Cowboys & Angels, directed by David Gleeson, is a coming-of-age film about twenty-year-old Shane (played by Michael Legge), who leaves his small hometown outside Limerick for the big city, where he hopes to advance his dreams as an artist. Because of the high rents of the city, he ends up sharing a flat with Vincent (played by Allen Leech), a fashion design student with ambitions about a career in New York when he graduates. To save money for art school, Shane has been working at an ordinary civil service job in Limerick; his family cannot afford college tuition for him. Vincent is gay, but Shane is straight. Although Shane is attracted to a fast food server, Vincent's best friend Gemma (played by Amy Shiels), he is too shy and conservative to attract her, and she has a crush on Vincent despite his sexual orientation. Accordingly, Vincent transforms Shane à la "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." Although he now looks as if he belongs in a popular local disco, he also attracts two gays who live in the same apartment building. The two gays are drug dealers, and they persuade Shane to get pocket money by bringing them drug shipments from Dublin. Now, Shane has a lot of cash, but he is becoming an addict, he is frequently late for work, and he will ultimately be arrested along with Vincent for stashing some drugs in their flat. However, Cowboys & Angels is not a noir film. In the end, Shane and Vincent are shocked by their arrest into realizing that they can achieve their dreams with a little luck and a lot of hard work. Accordingly, Shane soon becomes Vincent's angel and in the process his own best friend. MH
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