• The Visit

    September 15, 2015 - By 

    It’s hard to deny that M. Night Shyamalan has had one of the more interesting career trajectories in contemporary American cinema. Beginning his career with some middling rom/family-coms, Night found a frankly ridiculous level of success with 2001’s The Sixth Sense”, one of the very few Oscar nominated horror films. He followed this up with two decent, if not spectacular pictures before seemingly deciding to set his bed on fire. The Village and Lady In The Water quite rightly tanked while The Happening may well be one of the most unintentionally hilarious films ever released by a major American studio. Most of…

  • Irrational Man

    September 14, 2015 - By 

    Judge Thomas Spangler – the catalyst at the centre of Woody Allen’s latest dark-comedy, Irrational Man – is a creature of habit. Every day he jogs along the same route, drinks the same juice and stops to read the paper on the same park bench. His routine is, in fact, so constant and predictable that it actively plays a part in his own demise. Allen, too, follows a predictable routine. He exercises in the mornings, writes at the same desk all day, and watches baseball at the weekends. He once famously missed an Academy Awards ceremony because it clashed with…

  • Tipping Point @ Ulster Museum, Belfast

    September 14, 2015 - By 

    Tipping Point, the latest production from Belfast’s Maiden Voyage Dance company, has been described as “a fast-paced trio about the loss of control, how we deal with interruptions to our intended path and how it feels to be living on a knife edge.” With all that in mind, the title and arrival of Eleesha Drennan’s piece is both evocative and timely. At the time of its opening performance in the foyer of the Ulster Museum, Stormont is in crisis and a new Labour leader has recently been elected on the other side of the Irish Sea. Change has unexpectedly arrived,…

  • Action Bronson w/ Meyhem Lauren @ The Academy, Dublin

    September 12, 2015 - By 

    Though there is a sea of snapbacks, tonight The Academy is marked by a mixed crowd. It could be indicative of the widening appeal of serious hip hop in the last half decade or it could simply be the pure, well-rounded appeal, of one man. Because Action Bronson seems to have that kind of reach. By summoning up the ghosts of hip hop’s past and pressing them into intelligent and accessible hits the New York rapper has amassed quite a following. Hence the sold out show and the tight huddle reaching from the stage to the bar. But first it’s…

  • Somadrone – Oracle

    September 11, 2015 - By 

    Looking back it’s hard to deny that Redneck Manifesto and its members’ various solo exploits stand as some of the more intriguing Irish records of the last decade. Records like I Am Brazil and Friendship have stood the test of time, Richie Egan’s Jape have been putting out some truly excellent music as demonstrated on Ritual and Somadrone’s AKA Neil O’Connor 2013 effort The First Wave was an Eno-inflected classic in waiting. Waiting two years to provide the follow-up, Somadrone has quietly released his latest LP, Oracle, and as to be expected from such stock as this, it’s very bloody good.…

  • Batman: Arkham Knight (Warner Bros., Multiformat)

    September 10, 2015 - By 

    There was once a time when Bruce Wayne’s ventures into videogames were the subject of derision and disappointment. For a long time, the Dark Knight only popped up in increasingly lacklustre beat-‘em-ups and movie cash-ins that absolutely squandered the licence. Yes, there was the occasional gem such as Ocean Software’s Batman, a quirky isometric adventure that gave DC’s greatest detective a pot belly and a cartoon scowl, or The Caped Crusader, a side-scrolling classic designed to resemble the flipping pages of a comic book, but they appeared on home computers way, way back in the late 1980s. What they lacked…

  • Defeater – Abandoned

    September 10, 2015 - By 

    There’s something so intrinsically lovely about really good album artwork. While you shouldn’t be able to judge a record by its cover, it should act as some kind of indication of what you can expect. Abandoned, the latest LP from hardcore punks Defeater, has one of those covers that sets the tone for the album in a rather sublime fashion. It’s this murky, shadowy image of a priest overshadowed by a stained glass representation of a mother and her children. Not only does it capture the record’s more atmospheric and moody elements, but it also provides a neat visual representation…

  • Dancing at Lughnasa @ Lyric Theatre, Belfast

    September 9, 2015 - By 

    It’s 25 years since Brian Friel’s domestic drama Dancing At Lughnasa hit the stage of Dublin’s Abbey Theatre though the themes of Diaspora and chronic under-employment are, if anything even more relevant today. Seen through the eyes of seven year old Michael Evans, it’s the tale of a family of close knit sisters who scratch out a living in 1936 Donegal, primarily supported by the teacher’s salary of the eldest sister, the puritanical Kate. With the simple-minded Rose and maternal Agnes sewing gloves for a pittance and the earthy, fun loving Maggie keeping house with Michael’s unwed mother Christina money…

  • God Of War III Remastered (Sony, PS4)

    September 9, 2015 - By 

    If BuzzFeed ever compiles a list of the 27 angriest characters in videogames, the top spot would undoubtedly go to Kratos, the Ghost of Sparta and titular God of War. He’s angrier than Andross (Star Fox), Vaas (Far Cry 3), and Zangief (Street Fighter). He’s angrier than the birds in Angry Birds. He’s even angrier than Wreck-It Ralph. Kratos exists in a permanent state of rage, a mardy sourbake fixed to his big grey face as he fights his way up Mount Olympus, onwards, downwards and upwards to topple Zeus, the father who betrayed him, and all of his demigods…

  • Girl Band – Holding Hands With Jamie

    September 8, 2015 - By 

    Imagine any indie song from a young Irish rock band today; a conventional, radio friendly track that has something for everybody. Now deconstruct its parts and bend them into elastic. Allow them to stretch and make each movement as tensile as possible to the point of snapping. That’s what Dublin’s Girl Band offer with their debut, Holding Hands with Jamie. This may be their debut album but they’ve had several limited run releases which sold faster than they could be printed. Having played together for a number of years, their spontaneous and primal sets have been well established in the…