Gripping Irish thriller starring Stephen Graham available to stream now

From the director of Say Nothing, this underseen Irish movie has a 86% Rotten Tomatoes score.

The feature directorial debut of Michael Lennox (Say Nothing, the upcoming How to Get to Heaven from Belfast), the movie is set in Belfast. It follows Sandy Duffy (Conleth Hill, Game of Thrones), a university lecturer and talk-show personality, still riding high on the success of his only novel, published 25 years ago.

Sandy has a secret, however. He has a shoplifting addiction, regularly stealing items from stores that he does not need, just for the thrill.

One day, he is caught thieving by Robert Green (Graham), a lonely security guard.

Desperate for a friend and starstruck by Sandy, Robert tells the famous author that he will not report him to the police, so long as they can spend some time together.

While this seems harmless enough at first, the security guard continues to hold onto his shop's footage of Sandy shoplifting.

Threatening to leak the video if the author does not do what he says, Robert's demands become greater.

As a desperate Sandy tries to wriggle out from under the security guard's thumb, a cat-and-mouse game ensues.

A Patch of Fog Trailer

A Patch of Fog is a gripping thriller that deserves a bigger audience.

Conleth Hill's lead character, Sandy, makes for a fascinating, flawed anti-hero.

All the while, Stephen Graham's performance as Robert almost turns the film into a strange dark comedy.

The security guard is constantly breaking into big grins as he forces Sandy to hang out with him, overstepping boundaries without shame.

At certain moments, Robert even seems to believe that he and Sandy are genuine friends.

As such, he doesn't take kindly to when the author tries to push back. It's then that Graham gets to really utilise his trademark intensity.

On top of the electric performances and rich characters, A Patch of Fog also benefits from Lennox's moody direction and a pleasantly twisty script from writers John Cairns and Michael McCartney.

How to watch A Patch of Fog

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A Patch of Fog is streaming now on Disney+.