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New Podcast! Scannain Podcast (2019) #3!

Posted on January 29, 2019 by Darren

It’s time for the latest Scannain podcast!

This week, I join Grace Duffy, Ronan Doyle, Jay Coyle and Alex Towers from When Irish Eyes Are Watching to discuss the week in film news. We may all have been sneaking out to catch Zodiac at the Lighthouse, so it’s a fast-paced discussion this week. Highlights include chance encounters at a midnight screening of Michael Mann’s Heat, trying to make sense of The Sisters Brothers, and the bizarre premise that is Monkey Shines.

In terms of film news, the big news of the week is given over to the announcement of the Academy Awards nominations and the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival launch, along with the passing of Jonas Mekas.

The top ten:

  1. Bohemian Rhapsody
  2. Bumblebee
  3. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
  4. Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet
  5. The Favourite
  6. The Upside
  7. Mary Poppins Returns
  8. Stan and Ollie
  9. Mary Queen of Scots
  10. Glass

New releases:

You can download the episode here, or listen to it below.

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New Podcast! Scannain Podcast (2019) #2!

Posted on January 24, 2019 by Darren

It’s time for the latest Scannain podcast!

This week, I join Ronan Doyle and Jay Coyle to discuss the week in film news. But first, we talk about the films that we’ve watched this week, and what a bumper selection that runs the gamut from Wim Wenders’ Trick of the Light to films like Gotti and United Passions. There’s also an extended chat about the impact and legacy of Cloud Atlas, and the work of the Wachowski Sisters in general.

It’s also a bumper week for film news, with the looming Oscar nominations, the Screen Ireland 2019 production slate, the American release of Maze, the South by Southwest premiere of Extra Ordinary, the announcement of Jason Reitman’s Ghostbusters sequel, and the Dublin International Film Festival Fantastic Flix lineup.

The top ten:

  1. Creed II
  2. Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet
  3. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
  4. Bohemian Rhapsody
  5. Aquaman
  6. Bumblebee
  7. The Upside
  8. The Favourite
  9. Stan and Ollie
  10. Mary Poppins Returns

New releases:

You can download the episode here, or listen to it below.

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New Podcast! Scannain Podcast (2019) #1!

Posted on January 11, 2019 by Darren

Happy New Year! It’s time for the latest Scannain podcast!

This week, I join Grace Duffy, Ronan Doyle and Jay Coyle to discuss the week in film news. As the first podcast we’ve recorded in three weeks, since the end-of-year spectacular back in December, there is a lot to talk about. And so we do! Everything from T2 Trainspotting to Bird Box to Bandersnatch to The Dead, it’s an eclectic selection of films. It includes some of the new releases that we didn’t get to cover over the break, including Life Itself and Welcome to Marwen.

There is also understandably a lot of ground to cover. In awards season news, the success of The Favourite at both the Golden Globes and in the BAFTA nominations. The various Oscar-season gossip, including the success of Bohemian Rhapsody, the chaos around Green Book, Kevin Hart’s controversy and the decision to go hostless. Closer to home, there was an acknowledgement of James Hickey’s decision to step down at the end of his term as head of Screen Ireland and a brief discussion of the Dublin Bowie Festival.

The top ten:

  1. Holmes and Watson
  2. Bohemian Rhapsody
  3. The Grinch
  4. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
  5. Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet
  6. Aquaman
  7. The Favourite
  8. Andre Rieu’s 2019 New Year Concert From Sydney
  9. Bumblebee
  10. Mary Poppins Returns

New releases:

You can download the episode here, or listen to it below.

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New Podcast! Scannain Podcast (2018) #46!

Posted on December 7, 2018 by Darren

It’s time for the latest Scannain podcast!

This week, I join Alex Towers from When Irish Eyes Are Watching, Grace Duffy and Jay Coyle to discuss the week in film news. It is a fun film discussion; Alex, Jay and I have all seen The Favourite, while Grace, Jay and I have seen A Christmas Prince. Along the way, Alex discusses a seasonal viewing of Batman Returns, Grace contemplates Free Solo, and Jay discusses Vertical Limit and Love, Simon.

In film news, the podcast was recorded hot on the heels of the announcement of the nominees at Golden Globes, also discussing the international distribution of The Hole in the Ground and the success of The Favourite at the British Independent Film Awards.

The top ten:

  1. Nativity Rocks!
  2. 2.0
  3. Widows
  4. Robin Hood
  5. A Star is Born
  6. Bohemian Rhapsody
  7. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
  8. The Grinch
  9. Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet
  10. Creed II

New releases:

You can download the episode here, or listen to it below.

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Non-Review Review: The Favourite

Posted on December 4, 2018 by Darren

If the stock comparison to The Killing of a Sacred Deer is The Shining, then the obvious comparison to The Favourite is Barry Lyndon.

It is a stock comparison, bordering on facile. After all, there is a world of difference between Yorgos Lanthimos’ story of two women competing for the attention of Queen Anne and Stanley Kubrick’s story of the rise and fall of a roguish Irish gentleman. However, the similarities are striking. Both are eighteenth century period pieces that boldly eschew the conventions of period dramas. Both The Favourite and Barry Lyndon rely heavily on natural light and repeatedly draw the audience’s attention to the nature of the narrative of constructed.

You Only Live Weisz.

However, the most striking point of comparison might be thematic and philosophical rather than simply literal or textual. Just as The Killing of a Sacred Deer explored the collapse of a family unit through the prism of decaying masculinity in a manner that recalled The Shining, the world of The Favourite is defined by its study of power, pettiness and pomposity. As in Barry Lyndon, the fickleness of comfort and the arbitrary nature of security are a recurring fascination for The Favourite, which meditates repeatedly on how precarious such positions can be.

The Favourite is a story of cruelty, both human and natural.

A Stone-Cold Schemer.

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