review
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by Oscar O’Sullivan Film Festival hype can be a double-edged sword for a new film. On the one hand, rave reviews from the world’s top critics are going to come in handy for the eventual marketing campaign, as well as getting a head start on word-of-mouth. On the other hand, the film may be set…
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by Oscar O’Sullivan Look, you can make a movie where nothing happens – as long as there’s a good reason for nothing happening. The Damned is simply not the kind of film where nothing should be happening. Picture this – an Icelandic fishing outpost, utterly isolated in the dead of winter, ignores a foreign ship…
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by Oscar O’Sullivan Bring Them Down The first of two new releases I watched in the Everyman last night, and certainly the better of the two. Bring Them Down is a rural Irish revenge parable that hits some dynamic highs but stumbles over a heavy-handed and half-hearted moral message. Michael (Christopher Abbot) is a tense,…
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by Oscar O’Sullivan Where do we draw the line when it comes to that rare and elusive genre of ‘Magical Realism’? Is there some defined point that should never be crossed, lest the film topple over into pure fantasy? Is the realism the more vital ingredient? How those elements are weighted surely comes down to…
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by Oscar O’Sullivan Ah, the post-Oscar film. When you’ve reached the very peak of your craft, where is there left to go? Down, inevitably, though often through no fault of the actors who have starred in disappointing post-Oscar films. After all, the lengthy production cycle of a feature film often means these follow-ups were usually…
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by Oscar O’Sullivan As a kid growing up in the 2000s, watching a movie was a very different experience than it is today. Streaming was barely an idea yet, my TV options were Dora and Blues Clues, and the cinema trips were a relative rarity. DVDs were where it was at, a big silver box…
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by Oscar O’Sullivan The town of Horizon is burning. We’ve watched for minutes now as Native Americans descend upon the settlers and mow them down, setting every structure aflame and battering down the barricades of the last survivors. It’s brutally violent without being graphic, lighting and tasteful angles concealing gore without blunting the impacts. Families…
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by Oscar O’Sullivan The year is 1946. The Second World War is over, just about. For the last half-decade, the entire filmmaking apparatus of the western world has been devoted to one and only one type of film – the propaganda piece. Tales of national heroism and perseverance are all that can be justified under…
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by Oscar O’Sullivan Rarely does a prequel feel so consistent with the work it’s attached too. Aside from it’s sometimes jarring visual style and the obvious difference in actor for the titular character, this feels like a natural extension of 2015’s Fury Road. The production design is identical, supporting characters from the original film appear…
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by Oscar O’Sullivan Monday – On The Waterfront On The Waterfront is a feature-length parable about standing up for yourself in the face of social pressure. Protagonist Terry Malloy has spent his whole life following the orders of his older brother and, by extension, his brother’s corrupt union boss. Terry has done this because it’s…
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