#1: Chicken Jockeys and Psych Wards The year 1975 is widely ascribed to be the first canonical ‘Great Movie Year’ – that is the first to have its movies lauded, interrogated and discussed widely as a collective. The dawn of the modern blockbuster with Steven Spielberg’s Jaws arrived alongside a raft of exciting auteur-driven projects,…
This article contains spoilers for Sinners, in Irish cinemas now. A beloved Irish standard, ‘Rocky Road to Dublin’ describes the travails and troubles of a young man who leaves home to seek his fortune. Along the way he drinks, dances and tries to catch the eye of the lassies with his curious style, but he…
It’s Mother’s Day in Ireland tomorrow – we know you didn’t forget – and it’s an opportunity to celebrate the matriarchal figures in your life, whether it’s taking your real-life mammy out for tea or putting on your Aliens DVD and insisting that the Alien Queen did nothing wrong, in the dark, to yourself. Mothers…
It’s no secret that Irish audiences love the cinema. Our figures for cinema admissions per head have consistently been among the highest in Europe since the mid-90s, and have been steadily increasing again since the full closure era of the Covid-19 Pandemic. This is part thanks to having plenty of multiscreen sites across the island…
The 2025 Dublin International Film Festival has gotten off to a roaring start. Thursday’s Opening Night Gala saw Light House Cinema’s Screen 1 hosting everyone’s favourite ‘King of the Conclave’, Ralph Fiennes, in attendance for the Irish premiere of his new film, The Return, alongside the film’s director, Uberto Pasolini. Friday saw a fantastic celebration…
Love is in the air in the fair city of film. Across Dublin’s cinemas, there’s plenty of Valentine’s Day screenings afoot, whether it’s The People’s Joker at the Light House, romance rescreenings at the Stella, or 80th anniversary screenings of heartbreaking classic Brief Encounter at the IFI. The new Bridget Jones is out, as is…
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,…
“Get on your knees” Harris Dickinson orders Nicole Kidman, as their characters tentatively crawl into a sub-dom affair in Halina Reijn’s Babygirl. His character means it, but in the moment he does something disarming; he laughs, his cocky intern Samuel struck by the absurdity of ordering the older, steely CEO Romy Mathis around sexually, when…
Tickets please! Introducing the Cinema Scarf, the glow of the big screen feeling, all wrapped up in the colours of the fair city of film. A movie moment starring you, now showing. Get yours now: https://ko-fi.com/s/8e62c27c66
In Nickel Boys, RaMell Ross’ film whose artistic and stylistic innovation is wholly matched by a deep emotional resonance at its heart, form and function come together to provide the viewer with an invaluable perspective. The camera is mostly placed within the point of view of the film’s two lead characters, the principled and inspired…
