It’s that time of the year again. The French film season at the Irish Film Institute runs from November 13 to 24. France knows a thing or three about making movies. Sometimes, admittedly, they’re too talky. (Eric Rohmer, anyone?) There’s also a danger of pretentiousness. You may come out of a cinema shaking your head…
The Church comes in for a roasting in Small Things Like These (12A), a film based on Clare Keegan’s novel of the same name dedicated to the “56,000” girls sent to Magdalene laundries for “penance and rehabilitation.” Trailing clouds of glory from his Oscar turn in Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy gives a sensitive performance as taciturn…
Frank Burke (Peter Coonan) is a Dublin taxi driver attending the funeral of his father. Flash back ten years to his daughter’s eighth birthday party. He was pulling strings then to stay economically afloat. This brought out an ugly streak in him. Can he forgive himself for it and find peace at last? Exactly what…
A young woman wants to save the planet. But can she save herself? Rona (Saoirse Ronan) is an alcoholic. The condition has cost her dearly. Friends have deserted her. Her boyfriend Deynin (Paapa Essiedu) has fled. She becomes a victim of violence. She enters the 12-Step Programme to try and deal with her problem. For…
The lengths a ruthless man is willing to go to in order to protect his job is explored with searing authenticity in Anand Tucker’s The Critic (15), a gothic tale of blackmail, bribery and clandestine assignations set in post-Oscar Wilde, post-Jazz Age London. Jimmy Erskine (Ian McKellen) is a theatre reviewer. His secret lifestyle (he’s…
A cavalcade of beautiful losers forms a theatre group behind bars in New York in Sing Sing (15). It’s a feelgood that, Divine G (Colman Domingo) informs us in the introduction, deals with the ‘transformative’ power of art. Is it a good idea for an actor to praise a film before you see it? Is that…
When Mary Robinson was young, she used to look out the window of her home in Victoria Terrace, Ballina, and wonder if she could change the world. Her opportunity to do so came in 1990 when she was elected president of Ireland. Aoife Kelleher’s documentary, Mrs Robinson (12A), is a timely tribute to her as…
man goes to a concert with his teenage daughter. It looks like the formula for a fun night – right? Wrong. Trap (12A) is an M Night Shyamalan film so you won’t be surprised to learn that it morphs into something of a Kafkaesque nightmare. Josh Hartnett plays the main role. Shyamalan’s daughter Saleka is…
The silly season is upon us with its customary crop of seasonal treats. Noah’s Ark (G), is an animated film in which a pair of mice called Vini (a poet who suffers from stage fright) and Tito (a guitarist) become stowaways on the eponymous ark, using the beauty of words and song to ensure they…
There are more twists and turns in The Weekend Away than the road from Dublin to Ballyjamesduff. It’s about a young woman who goes missing after a night out with her best friend in Croatia. Who’s responsible? At one stage I suspected four different people. It was none of them! Okay so it’s popcorn entertainment…