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Non-Review Review: Deliver Us From Evil

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Darren

Deliver Us From Evil is a film where ambition seems to outpace ability. A wonderfully surreal blend of cop action movie with exorcism horror, the movie manages to score a few clever juxtapositions – even if it never seems to decide whether it’s gloweringly serious or wryly ironic. While Deliver Us From Evil never finds the right balance of po-faced gravitas and witty self-awareness, it is a surprisingly enjoyable ride.

After all, it is very hard to hate a film where a demonic presence seeks to establish itself upon the world using the music of The Doors as a recurring motif.

The writing’s on the wall…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: church, cop film, deliver us from evil, demons, eric bana, exorcism, film, horror, joel mchale, Movie, non-review review, review, Scott Derrickson | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Begin Again

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Darren

Music is absolutely wonderful. It’s a method of communication that has the tremendous ability to bring people together, and to help set mood and tone. Of course, there’s all sorts of delightful complications to it – although songs may capture a particular moment in the life of the songwriter, as if trapping emotions in amber, they also capture particular moods and moments for the person listening to the music. A snippet of a song overhead faintly on a radio through an apartment wall can serve as a gateway back in time.

Although – speaking strictly scientifically – smell is the sense that leads most directly to memory, music has perhaps the strongest emotional resonance. Beloved songs provide a snapshot of something as transcendental as sensation and atmosphere. It is very hard to put these sentiments into words, to articulate through language. A guitar chord struck at the right time in the right rhythm, or a syllable stressed in one direction rather than any other, can say so much in such a small space.

Begin Again is a charming romantic ode to the power of music, beautifully and elegantly capturing the romance of song.

Playing along…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: begin again, film, john carney, Keira Knightley, mark ruffalo, Movie, music, non-review review, review | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Fault in Our Stars

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Darren

The Fault in Our Stars is a wonderfully constructed teenage romance, featuring a fantastic central performance from Shailene Woodley as Hazel Grace Lancaster, a sixteen-year-old cancer patient dealing with her own mortality. She bumps into Augustus Waters at a support group meeting. Augustus is another survivor, and the two immediately hit it off. While The Fault in Our Stars is fairly predictable, and hits relentlessly on the expected emotional beats, Woodley’s performance is strong enough to elevate the film.

Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber’s adaptation of John Green’s best-selling novel avoids wallowing too heavily in melodrama. Despite a few missteps, The Fault in Our Stars feels like a much more genuine and thoughtful exploration of loss and tragedy than films like My Sister’s Keeper or Death of a Superhero or Now is Good.

Getting into the swing of things…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: cnacer, film, laura dern, Movie, non-review review, now is good, review, Shailene Woodley, the fault in our stars | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Oculus

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Darren

Oculus is torn between two extremes. On the one hand, it’s an ambitious horror film that engages with questions of perception and subtext, while throwing all manner of horror tropes together to form something of a horror movie stew. On the other hand, it rather quickly devolves into a fairly generic horror film that coasts on gore to unsettle the audience and always takes the easiest possible scare. Oculus is at its best during its muddled and exposition-filled opening acts.

While certainly flawed, these segments have an endearing substance to them. In contrast, Oculus is at its worst in the obligatory third act run-around.

All work and no play makes Rory Cochrane a dull boy…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: cheap scares, film, gore, great concept, horror, Karen Gillan, meta, mirrors, Movie, non-review review, oculus, review, self-aware | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Fight Club

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Darren

Fight Club was released in 1999, and seems to perfectly capture a brief moment in the history of disemfranchised American masculinity.

Situated between the end of the Cold War and the start of the War on Terror, Fight Club is the story of disenfranchised middle-class masculinity, a cultural group gripped by sense of impotence and despair and lost amid an era of financial prosperity and material success. “We’re the middle children of history, man,” Tyler Durden informs his followers. “No purpose or place. We have no Great War… no Great Depression.” It’s a line that gets more bitterly ironic with each re-watch.

A film frequently misunderstood by a significant portion of its fans and its critics, Fight Club is perhaps the quintessential cult film of the nineties. A clever hook that encourages further viewings, a mean subversive streak and a bleak irreverence that is impossible to look away from, Fight Club manages to perfectly encapsulate a moment of shared cultural consciousness and insecurity.

Seeking a friend at the end of the world…

Note: This review contains spoilers for Fight Club. Consider yourself warned.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: brad pitt, class warfare, david fincher, ed norton, fight club, film, helena bonham carter, masculinity, Movie, non-review review, review, the narrator | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: 22 Jump Street

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Darren

Comedy sequels can be a tough beast.

After all, a joke isn’t as funny the second time around and – if it is – there’s always the DVD. Comedy sequels often find themselves trapped between a rock and a hard place. They have to pay homage and due respect to what came before, but they can’t simply tread out the same old jokes. It isn’t a case of simply doing the same thing but bigger, as with most sequels. Comedy sequels are a tough nut to crack.

The genius of 22 Jump Street is the way that it accepts this and turns it into the biggest joke of the film.

Jumping back into their roles…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: 21 Jump Street, 22 jump street, Channing Tatum, comedy sequels, film, jonah hill, Movie, non-review review, review, sequels | 6 Comments »

Jameson Cult Film Club Screenings of Fight Club, June 4th and 5th 2014!

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Darren

The Jameson Cult Film Club is a wonderful excuse to celebrate cinematic classics. The group organise screenings throughout the year inviting audiences to immerse themselves in a much-loved cinematic classic – for example, Silence of the Lambs, Predator, or even The Blues Brothers. Taking a familiar Dublin location and turning it into something like a set from the film, the Jameson Cult Film Club works as a celebration of these iconic films.

This summer, the team are doing a double screening of David Fincher’s classic Fight Club on the 4th and 5th of June at a top secret location in Dublin. I’m violating the first and seconds rules of Fight Club by telling you this, but I’m sure it’ll work out okay at the end. One of the better things about the Jameson Cult Film Club is that the screening are absolutely free – tickets are raffled to film fans who apply via the Jameson Cult Film Club website.

Whether you’ve seen Fight Club, or whether you haven’t, it’s a wonderful excuse to appreciate one of David Fincher’s defining cinematic works, and one of the films that solidified him as a talent to watch, only a few months before the release of Gone Girl, his latest effort and adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s best-selling thriller.

I’ve included the fill press release below, but you can head over to the Jameson Cult Film Club website and apply for tickets. (By the way, I love the poster design.)

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: david fincher, fight club, jameson cult film club, Movie | Leave a comment »

3epkano Performing Live Accompaniment to Metropolis, National Concert Hall, 17th July 2014!

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Darren

Irish post-rock band 3epkano are ten years old this year. To celebrate their tenth anniversary, the band performing a live musical accompaniment to Fritz Lang’s iconic 1927 science-fiction classic Metropolis. A movie that helped to shape an entire genre, Metropolis will be screened in its original format, set to an original score composed and performed by 3epkano. It’s a staggeringly ambitious concert, and a fantastic way to celebrate ten years of music-making.

A classic of German expressionist cinema, a triumph of silent movie-making and a reminder of just how iconic and influential Fritz Lang was, Metropolis is an epic that really deserves to be seen on a large screen. It looks to be one of the cinematic highlights of the summer, and well worth checking out for anybody with even a passing interest in the history of cinema.

The concert will take place in the National Concert Hall at 8pm on Thursday, 17th July 2014. It’s a wonderful excuse to see a classic through fresh eyes, with Lang’s work on Metropolis looking as impressive today as it did almost ninety years ago. Tickets are available via the National Concert Hall website.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Fritz Lang, metropolis, Movie, National Concert Hall, science-fiction 3epkano | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Darren

Sleeping Beauty is very much a product of the fifties, with the movie’s production spanning most of the decade. The story work commenced in 1951, with vocal performances recorded the following year. The movie was eventually released in 1959, to lukewarm critical and commercial success.

However, Sleeping Beauty reflects the fifties in other ways. The story about a young woman who needs to learn to do as her guardians instruct her, how marriage is really the ideal prospect for a woman of sixteen, and about how people we label as “evil” are unquestionably beyond redemption, Sleeping Beauty really plays to a very fifties mindset.

(Appropriately enough, the high budget and lacklustre box office performance of Sleeping Beauty would be a major part of the reason that Walt Disney would post its first annual loss in 1960.)

Sleep well…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: animation, disney, Dragon, feminism, fifties, film, maleficent, Movie, sexism, sleeping beauty, Walt Disney | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Godzilla (2014)

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Darren

Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla remake exhumes the classic movie monster for one more epic city-destroying brawl. Appropriately enough, the film feels like something of a relic itself – albeit a relic from an era more recent than the prime of its featured monster. Opening with the excavation of a giant skeleton in the Philippines, and with the revelation that the titular creature was first awakened in 1954, there’s a sense of coy self-awareness to Gareth Edwards’ monster movie tribute.

This wry self-awareness only extends the film so much leeway. At the heart, Godzilla feels like a nineties blockbuster created with modern technology. If the film had a sense of humour, it would look a lot more like Godzilla-by-the-way-of-Roland Emmerich than the 1998 attempt to reintroduce the character to American audiences.