Middletown

Oh dear. This is the kind of film that would get a standing ovation at the Galway Film Fleadh but for all the wrong reasons! Everything Shoot the Cabbage hates about Irish cinema is in this movie! Let's see, where do we start? How about an over-the-top orchestral music score - so overdone that every time it appears you hear this instead of the actors talking? How about a carefully composed lighting scheme - so careful that it's just too obvious? How about impressive cinematography - so impressive that it's distracting to look at? How about a pacing that leaves you out of breath? No doubt some people will find this impressive? But this is the wrong movie for this stuff. It's just too much. Let's show everyone how great we are at the technical filmmaking but instead of making a movie about a hotel getting attacked by terrorists let's make a film about a small Northern religious community from decades ago and hammer the audience with too much film technique? Does anyone in Irish cinema have something real to say or will it always be about making contrived crap?