How can Eve Hewson play a working-class single mother? ‘We decided to completely stay away from social realism’John Carney, the director of Flora and Son, on creating a universe for his new film, an urban musical in the winning style of Once and Sing StreetSun Oct 01 2023 - 05:15
The Saviour review: A showcase for Marie Mullen’s room-filling stagecraftDublin Theatre Festival 2023: Deirdre Kinahan’s fine two-hander groans with dramatic commentary on where the nation has been and where it has ended upSat Sept 30 2023 - 11:32
The Movie Quiz: What do you often see at the start of Pixar films?Plus: Cage on a bike. Whitaker in Jarmusch. A Bill Cosby flop. An Oscar-winning role for whom?Fri Sept 29 2023 - 15:03
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar: A delightful amuse-bouche that reunites Wes Anderson and Roald DahlThree more adaptations featuring the same team will arrive on Netflix in coming daysFri Sept 29 2023 - 05:00
Michael Gambon: Actor was both a cult icon and national treasure, on both sides of the Irish SeaThe Irish actor was capable of threat and pathos, with the ability to boom and to shrink into his large frameThu Sept 28 2023 - 17:21
The Creator: This cracking AI yarn deserves to be a smashA strong, pulpy – if shallow – narrative never lets up in paceThu Sept 28 2023 - 06:00
Is it just matter of time before we see a TD dressed like a member of Limp Bizkit? Donald Clarke: If senators can dress like members of Limp Bizkit then the chaps serving them coffee should be allowed to do the sameSun Sept 24 2023 - 05:15
The Movie Quiz: The crew in Alien travelled in a tribute to whom?Plus: What message appeared at the end of The Spy Who Loved Me when it first screened?Fri Sept 22 2023 - 08:00
Flora and Son: Eve Hewson just about convinces as an inner-city mumOnce again John Carney uses music as redemption, but though this gossamer romance is lacking in big moments, it does have a sizeable heartFri Sept 22 2023 - 06:00
Dumb Money review: Undeniable if shallow pleasuresCraig Gillespie frames the GameStop stock controversy divide in us-and-them termsFri Sept 22 2023 - 05:19
Dumb Money: GameStop short-squeeze film will have you shouting ‘Sell, for God’s sake!’ at the screenDirector Craig Gillespie was inspired by his own son’s involvement in the strange Covid-era financial phenomenonWed Sept 20 2023 - 05:00
It’s not Yeats on the Dublin Marathon medal. It’s Marge Simpson. And you can quote me on thatI disapprove of erroneously attributed quotations, but I will defend to the death your right to erroneously attribute them, as Voltaire definitely saidSat Sept 16 2023 - 05:15
The Movie Quiz: What is the highest grossing film ever in Ireland?Plus: What just won the Golden Lion?Fri Sept 15 2023 - 08:00
A Haunting in Venice: Kenneth Branagh dishes up a Doge’s dinnerGrand ambition to marry horror and cosy murder mystery dishes up sausages on ice creamFri Sept 15 2023 - 05:05
Love Life: A complex film about family disharmony that will repay rewatchingThe real drama in Koji Fukada’s humanist film is crackling behind the eyes of troubled charactersFri Sept 15 2023 - 05:00
Once in a Lifetime review: What are we like? This lively four-hander assesses contemporary IrelandDublin Fringe Festival 2023: The drama may never escape one half-built room, but it covers a huge number of squabbling pointsSun Sept 10 2023 - 10:05
Burning Man’s tech bros, earth poets and mime artists: Go on, admit you laughed about the mud Donald Clarke: What matters in life is not how high you get but how much higher you get than anyone elseSun Sept 10 2023 - 05:15
Venice film festival: Irish-produced Poor Things wins top Golden Lion awardPoor Things, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and produced by Irish company Element Pictures, wins Golden LionSat Sept 09 2023 - 20:54
Pablo Larraín on his Pinochet film: ‘It’s a vampire movie. It’s also a farce. It deals with horrific, horrific people’The Chilean director whose previous films include Jackie, about Jackie Kennedy, and Spencer, about Princess Diana, turns his attention to the dictator who ruled his country for 17 yearsSat Sept 09 2023 - 05:15
The Movie Quiz: How many films share the all-time record for most Oscar wins?Plus: Which does not feature a True Detective?Fri Sept 08 2023 - 16:20
A Life on the Farm: A warm-hearted celebration of an oddity for the agesOscar Harding’s film about the late Somerset farmer Charles Carson is an odd mixFri Sept 08 2023 - 05:00
Past Lives: Beautiful, slyly moving cinematic debut heralds a new star in the firmamentWriter-director Celine Song does the unexpected in this story about emotional and literal distanceThu Sept 07 2023 - 05:00
Venice International Film Festival: An Irish film becomes favourite to win the Golden LionAn opening week of controversy, baking heat and the welcome return of Irish actor Michael FassbenderWed Sept 06 2023 - 10:51
The Killer first-look review: An icy Michael Fassbender stars in David Fincher’s excellent new thrillerVenice International Film Festival 2023: This may be David Fincher’s sleekest and most uncomplicatedly entertaining film in yearsMon Sept 04 2023 - 10:14
Why red carpets still matter even to striking Hollywood starsThere is no more convincing way of assuring your sponsors and patrons what you signify than getting photographs on the front pageSun Sept 03 2023 - 05:15
Past Lives director Celine Song: ‘For an immigrant the Statue of Liberty is a wonderfully romantic place’The director’s semi-autobiographical debut set in New York and Seoul is already creating an Oscars buzzSat Sept 02 2023 - 05:30
Poor Things first-look review: Emma Stone has never been better, and a moustache-twirling Mark Ruffalo has a ballVenice International Film Festival 2023: Yorgos Lanthimos’s new film won’t be in Irish cinemas until January. It’ll be well worth the waitFri Sept 01 2023 - 17:45
The Movie Quiz: How many Irish films have won the Golden Lion?Plus: Who won best actor last year at the Venice Film Festival?Fri Sept 01 2023 - 05:00
Apocalypse Clown review: This Irish comedy horror will play forever to beered-up studentsDirector George Kane is a fine craftsman who knows how to get the best out of comic actors in unlikely situationsFri Sept 01 2023 - 05:00
Passages review: Ben Whishaw is a marvel – but you can’t take your eyes off Franz RogowskiA torrid, gripping drama that economically picks apart a doomed ménage à troisThu Aug 31 2023 - 05:00
Venice film festival 2023: Few Hollywood stars but competition will be fierce for the Golden Lion Hollywood stars may be missing but competition will be fierce for the Golden LionMon Aug 28 2023 - 05:00
Four new films to see this weekThe charming, hilarious send-up Theater Camp, the entertaining The Blackening, Christian Petzold’s singular Afire, and the knockabout ScrapperSun Aug 27 2023 - 05:00
Nicholas Lyndhurst joins Frasier: You’d think it was the risen queen sitting beside Kelsey GrammerDonald Clarke: And whatever you do, don’t call the new series a reboot. We’ve been through this beforeSun Aug 27 2023 - 05:00
‘When Denzel Washington is on the screen he’s giving his all. That’s what people love’Star has been a constant force in Antoine Fuqua’s film-directing career. The Equalizer 3 is their fifth collaboration in 22 yearsSat Aug 26 2023 - 05:30
The Movie Quiz: Whose nose created some kerfuffle in the last week?Plus: Barbie just passed $1 billion. How many films have now made that much?Fri Aug 25 2023 - 12:31
Theater Camp: A rollicking, endlessly good-natured send-up of musical theatreThe chutzpah of the cast and the inventive jokes constantly distract from the cliched narrativeThu Aug 24 2023 - 05:15
Barbie becomes Ireland’s most successful box office film, ending Avatar’s 14-year recordGreta Gerwig’s smash hit has amassed €8.85m, making it Ireland’s highest-grossing movie, as it continues to break records worldwideWed Aug 23 2023 - 09:51
Louis Garrel: ‘I have a good friend from Ireland. When he speaks I don’t understand a word’The director and star of The Innocent has become one of his nation’s most sought-after actors. But he still enjoys a bit of self-deprecationWed Aug 23 2023 - 05:30
The Blackening: This comedy horror’s a bit of a muddle – but an entertaining oneAre we supposed to be scared or are we supposed to be laughing at the absurdity of it all?Wed Aug 23 2023 - 05:00
The Maestro mess: Did Bradley Cooper really need to tamper with his nose to play Leonard Bernstein?Donald Clarke: A class of dull pedantry seems to have taken over in the production officeSun Aug 20 2023 - 05:00
Four new films to see this weekLatino culture celebrated in enjoyable DC yarn Blue Beetle, plus chilly AI drama T.I.M., unfunny adult doggy tale Strays, and Desperate Optimists in thoughtful The Future TenseSun Aug 20 2023 - 05:00
The Movie Quiz: In which Star Wars film do we first hear Darth Vader’s sinister Imperial March?Plus:Fri Aug 18 2023 - 05:00
Michael Parkinson was a maestro of the golden age of British televisionParkinson, who has died aged 88, will be remembered for his blend of entertainment and serious thinking, a rare combination todayThu Aug 17 2023 - 15:25
Strays review: A gleefully obscene comedy about cute dogs with potty mouths Warning: ‘Adult themes explored from a canine perspective.’ Further warning: it’s not very goodThu Aug 17 2023 - 08:00
Blue Beetle: This is not how we expected Susan Sarandon to enter her golden yearsDirector Ángel Manuel Soto can congratulate himself on bringing freshness to an often turgid genre but the problems are pretty typicalWed Aug 16 2023 - 18:00
Burt Reynolds as 007, Sandra Bullock in The Matrix, Emilia Clarke in Fifty Shades: 12 starring roles that never wereA dozen juicy parts that, for one reason or another, actors pushed to the side of their plate, beginning nearly a century agoMon Aug 14 2023 - 05:15
‘Overrated’ should be banished from any grown-up lexicon. Except when I use itIconoclastic critics are – to turn their own words against them – short on emotional resonance, boring as sin and not all that compellingSun Aug 13 2023 - 05:00
Four new films to see in cinemas this weekA fun cast can’t save Disney’s limp Haunted Mansion. Plus sensitive Trouble documentary Face Down, true-life video game tale Gran Turismo, and Penélope Cruz in Italian transgender drama L’immensitàSun Aug 13 2023 - 05:00
Netflix’s Chef’s Table Brian McGinn: ‘There are certainly people in Ireland I am keen to make films about’Brian McGinn, co-creator of Chef’s Table on Netflix, on working on The Bear and the art of lighting a kitchenSat Aug 12 2023 - 05:00
Much to disentangle in new film about IRA abduction and killing of German in BelfastDavid Blake Knox, who first examined the kidnapping and murder of Thomas Niedermayer in a 2019 book, is keen to show how such outrages spread misery through generationsSat Aug 12 2023 - 00:00
