RESPECT
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TH BER TEM SEP In Cinemas : Sept 10th Director : Liesl Tommy Cast: Jennifer Hudson 'Respect' is the remarkable true story of iconic soul singer Aretha Franklin and her rise to fame with an unmistakable, powerful voice. child singing in her father’s church to international superstardom.
GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE
MALIGNANT
Release Date : Sept 17th Director : Navot Papushado Cast : Karen Gillan, Lena Headey, Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh, Chloe Coleman 'Gunpowder Milkshake' is with an all-star cast, Karen Gillan plays a young assassin who must team up with her estranged assassin mother (Lena Headey) and her former assassin colleagues in order to save a child & take down a ruthless crime syndicate and its army of henchmen.
In Cinemas : Sept 10th Director : James Wan Cast : Annabelle Wallis, James Wan, creator of ‘The Conjuring’ & ‘Saw’ franchises returns with a new thriller that follows a woman paralyzed by visions of gruesome murders. At but she quickly discovers that the murders are real.
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SHANG CHI
Cinematic Universe, 'Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings' stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, who must confront the past he thought In Cinemas : Sept 3rd he left behind when he is drawn the web of the mysterious Ten Director : Destin Daniel Cretton into Rings organisation. A master of not only Kung Fu but all manner of martial arts and weapon Tony Leung Chiu-wai disciplines.
and The Legend of The Ten Rings
ROSE PLAYS JULIE
In Cinemas : Sept 17th Directors : Christine Molloy & Joe Lawlor Cast : Ann Skelly, Orla Brady, Aidan Gillen, Catherine Walker 'Rose Plays Julie' is the story of a young woman searching for her biological mother. Set against a backdrop of misogyny, revenge & longing, Rose undertakes a journey that leads her to revelations that are devastating & dangerous.
WILDFIRE
In Cinemas : Sept 3rd Director : Cathy Brady Cast : Nora-Jane Noone, Nika McGuigan Nominated for six IFTA awards, 'Wild Fire' is the story of two close sisters, who are torn apart over the mystery of their mother’s death.
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THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK
In Cinemas : Sept 22nd Director : Alan Taylor Ray Liotta, Michela De Rossi
HERSELF In Cinemas : Sept 10th Director : Phyllida Lloyd Cast : Clare Dunne, Harriet Walter, Conleth Hill Clare Dunne plays Sandra, a young woman struggling to escape an abusive relationship with her two children, who decides to solve her housing problem herself by building a home from the ground up.
Cult TV show 'The Sopranos' gets an origin story with this brand Newark', that takes us back to the teenage days of Tony Soprano and shows us how he got sucked into a life of crime to become one of the most powerful mob bosses on the East Coast.
FATHER OF THE CYBORGS In Cinemas : Sept 24th Director : David Burke A documentary about Irish neurologist Phil Kennedy, who made global headlines in the 1990's by connecting the brain of a paralyzed man to a computer. More recently he went so far as to give himself a brain implant in order to continue his research.
INTERVIEW With director Phyllida Lloyd How did you get involved with HERSELF? Phyllida Lloyd: Clare [Dunne] and I were working on a series of all-female Shakespeare plays, set in a women’s’ prison. Clare was going for a lot of auditions television while we were in New York and really struggling to get hired there. She had been inspired by a friend who had declared herself homeless – a similar story to Sandra’s – and she was sort of possessed on two levels; one, to take control of her work environment, and sec-
ondly to reply to what she saw as the inequities in her home town. She started writing the screenplay & after a while gave it to me to read, just for an opinion, and I was immediately struck by how, for a was such an incredifor the relationship between words and pictures, which often script might be terribly overwritten [but] there was something about her instinctive seeing the story.
I heard you had to convince Clare Dunne to take the lead herself… PL: At that point, Clare wasn’t really thinking about playing Sandra herself. She was thinking ‘I am just writing this’ and she might play a small part… At the early part there was a part for a sister in it, and she thought ‘I’ll play the sister’. I overheard someone say ‘Clare really has written a screen role for a great movie actress’, and my ears pricked
HERSELF Phyllida Lloyd, director of ‘Mamma Mia’ & ‘The Iron Lady’, talks to us about her new movie HERSELF that shines a light on Ireland's housing crisis. It tells the story of Sandra (Clare Dunne), a young woman
herself by building her own home from the relatable and real. up and I thought ‘Yeah… Herself’, why are we talking about bussing someone in from the US to play this. I began to think… I didn’t know what sort of leverage I would have, but I dreamt that I would say ‘I will do this, but only on the condition that Clare plays the lead’, and I knew that would make it more challenging for producers to raise the money, but when Ed Guiney, Element Pictures and [producer] Sharon Horgan came on board, they all said ‘Yes this will be a challenge but we’re up for it’.
The story at the heart of HERSELF is a very important one – homelessness and housing – at the moment in terms of the pandemic, and Irish housing. Why do you feel this is the right time for PL: What’s been potent is, we took it to Sundance, and it was overwhelming to see and feel the reaction of the audience in North America, and the emotional reaction to it. I think there were people in the audience for
whom the story really resonated on a deep level. Amazon bought in North America and said to us that they would like to put it on ice until the Fall, and at the time I thought ‘That’s an interesting masterplan. Let’s not be as obsessed by it as we have been for the last couple of years [laughs]. Let’s let it rest’. Then of course, within two or three weeks we were enveloped in a pandemic and during this period, in which we are all overwhelmed
PL: It was a real privin Ireland, I found the collaborative spirit, the lack of patriarchy amongst the crew and the warmth and really noteworthy. Sandra sets out to build her own home
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by the challenge of isolation and the power of community and the importance of community, inch by inch the story seemed to grow in resonance. It seemed to be a story for this moment, where people in isolation, particularly in abusive households, are supremely vulnerable, and where we are all so conscious of the importance and power of community and neighbours. Many things feel like there is a Before Corona – a BC – and an AC [After Corona], but I don’t longer speaks. Some
things don’t now speak in the quite the same way they did before, but I feel – hopefully – that this will speak doubly because of what people are going through, and will continue to go through. We know the statistics of domestic abuse have escalated in a really frightening way; so to try to put a spotlight on it might help a little. include MAMMA MIA! and THE IRON LADY, which were much location in London, what was it like to work in Ireland?
the construction process like? PL: The original house was designed by an Irish architect called Dominic Stevens, who was our advisor; he had designed and built it for himself some years ago. It was a huge challenge go to a location and shoot all the scenes you need and then move on. We started with literally grass on the ground; then Conleth got on a digger and ploughed it up, and we had to build a bit of the house and then we had to go away and let our crew rapidly get the house to the next stage. We’d had these dreams that we were going to take the house and give it to somebody, but actually in the end, there was quite a bit of smoke and mirrors about the construction of it. Words : Brogen Hayes
NME
MOJO
“JENNIFER HUDSON IS
BREATHTAKING” SMOOTH RADIO
‘Our Ladies’ is a comedydrama that follows a group of Catholic school girls as they head to Edinburgh to compete in a choir competition. With a few hours of free time the girls are determined
OUR
& as much mischief they must stick their uniforms back on and sing under the direction of their stern choir mistress. For the young cast, all born in the late 1990s, playing teenagers in 1996 was an exciting prospect, but more importantly, it was getting the
Rona Morison plays Chell, also wondered if a male director could tell the story of six young women.
from the female perspective. Marli Siu plays Kylah, lead singer and start; you think with all-around wild child. She says it was six female leads that rare for so many female actors to it should be a female director taking on the reins, but honestly, he was ones that come in and out of a job, great, and I think it almost needed and the men get to all bond and are male energy to take the reins a little there the whole time. It is so rare bit. He cared about this so much, to get to do that and be with other this was his baby, and he cared about these characters so much. It's been in the pipeline for him for Tallulah Greive, who plays Orla, ten plus years. He invested so much a teenager whose young life has in every one of us, and he's such a been marred by health issues, says lovely guy. We all have a place for that the long journey to get the nice to be coming up in an industry that is changing, but the fact that Michael tried to get this made for 20 years and everyone was like, you're kidding yourself, no one wants to see six broads hanging out on the screen, just proves how much we
The cast had three weeks of rethey lived together for the duration of the shoot to ensure that they the bond shared by their characters. Sally Messham, who plays Manda, says this was a surreal and
CAST INTERVIEW
apartments on top of each other. It was a bit of a dream. A party taxi would turn up with a bottle of Prosecco and Budweiser and take us out to have meals, and we were encouraged to bond. It was a Messham also says that as fun as it was to live together, the group intense as well. I think to get that close bond, we needed to go through the ups and downs, and pack in this really long relationship within a very short space of time. So, it was pretty intense, but it was amazing. I think we came out of it much richer because of it. It really feels like really lived in friendships. You believe that these girls have
Eve Austen plays Kay, an outsider in with the rest of the group. She says that teenage audiences
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the young girls see themselves represented in one or more than one of the girls because I feel like that's always been lacking slightly in movies and telly. I would love, love, love for people to feel that their friendships are seen on screen and that it's okay to talk about those things. You can be fun and exciting and valued and reWords – Cara O’Doherty
INTERVIEW with director Cathy Brady You made the unusual what happens when decision to cast the they meet each other. I had no idea what I was script. Can you tell us going to do with them, about that? but I just knew, together I worked with the two they could unlock each actors [Nika McGuigan other in an interesting and Nora-Jane Noone] way. before, I was just excited about how I could So, you have your put them together. actors; how did you go They both had this remarkable ability to be story? We were scattered courageous, and just working in various strikingly real at the places, so we set up same time, and they a private group on were both dedicated Facebook to share to their craft. I just photographs, music, thought, well, they and news articles. It have to meet each became apparent that other, we have to see we wanted to tell a story
women; we just didn't know the story. I saw ‘Madness in the Fast Lane’, a BBC documentary about twin sisters who have shared psychosis. It has some remarkable footage of what the psychosis led them to do. I asked the girls to watch it, and we all wanted to know how it happened and how shared psychosis can lead to all sorts of to understand how a bond between two sisters could be so strong. There is a stunning
WILD FIRE sisters raised in a small town on the Irish border, and how their lives are shattered with the mysterious death of their mother. Cathy Brady deservedly won Best Director at this years IFTA awards. Although she's credited ladies Nora-Jane Noone and the late Nika McGuigan (daughter of Barry) were crucially dance sequence that I believe came from workshopping. Can you tell me how it came about? Nika and Nora-Jane don't look identical, so I was playing with the idea that they could be Irish twins, siblings born within a year of each other. I wanted them to have the same voice, the same walk. I used music to access
great way of working all of that out. I played Patti Smith's ‘Horses’, and I just got the girls to go for it. It wasn't a case of them dancing. It was something more primal. I videoed it, and even in the moment, I knew it was unusual. It was really fascinating to watch. They
sense to put a moment We don't see women on screen like that. We see a much more pruned and glossier version, whereas this is
primal instincts, and they're not dancing for anyone else but themselves. The story could have other's attention, but played out in lots of somehow, when they ways, but you have chosen to have a note of I want to know what just gave in to each hopefulness. Why was it's like when they are other, and something that important? happy, when they're so much more powerful It was always somesad, and what that unlocked. That's where thing that felt like if I energy feels like in your their bond was really were going to tell this body. Music was this formed, so it made story, I would have to
was like a long goodbye to Nika. I had the privilege of sitting in the edit, and as painful as it was, I got to see her on the edit every single day. That was heartbreaking, and it was incredibly hard, but I felt like I got that extra little bit of time so that I could let her go. She
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leave it in a hopeful place. I wanted to bring them through the other side but also wanted to leave the audience in a place where they realize there's only so much they can do to help themselves. Supports need to be in place for people who have serious problems. I always wanted to shed more light on that and open the dialogue around that. It is impossible to talk about the fact that Nika died during post-production. How did you manage to
stances? Nika was like a sister to me, and I don't friend you could only dream of having. She was someone who really got me in a way that few did, and she made me a better person. To have gone on that journey with her and to see her taken was so special. We had made things on our terms, and I couldn't just leave it. with grief, and it forced me to look at
Nora-Jane is so amazing, how we all have that we can look at Nika, and those people who don't know Nika that will know her through Kelly and hopefully, her work will move them. What do you want audiencin London. It was a socially distanced screening and there was a woman in front of me. At one stage, she brought her knees up to her face, and she covered her face with her hands, and I was like, oh my god, this is so visceral you can feel the tension in the room and certain scenes that like, it reminded me the power of cinema, cinema really is such a special place. awards at this year's IFTA Awards. Does that mean much to you? by regular audiences, so to be recognized by my peers really meant something to me, and to see Nika get her day in the sun meant a lot. It was incredibly bittersweet, but my God, it was powerful.
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COPSHOP
Interview with Gerard Butler
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jailed conman (Frank Grillo) and an extremely bad-
You have played many characters that move a lot in big action set pieces, but here you play someone trapped even chained to a railing for a chunk of restrained change how you approach a scene? Yeah, it does, weirdly in some ways. It's partly frustrating and limiting, and in other ways, it unleashes you in a different way because you have to come much more from within. I feel that Vidick, my character, knows he's there; he knows he's not going anywhere until he has to. He's cool with being there and just kind of sussing out the situation and waiting like a cobra for his moment to strike, you know.
caper, but, at times, it feels like a western. Would you agree? does. It stinks of Western, you know, that trying to do good and in come the bad posse one at a time. She has to try and hold it together as, one after another, they come in to try and take out the person they want to take out, and she's trying to protect them, not even knowing if she's protecting the right guy. So now it has all those elements of a classic Western but what was awesome is updating it with a strong female protagonist as the There is a lot of grey in Vidick, he is an
assassin, but he might not be all bad. How do you approach a character like him? It's interesting because, while we seemed to be changing. [Director] Joe Carnahan wanted to let in more moments of empathy between me and Val and liked that relationship. I did too, but I also liked it to be more hidden. Vidick is a person who has a job to do which is to take out bad, spineless, corrupt, weak people. He has a certain code that he doesn't normally stray away from. You give then in the editing room, you can see what's giving away too much and what's the right amount
to be kept. A lot of it, I feel, was simmering underneath. That's what I loved about that guy; he's just watching all the time, studying, analyzing, thinking about his next move. How did you prepare for the role? I did a lot of reading on sociopaths, psychopaths, hitmen, and serial killers, but the strongest thing for me is the climb into a backstory - who is this guy? How does he live the rest of his life? Is he friends with his mother? What was his upbringing? What made him be an assassin and want to be the person the planet? What does he think of his victims? Why does he take such enjoyment out of creat-
ing these elaborate schemes? The bigger the challenge, the more awesome it is for him. He puts on an act, so who does he act as and how does he dress to get his target? When you it becomes much easier to be in that prison cell with all your opinions about what that prison means to you and what it means for your escape, what it means for taking out your enemy. It means getting into his head. It means trying to manipulate others and then just having fun with it. You can have so much fun with this kind of character.
Gerard, you have spent a lot of time in the action/thriller genre. Will ever go back to the romcom genre? I'm always making movies, but romantic comedies seemed to have died a death recently, and that's a shame because I love making them. I don't see many around, and the ones that are don't seem to do so well, so I'm hoping they come back into vogue because it would be fun to do one. I'm so glad I made those movies, like ‘PS: I Love You’; they were so much fun to make. Interview by : Cara O'Doherty
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NO TIME TO DIE IN
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ABOUT THE MOVIE
In 'No Time To Die', Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.
LEGGY BOND
Daniel Craig’s latest outing as Bond was his toughest yet. The 52 year old actor seriously injured his ankle while running on set in his signature Bond suit. Craig required surgery and two weeks rehabilitation putting production on hold.
BLOFELD RETURnS Bond’s archenemy Blofeld is back in ‘No Time To Die’. The character created by Ian Fleming appears in three 007 novels as well as eight movies. Blofeld has been played on screen by Donald Pleasence, Telly Savalas & Christoph Waltz, among others. It was initially a convention face, only a close-up of him stroking his white, blue-eyed Persian cat.
163 6 20
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'No Time To Die' is the longest 007 movie to date. Running at 163 Minutes it beats Spectre’s run time of 148 Minutes. Bond was last seen on cinema screens 6 years ago in 'Spectre', there’s only been in the franchise’s entire history: there was also 6 years separating 1989's 'License to Kill' and 1995's 'GoldenEye'. Some of the more unusual merchandise Bond monopoly game and a 007 version of the classic Adidas ultra Boost 20 shoes. ‘No Time To Die’ singer Billie Eilish was just movie ‘Casino Royale’ hit cinemas in 2006.
ELECTRIC PICNIC
The new Bond theme began its journey in Ireland, Bond producer Barbara Broccoli attended Billie Eilish’s iconic performance at 2019’s Electric Picnic festival in Stradbally & afterwards met with the singer to discuss the movie, which inspired her to write the ‘No Time To Die’ theme.
DOUBLE O sEVEN BOND MOBILE
In Ian Fleming's novels 007 was denoted by The novels feature 5 double 0 agents: 006, 007, 008, 009, and 0011. In 'You Only Live branch where he's given the designation 7777, but eventually returns as 007.
While Bond’s car looks like an Aston Martin DB5, what you are seeing is actually a replica stunt car. The chassis uses a carbon
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CLARE DUNNE
A FILM BY PHYLLIDA
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Coming 17 September