2023

NEW RELEASES INIRISH CINEMAS THE

FABELMANS

In Cinemas : January 27th

Director : Steven Spielberg

Cast : Gabriel LaBelle, Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen

TÁR

In Cinemas : Jan 13th

Director : Todd Field

Cast : Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Mark Strong

‘The Fabelmans’ is the movie Spielberg has been working towards for his entire life, the flm is semiautobiographical and loosely based on Spielberg's own childhood. It weaves life and art together in a way that is deeply personal for this most popular of flmmakers. The fact that he's willing to share his own story as a youth with the world makes it all the more precious and all the more enjoyable as a result.

I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY

In Cinemas : Dec 26th

Director : Kasi Lemmons Cast : Naomi Ackie

TÁR, starring Cate Blanchett depicts the life and downfall of renowned composer-conductor Lydia Tár. Set days away from recording the symphony that will elevate her career, the flm looks at the concept of celebrity & takes on the divisive subject of cancel culture.

Whitney Houston, one of the greatest pop singers of all time has her story told in a big budget biopic this Christmas. From the writer of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, the flm follows Whitney's rise from obscurity to international fame.

A MAN CALLED OTTO

EMPIRE OF LIGHT

In Cinemas : Jan 6th

Director : Marc Forster

Cast : Tom Hanks, Mariana Treviño, Rachel Keller

Based on the #1 New York Times bestselling novel, (7 million copies sold), 'A Man Called Otto' is a new comedydrama from ‘Quantum Of Solace’ director Marc Forster that tells the story of Otto Anderson (Tom Hanks), a grumpy widower who is very set in his ways.

He spends his days in self-made isolation, visiting his wife's grave and getting lots of pleasure from being rude to his neighbours. When a lively young family moves in next door, he meets his match & forms an unlikely friendship that will turn his world upside-down.

In Cinemas : Jan 9th

Director : Sam Mendes

Cast : Olivia Colman, Colin Firth, Micheal Ward, Toby Jones

Director Sam Mendes (Skyfall) returns with a story about how cinema can connect us. Olivia Colman plays Hillary, a lonely woman working in small English seaside cinema who’s life is unexpectedly shaken up when a young and handsome man (Micheal Wardis) is hired.

PLANE

In Cinemas : Jan 27th

Director : Jean-François Richet

Cast : Gerard Butler, Mike Colter

'Plane' is a new action movie that follows pilot Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler), who saves his passengers from a lightning strike by making a risky landing on a war-torn island – only to fnd that surviving the landing was just the beginning of their problems.

NEW RELEASES INIRISH CINEMAS

M3GAN

In Cinemas : January 13th

Director : Gerard Johnstone

Cast : Allison Williams, Amie Donald, Jenna Davis

BABYLON

In Cinemas : January 20th

Director : Damien Chazelle

Gemma, a brilliant roboticist at a toy company, uses artifcial intelligence to develop M3GAN (short for Model 3 Generative Android), a life-like doll programmed to be a child's greatest companion and a parent's greatest ally.

However, there are horrifc consequences when the doll begins to become self-aware.

PUSS IN BOOTS THE LAST WISH

Cast : Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Diego Calva, Tobey Maguire

The director of ‘La La Land’ returns with a cinematic epic that takes us back to the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1920s. ‘Babylon’ chronicles the rise and fall of multiple characters during Hollywood's transition from silent to sound flms in this big budget extravaganza.

In Cinemas : February 3rd

Director : Joel Crawford

Cast : Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Florence Pugh

From the world of ’Shrek’, Puss in Boots returns as the swashbuckling, wise-cracking cat, who after many legendary adventures discovers that he only has one life left after burning through his previous eight lives.

THE LOW-DOWN ON INCINEMAS JAN20th

BABYLON BABYLON

ABOUT BABYLON

From ‘La La Land’ director Damien Chazelle, BABYLON is an original epic set in 1920s Los Angeles led by Brad Pitt & Margot Robbie. It tells the tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.

Director Damien Chazelle has been working on the flm's story since he moved to Los Angeles 15 years ago. “The basic idea was to do a big, epic, multicharacter movie, set in the early days of Hollywood".

The scale of the flm is refected in the size of it's cast, with more than 100 speaking parts, alongside thousands of extras.

This is the 3rd collaboration between Margot Robbie  & Brad Pitt, after 2015’s 'The Big Short' & 2019’s 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'. However, they shared no scenes in either flm.

HOME MOVIE

Director Damien Chazelle revealed that during the pandemic he shot & edited a full version of the flm entirely in his backyard on his phone, with his wife and just one actor Diego Calva playing every role from the flm.

THE CITY OF BABYLON

The flm’s title is also a nod to its inspiration, director Damien Chazelle has drawn a parallel between the ancient city of Babylon and old-school Hollywood. He has said the early flm industry was “this makeshift society that had been built up really fast, in this kind of unbridled, reckless way… the idea of a sinful place, a city of decadence and depravity that was heading to ruin."

THE OCTOPUS BADGER

For the flm Margot Robbie worked with a movement coach to fnd animals that might inspire her characters’ physicality. She went with an octopus and a honey badger, because her character is “fuid and tactile but ruthless when necessary”.

WHO'S WHO?

The majority of characters in Babylon are fctional, the only real-life person in the main ensemble is producer Irving Thalberg, played by Max Minghella. However, the flm takes inspiration from real-life Hollywood stars. Brad Pitt’s character, Jack Conrad, is a hard-partying “über-movie star,” inspired by John Gilbert, Clark Gable, & Douglas Fairbanks. While Margot Robbie plays Nellie LaRoy, a scrappy aspiring actress who’s an amalgam of early stars Clara Bow, Jeanne Eagels, Joan Crawford, & Alma Rubens.

OLD SCHOOL MOVIE STAR

The casting of Brad Pitt as Jack Conrad, a silent movie star at the top of his game, was just as natural as it sounds. “Brad’s one of the few people today where you get some sense of what the old school movie star really might’ve been like,” said director Damien Chazelle. “That sort of larger-than-life aura that a star of that time could exude seemingly efortlessly. That’s the thing with Brad, especially at this point in his career. You don’t see the work... it’s completely invisible and efortless.”

NOW! IN CINEMAS

AVATAR THE WAY OF WATER

INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN LANG

13 years ago, James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ expanded what visual efects could achieve and introduced us to the splendour of distant moon Pandora and its native species the Na’Vi. In typical Cameron fashion, he refused to flm ‘The Way Of Water’ until technology had advanced enough to bring his next vision to photo-real life. We sat down with Stephen Lang who played the military antagonist Colonel Quaritch (very deceased in the frst movie) who returns for the sequel somewhat unexpectedly playing an avatar of Quaritch, cloned with his memories and personality.

Nearly everyone in the world has seen the original Avatar. How did it afect your life?

I wouldn’t say it’s changed much in my personal life - I’m still treated like a dog by my family (laughs). I guess it’s raised my profle to an extent in the business but it’s been a while. Things have settled down. I guess, to the extent that I have an image, I am perceived as one of the bad guys in flm but I don’t take it too seriously.

At what point did you know you’ll be working on more than one of these, since your character died in the frst one? Back in 2007 when we were still working on the frst one, we had one of our rare parties in New Zealand and we were having a beer when Jim (Cameron) said ‘You know Quaritch is coming back’ and at the time I didn’t know Jim to the extent that I know him now and I’m thinking ‘Oh yeah, that’d be great, have another beer’ but knowing him the way I do, he doesn’t say stuf lightly. And certainly not something like that lightly because that’s a big deal. Then in 2010 we were at a dinner and I was presenting him with an award and Jim says to me at the table ‘You’re coming back’ and I said ‘Really?’ And he said ‘Oh cut it out, you knew that! I told you that back in

2007!’ But I didn’t realise the extent of how deeply enmeshed Quaritch was going to be in the narrative when he laid it out. And then the scripts began to come. So I was obviously pretty gratifed to be part of this

What was it like working with performance capture technology on this flm?

Performance capture is fascinating and challenging to do and I didn’t get to do a lot the frst go round but this time I worked almost exclusively in the motion capture suits. That was terrifc - terrifc is a nothing word, I mean it was hard to do but I had all these examples of Zoe and Sam who’d done it before and they were very successful at it so I didn’t think there was any reasons I couldn’t do it. Also i didn’t fnd it very difcult to ft my perception of Quaritch into the performance capture rig. It’s a very sleek, uniform rig and it helped me a lot.

What does performance capture bring to an actor’s work?

Certainly the underwater stuf brought a lot of new stuf to it - it’s just fat out tough to do. What we do - we are working on this alien planet and when you’re working underwater, of course it’s not an alien planet but it’s not

circumstances under which we normally do our work. So right there it’s strange - and you add performance capture to that and it’s just fat out tough because on top of what you would normally be doing you’re having to make sure you’re relaxing and you’re breathing and all that. I’m of the opinion that performance capture at its most fundamental is not that diferent from any other kind of acting. Acting is about communicating and responding and being as honest and authentic as you possibly can in the moment. It doesn’t matter what you’re wearing. I can just conceive of my rig as my wardrobe. I also think that Jim does a really good job of minimising the problems that can be caused by technology. He has great great regard for acting which is one of the reasons he’s able to elicit such fne performances from the people across the spectrum of movies that he’s made. But he’s very very adept at removing the worry that can happen.

I love working with Jim and I venture to say that he enjoys working with me as well. From the very beginning, we've worked very publicly together. Which is to say we have our whispered conferences but we also work in front of people, within earshot of crew and it can get caustic, it can get funny... The thing is that Quaritch, like every other character in the flm, is an aspect of Jim. He has a great understanding of the character, he wrote it. So he also dominates space. And then you have two alphas trying to dominate space and we found a sort of way to make it work, there’s an aspect of performance to it. The crew sort of enjoy it because they like to see Jim get as good as he gives. As you probably know, Jim can be pretty… rugged onset. But I can give it as good as I get and I think the crew liked that (laughs).

Words : AJ O'Neill

Did your working relationship with James Cameron change over these movies?

TILL

INTERVIEW WITH ACTOR JALYN HALL

Oscar’s favourite, TILL is a sensitive but harrowing telling of one of America’s most horrifc racist murders. Jalyn Hall plays Emmett Till, a 14 year old child who was tortured & murdered. His mother's refusal to hide the horrifc injuries he endured & her choice to open his coffn to the nation served to ignite the civil rights movement that followed.

How are you feeling about the flm?

I’m feeling excited. The movie is fnally coming out for the world to see and there’s so much love and reception coming from everybody around the world for this movie.

TILL is such a great project to be part of. How did you get the role?

It was a really long audition process. I had auditioned a month or so before and we were waiting to hear back. And we got another call-back and I was feeling pretty good about both but then they called me back for a chemistry audition and that was with Danielle who plays my mother. And that was just a really marvellous time. The chemistry was there. She’s hilarious. We were laughing. I came out of the audition

feeling better about myself. Just being in her presence is amazing

She seems very warm? Very motherly. Probably because she has a son the same age of her own. So it wasn’t all acting! And then the fnal audition: I came in and they were talking like I got the part and I was like ‘Wait… you guys are talking like I got the part??’ And they were like ‘Oh yeah… would you like to be our Emmett?’ And I was like ‘YES! More than anything’. It was amazing

How did it feel to play such an important fgure in history?

First of all, it’s an honour really. Whenever anyone plays a historical role it is their job, their responsibility to

service it in all of its power and authenticity as well because you’re showing someone who was pivotal in our history to the world today. So that was really powerful for me and it was very important to me to embody him and give him the personality and the voice that you couldn’t get from the internet today in a picture or an article. Those were the key points to me so that the audience could connect to him. Because once you connect to someone personally it makes it that much harder to realise that this is something that happened to him. Cause a lot of times we hear what happened to him and it’s sad but we don’t know him personally cause he’s just someone in history. So this flm breaks all of that dynamic down and really shows you these people who have joy, loss and sadness.

The subject of the flm’s storyline, is quiet difcult in parts. What was that like for you and your mum? So we had a bunch of conversations before going into the project and flming, just about some of the things that happen in the script and making sure I was in the right headspace. And of course there’s going to be that knowing of what’s going to happen and things that you’re going to have to go through but I was just super welcoming and embracing of this as something that was crucial for our community. So that one track mind got me through it like a mission because I was going to portray him to the best of my ability for the world to see. And with being on set, they had a therapist and we talked once or twice. She helped. She made sure that I was in a good

JAN 6th IN CINEMAS

headspace but I was good most of the time with my mum being there. There was this one particular scene where Emmett was abducted and that was the hardest for me. I kept a one track mind, each day at a time and I didn’t look ahead too much, except

to know the next pages of lines. But any of the actions I kept looking at one day at a time.

To keep it spontaneous and not inform the scenes before with the trauma to come?

Excactly. Lots of people asked me that. Knowing what’s coming, how did that afect you. And I”m like, he didn’t know what was coming. He didn’t have that mindset. So that scene was the hardest for me but like you said, that’s when I asked my mom in and got a hug and she made sure that I was alright and everything was alright. And thanks to her I got through the scene and all that tracked on camera

What would you like people to take away from this flm?

Everyone will have a take away that’s unique to them and they’re entitled to that. Any feeling you are feeling is unique to you, but it’s what you do with that feeling afterwards. Will it inspire you to do more in the community, will it inspire you to activism… it’s really about what this project inspires in you, even if it’s just education.

Interview by AJ O'Neill

"Whenever anyone plays a historical role it is their job, their responsibility to service it in all of its power and authenticity... because you’re showing someone who was pivotal in our history to the world today".

André Rieu INTERVIEW

Will this be the frst time that an Irish concert will be shown in cinemas worldwide?

Yes it will be. We are performing live in Dublin every year, also in April 2023, but it will be the frst concert in cinemas worldwide.

What's diferent about Irish Audiences ?

They’re the most humorous audience in the whole world! Never met such wonderful sense of humor. I

remember telling the tragic story of Madame Butterfy, who fell in love with an American sea captain and was very unhappy when he didn’t show up anymore. But the Irish audience couldn’t stop laughing out loud about the story I told them, and at the end I had to laugh, too. They simply didn’t believe me nor my tragic story telling.

What traditions

do you and your family do at this time of year?

We're enjoying a dinner together, taking a nice stroll in a wintery Maastricht or watch a nice movie.

Any New Year wishes for 2023?

To stay healthy, to discover new places for concerts and to make as many people as possible happy with the music my orchestra and I will play.

Andre Rieu's previous concert flm hit number one at the Irish cinema box-offce in August, a rare achievement for event cinema. Fans across the world are now excited for his latest cinema outting on January 7th & 8th which will see the maestro & his orchestra play a special concert, performed in Dublin to an Irish audience.

Tell us about the Red Caps, who many will know from Irish folklore?

Red caps are from an obscure bit of Irish folklore, they dip their caps in the blood of the victims. They're not very nice. They're kind of the antithesis of leprechauns, which I quite like, because I know how annoyed Irish people get by mentions of leprechauns, and that whole sort of paddywhack really

comes with it. It felt like a fun way of sort of taking on leprechauns and turning them into something very dark and sadistic and not very, you know, fun at all, although they have quite a good sense of humour. They enjoy their violence.

What type of research went into the Red Caps & Irish mythology in general?

So, we made them

extremely violent and then everything sprang out of that. But we dug into a lot of Irish folklore, read a lot of myths and legends, read a lot of fairy tales & went back to the tales of the Brothers Grimm. My ambition for the movie was, I love fairy tales, and they feel sometimes to me like horror movies , and the way that everything is symbolic and psychological is really interesting

director Jon Wright talks about Irish folklore & his journey to feature it on the big screen

This January, Warner Brothers release a new horror movie with an Irish twist... 'Unwelcome' see's an expectant couple move to rural Ireland to escape the intensity of urban life, only to come across new threats at the end of their garden. Director Wright, who previously directed the Irish boozey comedy horror 'Grabbers' has gone deep into Irish folklore to bring The Red Cap to the big screen. Depending on the folklore, a Red Cap is an Irish fairy gone bad, a goblin or a murderous leprechaun... we caught up with the director to learn more...

to me. What I really wanted to do was make a fairy tale for adults, that's completely unsuitable for children, which it defnitely is. The flm has a strong supporting cast of Irish actors, Like Colm Meaney, Jamie-Lee O'Donnell (Derry Girls) and Chris Walley (Young Ofenders). Tell us about casting them? They play a family called the Whelan’s

who are builders. So, Colm is the patriarch of this family of builders who are very dysfunctional, and not a very happy family. Colm, obviously is a great actor from ‘Star Trek’ and everything else. You don't often see him playing an out and out villain, and I really enjoyed that he is not a nice guy. To me, what was great about Colm was he actually looks the part, you could imagine him running

a building site in the middle of Ireland. He looks like he could do that. He's quite a big guy. He brought a real sort of sense of humour, a sense of fun to it, as well. We just looked for actors that bring a sense of humour to the table. I think we've been really lucky, with the actors that we landed with... and I think people are going to really enjoy how much they dislike the Whelan’s.

How

We recently had a screening at a fantasy flm festival in Spain. There were 1400 people. That was the frst public screening and when the red caps arrived, there was a huge round of applause from the whole cinema, and went on for about 15 seconds, which was a great thing for me. What we've done is sort of mashed up old, and new and used a hybrid of techniques. ‘Gremlins’ is one of the inspirations for our movie, but when they're in close ups, they do look a bit rubbery in animatronics… you're never completely convinced that they're real. And then

on the other hand, you have modern flms with fully CG creatures, and sometimes they can look amazing but then you have a wide shot, and you see them jumping around and they're not weighted correctly, their gravity doesn't look quite right.

Films like this also rely on location, because that in itself can also be a character. How was it fnding the setting and locations across the country? We went around Ireland and found fantastic places, it's a real privilege of the job that you get to be out in these places. We shot where they made ‘The Quiet Man’ in Ireland and we shot in a forest

up in County Down. What do you hope audiences get out of the flm because it looks very enticing and very dangerous?

What I'm hoping is people will fnd it thought-provoking, and interesting. It's very much in the vein of modern horror.

It’s a genre flm, there are things to think about. Issues that we talk about…

It's full of shocks and surprises and twists.

It's a Friday night flm really, plus, it's great that Warner Brothers are putting it in cinemas, which is kind of unusual currently.

UNWELCOME is at cinemas from Jan 27th

have the red caps been received so far?

I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY

‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’, a new movie starring Naomi Ackie as Whitney Houston, sets out to do justice to the singer’s life and career. We look back at the absolute bops, classics and tearjerkers that Whitney left us with & count down her top 20 songs.

20. Million Dollar Bill (2009)

One of Whitney’s fnal hits, this was nowhere near the standard of her early tracks, but it’s still a solid dancefoor bop.

19. You Give Good Love (1985)

Sexy and slinky, this song upset some American conservatives who took ofense to its provocative lyrics – atta girl Whitney!

18. When You Believe (1998)

This Oscar winning duet with Mariah Carey is a masterpiece of divas-out-singing-oneanother-dom – watch their live performance at the 1999 Oscars (available on Youtube)

and pause at 2.38 when Whitney clearly steals one of Mariah’s lines. Carey’s face is priceless.

17. Step By Step (1996)

An Annie Lennox cover, this merits inclusion just for the gigantic shoulder-dancing sass Whitney brings to it.

16. Run To You (1992)

The less celebrated power ballad cousin on The Bodyguard soundtrack, it might be Whitney kind of on autopilot but it’s still a smooth listen –and the video is pure cheese.

15. I’m Every Woman (1993)

Whitney covered this Chaka Khan classic on The Bodyguard soundtrack – and still managed to make it her own.

14. Didn’t We Almost Have It All (1987) Corny? Overblown? Emotion dialled all the way up to 11? Yes, yes and oh-my-god-yes. And these are bad things?!

13. So Emotional (1987) From the opening fngers snaps, this is dance-pop perfection throughout.

12. Greatest Love Of All (1986)

“I believe the children

are our future…” Together with No 11 on this list, an unbeatable big-voiced fromage double-header.

11. One Moment In Time (1988)

Yes, it’s cheesy as all hell – it’s the ofcial song of the 1988 Olympics after all. But there’s no denying the sheer Olympian power of Whitney’s emotional vocals.

9. I’m Your Baby Tonight (1990)

Whitney embraced the late ‘80s/early ‘90s new jack swing style in this insanely catchy bop.

WHITNEY'S TOPSONGS

a cheating lover.

6. My Love Is Your Love (1999)

10.

All The Man That I Need

(1990)

A cover of a forgotten Linda Cliford single, Whitney leans into a gospel sound to drive home the aching desperation in the lyrics in what remains one of the her biggest worldwide hits.

8.

Saving All My Love For You (1985)

An early example of the magic that Whitney could bring to the torch-song –her voice has rarely sounded as pure and beautiful.

7. It’s Not Right But It’s Okay (1999)

Coming late in her ‘90s career, the My Love Is Your Love album is chock-full of bangers – such as this funky, R&B diss track about a woman sarcastically confronting

Wyclef Jean steered Whitney towards greatness with this soulful, Bob Marley and rap-infected love song.

5.The Star-Spangled Banner (1991)

Whitney’s white tracksuit-bedecked performance of the American national anthem at the 1991 Superbowl – 10 days after the launch of Desert Storm in Iraq – is arguably the best rendition of the song that’s ever been recorded. And it’s unlikely anyone else will top it, though many have tried.

DEC26th IN CINEMAS

Even just listen to 2.05 onwards –absolutely spine-tingling.

4. How Will I Know? (1985)

“There’s a boooy I know…” If your feet aren’t tapping away from just reading those words, please make your way to A&E immediately, as you might be clinically dead.

3. I Have Nothing (1992)

The other enormous power ballad from The Bodyguard is intensely more dramatic – making it a drag queen lip sync favourite for the ages. Whitney throws literally everything she has at this – a perfect 4 minute 50 second encapsulation of just what she could do with that gigantic, peerless voice.

2. I Will Always Love You (1992)

Look, no matter where we put this song, someone would disagree with it. The lead single from The Bodyguard looms as large over Houston’s career as it does over ‘90s music specifcally and the entire genre of pop music in general. You might be sick of it from over-exposure or even now take for granted what Houston did on this song. But, in terms of execution, impact and legacy, I Will Always Love You is the Whitney song to which all subsequent female pop singers are indebted and from which none of them can escape.

1. I Wanna Dance With Somebody (1987)

We promise this isn’t just because the new movie is named after this song. It’s truly just an imperishable pop classic that is almost impossible not to dance to once you hear that opening drum beat and exuberant ‘Wooooo!’ More than anything, the sound captures Whitney at her most joyous, talented, carefree, young and fun. That might not have been her reality, but this song is the perfect fantasy that lets us believe that dancing and music can save us – even from ourselves.

Words : Declan Cashin