Irishman

Based on real events this is a three-hour movie set across several decades after WW2. Well-cast with lots of the extras looking like they belong in earlier decades. A truck driver for the Teamsters union gets hired by an Italian mob as a gunman. The plot jumps around from different years but it's very watchable. The violent scenes are brief and it cuts in TV clips from past years. I liked the Don Rickles reference. PIcture shows the male-dominated era where women took a back role. Low-key music, superb script and very well edited. Not as flashy as expected but involving and the main characters have depth. Reminds me of gritty Hollywood from the 1940s like Thieves highway and the French crime films from the 1960s. Memorable film that you won't forget.


Title: The Irishman
Genre: Gangster
New/old: New
Cinema/DVD: Cinema

Dark lies the island

Routine and lifeless movie set in Ireland's North West; has the look and feel of a stage play. A middle-aged man remarries a younger woman while his sons crack up living in a small town. None of these characters are remotely likeable and the story is boring. Everyone argues and drawls their lines. Comedian Tommy Tiernan is in it but doesn't do much. Lots of tension and acting but it goes nowhere. Pretentious title, sinister music on the soundtrack, based on a story by an award-winning writer, well-known cast  - ticks all the boxes our Film Board requires for 'quality' cinema. You won't care what happens and the stylish establishing shots get tedious. With a bit of luck that crap town will be housing a hundred asylum seekers soon!


Title: Dark lies the island
Genre: Drama
New/old: New
Cinema/DVD: Cinema

Bump along the way

Set in Derry, a middle-aged woman gets pregnant while her teenage daughter gets bullied in school. Not exactly a comedy but not social realism either. There's little reference to Northern Ireland other than establishing shots and the accents; could be set anywhere. Some parts are funny, others sad but it's routine and predictable. Unusually for these type of films  there are no pop/rock songs on the soundtrack. The father was right to demand a paternity test. Picture is feminist, most of the male characters are jerks. The daughter's scenes are more interesting than the mother's; some of her school scenes are funny but sad. Watchable but should have been better.

Title: A bump along the way
Genre: Drama
New/old: New
Cinema/DVD: Cinema

Kitchen

Feminist mob movie set in the 1970s, all the men are jerks. It's about New York's Irish community and three men get sent to prison. Their wives take over the racket. Lots of killings and double-crossings but it's too fast paced with too much plot. Like they cut 30 minutes out; would have worked better as animation. People in phones boxes get shot in the head, too accurate to be realistic. People get killed and the other characters are upset though we've  only seen them briefly in an earlier scene. The movie looks great and the rock and funk soundtrack is good though no disco or punk which is unusual. Best role was the older woman who took no nonsense. Refreshing hearing characters speak their minds and refusing to act nice in this PC era. Watchable and above average though it's no classic.

Title: The kitchen
Genre: Gangster
New/old: New
Cinema/DVD: Cinema

Extra ordinary

Impressive horror comedy about a driving instructor with powers to deal with ghosts. Set in small-town Ireland it boasts a superb script, good cast playing for laughs but taking the story seriously, decent music, fast pacing and some funny moments. A failed international musician wants to sacrifice a local virgin to the devil. Her father hires the driving instructor to deal with his dead wife who haunts the family home. It's like a routine genre film done too many times already here but finally they got it right. Usually with these movies some parts are good but get runied from casting Deirde O'Kane or Amy Huberman or is badly directed. The two-worded title is deliberate. One of the few recent Irish films I would recommend but don't expect this silly effort to win awards.

Title: Extra ordinary
Genre: Horror
New/old: New
Cinema/DVD: Cinema

Thank you come again

Overlong comedy set in a sex shop off Dublin's Grafton Street. It's not that good or funny but is watchable. Most of the cast are the same age and look like they are from the same class out of drama school. There's a silly story involving diamonds, a priest with second thoughts and an unemployed older man. There's little reference to Ireland apart from in a newspaper. Uneven acting and the bickering between staff gets tiresome. Lots of bad cutaways of actors talking directly to the camera. Best scene was the speed dating. At the end one of the characters says 'dead priest in a porn shop' which would have made a better title.Good to see some Irish filmmakers not caring about winning an IFTA! 


Title: Thank you come again
Genre: Comedy
New/old: New
Cinema/DVD: Cinema

Never grow old

Drab western about an Irish immigrant in the early days of white America. Mostly set at night or indoors lit with candles it's about an undertaker who buries the victims of a nasty bar owner (Cusack). Set in a hamlet in the mountains it's routine enough. Like most Irish movies it's the story that matters rather than character or setting. Cut, cut,cut without any scene standing out or going on too long. Best scene was the hanging of the young woman but that wasn't effective. The best Westerns get made by directors working mostly in that genre but that doesn't happen anymore. Anyone who watches these films already knows a rural, wooden cabin on screen every few minutes will eventually get burned down.

Title: Never grow old
Genre: Western
New/old: New
Cinema/DVD: Cinema

KIRSTEN SHERIDAN ARTICLE IN TODAY'S INDO

Rather sad article in today's Irish Independent newspaper about Ireland's most overrated female film director. She's been abroad for six years trying to make a career not in movies now but in television. Still looking for something to say in her work too she says. Too much competition and lack of support from RTE are to blame. Never mind the dozen or so more talented Irish female film directors that have appeared since Dollhouse. How many of those knobs on Filmmakers' Network who got me banned still rate her as a director? This blog would never exist only for I correctly stated she was standing on the shoulders of giants.

Animals

Impressive movie about two women of around 30. It's like a hipster remake of the Irish film Snakes and ladders. They go to pubs, clubs, poetry readings, and gigs. Trying their best to put off adulthood they get involved with various men including a pianist and a poet. One of the girls has writer's block while her more stable sister has a baby. The other girl is just strange. Set in Dublin though there are few direct references apart from some dialogue. Most of it is set at night. Some good scenes include the wedding dress and the taxi journey at the end. It's lively, funny, uneven and unpredictable. How many Irish films fit that description?

Title: Animals
Genre: Clubbing
New/old: New
Cinema/DVD: Cinema

CATALYST A DECADE ON

Back in 2009 three films got made under our Film Board's low-budget Catalyst scheme to help fund new directors. The resulting films were promising: 100 mornings was a Corman-cabin-in-the-woods-futuristic effort, Eamon was a naughty-kid-on-holiday movie and Rewind was an ex-boyfriend-stalker thriller. The scheme was set up to help promising filmmakers. Sadly, a decade on not one of these title's directors has made another feature. So what was the point of this scheme?

Metal heart

Lame movie about twin girls who don't get along: one is a blonde while the other a goth. There's a strange neighbour which both get involved with. The goth girl tries to form a band while her sister hurts her own neck. The parents have gone away for six weeks so they organise a party. Not exactly original and even less good. It's very bland and the characters are boring. The only good one was the blonde girl's Love Island boyfriend. I could easily list the Irish movies this effort has copied: summer of the Leaving Cert (Last of the high kings), goth who stands out in South Dublin (This must be the place), local teens starting a band (Sing Street), the house party (Stitches) and the dropout kid forced to go to college by his stern father (practically every Hollywood teen movie from the 1980s). What also annoyed me is that the neighbour said he had an old Moog music keyboard yet they didn't show it. Why? Because the filmmakers didn't have one as it's too expensive. Even better, everyone in the movie says the name wrong: it's pronounced moag not muug.

Title: Metal heart
Genre: Teenage
New/old: New
Cinema/DVD: Cinema