Portrait Of A Lady On Fire - an equal love story

Films Reviews Thu, Mar 05, 2020

THE LAST two months has seen an unprecedented run of unique and interesting films, from war movie 1917, to a new twist on the Agatha Christie 'whodunnit' in Knives Out, biting social commentary in Parasite, surreal Lovecraftian horror in The Lighthouse, and maybe my favourite of all - a tense thriller from, of all people, Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems.

The Lighthouse - brilliant, difficult, funny, and unnerving

Films Reviews Thu, Feb 27, 2020

ROBERT PATTINSON is Ephraim Winslow, a new lighthouse keeper starting his first day of work on the coast of New England in the late 1880s. He is partnered with Thomas, played by Willem Defoe, a veteran wickie, as he calls himself.

Birds of Prey: enjoyable chaos and mayhem

Films Reviews Mon, Feb 17, 2020

OK to start off, I am not a massive fan of DC movies or Marvel movies, or any kind of superhero movie, so it is safe to say I wasn't holding out for much when I rocked up to Omniplex Salthill to view Birds of Prey, Birds of Prey: The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, or Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey or whatever title DC has decided to place upon their newest release. However, I have to say it wasn't that bad and I rather enjoyed a huge chunks of the movie.

Parasite - horror and comedy combine in a Korean masterpiece

Films Reviews Thu, Feb 13, 2020

THIS IS the fifth year in a row the bookies favourite did not win best picture at the Oscars. This is not always a good thing, Green Book was one of the worst ever winners of the award.

Bad Boys For Life - does what it says on the tin

Films Reviews Mon, Feb 10, 2020

It has been 17 years since Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) were last seen causing unmitigated chaos on the streets of Miami in the name of justice but the two decade wait for the third installment of the Bad Boys franchise has been worth it with plenty of jokes, explosions, and high speed chases.

A strange biopic of a man you never heard of

Films Reviews Thu, Feb 06, 2020

THIS FILM - loosely based on a profile for Esquire in 1998 by Tom Junod, entitled Can You Say… Hero? - follows a fictional journalist called Lloyd, who has a lousy reputation for writing hit pieces on the people he profiles.

Just Mercy - a timely story worth telling

Films Reviews Thu, Jan 30, 2020

JUST MERCY is the true story of the beginning of Bryan Stevenson's incredible career. Stevenson moved to the American South after graduating law school in Harvard to set up the Equal Justice Initiative to help people who were wrongly convicted.

Uncut Gems - Adam Sandler excels in this hyper intense film

Films Reviews Thu, Jan 23, 2020

HOWARD RATNER is a diamond dealer with an office in the New York diamond district. He is also a compulsive gambler and seemingly on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

1917 - a beautiful, meaningful, exhausting ride

Films Reviews Thu, Jan 16, 2020

I WOULD be very surprised if, next December, when putting together my Top 10 list of 2020, I do not feature two films released this week - Uncut Gems and the WWI set, 1917.

Jojo Rabbit - uneven and almost admirable

Films Reviews Thu, Jan 09, 2020

THE CONCEPT of Jojo Rabbit is quite shocking. Jojo is a 10-year-old boy in Nazi Germany in the last few months of the war. He loves life in the Hitler Youth which seems more like Boy Scouts than anything else.

Black Christmas - not a very scary yuletide horror

Films Reviews Thu, Dec 19, 2019

CHRISTMAS MOVIES and horror go well together, and there is a long tradition of great Christmas horror films. Gremlins is the gold standard and showed a good Christmas horror has a good amount of comedy.

Honey Boy - Shia LeBeouf's on-screen therapy session

Films Reviews Thu, Dec 12, 2019

HONEY BOY, written by the actor Shia LeBeouf, is about his life as a child star and his time in rehab. He wrote the script in rehab after his therapist told him to write what he remembered from his childhood, after diagnosing him with PTSD.

Knives Out - a great whodunit in the Agatha Christie mould

Films Reviews Thu, Dec 05, 2019

DIRECTOR RHIAN Johnson has made some of my favourite films of recent years, but while his last film was a Star Wars, his best work has always been his own scripts, particularly his spin on film noir with 2005’s Brick.

Powerhouse performance from Christian Bale in Les Mans 66

Films Reviews Thu, Nov 28, 2019

LE MANS 66 could easily be called The Myth of American Exceptionalism: The Movie. Usually in such Hollywood stories - this chronicles the clash between European Enzo Ferrari and American Henry Ford II - it is the other way around.

A break-up film that is a breath of fresh air

Films Reviews Thu, Nov 21, 2019

MARRIAGE STORY is a film about divorce. The obvious comparison is with Kramer versus Kramer but perhaps a better comparison is with Annie Hall - remember that movie starts with "Annie and I broke up” in Alvy’s monologue.

The Irishman - big cast, big cost, and worth it

Films Reviews Thu, Nov 14, 2019

THIS WEEK saw the release of the much anticipated The Irishman in Irish cinemas. We are lucky here in Ireland, due to Netflix's role in financing the film that is has not been released in American cinema chains.

Judy marks major comeback for Renée Zellweger

Films Reviews Thu, Oct 17, 2019

JUDY IS based on the stage play End of the Rainbow. It is a sturdy and competent music biopic, there seems to be one of these every year and this is a one of the good ones.

Joker - a troubling depiction of Batman's arch enemy

Films Reviews Thu, Oct 10, 2019

JOKER, ALSO known as Arthur Fleck, grew up the victim of abuse, and struggles with a type of Tourettes which results in his erupting in involuntary laugher when he is unhappy or uncomfortable.

The Goldfinch - big star cast cannot rescue bad adaptation

Films Reviews Thu, Oct 03, 2019

THIS IS the second film released in the last few months named after a painting. The first was The Souvenir, a beautiful low budget movie about a film student in 1980s London. This is the opposite - big budget (which unfortunately looks set to make an epic box office loss), all star cast, and based on a Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

Ad Astra - the most realistic vision of the future yet depicted on screen

Films Reviews Thu, Sep 26, 2019

AD ASTRA is Apocalypse Now meets 2001: A Space Odyssey - I do not claim to be the first to make that comparison - but that is a pretty great combination of stories, and surprising it has not been done already.

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