10e
type
"Well Done, Son" Guy
 Handsome Devil / int_1779f10e
comment
"Well Done, Son" Guy: Zig-zagged with Conor. Part of him wants to bond with his dad again (as shown by him getting drunk with his dad and teammates), but he also knows that his dad is a terrible person and an alcoholic, and reacts to his dad's "Well done!" speech with disgust (given that it's implicitly a "Well done on being sport, and not gay" speech).
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 Handsome Devil / int_1994ba0b
type
Gone Horribly Right
 Handsome Devil / int_1994ba0b
comment
Gone Horribly Right: Ned's plan to get himself expelled.
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 Handsome Devil / int_1e1afc1b
type
Framing Device
 Handsome Devil / int_1e1afc1b
comment
Framing Device: The film opens with Ned writing his entry for the National Essay competition, and his voiceover is revealed at the end to be excerpts from him reading it at the final.
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 Handsome Devil / int_23d3b406
type
Gay Bar Reveal
 Handsome Devil / int_23d3b406
comment
Gay Bar Reveal: When Ned tries to follow Conor into a bar, and the penny slowly drops.
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type
Hollywood Tone-Deaf
 Handsome Devil / int_25f0ed12
comment
Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Averted; Ned isn't a terrible singer, but trying to sing a duet without Conor ends predictably badly.
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type
Brilliant, but Lazy
 Handsome Devil / int_355007c3
comment
Brilliant, but Lazy: Ned appears this way at first, but ultimately learns to apply himself.
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 Handsome Devil / int_35b241c0
type
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping
 Handsome Devil / int_35b241c0
comment
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Mostly averted, as Nicholas Galitzine does an excellent Irish accent, with one notable slip when he yells at Dan Sherry the night before the Senior Cup final.
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 Handsome Devil / int_381855db
type
Five-Second Foreshadowing
 Handsome Devil / int_381855db
comment
Five-Second Foreshadowing: As he follows Conor in town, Ned narrates that he was planning on surprising him, only to be surprised by Conor; seconds later, Conor walks into a bar with pink triangles in the windows, tipping the audience off as to the reveal.
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type
Forced Out of the Closet
 Handsome Devil / int_3b581a6
comment
Forced Out of the Closet: Ned does this to Conor after a fight.
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 Handsome Devil / int_3db71fa8
type
Blithe Spirit
 Handsome Devil / int_3db71fa8
comment
Blithe Spirit: Dan Sherry. Think of a modern version of Robin Williams' Mr. Keating, only more badass. And Irish. And a closeted gay man.
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type
Blatant Lies
 Handsome Devil / int_40bb59d0
comment
Blatant Lies: Dan's attempt to brush off Conor seeing him with his boyfriend in a gay bar as 'just being there with a friend' who's only tactile because he's European.
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type
Advertised Extra
 Handsome Devil / int_4b0ef86e
comment
Advertised Extra: Amy Huberman featured heavily in the advertising and in most of the promotional materials; she appears in a handful of scenes and has no more than two lines.
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 Handsome Devil / int_53136954
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Book Dumb
 Handsome Devil / int_53136954
comment
As rugby players are allowed to blatantly miss their classes for practice, as explained below, there's a good possibility Weasel is actually quite a smart kid who only gets (implied) bad grades because the school lets him get away with skipping class in favor of rugby.
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Handsome Devil / int_53136954
 Handsome Devil / int_617f0563
type
Heel–Face Turn
 Handsome Devil / int_617f0563
comment
Heel–Face Turn: Pascal. Even as everyone on the team (except Weasel) sides with Conor after he officially comes out, Pascal remains stubborn to the point that he's willing to forfeit the final, rather than have a gay boy play on his team. But he's seen cheering his team on, and eventually shaking hands with Conor, as Wood Hill rallies to win the game.
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 Handsome Devil / int_66dfe36a
type
Missing Mom
 Handsome Devil / int_66dfe36a
comment
Missing Mom: Ned's mother died a few years before the film starts, and his dad has remarried; not hugely relevant to his character, though it's the plot driver for why he's still in boarding school, and goes some way towards explaining his isolation.
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 Handsome Devil / int_6b35bdff
type
Serious Business
 Handsome Devil / int_6b35bdff
comment
Serious Business: The seriousness with which Senior Cup rugby is taken by the school may seem bizarre for anyone who didn't go to a rugby-playing school - Ned describes players being able to skip class without consequence, whole classes are disrupted for 'cheerleading practice', and when Conor goes missing the principal is more concerned about the impact of playing an untested outhalf than the fact that one of his underage students has disappeared. Absolutely Truth in Television for a certain type of Irish rugby school.
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My Greatest Failure
 Handsome Devil / int_6ee10e0
comment
My Greatest Failure: The theme of Ned's essay is the worst moment of one's life, a moment of such crippling shame that you wake up in the middle of the night remembering it. It's implied at one point that his might be his solo talent show performance when Conor bails on him. In fact, it's outing Conor in front of the entire school.
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 Handsome Devil / int_7d4a47d1
type
Let Us Never Speak of This Again
 Handsome Devil / int_7d4a47d1
comment
Let Us Never Speak of This Again: When Dan and Conor spot each other at a gay bar, their conversation on the train home is entirely this trope, without either of them wanting to say it.
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 Handsome Devil / int_83b44e80
type
Straight Gay
 Handsome Devil / int_83b44e80
comment
Straight Gay: Deconstructed with Conor, whose central conflict involves his love of rugby in a hypermasculine culture that tells people they can't be gay and good at sports.
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 Handsome Devil / int_863fac26
type
Jerk Jock
 Handsome Devil / int_863fac26
comment
Jerk Jock: Weasel and Pascal, quite obviously. Also the male cheerleaders, who openly get physical with Ned and taunt him with homophobic slurs when he refuses to join in the cheering.
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 Handsome Devil / int_8797239c
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Bait-and-Switch
 Handsome Devil / int_8797239c
comment
Bait-and-Switch: The advertising around the film (and various press write-ups) made it seem like music-loving outcast Ned would be the teenager struggling his sexuality, rather than rugby star Conor.
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 Handsome Devil / int_9315c635
type
Lovable Jock
 Handsome Devil / int_9315c635
comment
Lovable Jock: Victor. Despite deliberately invoking the Dumb Jock trope by repeating his leaving certificate so he could be captain two years running, he's no O'Bannion from Dazed and Confused, as he clearly doesn't condone Weasel's bullying of Ned. He is also the second to show his support to Conor in the final locker room scene.
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 Handsome Devil / int_97926168
type
Rewatch Bonus
 Handsome Devil / int_97926168
comment
Rewatch Bonus: Conor beating the hell out of Weasel during their first training session seems on first viewing like he's standing up for Ned (and it's noted afterwards that Weasel has stopped picking on Ned as much). After the reveal that Conor's constant fighting in his previous school was always aimed at shutting up people who were gossiping about him being gay, beating up the openly homophobic Weasel makes a lot of sense with or without Ned's involvement.
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 Handsome Devil / int_a1b141f4
type
My God, What Have I Done?
 Handsome Devil / int_a1b141f4
comment
My God, What Have I Done?: During Ned's slow-mo walk out of the school hall after outing Conor; he has a quick, wordless version of this before he's even made it out of the room.
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 Handsome Devil / int_a6cda066
type
Rule of Three
 Handsome Devil / int_a6cda066
comment
Rule of Three: The first time Ned and Conor practice their duet together it takes three tries before they get it right.
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 Handsome Devil / int_a7850fbf
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Only Known by Their Nickname
 Handsome Devil / int_a7850fbf
comment
Only Known by Their Nickname: Weasel, even to staff members.
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 Handsome Devil / int_b11ac9f5
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Abusive Parents
 Handsome Devil / int_b11ac9f5
comment
Abusive Parents: Heavy implications of emotional abuse from Conor's dad, who reacts to Conor's rugby success by telling him "It was like you were my son again".
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 Handsome Devil / int_b7afd95e
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Un-Duet
 Handsome Devil / int_b7afd95e
comment
Un-Duet: When Conor bails on the talent show, Ned tries to sing their harmonised duet along, with predictably terrible results.
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 Handsome Devil / int_bbf11c0
type
Genius Bruiser
 Handsome Devil / int_bbf11c0
comment
Genius Bruiser: Played with. Early on in the film, Ned makes a quip about the summer treating Weasel well, implying that he may have performed so poorly in class that he had to stay behind for summer classes. But it's not every day you see a bully jock referencing Brutus' betrayal of Julius Caesar, as Weasel does in the scene where Ned finally stands up to him, only for Conor to angrily tell him to get back to the dorm. As rugby players are allowed to blatantly miss their classes for practice, as explained below, there's a good possibility Weasel is actually quite a smart kid who only gets (implied) bad grades because the school lets him get away with skipping class in favor of rugby.
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 Handsome Devil / int_dca70c44
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Reasonable Authority Figure
 Handsome Devil / int_dca70c44
comment
Reasonable Authority Figure: Walter Curley is rugby-obsessed and turns a blind eye to a lot of the bullying and hazing in the school, but he cuts Pascal off completely when Pascal tries to imply that there's something untoward about employing a gay teacher, reacts furiously to Ned outing Conor in front of the entire school, and is completely unfazed when Dan introduces his boyfriend.
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 Handsome Devil / int_e462893a
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Artistic License – Sports
 Handsome Devil / int_e462893a
comment
Artistic License – Sports: Largely averted (see Shown Their Work below), but the editing of the Senior Cup final means that the scoreline makes no sense at certain points.
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 Handsome Devil / int_e5421161
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Expy
 Handsome Devil / int_e5421161
comment
Expy: Wood Hill College, a prestigious rugby-obsessed boys' boarding school based in the midlands of Ireland, should in no way be confused with Clongowes Wood College, a prestigious rugby-obsessed boys' boarding school based in the midlands of Ireland.
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 Handsome Devil / int_ebb57e1a
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Duet Bonding
 Handsome Devil / int_ebb57e1a
comment
Duet Bonding: Conor and Ned, when rehearsing for the talent show.
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 Handsome Devil / int_edfb8d92
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The Generation Gap
 Handsome Devil / int_edfb8d92
comment
The Generation Gap: An Irish LGBT version, given the massive shift from the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the 90s to being the first country to legalise gay marriage through popular vote in 2015. Dan's advice (as a man in his 40s who is still closeted at work) to Conor is to continue to hide who he is, and that things will get better when he's older. Ned, a teenager, advises him to just come out and own it. Conor taking the latter path inspires Dan to come out to his colleagues.
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 Handsome Devil / int_fe5dda42
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Talent Double
 Handsome Devil / int_fe5dda42
comment
Talent Double: Largely averted; Nicholas Galitzine (Conor) played for the Harlequins Academy when he was younger (only getting into acting after an injury stopped him playing), and the two rugby teams are sufficiently padded out with non-acting rugby players to avoid the use of body doubles.
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 Handsome Devil / int_ffad4e9f
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Shown Their Work
 Handsome Devil / int_ffad4e9f
comment
Shown Their Work: Brian O'Driscoll (Ireland's most-capped rugby player) was brought in to choreograph the rugby scenes. John Butler has stressed how important this was, given his own hatred of sports films where the action isn't realistic. Numerous minor elements are extremely on-point for anyone who went to an Irish school, and particularly to the type of private rugby boarding school portrayed in the film - the leeway given to Senior players, the captain repeating his Leaving Certificate twice to keep playing, the awkward talent show with the nearest girls' school (who are all shipped in to cheer for Wood Hill matches), etc.
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Handsome Devil

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Handsome Devil
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Boarding School / int_87f35a9b
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Coming-Out Story / int_87f35a9b
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Films of 2015–2019 / int_87f35a9b
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Un-Duet / int_87f35a9b
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Gay Bar Reveal / int_87f35a9b