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I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning

Play trailer Poster for I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning 2026 1h 49m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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90% Tomatometer 10 Reviews Popcornmeter 0 Ratings
Childhood friends; Patrick, Shiv, Rian, Oli, and Conor played together, skipped school together and dreamt of the lives they would have one day. Now they're thirty, and the future they imagined is slipping quietly out of reach.

Critics Reviews

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Beatrice Loayza Variety 1d
The performances give life to its characters, but the script is laughably heavy-handed in the way it stakes out the themes and rushes through character arcs. Go to Full Review Philip De Semlyen Time Out 1d
4/5
This is a timely drama from a director with a growing canon of eloquent humanist work – a melancholy torch song to the stories that play out beneath our changing skylines. Go to Full Review Tara Brady Irish Times 1d
3.5/5
Enda Walsh’s script compensates with beautifully constructed interpersonal relations between swipes at capitalism, landlords and generational decline. Simon Tindall’s fluid camerawork adds to a textured sense of place. Go to Full Review Marya E. Gates Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) 1d
Barnard has a way of integrating music into the film that feels fresh and alive, the songs accentuating the vibrancy of the world she has created, not just propping it up. Go to Full Review Cody Dericks Next Best Picture 2d
7/10
"I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning" is an effective contemporary social drama, using its characters to show how people of similar backgrounds can go on completely differing life journeys, due to circumstances both in and out of their control. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Cast & Crew

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Clio Barnard

Director

Anthony Boyle

Actor

Joe Cole

Actor

Jay Lycurgo

Actor

Daryl McCormack

Actor

Lola Petticrew

Actor
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I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning

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Movie Info

Synopsis Childhood friends; Patrick, Shiv, Rian, Oli, and Conor played together, skipped school together and dreamt of the lives they would have one day. Now they're thirty, and the future they imagined is slipping quietly out of reach.
Director
Clio Barnard
Producer
Tracy O'Riordan, Claudia Yusef, Mia Bays
Screenwriter
Enda Walsh
Production Co
Moonspun Films, BBC Film, BFI
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Runtime
1h 49m