In my review of A Complete Unknown, I noted that early critiques of the film prior to its release surrounded screenwriters James Mangold and Jay Cocks’ decision to focus on the early career of Bob Dylan. The Greenwich Village folk scene of the early 1960s which Dylan arrives into at the beginning of the film,…
All posts by Keelan Gallagher
About Keelan Gallagher
Keelan Gallagher is a short story writer, screenwriter and film essayist from Letterkenny, Co. Donegal. His short stories have featured in ROPES Literary Journal and themilkhouse.org. His Irish-language script, ‘An Solas’, was nominated for Best Irish Feature Screenplay at Roscommon Film Festival 2024. His film writing featured in Issue #14 of Pretty Deadly Films.
‘A Complete Unknown’ has its haters. But It Ain’t Me, Babe.
Director: James Mangold Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Joe Tippett, Scoot McNairy, Norbert Leo Butz, Boyd Holbrook Running Time: 140 minutes Before a single shred of tangible information was available about James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown, originally titled ‘Going Electric’, critics and film personalities online were already analysing and comparing it…
The Price to be Paid: With ‘Nickel Boys’, a major new auteur announces himself
Director: RaMell Ross Starring: Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Hamish Linklater, Gralen Bryant Banks, Fred Hechinger, Jimmie Fails Running Time: 140 minutes One of the complaints often levelled at film critics’ choices for films that they collectively hail as ‘a masterpiece’ is their tendency to choose films that are formally and technically outstanding, but…
Me & My Monkey: Robbie Williams apes himself in new biopic, Better Man, to great effect
‘Fame makes monkeys of us all’ serves as both the tagline of the film Better Man, and also the conceit behind its most significant choice. Even if one had no knowledge of Robbie Williams or never saw the film, it was hard to argue that having the man himself represented by a Caesar-esque CGI ape…
With ‘Kraven the Hunter’, the wolf is at the door for the Sony Spider-Man Universe
Director: J.C. Chandor Starring: Aaron Taylor Johnson, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Russell Crowe, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott Running Time: 126 minutes Sergei ‘Kraven’ Kravinoff is a hunter. The press in the film (rather unimaginatively) refers to him as ‘The Hunter’. Sergei himself prefers ‘Kraven’, though with the proviso that, “anyone who knows that name is…
“Come and Raid My Closet!” (for Blu-Rays) – A Criterion Criteria
Film curation and sharing has experienced a rapid increase in popularity in recent years. The popularity of the film-logging social media site, Letterboxd, has made film obsession a modern personality trait, and the ‘Four Favourites’ arrangement on Letterboxd profiles has become a new way to wear our pop-culture loves on our sleeves, like patches on…
‘Venom: The Last Dance’ Review: An Uneven and Flat End to Hardy’s Antihero Saga
Director: Kelly Marcel Starring: Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Stephen Graham Running Time: 109 minutes When an actor reaches the zenith of their critical and commercial popularity, it can result in some truly insane passion projects. Will Smith made an alien movie with M. Night Shymalan to turn his son into a…
‘Sure, if you didn’t laugh, you’d cry!’: Ireland’s new wave of Horror-Comedy
We’re living in the Golden Age of Irish Horror and we’re dead excited about it. Throughout October we’re celebrating Samhain with interviews, reviews and retrospectives, that show how Ireland has risen to the top of the horror hierarchy. Genre crossovers have been attempted to varying success throughout film history. Sometimes, a screenwriter or director’s experimentation…