Showing @ Filmhouse, Edinburgh until Thu 11 Apr

Lisa Barros D’Sa & Glenn Leyburn / UK/Ireland / 2012 / 103mins

Music doesn’t discriminate. Some songs may become affiliated with a certain race, time or political movement but when it comes down to it, what you get out of music – that so-called buzz – transcends gender, age, race and politics. Good Vibrations is the story of the Belfast punk scene, closely paralleled by the Troubles. It’s a bold and brutal biopic of Terri Hooley (Richard Dormer), the man with the record shop in Belfast who became a front-runner in the punk scene and discovered The Undertones.

Based on the memories of Terri, the film starts when he was a young boy in the 60s and continues through to the late 70s when punk was peaking. Richard Dormer is excellent as Hooley, his laid-back and ruthless determination to bring punk and peace to the people of Belfast is admirable: he faces adversity with blind faith. Montage footage of Belfast during the Troubles brings the politics out of the backdrop and into the heart of the film. Good Vibrations does what it says on the tin: fast-paced, edgy and a whole lot of fun for anyone who has ever identified with music of any genre. It’s food for the soul.

Follow Emma on Twitter @emmalhay