Posted on February 23, 2014 by Darren
This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.
Lock a character in a tight space for an extended period of time, crank up the pressure, watch the results. It’s a tried and true method of generating compelling drama – albeit one that depends on a wide range of variables. Films like Phone Booth and Buried demonstrate – to varying degrees of success – the appeal of such a format. If you can get a good actor in a tight space for an extended period of time and crush them, the results are inevitably fascinating.
At the same time, it’s a very delicate cocktail. The set-up has to be convincing, the script has to be tight without being contrived, the direction needs to be spot on, the performance needs to be perfectly modulated. Steven Knight’s sophomoric feature-length film manages to maintain this fine balance for Locke‘s eighty-five minute runtime. Essentially an hour-and-a-half locked in a car with Tom Hardy, Locke is a powerhouse of a feature, an utterly compelling and heartrending watch.
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: car, commute, film, jameson dublin international film festival, jdiff, locke, Movie, non-review review, review, steven knight, tom hardy | 4 Comments »
Posted on February 22, 2014 by Darren
This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.
The Double calls to mind a very old school of BBC television production. In fact, it’s not too difficult to imagine The Double as an artefact from the BBC archives, a piece of eighties low-key dystopian science-fiction existential horror, like a slightly more polished (and colourised) companion piece to their 1954 production of 1984. By translating Dostoyevsky’s story from late nineteenth century Russia to a vision of the future from eighties Britain, writer and director Richard Ayoade has crafted a wonderfully unnerving psychological black comedy.
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: film, jameson dublin international film festival, jdiff, jesse eisenberg, mia wasikowski, Movie, non-review review, review, richard ayoade, the double | 2 Comments »
Posted on February 22, 2014 by Darren
This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.
The Zero Theorem is a mess. Of course, this isn’t a surprise. Part of the charm of Terry Gilliam is the way that the director seems to wallow in chaos and disorder – dysfunction and mess are two of his calling cards as a director. However, The Zero Theorem often feels more like a scrapbook of half-composed ideas than a finished film, packed with some interesting ideas and wonderful visuals, blended to a story and script that lack any real subtlety or nuance or insight.
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: brazil, dystopia, Movie, non-review review, oppression, review, terry gilliam, the zero theorem | 4 Comments »
Posted on February 21, 2014 by Darren
This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.
A Long Way From Home is a fairly simple story about a mid-life crisis by a British and Irish couple who have retired to France. Elevated by a bunch of wonderful central performances from Brenda Fricker, James Fox and Natalie Dormer, along with director and writer Virginia Gilbert’s willingness to embrace the story’s simplicity, A Long Way From Home is a slow-moving character study and mood piece. Containing little in the way of surprises or twists, it’s an endearingly sweet glimpse at a marriage threatened by the fifty-year itch.
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: a long way from home, brenda fricker, france, james fox, jameson dublin international film festival, jdiff, Marriage, natalie dormer, non-review review, review, virginia gilbert | 2 Comments »
Posted on February 20, 2014 by Darren
This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.
The vampire genre has been around for a reasonably long time. The literary genre that was formalised by Bram Stoker’s Dracula at the dawn of the twentieth century, even if it drew on a rich selection of local beliefs and superstition. And yet, despite that, there really hasn’t been too much radical done with vampires in recent times. The last attempt to do something a bit provocative and game-changing with vampires occurred with Anne Rice’s discovery that you could easily shape vampire narratives into creepy romances – a technique refined by Stephanie Meyer to considerable commercial and popular success.
As such, Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive is fascinating because it manages to push the archetype a little further. It builds off those sorts of vampire romances and vampire fantasy epics in order to tell a more novel sort of story. Only Lovers Left Alive is a wonderful piece of mood based around two powerful central performances, taking one of cinema’s oldest monsters and finding a way to make them interesting again.
Only Lovers Left Alive is the most original vampire movie in what feels like an eternity.
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Detroit, horror, jim jarmusch, non-review review, only lovers left alive, review, romance, Tilda Swinton, tom hiddleston, undead, vampires | 6 Comments »
Posted on February 20, 2014 by Darren
This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.
There are not too many surprises to be had in Cas & Dylan, and those surprises mostly come towards the end of the film. For most of its runtime, Cas and Dylan is a reliably constructed old-fashioned odd-couple roadtrip movie. The roadtrip movie is a cinematic staple, and it has attained that status for a reason; it’s a fairly standard format that adapts to fit the actors and characters slotted into the adventure.
In this case, first time feature director Jason Priestley is directing veteran performer Richard Dreyfuss and young up-and-comer Tatiana Maslany. The charming duo give Cas & Dylan a bit of an edge as far as road movie go. The pair play comfortably off one another in fairly stock roles, elevating material that might otherwise seem a little overly familiar or trite. Cas & Dylan succeeds primarily off the strength of its two lead performers.
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: cas & dylan, cas and dylan, film, jason priestley, Movie, non-review review, review, Richard Dreyfuss | 2 Comments »
Posted on February 20, 2014 by Darren
This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.
Under the Skin exists as a gigantic flash backwards to the atmospheric and moody science-fiction horrors of the seventies. Despite a verbal reference to 2014 and some quick glimpses of posters for movies released in 2012, director Jonathan Glazer has constructed the movie as a throwback. Indeed, Under the Skin feels very much like an even lower key spiritual successor to Nicholas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth, except this time it’s the Scarlett Johansson who fell to Scotland.
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: aliens, film, jonathan glazer, Movie, nicholas roeg, non-review review, review, scarlett johansson, the man who fell to earth, under the skin | 4 Comments »
Posted on February 19, 2014 by Darren
This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.
To be fair, this isn’t the first time that the Jameson Cult Film Club have staged a screening of Jaws. The club did a screening of it last year as well, to considerable (and deserved) acclaim. So the visit of star Richard Dreyfuss to Dublin was the perfect excuse to break out the tried-and-tested showing, watch a classic piece of Americana and enjoy a nice conversation between Dreyfuss and presenter Rick O’Shea.
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: film, jameson cult film club, jameson dublin international film festival, jaws, jdiff, Movie, Richard Dreyfuss | 2 Comments »
Posted on February 18, 2014 by Darren
This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.
There’s very little original to be found in The Last Days on Mars. Ruarí Robinson has constructed a gigantic homage to science-fiction horror, taking great pride in setting up the familiar clichés and working through the obligatory tropes. There are any number of shout-outs and references built into The Last Days on Mars, so much so that the film seems to struggle to stand on its own two feet.
At the same time, there’s an undeniably trashy charm to The Last Days on Mars. There’s a sense of Robinson’s abiding affection and enthusiasm for the conventions he evokes, the movies he homages. Nobody watching the film will confuse it for a trailblazing or original piece of work; however, it works surprisingly well as a gigantic tribute to pulpy science-fiction B-movies.
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: film, horror, Ireland, jameson dublin international film festival, jdiff, last days on mars, Movie, non-review review, review, science fiction, the last days on mars | 3 Comments »
Posted on February 16, 2014 by Darren
This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.
A Long Way Down is never anywhere near as irreverent as it thinks it is. The story of four people who attempted suicide on “the most popular suicide spot on the most popular night for suicides” has a pretty effective basic premise. There’s a lot of material for a pitch black comedy here, particularly with Pierce Brosnan playing a former television presenter who has been convicted of having sex with a minor. (The BBC co-production credit makes this plot point feel particularly awkward.)
Instead, A Long Way Down pitches itself as a generic feel-good yearn about how people are nowhere near as cynical as they might initially claim to be. Ironically, this ends up making A Long Way Down feel particularly cynical.
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: a long way down, film, Imogen Poots, jameson dublin international film festival, jdiff, nick hornby, non-review, pierce brosnan, review | 3 Comments »
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