It’s a wrap: Films and music you can put under the Christmas treeA paucity of older material online and extravagant box-sets are two reasons for giving CDs and DVDsFri Dec 01 2023 - 05:00
Eileen director William Oldroyd: ‘If you want to see something different this is the Christmas movie for you. Right?’His adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh’s dark novel takes place in a drab and snowy corner of New England. It might be the 1960s, but swinging it ain’tThu Nov 30 2023 - 05:15
Eileen: A film that grabs you by the collar and drags you into a hedge as you stroll uneasily down a lonely pathAs Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie circle each other in a grimy dive bar, you can almost taste the stale nicotineThu Nov 30 2023 - 05:00
Maestro: Carey Mulligan steals this Leonard Bernstein biopic from under Bradley Cooper’s controversial noseDirector Cooper struggles to rise above impersonation in his portrayal of the great American conductor and composerWed Nov 29 2023 - 05:15
The Quare Fellow review: Hugely enjoyable romp packs sombre reflection in with profane laughterTheatre: At the Abbey, Tom Creed recasts Brendan Behan’s prison comedy entirely with female and nonbinary actors. The effect is teasingly ambiguousWed Nov 29 2023 - 02:35
The Wolfe Tones’ Celtic Symphony and NWA’s Straight Outta Compton: Separated at birth?Donald Clarke: Rap lyrics have been used as evidence against hundreds of people in UK courts. It’s part of a cultural divide that campaigners want to endSun Nov 26 2023 - 05:00
The Movie Quiz: Which series has the most released entries?Plus: Who is not currently marvellous?Fri Nov 24 2023 - 05:00
Wish review: Cracking songs but a so-so story in a film that finds Disney frozen in timeAriana DeBose is in typically fine timbre as the voice of a young woman struggling to shake off fairy-tale tyrannyThu Nov 23 2023 - 05:00
Napoleon review: A hugely entertaining portrait that leaves history in the past Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby shine in Ridley Scott’s breathless rollickWed Nov 22 2023 - 05:00
An Audience with Dolly Alderton: Agony aunt has zippy line in posh swearing – but it’s not her who gets biggest laughsReview: The almost entirely female audience at Vicar Street is treated to a blend of salty wisdom and cocktail-bar irreverenceTue Nov 21 2023 - 11:41
Napoleon director Ridley Scott: ‘I do 120 hours a week. I think I’m working class, right?’At 85, the film-maker has been making almost a movie a year for two decades – and there’s still something of an old-school showman about himTue Nov 21 2023 - 05:00
‘F**k you. Next question’: The day Adam Driver ran out of patienceDonald Clarke: There’s something refreshing about watching a star nudge away the PR training during a Q&A sessionSat Nov 18 2023 - 05:00
The Movie Quiz: Which is not a real Clint Eastwood film?Plus: Which director has not written (or co-written) music for his own features?Fri Nov 17 2023 - 05:15
So This Is Christmas: Don’t go expecting a jolt of yuletide joy from this fine Irish documentaryIrish film-maker Ken Wardrop focuses on five less-than-jolly subjects in the run-up to the festive seasonFri Nov 17 2023 - 05:00
Saltburn: Barry Keoghan is excellent as a Scouser among malign poshos at OxfordJacob Elordi and Rosamund Pike shine but film never properly escapes its guilty passion for the surface attractions of the posh Saltburn lifeWed Nov 15 2023 - 05:15
Thanksgiving director Eli Roth: ‘Seeing all these Black Friday tramplings, we thought this is a fantastic way to open a horror film’What began as a joke 1980s trailer in Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriquez’s Grindhouse is now a very contemporary slasherTue Nov 14 2023 - 06:59
My Name is Barbra: An undiluted celebration of StreisandThe sheer size of My Name is Barbra confirms an inability to walk away from long-distilled obsessionsMon Nov 13 2023 - 05:00
Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s blowtorch, Britain’s strictest headteacher and a GB News yeller: The M&S Christmas-ad controversy has it allDonald Clarke: Social media is providing a digital bullhorn to every crank, blowhard and malcontentSun Nov 12 2023 - 05:15
The Movie Quiz: Who has not played a part later played by Gary Oldman?Plus: Who might belong with Sidney Pollack, Joel Schumacher, Alan J Pakula and Robert Altman?Fri Nov 10 2023 - 05:00
Dream Scenario: Nicolas Cage stars in the year’s most uncomfortable sex sceneOne of the most versatile actors in the business excels in a delightfully off-centre fableThu Nov 09 2023 - 05:10
The Marvels review: The Marvel Cinematic Universe disappears up its own black holePity Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris and Samuel L Jackson. This is a solid contender for the worst Marvel film yetWed Nov 08 2023 - 17:17
Why is Martin Scorsese making a fuss over Killers of the Flower Moon toilet breaks?Donald Clarke: The director’s latest tussle with the great unwashed concerns unauthorised intermissions at screenings of Killers of the Flower MoonSun Nov 05 2023 - 05:15
Making it So by Patrick Stewart: An agreeably undemanding page-turner of a memoirThe actor is at home to the grand theatrical anecdote and revels in playful self-deprecationSat Nov 04 2023 - 04:45
Dance First: Finely acted Samuel Beckett biopic undermined by lit-flick clichesFilm review: Gabriel Byrne and Fionn O’Shea play the writer to great effect but the pedestrian writing bogs proceedingsFri Nov 03 2023 - 05:15
Bottoms: A hilarious, perfect subversion of high-school-movie tropesFilm review: There are no weak links in this comedy that combines brutal slapstick with a barrage of beautifully honed, profane one-linersFri Nov 03 2023 - 05:10
The Movie Quiz: Who was the last person to play the title character in a Hitchcock film?Plus: Who is following in the footsteps of Ian Holm, Marlon Brando, Albert Dieudonné and Rod Steiger?Fri Nov 03 2023 - 05:00
Stolen: ‘Ireland loved locking people up,’ says one contributor to this film about institutional barbarismFilm review: The emotional centre of the film remains with the survivors of mother and baby homesFri Nov 03 2023 - 05:00
Sex is back in the movies, and the Irish have a lot to do with it Donald Clarke: Hollywood’s treating us like infants. And too many of us like it that waySun Oct 29 2023 - 05:15
Fionn O’Shea on being cast as Samuel Beckett: ‘There was a moment of elation followed by crippling anxiety’In the film Dance First, the young Irish actor joins Gabriel Byrne as the older Beckett and Aidan Gillen as James JoyceSun Oct 29 2023 - 05:15
The Movie Quiz: What Irish film was briefly the highest grossing ever at the domestic box office?Plus: Which Irish actor competes in the Le Mans motor racing series?Fri Oct 27 2023 - 05:15
Cat Person: Kristen Roupenian’s New Yorker sensation becomes a flabby film starring Cousin Greg and that nice girl from CodaMost viewers approaching this movie with no prior knowledge will be baffled about where the tension is supposed to emerge fromThu Oct 26 2023 - 05:10
Five Nights at Freddy’s: This horror makes Willy’s Wonderland seem an underappreciated masterpieceThis take on a clever video game is deeply puzzling and tonally bananasWed Oct 25 2023 - 08:00
Frasier Redux: The laughter may sound weird, but it isn’t cannedDonald Clarke: The history of the laugh track is not what you might expectSun Oct 22 2023 - 05:15
David Fincher on Michael Fassbender: ‘His face can be very, very elegant. He’s so watchable’ The Irish star is attractive, suave and, in The Killer, the director’s new film, a sociopath. It could be the best we’ve ever seen Michael FassbenderSat Oct 21 2023 - 06:00
The Cinema of Powell and Pressburger, The Red Shoes: teasing out a filmmaking partnership Both titles remind us of the conscious artificiality of the Archers’ six dreamy British feature filmsSat Oct 21 2023 - 05:00
The Movie Quiz: How many films have Robert de Niro and Martin Scorsese made together?Plus: What is the title of John Singleton’s debut film?Fri Oct 20 2023 - 06:00
Foe review: Saoirse Ronan is gimlet-eyed in her realism. Paul Mescal is stratospherically anguishedIntermittently engaging sci-fi abounds with ideas but feels stageyThu Oct 19 2023 - 05:00
Errol Morris on his film-making ideal: ‘I call it the shut-the-f**k-up school of just sitting and listening’All the Oscar winner’s talents are on show in The Pigeon Tunnel, his gripping documentary about the great espionage writer John le CarréThu Oct 19 2023 - 05:00
Killers of the Flower Moon review: Exquisitely mounted, impeccably finished and just a little worthyYou couldn’t exactly call the film fun, but it is an eminently responsible engagement with ugly American capitalismWed Oct 18 2023 - 05:00
Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal, together at last! They’ve collided, anyhowIreland’s two most celebrated young actors appear on film together for the first time in Foe, Garth Davis’s cerebral sci-fi dramaMon Oct 16 2023 - 05:30
Why is Patrick Kielty stuffing The Late Late Show with bloody foreigners?Donald Clarke: In reality, this supposedly prevalent partitionist mindset seems to be largely the stuff of comedySun Oct 15 2023 - 05:15
The Movie Quiz: Who narrates Barbie?Plus: name the the second-highest grossing film of all time?Fri Oct 13 2023 - 09:00
Lies We Tell: Agnes O’Casey steals the show in Uncle Silas remakeLisa Mulcahy’s film feels brighter and bolder than would best suit the materialFri Oct 13 2023 - 05:00
Two of this year’s tastiest Oscars contenders at Cork and Belfast film festivalsAll of Us Strangers and Poor Things will screen alongside premieres of Irish features and fresh documentariesThu Oct 12 2023 - 10:00
The Miracle Club: Not as deranged as Wild Mountain Thyme and not that much funWhat is this film doing here in 2023? It’s not full-on Oirish, but it’s not far from it despite some great home talent on showThu Oct 12 2023 - 06:10
Jimmy Savile: A thorough lambasting for a Reckoning so far unseenDonald Clarke: Some documentaries stand accused as offering up sex abuse victims’ stories as ‘entertainment’ - but nobody is suggesting these films are funSun Oct 08 2023 - 06:15
Agnes O’Casey: ‘It’s just been so easy to hate women, no matter the period. And that is terrifying’The great-granddaughter of the playwright Seán O’Casey is doing the family name proud, starring in two new films, Lies We Tell and The Miracle ClubSat Oct 07 2023 - 05:15
The Movie Quiz: How many films has George Lucas directed outside the Star Wars universe?Plus: What was the last film for which Meryl Streep gained an Oscar nomination?Fri Oct 06 2023 - 06:00
The Exorcist: Believer - What possessed them?The devil might have all the best tunes, but his record on horror franchises is patchy at bestFri Oct 06 2023 - 05:10
Tarrac: Irish-language sports movie pulls its weightTale of a Kerry naomhóg rowing team shrugs off a layer of cliche and propels us towards the back-breaking denouementFri Oct 06 2023 - 05:00
