Week 22: Danny Collins

Director: Dan Fogelman

Writer: Dan Fogelman

Seen: Saturday 30th May

Venue: IMC Galway

Snacks: Peaches

Mood: Easy 

Danny Collins is the familiar tale of an aging famous/rich individual, in this case a rock star, who realises that the lifestyle he has been leading is missing purpose. There is usually an episode or an epiphany to make them want to change, in The Bucket List (2007) Jack Nicholson gets terminally ill, and in Danny Collins he receives a post-dated letter from John Lennon. Strange as the premise might seem it is actually loosely based on a true event.

The letter which was initially sent to him at the beginning of Collins’ career in the 1970’s (basically when he had not ‘sold out’ yet) but it never got to him and he lived the stereotypical rock star lifestyle (drugs, alcohol, wife’s, divorces, cheesy songs - you get the picture) for over 30 years without knowing it existed. Fortuitously his manager Frank Grubman, played by the always decent Christopher Plummer, discovers it and gives it to Collins as a birthday gift in 2014. The letter spurs the aging Collins, who is somewhat disillusioned by his lifestyle anyway, to make a few changes. So he begins on a reflective journey to rediscover his family and possibly rediscover who he once was himself.

There is a worthy cast in this film, Bobby Cannavale plays Collins estranged son with confidence and subtly, Annette Bening plays a possible love interest for Collins with charm and real presence. The lead of course is Mr. Al Pacino, so many have claimed that Pacino has taken an artistic nose dive in the last couple of decades and although there might be some merit to those claims with films such as Righteous Kill (2008) and Jack and Jill (2011). For me though it always pleasurable to watch the great man in action and I am glad to say this is a strong performance. Pacino plays the title character with a calmness that reflects both the character he plays and arguably also the actor. Danny Collins might not be the most memorable film but it is a nice easy film to watch, due mainly to the acting/casting. Oh, and the John Lennon songs throughout is a really nice touch.

Week 21: Poltergeist

Director: Gil Kenan

Writers:  David Lindsay - Abaire (screenplay) Steven Spielberg (story)

Seen:     Thursday 21st May 2015

Venue:   IMC Galway

Snacks:  Blueberries and apple (healthy :))

Mood:    Bemused

We have reviewed several really brilliant horror films in the blog so far so I must admit Poltergeist had a lot to live up to and I wasn’t expecting a great deal. It was lucky for me that I didn’t have high expectations because this film is a real flop.

This is a remake of the original Poltergeist (1982) directed by Tobe Hooper and I cannot  grasp why it was necessary to remake this film, more to the point I am not sure why there is a need for remakes at all? Prequels, sequels I get but a remake smacks a little of a director wanting to outdo another director which they RARELY do.

Anyway, onto the film. I for one found the acting almost laughable in some scenes, Sam Rockwell is miscast as the father figure he doesn’t even seem worried when his daughter is taken by the ‘lost ones’. The reactions from all are disingenuous, for example, I would imagine that when a child is yanked into the nether world they might be a bit shell shocked when they come out of it? The two child characters  involved Griffin (Kyle Catlett) and Madison Bowen (Kennedi Clements) are not at all freaked out, not even a little.

Compared to the brilliant (and ORIGINAL) ‘Unfriended’ and the super creepy ‘It Follows’ this fails miserably, the scares are cheap, the acting is not believable and the score (something which added extra depth to the original Poltergeist) is instantly forgettable.

There is one scene which I enjoyed and that was the end credits. If you go onto Youtube and watch the trailer all the ‘scares’ are in that and you wont have forked out €10 for the pleasure.

Week 20: Mad Max: Fury Road

Director: George Miller

Writer: George Miller, Brendan McCarthy and Nick Lathouris

Seen: Friday 15^th May

Venue: IMC Galway

Snacks: Chocolate

Mood: Exhilarated 

Make sure your 3D classes are tightly on if you go to see Mad Max: Fury Road because from the opening frame it is a fantastically fast, non-stop action spectacular and I loved it. Director George Miller, who also was at the helm for the original films, said that he wanted to do the film “as an extended chase” what he described as “visual music” and what he has created is an experience more like riding a roller coaster than watching a film.  

How does Mad Max: Fury Road compare to the originals? Where does it fit in the earlier trilogy? It is beyond the scope of this review to get into that, so I’ll leave it up to fans of the Mel Gibson led films to decide for themselves. For me this is a completely different film but with some similar themes. The world that Miller creates in Fury Road is scarily real yet unrecognisable, the attention to detail is visible, precise and stylish. It is a world that is resource scarce, oil and water are in short supply, not too alien of a concept in this epoch. The world is full of imaginative characters throughout, from the electric guitar playing warrior leading the tribe into battle, to the head warlord Immortan Joe.  

Fury Road can be seen in 2 and 3D, we choose 3D and were happy we did, at times it was freakily good, I even saw a member of the audience close to us flinch a few times. The same guy broke into a round of applause when the credits appeared, something you don’t often see in Irish cinemas, but can certainly be warranted for this film.  3D can be a hit or miss experience, although similar to the 2013 hit Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron) it is brilliantly done. Miller similar to Cuaron didn’t over indulge in it, instead it is used appropriately throughout the film.

The performances are strong and the word coming from the actors involved in this mammoth production is that the process was a gruelling one. Tom Hardy plays Max, keeping with the tradition of a tormented but resilient character and equally as stoic as Mel Gibson’s original interpretation of Max, first brought to the screens 35 years ago. For me though the stand out performance is Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa, she is arguably more of a lead than Hardy and it is refreshing to have a strong woman as a central character of an action film.

 The action genre is probably my least favourite, with the exception of the Bond franchise, so I have little to compare it to, however, I can confidently say the action aficionados out there will be more than pleased. Mad Max: Fury Road is a colossal film of mega proportions and to fully appreciate the experience it should be watched on the big screen. Although not yet confirmed, there are rumours of more to follow, possibly another two films, so just in case I have put my 3D classes safely away till then.

Week 19: Unfriended

Director: Levan Gabriadze

Writer:    Nelson Greaves

Venue:   IMC Galway

Snacks: Quavers

Mood:    Virtually hooked :)

As I have professed before I am a bit of a scare seeker and love a good horror flick. When I heard the premise (and even the title) of ‘Unfriended’ I admit I thought it was going to be just another cliched teen slasher film. I can now put my hands up ( I promise they are up!!) and admit I was wrong, this film is quite simply (in my opinion) completely original, inventive and believable.

Unfriended centres on the suicide of Laura Burns who killed herself after a very embarrassing video of her went viral, now on the anniversary of her death six friends are receiving messages on Facebook from Laura. We are linked into a Skype group video call with the six friends where a mysterious anonymous caller appears to be listening in.

‘Laura’ threatens to expose them all online just as she herself was cruelly exposed.

The director Levan Gabriadze has achieved something quite unique as the entire film is played out in the virtual world with the cinema screen mimicking that of a laptop. Not once do we foray away from the screen into the real world and whilst this may sound tedious it is done with such aplomb that it is completely absorbing. I was not bored for a second and in fact the extra little nuances like buffering and slow downloads all added to the tension of the film.

I think this film really highlights the ‘cult’ of social media and the inability some people have to detach from it, there is also an element of dark humour and I found myself having a chuckle several times. This is such a totally new era of information  and you are left wondering what the future implications of such constant access will be.

The acting in this film is definitely worth a mention as it is so completely genuine, you really feel involved in what is happening on screen almost like you are the seventh person. The teenagers are exactly as you would expect them to be, sometimes annoying, sometimes loud but always believable.

Compared to ‘It Follows’ which I reviewed in week 10 it stands up very well, it is by no means AS sinister as ‘It Follows’ but I think ‘Unfriended’ doesn’t slot perfectly into the horror genre, it is more of a moral tale with a few scares along the way, the real bogeyman here is the limitless possibilities of the internet.

Week 18: Get Up and Go

Director: Brendan Grant

Writer: Brendan Grant

Seen: Sunday 3rd May

Venue: IMC Galway

Snacks: Kinder Bueno + Quavers

Mood: Tired

This week we watched Get Up and Go the latest Irish release from director Brendan Grant. We promised that we would support Irish film throughout the year of this challenge. It is fair to say that Irish film often gets a bad rap, Michael McDonagh director of last year’s Calvary got a few knickers in a twist by slating the standard of Irish films, brashly stating they were not “technically accomplished” or “intelligent”. Tut - tut Michael, that’s a bit harsh considering your first and only two films were completely based in the West of Ireland and you received substantial funding from the Irish Film Board to make them.

Nonetheless, McDonagh is completely entitled to his opinion and I am sure his opinion is shared by many but I totally disagree with his assertion. I believe in every country there are films both good and bad being produced regardless of the size of the country. Two recent examples of great Irish films and most certainly “technically accomplished” and “intelligent” were Glassland by Gerrard Barrett and Patricks Day by Terry McMahon. And after this week’s viewing I can point to an example of a somewhat bad Irish film that is Get Up and Go, which is not to say that all those involved in it tried to make the best film they could. So, Mr. McDonagh you see Irish cinema like most other countries can throw out both good and bad productions, maybe a bit of discretion is advised the next time you comment. Rant over, point made!

Get Up and Go had the potential to be something of an enjoyable watch but man does it get lost. The theme of the film is a day in the life of two young male Dubliners Alex and Coilin, we watch how their day gets gradually worse (cliché). They win money then lose money (cliché) the innocent shy Coilin (Killian Scott) can’t get the girl he loves (cliché) the brash confident Alex (Peter Coonan) wants to leave his girlfriend because she is pregnant (cliché). Unfortunately, I could go on.

If I had to find something good to say about Get Up and Go it would be that there are some funny moments between Coonan and Scott and it is clear that these guys are good actors. Regrettably though they are not enough to save it.

Week 17: Force Majeure

Writer/Director: Ruben Ostlund

Seen: Sunday 26th April 2015

Venue: Eye Cinema Galway

Snacks: Salty popcorn with malteasers mixed in (yeah you know it!!!)

Mood: Contemplative

In Galway we do not get a great deal of the vast amounts of brilliant world cinema around  (as I have ranted about previously) so we were delighted to stumble upon the Eye Cinema showing Force Majeure. A Swedish film by director Ruben Ostlund about a young couple Tomas (Johannes Kuhnkne) and Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli) travelling to the French Alps with their two young children on holiday.

The scenery is beautiful, there is plenty of snow, the sun is shining and everything should be perfect but a random snow avalanche during lunch one day leaves the couple shaken in more ways than one.

I dont want to give too much away but it isn’t an action film (as you might think from the premise)  its a film about the roles we play.The role of patriarch and the idea that once that is compromised it is very difficult to redeem oneself. After the incident in question the couple struggle to maintain normalcy both in their own ways trying to deny and gloss over  what has happened until they eventually break down in truly awkward style in front of two friends who have come to visit. Tomas tries to justify his actions leading to his eventual emotional breakdown which is prolonged and desperate.

It is a film about gender roles particularly the idea of masculinity and  the notion of protection within a family.What happens in a situation when you act first by pure nature and thought is just something that occurs after the fact?

What would any of us do when confronted with our own immortality, in that fleeting moment before possible danger? The translation of force majeure is superior force and this can be taken to mean many things when looking at this film, the force of nature (as in the force of the landscape that surrounds us) but also the force of our own nature and what we do when we betray ourselves.

The film is beautifully shot and the acting is on point by both leads.The direction is sharp from Ruben Ostlund and I will be interested in seeing his other films. All in all a well deserved winner of Winner of the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard competition in Cannes in 2014.

Week 16: Get Hard

Director: Etan Cohen

Writer: Ian Roberts, Etan Cohen, Adam McKay and Jay Martel 

Seen: Sunday the 10th of April

Venue: IMC Galway

Snacks: Nuts

Mood: Bemused

This week we were hit once again with the central challenge of writing this blog, choosing a film to see from the increasing amount of crap that comes to our cinema screens. Fortunately there was one good film available and an Irish production to boot (we are all about encouraging home grown talent) unfortunately we had already seen it at the Galway Film Fleadh last year. Glassland is the second film by a young and brilliant director Gerard Barrett and for those of you who read this I can’t recommend Glassland enough. It is a brilliantly acted, directed, gripping and relevant film about contemporary Ireland so go and see it if you get the chance. I wrote a review for Film Ireland last year for its Fleadh screening, which you can read at this link http://filmireland.net/2014/07/13/glassland-review-of-irish-film-at-the-galway-film-fleadh/ .  

So rather than go and see Glassland again and kind of cheating, we decided to pick something from the rest of the bunch and our choices were very limited. In the end it came down to Get Hard or Child 44 and to be fair you couldn’t get more different films. So we decided none of us were willing to sit and watch Tom Hardy fumble his way through a bad Russian accent in Child 44, so we opted for the lighter Get Hard which if nothing else has the amusing head of Will Ferrell.

Ok, this will probably be the briefest review I have written. I am not going to get into the debate about if the film is homophobic as some reviews have critiqued it for, I will let you decide that for yourselves if you get to see it. What I will say is Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart carry this film and they are pretty funny, but the jokes I felt were somewhat weak because I felt like I had heard all the gags before. The premise of the film could have been interesting - a rich, white guy is learning street smarts from a struggling black guy to survive in jail – but again I felt there just wasn’t anything original about it. However, if you like the two main actors than you will most likely enjoy Get Hard.