The Celebration Issue

Trinity Film Review, Vol 10 Issue 1 The Celebration Issue 2018

Editor’s Note The theme of this issue, Celebration, is as such for a very important reason. This year marks Trinity Film Review’s ten year anniversary.

This is a great feat for a small publication solely run by busy and often stressed students. It is never easy to balance your college life between actual course work and the work you put into things outside of academics. However, I think the reason Trinity Film Review has made its way to its tenth year is due to our sheer passion for cinema. On every page of this issue, you can hear the devotion and joy each contributor feels when talking about cinema, whether it’s an element of film that they love, or one they have criticisms against. This publication provides a space to express your love for any and every element of cinema. We have a place for the cinephiles who love the most independent, avantgarde films that the world of cinema provides, a place for those who enjoy the next big mainstream blockbusters and everything in between.

Since becoming editor of TFR, I have seen the amount of love people have for this publication, whether they write for us or are just fans of our printed issues and online work. From talking to the past editors of TFR, it’s clear that this love continues on after college.

So, while this issue celebrates our ten year anniversary, it also celebrates the people who have put so much work into this publication over the years. I’d like to thank Conor O’Kelly, our first editor and founder, for continuing to show so much devotion to TFR. I’d also like to thank the other past editors for helping out with this issue, my great assistant editors, the wonderful contributors who put in the time to write amazing pieces, Choy-Ping Clarke-Ng for designing a wonderful cover and Cáit Murphy and Patrick Byrne for creating great artwork for this issue.

Here’s to another ten years!

-Robyn Kilroy | editor

Editor

Robyn Kilroy

Assistant Editors Dara McWade Oisín Walsh Sam Mooney

Design

Choy-Ping Clarke-Ng (Cover) Adam McQuillan (Cover) Cáit Murphy Patrick Byrne

Layout

Robyn Kilroy Oisín Walsh Sam Mooney

Contributors Alison Traynor Amanda Harvey Cáit Murphy Christopher Kestell Conor O’Kelly Eavan Noonan Eoin O’Donnell Grace Kenny Harry Higgins Hiram Harrington

Joey Fanthom Marieke Oggel Mia Sherry Niamh Muldowny Patrick Byrne Patrick O’Donoghue Ren O’Hare Sadhbh Hanna Shane Hughes Simon Jewell

2

5

7

9

11

13

16

18

20

22

Contents page 2 important films of the last 10 years Various Page 5 iconic director: Ryan Coogler Eoin O’Donnell Page 7 overrated/underrated Oisín Walsh and Patrick O’Donoghue page 9 john belushi: Party animal Robyn Kilroy page 11 netflix gems Various page 13 a celebration of horror Hiram Harrington

page 15 a word from our founder Conor O’Kelly page 16 iconic shot Ren O’Hare page 18 party scenes Various page 20 Marvel cinematic universe Sadhbh Hanna page 22 a celebration of 1968 Cáit Murphy Page 24 reviews Various page 28 five word reviews Various

1

Important films of the Last 10 years Our Contributors discuss what they think are the most important films to come out in the last 10 years Inside Out (2015) Marieke Oggel

Disney Pixar’s Inside Out is a 2015 animated film directed by Pete Docter. It tells of five personified emotions in 11-year-old Riley’s mind, or her “headquarters”, as she moves away from home to a new town and school. These emotions, Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger

feel what needs feeling.

From the start of the film, the character of Sadness is treated as more of a pest than a valued emotion in Riley’s headquarters. “I’ve tried, but there’s no place for her to go,” says Joy. In her continued attempts to make Riley happy, she encloses Sadness in a “circle of sadness,” just as we might bottle up the emotion when things go wrong. At a key point in Riley’s emotional maturity, Sadness (Lewis Black) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling), must maintain some balance becomes rapidly more relevant. The catharsis of the film comes when as Riley learns to cope with her new Joy realises that Sadness is not some surroundings. The film lays out a glitch. She’s useful and essential, and basic understanding for children of what might be going on in their heads, without her, Riley can’t ever be truly happy. The key to Riley accepting a kind of vocabulary to talk about her circumstances and growing as a their emotions. It also encourages viewers to embrace these emotions, to person is to accept her sadness.

the social network (2010) Dara McWade

Facebook is everywhere. The US, Thailand, Botswana; it’s a central hub of the world wide web, a parasitic tool that’s almost become our first artificial sense. It’s creation is arguably one of the most impactful events in human history.

The Social Network reveals this creation as the jealousy-fueled rage

2

of a young, bitter computer nerd. The film, written and directed by a dream team of talented angry white men of Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher, tracks the early days of Facebook’s creation. We see the bitter feud between the two friends at the centre of its creation. Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield give star-making performances as the student-age

Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin, tracking their souring relationship from Harvard dorm to glassy high-rise negotiation rooms.

Sure, half of it is heavily exaggerated.

However, it captures that predictable truth perfectly, that this massively important company was just the byproduct of some hurt young man, bitter at his only friend’s social success. Late in the film, a lawyer tells Zuckerberg that “Every creation myth needs a devil”. In these days of privacy panic surrounding Facebook, and with all of the controversies Facebook has suffered, Zuckerberg has become our devil. So, let’s watch the devil fall.

You can find the writer of this piece, Dara McWade, on Facebook.

Boyhood (2014) Simon Jewell

The ultimate coming of age story.

Boyhood’s unique quality is that it was filmed over the course of a 12-year period, with the same cast meeting up periodically to shoot new scenes. It maps the life of first-grader Mason (Ellar Coltrane) who literally

grows up as we watch him on screen.

It’s intimate, raw and spellbinding as Mason’s whole life shifts from childish innocence to the separateness and decision making of adult life.

Richard Linklater chose to shoot Boyhood in 35mm film as he feared

The Dark Knight (2008) Shane Hughes

It’s hard to believe that a full decade has passed since Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight was released. One of Heath Ledger’s final films, his completely reimagined and far more sinister portrayal of The Joker joined Christian Bale’s roughed up Batman, becoming the platinum standard

in what was a new generation of superheros and supervillains. The 2000s weren’t a particularly great time for superheros at the box office. Hotly anticipated films such as Superman Returns (2006) were financial disappointments, whilst others such as Fantastic Four (2005)

digital film would enhance greatly over the 12-year stint. Boasting a cast including Patricia Arquette as Mason’s divorced single mother and Ethan Hawke as his estranged father, Boyhood became Hollywood’s bestkept secret. It was pipped for the best film Oscar (somewhat surprisingly)

by Birdman in 2014. The script is kept simple, yet effectively fresh and at times it feels completely improvised as the story unfolds at its own pace. Boyhood’s defining impact is its ability to reveal that whilst our own childhood may feel like a never-ending series of rebellion and immaturity, for our parents as viewers it may disappear in the blink of an eye. Life is short, especially when it is captured within the narrative of a 12-year film.

were critically bashed. However, in the summer of 2008 Nolan’s The Dark Knight changed everything.

The genre had been desperately searching for a form of validation.

Studios were looking for that one hit that could thrust Superhero films back into the mainstream and attract large audiences again. The Dark Knight was that hit.

The Dark Knight wasn’t just a major superhero film, it was arguably 2008’s best film, and to this day it regularly makes its way into lists of cinematic importance. The Dark Knight didn’t only prove there was an appetite for superhero films, it opened up the genre to brand new audiences.

Superhero films aren’t just for kids anymore, they are critically acclaimed masterpieces.

3

loving vincent (2017) Oisín Walsh

and really everything in the film just works well together. The animation is more than just an ambitious gimmick.

It would have been easy for the filmmakers to have simply relied on the selling point of this being the first painted film to draw in audiences and by extension carry them through an uninspired narrative. But watching this film, you really get a sense that the people working to create this story truly cared about their work. From the actors to the writers to the artists, it was a true passion project for all. This is just a sense I personally get from the film, but it’s a rare thing to feel.

So I suggest checking this film out and I hope you enjoy it from the first painted frame to the very end where Lianne La Havas sings you out with ‘Starry, Starry Night’ as the credits roll.

Loving Vincent is important as it is the first fully painted film in history. It has an appropriate subject too, retelling the final days of Vincent Van Gogh.

The plot is not complicated. It takes on a sort of Citizen Kane narrative as we learn about this mysterious figure from the points of view of people who knew him, all with conflicting

opinions and ideas of why he may have killed himself. It plays out simply but it draws you in, like all good mysteries should.

The film is dotted with a number of well known actors like Saoirse Ronan, Chris O’Dowd, and Aidan Turner (just to name the Irish who feature). It is scored beautifully by Clint Mansell

Manchester by the sea (2016)

way about it. The fact that it won two Academy Awards and was nominated for many more indicates that this assumption is correct.

Manchester by the Sea has haunted me since I first watched it. It was the film that really demonstrated to me the power that film can have upon an audience. Its deceptively simple plot allows for an astonishing exploration of character and through that exploration of character we see a poignant study of grief and bereavement. It is a deeply human portrayal of a man haunted by the tragic deaths of his daughters in a house fire, for which he blames himself. Consistently stark and what cultural impact it will have over unflinching, it is an incredibly brave time. However, there was no other and honest work that will probably film that I could have chosen, because leave you in tears. if a film had so much of an impact on me personally, surely there must be other people who feel the same

Alison Traynor

Perhaps I am being self-indulgent by naming Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea one of the most important films of the past 10 years. After all, it was only released in 2016, so we cannot yet understand

4

Iconic Director Ryan Coogler Eoin O’donnell

In just half a decade and with only three feature films, Ryan Coogler has firmly established himself as one of Hollywood’s boldest and most promising writers and directors.

Whether it’s adapting an intimate story for the screen or imbuing major studio films with his own distinct voice, Coogler is a creative force that has proven more than capable of making smaller, personal projects as well as massively successful blockbusters, without sacrificing any intimacy or sincerity along the way.

Coogler established his style and filmmaking sensibilities with a handful of short films immediately after film school. He focused on the dangers and hardships of the black experience in the United States, while still embracing universal, relatable themes and emotions, much of which would clearly carry over to his later work.

Following the real-life events of Oscar

Grant, a young black American who was gunned down by a police officer in Oakland in 2009, Coogler’s feature film debut Fruitvale Station was what truly put him on the map. The story remains terrifyingly relevant, and the way Coogler weaves the true story into a cohesive, tragic narrative is as impressive as it is upsetting to watch.

Growing up in Oakland himself, it’s clear to see how Coogler’s personal experiences and attachment to his home town connected with Oscar’s story, and his attempt at bringing that trauma out of news reports and into a real, tangible, personal experience clearly resonated with audiences.

The film also served to kickstart an incredibly fruitful and iconic collaboration with actor Michael B. Jordan. Starring in all three of his films and already signed on for his fourth, Jordan clearly enjoys working with Coogler, and the fruits of their labour speak for themselves. Jordan

gives Coogler’s films a talented, bankable leading man, and the films themselves have kickstarted Jordan into stardom. Coogler has been consistently able to tap into the passion of his actors to bring out incredibly compelling performances.

Jordan has given him perhaps his best displays, but he’s also drawn out some career highs from actors like Tessa Thompson, Andy Serkis and Lupita Nyong’o, as well as industry veterans like Sylvester Stallone, Angela Bassett and Forest Whitaker.

With a critical success under their belt after Fruitvale Station, both Coogler and Jordan were approached

by MGM to come on board for Creed, a spin-off of the iconic Rocky series.

Approached partially because of his evident chemistry with Jordan, as well as his distinct voice as a young black creator in the United States. Coogler

5

Set in a fictional African nation, Black Panther has received plenty of praise for its almost entirely African-American cast and crew, and its progressive and diverse depiction of a community that has been so underrepresented in film for Creed so long. On top of this, somehow (2015) Coogler managed to steep his most mainstream, crowd-pleasing film brought a much-needed jolt of energy unbroken five-minute take, is an with as much philosophical and to a franchise that, after six movies incredibly impressive achievement, moral depth as any of his other of varying quality over a period of 30 and the film’s climax somehow still works. He tackles complex racial years, all before 2006, was decidedly manages to top it. Coogler’s skill in issues of inequality, colonialism and down for the count. writing, direction and collaboration genocidal revenge through his villain, The film focuses on Apollo Creed’s is never as perfectly displayed as it Killmonger. Played once again by son Donnie, dealing with his own is in the last round of the final fight, Michael B. Jordan and once again experiences as a young black man where through spectacular editing, bringing with him a slice of Coogler’s growing up in California, as well as performances and the perfect use of Oakland roots, Killmonger imbues navigating the boxing world with the one of cinema’s most iconic themes, the film with a surprising amount baggage and legacy of his father’s he delivers a moment as unforgettable of sympathy and moral complexity, death in the ring. Sylvester Stallone as any of Rocky’s own triumphs. alongside the expected scale and returns to his iconic character as a Black Panther, of course, is a film spectacle of the perfectly-executed mentor, walking Donnie through the that needs no introduction. Setting massive battles that define today’s boxing world, serving as an emotional the world on fire earlier this year, it’s superhero blockbuster. passing of the torch for the audience, already the ninth-highest grossing Coogler is a creative powerhouse revitalising the legacy of such a film of all time and will go down that in just five years has made three storied series. Coogler once again as a massive cultural touchstone in films that grew from a $16 million extracts fantastic performances from cinema. The eighteenth film in the box office gross to $170 million, to Jordan, Tessa Thompson, as well as ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic $1.3 billion, never once losing his Stallone, who surprised everyone, Universe, Black Panther is the contemporary and artistic edge along earning an Oscar nomination for his franchise’s greatest critical success, the way. He’s certainly already made work. These elements come together its highest-grossing domestic US his mark on cinema as an iconic to bring a surprising amount of heart release, and probably its most talked filmmaker this decade, but with and earnestness to a story that could about film to date. Coogler managed yet another on-brand project with so easily have come off as a lazy to elevate the usual breezy action and Michael B Jordan in the works, and a retread of a tired-out franchise. entertainment expected from Marvel’s Black Panther sequel looming on the As his first foray into Blockbuster offerings to something far more horizon, he’s also unquestionably a territory, Coogler needed to balance culturally significant and emotionally director to watch, with a long, bright his own proven dramatic and impactful. career ahead of him. storytelling skills with a degree of excitement and marketability befitting Black Panther of such a classic action series. Using (2018) his own history with athletics and with the Rocky legacy itself, he managed to turn his first experience filming action and fight scenes into a proper knockout punch. Creed’s second boxing match, following the perfectly timed and choreographed fight around the ring with a single

6

overrated blade runner (1982) Blade Runner is so often hailed as a masterpiece that I’m sure everyone has heard of it, even if they’ve never seen it. They’re better off for it.

From the outset, I realise I am in a minority as someone who does not enjoy this film. I find it boring due to a plot that is so complex that it is not so much engaging as it is confusing. I do think it is a good film, I just think it’s overrated.

The plot follows Rick Deckard, as played by Harrison Ford, a ‘blade runner’ who is hired to hunt down ‘replicants’, androids who are illegal on earth in the year 2019. They have a limited life span, living for only four years. Much of the film is spent with Deckard as he tracks four replicants who have escaped to earth, and it is just not very exciting. The film suggests that we should question what it means to be human among a number of other

Oisín Walsh

philosophical questions. While I was watching Blade Runner all I felt was numb and bored, not very much was on my mind. The one moment of writing in this film that struck me was Roy Batty’s “Tears in The Rain” monologue. That entire scene works, it is thrilling, affecting, and achieves what I feel most of the film tries to do: make you think. However, this is the single point in the entire film that works for me. The film also thinks that we should question whether or not Deckard himself is a replicant.

This would be a good twist, if the film spent any time investing in the character, but we don’t like him so why would it matter?

Many filmmakers have cited Blade Runner as having had an influence on them in works they have made and it’s clear why. Visually, it is a very engaging film. This futuristic version Los Angeles is dominated by

towering skyscrapers and illuminated with eternal neon light. The dystopian vision of the future is clear and depressing (and thankfully one that has not been realised yet).

The music of Blade Runner is also entrancing. The score by Vangelis is something fantastic and it truly suits both the setting and the characters which inhabit it. But these elements cannot support the muddy, poorly paced plot, and elevate it to the status of a masterpiece.

There are several versions of the film, so which one is the perfect version? The one with the out of place narration? Have I had the misfortune of seeing the one which is poorly paced, written and just plain boring? I think it’s unlikely that any version of this film could ever convince me that this is as brilliant as so many people claim it to be.

Clearly, I didn’t connect with this film on a narrative level. I cannot deny that the film has a clear influence over many other entries in the sciencefiction genre. Numerous films, TV series and video games clearly draw on the visual style of Blade Runner.

I don’t think Blade Runner should be forgotten or its influence on other great pieces of art be dismissed. I do think Blade Runner can be called many things; I just don’t think a masterpiece of cinema is one of them.

7

Underrated Small Apartments (2012)

Patrick O’Donoghue

Few films manage to straddle the dividing line between cheap, tawdry brainlessness and quirky, eccentric charisma with the same offbeat aplomb as the vastly underrated Small Apartments. Released in 2012 to a muted critical reception, Small Apartments always deserved to be held in higher regard, not for its chewing-gum-like entertainment factor, but rather for its subtly conveyed, yet profound message that time is not to be wasted.

Small Apartments is a sleazy, comic adventure that follows the hapless capers of freakish main character Franklin Franklin (portrayed by Little Britain’s Matt Lucas). We see him search for happiness, an escape from the routine humiliation of his grubby existence in a squalid building complex, and for closure following the death of his beloved brother Bernard (James Marsden). The cast in this oddity features an eclectic mix of Hollywood misfits and veterans, such as Johnny Knoxville, Juno Temple, Billy Crystal and James Caan. Each character depicted in the film is damaged in some way, striving for better but ultimately succumbing to a familiar, endless cycle of miserable failure and bad habits. We find ourselves in the thick of this den of desperados, with their vain hopes of self-improvement squashed against the backdrop of the oppressive

8

underbelly of Southern California where vile landlords, joyriding bandits and a general sense of despair rule.

Out of all this sordid chaos comes our unlikely hero; the hairless, Switzerland-obsessed Franklin Franklin, whose main pastimes are eating pickles with mustard, drinking large bottles of Moxxie soda and, much to the vexation of his curmudgeonly old neighbour Mr. Allspice (James Caan), playing a long alpine horn. Despite his meek disposition, Franklin ends up killing his exploitative landlord Mr. Olivetti.

This triggers a farcical sequence of events that eventually leads to the revelation that Franklin has been bequeathed a small fortune by his dead brother Bernard. Franklin goes on to miraculously evade being held responsible for Mr. Olivetti’s demise, at last realising his dream of moving to Switzerland. Franklin, against all odds, succeeds in untethering himself from all the ignominy, all the pain of that small life he had

once passively spent languishing in a small apartment. No longer to be downtrodden, Franklin finds his freedom, his bliss.

Wisdom can be found in the strangest of places and this is no more strikingly apparent than in the case of this peculiar creation. By the end of the lurid tale we cannot help but feel uplifted and enlightened.

The delightful paradox of Small Apartments lies in its ability to present us with the most degenerate and hopeless of lifestyles and then, with no hint of irony, offer us an instructive philosophy for fulfilment.

An experience as gloriously improbable as receiving thoughtful life advice from a drug-addled, alcoholic dropout. However, the value of this film’s closing meditation on the necessity of seizing life for all its worth is something we would be foolish to dismiss. Just as Franklin Franklin shambolically stumbled out of his darkness and into a new light, this highly underrated film urges us to do the same.

Animal House (1978)

John Belushi: Party Animal Robyn Kilroy

When hearing the term “party animal”, a few people throughout the history of Hollywood spring to mind. However, no one was quite as consistent and legendary in his role as a party animal, both on and off screen, as the great John Belushi. Belushi, probably best known for his roles in Animal House (1978) and The Blues Brothers, (1980) continues to make people laugh with his wild antics even now, thirty-six years after his death.

He first rose to fame after landing a spot on the inaugural cast of Saturday Night Live (1975-present). While on

Saturday Night Live, Belushi created energetic, larger than life characters, such as Samurai Futaba, King Bee, and Jake Blues, who, along with Dan Aykroyd’s Elwood Blues, formed The Blues Brothers. It was these vibrant and crazy characters that Belushi created that landed him roles in movies with equally vibrant and crazy characters. His larger than life persona came at a price however, as it led to Belushi’s tragic overdose in 1982. To this day, no one has matched Belushi’s party animal antics, not by a long mile.

My first introduction to John Belushi was through the film Animal House (1978). While this film is rather dated in the era of the #MeToo movement, as a young teenager I found it funny. Out of the whole movie, the moments that stuck with me were all involving Belushi’s John “Bluto Blutarsky”. What shocked me when re-watching the film recently was how little Bluto actually says or how little we actually see him on screen.

All of Bluto’s funny moments are thanks to Belushi’s comedic physical

9

Animal House (1978)

presence. Whether it’s his simple, yet iconic eyebrow raise or his ridiculous dancing during Delta Tau Chi’s toga party, Belushi makes Bluto one of the film’s funniest and iconic characters.

Even though other characters are given way more dialogue and screen time, characters like Eric “Otter” Stratton (Tim Matheson) and Donald “Boon” Schoenstein (Peter Riegert), Belushi’s Bluto leaves them all in the dust when it comes to the viewer’s memory of Animal House. This is also partly down to Belushi’s star power at the time, having already been a favourite on Saturday Night Live.

However, there’s a lot to be said about Belushi’s comedic talent, which is in full flare in this movie. Some of the film’s most iconic moments weren’t scripted; director John Landis would often point the camera at Belushi and let him go crazy. Belushi’s wild, often unexpected improvisation added to Animal House’s crazy charm, showing his true talent as a comedic artist.

Without Belushi’s Bluto, the film wouldn’t have its iconic status.

Another role that Belushi is well known for is his role as Jake Blues in The Blues Brothers. The band had already been successful prior to the film, with their album ‘Briefcase Full of Blues’ scoring a number spot on the Billboard 200 in 1979. Because of this success, both Belushi and Dan Aykroyd had a lot of hype to live up to. The duo knocked it out of the park,

10

Watching Belushi perform on multiple platforms, from a TV sketch show, to a film set, to his live performances on stage with a live band, it was obvious that he just loved to entertain. He is quoted as saying: “On stage is the only place where I really know what I’m doing.” He was born to entertain, making people laugh with his ridiculous and eccentric characters.

However, while Belushi’s party animal persona in front of the camera may have seemed harmless, in real creating a wonderfully wacky ode to life it was dangerous and fatal. During soul music. While Jake and Elwood his days on Saturday Night Live, Blues can both be considered to play Belushi and many other members the role as the crazy party animal, of the cast began using cocaine in Belushi’s Jake is just that bit more order to stay up and finish sketches. eccentric. Once again, he steals every This use of cocaine and other drugs scene he’s in with his presence. This as an aid for creativity stayed with is established in the opening scene, Belushi for the rest of his career. His where Jake is released from jail. As social and free-spirit personality led the prison gates open, we see the him to be susceptible to drug culture. figure of Jake Blues, standing in front He was found dead on March 5th of angelic-like lighting. It’s then Jake 1982 at the age of 33, the cause of who leads his brother Elwood on a death a combined drug intoxication crazy adventure as they reform their of cocaine and heroin. While it is band and try to make $5,000 to save clear that Belushi’s death was a cause the orphanage they grew up in. Toof an excessive party lifestyle, I do gether, Jake and Elwood take down still believe that his career and work Nazis, the police, a gun-wielding Car- should be celebrated. His characters rie Fisher, and a country music band, were reflective of who he was, all in the name of their ‘mission from someone who was fun, eccentric, but God.’ Once again, Belushi outshines above all, wanted to make people all his co-stars (except for Aretha laugh. While there have been others Franklin’s role as Mrs. Murphy, that who tried to portray the same image, performance is flawless), extenuating none them match Belushi’s persona as his true comedic power through his an authentic party animal in the world party animal persona. of comedic acting.

The Blues Brothers (1980)

Netflix Gems

Handsome devil (2016) Niamh Muldowny

In the constant stream of new content added to Netflix, it’s easy to lose out on true gems like Handsome Devil.

The film, directed by John Butler, closed DIFF in 2016 with a sold out screening and absolutely charmed the audience. The movie follows Ned

Buster’s mal heart (2016)

and sympathy. The choice to have the film narrated through the conceit of an essay competition that Ned enters is also a clever way to invite the audience into his headspace.

However, while the young actors’ talent is impressive, it is Andrew Scott’s performance that steals the show. His nuanced portrayal of a man battling two identities warrants rewatching if just to track his character progression through subtle (Fionn O’Shea) as he returns to his choices in body language. rugby obsessed boarding school for Although Handsome Devil might yet another year of torment, and the seem to be a simplistic high school unlikely friendship he forms with new drama, this movie oozes charm and roommate Conor (Nicholas Galitzine). takes a very modern and very Irish Fresh talent shines in this film through approach to the genre. Absolutely its young protagonists. O’Shea earning its title of Netflix Gem. inhabits his role of the outsider well and gains both the audience’s respect

Mr. Robot as you’ve never seen him before. Told in three parts, with three While Netflix’s catalogue of indiedifferent characters- an eccentric flicks leaves a lot to be desired, mountain man, a hard-working Buster’s Mal Heart is a hidden gem father who works all-nighters at amongst the rest. A 2017 mystery a ramshackle motel and a drifter surrealist film directed by Sarah Adina stranded in the middle of the ocean.

Smith and featuring a truly stellar The film centres on the tragedy that performance from Rami Malek, it’s unfolds when a conspiracy theorist Mia Sherry

(DJ Qualls) visits Jonas (Malek) at the cusp of the new millennium. Taking the idea of ‘heartbreak’ in its most literal form, and illustrated with the most amazing cinematography from Shaheen Seth, it charts the emotional, physical and mental strain modern day life can have on us, as it’s seen through the eyes of Jonas, Buster and Jonah.

It’s easy to be led astray by the calls of ‘pretentious!’ this might garner (I speak from personal experience), but this isn’t just a film for hipsters trying to be cool. It genuinely is one of the most humane films out there, and had it been picked up by a bigger studio, I guarantee it would have been an awards season contender. It’s about what we love most; love and loss, reality and rarity in a world where the fantastic and the familiar collide.

11

Sense8 (2015-2018) Ren O’Hare

If you feel like witnessing an inexhaustible range of human love, Sense8 is the show for you. It’s a show that has crawled into my heart, one that reminds me that “the world is made up of brotherhood” (to paraphrase a song central to the show, ‘What’s Up’ by 4 Non Blondes). Sense8 follows the stories of eight individuals across the world, from India to the US to Iceland to Kenya, as they discover their psychic connection with one another. They fall in and out of each other’s lives,

spectrum, from the sensates differing awareness of the connections they harbour with one another, to the levels of their closeness; from their capabililities, to their sexualities and genders.

All the central eight are known to be, or are implied to be, queer to one degree or another. Hypermasculinity and queerness are not opposing opposites in this show, but can exist simultaneously within single characters. It’s refreshing for the overriding feeling of a show to be that sometimes consciously, mostly by of love, for oneself, and by extension accident. These eight gather against those around you. Upon watching a sinister corporation that seeks to the last ever episode, this John terminate all sensates, worldwide.

The show’s creators, the Wachowskis, Steinbeck quote came to my mind as I sobbed (this show never fails to have reshaped the face of sci-fi once make me happy sob): “it is true that again, after their iconic film The Matrix . In Sense8, they use sci-fi as a we are weak and sick and ugly and means of exploring human existence. quarrelsome, but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago They show the nuanced experiences have disappeared from the face of the of their connected lives, celebrating earth.” This show will hopefully make the small parts of being human. It is you feel seen, or at the very least full of such genuine optimism, and show you it’s possibility. Humans are depicts the lives of those who are hopeful more often than fearful. At not usually depicted on screen with a diverse cast. Everything exists on a least, that’s what I hope.

and Isla Fisher. By utilising clever narrative tools, Brooks defies the conventions of the genre, jumping back and forth from past to present and leaving both Maya and the audience in the dark about which of these women he eventually marries and which one he may still love. By concentrating on the importance of timing, not romance, Brooks really presents a rather practical love story, and in fact the atypical third act definitely, maybe? (2008) plays Will Hayes, a recently divorced grand romantic gesture backfires Eavan Noonan businessman who spends the movie spectacularly on Will. The movie also Romantic comedies have become the explaining his past love life to his follows the political highs and low of subject of criticism from many for daughter Maya, played by Abigail 1990s America, seeing Will’s youthful being too formulaic. However, one Breslin. What many movies fail to idealism and belief in a government movie that defies this convention in a do, writer/director Adam Brooks delightful way is Definitely, Maybe?; achieves here thrice. He presents three dashed by the various controversies suffered by his icon: Bill Clinton. a sardonic, clever and completely believable and charming love stories, Definitely, Maybe? is a clever take on charming 2008 film that has recently helped in large part by their leading been added to Netflix. Ryan Reynolds ladies Elizabeth Banks, Rachel Weisz the genre that celebrates love while rooting it firmly in reality.

12

Horror

The most important genre of the past decade Hiram Harrington

Get Out (2017) When one thinks of important, powerful, moving cinema, one often looks to films that veer on the side of dramatic realism. These films often confront influential moments in our world’s history head-on to show us their sheer impact. Just as easily, one would then forget to look at the world of the fantastic. Without a doubt, one would gloss over the terrifying as if it were a footnote of fantasy, so why then, would this writer consider horror to be the most important genre of the

past decade?

The easiest answer is: we’re more afraid than ever.

Historically, horror has always been a genre that represents contemporary societal fears, or the fears the filmmaker has because of the society they live in. The earliest example would be James Whale’s 1932 Frankenstein. Whale was later revealed to be a closeted gay man in an industry where even showing a kiss on screen was considered obscene, let

alone two men in love.

Frankenstein is famously the story of Doctor Frankenstein and his Monster, whom he creates to show that he has the power of god in his own hands.

However, when the Monster does not possess the acceptable qualities of a human being, the Doctor and his peers shun and eventually murder their own creation. Knowing now that Whale was a gay man, is it so difficult to see the resemblance between a coming out narrative and that of the Monster?

13

This isn’t the only example of social issues being examined through the lexicon of horror cinema. Friday the 13th (1980), a classic of the genre, depicts teenagers being hunted down by a vengeful spirit at a lake house in the woods. The vast majority of these deaths take place when characters have just been or will be in sexually intimate situations, echoing the societal promotion of celibacy in the 1970s following the “free love” movement of the 1960s. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) touches on fears of child abuse after a growing number of cases in the United States during the 1980s. Horror films made

generations have instilled in us, having lived through the decades of AIDS and HIV. However, horror’s impact goes beyond representing our fears; it forces the audience to confront what fears are presented.

Capturing the hearts of critics and audiences alike, Get Out (2017) became the surprise sensation of 2017. An independently produced horror-satire by Jordan Peele, it had the odds stacked against it from day one. But, it defied all expectations.

Peele’s uniquely witty screenplay coupled with the tale of a black man meeting his white girlfriend’s family, only to have them be so much more

It Follows (2014)

tangible, real fears palatable, and therefore, made starting conversations about them that little bit less taboo.

It Follows (2014) springs to mind as one of the most culturally conscious horrors in this past decade. After having sex with a strange boy, teenager X begins to be pursued by a mysterious figure whose intention is to kill her. The only way to stop this happening is to have sex with another person, and pass the curse on. It doesn’t take a philosopher to see the obvious connections with fears of sexually transmitted diseases.

Being only slightly older than the group in this film, it’s safe to say we were raised on the same notions of STDs; that these are horrible, incurable, life-ruining parasites that you would absolutely get if you had sex. It Follows doesn’t represent a fear of sex, but rather, represents the fear of sexual diseases our parents’

14

sinister than they seem, captured the cultural consciousness. Since the inauguration of Donald Trump, violence against African Americans by white Americans has increased dramatically, with racists emboldened by their new bigoted leader. The story of a young black artist fighting the literal colonisation of his own body by a white man who envies yet degrades his physical form touches that newly exposed nerve in American society.

The fact that Peele, himself an African American man, knew that horror would be the best genre to expose this deep-rooted fear comes from its history. Get Out relates fears of white violence against black people, and veils it as a horror fantasy to show white audiences this scenario without directly antagonising them for it. Peele’s script confronts modern racism head-on, but alienates the white antagonists to the point where

they are undoubtedly white, but undoubtedly other, allowing white audiences to further alienate people they associate with that branch of white hate.

The focus of this article is to talk about the significance of horror in addressing collectivised fear, but it would be a mistake not to discuss the technical prowess the past decade of scary cinema has displayed. The aforementioned It Follows plays with neon lighting and a chilling synthesised musical score, while Get Out’s design focuses on neutral colours and patterns to highlight the characters’ skin tones. Horror has always been a groundbreaker for new techniques stylistically and narratively and this decade has been no different. 2010’s Insidious tears up audience expectations for each scene by seemingly randomly inserting the film’s monster into a casual conversation without warning or anticipation. The use of rapid editing to lure the audience into a false sense of security alone is astounding to witness.

As recent as this year’s Mandy (2018), horror has demonstrated its ability to continue breaking barriers in artistic ability and in storytelling complexity.

As well as being a constant feast for the senses, horror is unique in that it is the genre that makes an audience feel most alive. Fear triggers the production of adrenaline: the primal fight or flight response. Whether those fears are killer clowns, or police brutality, horror has a way of finding its way under the skin. What makes it the greatest genre is undoubtedly its ability to play with our perceptions of fear and its causation, supernatural or otherwise. It’s a radical reminder of the sheer power of storytelling: we can be happy for short periods of time, but with all the terrors around us thriving, where else but in cinema can we actually enjoy being afraid?

A word from Conor O’kelly: tfr’s founding editor

I am delighted to have been asked by the Trinity Film Review editors to consider the lifetime of the publication in light of its ten year anniversary. As a student turned lecturer, it is sometimes easy to forget how much work goes into all of the extra-curricular activities that Trinity students undertake, and thinking about the genesis of TFR has reminded me how much learning happens outside the classroom.

Trinity College, it is fair to say, is especially supportive of student societies, publications and sports clubs. These supports manifest through the sometimes arcane rules, constitutions, budgets, quorums and procedures of the college itself and bodies like the Capitations Committee, the Central Societies Committee, the Student Unions and countless individuals, past and present, who have contributed materially, with their time, with their vote.

In this context, then, TFR is the end product of a complex apparatus of education policy and individual effort. Concomitantly, the continued publication, and dissemination of student writing signals the continuity and, I suggest, the continued success of an institution which, over hundreds of years, has established and refined its premier place in Irish education.

Which is why we should never underestimate, or take for granted, the supports that make so many extra curriculars possible. For many Trinity students, their experiences in publications, societies, unions and sports clubs are the lifeblood of their education. This is what we should think of when we speak of the DNA of Trinity College.

In 2008, Trinity Publications would regularly print short film reviews but that was the sole college outlet for wannabe film critics or theorists. TFR was conceived as a place for aspiring film writers to hone their skills, a place for longer pieces and for writing directed at a more film focused audience. The group that assembled to start the publication were all drawn from the Film Studies undergraduate programme. We were due to graduate in 2009. So we had started the magazine in our final year, just as our

dissertation proposals were due. Dr. Paula Quigley, while bemused by our questionable timing, supported our application to the Trinity Visual Arts Fund who underwrote the purchase of a computer and desktop publishing software.

As the first editor, I got two issues out the door in 2008-2009, I balanced the budget, attended publications board meetings and spent countless hours formatting copy and images.

When the time came I handed the reins to the new incoming editor in a semi-orderly manner. And this is the process which has been repeated every year for the last decade. A

set of beguilingly simple steps that cumulatively lead to a decade of film writing by students for students, in the only student printed film magazine in Ireland. Indeed, since the move online of Film Ireland, TFR is the only film magazine of its kind printed in Ireland.

On my office shelf I have a TFR archive. It has come out consistently twice a year, changed physical shape four times and had four different logos. Over the years there have been some very consistent features. Besides thematic issues, film reviews and interviews with industry professionals, ‘Underrated / Overrated’ is a perennial favourite as is ‘5 word Reviews’. Iconic shots from film classics have also featured regularly over the years. For my part, these are innovative approaches that I like; student publications are unusually open and free forums for expression, it would be a shame to not push the envelope and experiment.

Of course I am enormously proud that TFR survives and thrives. I am, however, far more impressed by the students and teams that have carried and developed the idea past its embryonic form, through all of the committee meetings, deadlines, late nights, editor elections, editorial meetings and balanced budgets. In 2010, after two years in existence, TFR became the first newly recognised Trinity Publication since the 1970s. Now, on its tenth anniversary, we should recognise it as part of Trinity’s institutional and cultural memory. Happy Birthday TFR! (Artwork: Patrick Byrne)

15

God Help the Girl (2014)

Iconic shot ren O’hare 16

The film God Help The Girl follows the musical escapades of three people in the city of Glasgow, two English and one Australian. They struggle with personal issues, which range from eating disorders, to ideas of national identity, and romance. This is all framed by the struggle that young artists face, or all people for that matter, in trying to find an original voice. As one character says: “A man need only write one song that lives in the hearts of the populous… that hit maker must be considered part divine, because the divine spoke through them.” The film is at times, an exploration of faith, though explored in a more pantheistic way, whilst always framed by Christianity. It is based on music by the musician collective God Help The Girl, originally set up by the Scottish group Belle and Sebastian. All the music in it existed before the film, though it was re-recorded with the voices of the cast. Emily Browning (A Series of Unfortunate Events) plays the lead Eve, and Olly Alexander (now better known as the frontman of Years and Years) plays James, a boy who plays music with, and is completely enamoured by, Eve. The trio of voices is rounded out by the younger, and endearing, though slightly grating voice of Cassie, played by Hannah Murray (Skins, Game of Thrones).

I first saw the film in 2014 upon its initial release and its music has followed me in my life since.

However, the iconic shot I am focusing on is during the scene where James sings ‘Pretty Eve in the Tub.’ Eve is sad in the bathtub and he wishes to wash her pain away through song. Throughout the film, it is evident that James views Eve in a romanticised way, here playing into the canon that a woman’s pain is somehow desirable to men. At the beginning of the scene, Eve is submerged in the bathtub, the water still on and leaking through the

bathroom door. As she brings her head out of the water and asks James what he wants, her state of refuge is interrupted as she is imagined in his head; vibrant, dancing and wearing his clothes. The shot however, is filmed at a vertically moving upward angle, starting in front of her face, switching to pointing above her.

Browning herself, has such a striking and interesting look to her, and to a certain degree the narrative plays into James’ idea of her. Though undoubtedly James is a good friend to her, there is more to it that, and those problems are explored through the way this scene is filmed. In this shot Eve is depicted at such a human level, her main point of contention being her relationship with food, having started the film in in-patient care for anorexia and her feeling lost and missing home, among other things. Yet for James, his main point of contention is her. She values him as a friend, but he is an addition to her narrative in this moment, rather than a lasting part of it, as he so wishes her to be.

The colour palette of God Help the Girl is vibrant, the cast wear exciting colours and vintage pieces throughout. This scene relies on yellow tones, which reminds me of the sadness that this happy colour can carry. However, I don’t mean in that certain shades can remind someone of sickliness, but rather the scene is laced with yellowness, the shower curtain, the milkyness of the water, the dusty green bathtub. It exists in the periphery around her. Colour is at her reach, yet she lies underneath it all. When James imagines her in his clothes, she wears all bright yellow, yet he is the one who helps to move her body, a detachment existing even in his mind of what he so wishes her to become.

I will admit that upon rewatching God Help The Girl that some of the filming and transitions are at times messy. In the likes of the song ‘Musician, Please

Take Heed’ (my personal favourite), Eve sings of needing emotional reprieve, and wants the music she listens to to take control for her. It is both one of the most endearing and sad moments of the film, blending theatrical moments of unexplained dance, as well as layering images over one another. Yet, the introduction of a new female character, in offering relief through dance, later drugs and arguably through sex, is one where the pacing feels off, and tonally juxtaposes the music. This messiness however, which I can recognise, doesn’t bother me a great deal. Whilst slightly jarring, I can see that the messiness of her mind is trying to be communicated and much like how I feel about Cassie’s voice, there is an odd level of liking to something you don’t wholly love.

Which are feelings I have had to grapple with surrounding this film as a whole. When I first watched it, it had such a profound effect on me, that upon rewatching it, I realised it isn’t something I need to the same degree that I did then. I can recognise the problems I have with the film that I didn’t have then. It still remains exquisite musically, having a soundtrack that holds some of my favourite songs ever, as well as some I will never listen to again. Though in regards to my focused shot, I am interested in self-becoming and the contrasting view of what the outsiders have, and I think the scene of ‘Pretty Eve in the Tub’ is one which captures that, for it makes evident that the film has always been Eve’s film, yet more often than not we see her represented through eyes that are not her own.

This dynamic is explored between the contrasting image of Eve submerged in the bath, James’ idea of her “pretty in the tub” and him wanting to be somewhere else with her entirely.

17

Artwork: Cáit Murphy

Party Scenes

To help celebrate our 10th anniversary our contributors share with us their favourite party scenes of all time adulthood, orchestrates a pot-party to end all pot-parties. This party scene in Dazed and Confused plays out the trials and tedium of those final days of adolescence. Though high and intoxicated, the group discuss life choices, their futures and the meaning of existence all to one hell Dazed and confused (1993) of a 70s soundtrack. The prospect Sam Mooney of getting high, laid and wasted brings these people together, but it “All right, all right, all right.” The parents have decided to stay home. is their conversations between the year is 1976, and the party of the What are these reefer smoking, acid overconsumption of drugs which will year is about to go down at Kevin taking, Texas seniors meant to do to keep them together from here on, Pickford’s house while his parents are celebrate the end of the school year because at the end of the day; “you set to be out of town. Slight problem. now? Well, David Wooderson, that The truck load of beer kegs he has stereotypical ‘big guy in a small town’ just gotta keep livin’ man. L.I.V.I.N.” ordered causes suspicion, so his archetype who is yet to fully embrace

Midnight cowboy (1969) Cáit Murphy

18

‘Join us at the gates of hell’, entices a yellow flyer; ‘Flesh, blood and smoke will be served after midnight.’

Joe Buck (John Voight), a wide-eyed Texas bumpkin is enamoured, but his companion, ailing city-slicker, ‘Ratso’ (Dustin Hoffman), is sceptical.

The crowded loft party is reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s Factory. It is eclectic and excessive, something Joe, a struggling male hustler, has never experienced. The scene, expressed in an avant-garde mode, reflects Joe’s hallucination, a kaleidoscope of Factory faces, synthetic textures and marijuana haze. Director, John Schlesinger, emerging from a background in British ‘kitchen-sink’ realism, juxtaposes the hedonism of New York’s artistic elite with the bleakness of Joe and Ratso’s tenement squat. ‘Old Man Willow’

by The Velvet Underground’s peers, Elephant’s Memory, sets a melancholy tone.

Schlesinger invites us for a glimpse of an era which was sexually and culturally free, but perhaps vacuous too. Often, the glamorisation of Factory superstars and its pop-art did not reflect the reality of New York’s homeless. The Factory’s golden years would inevitably end, prompted partly by an assassination attempt on Warhol during Midnight Cowboy’s production (ruling out his appearance in the film). Cultural momentum of the sixties dissipated into the seventy’s anti-climax. Midnight Cowboy is an important film, not only in Queer and counter-culture cinema, but also for having captured a fleeting scene in history.

10 things I hate about you (1999) Grace Kenny

The party scenes of 10 Things I Hate About You feature some of the film’s most memorable moments. Kat Stratford’s (Julia Styles) succumbing to her peers’ expectations: ‘How did you do it?’ ‘Do what?’ ‘Act like a normal human!’ (this being a blatant reference to the film’s inspiration, Shakespeare’s Taming of The Shrew).

Patrick Verona’s (Heath Ledger)

words of wisdom to the heartbroken Cameron James (Joseph GordonLevitt). The party is the archetype of American high school party scenes from coming-of-age films. From the moment the so-called-nerds’ gettogether is interrupted by the high school body, the film does not miss a beat. We encounter the drunks, people making out, the kid vomiting

boogie nights (1997)

Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson,) is a kaleidoscope of many different parties, defining how people coming together can create chaos, success, and love. There are three party sequences in the film. The first takes place in a nightclub. Here, Jack Homer (Burt Reynolds) discovers the young 17-year-old Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg). Adams abandons his abusive home for the comfort of Homer’s ambition. This leads into the second party sequence where again the characters bond. Specifically, some of the best moments are when Adams first meets Reed Rothchild (John C. Reilly), as they discuss which one’s strength is mightier, and the moment Scotty J. (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) the pudgy gay man, sees and falls for Adams. Then, Eddie Adams becomes Dirk Diggler.

There is also this moment that Amber Waves (Julianne Moore), realizes her lustful emotions towards Adams.

All these relationships are set up in order to fall apart in the final party sequence: the Christmas Party.

Changes occur rapidly in this scene.

We have Adams given cocaine by his pseudo mother and co-worker,

Amanda Harvey

in a crystal bowl, the guy you spend all night avoiding and so many more colourful characters, including the ridiculously entertaining Joey Donner (Andrew Keegan).

Joey Donner is hilarious in these scenes, occupied by his narcissism and modelling dreams, however, it is drunk Kat who steals the party. Kat’s dancing takes the film to another level of amazing and I’d be lying if I claimed to have never tried to recreate her attempted moves while in a similar scenario. Last but not least, a special mention also to the outfits, music selection, and the silent interaction of hurt facial expressions between Bianca Stratford (Larisa Oleynik) and Cameron, all of which is impossible not to swoon over!

Amber, which will eventually lead to his downfall. There’s the ongoing bit of Little Bill’s (William H. Macy) wife not being able to understand his need for monogamy, as she sleeps with anything that moves; well anything besides him. However, Little Bill finally snaps at this specific party. He shoots three people, his wife, an unseen lover and himself.

But before this, there’s the moment where Scotty J. attempts to make out with Adams because he makes him feel special: the way he looks at him is more than just glances, when really, it’s just the other way around.

Overall, Anderson’s style of using smooth camera tracking creates a voyeuristic rollercoaster of human’s manipulability and vulnerability.

The camera tracking pulls the viewer into the world as naturally as if they were at the party. However, once everything goes sour the style changes into jumps and riffs as everyone seems to be getting high off coke instead of fluidly living their porn enthralled lives. Thus, though the party is temporary, but the impacts are permanent.

19

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Marvel Studios: the first ten years Sadhbh Hanna

The Marvel Cinematic Universe began in 2008 with the release of Iron Man. Now, ten years and 20 films later, Marvel has created one of the biggest movie franchises of all time.

Currently in “Phase Three” of their films, the Universe has also expanded into television, online streaming, and direct-to-video short films. The latest Avengers film, Avengers: Infinity War, grossed over $2 billion worldwide.

However, the MCU did come from slightly more humble beginnings.

Believe it or not, Iron Man was a relatively unknown superhero before the 2008 movie. Unlike Spider-Man and DC’s Batman, if you hadn’t read the comics, you probably hadn’t heard of him. An adaptation of Iron Man was in development for 17 years, with the rights to the development of the film being passed between many

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

20

different studios before finally being passed back to Marvel around 2005.

Iron Man was Marvel Studios’s first self-financed film, and it was a huge success.

Iron Man was followed by (the now generally forgotten) The Incredible Hulk in 2008, a second Iron Man film in 2010, and the first Thor and Captain America films in 2011.

These films were all met with generally favourable reviews, and led the MCU to its first ensemble film: The Avengers (2012). The film brought together the stars of the MCU’s previous films, along with the previously introduced Black Widow and Hawkeye, to fight Thor’s adoptive brother and nemesis, Loki.

Looking back on it now, the stakes are pretty low and it could have been a bit less corny, but at the time it was

just an incredible feat to bring all of these superheroes together, and the film became the highest-grossing superhero film at the time of its release.

After the introduction of The Avengers, Phase Two of the MCU broke away into space, the Quantum realm, and with them, different genres. Thor: The Dark World (2013) bridged the gap between Earth and space, and Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) introduced new planets, alien species, and a barely talking humanoid tree. Ant-Man (2015) took us to a new place altogether, with Scott Lang shrinking down to microscopic size and travelling into the quantum realm. These films, while in the same universe, all have their own genre and way of telling their story.

While Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) was at its core a war film, its sequel Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) was a spy thriller inspired by the conspiracy fiction of the 1970s. The film focused on the human side of “Cap” and had more realism than other MCU films.

Intense stunt work and a focus on practical effects allowed the film to still excite while generally staying away from gimmicky CGI and overthe-top action. It allowed the film to focus on it’s strong plot, powerful acting, and the development of the characters’ relationships. Directors

Anthony and Joe Russo hit the nail on the head with this film and went on to direct two of the MCU’s biggest films, Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018), with the upcoming Avengers 4 in their capable hands too.

Although Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) was highly rated and grossed over $1 billion worldwide, I thought it was a big letdown. Director Joss Whedon managed to lose the unique personalities that the characters had developed over the previous film, turning them into stereotypes and making the film feel like any other blockbuster. The film is filled with forced relationships, green screen gimmicks, and cheap jokes. While it was exciting to watch in the moment, it leaves little to think about afterwards.

As a Captain America film, Civil War was a slight disappointment, but as Avengers 2.5, it was pretty good. It’s the Avengers sequel Age of Ultron failed to be. But the film lacked the personal feel that the previous two Captain America films brought to the character of Steve Rogers. There were just too many characters (including the introduction of two new superheroes) to give Cap the focus he deserved in his own film. The film also seemed to force a past friendship between Iron Man and Captain America, which hadn’t been explored properly in past films. It made their big fight, which was really the whole plot of the film, lack real emotion.

Saying that, the Russo brothers handled all of the characters better than Joss Whedon had previously, and gave me hope for their direction of Infinity War. The film also introduced some new characters that excelled in their solo films.

After his introduction in Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) was Spidey’s first solo MCU film.

Being the tenth Spider-Man film, this was certainly not uncharted waters,

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

but the film managed to feel like an original Spider-Man film, and young actor Tom Holland was perfect in the dual role of Peter Parker and alter-ego Spider-Man. The film captured the feel of 80s teen movies, while still fitting in to the superhero world of the MCU. Also introduced in Civil War, Black Panther’s solo film in 2018 took the world by storm. The film is the highest grossing solo superhero film and highest grossing film by a black director. Black Panther introduces us to the beautiful fictional nation of Wakanda, and while the plot felt quite simple, the strong heroes, well-written villains, and beautiful scenery make this film stand out in the MCU. Thor: Ragnarok (2017) took Thor in a new direction with director Taika Waititi bringing a lighter, more comedic tone to the MCU. While this change took away from the seriousness of Thor as a superhero, it was a needed change to his character before he joined his team again in Infinity War. After the last few ensemble cast MCU films hadn’t impressed me as much as the solo films, I wasn’t expecting too much from Avengers: Infinity War (2018), but even if I had gone in with the highest of expectations, I still don’t think I would have been disappointed. With over 40 characters, it was always going to be hard to balance them, but the Russo brothers managed to let all

the character’s personalities shine through, even though some of them had less than one minute on screen.

The relationships between characters from different films were explored perfectly, allowing for hilarious and touching moments within the action. The stakes felt high from the beginning, and the two-and-a-halfhour film held my attention until the end.

Finishing up the MCU’s tenth year, Infinity War was followed closely by Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), which brought us back into the familyled quantum realm for some much needed light comedy. The MCU’s first female-led film, Captain Marvel, is being released in early 2019, and Phase Three is ending with Infinity War’s as yet untitled direct sequel in mid-2019.

After that, the next ten years of the MCU depend on who survives to be there, and with Chris Evans’s final goodbye tweet, the universe is certainly breaking away from the original Avengers of 2012. With the uncertainty of James Gunn’s third Guardians of the Galaxy film, the only confirmed film is Spider-Man: Far From Home. Could Spiderman be the leader of a new Avengers? What new characters will be introduced in the future of the MCU? Will I survive if they kill off Captain America in the next Avengers film? All that we can do is wait and see.

21

A celebration of 1968

By Cáit Murphy

There are particular years in cinematic history which have produced some of its most profound and culturally significant works. Reflecting on such years, it’s easy to look back at 2017, when we debated with friends over whether or not Phantom Thread was Paul Thomas Anderson’s magnum opus, or discussed the objective fact that the Safdie brothers’ Good Time should have received more attention amidst the clamour.

However, if we look deeper into the dusty archives, before the full realisation of seventies ‘New Hollywood’ and blockbusters, 1968 is a year which stands out. The year saw both the beginning of January’s Prague Spring, and the Tet Offensive in Vietnam which contributed to a widening credibility-gap amongst the American public. There was also the April assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the student and workerled May protests and strikes across France. Much has happened in the fifty years since, but 1968’s cinematic achievements have endured.

The fraught political climate of the late sixties provided inspiration for filmmakers. Both East and West were in the throngs of Cold War unrest, their ideologies interrogated.

Science-fiction can offer a distorted

22

Planet of the Apes (1968) mirror-image of the present world, revealing certain ‘truths’ which may otherwise go unrealised. The dystopia encountered by Charlton Heston’s Taylor in Planet of the Apes (Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner) is an uncanny presentation of an arid planet inhabited by anthropomorphic apes.

Make-up artist John Chambers’ hyperrealistic facial prosthetics are perhaps the film’s greatest technical feat, and Jerry Goldsmith’s experimental percussion score instils unease. Ape society is tiered, with spiritually authoritative orangutans, gorillas as brute-force, chimpanzees as the middle-class, and mute humans as the subjugated minority. Formed out of Pierre Boule’s 1963 novel, the film probes evolution, ethics and rights, and as is consistent throughout the genre, what it means to be human.

Writers Rod Serling, creator of The

Twilight Zone, and Michael Wilson (previously blacklisted during the Red Scare) convey a multifaceted social message which remains poignant today.

Horror had been a well-visited genre by 1968, but was changed utterly

by George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. It’s an independent cult classic, shot on a shoestring budget with innovative handheld cinematography. The film begins with Barbra (Judith O’Dea) and her brother visit their father’s grave, only to be ambushed by a marauding zombie. After this, the audience is kept constantly on edge. With Duane Jones playing the pragmatic hero, the film subverts Hollywood convention at the time by casting a black actor as the protagonist. Its lack of convention is also reflected in its avant-garde tone. Using kitchen products to create

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Rosemary’s Baby (1968) the effects of the undead, the film may seem tame today. However, its score, expressionistic lighting and editing makes the film disturbing nonetheless.

Seen as the first true zombie flick, Romero’s film is a horror landmark.

During the late sixties, émigré filmmakers like Roman Polanski and ambitious alternativists like Dennis Hopper brought experimentation and ‘newness’ to the big studios.

Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby is one result. Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and Guy Woodhouse (John Cassavetes, whose 1968 film Faces is a masterpiece in itself) are settling into their New York apartment. Elderly neighbours Minnie and Roman, played innocuously by Harold and Maude’s Ruth Gordon and veteran actor Sidney Blackmer, set an uncanny tone. Strange happenings occur in the apartment block, including an apparent suicide. Here, Rosemary dreams of being raped by a demon before onlookers. She later falls pregnant and her unorthodox obstetrician, waifish appearance and odd diet signal that something is definitely off. With Krzysztof Komeda’s lullaby and William A. Fraker’s moody cinematography, Rosemary’s Baby is a gothic masterpiece. Its urban paranoia would be reflected in Polanski’s later films. It delves into the sexual subjugation of women and procreation. Its tone and religiosity would influence seventies horror. One can’t ignore Polanski’s abhorrent history, especially when

considering a film addressing such issues. However, to disregard the film would be an insult to the other craftspeople who worked on it.

During the late sixties in Europe, directors like Franco Zeffirelli and Jean-Pierre Melville were making the greatest films of their careers. In 1968 iconoclast Ingmar Bergman released Hour of the Wolf, one of his 40 magnum opuses (perhaps outrageous bias has gotten the better of me). Europe in particular was experiencing great political upheaval.

Jean-Luc Godard was in the process of making his most revolutionary works, including La Chinoise (1967).

The 21st edition of the Cannes Film Festival was curtailed due to strikes in France that May. Italian director and Marxist, Pier Paolo Pasolini released Teorema in 1968 to backlash. The film’s explicit nature (a Pasolini given) received outcry from the Catholic Church, though it was ultimately nominated for the Golden Lion at Venice. Teorema follows a middle-class family in Milan who

welcome a foreign stranger into their home. This Visitor (Terence Stamp) sexually awakens each member of the family, as well as the maid.

With commentary on the Italian bourgeoisie, religion and sexuality while using symbolism and surrealism to foreground hypocrisy, Teorema is an avant-garde achievement in Pasolini’s controversial career.

If we look beyond Europe and Hollywood, one Cuban film, Memories of Underdevelopment (Dir. Tomás Gutiérrez Alea), shows through archival footage and the experiences of an individual man, the crisis of change, or lack thereof, in Cuba. Using documentary and avantgarde modes, with real recordings of speeches from the period of the 1962 Missile Crisis to create verisimilitude, Memories has been cited as an influence on directors who have used similar methods since to produce a heightened sense of realism in historically grounded films. As both a subjective and objective tale of Havanan life, the film succeeds as a focal point in social cinema, and for capturing post-revolution Cuba.

If there’s one thing to learn from 1968, it’s that turbulent times can be artistically productive. Whether it be revolution or war, cinema can provide a mirror on which to reflect. So, we celebrate 1968 and its cinematic achievements, and perhaps in fifty years’ time the same will be said of our era.

Memories of Underdevelopment (1968)

23

Reviews from our Contributors

dogman (2018) harry higgins

Dogman is the latest from Director Matteo Garrone. The film is a return for Garrone to the unglamorous lives of the Italian criminal underworld amid a backdrop of economic (and personal) decay. The story of Dogman unfolds in the most depressing of Italian suburbs. The setting is more Lynchian purgatory than the sun soaked Italy we are used to on screen.

Economic development has passed this town by, fairground rides are long out of use, the police are nowhere to be seen. The town, inhabited mostly by men, seems to have only four businesses: A Casino, a restaurant, a cash for gold trader, and a dog grooming salon.

The salon is called Dogman and is the location for most of the action of the story. It is owned by Marcello (played brilliantly by Marcello Fonte) who, in addition to dog grooming, sells cocaine. He takes his daughter (who he adores but sees infrequently as a result of his divorce) on the type of holiday for which a dog groomers salary does not pay. Though Marcello

24

is popular, he is, in canine terms, the runt of the town. He is small and cowardly, and spends most of the film getting pushed around by the town headcase Simoncino (Edoardo Pesce). Simoncino is, in canine terms, the alpha. He is big and angry, traits which, in this town, mean he can do whatever he wants: headbutting a slot machine in the casino, breaking noses at will and forcing Marcello to commit petty crimes.

The main idea that the film tries to articulate is that masculinity, at its most basic, makes dogs out of men.

Simoncino does not speak, he growls.

Marcello on the other hand, whines.

Their physicality when speaking is explicitly canine, as they bob their heads towards each other, before Marcello inevitably cowers. The other men in the town are a pack. At one point in the film, there is a shot of the men huddled together, their faces twisted into snarls, as dogs bark angrily out of frame. There is even a moment where an incredibly muscular dog is sitting next to his incredibly

muscular owner. Subtle it ain’t.

In the opening shot of the film, Marcello assuages a pit bull’s anger through sympathy and patience.

His efforts to stay on the right side of Simoncino throughout the film play out in much the same way. The film is at its best when it sticks to this relationship. The violence that ensues ranges from absurdly comic, a robbery is committed and a chihuahua is left in the fridge-freezer, to brutally shocking (I winced more than once).

The film’s weaknesses are largely to do with Marcello’s daughter, who seems more like a device to ramp up the tension than an actual character.

She is in the film so fleetingly you start to wonder why Marcello loves taking her on so many holidays.

Nevertheless, Marcello’s struggle to survive in a world that does not value his tenderness is savage and heart-breaking. “Can you hear me?”

Marcello barks out through literal slobbering, like a dog in need of a master. We know that nobody can.

the silver branch (2017) patrick byrne

Katrina Costello’s The Silver Branch must be understood not as a documentary but as a video essay, following farmer and poet Patrick McCormack as he relays the troubled history of his native patch in the Burren, Co. Clare. This caveat is very important; the best and worst things about this film stem from the fact that it is a one-man-show.

The Burren hosts an abundant of wildlife, ancient forts, famine villages and a sprawling network of modest family farms, long established within indeterminate criss-crosses of dry stone walls wherever the rocky landscape will allow. McCormack narrates the film, elaborating on his intimate connection with the unforgiving terrain, showing his love, and mourning, for the archaic form of pastoral living which it hosts and represents to the world.

He discusses his family life, the joy of raising children to have a respect and appreciation of the natural world that supports them. He checks in on neighbours to show us how their way of life reflects all he loves most about the area. The narrative and thematic centre of the film is McCormack’s retelling of a legal battle fought in the early nineties between an alliance of local residents and developers and

politicians who planned to build a tourist centre in the heart of his arid idyll.

And that is all there is to it. The Silver Branch is 75 minutes of McCormack’s musings, played over Ken O’Sullivan’s mollifying shots of the wildlife, land and people, all with the narrative through-line of a development scuffle.

What sells the movie is the sincerity and depth of feeling in McCormack’s voice-over, and the convincing case he builds against the developers. It’s not maudlin, it’s hardly even earnest; not the M&S ad for the Burren that the trailers portray.

The film simply takes all the time it needs to portray the life, cause and poetry of a sincere man, but this is also the problem with the film, which ends up being about McCormack and not the contentious events at its centre.

I had said that this film is not a documentary, but perhaps it needed to be. Perhaps the controversy at the film’s heart deserved a film of its own.

We learn of a case that went to the high court, divided loyalties and split friendships. The development plans were apparently very popular with many of McCormack’s neighbours.

It clearly constitutes a case where

our responsibility to the environment was in potential conflict with the responsibility we have to community development; and the politicians, lawyers and developers would all be eager to vindicate themselves.

Costello and McCormack can of course be committed to one side of this issue, but more work ought to have been done to explore the matter if they wanted their message to be secure. Regrettably enough, the same might just be said about McCormack’s view of the farmer’s life. One can make a movie about the joy a single person can get from this work and lifestyle, but I for one could not shake the thought of other farmers, perhaps also inhabiting a harsh and frugal holding, perhaps injured or infirm at the hands of the land and animals McCormack sees so much in; farmers who aren’t born romantics, and who can’t see the beauty in it all. I giggled more than once at the thought of giving the film the Werner Herzog treatment; “I believe the common denominator of the universe is not harmony, but chaos, hostility and murder”, and of all the small farmers who’d agree.

25

1945 (2017)

christopher kestell 1945 is a Hungarian drama from director Ferenc Török, based on the short story ‘The Homecoming’ by the film’s co-writer Gábor T. Szántó. Set in a small village in rural Soviet-occupied Hungary towards the end of the second world war, the film confronts the complicity of the Hungarian populace in the persecution of the Jewish people during the holocaust, and ponders upon themes of duty and our often flimsy justifications.

The film’s plot spans a single day and centres primarily around the town magistrate Mr. István. It is the day of his son’s wedding when he receives word from a train station-master that two Orthodox Jewish men have arrived, carrying a suspicious cargo of “perfume” and balms. This knowledge sparks widespread anxiety throughout the village. Why are they here? What is their business? Are they strangers?

It is quickly revealed that many of the villagers have prospered from the deportation of those Jewish people who once thrived in the village, being granted the homes and businesses left vacant by their eviction. Looming on the film’s horizon, the two black-

26

suited Jewish men cut menacing figures as ghosts of the past, constantly ratcheting up the tension as they approach, threatening the unsettled future of the villagers, and dragging the village’s shame to the forefront. This is a dramatic structure of the greatest tension and tragedy, as lurking danger tears the guilty and the innocent up from the inside.

Filmed entirely in black and white, Török skilfully blends the drab trappings of village life and relationships with highly stylised shots, shifting the focus of the viewer and displacing the pastoral scene, much like the disruption caused by the approaching Jews. This weaving of visual priorities is crafted seamlessly, and results in a film that is beautifully and provocatively shot and edited.

At the beginning of the film, the ensemble performance would appear hackneyed, as if the cast were portraying a collection of bombastic tropes. However, it soon becomes clear that this is itself a clever technique, luring the viewer into the village’s secure space, only to drag them back out of it with increasingly nuanced and heartfelt

individual efforts. Most notable are those of József Szarvas playing the drunken and hapless collaborator András, and Péter Rudolf as village magistrate István. Rudolf’s enthralling performance must be given a large share of the credit for ramping up the tension of the film, with his increased exasperation and animalistic drive.

There is not a lacking performance in sight here.

Mention must be made of Tibor Szemző’s minimalist score. Lightly scratching violins and Eastern European percussion somewhat confuse the auditory palate throughout, pushing the viewer further towards the edge of their seat. This element cannot be underestimated and deserves the highest praise.

First shown at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2017, and released later that year in Hungary, 1945 finally got its Irish release date on October 12th at the Irish Film Institute. This film is a fine example of masterfully clever storytelling, and is not worth missing out on.

a star is born (2018)

joey fanthom

Bradley Cooper stars as Jackson Maine, a renowned country singer prone to alcohol and drug abuse to cope with the pressures of the music business. One night after a show, Jackson stumbles into a drag bar where he sees Ally (Lady Gaga) perform. Impressed by her considerable vocal talent, he spends the rest of the night with her and discovers that she is a gifted writer as well as a singer. Subsequently, he invites her to his next gig where she joins him on stage and they perform one of her songs together, marking the beginning of a relationship which has lasting effects on both parties.

A Star Is Born is a story that Hollywood is very familiar with by now. This is the third remake of William A. Wellman’s classic 1937 film and it really sticks very closely to the original template, hitting all the same plot points and emotional beats so if you’ve seen any of the other three iterations of this story then you know what you’re getting into.

Though this does mean the film is rather formulaic in terms of the story, it is elevated by significantly by the exceptional work of cast and crew.

Watching the film, it is hard to believe that this is Cooper’s directorial debut.

It is directed with the assuredness of someone with years of experience.

The concert scenes are a visual treat with virtuosic camera movement comparable with many great concert films such as The Last Waltz. Equally,

the sound design is incredible. The film opens with Jackson performing to a massive stadium crowd and you are immediately sucked into the atmosphere of a live show as Jackson’s bluesy guitar and rugged vocals come blasting out of the speakers amidst the roars of thousands of fans.

Cooper proves himself quite the jack of all trades in what is arguably a career-best performance. His Jackson Maine is self-destructive, constantly gulping down gin and popping pills despite the obvious adverse effects on not only himself, but Ally and his older brother Bobby (played affectingly by the ever-dependable Sam Elliott). However, he imbues the character with a certain charm and a sympathy that makes his downfall all the more tragic in a performance that evokes memories of Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart. While Cooper is great, this film belongs to Lady Gaga’s Ally.

Without her usual elaborate costumes and makeup, Gaga is a revelation in what is her feature film debut. She portrays Ally as a charming, downto-earth every-girl who is determined in her career goals but with just the right amount of vulnerability and a self-doubt that makes her believable.

The two stars have fantastic chemistry together, both on stage when they duet and, in the quieter, more intimate moments between them. You absolutely buy into their relationship and that they do love each other and

that’s a testament to the actors.

The soundtrack consists of primarily original songs which stand up well on their own, while also providing a thought-provoking look into the mindsets of the two main characters.

Cooper and Gaga were heavily involved in the writing process themselves which comes across in the film as they sing them with purpose and passion. Of course, Lady Gaga’s vocals are every bit as good as we’ve come to expect from her throughout her esteemed career but Cooper more than holds his own on the microphone, in addition to displaying a clear talent on the guitar.

One minor point of criticism would be that it maybe goes on a little bit too long, with one scene too many of Jackson getting drunk and the aftermath but I’m really just nitpicking here because there is very little to fault in A Star Is Born.

Throughout the film, Jackson says something like “there are only twelve notes but it’s how you see those notes that matters” and that rings true with the film as a whole. Yes, the story has been told before, it’s nothing new, but it’s how Cooper envisioned this story and the execution that ultimately elevates this film. Technically superb and emotionally resonant, A Star Is Born is a must-see film with a rocking soundtrack. Expect to hear plenty about it come awards season.

27

five word review

from the past editors of tfr rebecca wynne-walsh (2017/18) -American Made (2017) “Features Tom Cruise actually acting.”

liam farrell (2016/17) -A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014)

Jack O’Kennedy (2014/15)

“Long title, short review.”

-Green Room (2015) “Punks perforated by Neo Nazis”

louie carroll (2015/16) -A Ghost Story (2017)

robyn hamilton (2013/14)

“Who ate all the pies?”

-Arrival (2016) “2016’s perfect answer to 2001.”

David cullinan (2013/14) -Whiplash (2014)

pj moloney (2012/13)

“A percussive counterpart to Black Swan.

-It Follows (2014) “Wait… It’s not by Carpenter?”

ciara barrett (2010/12) -Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

28

“Smokey eyes melt frozen hearts.”

Thank you to everyone who supported us over the past ten years

Here’s to ten more years!

29