Foscadh

You could call Seán Breathnach's new Irish language film Foscadh (shelter) a companion piece to Lenny Abrahamson's 2007 film Garage and Gerard Barrett's Pilgrim Hill from 2013. All three are starkly realistic looks at rural life and it's effect on the male psyche but thankfully Foscadh has some bit of optimism lurking under it's ambiguous shell. Not much, but enough to give you something to latch onto. It's a fine film but jesus, it will remind you of how lucky you have it.

It's the wank at the wake that really clues you into John's (Dónall O Héalai) mental state. His mam is lying in a coffin in the living room and he leaves the room to have some alone time. He's an adult orphan now, alone in his house in the middle of Connemara and he's a stranger to all those who know him. His uncle Paddy (Macdara Ó Fátharta, Tadhg from Ros na Rún) thinks he's a bit slow but others assume he's just been wrapped in cotton wool all his life by over protective parenting. A desire for chips one night sees him take a beating and his recuperation lets new friends enter his life, Dave (Cillian O'Gairbhi), his hospital roommate and his nurse Siobhan (Fionnuala Flaherty), both of whom may have ulterior motives.

Director Seán Breathnach, working off Donal Ryan's book, The Thing About September, has created a tale that will get into your bones like the damp, windswept locations it's filmed in. Years ago John would be derided as a gomey, a fool, the town weirdo and in more enlightened times we know it's not his fault but Foscadh never gives us any definitive answers, to anything really. Did his parents do a number on him? Why are these new people in his life so nice to him? Is it foscadh they're after or genuine friendship? Why has the town bully such a set on him? What's really going on in that head of his. There's just enough left unsaid and unanswered to keep the film buzzing in your head for days after. There's an air of unpredictability too that will leave you on edge on any number of occasions. A trespass you feel sure will end in tragedy, a night time encounter with an enemy, that drinking game. It's sickeningly tense at times.

Dónall O Héalai is magnificent as John. Just as good as he was in last year's Arracht but so different in his physicality that a casual film goer might never guess the same actor played both parts.Your nerves would be wrecked for him, when locals with their eyes on the future come sniffing around the land that's been left to him, when he's coerced into making his interest known to the opposite sex. Social cues don't exist in John's world, if you've never been taught to interact with the outside world you'll always struggle and that struggle will stay with you for life leading you into morally murky waters. At times it feels like a parable about the dangers of over protective parenting, a warning about coddling but Dónall's work will always leave you unsure in your thinking. 

The same goes for Cillian O'Gairbhi's Dave and Fionnula Flaherty's Siobhan. You're never quite sure where you stand with them. Has loneliness driven them towards John or is it the promise of a free gaff? Will they give him the tools he needs to become his own man or take from him? The wild and boisterous Dave might be easier to read but Siobhan's a vaguer presence with Flaherty doing great work especially during a beautiful campfire scene that points to true motives though then later scenes leave you wondering again. You've got to admire a film that leaves you the dots to join up yourself.

Foscadh is in cinemas now. It's really worth your time.

Give em a chance

5 minutes before Foscadh started.

Just after it finished there was the same amount of people in there. 

Yet another Irish film dies on it's arse in cinemas outside of Dublin. And on the eve of St Patrick's day too. For shame. Why are people so afraid of going to see an Irish film? Do they still assume everything is like The Snapper? Things have moved on quiet a bit for fuck sake. Ok, we don't exactly pump out multiplex friendly crowd pleasers but there's always substance, food for thought, dark humour is definitely our forte. Our films aren't afraid of big emotions or of delving into the parts of our psyches we've been conditioned to ignore. Seeing an Irish film can often be akin to talking to a doctor! That alone makes them far more interesting than any big budget CGI bonanza. 

But, you know, explosions and lasers will always win.

Belfast

The 15th of August 1969. The day Buddy (Jude Hill) lost his innocence. While running to dinner after being called in from play by his Ma (Caitríona Balfe) he finds himself caught in the middle of sectarian hatred when a Protestant mob storms his street to oust his Catholic neighbours. His family will be safe if they play the game but his Da's (Jamie Dornan) loyalty is called into question when he won't take part in the intimidation and violence going on all around them. Buddy just wants to play and learn and watch films, he wants to talk to the girl he likes in school and enjoy the company of his grandparents Pop (Ciarán Hinds) and Granny (Judi Dench) but real life is closing in fast.

Director Kenneth Branagh was born in Belfast in 1960 and his family moved to England in 1969 to avoid the violence of the Troubles. Buddy's his proxy here and so we get his view of a horrible time in Irish history through both rose tinted glasses and from a child's perspective. For his Ma and Pa, who never get first names because they aren't something that children ever call them, the tension around them is a constant source of fear and stress. For a 9 year old it's an annoyance and as such Branagh never lets the horror take over because we all know how bad it got up there, it's been the subject of a thousand books and songs and films and documentaries but we rarely get a glimpse at the lives lived behind the doors lining the city's streets, the people who weren't involved, those just trying to live normally and make sense of the chaos outside. One beautiful moment sees Buddy trying to learn about women from his Pop who openly admits he hasn't a notion either while Granny watches them from an open window just like the soldiers in the towers and helicopters above watch them. Happiness and horror side by side.

Like Paul Thomas Anderson's recent Licorice Pizza there isn't really much of plot as much as a collection of misty B&W (not watercolour) memories that will strongly evoke similar memories for the audience; the fear and exhilaration of indulging in and getting away with a spot of underage criminality, the joy of seeing your parents happy and the fear and confusion involved when they aren't, the tummy butterflies when you realise you fancy the girl beside you in class and that great feeling when the adults in your life stop talking to you like a boy and start talking to you like a man. Throughout we get these wonderful little moments between Buddy and his parents and his grandparents that get reinforced late in the day by that famous bible quote about putting away childish things from verse 11 of 1 Corinthians 13. He's not there yet though, the childish things are still important to him, to his parents who want him to stay a child for as long as possible, his matchbox toys, a trip to the cinema to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, an awestruck viewing of Tom Doniphon taking care of business in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. It's easy to see Branagh's real life influences here but it's one of them that takes from the film late in the day.

As was want to happen on the streets of Belfast a riot has kicked off and Buddy and his family are caught in the middle and Branagh makes a musical choice that will roll your eyes in your head. On paper it might have sounded like a heroic way to see Pa through Buddy's eyes but the reality is just cringeworthy and it kills any bit of suspense in the scene stone dead. It won't ruin the film for you but it will cheapen it a bit. It's a shame but it doesn't take away from the strength of the performances here at least. Judi Dench feels curiously underused until the end where her 87 year old face tells us a million stories without saying a word while Ciarán Hinds, Jamie Dornan and Caitríona Balfe all do superb work especially the latter during a tear-stained rant on a bus that leaves her husband speechless. It's Jude Hill's film though. Buddy's always onscreen or in the background while life happens around him. Sometimes Branagh just leaves the camera on his face as he listens to adult conversations and the sound design in these scenes conveys his understand and confusion to a tee. 

Belfast is out now in cinemas. It's black and white imagery looks glorious on the big screen, making an intimate tale feel epic. It's worth your time. 

Arracht

There's a strange smell in the air. One so bad the sea winds can't keep it at bay. It's the stench of potato blight, the stench of death. Life in 19th century Connemara was always tough and now the one crop the people living there can rely on is rotting in the rocky fields where they live. Doubling down on the misery are the rent increases the Anglo-Irish landlords are demanding. Colmán Sharkey (Dónall Ó Héalaí) has had it. Without potatoes he can't feed his wife Margaret (Elaine O'Dwyer) and son or make poitín to sell for his rent. After a shaky run in with a debt collector he heads inland with his brother Sean (Eóin Ó Dubhghaill) and an ex soldier called Patsy (Dara Devaney) to try to reason with the man demanding his money. He's willing to negotiate but Patsy, having spent some time in the British army, has nothing but contempt for the man in the big house. Things don't go well. 

Arracht finally hits Irish cinema screens after two years on the shelf and it was definitely worth the wait. Even if bad memories of schooldays ruined your grá for the mother tongue there's something powerful about hearing it and seeing it on the big screen, especially in this context. You might go into this expecting a revenge flick laden with righteous fury à la Black 47 but Arracht is a more considered piece of work. The vast majority of the story takes place in the aftermath of violence. Colmán's on the run now, he has been for two years. Life as he knew it is gone. His pillow is a rock and his shelter is the damp cave where he used to brew his poitín. At night he's lulled to sleep by the lapping of waves and then haunted by that faithful night and what happened since. It's tough going and it's longueurs may have you wondering whether the film has lost it's way already.

But then one day on secretive trip back to the mainland for fuel he comes across a sick young child called Kitty (Saise Ní Chuinn) and his life takes a sidestep and so does the story. It slowly turns from darkness to light as these two lost souls come to depend on each other, growing to like each other. In him she sees survival and in her he sees redemption. Starvation is ever present so skills Bear Grylls would baulk at are needed to stay alive and the story swerves again into a survival story, becoming paean to the strength of human resilence, of our resilience. But in Ireland of the 1840's hunger wasn't the only spectre stalking the land. The Brits were too. They were always it sure.

To director Tom Sullivan's credit though, he never makes them into a pantomime boogeyman, well mostly. The Lieutenant landlord (Michael McElhatton) isn't one of the absentee landlords we were all taught about, he knows his tenants names and situations, even their hobbies but like the landed gentry tended to be he was clueless about their suffering. He skillfully plays a complex part that adds a layer of ambiguity to what happens in the house that night. Peter Coonan's turn as a British land agent looking for Colman near the end though, that's the broad brit villain we all know, and with him comes an ending that verges on silliness but thankfully he appears too late in the day to really rock the boat much.

Arracht is in cinemas now. It's a powerful story of anger, regret and redemption lead by a towering turn from a commited Dónall Ó Héalaí. Don't let the subtitles or the language scare you away. It's a deeply Irish story but a universal tale.

Deadly Cuts

The boogeyman of modern day society has long been portrayed as a young lad in a blinding white tracksuit and rocking a haircut that would give you a headache at 50 yards. Deadly Cuts tells us the real truth. All societal ills can be traced back to one place, a hellish sandbox of rich folk obsessed with anal sex and sabotage. That place.....is south of the Liffey.

Michelle (Angeline Ball), the owner of Deadly Cuts is having an awful time lately. Her business is being threatened with demolition to make way for the gentrification of Piglinstown, the suburb she calls home while a local gang, led by the reprehensibly scummy Deano (Ian Lloyd Anderson) is demanding protection money that's eating into her profits massively. One of her hairdressers Stacey (Ericka Roe) is having her own issues too, she wants out of Piglinstown, away from it all the crime and the bad memories, and her plan is to win the Ah Hair hairdressing competition so her absentee mother, living it up in Spain, will see her success and ask her to live the sea and sunshine life with her. To win Stacey will need the help of Michelle and her co-workers Chantelle (Shauna Higgins) and Gemma (Lauren Larkin) but a late night run in with Deano is threatening everything they hold dear.

There's a refreshing lack of morality in Deadly Cuts that many will take issue with but if you can get onboard with it's simplified way of solving life's bigger problems you'll probably have a great time with it. Yeah it's broad as hell ("Me back box!") and yes it does delve into Irish stereotypes in a way that makes Damo & Ivor look subtle but come the end you'll be grinning and laughing like a fool. In a time when every ounce of Dublin's charm is being stripped away to make room for yet more hotels it's urban renewal subplot feels extremely timely but unfortunately real life can't be dealt with Deadly Cuts style so here you'll have a chance to live vicariously for a while. BTW, I'm not condoning anything in this film :D

It's all built around a plotline that feels like it fell out of a dark 1980's comedy but it's the performances and chemistry created by them that gives Deadly Cuts it's bucketload of charm. Stacey's the one you'll empathise with most, abandoned, wanting to better herself, torn between loyalty and her future and Ericka Roe make a fine job of her part while Ian Lloyd Henderson's blisteringly hateful Deano is so effective that you'll cheer when you see how he ends up. Victoria Smurfitt, Louis Lovett and Pauline McLynn come into play in the latter half of the film when the action moves to the hilariously overblown Ah Hair competition and play their parts of South County Dublin bullshitters so hammily that you'll think you've landed in a Mrs Brown's Boys sequel but luckily a couple of inspired plot zig zags save the day come the end. Zig Zags that aren't just deus ex machina plot tomfoolery either, the ground work is laid throughout with little asides that feel like nothing at the time adding a clever touch to the silliness.

Deadly Cuts is in the cinema at the moment and it's a funny and worthwhile alternative to the Bond film showing in every other screen of your local picturehouse. Plus you'll learn how to go from brunette to platinum blonde in one step without causing any hair loss and that's always a good thing.

Wildfire

G. 

L.

O.

R.

I.

G.L.O.R.I.A GLORIA! G.L.O.R.I.A GLORIA! Two women are dancing to Van Morrison in a quiet pub. To the men watching it looks aggressive, manic, almost violent. But looking closer you see it's feels practiced, choreographed, they intertwine, slink around each other, moving like one. It's been done 100 times before. The older men smell blood in the air, eyeing them like predators. Their offers of drinks don't go the way they expected. They've messed with the wrong sisters. In the past and now in the present.

Nika McGuigan passed away on the 23rd of July 2019, only months after filming finished on this film from writer/director Cathy Brady. It adds a fierce sense of sadness and what could have been to a film already laced with sorrow and despair, so much so that at times it all threatens to be too much to cope with. But McGuigan's fiery turn as Kelly is so good you'll keep going through the hurt. Add in a blistering performance from Nora-Jane Noone and you have a story that will stay with you for an age.

Kelly's just come home from across the pond after being missing for a year. Her sister Lauren (Nora-Jane Noon) is overcome with a mixture of relief she's safe and rage after being left wondering if she was even alive for so long. Lauren's husband Sean (Martin McCann) is trapped between a rock and a hard place as the push and pull of their relationship plays out around him. They've lived in the same place all their lives, right on the border between the North and the Republic of Ireland. Houses they lived in loom large. Paramilitary atrocity has shaped their lives and the lives of those around them. The men responsible drink freely in their eyeline after early release due to the Good Friday agreement. Everywhere are reminders of loss and when troubled Kelly dives into her mother's belongings Lauren begins to feel things she's long kept tamped down.

You won't finish this one in a particularly good mood but you'll be glad you stuck with it. A story about the way violence leaves an echo that affects everyone involved. Kelly and Lauren are scarred by it. One ran and one stayed. A ferocious, almost co-dependent closeness torn apart and now tough to fix. It feels odd at first as you don't quite know what's going on but as the story moves forward the layers are peeled back and we get a real sense of the ripple effects of bloodshed. The stories we in the ROI, especially in the places away from the border, grew up hearing in the news about the troubles were exactly that to us, stories. When the news finished we moved on to whatever show was on next. For the people affected it's a lifelong struggle, a limp that effects your work, passing by the site of a bombing every single day of your life, depression in the aftermath of horror. It's that big ol' traumatic scar on our national psyche brought right down to a human level. But it's a fixable one.

Wildfire is in cinemas now. It's very good but jesus it's tough going. Be nice to yourself afterwards.

The Bright Side

It's a trampoline that starts it all. In a fit of rage Ruth (Gemma-Leah Devereux) falls off her brother's one in his backyard and a subsequent trip to the hospital shows up a worrying mass in her breast. Cancer is confirmed and Ruth's indifference to it scares those around her. She's been depressed for years and sees her diagnosis as a guilt free way to leave a life she stopped enjoying a long time ago. To calm familial nerves she agrees to chemotherapy and during treatment meets a group of women in the same situation who make her look at her life differently.

Cancer. Suicide. Depression. Three things that have affected all of us in one way or another. We've been through it or we know someone who has. Life changing, traumatic, devastating, an odd trio to built a film around but director Ruth Meehan working off the memoirs of Anne Gildea has crafted a painfully honest, funny, upsetting and ultimately uplifting look at what we all dread. At times, especially in it's midsection The Bright Side feels a bit drifty, a wee bit aimless but it keeps saving itself with beautifully drawn moments of humanity, kerbside truths spoken through a car window, a filthy Kerry man joke told by the most unlikely candidate in the room and a watery argument where the barbs feel like violence and ever so real. All the best Irish films have had an uncanny ability to make you laugh while punching you in the jaw and The Bright Side carries on that tradition with aplomb.

"Silence is the language of the gods. All else is a poor translation." A quote from a 13th century Persian poet called Rumi. Spoken in a quiet riverside moment between two friends about to become more than that. Silence is the one thing Ruth can't cope with. Stand up comedy is her bread and butter. Cutting wit and brutal truth are her tools. Her day job helps her deal with life, she uses her comedy routines like a visit to a psychiatrist, turning her pain into laughs. She's a wonderful way with words but they aren't masking her pain anymore and a promotional spot on the radio that goes sideways when she's asked a real question lets her know she isn't as strong as she thinks she is. This is too much to deal with alone. She starts to open up, she takes help from her pharmacist Andy (Tom Vaughn Lawlor), she drops the sarcastic front with her chemotherapy acquaintances and beautiful things start to happen.

Gemma-Leah Devereux is fantastic in the part, appearing in every scene, interactions with everyone, some good, some bad, some downright ugly. The understandably thorny Tracy (Siobhan Cullen), the baba of the group. Posh Fiona (Karen Egan), the tower of strength, never anything but 100% positive. Helen (Derbhle Crotty), upset after hiding her light under a bushel for most of her years and now mad to start really living and lovable Roisin (Barbara Brennan), the elder stateswoman of the group, who's religious views rub Ruth up in the earlier scenes. A chemo ward rant against the church giving GLD something to really get her teeth into but it shows off the other sides of her character too. She's genuinely unlikable at times, thoughtless, prone to lashing out at those who care, really going in for the kill. But it will never put you off her, it just makes her feel even more real. The film might be called The Bright Side but it's never afraid to show you the darker sides too.

The Bright Side is in cinemas now. It's very good indeed. Go on, support Irish film. 

Be Good Or Be Gone

"Prisoner 1701, Prisoner 1864, your request for temporary release has been granted. You have 4 days leave. Now lads...be good. "

They will yeah.

Be Good Or Be Gone is a disagreeable watch that while clocking in at just over 90 minutes feels far longer. There will be comparisons made to Lenny Abrahamson's 2004 drama Adam And Paul but this film isn't a patch on that one, it's doesn't have a sliver of it's soul and at no point in that 17 year old movie does one of it's leads call a woman a cunt before headbutting her. It's a moment, less than a third of the way in that will alienate the vast majority of the audience.

Cousins Ste (Les Martin, who also wrote this) and Weed (Declan Mills) are free. For 4 days anyway. A furlough from Mountjoy is theirs and they want to make the most of it. Weed is addicted to heroin and he's suffering already because it's easier to fix on the inside than out. Ste has other things on his mind, namely his daughter and his girlfriend Dee (Jenny Lee Masterson). Previous endeavours and the tragic events wrought by them have burned his bridges in the community and in the little free time he has he wants to at least try to start a rebuild. It's easier said than done though when the past is waiting for you around every corner.

You'll rarely see a film as tonally messy as this one. Is it a comedy, is it a thriller, is it a gritty urban drama? I don't think it knows itself and so tosses everything in the pot and the end result isn't a tasty one. People get bopped on the head comically with woks, dealers feel like otherworldly beings prone to profundity, others are mad into fashion in a way that surprises everyone they meet, someone else is violently sexually assaulted and carved up with a stanley knife in a brutally jarring moment. Your head will spin watching it and not in a good way. People we're supposed to warm to are wildly unpleasant creations and when you see some of the things they get up to you won't give a damn if they make it to the end credits or not. It makes for a hard film to get behind.

Even the way the main characters interact with each other feels off. Ste and Weed are related but the film never gives us a sense of any connection or chemistry between them. Dee's reactions to Steve never once feel natural, changing from scene to scene and the end of their story feels hugely unearned. As a result we get a boggy middle section that nearly kills the film in it's tracks. It's only a cameo from Graham Earley (of Broken Law and Carbdboard Gangsters) that gives the film any bit of energy at all and even then his part in the film goes from farce to violence with head spinning speed. The film chafes even more when you realise it's disparate parts aren't bad at all. Cathal Nally making his feature film debut, captures his vision in a low key, naturalistic way while Les Martin and Declan Mills put in fine, believable performances. It's just a pity none of it gels.

Be Good Or Be Gone is available to rent on google movies now. It's not a film I can recommend.

Boys From County Hell

Every vampire film or TV show brings it's own thing to the mythology of the undead. In Fright Night, crucifixes only worked if the hero wielding them had a religious belief. In Ganja & Hess, even standing in the shadow of a cross could be fatal to a bloodsucker.  Near Dark told us a complete blood transfusion could save a bitten person from turning to the dark side. In Blade II the vamps didn't have fangs but instead a disgusting little sucker under their tongues and in Buffy, every vampire rose from the grave with new found mixed martial arts skills. Boys From County Hell adds a new vampiric power to the mix. One that gives us a visceral and quite stomach churning opening as we watch a familiar face in Irish cinema meet his maker. It's a great opening to a new Irish comedy horror that plays it's horror very straight.

Every year in Ireland farmers die on their own land due to accidents involving animals or machinery. A similar night time fatality is the catalyst for the events of Boys From County Hell when blood is spilled on the green grass of Six Mile Hill, a small town north of the border, famous for being the burial site of the Abhartach, an evil creature who inspired Bram Stoker to write his most famous novel. Something vile has risen from the earth because of it and it's up to a group of townsfolk, lead by Eugene Moffat (Jack Rowan) and his father Francie (Nigel O'Neill), to deal with it.

Boys From County Hell make be less than 90 minutes long but it takes its time. Writer/Director Chris Baugh lets us get to know it's characters before it rips them apart. Eugene, the young man struggling with finding his path, his friends SP (Michael Hough), William (Fra Free) and Claire (Louisa Harland), one content with small town life and the others mad to get away from it. His father Francie, distant from his son since his wife's passing and utterly frustrated at Eugene for wasting his days in the pub. It shows us the problems faced by young people in small towns are universal. Nothing to do. Nothing to see. No money and nowhere to spend it anyway. The twin spectres of emigration and alcoholism haunting them. But the youngsters of Six Mile Hill have something else haunting them too now and this film makes sure you give a damn about them while they're fighting back against it.

This one plays it's horror horribly and gleans it's comedy from the typically Irish reactions to it. There's little in the way of jokes, it's more in the incidental humour that arises from the way the characters onscreen interact. A strangled "fuck" as a reaction to a ripped out organ. The painfully inept way Irish men deal with grief and emotion. An exposition dump laid out by a narrator carrying a bag of cans. A freshly risen revenant getting the good room in the house and numerous other little tidbits that might fly over the head of an international audience but ones that will give the people that know them a proper belly laugh. Much needed laughs too because Boys From County Hell doesn't mess about with the horrifying aspects of the story. There's literal streams of blood splashing around the screen at points, a mother's screams and a father's anguish in a brutal morgue scene, nightmarish moments of a dark presence draining the life from a town, all leading to a gory gag at the climax that will leave you dry heaving. Boys doesn't shy from jokes or scares and makes sure one never takes from the other.

While the main plot line might be about a demonic being terrorising a town, the film's heart lies with two men dealing with a tragic past and Jack Rowan and Nigel O'Neill both nail their parts, with a genuine feeling relationship between father and son. There's love there but neither will show it, giving us a painfully realistic kicker of a laugh during the climax, one that will sadly strike true for many viewers. Of the supporting cast it's Michael Hough standing out playing a character we've all encountered in our earlier years and it's nice to see Louisa Harland giving us a sense of what she's capable of away from Derry Girls.

Boys From County Hell is showing at the Dublin International Film Festival now and will be streaming on Shudder next month. Hopefully when cinemas reopen it will get screenings too. It's a film that will go down a treat with a loud, appreciative audience of horror fans. It deserves to. It's deadly. 

Wolfwalkers

Kilkenny, 300 years before Brian Cody civilised it, was a dangerous place. Cramped, dirty streets were patrolled by English soldiers supervised by the Lord Commander (a thinly veiled Oliver Cromwell voiced sneeringly by Simon McBurney). Surrounding the city were wild forests, gnarled, overgrown places filled with wolves that feasted on the livestock in the fields under the city walls. Entrusted with slaying these wolves was Bill Goodfellowe (Sean Bean), a British soldier and hunter who lived in the city with his daughter Robyn. Sick of her household chores she one day follows her father into the trees and discovers a mystical world in the caves beneath the forest. A mystical world that she's introduced to by a young girl called Mebh Óg MacTíre (Eva Whittaker), a young girl with a distinctly lupine presence.

Wolfwalkers, the latest creation from Kilkenny's Cartoon Saloon and directors Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart is a beautiful thing. A funny, thrilling & heartfelt slice of Celtic mysticism that will leave you buzzing as it's credits roll. It's the fourth animated film from Cartoon Saloon and once again they've nailed it. Any single frame of this lovingly crafted film would hang proudly on your wall, then there's the music, the design, the wonderfully drawn characters, all of it just hits the spot, coming together like a gorgeous tapestry. There's Robyn, the young girl who feels there has to be more to a woman's life than what society expects of them, Bill, the loving father who's terrified for his daughter growing up in a land where her accent will only bring her hate, the hilarious woodcutter Sean Óg (Tommy Tiernan) who's ill advised rant lands him in a very public spot and Mebh, a super creation, a feral but fun loving young Wolfwalker who craves townie treats (bread) and wants to 'ate the people who stole her mammy' from her. 

These are the people who populate the story, a deftly plotted tale that weaves magic and real life history together in a way that never feels forced or preachy. As with Cartoon Saloon's previous two Ireland set films this one is all about our ancient Hibernian ties with the magical side of life but here we see how colonialism tore it away from us, replacing it with civility and order and servitude. The wolves and wolfwalkers represent a freer existence, one that Robyn is striving for and when she gets a taste of it, her life becomes joyous and we get to have a lot of fun on her journey. A journey represented in a sparsely sketched POV that will just drop your jaw. Of course all fun things must can to an end and when the nefarious Lord Commander catches wind of the prowling, growling world outside the city walls the film veers off into more familiar but still thrilling territory with shifting aspect ratios and comic book style framing amping up the action in a stylish manner. Honestly, you'll be giddy watching it all play out.

Animated films live or die with their voice acting and here it's pitch perfect. Honor Kneafsey and Sean Bean bring gentle Northern tones that suit their characters perfectly, McBurney radiates menace as the baddie but it's little Eva Whittaker who steals the show as Mebh, her untamed accent and wild red mane melding together. She's just fantastic, a funny and vicious facade hiding a broken wee heart. Watching her and Robyn together would melt the coldest of us and later on when we get to see what she's really capable of, you'll be gnawing the nails off yourself as the Brits (never not at it) set their sight on her. It's a film that will stir the emotions of everyone in it's audience, the kids who'll love the colour and the sense of adventure and the adults who'll appreciate it's thematic richness.

Wolfwalkers is coming to Apple TV on the 11th of December. Hopefully it will get a cinema release next month to but your guess is as good as mine as to whether government restrictions ease. What ever way you do choose to watch it, it's a glorious way to spend your time.

Sonny Capone

Last night I watched one of the worst films I've ever seen. It sounds like a broad statement but Sonny Capone is the kind of film you could use to torture someone for information with. The warning signs were there from the start. A voiceover that sounded like it was read from a cue card with no practice beforehand. The father in the kitchen wailing. Those Italian accents that sounded like something from a 6th class Christmas play. At first it seemed funny, something you could enjoy with a bag of cans. It's an Irish film you think to yourself. I'll give it a chance, it has to get better. 92 minutes later you're watching the credits rolling and you're thinking to yourself "How did it come to this?"

This is the story of Sonny Capone, an Irish/Italian who's just become the Capo Di Tutti Capi of the Italian mafia. As a child he was taken from Dublin to Italy by his mother and he worked his way up through the ranks until he hit the top. Life is good, he has a beautiful woman by his side and the respect of his caporegimes. He's spreading his wings, dealing in international affairs and about to go worldwide when a phonecall from a family member he didn't even know existed flips his life upside down. Now he's headed back to where it all started and he's going to paint the streets of the Irish capital a bright, spurting red.

This was awful. 92 minutes of irredeemable putrescence. A film that would make you embarrassed to be Irish. It's so bad you can't even laugh at it. At first you'll think it's a joke and then slowly you'll realise someone made this earnestly and you'll feel genuinely bad for them. But you'll feel worse for yourself. It's filled with the kind of acting that makes Fair City performances look masterful. Every direction the story takes is ill judged, offensive and awkward. Our hero shoots numerous innocent women in the head and kidnaps Jewish men to be put into gas chambers (I fuckin wish i was making this up). The bad guys all get subplots that go nowhere and the film uses their abuse and terrorisation of the ladies in their lives as comedy fodder. Everything you can think of here goes wrong. Sonny can't even cook convincingly.

There's story decisions in here that will drop your jaw, not in awe but in horror, the aforementioned gas chamber, the bewigged skeleton, the bad guy who loves to be cuckolded, his wife and her face licking fetish, the twist in the 80th minute that will make you guffaw at it's sheer awfulness, the treatment of the female reporter who's abduction and murder is played off like a comedy sketch, the bit with the priest (there's two, i'm still not sure which is worse). It feels like a film made by someone who's never seen a film before. Or for that matter heard a foreign accent either because good christ there's some doozies in here. Stop reading for a minute and do your best Super Mario accent. It's awful isn't it. But there's a good chance it's better than what you'll hear in this. Every Italian accent has a Dublin one bleeding into it. Every Irish woman onscreen sounds Eastern european. After a while you won't even hear what they're saying, you'll just be concentrating on how badly it's all being mangled.

But don't worry, you won't miss anything. The plot is as by the numbers as you'll ever get. A simple revenge flick. How could it possibly go wrong? Well watch this and find out. You've probably noticed there's no mention yet of leading actor, writer or director. That's because all three are the one person and I don't want to embarrass him because this is one he'll be leaving of his resume.

Christ.

This is streaming on google movies now. Don't you dare watch it.

Broken Law

It's the kiss that does it. It comes from nowhere. There's no set up. It happens between two characters mere minutes after one has just ripped the other to shreds. Nothing about it feels natural. It's a forced moment designed to shunt the narrative in a certain direction and it's jarring as hell. It's one thing to ignore coincidences in a film but plot contrivances always grate. Always.

Joe Connolly's (Graham Earley) fresh out of prison. Within minutes he's hooked up with his old partner in crime Wallace (John Connors) and they're off on a coke fuelled piss up on the streets of Dublin. Joe ends the evening being kicked to bits in an alleyway and the cops are called. Dave Connolly (Tristan Heanue) is the garda who deals with the situation and two brothers reunite under under insalubrious circumstances. The next day they meet again under even worse circumstances and it's the catalyst for a showdown that could see them and a bank teller, Amia (Gemma Leah-Devereaux) who's been caught in the whole mess, facing the killer end of a gun.

Broken Law could have been memorable. It takes oft told tales ( the lure of crime being too great for someone trying to go straight & brothers on either side of the law ) does it's own thing with them in a lean, mean & efficient manner and it's well played by actors who both look and feel the part. But then it goes and damages the good will created by lacing the story with way too much coincidence and has it's characters do things that make no sense to propel the movie forward. Characters should always dictate the plot, not the other way around and after one eyerolling moment you'll stop taking Broken Law seriously.

And its a pity because there's plenty of good here. John Connors as Wallace is a genuinely menacing bad guy. It's the first time I've seen him play an all out scummy part and he's effective as hell especially in a front door interrogation of a terrified mother. We love a boo hiss baddie and he delivers in spades. Earley and Heanue as the brother's Connolly do well too, especially in a quiet moment of sibling overindulgence that gives the film both a beating heart and a glimmer of much needed humour amongst the profanity and violence. There's tension and an unspoken past, hinted at in a few lines but there's love there too and they make it believable. I like when a film doesn't bludgeon you, lets you works things out for yourself and Broken Law does this well and even manages to get in a few subtle digs at Ireland's crippling social & housing issues and gardai problems too.

Broken Law is out now in cinemas. It could have been better but it's not a bad way to reintroduce yourself to the big screen. Oh and it's only 90 minutes too so even if it's issues annoy you, you won't be in there too long.

Rialto

Rialto debuted online last night as part of the Galway Film Fleadh because all physical screenings had been cancelled due to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. The film opens with a middle aged man walking between cargo containers and noisy heavy machinery to his office in Dublin's docklands. In there his phone rings but you can't hear his voice or the voice of his colleague while everything else is still audible. Is this a film making choice? Is this film going to be a commentary on Irish men feeling like they are voiceless in this modern age? Nope, it's a sound error. Ok. 90 minutes later the fault had been fixed and Rialto was ready to go again. Was it worth the wait? It was indeed.

Two men face each other in a bathroom stall. One, Colm (Tom Vaughn-Lawlor) a closeted married man is scared and hyperventilating. The other, Jay (Tom Glynn-Carney), a young hustler is demanding cash for a sexual encounter organised over a hook up app. The encounter goes wrong and life becomes even more stressful for Colm, a father of two with the twin spectres of redundancy and his father's recent death hanging over his head. His existence is starting to crumble and his wife Claire (Monica Dolan, quietly devastating) is beginning to notice it too.

Rialto isn't a fun watch. Not one bit. It's a stressful account of a life in free fall, a story of threatened and toxic masculinity, a look at what happens when you don't deal with the things inside your head. The film gets it's title from where Colm's mother lives, the place where all his problems started. He can't cope with her grieving over the loss of her partner, he's openly hostile towards her in places, she's going through the worst time of her life and he doesn't care. Yet you can't bring yourself to hate him for it. He's clearly troubled, a bag of cans on a park bench being his form of self care. Visits to a younger male prostitute being his therapy. Colm's broken and he just wants to be whole again. His journey and rebirth is not an easy watch but it's a compelling one.

We all know Tom Vaughn-Lawlor from Love/Hate. His Nidge, the bastard you couldn't help but enjoy. Here every single bit of the character who made him famous is gone. He plays Colm as a shell of a man, hollow, growing more and more ragged as the movie plays out. As Springsteen once said "In the end what you don't surrender, well the world just strips away." It's a mighty performance, one that never feels like acting. A man alone in the world, while surrounded by his family. Grasping the small bit of intimacy he can get with both hands. The man he's grasping at is played by Tom Glynn-Carney. His Jay comes across initially as a vicious little scrote, but then you realise his actions, just like Colm's, are driven by need. It's a nicely layered turn by Glynn Carney, who by the way is English but who absolutely nails his Dublin accent.

Note the crucifix. Old Ireland's idealisms still haunt us

There's a small moment about halfway through Rialto where Colm is standing on top of a loader in the docks, looking down at the place he's devoted his life to. From a distance he looks like a dot, insignificant in the midst of all this metal devoted to loading and unloading cargo. He looks alone in the world, pathetic and tiny. It's a shot that encapsulates life for a lot of men in this modern age. Men who feel alone and confused by how their lives have turned out. Colm's issues stem from his past, a past barely hinted at and one of my favourite things about this film. The stuff left unsaid and summed up in a tiny part played by Ger Ryan. You have to like a film that lets you read between the lines.  Director Peter Mackie Burns and writer Mark O'Halloran have created a bit of a stunner that doesn't insult it's audience's intelligence.

Rialto is available to rent here at the moment and should be getting a cinema release later in the year. It's really worth watching.

Poster Boys

"You matched with my teacher on Tinder and now she's giving me homework through you?..........ARE YOU INSANE??"

"What, what... What's the big deal?"

"You don't get it, she's out to ruin my life!"

"By making sure you're well educated?"

One of many humorous back and forths between uncle and nephew throughout Poster Boys, an entertaining new comedy drama from Irish writer/director Dave Minogue.

Al Clancy (Trevor O'Connell) isn't having the best time of his life. His job's a joke, he's broke, his love-life's D.O.A......wait back, up, went full mid 90's there. Tinder is trolling him, his car is banjaxed and his job delivering posters around Dublin isn't exactly fulfilling. Plus he's on the verge of being kicked out of his gaff by an Irish landlord who says namaste unironically. Things change when his sister wins a ticket to a festival and he's tasked with looking after his nephew Karl (Ryan Minogue-Lee) for the week. Karl isn't an easy child to warm to and a miscommunication leads to them both road tripping around Ireland as Al tries to get his life back on track.

At no point in Poster Boys are you unsure of the finish but the journey's a charming, warm & funny one that isn't afraid of shying away from the darker problems facing young people in modern Irish society. It's a well shot and economic (gotta love a film under 90 minutes) look at a relationship you rarely see onscreen. Uncle and nephew, a whole different dynamic to father and son, one where if you play your cards right you can have a lot of laughs and the story mines plenty of humour from their burgeoning friendship. A drawn on beard, a wake up with a well aimed football, the sadness of not getting a free ice cream, a preference for marshmallows and so on. But thankfully there's more to it than that.

A recurring theme in Irish cinema is its ability to make you laugh seconds before kicking you in the stones. Behind Al's pleasant demeanour you can sense he's far from happy with the way life has turned out and Trevor O'Connell nails that growing sadness and frustration that's become such a common factor in the lives of young Irish men. A chat on a Kilkenny city bridge between Al and an old school friend hitting the nail right on the head, laughs and unspoken lament, more said in the silences than the words, pointing out men's inability to talk about anything other than the opposite sex and pints even when we want to. Karl's a troubled little chap too and the film deftly sketches a backstory that explains why he acts the way he acts. Growing up feeling like an afterthought and always being forgotten plays hell with the psyche and realising that will help you identify with Karl even when he starts doing horrible things. Ryan Minogue-Lee has a way with comic timing that will see him go far.  But it's when they are together and playing off each other that the film really shines with the chemistry created feeling welcomingly genuine.

Poster Boys is screening (link here) at the online Galway Film Fleadh on Tuesday evening. There's a few belly laughs (the Ian Dempsey one is great), an affecting storyline, some fun new Irish faces and confident direction from Minogue in his feature length debut. It's well worth your time.

Dating Amber

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING???? You're gay!!"

"........gay...for boobs."

It`must be hard enough to feel out of place in 2020 but think about what it was like in 1995. Before the internet became ubiquitous, before information was at your fingertips. Imagine how hard it must have been to feel all alone and to not know when or if you'd ever feel accepted or find your tribe. Ireland in 1995 may as well have been the 1950's. So near and yet so far away.

If you've seen Sex Education on Netflix, Dating Amber will feel very familiar. Set around a school filled with sex obsessed teens, some coming to terms with their sexuality. A lead who lives in a caravan park. Teens being raised by single mothers, some in houses with troubled marriages, some with fathers in the army. It could have felt derivative and cliched but thankfully a winning central pairing and the chemistry between them keeps everything fresh.

Eddie and Amber aren't enjoying their last year of school. Eddie's gay but can't admit it to himself because he wants to follow in his father's footsteps and join the army. Amber's gay too and she's accepted it but can't tell her mother who's still reeling from her husband's suicide. Both are on the receiving end of a constant barrage of homophobic abuse from fellow pupils no matter how much they deny everything. To make things easier on themselves they come up with a plan to fake a relationship. For a while it really works. Until it doesn't.

I liked this a lot. It's charming, funny, upsetting and it's heart is definitely in the right place. Our country's homophobic "past" aside it touches on the toxicity still at the heart of our culture, a toxicity that drives our people to suicide in droves (Barry Ward's armour fracturing on his couch is a heartbreaker). As long as you don't mind watching a film knowing exactly how it's going to play out you'll enjoy it too. It has an ending I'm glad they went with though, the only one they could really, bittersweet but hopeful. A story like this set in mid 90's Ireland was never going to have a fairytale ending. Homosexuality only became legal in 1993 (how fucked is that?) and the place still seethed with hate. Look back, ignore those rose tinted memories and those scenes that might seen crazy to modern day younger audiences ( that sex ed video, constant use of the word 'faggot', gay bars hidden down little laneways) will come rushing back. Look at those memories if you feel the need to moan about how things play out at the end.

The cast is where it really works. Lola Pettigrew is superb as Amber, way more than the manic pixie dream girl™ the trailers hinted at. Her tough exterior hiding a wealth of pain. There's an early scene, pregnant with emotion, where she sits in the woods looking up at a cut branch and no words are needed, the pain in her eyes saying it all. She wants out of a small minded place that's already ruined her family. Eddie is tortured by the town too but he wants to be there, to belong to the institution he thinks made a man out of his father. He's a frail looking chap and O'Shea sells his fragility brilliantly. He's far more likeable here than in TV's Normal People. Together Amber and Eddie sing and the film does too. Awkward and disgusted kisses, chemically induced moments of clarity, a warm and loving train trip to anonymity. It's in these moments the film really finds it's footing. 

A running thread in Irish films is their ability to make you laugh while licking you in the teeth and Dating Amber continues that trait admirably. Sharon Horgan as Eddie's worried mam might feel a bit underused but she gets the films biggest laugh (on the porch in the dark) and it's most heartfelt moment (her bedside chat near the end) while a brilliantly realised bit of tutting from Eddie's classmate gives us a badly needed giggle near the end of the film. It's a laugh that will make you realise just how invested you've become in Amber and Eddie's story.

Dating Amber is available to stream on Amazon Prime now. 

A Good Woman Is Hard To Find

It's not often a sudden bout of randiness saves your life. In A Good Woman Is Hard To Find that very thing sets up a Chekov's gun moment that pays off cleverly later in the film. Just one of many well written instances that make this Belfast set thriller one to watch.

Sarah's (Sarah Bolger) been having a tough time of it. Her husband was murdered and the PSNI don't seem to care why it happened or who did it. That combined with her traumatised young son and his inability to communicate since the tragedy is pushing her to her wit's end. One night a thief called Tito (Andrew Simpson) barges his way into her apartment and forces her to store the drugs he's just stolen from local kingpin Leo (Edward Hogg). What happens next is the straw that breaks the camel's back.

No matter what age you are the idea of your parent being a sexual being is one that will shock you. A conversation about that & an appalled utterance of "Jesus Mammy!" is one of the very few times you'll raise a smile during this film. It's a tiny bit of badly needed levity and by the time it arrives you'll have earned it because A Good Woman Is Hard To Find is tough going. It's a shockingly violent film in places as we watch Sarah subjected to a litany of hardship from the men around her, from sleazy dickhead shop workers to indifferent police to the scum of the earth, all while she's trying to hold herself and her family together. She's a woman on the verge of collapse but by the time the end credits roll she's had a hell of an arc. An arc that in lesser hands would have felt totally over the top.

Sarah Bolger is riveting in the lead. Her desperation is palpable. Her love for her children is obvious. She'll do anything for them. The opening flash forward braces us for something terrible in her future and the Sarah we meet first seems incapable of dealing with what's coming but by the time it's playing out in front of us in all it's gory glory it's absolutely believable that this is the course of action she should have taken. The visceral nature of the film might be a bit much for some Bolger's performance will keep you glued to the screen while a smartly written and intelligent script from Ronan Blaney will bring a wry grin to your face when you realise late in the movie how everything will play out. A kinda silly coincidence halfway through the film feels like an easy way to move the story forward but when it helps build a film to a climax this satisfying it's an easy thing to forgive.

If you like your thrillers tense as hell & laced with grammar lessons as well as a liberal splash of blood you'll enjoy this. It's low budget origins are undeniable but it's given a nice sheen from stylish direction from Abner Pastoll who directed the interesting Road Games a few years back. A Belfast set film made (almost) without reference to the troubles is always welcome too. More of this please.

A Good Woman Is Hard To Find is available to stream online now. It's worth your time.

Calm With Horses

There's a thing about Irish seaside towns that would drain the life out of your face. The dreary, depressing Hibernian cousins of the Costa Del Sol's ones. Gray, washed out places that die a death the second the sun isn't shining. Calm With Horses is set around one such place. It's a film as grim as it's surroundings but unlike the place it portrays you'll be happy to spend some time here.

Douglas Armstrong (Cosmo Jarvis) coulda been a contender. A boxer who fought for his county until an incident on the canvas ended his career prematurely. Now for his sins he's muscle for the Devers, a pack of scumbags who are only happily when they're inflicting pain on others. Dympna Devers (Barry Keoghan), the young gun of the family has big plans for his own future and uncle Paudi Devers (an unsettling Ned Dennehy) has big plans for Douglas. Away from his life of crime Douglas has something else to live for; his ex Ursula (Niamh Algar) and their autistic son Jack. Ursula has her own future plans but everything they know is jeopardised when Douglas performs an act as unwise as it is merciful.

As dark and grim and upsetting as it is there's something very special about Calm With Horses. That something is Cosmo Jarvis. He's astounding in the lead role, displaying the kind of magnetism that got the biggest names of the 20th century noticed. He's a beast, a man not afraid to kick the shit out of someone bleeding on the floor yet away from external forces he's as fragile as a fawn, always on the verge of letting his emotions overwhelm him. Jarvis nails him, turning what could be a one note bastard into someone to be pitied and cared about. His Douglas isn't the full shilling, perhaps an aftereffect of too many punches in his former career though he's no fool, always knowing what's going on but weak, craving affection and friendship and allowing this need to lead him down dark paths.

Down the darkest park is Dympna. A venal little fucker, the playground bully who can mouth off whenever and wherever knowing Douglas is watching out for him. Keoghan is terrifying in the part because we all know filth like him, we all remember them from school, from work, from the local. You're on edge whenever he's onscreen. That fiery energy that got him an upcoming part in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in full effect here. Thankfully Niamh Algar's Ursula tempers the stress. Her character isn't an innocent bystander and the guilt written across her face shows she knows it but her interactions with Douglas give the film a touch of warmth, a frisson of hope. Even when they are fighting you can see the chemistry between them, the bond that still ties them together even when she's looking elsewhere for love. The 'what could have been' making a sad story even sadder.

Director Nick Rowland's first full length feature is an indictment of small town life. The places where having nothing to do and nowhere to go leads to nowhere good. Those innocent looking little villages where all the evil lurks underneath, out of sight, dodgy deeds done in the light of the moon, in farmyards miles from civilisation, in pubs and sitting rooms where law abiding folk wouldn't dare to tread. Where your friends will smile in your face and knife your back. It all sounds fierce black doesn't it. There's no denying it's a tough watch but it does end up in a strangely uplifting place. You just have to make your way through the darkness to it and being lead by a brilliant turn from Jarvis isn't a bad way to do it.

Calm With Horses had the bad luck to be released into cinemas mere days before the Covid-19 lockdown happened. But hopefully now it will find a new audience online. It deserves to be watched. It's really good.

Available on all streaming platforms now.

Sea Fever

Sailors have always been a superstitious bunch. Words like pig, fox and salt are avoided in conversation onboard. Whistling isn't allowed as it sounds like the wind. Seeing a priest before sailing is to be avoided as Catholic beliefs tend to clash with the pagan gods that supposedly rule the water below. Having an omelette or a poached egg for breakfast is frowned upon as is letting a red haired woman onboard. The last superstition is mentioned more than once in Nessa Hardiman's new Atlantic set chiller. Is there any merit in these beliefs though.......

Siobhan's (Hermione Corfield) a student studying for her doctorate in marine biology and in order to pass her course, has to spend time aboard a fishing boat studying their catch, looking for patterns that seem different to the norm. She's not a people person and the thought of being out at sea, trapped in a tin can with strangers doesn't appeal but needs must and soon she's onboard the Niamh Cinn Oir heading westward. Leading the voyage is grizzled captain Gerard (Dougray Scott) and his wife Freya (Connie Nielsen with a bizarre accent that I hope isn't Irish), Syrian refugee Omid (Ardalan Esmaili) as the engineer and a motley crew of others all out to make their quota. As they head further out into the Atlantic things start getting strange and the lack of sleep starts taking its toll.

Sea Fever is a film that wears it's influences proudly on it's sleeve. Alien, The Abyss, The Thing, Jaws, Dead Calm, are all films that will come to mind while you watch this but thankfully it takes these influences and swirls them into something that works a treat. Director Hardiman's second full length feature is a rare beast, an Irish horror film that eschews humour and instead goes full tilt for the scares. Even without what lurks beneath the water it's an unsettling prospect. Floating in the middle of an ocean that could wipe you out in the blink of an eye, in a cramped boat full of people you don't know from Adam. Who on earth would enjoy that? Then add in something peculiar attached to the hull and some graphic ocular trauma and you have a film that will be a nightmarish watch for some. A off boat visit that brings to mind the old tale of the Marie Celeste is a particularly chilling scene as is the kitchen scene setpiece that will test the stomachs of anyone viewing.

Neasa Hardiman's background in TV directing helps nail the scares. Clearly shot and easy to follow despite the cramped and dark locations. There's none of that all too often used shaky cam here. All the horror is up close and personal leaving us,like the crew, with no place to hide. Even the daytime shots of the boat, filmed from overhead will fill you with unease. All that space, and still nowhere to run too. It's a sign of horror done well when even the day shots scare you. What's also appreciated is a script that doesn't need to fill in all the blanks. For years we've been told that only 5% of the world's oceans are unexplored so who knows what's out there. There might even be something scarier than what we see here.

As events onboard the Niamh Cinn Oir build to a climax we see plans involving UV light and disinfectant, we sense an air of paranoia and hear talk of infection. All this and a lead character who'd rather be off social distancing by herself give Sea Fever an exceedingly topical feel. This, the lean 95 minute running time and a fine showing from an excellent cast are all reasons to recommend this new Irish horror movie. Some may moan about the low-key ending but for me it fit perfectly with what came before. A haunting ending to a scary tale.

Out now to rent/buy on volta, itunes and amazon. It's well worth your time.