coming of age | the m0vie blog

344. Lady Bird – Leaving Cert 2023 (#—)

Posted on September 9, 2023 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn, Darren Mooney and Conor Murphy, this week with special guest Aoife Barry, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

This September, we are running a season looking at the films on the Irish Leaving Cert English Curriculum. So this week, Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird.

Going by the name “Lady Bird”, Christine McPherson begins her final year of high school in Sacramento, California. Caught in a tense love-hate relationship with her mother, Marion, Christine dreams of escaping her surroundings to go to college. However, over the course of that turbulent year, Christine becomes more aware of life outside herself.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: barbie, California, coming of age, education, Greta Gerwig, history, irish, lady bird, leaving cert, leaving cert english, leaving certificate, memory, nostalgia, sacramento, saoirse ronan, secondary school, The 250 | Leave a comment »

337. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (#19)

Posted on June 10, 2023 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and with special guests Graham Day and Deirdre Molumby, This Just In is a subset of The 250 podcast, looking at notable new arrivals on the list of the 250 best movies of all-time, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.

This time, Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Sixteen months into his career as Brooklyn’s one-and-only Spider-Man, teenager Miles Morales is reunited with his old friend from another universe, Gwen Stacy. However, Gwen brings word of a team of multiversal spider-people headed by the mysterious Miguel O’Hara. Miles quickly discovers that things are not as he expects, and that membership of this team may come at too high a price.

At time of recording, it was ranked the 19th best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: This Just In | Tagged: animated, belief, comic books, coming of age, defund the police, deirdre molumby, god, graham day, male bodies, miguel o'hara, miles morales, multiverse, Oscar Isaac, podcast, politics, sony, spider man, spider-man: across the spider-verse, Spidey, superhero, The 250, The Talk | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “Across the Spider-Verse” as a Superhero Story About Parenting…

Posted on June 5, 2023 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, it seemed like a good opportunity to delve into what the movie is about, particularly what it has to say about parenting.

Perhaps reflecting the aging demographic of superhero movie fans, a lot of recent superhero films – from Thor: Love and Thunder to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – have been about parenting. However, Across the Spider-Verse stands out from the crowd because it’s a film that is rooted in the question of what it means to be a good parent, particularly to an exceptional child. It’s a warm and humanist fairytale that argues that the best thing parents can do for their children is to prepare them for the outside world and to listen to them when they speak.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: across the spider-verse, Adulthood, children, coming of age, fatherhood, growing up, Gwen Stacy, into the spider-verse, miles morales, motherhood, parenting, spider man, superhero movies, superheroes | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “The Last of Us” As A Study of Evolving Masculinity…

Posted on February 21, 2023 by Darren

I am doing weekly reviews of The Last of Us at The Escapist. They’ll be dropping every Sunday evening while the show is on, looking at the video game adaptation as the show progresses. This week, the show’s sixth episode.

The sixth episode of The Last of Us, Kin, is steeped in the iconography of the western: there’s a frontier town, two indigenous characters, and even a horse on the railroad tracks. However, there’s also a sense that Joel and Ellie have reached the end of their push westward, their journey from Boston to Jackson. In that sense then, the show explores the legacy of the western in American consciousness, particularly the genre’s archetypal portrayal of masculinity. What does it mean or Joel to be a man or a father? How does that reconcile with the image he has cast for himself as a cynical and weary outlaw? Can he move past that?

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: america, coming of age, ellie, fatherhood, joel, masculinity, the escapist, the last of us, violence, western | Leave a comment »

260. El laberinto del fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth) (#146)

Posted on November 13, 2021 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, with special guest Jack Packard, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every Saturday at 6pm GMT.

This time, Guillermo Del Toro’s El laberinto del fauno.

In the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, a young girl named Ofelia moves to her new stepfather’s house. As Captain Vidal ruthlessly hunts down the remaining rebels, Ofelia discovers that there is something enchanted lurking in the nearby woods. A mysterious faun promises to secret Ofelia away to a magical realm, if she can complete three tasks. As Ofelia finds herself caught between fantasy and reality, she discovers the sometimes the worst monsters are the human kind.

At time of recording, it was ranked 146th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: childhood, coming of age, Fairy tale, fantasy, feminism, guillermo del toro, horror, jack packard, metaphors, monsters, pans labyrinth, podcast, Spanish Civil War, The 250, the shape of water, violence | 2 Comments »

235. Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away) – Ani-May 2021 (#28)

Posted on May 15, 2021 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney and with special guests Deirdre Molumby, Graham Day and Bríd Martin, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every Saturday at 6pm GMT.

This year, we are proud to continue the tradition of Anime May, a fortnight looking at two of the animated Japanese films on the list. This year, we watched a double feature of the last two anime movies on the list, Hayao Miyazaki’s Mononoke-hime and Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi.

This week, the second part of the double bill, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, perhaps Miyazaki’s breakthrough to western audiences.

Chihiro is moving to a new town and a new school. Her parents take a detour down a dirt road and stumble across a mysterious abandoned theme park. Chihiro quickly finds herself trapped in a weird world of spirits, witches and dragons. She needs to learn to navigate this mysterious setting and maybe find a way home.

At time of recording, it was ranked 28th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: ani-may, anime, anime april, brid martin, capitalism, coming of age, deirdre molumby, economy, employment, full employment, graham day, Hayao Miyazaki, japan, Life, miyazaki, podcast, spirited away, spirituality, The 250 | 2 Comments »

Of Death Stars, Sarlaccs and Sexting: The Curious Sexual Energy of “Star Wars”…

Posted on December 12, 2019 by Darren

At its core, Star Wars is a Jungian, Campbellian and Freudian story about what it’s like to grow up.

This is perhaps most obvious within the original trilogy. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back is ultimately about the realisation that your parents will eventually and inevitably fail you. Star Wars: Episode VI – The Return of the Jedi is about growing up and learning to make peace with them anyway. Of course, the individual films frame these core themes through their own lenses. Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens reframes that adventure so it centres on people who have rarely had the opportunity to anchor such a story. Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi asked what that meant in 2017.

Naturally, this coming of age story is framed in terms of adventure – young characters discovering that they are part of an epic mythology that guides them towards confrontations with ancient and incredible evils, often learning hidden truths about themselves and their destiny. There’s a reason that the Star Wars franchise has come to be associated with the “monomyth”, distilling the hero’s journey into something with a story with universal resonance. It is a story about what it feels like to grow up.

It is also, inevitably, very much about sex. And in some very interesting (and quite eccentric) ways.

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Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: caves, coming of age, freudian, growing up, jungian, monsters, online dating, sex, sexting, sexuality, star wars | Leave a comment »

Escapist Column! “It” as a Coming of Age Film…

Posted on September 24, 2019 by Darren

Hey there.

Another sample from my In the Frame column over at Escapist Magazine. This one taking a look at the success of It as a Stephen King adaptation. In particular, the fact that it works in large part because it draws more overtly from Stand by Me than from The Shining, understanding that the source novel’s horrors are the horrors that face every child growing up.

You can read the column here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: coming of age, horror, it, stand by me, stephen king, the shining | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Lady Bird

Posted on December 9, 2017 by Darren

Lady Bird is a sweet and charming little film, one anchored in two great central performances from Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf.

Lady Bird is relaxed and casual, a story of teenage anxiety unfolding at its own pace without any tangible sense of stakes or scale. Lady Bird is a refreshingly quiet and sincere movie, one that captures a lot of the listlessness associated with youth, the obliviousness to the reality of the outside world, the struggle to define a unique identity. For all the film is anchored in its Californian surroundings, Lady Bird is a universal coming of age story.

Blessing in disguise.

Like its protagonist, Lady Bird is smart and wry, if a little directionless and unsure of itself. However, the movie works in large part because of the decision to build its emotional core around the relationship between the eponymous character and her mother. Ronan is phenomenal here, but Metcalf is just as able to match her co-star. Both actors deliver raw and genuine performances that perfectly capture the push-and-pull of any real-life familial dynamic.

Lady Bird is perhaps a little too eccentric and a little too whimsical in places, drawing its supporting cast in broad strokes and leaning a little too heavily into stereotypes of adolescence, but the film has a warm and beating heart that sustains it for its ninety-three-minute runtime.

Bye, bye, birdie.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: coming of age, film, Greta Gerwig, lady bird, Movie, non-review review, review, saoirse ronan | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Big Game

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Darren

Big Game is a rather unlikely combination. Jalmari Helander’s comedy action movie plays as a cocktail of Airforce One and E.T., a coming of age film blended with a old-fashioned action adventure film. It is a combination that works surprisingly well, allowing Big Game to be both playful and charming. Big Game feels like an homage to classic eighties and nineties cinema – the emotional beats are broad, the action is absurd, the irony is layered on pretty heavy. Big Game is always wry and self-aware, but never quite breaks character.

It is a potent mixture, and one that manages to hold itself together remarkably well across the film’s ninety-minute runtime. Big Game never takes itself too seriously, providing a light and exciting action adventure treat.