Twice Shy Review

With a style influenced by American made indie movies, making him stand out from the ever growing crop of Irish directors, Tom Ryan quietly made his mark on the film scene with 2014’s Trampoline, a touching and personal micro-budget coming of age drama that dealt with ones struggle with finidnging their place in the world. For his second feature, Twice Shy, the budget is that bit bigger, the story much more topical, but the result is no less intimate.

With Repeal the Eighth heavy on the mind of almost every Irish person at the moment, the release of Twice Shy couldn’t be more timely, concerning young couple Andy and Maggie (Shane Murray-Corcoran and Iseult Casey) as they make the trip from Maggie’s home in Tipperary to London to deal with her unplanned pregnancy. As their journey unfolds in relative silence, we dip in and out of snippets of their past, shedding light on their relationship’s sweet beginnings and the circumstances that brought them to their current situation.



While it does tackle some heavy themes, from abortion to an expert handling of the subject of depression, the beauty of Twice Shy is that it doesn’t trivialise or priorities them. It presents them in a fair and balanced way that will make you think, but doesn’t let them get in the way of a truly wonderful story. From the opening frame, you are in this with Andy and Maggie, and as the story unfolds you will find yourself becoming more and more invested. The run time may be slim, 76 minutes, but every available ounce of story is wrung from this narrative, the incredibly smart and witty script (also written by Ryan) dropping details in very subtle and satisfying ways. The story may seem simple at first, but as it moves forward the lines are coloured in, spinning it off in some unexpected ways, and bringing with it it’s fair share of emotional gut punches. But for every trip through the emotional wringer, the movie deliver will deliver a moment of true sweetness, including a strong contender for my line of the year that make will make you laugh due to just how Irish and inappropriate it is.



The small cast do wonders with material, with Casey and Murray-Corcoran breathing life into the already well-rounded characters. We watch this young pair grow up in front of our eyes, with Casey especially becoming a different character by the time credits roll. They spark off each other wonderfully, and really sell every aspect of their relationship, with good and bad. The old guard, Pat Shortt and Ardal O’Hanlon (playing their respective father figures) offer able support, with O’Hanlon  putting in a powerhouse performance with a truly genuine portrayal of dealing with depression.



Sweet and thought provoking, Twice Shy is a powerful yet simple movie that is the perfect antidote for those looking for something beyond the typical CGI laden Summer blockbuster.

Read more »

The Lost Arcade Review

Chinatown Fair is a name that will be quite familiar to some and completely alien to others. Either way, there's not too many video game arcades that will have their story told in movie form! Set in New York's Chinatown, The Lost Arcade documents the dominance of video game arcade culture in the 80s and 90s as well as it's eventual demise to consoles, all centrally located in a very old school arcade called Chinatown Fair.



Amidst a flurry of hadoukens and some fantastic footage of video games of yesteryear, it would be too easy to crowbar this wonderful piece of film into something about video games. It addresses lots of points in it's 79 minute long running time. From the bigger and better arcades, the rise of the consoles to the arcades ultimate demise and it's subsequent rising from the ashes. Ultimately though, it concentrates on the people. This isn't a video game documentary, this is a people documentary. Their sense of spirit, community and emotions are all on display here and while the world evolves into VR and Live Streaming, it's easy to see the impact that Chinatown Fair had on it's regulars. And the movie makes you care not only about the arcade itself, but it's people and what it stood for and created. 

While it lingers and drags it's heels on occasion, the movie manages to move at a wonderful, solid and enveloping pace. You'll find yourself captivated by the story and fully engaged in the interviews. We all knew an arcade like Chinatown Fair. No matter where you are in the world and no matter what age you were. Everybody has found memories of their arcade travels. Sure, the games were fun. I recall my first time playing Ghosts 'n Goblins, Commando and having my mind completely blow away by Rastan Saga. But it was always about the friends you played with. The laughs you had. The Lost Arcade will drum up all those emotions and then some.



Simply wonderful! Check it out right now on iTunes!

Read more »

Wonder Woman Review

Whenever you talk about Warner Bros. and the DCEU, there’s alway that voice that is screaming in the back of your head, “What took you so long?”. Time Warner bought DC Comics in 1989, and we only got Batman and Superman sharing the big screen in 2016? What took you so long!!!!???? That statement goes double for the shared universe’s latest installment, Wonder Woman. Not only is she DC’s most iconic heroine, but the current superhero movie fad has been around for almost a decade, and we’re only now giving the girls a chance? I’m not being political here. Super hero fatigue set in quite quickly, and no one thought to shake things up with a female super hero till now. Anyway, Wonder Woman not only has the pressure of being the first female led super hero flick, but given the less than stellar track record of the DCEU so far, a lot of is riding on this one to turn the burgeoning shared universe around. So let’s see if it does.

Gal Gadot may have made her first appearance as Wonder Woman in the present day in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but we're in origin mode here, with light been shed on Wonder Woman’s past as Amazon princess Diana, growing up on the Amazon warriors isolated home of Themiscrya, and obsessed with the prophecy that only the Amazon’s can defeat Ares the God of War whenever he inevitably resurface after been defeated by Zeus centuries before. When World War I reaches the island's pristine shores, along with U.S. spy Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), Diana is sure Ares is to blame for the great war, and ventures out into the world of man to defeat him.



From the opening frame, Wonder Woman is everything Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Suicide Squad were not: earnest, thrilling, and, above all else, entertaining. There is a definite shift in tone form the grim darkness that proceeded it, but it’s not the 180 shift to the Marvel Studios style of super hero movies many people expected. It’s more of a recalibration (though there is plenty of fish out of the water humour when Diana arrives in London, but it’s toned down before it gets too grating), director Patty Jenkins injecting a bit more heart into proceedings than what came before. There’s still a darkness to it, especially when dealing with the horrors of a very real war, but it’s tempered nicely by a genuine sense of hopefulness. The period setting goes a long way to making this feel fresh, much in the same way it worked for Captain America: The First Avenger, and the narrative moves forward at a brisk pace. Once it gets going, that is. The first act is a bit of slog in terms of setting up the story (though it does give us one of the movie’s stand out set pieces), but once Diana leaves Themiscrya, or Exposition Island as I’ve come to call it, the wheel spinning starts to slow down, and we’re thrust into the main story.

Things really get going once the action reaches the front, and Diana stands fully revealed as Wonder Woman in the bravura No Man’s Land sequence. Never has an action sequence felt more earned as this one. Sure, we’ve glimpsed it in the trailer, but that won't prepare you for how triumphant this scene will leave you feeling, as Diana singlehandedly rips through the German forces without breaking a sweat. And the bulk of that is down to Gadot's performance. The Wonder Woman we’ve met before was a jaded badass, not so here. This spirited, naive version of Diana is incredibly endearing, Gadot possessing a sweet innocence and intense ferocity that work well in tandem with each other.



The rest of the action works well, even if Jenkins relies on slo-mo a bit too much, and the odd dodgy effect slips through the cracks. But they can’t really hold a candle to Diana crossing No Man’s Land. The same can be said of the supporting cast compared to the movie’s lead. Pine plays the familiar love interest role well enough, sparking off Gadot nicely. The main villains, Danny Huston’s Colonel Ludendorff and Elena Anaya’s Dr. Poison, are ill served by the movie’s plot, reduced to the same moustache twirling, cackling (quite literally at one point) bad guys we’ve seen time and time again. Ares had the potential to be a compelling villain, but we spend so little time with him, that he becomes just another throwaway bad guy.



While Wonder Woman has some flaws, the redemption of the DCEU begins here with this thrilling adventure that also proves, when it comes to super heroics on the big screen, the girls can do it just as well as the boys. Lets hope the DCEU installments that follow reach the high bar set by this one.

Read more »