I went to this movie with a very high expectation, I had read numerous glowing reviews on web-sites and newspapers, my favorite film critic, Mark Kermode, had said that this was the film of the year so far & members of my family and friends were telling me that this was one you had to see in the cinema. I had a vague idea of what the buzz was with it from the trailer and from people plot spoiling, I had grown to like Tilda Swinton in the last few things she had done and I was eager to see her in a film where she would take on the leading role. So if you said, I was looking forward to check it out We Need To Talk About Kevin, you would probably be right.



Myself and Darren were chilling in our place, restless and bored, as you are when it's the middle of the week, your living in town and there aren't many people around. We both bottled it during the weekend because there was an unmissable documentary about Susan Boyle on, and we weren't missing that for the life of us. So . . . anyway, there we were again, on a brisk Tuesday night with a similar dilemma, were we to go to cinema to check this film out or were we going to stay in and watch the Snapper, a film both of us hadn't seen in a while. Fuck it, we thought, lets get our arses out of the apartment and hit up the Screen for some weird homicidal arthouse cinema. Lets do it!



There is a lot to be said about entering the cinema from the back of the auditorium, why? You may ask, I'll tell you why. If you have the entrance at the front of the auditorium, as they do in the Screen Cinema, it is health and safety policy to have a big fuck off emergancy exit sign above the door, a sign that has to remain on at all times. Now, for the people who are responisble for that, you do realise how irritating it is going to be to try and watch a film with that in our eye lines, the thing is right beside the screen, what are you doing? The sign was catching my eye for the duration of the cinematic experience. When are people going to realize that even the slightest bit of light is going to distract a person, especially this person.

The film is centred around the Tilda Swinton character, Eva, a woman that is obviously going through or has gone through what looks to be a slight nervous breakdown. She lives on her own in a small dilapidated house that has been viscously vandalized with red paint, her car has also received similar abuse and every where she goes, she encounters women who are not only threatening to her but are physically abusive to her. We are now fairly clear that something very bad has happened, what could Eva have done to have deserved all this? We then jump into flash backs, where Tidla Swinton is in the arms of John C Rielly, they are completely in love, everything is great and they are expecting a baby. The baby eventually arrives and this is where we encounter Kevin for the first time.



As a baby, Kevin is a crier, actually not a crier but a screamer, the worst kind of baby a person could ask for. As Kevin grows up to be a toddler, we see that this child is slowly evolving into a little demon. The John C Rielly character, Franklin, some how maintains a solid relationship with his son, Kevin, throughout film but, his mother, Eva (Swinton) cannot understand or connect with Kevin in anyway. Along comes a little sister into the mix as Kevin grows towards his adolescence and we see that he has not calmed down or matured with age, but that he has gotten worse, and he is now brandishing a bow and arrow.

Okay, I'm gonna start off by saying, I was hugely disappointed by this film, I found it highly depressing and unnecessarily nasty at points. I was trying to figure out why there was such a natural resentment towards the Tilda Swinton character from Kevin, and not to the John C Rielly character. I was also confused by the fact that the father (Rielly) wasn't aware of the way Kevin was treating his mother when it was happening right in front of him, was this some arthouse methaphor. I was waiting for some moment of revelation towards the end in one of these character, a reason for all of this, a twist maybe, anything that would justify me sitting there watching it. This wasn't a moral tail in anyway, none of the character changed or redeemed themselves. It wasn't a journey that I believe any mother goes through with their sons, even if they do reject them at birth or even have problems connecting with them in later teenage years. Another thing I couldn't get my head around was the way society was reacting towards a woman in Eva's position in the present tenths, I just didn't see the point of any of it. I didn't believe any of it, Tilda Swinton was too strong a character in the past tenths, she was a published writer who had experienced traveling, a person that had everything going for her except for her relationship with her son, only the relationship with her son.

If I'm gonna be honest, I thought Tilda Swinton was brilliant in it and she'll probably get an Oscar nod for it as well, you really do feel that this is a woman who has hit bottom, she oozes venerability and she pulls off the performance of her life. Its just the story didn't do it for me, that's what let this film down. John C Rielly is his usual reliable self, an actor who no stranger to vuneralility and he compliments Swinton throughout the film, you can really tell he is such an easy actor to work with.
Another positive is that the film itself looks great, the use of colors in each scene, loads of reds. The film opens with Tilda Swintons character, obviously at a younger age, taking part in the famous annual tomato fight in Valencia and each shot is just filled with red. This is a strong reacuring color throughout the film for obvious reasons. That would be the work of Irish Cinematographer, Seamas MacGarvey, whose work we have seen before in the likes of Atonment & The Hours.
The performance by our leading man, our villian, Kevin, was a weird one, the actors name is Ezra Miller and unfortunately, I thought he was extremely missed cast. For a fifteen year old, he pulled off some performance but, I thought he was wrong for the part. He was simply too good looking for the part. I know that sounds stupid but I couldn't get it out of my head. He also gave the Kevin character way too much style, the character was dressed like Jim Morrison for pretty much the whole movie, with his loose fitting white shirt, tight trousers and a laired trendy hair doo. I just didn't buy it. It would of worked an awful lot better if Kevin was way more unasuming and, I don't know, subtle, more invisiable, nothing. They made him out to be this dark intraverted, mysterious rock star, who, if you ask me, is way too over developed for his age. He walks around a good portion of the film with his top off, abs and all out on show, it just didn't sit well with me, it was weird. I was shocked the young actor was fifteen when I checked it out after.



Listen this film is as 'Arthouse' as it gets, a lot of people will like it for the same reasons why I hated it. Its nasty, its depressing and you feel empty coming out of it. As I said earlier, I was hoping for some sort of revalation to justify me watch this film but it never came. I had made my conclusion as to where this film could be going in the first ten minutes of the film and I was spot on, except I thought something else unexpected was going to surprise me, but it never happened. It was exactly as I predicted.

I thought about it and I thought about it, what was this film about? And the most solid answer I could come up with was, that it is a film about fear of commitment, a fear of loosing your youth, the freedom of youth. The film opens with Tilda Swinton having a blast in this exotic place, she is free, she is happy. Kevin represents loosing that freedom. The reason why I thought this was, because I'm coming that age where these desisions are imminent. I'm 30, the twenties are gone, its time to take things seriously. Kevin is that, loosing the freedom of your youth and to pull this off, the director has used one of the most terrifying of commitments, have a child. If there is any deep meaning to it, I believe that is it.

I went to this movie with a very high expectation, I had read numerous glowing reviews on web-sites and newspapers, my favorite film critic, Mark Kermode, had said that this was the film of the year so far & members of my family and friends were telling me that this was one you had to see in the cinema. I had a vague idea of what the buzz was with it from the trailer, I had grown to like Tilda Swinton in the last few things she had done and I was eager to see her in a film where she would take on the leading role. So if you said, I was looking forward to check it out We Need To Talk About Kevin, you would probably be right.



Myself and Darren were chilling in our place, restless and bored, as you are when it's the middle of the week, your living in town and there aren't many people around. We both bottled it during the weekend because there was an unmissable documentary about Susan Boyle on, and we weren't missing that for the life of us. So . . . anyway, there we were again, on a brisk Tuesday night with a similar dilemma, were we to go to cinema to check this film out or were we going to stay in and watch the Snapper, a film both of us hadn't seen in a while. Fuck it, we thought, lets get our arses out of the apartment and hit up the Screen for some weird homicidal arthouse cinema. Lets do it!

There is a lot to be said about entering the cinema from the back of the auditorium, why? You may ask, I'll tell you why. If you have the entrance at the front of the auditorium, as they do in the Screen Cinema, it is health and safety policy to have a big fuck off emergancy exit sign above the door. Now, for the people who are responisble for that, you do realise how irritating it is going to be to try and watch a film with that in my eye line, you've put the thing right beside the screen. The sign was catching my eye for the duration of the cinematic experience. When are people going to realize even the slightest bit of light is going to distract a person, especially this person.



The film is centred around the Tilda Swinton character, Eva, a woman that is obviously going through or has gone through what looks to be a slight nervous breakdown. She lives on her own in a small dilapidated house that has been viscously vandalized with red paint, her car has also received similar abuse and every where she goes, she encounters women who are not only threatening to her but are physically abusive to her. We are now fairly clear that something very bad has happened, what could Eva have done to have deserved this? We then jump into flash backs, where Tidla Swinton is in the arms of John C Rielly, they are completely in love, everything is great and they are expecting a baby. The baby eventually arrives and this is where we encounter Kevin for the first time.

As a baby, Kevin is a crier, actually not a crier but a screamer, the worst kind of baby a person could ask for. As Kevin grows up to be a toddler, we see that this child is slowly evolving into a little demon. The John C Rielly character, Franklin, some how maintains a solid relationship with his son, Kevin, throughout film but, his mother, Eva (Swinton) cannot understand or connect with Kevin in anyway. Along comes a little sister into the mix as Kevin grows towards his adolescence and we see that he has not calmed down or matured with age, he has gotten worse, and he is now brandishing a bow and arrow.

Okay, I'm gonna start off by saying, I was hugely disappointed by this film, I found it highly depressing and unnecessarily nasty at points. I was trying to figure out why there was such a natural resentment towards the Tilda Swinton character from Kevin, and not to the John C Rielly character. I was also confused of the fact that the father (Rielly) wasn't aware of the way Kevin was treating his mother when it was happening right in front of him. I was waiting for some moment of revelation towards the end in one of these character, a reason for all of this, a twist maybe, anything that would justify me sitting there watching it. This wasn't a moral tail in anyway, none of the character changed or redeemed themselves. It wasn't a journey that I believe any mother goes through with their sons, even if they do reject them from the time of birth or even have problems connecting with them in later years. Another thing I couldn't get my head around was the way society was reacting towards a woman in Eva's position in the present tenths, I just didn't see the point of any of it. I didn't believe any of it, Tilda Swinton was too strong a character in the past tenths, she was a published writer who had experienced traveling, a person that had everything going for her except for her relationship with her son.

If I'm gonna be honest, I thought Tilda Swinton was brilliant in it and she'll probably get an Oscar nod for it as well, you really do feel that this is a woman who has hit bottom, she oozes venerability and she pulls off the performance of her life, its just the story didn't do it for me, that's what let this film down. John C Rielly is his usual reliable self, an actor who no stranger to vuneralility and he compliments Swinton throughout the film, you can really tell he is such an easy actor to work with.
Another positive is that the film itself looks great, the use of colors in each scene, loads of reds. The film opens with Tilda Swintons character, obviously at a younger age, taking part in the famous annual tomato fight in Valencia and each shot is just filled with red. This is a strong reacuring color throughout the film for obvious reasons. That would be the work of Irish Cinematographer, Seamas MacGarvey, whose work we have seen before in the likes of Atonment & The Hours.
The performance by our leading man, our villian, Kevin, was a weird one, the actors name is Ezra Miller and unfortunately for me, I though he was extremely missed cast. For a fifteen year old, he pulled off the some performance but, I thought he was wrong for the part, he was simply too good looking for the part. I know that sounds stupid but I couldn't get it out of my head. He also gave the Kevin character way too much style, the character was dressed like Jim Morrison for pretty much the whole movie, with his loose fitting white shirt, tight trousers and his laired trendy hair doo. I just didn't buy it. It would of worked an awful lot better if Kevin was way more unasuming and, I don't know, subtle. They made him out to be this dark intraverted, mysterious rock star, who, if you ask me, is way too over developed for his age. He walks around a good portion of the film with his top off, abs and all out on show, it just didn't sit well with me, it was weird. I was shocked the young actor was fifteen when I checked it out after.
Listen this film is as 'Arthouse' as it gets, a lot of people will like it for the simple reasons why I hated it. Its nasty, its depressing and you feel empty coming out of it. As I said earlier, I was hoping for some sort of revalation to justify me watch this film but it never came. I had made my conclusion as to where this film could be going in the first ten minutes of the film and I was spot on, except I thought something was going to surprise me, but it never happened. It was exactly as I predicted.

I Love A Nazi

Whenever I’m about to start into a Lars Von Trier movie I definitely have to go in with an open mind, I think everyone does. The four movies I’ve seen directed by him were . . . . . . Memorable, to say the least. I remember back in college, when I was stubborn and set in my ways, I checked out The Idiots and I remember hating it. I remember wanting to punch things very hard after seeing that movie, I thought was portentous dross and it bored the arse off me. Then, I remember sitting down with my father a couple of years later to see Dancer in the Dark, and I remember being absolutely blown away. They’re rare, those moments, when I am proper moved to tears by a film but Dancer in the Dark was one them.



Next was Dogville which I thought was an excellent piece. I thought what he was trying to do with sound stage interesting and it worked, the story was also brilliant. But, then we had the squeamish, depressing experience that was Anti-Christ. A film that was not enjoyable to watch in the slightest and there were several occasions when I wanted to stop watching but I thought the subject matter was really interesting, the subject of loss, loss of child. That topic is very rarely raised and analysed in the intense fashion that it did in Anti-Christ and that’s why I liked it. It was a brilliant movie about something really horrible. I was now ready for Melancholia.



Melancholia was originally released at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where Lars Von Trier famously said, at the post premier press conference that he sympathy for Hitler and the Nazi, and that he himself too was a Nazi. Obviously, this joke didn’t go down very well and he was kick out of the festival. Feck it, though, people were talking about his film after that and Kirsten Dunst ended up taking home the Best Actress gong. The trailer grabbed me immediately and this was one of the films from Cannes I was eagerly awaiting.



The story is split into 2 parts; first we have Part 1 – Justine. Justine is played by Kirsten Dunst and she and her new husband arrive 2 hours late to their overly expensive wedding reception paid by her rich brother in law, John played by Keifer Sutherland. Before they walk into the reception, Justine gives reference to a star in the sky which is mistaken by John as the Star, Anteraes; this is obviously the first sign of Melancholia. From there, you can cut the tension with a knife as they enter the reception; we are introduced to all the characters at the party one by one. The overly concerned sister, Claire, played by Charlotte Gainsburg, we meet the parents who have nothing to do with each other and make no bones about making that fact clear. Her mother played by Charlotte Rampling, is a self-centred bitch who does nothing but causes tension and when she is asked for help and advice from Justine, she has nothing to offer. The father played by John Hurt, the only character you think is going to come through for Justine but in the end, he just isn’t there when needed. We also meet her slime ball boss play by brilliant Stellan Starsgard and the over the top, wedding planner played by Udo Kier. All of this, with her unassuming new husband who looks as if he is at his wits end and frankly doesn’t know what he has got himself in for.

Part 2 follows the Charlotte Gainsburg character, Claire, Justine’s sister, the story has jumped forward a few weeks, not so long after the wedding and Melancholia is clear in the sky. The world believes that it will just pass by Earth and will be one of the most beautiful sites the world has ever seen but Claire has her reservations as Justine arrives asking for help.

I really enjoyed Melancholia as a film, it was hard work at times but that was what it was meant be like. It is dealing with the subject of depression, and they did it brilliantly, the whole idea of Melancholia as a metaphor for depression, consuming you until it is all you can think of, where you can’t function at times its so bad. Again like, Anti-Christ, it is a brilliant film about something really horrible, it isn’t meant to be enjoyable or easy going. This film is meant to make you feel uncomfortable, it’s meant to make you think about depression and how it affects people, this is not an easy thing to do. All I’ve been hearing for the last couple of days is people saying that this film is Lars Von Trier wanking off. I did not see much wanking there what so ever, I think people just see Von Triers name and they automatically think wanky portentous bollix. But I saw a proper film maker making a well acted, well shot, well scripted piece about a very difficult topic. Obviously, this is a personal theme for not only Von Trier and for some of the actors involved and you saw that on the screen and I have to applaud them. If Kirsten Dunst and Lars Von Trier don’t get nominated for an Oscars, I’ll be shocked.

Oscar season has kicked off; well . . . it has in my head anyway. Normally, any film that takes home the Best Picture Oscar or even contends for the Best Picture Oscar is release in cinemas between now an Christmas, so I reckon I’m gonna have to start hitting up the cinema a bit more over the coming months. I’ve seemed to be slacking in my old age, but something tells me it’s not out of laziness. It’s just that nothing has tickled my fancy out there, nothing has come along in the last month that I am willing to part 8 euro for, in order to see. . . . . . Until now

Drive

First up, we have the film that took home the Best Director Award at Cannes, Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘Drive’. When I originally saw the trailer, Ryan Gosling sitting in a car, waiting, a sweet, low, italo-beat playing to heighten the tension, one balaclavaed man sprints out of a warehouse and into the car, followed by another one and away Ryan goes. It was all looking very cool and it wasn’t your typical trailer, there was something there that grabbed you, I couldn’t wait. A couple of months later, the film is finally released in Dublin and I’m first in line to see it.



Ryan Gosling’s character is a driver, yes; he is a man with a car, a man that can pretty much do anything with a car. The scene in which I was familiar with already, the trailer scene, is the opening scene of the movie. This is obviously his night job; he is hired wheels for anyone who needs to get the fuck out of somewhere pronto. He doesn’t want to know about the job, he just wants to know where & when, he’ll be there. He gives you a five minute window in which to get your criminal activity done & dusted and out into his back seat, where he can guarantee you he will have you home safe & sound in your bed and away from any enforcers of the law. Cut to probably the slickest title sequence I’ve seen in a while – tune.

We then checkout Gosling’s character’s day job - he is a stunt man in Hollywood and a very highly rated one at that, he has his lovable boss, Shannon, who is played by Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston who thinks the world of him. Shannon wants to push the Gosling character, okay, I’m gonna stop calling him the Gosling character now, the character is not given a name in the film, its got that real Clint man with no name, loner kind of buzz off it. Anyway, Shannon (Bryan Cranston) wants to break into the motor racing game with . . . . . . . . . . Driver as his . . . driver but he needs cash to do it so he goes to Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) and his friend, Nino (Ron Pearlman) for backing. This is really clever casting if you ask me. First off, Albert Brooks, probably one of the nicest, cuddly looking guys you’ll ever see, he is so unthreatening looking and is always comic relief in everything that he does, but not in this. This is a toughest Albert Brooks your ever gonna see, and as for Ron Pearlman, after Hell Boy, you gotta want to hug big Ron.

We then follow Driver home and we begin to see this very slow-moving relationship begin, well, I wouldn’t say relationship, more like a flirtation with one of his neighbours who is played by Carey Mulligan. She lives alone with her kid and is obviously in need of a hunky man like Ryan Gosling. The first meeting between the two characters is simply eye contact in the lift and progresses from there, but sadly, she is married and her husband is coming home from prison, shortly.

Its funny, this film is like two films, a film of two halves, as they might say. The first film is this slick, slow moving exploitation movie about this loner driver with no name living in LA who has this dark, edgy side to him. He meets this amazing girl that he slowly falls in love with, the music and costumes are quality and we have an angry husband coming back from prison to ruin it all. Sounds like a simple film narrative. Well, let me tell you, the whole film takes a sudden turn as soon as the husband comes home. All of a sudden, the plot starts speeding up like a motherfucker and you don’t know where you are. For some reason the Albert Brookes character and the Ron Pearlman character are connected to the husband of your one, and then the Bryan Cranston character get involved and the whole thing descends into manic violence. And I’m not talking about bang, bang, your dead kind of violence, I’m talking stab, stab, I’ll stove your head in, Reversible kind of violence. There I was, settling into this nicely paced romantic film with an edge to it and out of nowhere it was like I was sitting in one of Ryan Goslings race cars and he completely changed gear, not only changed gear but he hit the fucking nitro.

I cannot ignore that the script was choppy and all over the place, it seemed rushed and it was like they didn’t know how to end the film but, say that, Drive has got so many good elements to it as well. Ryan Gosling to begin with, I loved him in Blue Valentine & Half Nelson, and I loved him in this. We are talking about a seriously good actor here, his performance in each film I’ve been lucky to see him in has been completely unique. In Drive, he shows amazing control & screen presence, he goes down the road of lesser is better and it works. He has the cool, toothpick chewing rebel quality of James Dean mixed with the edgy, bordering on psychotic shyness of Travis Bickle, quality work from him. There is also something about Carey Mulligan that I adore as well, she is the type of girl you see yourself falling in love with, the type of girl you just want to protect and look after and also . . . . She’s extremely hot. Ron Pearlman, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brookes and also a brief couple of scenes with Joan from Mad Men were all good, but their characters never really had the time to develop into anything, as most of the film was dedicated to Gosling, Mulligan and their relationship.

Another character that is very prevalent in this film is the city of LA. As in the likes of Training Day and Heat, LA comes across nearly as a character in this film. Each scene is inter-cut with a mix beautiful over head shots of downtown Los Angeles or wide-angle shots of the beach front. Newton Thomas Siegel, was the director of photography on this, he did stuff like Usual Suspects & the X-Men movies and he needs to be applauded for how this film looks, it looks sweet as a nut.

But my favourite aspect of the film by far was the soundtrack, what a fucking soundtrack, essence of Miami Vice & To Live and Die in LA all over. As I am writing this piece, I am downloading it and I cannot wait to give it a listen after. The soundtrack is a combination of emotional synthy italo disco mixed with a load of moody ominous electro, it is slicker than you can imagine and Nicolas Winding Refn needs a round of applause for his choice. I noticed he had done it in Bronson, another film I thought lost its way half way through, but its soundtrack kicked ass.



All in all, I enjoyed Drive, it wasn’t the best film of the year by a long shot, there is an awful lot wrong with that second half but performances were good, ideas in the film were good and its soundtrack will definitely be featuring on the Made for Film podcast over the next couple of months

This week is the last opportunity for the people of Dublin to see Terrence Malick’s epic, The Tree of Life, in the cinema. As always the Screen Cinema has seen the importance in this not so commercial film and left it running for as long as possible. I went to see the film on Wednesday afternoon at the Screen and I was joined by 6 others in the auditorium, I’m sure it has been this way for most of the screening over the last number of weeks, but still the Screen shows it. It truly is worth the trip to the cinema, it is a masterpiece, if you haven’t seen it and you plan on seeing it at some stage, then you must see it in the cinema. I’m only sorry I didn’t see it on one of those IMAX jobs, it would of blown the bollix off me.


I had first heard about the film when reading about this year’s entrants at Cannes and that it was a major favourite for accolades at the festival and one definitely not to miss for the critics. It had supposedly been a long 5 year slog to get the film written, shot and released. Firstly, I think, Heath Ledger was in line to play, what was then, the Brad Pitt character back in 2007 but, for obvious reasons, had to be recast. Then, with a release date set in 2009, the shooting went over schedule, as they normally do on Mr. Mallick’s films and then, finally, problems with their distribution company led to the 2010 release date being cancelled. I hit up the trailer on You Tube and was immediately impressed and I could not wait for this monster of a film. I had then heard, 3 weeks later, that it took home the main prize at Cannes, the Palm D’Or Award, I knew it, this film was going to be huge. Bring it on, I thought


I have always loved Terrence Mallick’s films, the slowness of the stories, the depth of the subject matter, the sheer beauty of the photography, the quality of the acting, the unquestionable attention to detail from every department, I just love them, all 6 of them, yes, just 5 feature films. In Terrence Malick’s near 40 year career he has made only 5 films.

He kicked everything off in 1973 with the crime classic, Badlands which pretty much launched the careers of Martin Sheen & Sissy Spasek. In 1978, five years later, Malick tried his hand an epic period piece with Days of Heaven which would not only make Richard Gere a new leading man in Hollywood but it would also get legendary cult status where it is described as ‘the forgotten Terrence Malick film’ and ‘the greatest unknown film of the 70s.’ There would be then a 20 year gap in the career of Terrence Malick. He would move to Paris and begin work on his so called master piece ‘Q’ which then evolved into ‘The Tree of Life’ over 30 years later. In 1998, Malick would return with a whopper, probably, in my opinion, the greatest war movie of all time – The Thin Red Line. This brought him right back into the thick of it again, everyone talking about Terrence Malick, Terrence Malick, is this what he has been doing for twenty years? If you, for some weird reason, haven’t seen ‘The Thin Red Line’ get your arse out and see that film, it is unreal. Just talking about The Thin Red Line alone I could be here all night. 7 years would pass until his next project and it would be his example that a film can be a work of art, The New World. Now, this film wouldn’t get the praise as the others did, but, I could not give a shite, I thought it was deadly. You will never see photography like the photography in The New World in any other film, it is simply mind blowing and, ye know what, it is a perfect example of how quality an actor Colin Farrell really is. Then we have the one that Malick has been writing for 30 years, The Tree of Life and it is as good as anything he has done before. It is truly a spectacle.


I know, how some people must feel when reading this, I understand that some people don’t get it or that he’s not their cup of tea but for me, I think he is without question the best type of director making the best type of cinema. Cinema that actually means something, it’s about something, there are questions being asked. It’s about something that’s goes beyond the simple narrative of the film, so much so that, in some cases like The Tree of Life, for instance, the narrative can suffer. It is in the same ball park as 2001 Space Odyssey and Citizen Kane, and must be seen by all, doesn’t matter if they love it or loath it.

Cowboys & Aliens - I Cant Fucking Wait

Swingers and Iron Man director, Jon Favreau's new action movie hits theatres over the coming weeks and it looks sweet, well, the trailer looks sweet. It stars Daniel Craig & Harrison Ford and it's called "Cowboys and Aliens"



Cowboys & Aliens may be lassoing its way into theaters over the next two weeks, but the movie's journey to the big screen began a long time ago in a galaxy ... well, not so far away.

The current incarnation of Jon Favreau's adaptation of Scott Mitchell Rosenberg's 2006 graphic novel is a far cry from what the director had originally envisioned. When we first heard about the project back in '08, it seemed to be shaping up to be "Iron Man 2.0 or something" with Favreau directing, the "Iron Man" screenwriters doing the script and Robert Downey Jr. pegged as the flick's leading man.

Cowboys & Aliens was initially set to begin filming in 2009, but with Downey Jr. unsure about committing to the role and Favreau still not officially onboard, things were still up in the air. Also by then, the "Cowboys & Aliens" script was in the capable hands of "Star Trek" writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who admitted that they had veered from the source material.

In January 2010, Downey Jr. parted ways with "Cowboys & Aliens." Fortunately, things started looking up only two days later, when it was announced that Daniel Craig was in talks to replace the "Iron Man" star, as protagonist Zeke Johnson. In addition, the movie was set to start filming in July of that year, potentially in 3-D, what else.

The casting announcements continued flowing in, including Olivia Wilde who came onboard as the movie's leading lady. With the majority of the major players set to go, "Cowboys & Aliens" was given a July 2011 release date.

In April 2010, rumors began to swirl that Harrison Ford would join "Cowboys & Aliens". Favreau confirmed on Twitter that Han Solo himself would star opposite Craig and Wilde, making this one of the coolest casts around. The casting news just kept coming, with Noah Ringer, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach, Paul Dano, Keith Carradine, Clancy Brown and Walton Goggins added as well. The buzz for the flick continued to grow right through to its 2010 Comic-Con presentation, where fanboys salivated at the news that Wilde had filmed a nude scene just days before the event.

But it wasn't until November that the rest of the world got a taste of what was in store. The first trailer arrived on November 17, and Favreau stopped by MTV's offices to offer his own commentary on it. Then in February, another exciting new trailer aired during the Super Bowl. MTV News was lucky enough to get Favreau back for more trailer dissection. Plenty more "Cowboys" trailers followed. This is getting exciting

I, for one, cant wait for this one

Genuis is shown at Setanta

For anyone who might be interested, believe it or not, but Setanta Ireland, yes, the sport channel that we all know and love, have decided to try something new out for their summer repertoire and, let me tell you, it has nothing to do with sport. For the next six weeks, while the premier league has stopped for the summer months, Setanta are showing an Irish film every week night at 9pm.


That is 5 Irish films a week for 6 weeks, savage, 30 Irish movieson tap now for the next month and a half. But I immediately thought to myself, here we go, The Commitments, Into the West, The General, etc but, no, I have not seen one of the films that are being featured this week. I also thought, I bet you they will be all these culchie period dramas, wrong again. They are really mixing it up with genres too. What an amazing idea.

I would have loved to of been in the room when someone proposed that one.

Boardroom of Setanta – Head of Setanta sits at the top of the table; lots of young suits sit on either side of the table.

Head of Setanta
Okay, we are going to have do something over these summer months, Pat Dolan and Steve McManaman talking about transfers for three hours a day is just not going to cut it, we need something new, we need something fresh, we need something that people are actually going to watch. There are only so many reruns of classic premier league games from the nineties that people can handle and I think most viewers are coming around to the fact that poker is boring as fuck to watch. What are we going to do?

The board is silent, a lot of mumbling and biting of nails

Head Setanta
Come on, people, give me something, you all don’t get paid 65 grand a year to just sit here and say nothing. I want ideas.

A hand is raised

Head of Setanta
Yes, you there

Young Executive No. 1
How would you feel about showing Irish films on the channel?

Head of Setanta
On a sport channel?

Young Executive No. 1
Well . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yeah.

Silence in the room, everyone waits in anticipation how the Head is going to react

Head of Setanta
Brilliant! What your name, son?

Young Executive No. 1
Simon, Simon Lemon

Head of Setanta
You’ve got balls, Lemon. I want you to go out a get yourself the finest high class prostitute money can buy on me.

Never did I think I was actually going to watch Setanta during the summer months when there is no football on, bring it on, I’m gonna get stuck into these. Tonight’s film is called H3. It’s a film made about the H-Block protests in the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland in 1981. The film didn’t get the notoriety that Hunger got but the reviews state that it is a brilliant perspective on the story. I will be defo checking it out



Thursday’s looks fucked up, it’s a horror film made by Nic Roeg, the filmmaker that directed my favourite horror film of all time, Don’t Look Now. With an all star cast – Miranda Richardson and Donald Sutherland, it looks like pretty scary stuff. I can’t believe I never heard of this one either.



Friday’s film is one called Mapmaker, another psychological thriller staring Brian F. O’Byrne; guess what, a mapmaker gets himself into a shit load of trouble with some angry locals. Brilliant, can’t wait.



The bottom line is fair play to everyone Setanta and especially the guy who came up with the idea, you are fucking hilarious, a sport channel playing films, I know it sounds so Father Ted but its wicked idea. I for one will be gorging out on some sweet Irish cinema mid week for the duration of the summer. I cant wait to see next weeks line up, which get released tomorrow.