Film festival | the m0vie blog

Win Tickets to the Jameson Cult Film Club Screening of Reservoir Dogs…

Posted on February 11, 2012 by Darren

Thanks to the wonderful folks over at The Jameson Cult Film Club, we have a lovely prize to give away. Two tickets to the Jameson Cult Film Club screening of Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs during the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. For those unfamiliar with the brilliance of the Jameson Cult Film Club, the group stage immersive cinema screenings in interesting locations around the city. To get an idea, check out the excellent job they did with Ridley Scott’s Alien. The location of this screening is top secret, but it will take place Tuesday February 21st. And Michael Madsen, aka Mister Blonde, will be in attendance at the screening.

We have a pair of tickets to give away, more information after the jump.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: art, film, Film festival, jameson cult film club, jameson dublin international film festival, Michael Madsen, Movies, quentin tarantino, Reservoir Dogs | Leave a comment »

Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2012 Highlights

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Darren

The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival have released their programme for 2012. Taking over the city centre from the 16th through to the 26th of February 2012, the team have been working tirelessly to put together a schedule offering something for everybody. I have to admit, I’m quite looking forward to a number of these films, and have included some of my own choices and preferences below.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: al pacino, arts, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Cinema of Ireland, cineworld, Dark Knight Rises, dublin, film, Film festival, jameson, jameson dublin international film festival, judi dench, Movies, Sherlock Jr, tim burton | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Music by Prudence

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Darren

The first annual International Disability Film Festival is being hosted from the 20th through to the 23rd October, organised by Arts & Disability Ireland, in Dublin and Galway. I was honoured to be invited to the gala screening of the Oscar-winning HBO documentary Music by Prudence. You can read more information on the festival here.

Music by Prudence is an absolutely fascinating documentary from director Roger Ross Williams, looking at the band Liyana, fronted by Prudence Mabhena. The thirty-three minute documentary does a wonderfully effective job giving us a snapshot into the Zimbabwean band, composed of faculty and students from the King George VI Centre and School for Children with Physical Disabilities. The runtime is remarkably short, but Williams compensates by giving us a whirlwind introduction to the band’s lead singer, who has enough charm and wit to carry a far longer documentary. The band themselves provide a beautiful soundtrack, and there’s talk of them releasing two albums off the back of the film’s success.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Disability, Elinor Burkett, Film festival, George VI of the United Kingdom, hbo, Liyana, Music by Prudence, non-review review, Prudence, Prudence Mabhena, review, Roger Ross Williams, Zimbabwe | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: The Change-Up

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Darren

This movie was seen as part of Movie Fest, the rather wonderful film festival organise by Vincent and everybody else over at movies.ie. It was well worth attending, and I’m already looking forward to next year. Good job all.

Body swap comedies are pretty much a subgenre unto themselves. There’s a fairly standard formula, much like the conventional romantic comedy, but the success or failure of a given movie rests pretty much entirely on the execution of that formula. It’s finding the wit and energy to inject into a familiar structure, to produce an interesting and compelling result. It’s been done with considerable frequency. However, The Change-Updoesn’t really generate enough laughs consistently to make a memorable addition to this category of comedy.

Just kidding around...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: alan arkin, Body swap, Change-Up, comedy, film, Film festival, films, jason bateman, Leslie Mann, Movie, movie fest, Movies, movies.ie, non-review review, Olivia Wilde, review, Romantic comedy film, ryan reynolds, The Change-Up | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Drive

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Darren

This movie was seen as part of Movie Fest, the rather wonderful film festival organised by Vincent and everybody else over at movies.ie. It was well worth attending, and I’m already looking forward to next year. Good job all.

Drive took home Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival, and it’s easy to see why. This pulpy retro crime thriller is an intense joyride featuring what might hopefully be a long over-due star-making role for Ryan Gosling.

Gosling has an impressive body (of) work...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Albert Brooks, arts, Bryan Cranston, cannes film festival, Carey Mulligan, Clint Eastwood, Drive, drive (2011), drive (film), film, Film festival, france, Lacemaker, los angeles, Madame Bovary, miami vice, Movie, Movies, Nicolas Winding Refn, non-review review, Piano Teacher, review, ron perlman, Ryan Gosling, United States | 11 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Fright Night

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Darren

Fright Night is great fun. It’s not a perfect film, but it’s one that’s produced with enough skill and charm that it feels well worth your time. A superb cast and confident direction make the film feel like a breeze, even with a slightly muddled middle section and some strange plotting and pacing. It’s also one of the best uses of 3D I’ve seen since Tron: Legacy, and I genuinely don’t say that lightly. All of adds up to a movie well worth sinking your teeth into.

Put the Fright one on...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: anton yelchin, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, colin farrell, Craig Gillespie, david tennant, film, Film festival, Fright Night, Horror film, Imogen Poots, Movie, non-review review, review, toni collette, twilight | 5 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Final Destination 5

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Darren

Okay, if you’re reading this, I’m going to assume that it means you’re interested in the Final Destination series. I mean, at a fifth instalment, it’s hard to argue that the audience doesn’t know what to expect – especially in a series like this, which is build around a particular gimmick. In this case, the gimmick happens to be turning the entire world into a Rube Goldberg Machine… of death. So the question isn’t really whether the film works as a self-contained entity, or whether the entire concept works. We’ve had four films to determine whether the very idea of Final Destination 5 appeals to you, so let’s just focus on – if you’ll pardon the pun – the execution this time around.

It's a grave matter...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, David Koechner, death, Emma Bell, film, Film festival, final destination, Final Destination 5, Fright Night, Glen Morgan, Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, James Wong, Movie, Nicholas D'Agosto, non-review review, review, Tony Todd | 2 Comments »

Ah Sure, It’s Grand: Random Thoughts on Critical Reception to Irish Films…

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Darren

It’s always a bit interesting when a major and well-received Irish film is released, if only because it typically involves a fairly large divorce between the critical and audience reception to these films. It has been suggested that film critics are too quick to shower Irish films with praise they don’t deserve, out of some misplaced sense of patriotism. As the Trinity Film Review succinctly sums up:

An overrated Irish film is not hard to find. Our tendency towards the inflated evaluation of domestic filmmaking is a self-perpetuating one, leaving audiences indifferent towards the hyperbole-gavaged, entry-level film geese trotted out by our native industry, and filmmakers and critics alike complacent in the immutable, self-congratulatory expository routine the utter nakedness of which nobody seems inclined to comment on.

I have to admit, I’ve seen this in effect quite a few times, and it really bugs me – if only because it makes it harder to spot when a realgem of a film comes along. I honestly don’t think that this sort of attitude helps anyone.

I'm not down with that...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, Cinema of Ireland, Cultures and Groups, father ted, film, Film festival, films, in bruges, irish films, irish movies, irish times, Movie, Movies, overrated, Raidió Teilifís Éireann | 2 Comments »

Short Stories 2011: All In

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Darren

Last month, Ronan from Swear I’m Not Paul (he’s not) asked me to share a short film about Frank Turner with you. This month, he’s back with another little gem, All In, looking at the world of urban skateboarding. Check it out here or embedded below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: art, film, Film festival, Filmmaking, Frank Turner, Movie, Paul, Short film | 2 Comments »

February 2011 (JDIFF and For the Love of Film Noir) In Review…

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Darren

Hey, I’ve been shortlisted for two Irish Blog Awards, Best Pop Culture Blog and Best Arts and Culture Blog. I’m honoured and delighted to make the shortlist which is, as ever, populated with some of the best Irish talent around. Anyway, February was a busy month, what with the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival and the For The Love of Film Noir Blogathon going on. And I had my 1,000th post.