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.

Extra Ordinary - 'Ghostbusters meets The Van'

Films Reviews Thu, Sep 19, 2019

MAEVE HIGGINS plays Rose, a lonely, yet happy, shy, driving instructor in her thirties. Once a well regarded exorcist and paranormal investigator, she gave it all up after an accident involving her father which cost him his life.

It: Chapter 2 - an uneven adaptation

Films Reviews Thu, Sep 12, 2019

FIRST OF all, do not go see this movie if you have not seen the first one, as it is a direct sequel and you will not have a clue as to what’s going on. In Chapter 2 catch up with the gang from Chapter 1 27 years later.

The Souvenir - a unsettling depiction of an abusive relationship

Films Reviews Thu, Sep 05, 2019

JULIE IS a film student in London in the late 1980s. She is trying to escape her life of privilege, but lives in her parents' flat in Knightsbridge. Yet, her attempts to make a film in Sunderland about a working class family are honest and admirable.

Good Boys - not a great movie, but a funny movie

Films Reviews Thu, Aug 29, 2019

MAX, THOR, and Lucas, are three best friends about to enter their teenage years. They struggle with hormones and growing up. They know lots of grown up words but not exactly what they mean: “She’s a nymphomaniac, it means she has sex on land AND on water."

Tarantino's indulgent love letter to Sixties Hollywood

Films Reviews Thu, Aug 22, 2019

ONCE UPON A time in Hollywood is the ninth film from Quentin Tarantino, and if he is to be believed, it is his penultimate movie. He maintains that no director has directed a good film after his tenth. To that I say, what about Claire Denis, Akira Kursowa, or Stephen Spielberg?

The Current War - not exactly electrifying

Films Reviews Thu, Aug 01, 2019

THIS IS the story of Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and their competition to bring electricity to America. Westinghouse working with Alternating Current and Edison working with Direct Current.

E-paper

Read this weeks E-paper. Past editions also available from within this weeks digital copy.