• Alita: Battle Angel

    February 11, 2019 - By 

    Sometimes crappy films are interesting. Their failures flag up ludicrous studio decision-making, or a creative ego gone unchecked, or just a series of small misguided steps that, in retrospect, were so obviously the wrong path to go down. For those of us professionally curious about why stories do or do not work, these movies are instructive and shareable; the critics’ version of “Hey, smell this!”. But, really, most of the time, bad or boring movies are bad or boring in ways that are totally predictable. Watching them is an exercise in low expectations met. Alita: Battle Angel, Robert Rodriguez’s big-screen…

  • Broods – Don’t Feed the Pop Monster

    February 6, 2019 - By 

    Georgia and Caleb Nott are no strangers to the mechanisms of a perfect pop song. The New Zealand sibling duo – better known as Broods –  shot to recognition with their debut single, ‘Bridges’, in October 2013 and have since managed to cultivate a sound that is at the same time carefully manufactured and authentic. After a brief hiatus, their third studio release, Don’t Feed the Pop Monster is a return to form, a neat presentation of pop songs that are both energetic and lyrically thoughtful. It’s a highly anticipated release from the pair, having both been doing solo projects…

  • Burning

    February 6, 2019 - By 

    True complexity and originality in film is something that is hard to come by these days. Managing to make a film that is entertaining at the same time is something that few achieve but South Korean writer-director Chang-Dong Lee (Secret Sunshine) has made a career out of it, though this is his first film since 2011’s fantastic Poetry. His latest, Burning, based on a short story called Barn Burning by Haruki Murakami — though I suspect William Faulkner’s novella of the same name is something to do with it as well — follows Jong-su, a part-time delivery man, and kicks…

  • Michael O’Shea – Michael O’Shea

    February 5, 2019 - By 

    Look at any street corner in Galway, Dublin, Cork, London or New York and chances are, you’ll be met with crooners, folksters, dancers, trad musicians and poets. Some of the world’s best loved performers came to fruition through busking. B.B King was a busking youth before starting a career in recording and performing on stages worldwide. So too were Tracy Chapman, Glen Hansard and Laraaji. On a quieter end of the spectrum falls Michael O’Shea, the compelling Irish busker who travelled Europe, Africa and Asia, crafted his own instrument and whose singular contribution to recorded music has just been re-released…

  • Sharon Van Etten – Remind Me Tomorrow

    February 5, 2019 - By 

    “Kid came back. A real turn around.” Remind Me Tomorrow’s extraordinary lead single ‘Comeback Kid’ was an electrifying jolt to the system. Ducking and weaving like a prizefighter over buzzing synths and a clatter of snare drums, it was a hair raising musical feat that instantly heralded a radical break from Sharon Van Etten’s established sound. It is a trend that runs to the core of an album, which eschews her typical palette of dark guitar textures and sombre piano  in favour of a warmer, glossier soundscape that brims and burbles with vintage electronics and off kilter percussion. Each track…

  • Can You Ever Forgive Me?

    February 1, 2019 - By 

    Chin chin! A half-cut treat to see off a dry January, Can You Ever Forgive Me? is an immensely enjoyable and assured tragi-comic memoir, Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant in a spirited double act as a pair of grifting boozehounds in early 90’s New York. McCarthy has made her name playing loud, sweary and angry, but beneath her characters’ luridly detailed, improv-style threats of violence there is usually a blinking pilot light of sadness, marking women who feel beaten down, ignored and overlooked. The puppy-nabbing outsider in Bridesmaids; the minimum-wage worker in Tammy; the aggrieved middle-aged woman ditched by her husband in…

  • Polar

    January 29, 2019 - By 

    The world’s greatest assassin is about to retire when his former boss decides he’s a liability. Hoping for a silly shoot ‘em up like The Mechanic or John Wick? Sorry to disappoint but Polar, released this week by Netflix, isn’t it. Instead, this is a film so terrible that it’s an early contender for the year-end worst of lists. Duncan Vizla (Mads Mikkelsen) is the great assassin preparing for his 50th birthday and mandatory retirement. He’s already started to wind down by moving to a snow covered one-street town in Montana. There, Duncan wanders around his log cabin, buys a…

  • Destroyer

    January 29, 2019 - By 

    In Destroyer, Nicole Kidman is cast against type as Erin Bell, a Los Angeles homicide detective haunted by her past. It’s a startling performance from Kidman and one that could have put her in the running to feature in the best actress category at this year’s Academy Awards. We can wonder about the reasons for the omission another time. Destroyer is a middling thriller that benefits enormously from the work of its outstanding lead. When a body is discovered on the streets of LA, Erin Bell comes to believe that the murder is connected to a botched undercover operation she…

  • Years & Years w/ Flynn @ The Olympia Theatre

    January 28, 2019 - By 

    It’s been nearly four years since London synth-pop band Years & Years burst into the charts with their mammoth single “King” and won hearts all over the mainstream, became darlings of the internet and prominent public representatives of the queer community. Last summer they returned with their sophomore album Palo Santo, a concept album around a world where gender and sexuality don’t exist and were met with acclaim from critics and fans alike. In the light of their ever growing momentum, Years & Years have returned to Ireland to a packed out Olympia Theatre absolutely brimming with anticipation. Olly Alexander has…