In the bifurcated narrative of Stephen King’s 1986 novel It, adapted by Lawrence D. Cohen and Tommy Lee Miller into a two-part TV movie in 1990 and back in cinemas this week with Bill Skarsgård under the Pennywise powder, childhood trauma folds into adulthood fragility. In the second part of the original movie, generally acknowledged to be the weaker of the two, the grown-up Losers Club of Derry, Maine return to their hometown to face Tim Curry’s murderous Dancing Clown, back at it 27 years later. The young friends’ encounters with Pennywise and his shape-shifting forms are vividly dramatised in…
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Taylor Sheridan’s America is an exhausted, shrinking land. Land is a recurring theme for Sheridan, the screenwriter behind two of the best neo-Westerns of recent years, Sicario (directed by Denis Villeneuve) and Hell or High Water (directed by David McKenzie), the latter earning him an Academy nomination. Who owns the land, who takes it, who protects it and — most importantly — what kind of justice is available on it. Both films used frontier geography to tell stories about endings and broken systems, and the moral compromises of righteous avengers. For Wind River, Sheridan directs too. It’s not his directing debut — he did 2011 horror…
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It would be a hard push to find an electronic act in 2017 as dynamic and ever changing as Mount Kimbie. The London duo came to prominence through their perfecting of the highly popularised post-dubstep sound on their 2010 debut Crooks & Lovers. Further acclaim came then with their sophomore effort Cold Spring Fault Less Youth. Having teased listeners with collaborative singles featuring James Blake and King Krule over the last few months, album number three Love What Survives lands with now with a considerable hype wrapped around it, leaving us itching to discover whether the pair have succeeded in evolving with the indie-electronic…
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After a four year period rich in collaborations, side-projects and production work, the build-up to this, The National‘s seventh album was a carefully crafted and ubiquitous one. Teaser clips hinted the release of its first single, ‘The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness’ and a blue-coloured, minimal take on the album’s cover art popped up in different cities across the globe. What is interesting is how this bold, outward looking campaign stands in a sharp contrast to the songs themselves. Here we find album that at its core is an intimate reflection on failing relationships both personal and universal, one that confronts…
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Whether or not space exploration is your thing, The Farthest is an essential documentary that tells the amazing story of the Voyager mission that was launched in August 1977, with the aim of exploring the outer regions of our solar system and beyond. But what is every bit as interesting as the scientific aspect of the mission is the gold vinyl cargo containing various messages and media – even encoded pictures – from earth for any would-be extraterrestrials that might come into contact with the two space crafts. An interstellar message in a bottle, you might say. Director Emer Reynolds…
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One of the most satisfying aspects of the Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival has been its embrace of Beckett in all his diversity – from his emblematic plays to short dramatic works, poetry, and performances written specifically for radio and television. Eh Joe, Beckett’s first play for television, was written for Jack MacGowaran in 1965, though the version on the big screen in Enniskillen’s Ardhowen Theatre comes from a 1986 adaptation by Director Alan Gilsenan, starring Tom Hickey and Siobhan McKenna (as the Woman’s voice). The stark opening scene sees Joe, a middle-aged man in worn, soiled clothes, sat…
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With the likes of TLC, Leftfield and Mount Kimbie already announced, several new acts have been added to the bill for this year’s Metropolis Festival. Set to present 60 acts on 6 stages across 2 days at Dublin’s RDS this October Bank Holiday Weekend (Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th) the festival has added KARYYN, New Jackson, Hubie Davison, Adian Coker, Le Boom, Mathman & Mango, Mount Alaska, ELLLL, Trinity Orchestra, Nialler 9, Lakerama, Mix & Fairbanks, Long Island Sound, Tara Stewart, Jack Thompson, Daire Carolan (All City Records), Papa Lou, Seany B, Dan Stritch, Hidden Flux and Sarah Mooney to…
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To mark the release of their exquisite new album, Painted Ruins, U.S. indie rock masters Grizzly Bear will kickstart their forthcoming European tour at Dublin’s on Wednesday, October 4 and Thursday, October 5. To be in with a chance of winning a pair of tickets to the October 4 show, simply Like our Facebook page here and send your answer to the following question to info@thethinair.net: Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen is also a member of which NYC band?
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Right on schedule, it’s 27 years later and we’re back in Derry. It was inevitable that Stephen King’s It, immortalised by Tommy Lee Wallace and Lawrence D. Cohen’s TV movie and Tim Curry’s childhood-scarring circus fiend, would get drawn into the Hollywood remake machine, even if the story’s theme of inter-generational recurrence does at least provide a meta-logic. The first half of Warner Bros’ two-parter, Mama director Andy Muschietti has been tasked with introducing a new generation to King’s Losers Club and the shape-shifting clown that’s buttering them up with sweet, tasty fear. And fair enough: for younger horror fans,…
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Gavin Murphy’s new show, titled Double Movement, in currently on show in Dublin’s Temple Bar Gallery + Studios. The exhibition is a look into the role and functions of the now defunct Eblana Theatre, which was located in the basement of Dublin’s Busáras building. While the main building opened in 1953, the subterranean space, which was due to be a newsreel cinema, lay dormant until 1959. It was then that Phyllis Ryan and her Gemini theatre company opened the aforementioned Elbana. Here they showcased the works of Irish artists, including John B. Keane and Brian Friel, whilst also bringing the work of…