40 shades of cinematic green
With St. Patrick’s Day frothing across the world (read: Ireland, bits of America and at every shamrock-bedecked Irish pub around the globe), green is the colour of the day, for better or worse.
With St. Patrick’s Day frothing across the world (read: Ireland, bits of America and at every shamrock-bedecked Irish pub around the globe), green is the colour of the day, for better or worse.
After the ensemble kerfuffle of his last outing, Cap’n Am must contend with a fracturing S.H.I.E.L.D., conflicting loyalties and the louring presence of a pallid, metal-armed assassin type harshing his 21st-century buzz. There to bolster his brawn are Black Widow (playing second banana – again), gadgetry of varying daftness and some fun cameos. Perhaps the…
Obnoxiously shiny and expensive cars hurtle through busy public streets, directed from overhead by a misappropriated traffic aircraft, while slimy trust fund kids and the lame old police try to spoil all the fun. A clunky plot, limp dialogue, charmless tech pandering and some bolted-on 3D set pieces fail to soup up proceedings, and the…
With St. Patrick’s Day celebrations already dwindling into dim and distant memory (perhaps dimmer for some than others) thanks to time zones and the cruelty of this year’s calendar, it’s time to seek some more lasting mementos of Irishness. Where better to go looking but the cinema? Ireland may have the highest rate of cinema attendance…
“I’d spill torrents of blood to give you rivers of diamonds.” “I’d settle for less.” It’s hard to believe that this monolith of a film was put together under the World War II circumstances that it faced, its completion amounting to an act of cultural defiance. How far you believe the tales of the production’s…
If there’s a criticism I could have made of Half Nelson, it’s that the whole thing is sometimes a little too cool and goodlooking – the soundtracking choices and cinematography sometimes showcase Gosling (admittedly a man very fit for showcasing) like he’s floating through an exceedingly credible music video. That said, given how in keeping that style…
Seth Rogen and James Franco’s gang of celebrity buddies meet in the latter’s Hollywood pad to party like there’s no tomorrow – and wouldn’t you know it, the apocalypse strikes. The stage is set for a hefty dose of self-indulgent bro comedy. Their boy-man style does have its moments of puerile glory, especially in the…
The average non-Scandinavian might harbour certain preconceived notions about Christmas in Norway. Does Bent Hamar’s film feature hymns sung in no-nonsense wooden churches? Do gruff, stoic blondes in woolly jumpers make do amid the grim winter? Yes indeed. However, there’s no corresponding chill to this film. The story, adapted from a book of short stories by…
“I’m making time. “ After a misguided sojourn in Penrith, long-suffering actor “I” (Paul McGann) has been driving himself and his reprobate sot of a companion, the titular Withnail (Richard E.Grant), back to London in a battered blue Mark II Jaguar. Having stopped off for a kip during torrential rain the previous night, he stirs…
For the day that’s in it. As dependable as yer average rom-com might be, sometimes the most touching moments of romance spring from the most unlikely sources – here are four diamonds in rather rough films. Disco Pigs – King and Queen Calm. Enda Walsh’s play-turned-film is a savage Cork-flavoured beast starring Cillian Murphy…
Maybe it’s because he’s so alone Maybe it’s because he’s never had a home Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love is a strange little gem, wrapped in vibrant colour, lens flare and a pervading sense of discomfort and imbalance, searingly personified in Adam Sandler’s best performance (also featuring his best threat.) The woozy, weird atmosphere…
In the interests of full disclosure: I wanted to like this film. The notion of a production that would play so fast and loose with everything from narrative to the very ethnicity of its extremely famous cast was pretty intriguing – and when it comes to Tom Hanks, I find myself pretty firmly in the…
Carmel Winter’s much-lauded first feature film is not easy viewing. Opening on a fraught warm-up interview with hard-bitten single mother Sandra, the story follows the tensions and revelations that spring from her involvement in a documentary about her son Stephen, who at 15 kidnapped a two-year-old boy and kept him for five days in the…
Cruelly-named Amadeus Warnebring is the tone-deaf black sheep of his intensely musical family. A policeman living in the shadow of his pompous composer brother, plagued by jokes such as “caught any violinists fiddling?”, he quietly wishes for a life of sweet silence. However, quiet does not figure in the plans of anarchic, experimental musicians Sanna…
My Joy follows the story of Georgy, a young Russian driver. Charged with a cargo delivery, his route takes him through a rural backwater where grinding poverty reigns, corruption is rife and violence never far from erupting. He is to learn more about the place than he could ever have wished. Cinematographer Oleg Mutu has…