What links Joyride to The Simpsons via Bobby Gillespie?

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With mood-boosting Irish comedy Joyride in cinemas, tumble down the rabbit hole with Olivia Colman, Jehnny Beth and the Jesus and Mary Chain

Odes to joy

Olivia Colman and Charlie Reid in a car in the film Joyride — Olivia Colman and Charlie Reid in Joyride … Photograph: Vertigo Releasing

In the endless scroll of grim news, people need a bit of joy. And surely it can be found in an Irish indie comedy starring Olivia Colman. In Joyride (due out Friday) she plays Joy, a down-on-her-luck mother on a wild road trip across Ireland; newcomer Charlie Reid plays Mully, the scamp teenager who joins her. Also supporting is Olwen Fouéré.

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Joie de leave (Or … Leave Brittany alone)

Galway-born Fouéré is the daughter of Yann Fouéré, a prominent figure in the Breton nationalist movement until his death aged 101 in 2011. He fled France to his Celtic cousins, earning his stripes as a champion of Brittany’s independence in Wales and Ireland. It may be quiet on the Breton front now, but the lush north-west region was more visible in Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

Joy divisions

French actor Jehnny Beth — … the region featured in Portrait of a Lady on Fire, starring Jehnny Beth … Photograph: EPA

Sciamma is on a roll: last year’s “spellbinding” Petite Maman was followed by co-writing Jacques Audiard’s romp Paris, 13th District. Among the latter’s cast is Jehnny Beth, previously the singer in post-punk band Savages.

Give out but don’t give up joy

Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream on stage at Glastonbury in 2022, wearing a suit and shirt that look as if they are covered with red, yellow, blue and white paint splashes — … who released an album last year with Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie … Photograph: EPA

In another direction Beth released Utopian Ashes last year, an album of duets with Bobby Gillespie. Before his Primal Scream highs, Gillespie, who published a memoir this year, was the drummer for the Jesus and Mary Chain.

Sometimes always joy

Reverend Lovejoy in The Simpsons — … ex of Jesus and Mary Chain, who were once referenced in The Simpsons. Photograph: Photos 12/Alamy

Hardly surprising, given the breadth of The Simpsons’’ pop culture palette, but there was a jolt when the Scottish noise-makers were referenced in a 2013 episode: Reverend Lovejoy is seen reading a book with the punning title The Jesus and Mary Train. Less joyful is knowing the series has spent more time being quite bad than its first decade of unbridled brilliance. Every celebrity under the sun has voiced a part, including Olivia Colman, who played Lily in 2020.

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Pairing notes

Watch Joyride director Emer Reynolds’ documentary The Farthest is a fascinating look at Nasa’s journey into deep space.

Eat The film’s writer, Ailbhe Keogan, is from County Kerry, where Colman was spotted shooting: if you have a hunger on you there, Rozzer’s or Mulcahy’s are two of the finest restaurants in the land.

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