Movie Reviews: Deadly gangster priests and a 'boatload' of MDMA
Wolfwalkers is another triumph for Cartoon Saloon
Set in 15th century Ireland, (PG) opens in the English garrison of Kilkenny, where young Robyn Goodfellowe (voiced by Honor Kneafsey) has ambitions of following in the footsteps of her father, Bill (Sean Bean), to become a wolf-killer in the service of the Lord Protector (Simon McBurney). When Robyn sneaks out into the surrounding forest, however, she meets the feral Mebh Óg (Eva Whittaker), a young girl with the magical power of transforming herself into a wolf. This latest offering from Cartoon Saloon (Song of the Sea, The Secret of Kells), Wolfwalkers is another epic animation steeped in Irish history that employs a blend of angular, hand-drawn animation and a more impressionistic style akin to the mystical elements of the original . ‘What cannot be tamed must be destroyed,’ the Cromwellian Lord Protector informs Bill, and the writer-directors Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart devise a number of intersecting sub-plots that pit the English against the Irish, civilisation against Nature, and man against women. Central to it all, of course, is the charming friendship between Robyn and Mebh, which contrasts sharply with the fraught relationship between Robyn and her father. Vividly drawn and wonderfully cinematic, Wolfwalkers is another triumph for Cartoon Saloon. (cinema release)
You don’t have to aspire to be a (12A), Robert (Richard Jenkins) tells his daughter Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood). All you have to do is skim a little here and there, just enough to keep you going. Clinging by the tips of their fingers to the sheer face of late capitalism, Robert and his wife Theresa (Debra Winger) have no time for life’s luxuries, such as showing affection to their daughter. When the family of grifters encounters the ebullient Melanie (Gina Rodriguez) in the process of pulling off their latest scam, they immediately rope her into their scheme, unaware that Melanie is about to explode their dour, functional dynamic. Written and directed by Miranda July, Kajillionaire is a blackly comic account of family dysfunction masquerading as a con artist flick. Richard Jenkins and Debra Winger are superb as spiky, hard-edged characters who are hollowed out by functional poverty, but so blindly committed to their vocation as scammers as to be almost charming in their voracious scavenging. Meanwhile, Evan Rachel Wood provides the emotional core of the story, craving the merest hint of affection and recoiling in horror whenever the possibility arises. Brutally funny in its parody of lowest-rung capitalism, Kajillionaire is simultaneously cynical and heart-warming. (cinema release)
Set against a backdrop of the doping scandals that dogged the Tour de France’s debut in Ireland in 1998, (15A) stars Louis Talpe as Dominique Chabol, a veteran domestique who puts in the hard yards on behalf of his cycling team’s star, Tartare (Matteo Simoni). Years of doping have taken their toll, to the point where Chabol literally needs to ride or die; and with his contract unlikely to be renewed, Chabol finds himself facing a bleak and uncertain future. Written by Ciaran Cassidy and Kieron J. Walsh, with Walsh directing, The Racer is a poignant account of life lived in the shadows. Shot through with a fatalism that is the antithesis of the sporting ideal, the story is a slow-burning character study of an anti-hero who ‘is not supposed to win’, whose only hope of glory is that which is reflected in his star rider’s triumphs. Louis Talpe is terrific as the teak-tough, sardonic Chabol, and he gets strong support from Iain Glen as the team’s soigneur, himself a former rider who is simultaneously Chabol’s father-figure and the svengali who pours poison into his veins.
A spaghetti Western set in the Irish northwest, (16s) stars Olivia Cooke as the daughter of rural crime boss Dermot (Colm Meaney), who is obliged to take steps when Pixie, having stumbled upon ‘a boatload of MDMA’, goes on the run with Frank (Ben Hardy) and Harland (Daryl McCormack). That Pixie’s ex-boyfriend Colin (Rory Fleck O’Brien) is decomposing in the boot of their car is the least of her troubles: Pixie is being tracked by the assassin Seamus (Ned Dennehy), who has been commissioned to kill her by a cabal of ‘deadly gangster priests’ led by Fr Hector McGrath (Alec Baldwin). Written by Preston Thompson and directed by Barnaby Thompson, Pixie is an irreverent crime caper that pays homage to , and while remaining true to its rural Irish roots. Olivia Cooke is brilliantly effervescent in the lead role, and while the general standard of acting doesn’t quite deliver on the script’s promise, the presence of Colm Meaney, Alec Baldwin and Dylan Moran in the supporting roles provide plenty of humorous diversion.
