Scottish writer and former vocalist for the punk band the Skids, Richard Jobson makes his directorial debut with 16 Years of Alcohol, the stylized psychological drama based on his own semi-autobiographical novel. Through voice-over narration and various flashback methods, troubled young man Frankie Mac (Kevin McKidd) recalls his childhood (played by Iain De Caestaecker as a boy) growing up in working-class Edinburgh. In the '50s, his father (Lewis McCloud) was a hard-drinking good-timer and his long-suffering mother (Lisa May Cooper) eventually gave up on the family. As a teenager in the '70s, the violent Frankie falls in with a street gang and tries to clean up to impress record store clerk Helen (Laura Fraser). After some fights with his old street thug enemy Miller (Stuart Sinclair Blyth), Frankie makes an another attempt to stop drinking at an AA meeting, where he meets Mary (Susan Lynch).
~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide