Film

Film

Materialists review: This non-romcom has the welcome oddness of a future classic

Don’t mind the baffled American critics: Celine Song’s follow-up to her Oscar-nominated Past Lives is gorgeous and intelligent

By Donald Clarke

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Film-maker Dag Johan Haugerud: From laid-off librarian to Golden Bear-winning director of the Oslo Stories trilogy

The Norwegian director on writing a convincing teenage girl, how the camera embellishes beauty, and achieving international success at the age of 60

By Donald Clarke

Film

Jamie Lee Curtis: ‘Once you mess with your face you can’t get it back’

Freakier Friday, which reunites the Oscar-winner with Lindsay Lohan, is good clean fun. But its themes mean a lot to an actor who has had her share of personal trials

By Tara Brady

Film

Four new films to see this week: Weapons, Freakier Friday, The Kingdom and Conor Walsh: Selected Piano Works

A quartet of movies released in the week of August 8th, 2025

By Donald Clarke and Tara Brady

Film

Braveheart faithful join Mel Gibson and cast to mark 30th anniversary of production

Locations in Ireland used for film include Trim Castle, Bective Abbey and the Curragh

By Stephen Farrell

Film

The Movie Quiz: What was that feckin’ Mrs Brown’s Boys film called?

Plus: The chap behind which series is about to embark on Bond 26?

By Donald Clarke

Film

Conor Walsh: Selected Piano Works review – Quietly persuasive, impressively original of the late Mayo musician

Keith Walsh has fashioned a touching study of a fascinating, if allusive, personality who died suddenly aged 36

By Donald Clarke

Film

The Kingdom review: Riveting, quietly devastating crime saga reinvigorates the Mafia movie

The tragic cycle is composed of the same beats that defined such superior films as The Godfather and Animal Kingdom

By Tara Brady

Film

Weapons review: The best Stephen King adaptation to not be adapted from a Stephen King story

Julia Garner and Josh Brolin star in Zach Cregger’s film about a weird disturbance in a small town

By Donald Clarke

Film

Freakier Friday review: Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan’s old-school confection delights in every silly scene

Nisha Ganatra’s zinger-laden sequel smartly reunites the original stars as body-swapping mother and daughter

By Tara Brady

Culture

Pioneering film-maker George Morrison dies aged 102

President Michael D Higgins pays tribute to Waterford native known for Mise Éire, the first full-length feature film in the Irish language

By Ella Sloane

Film

Four new films to see this week: The Naked Gun, Bring Her Back, Late Shift and Oslo Stories: Dreams (Sex Love)

A quartet of movies released in the week of August 1st, 2025

By Donald Clarke and Tara Brady

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Brendan Gleeson: ‘I can’t go into a pub any more. I really miss it’

With The Weir, the star returns to the stage after a 10-year absence. It’s a play he loves for its portrayal of the Irish as a people

By Nadine O’Regan

Film

Bring Her Back director Danny Philippou: ‘I love the psycho-biddy genre. It allows actors to really play’

Grown adults have been covering their eyes and hyperventilating at the RackaRacka brothers’ new film. It also has important things to say about grief

By Donald Clarke

Film

Mel Gibson returning to Meath next week for Braveheart’s 30th anniversary

Actor who starred in Scotland-based movie released in 1995 will attend King John Summer Prom Festival

By Hosanna Boulter

Film

The Movie Quiz: Where in Dublin was Checkpoint Charlie situated back in 1965?

Plus: Who was (jointly) the first actor Oscar-nominated for a Stephen King film?

By Donald Clarke

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Festivals: The best Irish events in August, from music and comedy to literature and science

There’s something for everybody in our guide to the many events being held around Ireland this month

By Hosanna Boulter

Film

Late Shift review: A nursing meltdown opens us up to unseen and underappreciated lives

Leonie Benesch plays a surgical nurse doing vital midnight duty in a hospital strained by understaffing

By Donald Clarke

Film

Bring Her Back review: Sally Hawkins weaponises her Paddington-mom screen persona in this gorily audacious horror

Latest iteration of A24’s ‘grief is the real horror’ subgenre leans heavily on body horror to drive emotion

By Tara Brady

Film

The Naked Gun review: Liam Neeson a bit of a puzzle amid big dumb fun

It doesn’t matter what it’s parodying, the film delivers lots of good jokes

By Donald Clarke

Film

Oslo Stories: Dreams (Sex Love) review – The first part of Dag Johan Haugerud’s trilogy is intimate, ambiguous and lingering

At its best, the Danish drama thrives in the fuzzy intersection of memory, identity and making stuff up

By Tara Brady

Film

Helen Mirren on turning 80: ‘I am not ageing gracefully at all. I hate that term’

‘We just do grow older, there’s no way you can escape that’ says Oscar-winning actor

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Late Shift star Leonie Benesch: ‘The biggest shock was realising how broken health systems are globally’

For her role in Petra Volpe’s feature the German actor shadowed nurses in Zurich but found even in wealthy Switzerland working conditions are tough

By Tara Brady

Film

Four new films to see this week: The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Gazer, Dying/Sterben and The Bad Guys 2

A quartet of movies released in the week of July 25th, 2025

By Donald Clarke and Tara Brady

Film

Liam Neeson: From Paisley-loving Catholic boy to actor, then action man, now comedy star

The Irish actor has spent a decade leaping from helicopters, evading grenades and putting his foot in it. Now for The Naked Gun

By Donald Clarke

Film

The Bad Guys 2 review: Tolerable sequel is dragged down by an overcomplicated plot

This sits between the ballet of Looney Tunes and the less sophisticated Scooby Doo

By Donald Clarke

Film

Gazer review: An impressive, lo-fi and disarmingly intense debut

Ariella Mastroianni is mesmerising as woman struggling with fractured family and fragmented psyche

By Tara Brady

Film

The Movie Quiz: Which Hitchcock film features a future crew member of the Nostromo?

Plus: Who has been declared the highest-grossing movie star of all time?

By Donald Clarke

Film

Dying review: Dark family saga shows living, like dying, is a messy business

Sweeping intergenerational study of a fractured German family somehow finds a rhythm

By Tara Brady

Film

The Fantastic Four: First Steps review - Good, clean, retro fun

No homework is required. This MCU film can be enjoyed or loathed on its own uncomplicated terms

By Donald Clarke

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Linus O’Brien on The Rocky Horror Film Show: ‘Rocky has tangibly saved lives. It created a real sense of community’

The son of Richard O’Brien has made a documentary about his father’s camp musical creation that became a monster cult hit

By Tara Brady

People

Ireland’s ‘film censor’ Ciarán Kissane: ‘My mother told me I watched too much TV and now I watch movies for a living’

Director of Irish Film Classification Office on the magic of scuba diving, being a glass-half-full person, and his grandfather’s sudden death

By Tony Clayton-Lea

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Barry Lyndon turns 50: Is Kubrick’s epic, filmed in Ireland, a folly or a masterpiece?

The lavish take on Thackeray’s novel received mixed reviews on its first release, but has secured its place among the greats

By Donald Clarke

Film

The Movie Quiz: Who has never played Kevin Costner’s wife?

Plus: Which studio’s films were, from 1924-1928, introduced by a Dublin-born legend?

By Donald Clarke

Film

Four Letters of Love review: Every interior in this preposterous film suggests an Irish theme pub in 1990s Basingstoke

Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham Carter and Gabriel Byrne team up with antique spinning-wheels, nuns and vowels from all 32 counties

By Donald Clarke

Film

Friendship review: This twisted buddy-buddy movie is funny but not much fun

Comedian Tim Robinson brings the cringe factor – and suppressed fury – to Andrew DeYoung’s writing and directing debut

By Donald Clarke

Film

The Other Way Around review: A witty and cerebral romantic comedy

Jonás Trueba’s film initially evokes mature classics, before veering into playfully modernist territory

By Tara Brady

Film

Harvest review: Trippy medieval parable where allegory overpowers the drama

Athina Rachel Tsangari’s first English-language film, adapted from the Jim Crace novel, is meticulously crafted yet oddly two-dimensional

By Tara Brady

Film

Galway Film Fleadh 2025: The big winners at the hottest festival in memory, including Gerry Adams basking in adulatory sunshine

Gerry Adams’ film and Trevor Birney’s The Negotiator show subjects in sympathetic light

By Donald Clarke

Film

Pierce Brosnan’s 11 most memorable movie roles – in reverse order

The common reduction of Brosnan to ‘Bond actor’ distracts from a busier and better CV than the casual observer might guess

By Donald Clarke

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Harvest star Harry Melling: ‘I was surrounded by titans like Fiona Shaw. I was starry-eyed as they told me stories about theatre work’

The Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari is the latest auteur to take a shine to the former Harry Potter actor, who has earned the respect of everyone from the Coen brothers to Christian Bale

By Tara Brady

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Scarlett Johansson has set a box office record. But could the movie star be out of a job?

The Jurassic World and Black Widow star is now the highest-grossing lead actor of all time. She can count herself lucky we remember her name

By Donald Clarke

Film

Four new films to see this week: Pavements, Armand, Superman and Modigliani – Three Days on the Wing of Madness

Johnny Depp directs, and Al Pacino, David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan and Pavement appear in a quartet of movies released in the week of July 11th, 2025

By Donald Clarke and Tara Brady

Film

The Movie Quiz: How many times has Steven Spielberg directed Richard Dreyfuss in a feature?

Plus: What does Lady share with Tramp?

By Donald Clarke

Film

Modigliani: Three Days on the Wing of Madness review – Is Johnny Depp’s film a dud or a masterpiece? Prepare for disappointing news

Depp no doubt admires Modigliani’s work, but his real passion here is for the eternally intoxicating fantasy of Parisian bohemia

By Donald Clarke

Film

Armand review: An emergency parent-teacher conference bubbles into an unnerving psychological crucible

An indelible, unsettling debut from Halfdan Ullmann Tondel, a grandson of Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann

By Tara Brady

Film

Poignant documentary about Sunny Jacobs to be aired at Galway Film Fleadh

Woman who spent 17 years on death row in Florida died in a house fire six weeks ago

By Ronan McGreevy

Film

Pavements review: Brilliantly unclassifiable salute to the 1990s indie-rock legends Pavement

Alex Ross Perry’s film is framed around Pavement’s 2022 reunion tour, but it quickly spirals outwards into giddy metafiction

By Tara Brady

Film

Superman review: Utterly charmless. And as funny as toothache

How is David Corenswet as Superman in James Gunn’s reboot? He essentially features so little it’s hard to tell

By Donald Clarke

Books

Bestselling Salt Path authors under fire amid allegations of untruths and unpaid debts

Recently adapted for the cinema and featuring Gillian Anderson, the couple’s origin story of pilgrimage may have employed excessive creative licence

By Donald Clarke