A perfect pairing of sound & vision part 7. Dazed And Confused.

It's cool seeing the exact moment when someone goes from an unknown actor to a star.

The clip below is a great example of it.

Richard Linklater's 1993 masterpiece is Dazed and Confused. The story of a group of teenagers on their last day in school in Austin, Texas in 1976.

The plot is slight, just teens and a few people still holding onto their youth out partying.

The scene below is a group of friends led by Matthew McConaughey walking into a pool hall to the sound of Bob Dylan's Hurricane and it's just great.



It's so evocative of all our teenage years. The hair, clothes and music changes but that feeling of freedom and fun never does and is perfectly captured here.

Deadly. And the film that introduced 16 year old me to Dylan. I'll be eternally grateful for that.

Previous parts

Boogie Nights
Raging Bull
Almost Famous
Once Upon A Time In The West
Goodfellas
Last Of The Mohicans

American Made. Not without its issues but still great fun.

Standard Cruise cheesy grin shot

Barry Seal was an American pilot for TWA who was unhappy and bored in his job. Due to his skill and loose morals he gets offered a job by a man named Monty Schafer taking reconnaissance photographs in Central America for a company that is definitely not the CIA. Definitely not. His job brings him into contact with some of the most infamous criminal organisations and military strife of the 1980's. 

This was great fun for the most part. Tom Cruise at his Cruise-iest. Charming, funny and a bit crazy. The story and character actually fit him like a glove. He makes a cracking anti-hero. And it's all a story that would seem ridiculously far fetched if it wasn't all true. It's exciting, fast moving (for the most part) and absolutely bonkers stuff. The fast and loose style of Barry's life is reflected in the film's style too. All handheld camera's wobbling and zooming in. Jumpcuts to close ups and flashbacks. Loads of crackling energy. The messy feel makes for fun viewing. It's definitely never boring. Director Doug Liman has a confident hand and gets the feeling he wanted for the film across well. This is his second film with Cruise and they have a 3rd in the pipeline. Happy days!! 

All this and it's a solid history lesson too, looking back at an era America wants to wash it's hands off and pretend it didn't happen. That place and it's relationship with Central and South America between 1979 and 1985 was a bit mental to put things mildly. (In) famous faces such as Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, Jorge Ochoa and Pablo Escobar of the Medellin Cartel all make appearances. Everyone is dangerous. Everyone has their own shade of amorality. Even the "good" characters look the other way. Everyone has their price. The shades of gray pleased me. The sheer amount of comedy in it pleased me even more. The trailer made it look fun but I wasn't expecting to laugh this much. One scene involving a bull and wads of cash gave me a proper full on belly laugh. You'll understand when you see it.

The structure of the film reminded me of Goodfellas actually. The whiplash place. The introduction to a life of crime. Meeting and befriending larger than life criminals. The dizziness of the good life. The exhilaration of it all. And then ...............

As mentioned already Cruise was brilliant in this and looks like he had a whale of a time. It definitely washes away the memory of his godawful Mummy film from earlier this year. His easy charm carries the film well. Ireland's own Domhnall Gleeson is good value too as a slimy man who sees Seal as a stepping stone in his career. Another amoral character in a film that is chock full of them. Gleeson is becoming like his Da, an actor who will make you smile when he turns up on screen because you know he'll be good. Sarah Wright as his wife Lucy is fine too and gets plenty of screen time but still felt kind of slight. More on her below. Alejandro Edda makes a solid Jorge Ochoa. Friendly but vicious just under the surface.

But as always we take the good with the bad.

It's just under 2 hrs long but due to a quite sluggish final third it feels quite a bit longer. The story loses its way here and gets a little bit dull. Also, there's not really any depth to it all. Even an important death is totally overlooked. That was a bit weird tbh and felt quite jarring. We never really see the effect being in this world has on the characters aside from a fraught glance or two from Lucy. Her character could have been padded out a bit to counterbalance the wackier aspects of the film. Oh and the always brilliant Jesse Plemons is wasted in what amounts to a bit part.

But the good here definitely outweighs the bad. The good will generated in the first two thirds of the film carries it when it slows down. And when The Cruiser is on form he's mighty. I think he's one of the last great movie stars and is one of a handful of actors who's presence in a movie is enough to make me want to see it.

An enjoyable 2 hours at the flicks.

Bushwick. A DTV film that breaks free of its roots

DTV - Direct to video.

OK it's now dvd, bluray and streaming but the DTV tag has stuck around.

It's usually the kiss of death for a film. A sign that it's so bad it can't get a cinema release or that the studio has no clue how to market it so shunts it directly to home viewing.

But every now and then one gets released that turns out to be cracking viewing. Bushwick is one such film. A dark, tense, brilliantly made action film.

A young woman (Lucy) and her fella are walking through a subway station in the New York suburb of Bushwick, Brooklyn. They are chatting, laughing, loving life in general until a person runs by them in flames and they realise armed gunmen are running amok on the streets above. She finds herself in a basement and meets up with a man (Stupe) who can take care of himself. Together they will try to escape the madness.

The plot is old hat, stuff we've seen a million times before. It's an action film about an invading force and the people that fight back against it. What makes this unique storywise is that the type of force invading New York. I won't spoil it but it makes for very topical viewing.

The unique selling point of the film is how it's staged. It's all done in one go. Ok, it's done in long continuous swooping takes edited together cleverly but the effect still works. You stay with the leading lady of the film from start to finish. She rarely if ever leaves the frame. It's amazingly well done. It's not a new technique, Hitchcock did it first in the 1940's with the film 'Rope' which was all set in one apartment but this is the first time I've ever seen in it an action movie. It probably has TBH but I've never seen it. Staying with the leads, you see everything as they see it, you find out whats happening when they do. If they are in the dark you are too. It makes the whole thing immersive and fierce realistic even when events onscreen stretch incredulity.

It's a low budget film but because it's kept low key the constraints don't show much. Imaginative use of locations and camerawork make it look like New York is truly under siege. Technically it's pretty astonishing. God only knows how much planning went into each take to make sure people hit their marks at the right time with explosions going on all around them. The final 10 minutes are pretty amazing. A running battle more exciting than anything in films with budgets 20 times the size. Major kudos to directors Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion for handling it all so well.

Brittany Snow and ex WWE wrestler Dave Bautista are the leads and do a solid job. They carry the action and themselves convincingly. Her, fearful and traumatised at first but slowly gaining confidence and skill and him, haunted and grizzled but well able to handle himself, whether using a gun or his mitts. There's not much emoting involved but the little bits that do happen are handled well. I've never seen Snow in anything before but she does well here. Bautista does a lot better than you'd expect especially in one quiet scene near the end. I like Bautista. He's better at the aul words than Arnie or Van Damme ever were and I hope he does well aside of the Guardians Of The Galaxy films. 

Give this a go. It's well worth a watch.

Its an action film for the Trump era. Dark and fearful and no easy way out. 

The unsung heroes of cinema & TV part 22. Paula Malcolmson.

Paula Malcolmson

Here's an actress we've been seeing in films and TV for well over 20 years now. She's been in some of our very favourite shows. Lost, ER, Deadwood, Six Feet Under, Sons Of Anarchy. For some stupid silly reason I didn't know her name until recently when I decided to look her up on IMDB. And to my genuine surprise I found out she was from Belfast. I had no idea. Kudos on the accents Paula. Yet another talent from our little country. We really punch above our weight don't we. An actress who specialises in playing survivors, tough women who grown up hard and who aren't and won't let themselves be victims. 

She's been Wyatt Earp's sister in law. A mother to a modern day cinematic heroine. She sat through John Coffey's execution cursing his name. She was a bellhop to an orang-utan. She's spoken the words of The Bard and been in the last idea of Stanley Kubrick. She's been onboard the Starship Enterprise and dealt with Andy Sipowicz. She's been entertaining us for 25 years and I imagine we'll see her for 25 more.

Greatest Hits

Deadwood. Trixie. Took the cliched "whore with a heart of gold" role and turned it into something brilliant. A fearless performance. The hard heart of the show. Al Swearengen's real right hand. God she was great in this.

Ray Donovan. Abby Donovan. A woman as tough as her tough as nails husband. A baby of Boston who's massively out of place in Los Angeles. 

The Hunger Games 1-4. Mrs Everdeen. Mother of Katniss. Against the odds she raised a hero in a cold horrible world.

Previous parts

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21

Logan Lucky. Great fun.

I'm not a fan of movie trailers. They sell films badly. They show scenes out of context and make movies look like something they ain't. The Logan Lucky trailer I saw made the film look like a broad comedy, a modern update of something like The Dukes Of Hazard. A film that made it's comedy from ripping the piss out of country folk. Logan Lucky is pretty damn far from the movie it's being sold as.

What Logan Lucky is a cracking little film. 

Jimmy Logan is a caring father who only wants the best for his daughter. He's also a man who has just been let go from his job. When his ex wife wants to move away with their child, he decides to enlist the help of his brother and sister to rob a lot of money to ensure she can't. 

This is super stuff. It's full of solid characters, a group of funny, adorable, lovely and most importantly clever people who you will want to see do well. I knew director Steven Soderbergh is far too smart to make the film shown in the trailer. It has bucket loads of heart too. Inside of five minutes into the film you'll instantly recognise and empathise with the main character. His is a relatable struggle. A parent just wanting to be close to his child. At it's heart though it's a heist film with a lot of comedy thrown in. The joy in these films is seeing how the disparate parts of the plan come together and it really works well here. It's very cleverly done in ways that will confuse you at first and then make you go "YUUSSSS" when you realise what's happening. The comedy side of it works well too. One scene of slapstick involving a vacuum and a fake arm made me choke on my skips. One major thing I loved too was the subversion of the cliches you'd expect to see in a film like this. The things you expect to go sideways don't and the things you don't expect pop up. It's nice. It keeps things fresh. One other thing. This is Soderbergh's second dip into the world of heist movies after the Ocean's trilogy and thankfully it's lacking the smug self awareness & cleverness of those films. It has no airs or notions. Always a good thing. It's far more human. 

The acting is top notch. The cast come across as a bit simple and silly at first but as the layers get scratched away they really shine. Channing Tatum has rapidly become one of the most enjoyable and reliable actors out there. I have to say I did not see that coming judging from his earlier roles. He's really good here as a man resorting to desperate measures to stay close to his daughter. Adam Driver has a good time as his brother Clyde, a man who lost a lot trying to get out of his brothers shadow. He's far more likable here than his roles in Girls or The Force Awakens. He's a right good physical comedian too. The film wrings some super laughs out of his facial expressions alone. Riley Keough plays their sister Mellie. She's grand in a smaller role and gets a couple of moments to shine but I'd have liked to have seen a lot more or her. Daniel Craig also shows a side of himself we rarely see. His role isn't as wild as the trailers made out but he has loads of fun as a chap who gets roped into the job and is yet another character who is far from the one dimensional stereotype we're first introduced too. I like Craig in roles like this. Those cold blue eyes of his suggest a character who's always unpredictable. Farrah Mackenzie as Jimmy's daughter is just perfect too. You can see why exactly he's willing to risk all for her. She gets a mighty scene near the end that would put a smile on anyone's face. TBH everyone is great and it was nice to see Brian ( son of Brendan) Gleeson turn up too as a man with an odd moral compass.

The downsides. There's always a few. It's too long. No comedy needs to be 2 hrs long. And this could have been dealt with by snipping out my other problem with the film. The introduction of a famous face near the end adds absolutely nothing to the story. It's a baffling choice to waste a fine actor like this. It's not like the cast was lacking in star power. If the film had to be that long the time would have been better spent beefing up a couple of the supporting characters that get short shrift. That would have been far more satisfying. 

Anyway. 

Steven Soderbergh has hit the bullseye with this one again. A film with a story that will hook you, characters you'll actually give a shit about, and one that will leave you walking out of the cinema with a cheesy grin on your face.

Well worth your time.

11 Films to watch on TV this week

Michael Collins   Sat   26/8   RTE1 @ 21.10

The story of the last years of the life of Michael Collins, his part in the war against the crown and the creation of the Irish Free State. An epic movie, the biggest ever filmed in Ireland, it's a cracking watch. It's history mightn't always be accurate but it's still gripping, poignant and brilliantly acted and made. Liam Neeson makes the role of the Big Fella his own and he gets able backing from a super cast of Irish & English actors. 

Captain Phillips   Sat   26/8   ITV @ 22.15

The true story of the 2009 hijacking of the Maersk Alabama by Somali pirates and the American sailors of board who feared for their lives. Tom Hanks gives a great performance as the titular character, the man tasked with keeping his crew alive but the film is owned by Barkhad Abdi as the leader of the pirates. His first ever film role and he is just astounding. Tense, sweaty, nerve wracking stuff that's well worth watching.

The Help   Sat   26/8   BBC2 @ 22.40

A wannabe writer decides to write a book about the lives of African American maids in the south of the 1960's. Unsurprisingly their lives are harsh and unhappy. Emma Stone plays the lead in this but Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain are the actor's you'll remember in this upsetting, rage inducing and yet funny in places look at race relations in an era of America they want to forget . 

In The Electric Mist   Sun   27/8   BBC1 @ 00.25

Dave Robicheaux, a homicide detective in New Orleans finds himself heading into a decades old mystery when a modern day murder in linked to a much older one. A nice atmospheric piece of southern gothic mystery here, a touch old fashioned maybe but great acting and a super cast give it a lovely kick. Tommy Lee Jones is solid as always in the lead and gets good support from Mary Steenburgen, Kelly McDonald & John Goodman.

Byzantium   Mon   28/8   Film4 @ 23.15

Two women on the run turn up a quiet beach town and it isn't long before their centuries old secret is out and they find themselves in danger again. Neil Jordan directs Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Atherton in this fine little film. Intelligent, well written and pretty bloody stuff, this isn't for the squeamish amongst us but if you can stick with it you'll be very satisfied by this unique take on an overcrowded area of the horror genre.

White God   Tues   29/8   Film4 @ 23.35

Due to a new law, a young girl in Budapest loses her beloved dog and sets out to find him. However the dog is sick of being treated badly by other humans..... A real one of a kind film here, surreal, unique, brilliantly made and pretty damn hard to watch in places but it's really really good. Zsófia Psotta as Lili is a fine young actor and the film gives an insight into a culture we really see in film. Definitely my film of the week.

The Adventures Of Tintin   Thur   31/8   BBC2 @ 13.45

Tintin and his dog Snowy find themselves caught up in the adventure of a lifetime after a bargain find at market stall turns his life sideways. Steven Spielberg's adaption of the famous Hergé story is a fantastic achievement. It's a little overlong but its absurd, hilarious and jam packed full of action and memorable characters. Jamie Bell & especially Andy Serkis are excellent as Tintin and Captain Haddock. Proper family fun.

Valerie   Thurs   31/8   TCM @ 16.40

Set during a murder trial in the old west, 3 very different testimonies are heard but which one is the truthful version? A strange film, a mystery western noir with a touch of Rashomon would be one way to describe it and its very watchable stuff. Sterling Hayden and Anita Ekberg as the leads are superb, Hayden his usual briary persona and Ekberg as a woman who isn't what she seems. OR is she? A bleak, compelling and surprising film.

The Sons Of Katie Elder   Fri   1/9   TG4 @ 21.45

Four brothers come together to get some good old fashioned family revenge in this classic western with John Wayne & Dean Martin. Highly enjoyable stuff and a lovely looking technicolor western shot in on location in Colorado and Mexico, it just looks EPIC. Plus it's a film that's still influential and still gets "homaged" to this day.  A perfect film to record and watch on a rainy Sunday beside the fire.

Shaft   Fri   1/9   TV3 @ 22.00

After a rich man uses his wealth & connections to get away with murder, a cop decides to make it personal. But a Dominican drug lord complicates matters. John Singleton's 2000 reboot is a film that was unfairly ignored on release and should be given a second chance because it's highly entertaining stuff. Vicious, funny, and full of great characters. Samuel L.Jackson, Christian Bale and especially Jeffrey Wright are all on great form.

Heat   Fri   1/9   Dave @ 23.00  

A meticulous bank robber meets his match in a detective obsessed with his job. Neither man will back down. A 90's masterpiece here. A perfect thriller. A long movie but every member of the cast gets a moment to shine. And what a cast. De Niro & Pacino are on fire, Val Kilmer, Amy Brennaman, Tom Sizemore etc all excellent. An exciting, gruelling, brutal, complicated movie with one of the all time great cinematic shoot outs. 

Detroit. A harrowing but really good watch.

After arrests at an unlicenced after hours club in Detroit, a riot begins and rapidly grows. After 3 days the entire city is a war-zone and its at this stage the focus narrows in on the Algiers Motel and the surrounding area. What happens next is a real time microcosm of the daily horror of black life in modern day America.

Director Kathryn Bigelow has created an utterly gruelling but must see film here.

Its gripping stuff, from its succinct animated history of black migration and white flight to its rage inducing closing scenes you'll want to look away but you won't be able. Twice I had to fight the urge to walk out and I'm not someone easily rattled by film. Director Bigelow places her camera right in the middle of it all, rubs our face in the horror and makes us witness every ugly brutal racist detail. Close ups of sweaty brutalised terrified young faces will make you hideously uncomfortable. And that's the point. We need to have our faces rubbed in it. We may find it hard to look at but we are only feeling a minuscule percentage of the fear and disgust that the real people felt. It's a great recreation of the era too. The looks, the clothes, the sounds, the music, the hair, all feel ripped from an early episode of Reeling In The Years. The sound design is amazing. It batters us, pins you to your chair. So much so that later quieter scenes are almost deafening in their silence. Gives us time to try and process what we've just witnessed. 

The acting is outstanding. A few well known faces pepper the cast but its mostly newer actors and they are all excellent, giving their all. John Boyega is sidelined for most of the film as a bystander to events but does a lot with a little. The man's facial acting is immense I've got to say. Algee Smith as one of the young men caught up in it all is excellent too. You can see his heart breaking right in front of us. His rage and sadness at the events unfolding and the knowledge that he can't do anything. Will Poulter though. Jesus. Who would have thought the young lad from Son Of Rambow would grow up to be this fine an actor. He is superb. A horrific portrayal of ordinary evil. A fucking bastard. A man who sees it all as a game. A man who thinks he's on the side of the angels. A little smirk at a woman during the height of events is absolutely chilling. I fully expect a load of acting nominations for him next year. Ireland's own Jack Reynor, puts in a fine showing too as a man totally out of his depth who tries to keep up with the bad boys. Hannah Murray ( looking very different to Gilly from Game Of Thrones ) gives a cracking performance as well as a country girl regretting her current precarious position. 

The film is set in 1967. Its might be comforting to some to see it as an event of the past. But its not really. It's still happening today. Black people die at the hands of the police with alarming regularity in America still. The country is ran by an openly bigoted piece of shit. If anything things have gotten worse. This film is a look at how bad things could get again if people keep their heads in the sand. I had trouble with parts of the film, especially early on. I couldn't understand the logic of some of the actions of some characters. And then it dawned on me. I could never understand. I'm a white man. I'm privileged. I've never been downtrodden and looked down on every day of my life. I don't know what its like to experience being hated. Haven't a clue. If the film does one thing it shows us in some small (tiny) way what it's like to live with that fear, that hate.

It's a really good film. OK it slows down near the end but after the assault on the senses that is the middle section of the film, it nearly comes as a relief to be able to breathe again. It's not a movie for everyone but if you think you'd be able for it I'd urge you to give it a go. 

This is a film that deserves to be seen. 

Things I want to see on the big screen. Tom Hanks going to the darkside.

I want to see Tom Hanks mow down a load of OAP's.

Or something to that effect.

I love Tom Hanks. I think he's great. He seems like a grand chap. He's starred a lot of feel good films that I've enjoyed over the years.. Big, The Money Pit, Splash and Dragnet as a young lad and Catch Me If You Can as an adult. He's always value for money. He never gives a bad performance and he's always good to watch. He's the James Stewart of our generation. The dependable everyman who people look up to. The actor the cool cineaste people claim not to like but you know they do(don't bother lying). He's always sound. Even when he's murdering gangsters in The Road To Perdition or being a shifty political type in Charlie Wilson's War he's still likeable

Still likeable.

I want to see him go dark. I want to see him be malice personified. To be utterly unlikeable. 

He went towards the dark side in the recent (piece of shit) film 'The Circle' as a morally dodgy Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg type but its not far enough. I want DARK. I want roles like -

Lee Marvin in The Big Heat.

Michael Rooker in Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer.

Mrs Danvers in Rebecca.

Javier Bardem in No Country For Old Men.

Henry Fonda in Once Upon A Time In The West. (this is the one to live up to)

Kathy Bates in Misery.

James Woods in Cop.

All pricks.

I want to see him do stuff like that. I love an actor brave enough to go full dark. I emphasised Henry Fonda above. Fonda was a big star from the Forties to the Sixties and was a Hollywood go-to good guy too. He was always a strong moral centre of a film in things like My Darling Clementine, 12 Angry Men and The Ox-Bow Incident to name but a few. Audiences were used to seeing him like this, they expected this persona. Then OUATITW came along and blew those expectations out of the water. In a time before film magazine and review shows and websites full of spoilers no one expected anything different. Then the film opens with his character Frank, hired killer, murdering a family, kids and all. Oh Jesus I can't even begin to imagine how appalled audiences must have been. It's telling that after almost 50 yers that when the film is mentioned most people remember him as the baddie and not Charles Bronson as the hero.

That's what I want for Hanks. 

I want moral bankruptcy. I want no redemption. I want him to be an irredeemable fucking bastard.

He would be great. 

A perfect pairing of sound and vision part 6. Boogie Nights.

For me this will always be Paul Thomas Anderson's masterpiece. A glorious look at the golden age of the other side of Hollywood.

A pool party introduces a lot of the films secondary characters but the best moment is the appearance of Scotty J just as a girl who's overdosed on coke is carried out. His hair is hilariously 70's. He's in a t-shirt about 5 sizes too small. He's clumsy and awkward and doesn't really want to be there. Hot Chocolate's You Sexy Thing kicks off just as he spots the new object of his affections. It's just a perfectly ironic introduction to his character.



Man I miss Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Previous parts

Raging Bull
Almost Famous
Once Upon A Time In The West
Goodfellas
Last Of The Mohicans

Moon Dogs. Well worth a watch.

Michael and Thor are 2 stepbrothers living unhappy lives in the Shetland Islands. Michael wants to leave and go to college in Glasgow with his girlfriend Suzy and Thor just wants to be left alone to make his music. After an accident stops Michael going to college and leaves him in a job he hates he decides to go to Glasgow anyway and Thor tags along for personal reasons of his own. Along the way they meet a mysterious and beautiful woman who throws a spanner in the works.

I liked this a lot. But had some reservations too.

It's an entertaining, poignant, funny and thoughtful film from the opening scenes of a cringe worthy sexual encounter to its satisfying ending. It's has all the tropes of a teenage drama, getting caught during "alone time", making a fool of yourself in school, familial strife, trying to find your place in the world etc but it also has just enough of an edge to make proceedings slightly unpredictable too. Unpredictability is an element that's always welcome in a story like this. It also has that celtic sensibility that so many Irish and Scottish films have, that blend where you are laughing one minute and uneasy the next, that mix of humour tinged with sadness that we do so well. Must be something in our DNA.

It portrays that feeling of wanting to get away very convincingly. The fear of getting stuck in a place and a job you hate. The desperation when you need to just get away. The resentment that gets seeded when you see no way out. It's makes you instantly empathise with the leads because most of us know it well. It also shows something a lot of films shy away from. The cruelty that can exist between siblings. The niggling, the digs, the tension that can quickly erupt into something worse. It's nice to see while not being nice to see, if you know what I mean.

Moondogs is an Irish funded film set in the Shetland Islands and Scotland. A love letter to the beauty of the country. It's gorgeous looking and really makes the most of its scenery. From the panoramic valleys and vales of Scotland to the majesty of its isles and even down to a pile of coloured dust dancing on an upturned speaker. Director Philip John has a great eye.

The lead roles are played by Jack Parry-Jones as Michael and Christy O'Donnell as Thor (don't worry, there's a good reason for his name and it ain't Marvel related). They are both great. Their relationship feels real. Strained, awkward, annoying but you still get the sense that there's history there and they both care for each other under it all. Jones get the showier role but O'Donnell gets the one with more depth and a few very moving moments late in the tale. They both do excellent work.

Tara Lee plays her part as Caitlin very well and with the same enigmatic air she put to great use in 2016's wonderful 'A Date For Mad Mary' but her role is my main issue with the film. It just feels quite underwritten. She just seems to be there as a catalyst that causes trouble between the brothers and to move the story along. Moments just seem to come out of nowhere. Her motivations feel muddled and her actions sometimes feel at odds with the tone of the film. One scene tbh, wouldn't feel out of place in a Saw movie. Yeah I know this sounds odd but when you see it you'll understand. That said, Tara Lee does well with the material given to her. I can't fault her.

A couple of reservations aside this is good stuff. It will stay in your head for a while. It's a story about not pushing people away, about making lemonade when life gives you lemons. It's about learning to be happy with the little things.

Hopefully it will get a wide release in Irish cinemas. It's well worth a watch.


 

11 Films to watch on TV this week

Lady In The Van   Sat   19/8   BBC2 @ 21.00

A homeless elderly woman moves into van outside a man's house. At first they hate each other but a bond slowly but surely develops over the years. A lovely gentle bit of comedy bolstered by a superlative performance from the always excellent Maggie Smith. She's perfect at playing a cranky old wagon with plenty of hidden depths. Alex Jennings is good too as Alan Bennett on who's life this story is based.

The Hunger Games : Catching Fire   Sat   19/8   CH4 @ 21.00

After the events of the first film have caused civil unrest, hero Katniss Everdeen is warned to fan the flames of rebellion. Or else. The second film in the Hunger Games series is the best of them all. An exciting, action packed thriller with plenty of intelligence and a lead character you will genuinely want to see do well. Jennifer Lawrence rocks it in the lead & gets super back up from Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks and Liam Hemsworth.

The Runway   Sat   19/8   RTE1 @ 22.25

When a South American pilot crash lands his plane near a small Cork town, the residents decide to help him out in any way they can. Based very loosely on a true story, this is a fierce likeable film, funny, exciting and odd in ways only an Irish film can be. Very solid cast too, Demián Bichir is fun as the pilot and Kerry Condon and little Jamie Kierans as a struggling single mother and her son who come to his aid are just great.

Ransom   Mon   21/8   ITV4 @ 21.00

A young boy is kidnapped and his billionaire father realises that even if he pays his son will die so decides to do things his way. A proper grown up thriller here from director Ron Howard, full of tension, twists & turns and some pleasing shades of gray. Excellent cast in this one too including Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, Gary Sinise, Liev Schreiber and Delroy Lindo and everyone of them on form.

Mud   Mon   21/8   TG4 @ 21.30

2 young boys living a tough existence in Arkansas go exploring one day and come across a man on the run. Of course they decide to help him out. Jeff Nichol's film is a cracker, a dreamy, beautiful looking coming of age story. Amazing cast in this too, Tye Sheridan in the lead is excellent but the movie belongs to Matthew McConnaughey in a career best role. Slightly overlong but we'll overlook it this time.

Zero Dark Thirty   Tues   22/8   Film4 @ 00.10

Kathryn Bigelow's tremendous tale of the hunt and eventual take down of Osama Bin Laden. Jessica Chastain is perfect in the lead role as the woman who planned and executed the entire operation. We may find some of her methods problematic but the story neither glorifies or condemns and just tells it like it was. A tense & superbly acted film which will grip you even when you know the ending.

A Knights Tale   Tues   22/8   RTE2 @ 21.40

An absolute chancer decides to make an name for himself and reinvents himself as a knight and expert jouster. One of the most entertaining films of the 21st century. This is just pure fun. Heath Ledger in the lead rocks and Shannyn Sossamon is lovely as the woman who catches his eye. Add in a killer soundtrack and your have a super way to pass a couple of hours. The use of David Bowie's Golden Years is just perfect.

Starman   Wed   23/8   Film4 @ 16.35 

An alien makes a very special connection with a grieving woman and asks for her help. But things don't go easy for them. John Carpenter's sci-fi drama is a lovely look at what it means to be human. Funny and touching and brilliantly acted stuff. Karen Allen is good but Jeff Bridges is just amazing as a person discovering the world all around him. Record this one and keep it for a rainy Sunday.

Drag Me To Hell   Thurs   24/8   Syfy @ 23.00

Sam Raimi's hilariously gooey & crunchy tale of a young woman's mistake and her efforts to fix that mistake. Alison Lohman is great fun in the lead role and certainly earns her pay as she gets thrown around the screen like the coyote in the old Roadrunner cartoons. This is the perfect horror film for people who claim not to like horror. It's very funny and you'll snort laughing as much as you roar at the screen

Blitz   Fri   25/8   TV3 @ 21.00

A London detective finds himself on the tail of a particularly vicious serial killer. A different film for Statham, no martial arts, no epic gun battles, just good old fashioned investigating and a touch of punchiness.  Violent stuff but very entertaining and worth watching just for Statham's explanation of hurling in the opening scene alone. Aiden Gillen makes a very hateable villain and Paddy Considine in a supporting role is solid as always.

Up In The Air   Fri   25/8   BBC1 @ 23.50

A man who spends his life travelling from place to place makes a connection with a woman who does the same and for the first time in his life thinks about settling down. George Clooney and Vera Farmiga lead this drama that's equally funny and sad. A film about people who think they have it all and have nothing at all. A film about the silliness of valuing your work life above all else. Well worth a watch.

The Hitman's Bodyguard. It's OK.

Some mild spoilers.

A couple of years after a high profile job goes disastrously south on him and kills his reputation, an elite protection agent aka a bodyguard (Ryan Reynolds) is tasked with protecting a key witness (Samuel L. Jackson) who is going to testify in a war crimes trial against a Belarussian dictator (Gary Oldman). Trouble is, the witness is a hit man who has a lot of previous history with the bodyguard.

It's not bad. I've seen worse. Yeah, mighty praise right there.

The bad.

The Hitman's Bodyguard is an odd film with an odd tone that works in places and fails in others. It's billed as an action comedy and yes it's chock full of action but the comedy side of it dies on it's arse. Seriously, I don't think I smiled once during the film. It feels forced, relying on dozens of incredulous reaction shots and gratuitous profanity for laughs. It's a cheap and boring way to make people chuckle. Don't get me wrong, I love a nice bit of swearing but to quote a character in the film "He ruined motherfucker for me", it loses it's impact fierce fast when you hear it every 90 seconds.

Tonally it's bizarre, a buddy comedy about a race to get to a war crime trial. One minute we are watching disposable heavies get beat around the head to the sounds of wisecracks and jokes and the next we watch a family being gunned down in front of a screaming father. It's jarring to say the least.

Incredulous reaction shot number 67

The good.

All that said I kind of enjoyed it in places. But I'm pretty easily pleased when it comes to stuff like this. It wastes no time in getting going and moves like a bullet. It's never boring which should be a capital crime in an action film. The central pair work well together. They bounce off each other and bicker like fools. They are nicely written, they each have a solid backstory that intertwines cleverly in places, and they both have a well defined arc during the movie. We get a couple of moral conundrums to think about that that I wasn't expecting. The action is nothing new but it's pleasingly splattery, crunchy, frenetic, and well done. In an era of tame 12A action films it's nice to see a bit of crunch. Plus it takes place in locations we don't usually see action films take place in. Manchester, quiet laneways in the English countryside, Amsterdam's canals and the Hague.

Reynolds is a solid action star. This throws up no challenges to him but what he does he does well. Deadpool aside Reynolds does an awful lot of middle of the road films like this. I'd love to see him stretch himself a bit. Films like Buried show he has the talent for it but he keeps wasting it. Jackson can do this in his sleep. As above, he has loads of talent and charisma just spills off him so why does he keep taking the easy route?  Gary Oldman is wasted in a role that requires him to look menacing and spout a few threats. TBH I think he was hired because he did a solid Russian accent in a Call Of Duty game a few years back and finally Salma Hayek as Jackson's wife is utterly pissed away in an annoying role that just requires her to look angry and swear in Spanish.

It's an OK film. A good way to pass a couple of hours but one that would have worked far better as a straight action movie in my opinion. It's mindless silly fluff but it did throw up one question to ponder on. Is it ever justifiable to kill an evil person? Something to chew on as you leave the cinema.

This Is England. A Tour De Force of storytelling told over 9 years.

Director Shane Meadow has a new project in the works called 'The Virtues'. It's going to be brilliant. How do I know this? Because he's is a genius. The man has form. He creates films and TV that will stay with you forever.

In 2006 he created a masterpiece. In 2015 he finished it.

The 'This Is England' Saga. An ugly, hilarious, grim and yet beautiful masterpiece.

This Is England

It all started with the 2006 film This Is England. Set in Sheffield in 1983 it's the story of a lonely young boy grieving for his father who falls in with a gang of skinheads and finds himself with a whole new family. These were skinheads before the culture was turned ugly by far right political ideology. Fun is had and lifelong friendships are formed before everything goes wrong. 

86

It continued with the 4 part mini series This Is England '86. Set during the Mexico World Cup and this time it was a more ensemble effort focusing on a wider range of characters and the fall out from the end of the previous film. The main characters this time were Woody and Lol. Life is good (ish) until a much hated and feared face from Lol's past appears and things get horrible.

88

Next up was the 3 part This Is England '88. Once again an ensemble effort and once again our characters are facing the ramifications of tough decisions and have been split into separate factions because of betrayals and infighting. This one was so intense that i was actually relieved it only had 3 parts.

90

The last miniseries was the 4 part This Is England '90. Set during the second summer of love we find our gang immersed in rave culture and the drug scene that went with it. All the repercussions and actions of the past come to an almighty head in this one. It gets biblical. You'll be a wreck after it. A wreck. But in a good way.

I've just given very very brief synopses there. If you've seen the shows you might be inspired to watch them again to fill in what you've forgotten. If you are lucky enough not to have seen them yet I don't want to ruin anything for you.  

Shane Meadow is an immense writer and director. I don't know if he had all this planned out from the beginning or if the success of the film inspired him to write more and I don't actually want to know. It's worked out pretty much perfectly. He has a great way with actor's as well. Trusting them to do their own thing. It works out perfectly. The performances are second to none. There isn't a weak link. And what makes it even better is most of the younger cast had never even acted prior to the film. Thomas Thurgoose who plays Shaun, was a troublemaker in school who caught the director's eye and demanded a fiver before he would audition. A lot of improv was involved. One devastating fight scene was even made up on the spot and captured on camera. It's amazing, real goosebump stuff. It's like you're a fly on the wall watching it happen outside your local.

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We get shoved into the character's faces. It makes us feel every drop of emotion they are feeling. It's raw as hell and sometimes you'll actually want to run away but you won't and you'll be delighted you stayed. It's rich rewarding stuff. Tough going but you are paid back for staying. One minute you'll be struggling to catch your breath because of the tension and sadness and 2 minutes later you'll be in tatters laughing. The valleys are tough but when the peaks are earned they feel much sweeter. It's TV you'll definitely have a visceral reaction to because it makes you care.

The characters are amazing. You'll fall for them straight away. You'll recognise at least one of them, and probably more as someone you knew growing up. They feel real, lived in, genuine. They are people you'd want to be friends with, people you'd tell your secrets to, people you'd have a brilliant time with. Well most of them.

We see Shaun grow from a traumatised little boy to a man. We fall for the saga of Woody and Lol, a couple that need to be together but life gets in the way of them. The story of Combo, a man fueled by hatred because he knows nothing else. Kelly, the little girl who lost her way. Milky, a black man in a land that will always look at him sideways. Harvey and Gadge, 2 friends who form a family because their own doesn't want them. And Smell, I don't know how to describe her, you'll just have to watch.

As mentioned already the cast is amazing but if I have to single anyone out it would be Vicky McClure (Lol), she just gives her all, leaves her guts out on the table for us all to see. Joseph Gilgun (Woody), Stephen Graham (Combo), Chanel Cresswell (Kelly) and Michael Socha (Harvey) are superb too. They will all break your heart in different ways.

It's all nostalgic as hell as well. It will remind you of things you've forgotten and things you want to forget. A ropey hairstyle, a crap pair of pants, music you listened to, drugs you took, horrible thoughts and beliefs you might once have had. Things that will make you cringe and things that will make you grin with glee.

All this in 13 hrs. That's less than 1 series for most American shows. It shows just how padded most things are.

This show is about the England you never get to see. The England most shows and films shy away from. The deeply unglamorous side. The dark side. The racism. The abuse. The hatred. The people and places left behind in the era of Margaret Thatcher. But more importantly it's also about the loving side. The bonds people make with family and friends and the small successes that make life worth living.

It's about the effects and the consequences of your actions.

It's about redemption and the things people will do for the people they care about.

It's about your friends and the people we pick up on our strange journey's.

It's about life and it's just amazing.

Watch it. And if you've seen it already watch it again.