Two more movies from Ireland

If you were reading my Horrorthon coverage over the last week or so, you may recall I'd skipped out on a couple of occasions to see films elsewhere. That's because just before I went I discovered that two new Irish films that have yet to be released here in the UK were on general release in Ireland, and I wanted to see both of them.

GARAGE stars Pat Shortt, best known for his comedic work, as Josie, a simple-minded worker in a service station, who becomes friends with the young lad who gets a job there. It's directed by Leonard Abrahamson, who first gave us the critically acclaimed ADAM AND PAUL.

Josie leads a fairly simple and relatively carefree life but there is a darkness gathering behind the quiet rural facade. While never displaying anything other than the best intentions towards all around him, Josie is the unwitting victim of bullying, misunderstanding and a general inability of those around him to deal with him for who he is.

To say much more is to spoil the movie so I'll just say that this is a beautifully made film with terrific performances all round and deserves whatever success it receives - and the plaudits have already begun as, during its run at several of the major film festivals, it scooped a prize as part of Directors Fortnight in Cannes this year. If there's any justice, more prizes (and a healthy share of cinema audiences will follow).

Despite moments of humour and the warmth of the lead character, GARAGE certainly can't exactly be described as a feel-good film. It is, however, a laugh riot next to the alcohol-fuelled depression of KINGS.

KINGS, adapted from the play by Jimmy Murphy, is notable for its nomination by an independent jury as Ireland's candidate for the foreign language Oscar at next year's ceremony.
The production certainly feels like a play, though that's not necessarily a bad thing when compared to the kind of drivel that gets made for your local multiplex and centres around a group of Irishmen living and working in London. Travelling across to England from the West of Ireland in the seventies, they found not the land of opportunity and dreams but of hardship, anti-Irish sentiment and alienation. Now, in the present day, they gather for a wake in memory of the first of their number to die.

It may centre on the death of one of their friends, but it's about more than the loss of one man. It's an elegiac look at the home they left behind, a home forever lost to them. They are not at home in London and for all their hopeful talk of one day going back home, the world has changed so much that the Ireland they left behind no longer exists either. They're trapped between worlds and in a touching way the only home they have is each other. It seems that perhaps in the death of their friend and the echoes of their homeland they may just be mourning the loss of the same thing after all.

Over the course of the evening, the characters re-open old wounds while simultaneously trying to find solace with each other. Each of the actors shine (the cast is lead by Colm Meaney, these days most famous for playing O'Brien in STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION and DEEP SPACE NINE) through a well-written screen adaptation that is handled thoughtfully by director Tom Collins.

My head tells me that KINGS is not likely to be winning at the Kodak in February and to be honest I don't imagine its chances of even being nominated are all that good - but if I allow my heart to do the talking then I'll certainly be waving an Irish flag for them.

Especially since my own country's Gaelic contender, SEACHD: THE INACCESSIBLE PINNACLE was snubbed by BAFTA when it came to nomination time - but let's not get me started on that again.

If you'd like to see the trailers for either of the movies mentioned above, you can find the official site for GARAGE here and for KINGS head over to here. What the hell, here's the link for SEACHD's official site too.

Horrorthon 2007 (Part 3)

[Excerpt from a post originally made on the "Tales from the Freakpit" blog]

Next on the agenda was the surprise movie. Last year it had turned out to be the no-brainer SEE NO EVIL, which was hardly classic but at least a diverting hour and a half. This year was more disappointing than that.

As the opening credits rolled, there was a groan from the Dublin audience as the Irish Film Board's name appeared. As soon as I saw this, I moaned to myself "Oh no, it's SHROOMS, I already saw this at the Edinburgh festival". Now I should emphasise that I thought this only inwardly to myself; however, in a rather creepy coincidence, a young Irish lady sitting a few seats away from me turned to her friend and said almost exactly those very same words. Spooky. Far more spooky than anything in the film to be honest.

If you read my report of this movie from its Edinburgh screening you'll know that I thought it wasn't that bad. I must confess to having changed my mind on this viewing however. Perhaps it's because there was no novelty value in it, having seen it before; perhaps it's because I was swayed by the clearly negative reaction to the film by an Irish audience; or maybe now that I was watching it a second time I was able to more closely analyse its flaws.

Whatever the reason, I'm afraid to say I'm going to alter my opinion. I was almost tempted to go back and edit my Edinburgh blog entry but no, I'll leave it there so as to show that I'm prepared to admit when I'm wrong. And I was wrong about SHROOMS. I'll not be too hard on its predictability, since you could say that it's easy to call something predictable when you've already seen it. There's no getting away, however, from the fact that the characters are not an interesting group, some of the dialogue is just plain terrible and all in all the film just doesn't stand up to repeated viewing. I mentioned the lack of Irish accents previously; well I'd go further than that this time. The film goes out of its way to hide its Irish origins, to the point where it almost seems ashamed of it. On more than one occasion there were groans of disapproval from the Irish audience (the real indigenous people, rather than the inbred hicks of the movie).

This lack of Irishness is something I find particularly galling since, in its reluctance to deal with genre cinema, Irish cinema has a lot in common with its Celtic cousin over here. When something as rare as an Irish (or Scottish) film comes along that actually seems to embrace genre filmmaking, it would be nice for it to do so while embracing its national identity too, or else what's the point in having a national film industry? One of the joys of SEACHD: THE INACCESSIBLE PINNACLE (which I've covered here before) is that it is a uniquely Scottish film that embraces Scottish culture and history and weaves a story out of it; far more interesting to someone like me than giving good money to someone to make a film that could have been hacked out by any old Hollywood dud.

Sorry, my SHROOMS discussion appears to have gone on longer than intended. I'll save the rest of the Sunday movies (along with the ones on the Monday) for my next blog entry.

Horrorthon 2007 (Part 1)

[Excerpt from a post originally made on the "Tales from the Freakpit" blog]

Because I'm always trying to see Scottish films whenever I can, I was interested to see Robbie Fraser's low budget tale of love and drama among role-play gamers in Glasgow. There's enough humour in GAMERZ to keep the plot ticking along when it otherwise gets a bit dull, but in the end I can't make up my mind if this film is an attempt to humanise the stereotypical gaming geek or if it serves only to reinforce the image. Watchable but flawed - still, at least it's a Scottish movie that isn't just about alcoholics, junkies, gangsters and poverty-stricken kids from broken homes.

Cork Film Festival 2007 (feature films)

[Excerpt from a post originally published on the "Tales from the Freakpit" blog]

Okay, I covered the short films so Slightly later than planned, a few words about the feature films I saw at this year's Corona Cork Film Festival.

TONIGHT IS CANCELLED is a low budget film in which an Irish director turns up in Kosovo with plans to shoot a film based on the experiences of a local couple he meets there. While there's the odd moment of humour and some lovely photography, I found this film to be rather meandering and unengaging. The source material is undoubtedly rich in potential but it's potential that is not fulfilled here; similarly, director Brendan Grant shows enough to make me think he has promise as a director of features, but promise that remains unfulfilled here.

I can't say that I was overly enamoured with Colin Downey's DREAM DIARY either, though it certainly was bizarre enough to sustain the attention. An experimental art film in black and white showcasing some truly bizarre moments involving a giant worm, witchcraft, a woman with a strange disfigurement and plenty of other oddness besides, it's reminiscent in many ways of David Lynch's ERASERHEAD. But for all its similarities, it's not as polished and veers off into strangeness for the sake of strangeness once too often.

When Bob Quinn's Irish-language POITIN was first shown thirty years ago, it had presented a daring vision of the west of Ireland (the remote cottages are the same, but they're populated by scheming bootleggers and thieves), and was almost devoid of music. It is justifiably hailed as a classic of Irish cinema, but the negative went missing for many years. Now it has been recovered (a new 35mm print being blown up from 16mm without looking any the worse for it) and a new score composed for it.

Featuring Irish acting greats Cyril Cusack and Donal McCann, the film tells the tale of a man who makes his own poitin (think Irish moonshine) and sells it on via McCann and partner Niall Toibin. Doublecrossing and dishonesty mean it'll all end in tears for someone however, and what could have been a quirky picture-postcard representation of life in rural Connemara ends up as a gritty and accomplished crime film with a strangely effective bucolic backdrop.

BOTCHED was a perfect film for the late night slot - a low budget film set in Russia (although managing to make the most of shooting in a soundstage in Ireland for most of it), it stars Stephen Dorff as a criminal dragged into committing the usual "one last job", only to fall foul of forces beyond what he usually has to deal with. Kit Ryan's film is an interesting oddity that plays with audience expectations - what begins as an apparent story about a botched heist soon turns into a gory but endearingly mad horror-comedy which is not ashamed to have fun while tearing its characters to pieces, unlike the current trend for grisly torture movies. It'll certainly do well on the festival circuit (it also played at Horrorthon in Dublin, which I'll be covering soon) but these little films always struggle for cinema release without either an A-list star or a major studio backing them. One can only hope BOTCHED succeeds, as it certainly offers a pleasing couple of hours for potential audiences.

Next up was BOY A, a great little British drama about a young man who has been released from an institution where he was sent for his part in a despicable crime committed with a friend when they were young boys. With a new identity, a desire to leave the past behind and in many ways seeing the world anew, young "Jack" soon finds a new home, a job, new friends and even romance. Of course, it's not long before various parties, including the ever-reliable British tabloid press, are bringing the past back to haunt Jack, a past that finally catches up with him as a result of a snap decision to help a child in danger.

Based on Jonathan Trigell's novel, the story would seem to be in part inspired by one real life case that featured heavily in Britain's tabloids. I'm sure you know which one I'm talking about, and if you don't I've no desire to dredge up unpleasant memories by discussing it here. All I will say is that this is a terrific little film that really deserves a wide audience, though the subject matter may make that difficult.

Coming soon: my opinions from this year's Horrorthon festival in Dublin.