Movie Reviews: Schemers and Tom Vaughan Lawlor in Rialto
Tom Vaughan Lawlor in Rialto
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Set after the riots that marred the 1968 Democratic Convention, (15A) is a courtroom drama that pits a handful of idealistic Vietnam War protestors against the malign monolith of the Nixon administration. Student organiser, Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne); hippy malcontent, Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron-Cohen); and Black Panther figurehead, Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mahteen II); are among those being defended by William Kunstler (Mark Rylance); with Richard Schultz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) leading the federal prosecutors under the baleful glare of Judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella).Â
Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, the creator of The West Wing, the film flits back and forth through time, detailing the events that led to the riots and the defendants’ culpability (or otherwise) in provoking the authorities into creating a de facto ‘police state’ during the Democratic Convention. Heavy on dialogue, as Sorkin’s films tend to be, The Trial of the Chicago 7 packs a hefty punch: despite having a plethora of characters all clamouring for attention, Sorkin manages to invest each defendant, along with their legal team, with the depth and breadth that renders them considerably more than the political pawns they might easily have become. That Sorkin is drawing parallels with the treatment of protestors against the current administration is clear from the start, but the historical detail is good, and particularly in terms of the apparently insuperable divisions between the defendants. It’s a superb ensemble cast, with Eddie Redmayne, Yahya Abdul-Mahteen II, Mark Rylance, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jeremy Strong (playing Jerry Rubin) all in excellent form, even if Sorkin’s insistence on point-scoring causes the tone to vacillate between taut courtroom drama and the grand gestures of agitprop. (cinema release)
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Rialto (16s) stars Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Colm, a 40-something Dubliner who plummets into a
midlife crisis when his father dies. Struggling to connect emotionally with his wife Claire (Monica Dolan) and teenage children, Colm meets Jay (Tom Glynn-Carney), a 19-year-old rent boy embroiled in prostitution in a desperate bid to provide for his infant daughter. Written by Mark O’Halloran and directed by Pete Mackie Burns, Rialto is a slow-burn character study and a nuanced exploration of masculinity. The older, socially accomplished Colm is theoretically the dominant presence in the relationship, but Colm — who appears to be drawn to Jay due to the transgressive nature of their relationship rather than because he’s a closeted homosexual — is the more submissive and needy of the pair. Even so, Jay’s cocky insouciance soon gives way to a more thoughtful, tender performance as Colm begins to discover Jay’s reason for selling his body, which in turn leads to conflict as Jay rejects any possibility of the emotional involvement Colm craves. It’s essentially a two-hander that revolves around the covert meetings between Colm and Jay, with both actors in superb form. Tom Vaughan-Lawlor's performance is the more subdued as he quietly fleshes out the apologetic, subservient Colm, while Tom Glynn-Carney is simply electrifying as the brash but vulnerable Jay, who glitters with the menace that he exudes as a kind of armour against the sordid world he is forced to inhabit. Laced with profanity and crude Dublin vernacular, the story is a tense, multi-faceted drama as Colm and Jay work their way through threats, blackmail and clumsy sexual encounters — although the story does lose some of its momentum once the pair come to a reluctant accommodation of the other’s needs. (cinema release)
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Set in Dundee in the 1980s, Schemers (15A) opens with an homage to Trainspotting as the hotly pursued teenager, Davie (Conor Berry), goes sprinting down the street only to be freeze-framed as he begins narrating his latest error of judgement. He's a promising footballer who has his career ended by a leg-breaking challenge from a cuckolded husband. Davie, along with his pals Scot (Sean Connor) and John (Grant Robert Keelan), soon diversifies into promoting music gigs, in order to (a) earn a few bob and (b) impress Shona (Tara Lee), the student nurse whom he falls in love with whilst bombed on morphine in the hospital. Written and directed by Dave McLean, upon whom the young Davie is based, Schemers unfolds as an anarchic farce as the tyro promoters run foul of the local gangland boss, Fergie (Alistair Thomson Mills), who controls Dundee’s live venues. The boys’ shambolic, amateurish attempts to become Dundee’s leading impresarios is reflected in the unpolished tone and performances, although there’s an
