News

Small Things Like These (2024) is a film that is intended to disturb, but not because of what it shows. Tim Mielants’ latest historical drama is not the first film about the infamous Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, as it was a major subject in Peter Mullan’s underrated drama “The Magdalene Sisters” and the Oscar-nominated Judi Dench vehicle “Philomena.” However, “Small Things Like These” avoids being derivative by presenting its exploration of the controversy as a mystery of sorts. The sad fact is that the abuse and enslavement of thousands of young women in Ireland is still a relatively unknown moment in history, and one that has certainly been forgotten when compared to other religious controversies.

“Small Things Like These” is perhaps more ambitious in the fact that it doesn’t attempt to summarize the extent of this generational abuse into a broadly accessible tragedy. It is a rather straightforward drama...

Borat star Maria Bakalova will board a bus with Peter Mullan for the single-location thriller, No Way Off.

Veteran Scottish actor Peter Mullan is set to lead single location thriller No Way Off for Altitude, starring opposite Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm’s standout performer, Maria Bakalova.

Downton Abbey director Brian Kelly will make the film, based on a screenplay by Gaby Hill, who recently wrote crime thriller series We Hunt Together. Matthew James Wilkinson will produce for his Stigma Films banner.

The premise sounds, quite frankly, amazing: a single mother and her baby son find themselves trapped on a moving bus drvien by a mask-wearing maniac. Also, it’s set at Christmas.

The synopsis reads as follows:

Inspired by single-location thrillers such as The Shallows, Buried and Crawl, No Way Off is set on Christmas Eve and revolves around Laura, a young mother who waits at a bus stop with her infant son.

The corpse of Halloween is barely cold, but studios are keen to announce holiday-themed projects nonetheless. Thankfully, this one sounds like one hell of a ride! Maria Bakalova is catching a ride alongside Peter Mullan for No Way Off, a Christmas Eve thriller from Downton Abbey director Brian Kelly. Kelly directs from a script by Gaby Hull, with James Wilkinson producing.

Akin to movies like The Shallows, Buried, and Crawl, No Way Off finds Bakalova in the role of Laura, “a young mother who waits at a bus stop with her infant son. When the bus pulls up, its driver is wearing a latex Santa mask. Laura climbs aboard, collapsing into her seat. Exhausted and stressed, she soon falls asleep. When Laura wakes, night has fallen. The bus is now hurtling along a motorway, miles off its usual route. Apart from the sleeping baby, she is the only passenger left on board.

“After the Party” star Peter Mullan tells it like it is.

“The thing with acting is that it’s fun when you are playing. A footballer can relive the moment of scoring the goal, but it’s not as much fun as scoring the goal. Kevin Spacey would watch himself all day long. He never fucking stops. The man is an asshole,” he told the crowd at Series Mania.

They worked together on “Ordinary Decent Criminal.”

“We would barely finish and he would run to the monitor to check if it worked. If the cheat worked, because he was so fake. I didn’t like him at all. Horrible human being, but fascinating to watch, because he was so mannered. It was like working with Bette Davis.”

Spacey wasn’t the only one who got a drubbing during expletive-filled masterclass, with Mullan’s very own nose in “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power...

Murphy plays a man who witnesses Ireland’s church’s abusive workhouses for unwed mothers in an absorbing Dickensian story based on recent history

As producer and lead actor, Cillian Murphy has brought to the screen a piercingly painful and sad story with a very literary intensity, juxtaposing the detail of the present with flashback memories of the past. It is about Ireland’s notorious Magdalene Laundries: the church’s homes for unwed mothers who were made to work in an atmosphere of wretchedness and shame and had their babies taken away and sold to foster parents. Enda Walsh has adapted the much admired novel by Claire Keegan and the director is Tim Mielants.

This subdued but absorbing and eventful film is rather different from Peter Mullan’s extravagant The Magdalene Sisters – which also featured Eileen Walsh in its cast – and different also from Stephen Frears’ bittersweet dramedy Philomena. Murphy...

Anyone looking to debate the limits of progress should cast an eye on 1980s Ireland. As a generation born in revolution and civil war moved from farms to towns, a middle class emerged. Some people had televisions; if they were good, some of their kids had Levi’s jeans. As certain things loosened, the Catholic church’s grip on most aspects of Irish life seemed to only grow tighter. Between 1922 and 1996, and aided by a callow state, the church was responsible for imprisoning tens of thousands of women (mostly young single mothers who couldn’t afford the child) into what was essentially indentured servitude. In these “laundries,” women worked seven days a week and weren’t allowed to leave. Their babies were taken from them and sold for adoption, or worse. Around 1,600 women died. The number of babies is estimated to be in the thousands.

The awful tragedy of those events...

Unlike Peter Mullan’s searing 2008 Venice Golden Lion winner, The Magdalene Sisters, or Joni Mitchell’s piercingly sad ballad, “The Magdalene Laundries,” the name given to the notorious workhouse institutions controlled by Irish religious orders is never spoken in Small Things Like These. But its Biblical evocation of the “fallen woman” is clear as a bell in this acutely affecting drama about how a glimpse of cruelty behind convent walls reopens the psychological wounds of a kind family man who has strived to build a life untainted by the stigma and sorrow of his childhood.

That man is Bill Furlong, a hard-working coal merchant and loving father of five daughters, played by Cillian Murphy in a performance that rips your heart out despite being an unimpeachable model of restraint.

The actor’s work here could scarcely be more of a contrast to his fine-grained characterization as the soft-spoken but imposing title figure in Oppenheimer,...

From “28 Days Later” through to his recent, Oscar-nominated turn in “Oppenheimer,” Cillian Murphy has cultivated a reputation as a strong, silent type — all while resisting the inscrutability associated with that masculine cliché. His beautiful, sharp-boned face twitches and tightens and teems with feeling. Closeups always catch it thinking, wrestling with surges of vulnerability or violence, or watching other characters in turn. It’s always busy, never blank. A story of the unspeakable gradually leaving the realm of the unsaid, “Small Things Like These” rests on both his quiet and his disquiet as an actor. As a blue-collar family man growing increasingly alert to misdeeds in the sacred heart of his community, he’s not just the conscience of Belgian director Tim Mielants’ delicate, understated film, but its live emotional current.

For if Murphy’s character Bill Furlong is quiet, the town around him is practically petrified. A sleepy settlement in Ireland’s County Wexford,...

Tim Mielants, a self-described “weird guy from Belgium,” is not the first filmmaker you’d expect to get the call to direct Small Things Like These, a film soaked in the culture and history of Ireland.

The film shares its subject matter with Peter Mullan’s 2002 drama The Magdalene Sisters, which exposed the brutal treatment of the tens of thousands of women held in Magdalene Laundries. Small Things Like These shifts the focus to the world outside the asylum, and to the complicity of the community that allowed the abuse to continue.

Mielants, who first worked with Murphy on British crime series Peaky Blinders, says it was this focus on “a man in midlife trying to deal with grief and struggling to do the right thing” that “made me think I might be able to tell this story.”

Small Things Like These was produced by Murphy’s Big Things Films,...

Small Things Like These featuring Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy will open this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.

Murphy plays Bill Furlong, a devoted father and coal merchant living in 1980s Ireland who discovers shocking truths about the infamous Magdalen laundries, the horrific asylums run by the Roman Catholic Church for “fallen women.”

Tim Mielants directed Small Things Like These from a screenplay by Enda Walsh. Emily Watson, Eileen Walsh and Michelle Fairley co-star. Eileen Walsh also starred in Peter Mulllan’s acclaimed 2002 drama The Magdalene Sisters which focused on the Magdalen asylums.

Small Things Like These is based on the book by award-winning Irish writer Claire Keegan, whose novel Foster was adapted as the Oscar-nominated The Quiet Girl.

Small Things Like These will open the 74th Berlinale on Feb. 15, screening in competition.

“With Small Things Like These, Tim Mielants tells the story of a man of few words, with wide open eyes,...

Inspirational documentary recovers the stories of those who dared to question the treatment of children in a small Irish town

Irish film-maker and journalist Sinéad O’Shea has a gripping and inspirational story to tell about her home town of Navan in Co Meath, and she tells it terrifically well, talking to the people involved, engaging with the history, delivering the drama and teasing out the poignancies and complexities.

O’Shea is speaking to the people who stood up to church abuse in the 60s and 70s, at a time when challenging the Catholic authorities seemed unthinkable. There can hardly be anyone left now who doesn’t know something about Ireland’s coming to terms with the historical abuse sanctioned by the church and its treatment of young pregnant women in the brutal mother-and-baby houses and Magdalene Laundries, the subject of movies such as Stephen Frears’s Philomena and Peter Mullan’s The Magdalene Sisters.

Exclusive: The Affair star Ruth Wilson and Peaky Blinders and Good Luck to You, Leo Grande actor Daryl McCormack have been set to lead new blue-chip BBC and Showtime series The Woman in the Wall, inspired by Ireland’s controversial Magdalene Laundries.

In the 6×60’ gothic thriller, two-time BAFTA nominee Wilson will play Lorna Brady, who wakes one morning to find a corpse in her house. Brady has no idea who the dead woman is or if she herself might be responsible for the apparent murder, because she has long suffered from extreme bouts of sleepwalking. The episodes began during her teenage years when she was incarcerated in one of Ireland and the Catholic Church’s notorious Magdalene Laundries, where ‘fallen women’ were sent to atone for “sins” such as adultery and teenage pregnancy.

2022 Showtime Pilots & Series Orders

Rising actor McCormack will play the ambitious but elusive Detective Colman Akande, who...

Yung Lean has tapped FKA Twigs for a new single, “Bliss,” accompanied by a lo-fi music video. The clip, directed by Aidan Zamiri, finds the pair dressed in wedding attire as they ride off in a classic car.

“Bliss” appears on Yung Lean’s new mixtape, Stardust, out now Lean’s own World Affairs imprint. Pulled together over the course of 2021, Stardust features vocals from FKA Twigs and production from Skrillex, Jack Donaghue, Whitearmor, Woesum and Ssaliva.

Yung Lean will embark on his Starz/Stardust tour this fall in Europe and North America.

FKA Twigs announced Thursday that her mixtape Caprisongs — her first collection of new music since 2019’s Magdalene — will be released on Friday, Jan. 14.

“Caprisongs is my journey back to myself through my amazing collaborators and friends,” the singer wrote of the mixtape on Instagram. “Caprisongs… it’s bronzer in the sink, alco pop on the side, a cherry lolly, apple juice when ur thirsty, friends in the park, your favourite person, that one sentence somebody said to you that changed everything, a club pre-game, your bestie who is always late...

FKA Twigs and the Weeknd give in to their “emotions overload” in new song “Tears in the Club.” The track follows the release of FKA Twigs’ single “Measure of a Man” featuring Central Cee, which appears on the soundtrack from upcoming film The King’s Man out Dec. 22.

“Tears in the Club” lives up to the promise of its name, pairing a booming dance floor beat and atmospheric synths with lyrics from Twigs and the Weeknd that are packed with heartache and angst: “Tears in the club,” goes part of the hook,...

Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American distribution rights to At the Ready, the documentary from Maisie Crow that follows three El Paso teenagers who embark on careers in law enforcement as the debates surrounding immigration and police reform in America reach fever pitches. The doc will be released in theaters and on digital platforms October 22.

Crow’s film focuses on students at El Paso’s Horizon High School, 10 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, who are part of a criminal justice club, which includes mock-ups of drug raids and active-shooter takedowns as they eye careers with the Border Patrol and in policing and customs enforcement. They soon discover their choices may clash with the values and people they hold most dear.

Crow, Hillary Pierce and Abbie Perrault are producing. Gravitas previously released Pierce’s immigration doc The River and the Wall.

Gravitas’ Huggins and Tony Piantedosi negotiated the deal...

Modern Films has debuted 6 new stunning posters for Cathy Brady’s directorial debut and IFTA nominated film ‘Wildfire’ and we have the exclusive first look to share with you.

The film’s synopsis reads – Born within a year of each other, Lauren (Nora-Jane Noone) and Kelly (Nika McGuigan) are ‘Irish twins’. You’d never see one without the other, but over the years the mystery of their mother’s death tore them apart. Kelly, keen to escape their insular town, drifted away and disappeared a year ago. Lauren’s life has been on hold since reporting her sister missing.

Kelly’s unexpected return sees a surge of every raw emotion between the sisters. Lauren doesn’t know whether to kiss her or hit her. But as they begin to relive memories of their mother, the sister’s become inseparable. Their bond is stronger than ever and Kelly’s desire for the truth is dangerously reignited.

Fka Twigs is finally hinting new music.

The 33-year-old songstress, whose real name is Tahliah Barnett took to Instagram to tease that she’ll be releasing new music this week.

“Did someone say they wanted new music? Might have something for you this week…” Fka Twigs posted along with a selfie.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Fka twigs (@fkatwigs)

Back in November, the 'Video Girl' hitmaker revealed that she had recorded a new song with Dua Lipa, which was later teased during the Studio 2054 live stream, reports NME.

According to DIY, she previously teased the forthcoming album during a virtual interview for Grammy’s Museum Programs in October last year. She also revealed that she wrote the new project - a follow up to her 2019 record 'Magdalene' - during the lockdown.

“I ended up, in actual fact, making a whole album in quarantine. I just decided one day,...

Shia Labeouf has been sued by his ex-girlfriend, pop star Fka Twigs, citing sexual battery, assault, and the infliction of emotional distress. According to a New York Times report, Labeouf “abused Fka twigs physically, emotionally and mentally many times in a relationship that lasted just short of a year.” Labeouf, who stars in Netflix’s awards contender “Pieces of a Woman,” has a history of chaotic, documented behavior, with an arrest record with since dismissed charges of assault and disorderly conduct.

“I’d like to be able to raise awareness on the tactics that abusers use to control you and take away your agency,” said Fka twigs, born Tahliah Debrett Barnett.

Twigs’ allegations include physical and emotional assault, including the incident that incited the lawsuit, just after Valentine’s Day 2019 when Labeouf “was driving recklessly… removing his seatbelt and threatening to crash unless she professed her love for him.”

On...

Saban Films has acquired the rights to two titles from Munich-based “Resident Evil” producer Constantin Film.

The deals include North American and U.K. rights to the adventure thriller “Tides,” directed by Tim Fehlbaum, and North American rights to director Mike P. Nelson’s anticipated horror reboot, “Wrong Turn.”

Mister Smith Entertainment is handling worldwide sales on both Constantin titles this week at the virtual American Film Market, where the titles will be screening for buyers.

“Tides” marks the second film from Swiss-born director Fehlbaum, who burst to attention with his debut feature “Hell,” another sci-fi thriller.

Set in a not-too-distant future, “Tides” follows an elite female astronaut from Space Colony Kepler who is shipwrecked on a decimated Earth after a global catastrophe has wiped out nearly all of humanity. She must make a decision that will seal the fate of the Earth’s populace.

“Tides” stars Nora Arnezeder (“Mozart In The Jungle...

The 63rd Annual Grammy Awards are held in 2021, but the eligibility period for these kudos celebrating the best in music actually started on September 1, 2019, ending on August 31, 2020. So who will win Album of the Year?

This eligibility period is new for the Grammys. The recording academy moved up their calendar in 2020 in response to the Oscars, which moved their ceremony up to early February, which was when the Grammys usually aired. So the Grammys shifted their telecast to early January and adopted an eligibility calendar that ended a month earlier.

SEEGrammy Album of the Year: All the Winners in Grammy Awards History

But that’s not the only change the Grammys have undergone in recent years. For the 61st annual event held in 2019, the academy expanded its top four general field categories from five nominees to eight in part as a response to criticisms over a lack of diversity among the nominees and winners.

Exclusive: After taking its time figuring out where it wants the next Tron installment to go, Disney’s sci-fi franchise looks to have new life as we are hearing Garth Davis has been tapped to direct the pic starring Jared Leto.

Davis has been better known for his smaller art house films over the years like 2018’s Mary Magdalene and his critically acclaimed 2016 drama Lion, which received six Oscar nominations including for Best Picture. Tron would mark Davis’ first tentpole, and though he is not known for big-budget projects, insiders say Davis aggressively pursued the job, eventually winning over execs.

Jesse Wigutow wrote the most recent draft of the script. Leto is producing along with Justin Springer and Emma Ludbrook.

The original 1982 film starring Jeff Bridges was set inside the computer program called the Grid, where a computer hacker is abducted and forced to participate in gladiatorial games. The film...

Tributes pour in for the veteran producer, best known for his work on films including ‘The Magdalene Sisters’.

Alan J. ‘Willy’ Wands, a producer of The Magdalene Sisters and detective series Rebus, died yesterday in Glasgow aged 67. He had been diagnosed with cancer.

An outspoken advocate of the Scottish production industry, Wands had more than 35 feature film credits and numerous TV drama series to his name.

Born in Ayr, on the west coast of Scotland, he started his career in the 1970s in theatre before moving into screen work as an associate producer on features including Mike Figgis’ 1988 crime drama...

Tributes pour in for the veteran producer, best known for his work on films including ‘The Magdalene Sisters’.

Alan J. ‘Willy’ Wands, a producer of The Magdalene Sisters and detective series Rebus, has died aged 67. He passed away yesterday (May 17) in Glasgow, having been diagnosed with cancer.

An outspoken advocate of the Scottish production industry, Wands had more than 35 feature film credits and numerous TV drama series to his name.

Born in Ayr, on the west coast of Scotland, his early credits were as an associate producer on Mike Figgis’ 1988 crime drama Stormy Monday and David Hayman’s 1990 gritty drama Silent Screen.

Fka Twigs performed her single “Cellophane” at the 2020 NME Awards in London and gave the track an intimate, eight-minute-long rendition accompanied by a cellist and a pianist.

During the performance, the singer kept things simple, standing in the center of an illuminated red stage and bringing in some of her signature choreography.

Yungblood, the 1975 and Beabadoobee also performed during the annual awards show, which honored Taylor Swift with the Best Solo Act in the World award. The 1975 was honored with Best British Band during the ceremony, which took place at the O2 Academy Brixton.

Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X were the twin superheroes of Grammy Night 2020, with her green hair and his pink cowboy hat as signs of electric youth. Billie swept the top prizes. It was so poetic to see her accept the Best New Artist award from Alicia Keys — since Alicia won Best New Artist the year Billie was born. And it was poignant to see Smokey Robinson, America’s greatest living songwriter, embrace Billie with a warm hug when she won Song of the Year for “Bad Guy.” It felt...

Usher recruited Sheila E. and Fka Twigs for a tribute to Prince at the 62nd annual Grammys on Sunday.

The artist — dressed in a bedazzled suit — performed an incredibly horny medley of “Little Red Corvette,” “When Doves Cry” and “Kiss,” flanked by the former Prince drummer. Twigs pole-danced for the first two songs, a skill that she trained for intensively for her incredible new album Magdalene. She joined Usher at centerstage for “Kiss,” but unfortunately the avant-pop star didn’t sing.

The performance comes two days before the star-studded Prince...

In 91 years, no one has ever been Oscar-nominated for playing a pope. That could change this year if Jonathan Pryce (lead actor) and Anthony Hopkins (supporting) are recognized for the crowd-pleasing “The Two Popes,” as, respectively, Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI.

The film depicts their mutual wariness, which turns into friendship. And thanks to director Fernando Meirelles and writer Anthony McCarten, it also packs a punch in dealing with the men’s very different socio-political backgrounds.

“The Two Popes” sounds like a TV movie that would be shown on cable every Easter. In fact, Italian TV has done a bevy of papal biopics over the years, and America has had a hand in several, including Jon Voight (!) in the 2005 “Pope John Paul II” miniseries.

But Vatican City has rarely appeared on the big screen. “The Agony and the Ecstasy” (1965) and “The Shoes of the Fisherman” (1968) were both intended as...

Nun of Your Business: Delpero Explores Mothers and Others in Astute Debut

For her feature film debut, documentarian Maura Delpero observed young women in Buenos Aires being cared for by nuns in an Italian religious center for a period of four years, resulting in Maternal. The Spanish language title, Hogar, translates as ‘home,’ although somewhere between these two simple suggestions lies the basis for a narrative which concerns unwed Argentinean teen mothers living alongside Italian nuns in a convent within a film that’s less The Magdalene Sisters (2002) and more Losing Isaiah (1995) in its juxtaposition of cultural, socioeconomic and racial divides marking an argument for nature vs.…...

“The Nun,” a prequel to “The Conjuring” series of horror films, finds a young nun traveling to Romania to investigate a demon that has potentially latched itself onto a nun. With that premise, things are bound to get a little crazy. Of course, there’s a long history in film of taking chaste, pious women who have become nuns on film and testing their resolve, of taken their faith to wild extremes, or playing on that goodness for comedy. Say a few rosaries and check out these nun movies.

“Sister Act” (1992)

Whoopi Goldberg goes into the witness protection program and winds up a jump-roping, gospel singing, foul-mouthed nun with Maggie Smith looking down her nose at her in “Sister Act.” The film made an ungodly sum as the sixth highest grossing movie of the year and spawned a sequel.

“Black Narcissus” (1947)

Powell & Pressburger’s 1947 drama is about as lush and...

Pollyanna McIntosh – best known as the cunning Jadis in The Walking Dead – has wrapped production on her debut feature, which is now set to make its market debut in Cannes.

Darlin', which MPI Media Group will introduce to buyers, continues the twisted vicious adventure of Lucky McKee's 2011 cult hit The Woman, which he novelized with famed horror writer Jack Ketchum and which starred McIntosh in the title role.

McIntosh reprises her role in Darlin', appearing alongside Lauryn Canny (1,000 Times Good Night, Amber), Bryan Batt (Mad Men, 12 Years a Slave), Nora-Jane Noone (The Magdalene Sisters, The Descent, Brooklyn) and Cooper...

Over the weekend, the 2017 Venice Film Festival handed out their awards, with Guillermo del Toro’s ravenously received The Shape of Water taking the top prize. While the Golden Lion isn’t quite an Academy Award barometer, it’s nothing to sneeze at either. This marks an important point in the road, as things are heating up. We’re not yet at the precursor season, but any feather in your hat right now is a boon for a contender. As such, del Toro has to consider himself in a very nice place. The next few months will still be about getting the proverbial ducks in a row. The real fun is still to come. Obviously, the Golden Lion went to del Toro’s highly praised movie, as The Shape of Water got the first big awards season boost. It took home the top prize, while other highlighted winners include Charlie Plummer...

Vanessa Redgrave is brilliant as a woman instutionalised for infanticide, but otherwise Jim Sheridan’s tearjerker is a merely an endurance test

It’s a testament to the unfeasible beauty of the cast of Jim Sheridan’s tearjerker that Poldark’s Aidan Turner, present in a supporting role, looks distinctly average by comparison. But all the smouldering gorgeousness of Rooney Mara, Theo James, Jack Reynor and Eric Bana can’t dress up this mawkish slog of a movie. Adapted from the book by Sebastian Barry, the story deals with subject matter that has already been tackled with more heartbreaking humour in Philomena and more biting fury in The Magdalene Sisters. Credit must go to Vanessa Redgrave, however, playing a woman who has been institutionalised since she was in her 20s and acting everyone else off the screen.

Continue reading...

Director Simon Pummel's stunning new Sci-Fi film Identicals arrives on DVD and VOD from 15th August and we have 2 copies up for grabs! The dynamic film stars Lachlan Nieboer (Cross of Honour, The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman) and Nora-Jayne Noone (The Descent, The Magdalene Sisters, Savage) and follows organisation Brand New-u which identifies networks of Identicals people who walk like you, talk like you, but are walking through different, better lives.. Contest Ends on Friday, August 26, 2016...

Arrow Films and Hot Property Films have kindly provided us with 2 ace DVD's to give away of their upcoming release of sic-fi thriller 'Identicals', which is available on DVD and Video on Demand from August 15.

Identicals, created by the BAFTA winning team Writer / Director Simon Pummell (Bodysong, Shock Head Soul, The Temptation of Sainthood) and Producer Janine Marmot (Kelly +Victor and Bodysong, Shock Head Soul).

Starring Lachlan Nieboer (Cross of Honour, The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman) and Nora-Jane Noone (The Descent, The Magdalene Sisters, Savage), in Identicals. the organization Brand New-u identifies networks of Identicals– people who walk like you, talk like you, but are walking through different, better lives - and helps their customers make a life upgrade: eliminating the better-life donor, and relocating their client to that brand new life. Slater seems to have the perfect life, the perfect job and the perfect girlfriend. But...

Remake of classic Scottish comedy set for world premiere as 2016 Edinburgh closing night gala.

The 70th edition of the Edinburgh Film Festival (Eiff) (June 15-26) will close with the world premiere of Scottish comedy remake Whisky Galore!.

A remake of Alexander Mackendrick’s 1949 feature of the same name, the story follows a group of Scottish islanders who enjoy a windfall of whiskey during the Second World War.

The original was based on Sir Compton Mackenzie’s novel of the same name, which was inspired by the shipwreck off the Scottish coast of a ship sailing for America with a cargo of export-only alcohol during World War II.

The home-grown production was filmed on location in Scotland and features Scottish actors including Gregor Fisher (Love Actually), James Cosmo (Braveheart), Kevin Guthrie (Sunset Song), Sean Biggerstaff (Harry Potter And The Chamber of Secrets), and Eddie Izzard (Valkyrie).

Gillies Mackinnon (Regeneration, Hideous Kinky) directed from Peter McDougall’s screenplay. Iain Maclean...

Hannah Bonner Mar 15, 2019

St. Patrick's Day is upon us, thus we lift a glass and consider what are the best Irish films to cheers to on such an auspicious day.

Spring is in the air, and it’s that time of year when we can enjoy a pint and a shot of Tullamore Dew on the patio (or while watching our favorite Irish movie).

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, we have compiled a list of the 10 best Irish films to raise your glass to on the 17th. Cheers!

10. Gangs of New York (2002)

Okay, so we’re cheating a little bit with the first one on this list, but Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York is his first partnership with the now Oscar winning Leonardo DiCaprio. The two have become a fruitful cinematic duo, a combination for which we moviegoers are grateful for (hello The Departed and The Wolf of Wall Street...

From performances in Trainspotting, Top of the Lake, Tyrannosaur, Red Riding, War Horse, Boy A, Children of Men, and more to directorial work like Neds and The Magdalene Sisters, Peter Mullan has crafted out a distinct career with a distinct voice. As a fitting birthday present for the actor (who turns 56 today), we have the first trailer for his next feature, Hector.

The directorial debut of Jake Gavin, it follows Mullan’s character as a homeless man who embarks on a journey from Scotland to London and reconnects to those in his storied life along the way. While there’s no U.S. distribution set yet, it’ll arrive next month in the U.K. and looks to have another great performance from Mullan.

Check out the the trailer below (with a hat tip to Screen Relish) for the film also starring Sarah Solemani, Keith Allen, Stephen Tompkinson, Natalie Gavin and Sharon Rooney.

Kirsten Howard Feb 21, 2018

This March on Netflix, you'll get Captain America: Civil War, Valerian, season 2 of Jessica Jones and Alex Garland's Annihilation...

As you probably already know, Netflix is a hugely popular streaming service that encourages binge-watching but also likes to check every now and then to see if you're still alive. It's nice like that.

See related Troy: Fall Of A City episode 1 review: Black Blood Troy: Fall Of A City - flipping the script on The Iliad Troy: Fall Of A City episode 1 spoiler-free review

There's a lot of new entertainment on the site every month, and we're going to compile it all for you here.

First up, the weekly series, slowly digested in reasonably-sized chunks:

Designated Survivor will return on the 1st, and Joel McHale's new news series will get underway. iZombie and Jane The Virgin will be back, and there'll also be more Black Lightning,...

As the Venice Film Festival slate starts to unspool, its 30th annual Critics' Week lineup celebrating new directors has now been revealed. It's a nostalgic program this year, with a screening of Scottish director Peter Mullan's 1998 "Orphans" opening the sidebar, running September 2 through 12. The drama won a surfeit of prizes when it premiered on the Lido, and four years later Mullan won the Golden Lion for his chilling "The Magdalene Sisters" (2002). Read More: Venice Taps Two Auteurs to Head Juries Critics' Week will close with "Bagnoli Jungle" by Antonio Capuano, who won a Venice prize in 1991 for "Vito and the Others." The selection of mostly European titles screening in and out of competition is below. Eight of these are world premieres, and they're eligible for Venice's Golden Lion of the Future first feature prize. In Competition Ana yurdu (Motherland) by Senem Tuzen - Turkey, Greece 2015 / 98’ Banat (Il viaggio) ...

At a loss for what to watch this week? From new DVDs and Blu-rays, to what's streaming on Netflix, we've got you covered.

New on DVD and Blu-ray

"Focus"

Will Smith and Margot Robbie are now filming the highly anticipated "Suicide Squad" movie, but watch them as con artists in this crime drama, which is available June 2. The "Focus" Blu-ray/DVD combo includes the special features "Masters of Misdirection: The Players in a Con, "Will Smith: Gentleman Thief," "Margot Robbie: Stealing Hearts," deleted scenes, and an alternate opening.

"McFarland USA"

Kevin Costner stars in Disney's inspirational sports drama about a successful high school cross country team in McFarland, California. The Digital HD, Blu-ray, and DVD all come with special features including "Juntos" music video and a featurette called "Inspiring McFarland."

"Jupiter Ascending"

This was pretty much demolished by critics, but it still has some defenders and a great...

It’s almost June and that means Netflix is about to give their content a refresh. Some of the notable titles leaving in June include Rain Man, Taxi Driver, and Donnie Brasco. So if you haven’t seen some of these titles, plan your nights accordingly. We of course can look forward more than a few new titles including the premiere of the Wachowskis’ show Sense8, the new season of Orange is the New Black, Nightcrawler, and Jon Stewart’s film Rosewater.

Available June 1

Employee of the Month (2006)

Hidden Kingdoms (2014)

La Dictadura Perfecta (2014)

R.L. Stine’s Mostly Ghostly (2008)

R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour: Don’t Think About It (2007)

Sex Ed (2014)

Shaquille O’Neal Presents: All Star Comedy Jam: Live from Orlando (2012)

Shaquille O’Neal Presents: All Star Comedy Jam: Live From Atlanta (2013)

Shaquille O’Neal Presents: All Star Comedy Jam: Live from Las Vegas (2014)

The Aviator...

New on Netflix this June: "Sense8," the new sci-fi drama from Andy and Lana Wachowski ("The Matrix" trilogy) and "Babylon 5" creator J. Michael Straczynski, in which eight strangers suddenly find themselves mysteriously connected. Also, look for the return of Netflix original series "Orange Is the New Black" on June 12.

As for movies, you won't want to miss Jake Gyllenhaal's terrifyingly great turn in "Nightcrawler." Also new: "Life of Crime" and "Cake" with Jennifer Aniston; Philip Seymour Hoffman's last completed film, the spy thriller "A Most Wanted Man"; Gina Prince-Bythewood's acclaimed film "Beyond the Lights" starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw as a rising singer; not to mention the critically panned "Grace of Monaco," starring Nicole Kidman as Princess Grace.

Below is a full rundown of what's new on Netflix in June 2015, provided by Netflix. As always, all titles and dates are subject to change. We've also go you covered...

Geraldine McEwan in The Magdalene Sisters

Geraldine McEwan, best known for playing Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in a long-running television series, has died at the age of 82. In her 57 year career the much-admired character actress also appeared in films as diverse as Henry V, The Magdalene Sisters and Vanity Fair. She provided the voice of Miss Thipp in Wallace and Grommit film The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit and also appeared alongside Kevin Costner and Sean Conner in Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.

An awkward child who found refuge in the theatre and quickly made an impression with her acting talents, the versatile McEwan had no formal training but soon progressed through Stratford and Broadway before finding her way into film. She was an avowed left-winger and was rumoured to have turned down the offer of being made a dame. She died peacefully following a stroke and is survived by her two.

Just when you thought that Stephen Frears’ latest film, Philomena, would be yet another questionable exercise from the once generally revered auteur, (judging from a recent string of misfires that resulted in his career worst with 2012’s unfathomably awful Lay the Favorite), he switches it up with his best work since The Queen. Presented at the Toronto Int. FIlm Festival, the Academy Award and BAFTA award-nominated crowd pleaser, to be sure, but despite its unavoidable pretense as an awards darling (of which there are bound to be several), a disavowal to wallow in chintzy schmaltz at least makes it deserving of praise in that it’s intelligently written (and based on a true story! Oh my!) and genuinely performed, even if the film is rather visually banal.

The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, a 2009 book by BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith, here portrayed by Steve Coogan, provides the basis for Stephen Frears’ treatment,...

Head of BBC Films Christine Langan explains why the end of the awards season is a good thing, and how she 'nurtures' winners like The Queen and Philomena

The Oscars inspire various emotions in film producers: suspense, elation, deflation … and relief. Whatever the outcome, award season is finally over. "They are very exciting, but it's got to the point where they take up a big chunk of the year," observes Christine Langan, head of BBC Films. "You're barely through the summer when the pundits are coming up with a programme of what to watch."

Still, she grants, for those outside the major studios, gongs can be a film's best friend. "Working in the independent sector, you're in the lunatic gang anyway, hoping for some magic – a really unusual story or a really knockout performance – so of course awards are important. They can prolong the life of your film, get it noticed,...

Odd List Ryan Lambie Simon Brew 27 Feb 2014 - 05:54

Our series of lists devoted to underappreciated films brings us to the year 2010, and another 25 overlooked gems...

By 2010, Hollywood’s obsession with 3D movies was in full swing. James Cameron’s Avatar may have given audiences a taste of what the cutting edge of stereoscope could look like, but it has to be said that the movies ushered into cinemas in its wake were a decidedly mixed bunch. Toy Story 3's 3D was extraordinarily effective, yet Clash Of The Titans looked like a blurry mess. How To Train Your Dragon came to life in its flying sequences, but the less said about the horribly murky Last Airbender, the better.

Unless we’re mistaken, none of the movies on this list were shot or released in 3D, and few of them did particularly stellar business. A few got a certain amount of critical acclaim,...

Ireland, for its tiny size and small population, can boast of a lot of wonderful native films. Whenever people think about Irish cinema – two major themes emerge. First, there is Ireland’s turbulent historical and political past which makes good cinematic fodder, and secondly there are all the films exposing either poverty and drunkenness (Angela’s Ashes being the most famous film of this ilk) or clerical abuse (The Magdalene Sisters).

I have not included films about Ireland as they tend to be very stereotyping – for example, The Quiet Man and Darby O’Gill and the Little People. I have let Irish cinema speak for itself with powerful masterpieces of cinema, quirky contemporary films and some very funny comedies.

Whatever you are after, there is an Irish film to satisfy you.

12. Disco Pigs (2001)

The adventures of Pig (Cillian Murphy) and Runt (Elaine Cassidy). They were born on the same day,...

Odd List Ryan Lambie Simon Brew 12 Dec 2013 - 05:49

The year of Baggins, Potter and Spider-Man also had a wealth of lesser-known movies. Here’s our pick of 2002's underappreciated films...

At the top of the box office tree, 2002 was dominated by fantasy and special effects. Peter Jackson's The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers made almost a billion dollars all by itself, with Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets taking second place and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man not too far behind.

In many ways, 2002 set the tempo for the Hollywood blockbuster landscape, which has changed relatively little in the decade since. A quick look at 2013‘s top 10, for example, reveals a markedly similar mix of superhero movies, with Iron Man 3 still ruling the roost at the time of writing, followed by effects-heavy action flicks and family-friendly animated features.

As usual in these lists, we're looking...

Among the more heartrending tales in the sorry annals of the twentieth-century Catholic Church is of tens of thousands of “bad” Irish girls virtually enslaved by the good sisters of the Magdalene asylum-cum-laundries. Until those damnable institutions closed forever in 1996, young women worked eight to ten hours, 364 days a year, worn down by taunting lectures on the evils of the flesh and frequent beatings. They were also forced to give up all rights to their out-of-wedlock children. Peter Mullan’s 2003 The Magdalene Sisters was too arty and grueling to get much traction outside Ireland and the U.K., but the new Judi Dench–Steve Coogan vehicle Philomena is just the sort of awards-bait weeper (with laughs) to cross over to a biggish audience. Directed by Stephen Frears from a script by Coogan and Jeff Pope, the movie is overcalculating and occasionally coarse, but it has a gentle spirit. We should...