Author Archives: Neil

The Conspirator Review

  By Neil | November 1, 2011 - 10:11 am | The Culch
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The Conspirator is another American Civil war drama from a country whose limited history demands rehashing every few years. Once you have told the bigger stories, from TV’s John Adams to the few decent films like Ed Zwick’s Glory, there is little to tell that has not had another interpretation come before it. The Conspirator is a niche story dredged from the confines of an irrelevant closet, from a TV show set near where something may have happened once, maybe. Beginning in Washington, we see Lincoln’s assassination and the resulting manhunt for his assassin, Booth and his co-conspirators, allegedly Booths right hand man, John Surrat is the only missing party,and in being unaccountable his mother(Robin Wright) is put in his place and presumed,unjustly to be tried in his absence. This is,regardless of its historical, context very much a by the numbers court room drama,James McAvoy’s Fredrick Aiken is the underdog … There’s more →

Theatre Review: The Beauty Queen of Leenane

  By Neil | May 28, 2011 - 10:29 am | Events, The Arts, Theatre
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The Beauty Queen of Leenane is Martin McDonagh’s first produced play and the first part of his Leenane trilogy. It’s a lot of firsts really, it began his career, performed by the Druid Theatre Company in Galway in 1996, before moving to Broadway via the West End. Leenane is unforgivingly brutal and quite a humbling experience. It follows the lives of Maureen Fallon (Derbhle Crotty), her mother Mag (Rosaleen Linehan), and two local brothers, one returning from England circa 1987. Maureen, a modest woman approaching 40 with little life experience, shares a cottage in remote Leenane with her gauche, torturous mother whose lazy manipulation grates on even the most gracious of guests. The story, although predictable, is more fable than lazy. It is familiar in the sense that McDonagh is using an obvious plot to lull the audience into his reality by first setting up a romantic ideal, a love … There’s more →

Neil’s Movie Round-up #3

  By Neil | May 27, 2011 - 9:07 am | The Culch
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Attack The Block’s premise is so simple. Aliens (think big critters, rather than Mork) land in South London. They chase local shennagians-ers around for a bit, and everyone learns a little something. Joe Cornish has since co-written Tintin with Steven Moffat and Edgar Wright, a fanboy’s Holy Trinity. With “Attack” he has more than paid his dues to be associated with these writers. Yes, the story is basic, and the creatures are made from shaved dogs and blue tack, but it’s the simplicity of his characters in an unforgiving and depraved environment that works. They are criminals, but Cornish never patronises youth and circumstance, and the story evolves into more social drama than scary film. Jodie Whitaker’s Sam, mid-invasion, hears that her initial attackers were more scared during their first meeting and the subsequent robbery than she was. It is such a simple revelation, but it anchors the tone (and … There’s more →

Movie Review: Outside the Law

  By Neil | May 10, 2011 - 9:59 am | Movies & TV
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“Outside the Law” is the companion film to 2006’s “Days of Glory” from Rachid Bouchared, where Glory detailed the almost orgotten history of Algerian importance in the liberation of France in WW2, (a horrific blight on Allied Forces that these soldiers, about to enter victoriously in Paris in 1944, were replaced with more photogenic white soldiers). ”Outside the Law” is the struggle for independence for Algeria in a guerrilla war against France on her own soil.It begins in 1928 with the appropriation of land from Algerian farmers and moves through to the early 50’s when 3 brothers we initially meet as young boys leaving their ancestral home are now 3 very distant, sadly quite shallow stereotypes. There is the thief, the scholar (he wears glasses) and the one in the middle; and this sentence is in fact more character development than you will see in the entire 2hrs 20 mins.

Neil’s Movie Round-up

  By Neil | April 17, 2011 - 8:05 pm | Movies & TV, The Culch
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Cave of Forgotten Dreams is an illusive documentary, in that it is not really a documentary, it’s a ride. It’s a possible prototype of a set of Disney-theme rides for a more refined age. Wernor Herzog’s rasping and often childishly gleeful narration leads us into a cave discovered in 1994, accessible by only the elite few scientists, and protected with such ferocity by the French Government that is was often restricted to filming for just one hour per day. His crew minute, and often forced to carry the camera himself, Herzog glides through the serene caves with the reverence and awe that the subject warrants, but it is Herzog himself that we are really watching. It’s tight in character with none of the personalities that usually define Herzog’s films. He is the most interesting as he wanders through the cave. The 3D is a novelty, and needing bright light to … There’s more →

Review: Spies @ The Workman’s Club

  By Neil | April 13, 2011 - 10:45 am | Events, Gigs, Music
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Spies are launching their single ‘Barricade’ downstairs in Whelans on April 23rd. Doors are at 8pm, it’s €8 in with a free copy of the CD, and support is from The Pacifics and Tandem Felix. Neil caught them live a few weeks back… Croupier, Squarhead and Spies played the Workmans club on Thursday the 24th of March Spies lie. Otherwise they are just people, and people are boring. This is what the recorded version of Spies is: a band in disguise. On record they are a bastard alien hybrid of The National’s atonal punctured drums with Editors’ pulsing rhythms, layered with a smooth vocal line. (If the vocals were a Cold War spy, they’d be George Clooney hitting on a picture of himself looking at a picture of himself but with a scarf, and the scarf is made of pure smooth.) It’s a fine record, simple and under-produced, but with … There’s more →

Neil’s Movie Round-Up

  By Neil | April 9, 2011 - 4:07 pm | Movies & TV
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Essential Killing is a silent, direct and inscrutable film.It challenges constantly, illumninates the boredeom of casual film viewers’ taste, and loves doing so.Vinvent Gallow plays an Afgan, possibly Taliban, it never states, who kills 3 American soldiers, in a derailing opening sequence so beautiful and simple, it’s immediacy almost pokes fun at exposition-heavy thrillers who find it necessary to add layers to their one-dimensional characters. It is a man-on-the-run action film with little dialogue, a knowingly ambigious morality, showing that if you swap nationalities with Vincent’s stark villian, it would be a hero’s tale, it’s this constant flux that demands attention though the oddests of set pieces from out running soldiers to pain stricken hallucinations ,with a performance from Gallow that perfectly encapsulates his persona dangling moral senses. He runs barefoot through -30 degree temperatures, tears through raw fish and demands the woman he suckles form is really lactating. It … There’s more →

Leccy Piccy ’11: The Line-up

  By Neil | March 11, 2011 - 10:48 am | Events, Festivals, Gigs, Music, wantsies
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Continuing the round of festival-related news in these parts, the leccy piccy line-up announcement at POD yesterday. Here’s the festival booking manager talking about the music weekend that put Stradbally on the map: Electric Picnic’s patronising tone of recent years - charging exorborant ticket prices and consistently repelling arguments about lack of musical quality by repeating the now-formulaic ‘it’s all about the atmosphere’ and listing out the festival awards won that year - has come to an end. There can be no complaints this year. Headliners Arcade Fire, Interpol, PJ Harvey, Chemical Brothers and the massive coup that is Pulp, are worthy of a ticket prices alone.Garnish these off with sheer quality mid-afternoon “dragging your friend out of a ditch” background music of Midlake, Beriut and The Walkmen. In an unprecdeneted turn for this festival, which in recent years has had no problems in dredging world music for some truly … There’s more →