“I was a bit nervous taking her on. I hadn’t really played a character like her before,” remembers actress Sarah Greene about accepting the role of Bibi Garvey in the Apple TV+ drama series “Bad Sisters.” Bibi is “front-footed and doesn’t really care what people think of her. I would be much more of a people-pleaser. So it was a bit of a challenge for me.” Watch our exclusive video interview with Greene above.
See‘Bad Sisters’ production designer Mark Geraghty was like a ‘forensic scientist trying to work out how these people live’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
“Bad Sisters” follows the close-knit Garvey siblings. One of them, Grace (Anne-Marie Duff), is married to the abusive John Paul (Claes Bang), so the other four decide to take drastic action: they plot to murder him. “I think that was a big challenge for us as well in terms of, will an audience go with us?...
See‘Bad Sisters’ production designer Mark Geraghty was like a ‘forensic scientist trying to work out how these people live’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
“Bad Sisters” follows the close-knit Garvey siblings. One of them, Grace (Anne-Marie Duff), is married to the abusive John Paul (Claes Bang), so the other four decide to take drastic action: they plot to murder him. “I think that was a big challenge for us as well in terms of, will an audience go with us?...
- 6/1/2023
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
Paul Mescal and Sharon Horgan were among the winners at the Irish Film and Television Awards.
Despite Colin Farrell losing out the best actor award to Mescal, “The Banshees of Inisherin” beat out competitors to win best film. In the international category “All Quiet on the Western Front” took home the top award on Sunday night.
Read on for the full list of winners.
Film Categories
Best Film
“Aisha”
“The Banshees of Inisherin” – Winner
“God’s Creatures”
“Lakelands”
“Róise & Frank”
“The Wonder”
Director – Film
“Aisha” – Frank Berry – Winner
“The Banshees of Inisherin” – Martin McDonagh
“It Is In Us All” – Antonia Campbell Hughes
“Joyride” – Emer Reynolds
“Let the Wrong One In” – Conor McMahon
“Róise & Frank” – Rachael Moriarty & Peter Murphy
Script – Film
“Aisha” – Frank Berry – Winner
“The Banshees of Inisherin” – Martin McDonagh
“God’s Creatures” – Shane Crowley
“Joyride” – Ailbhe Keogan
“Let the Wrong One In” – Conor McMahon
“Róise & Frank” – Rachael Moriarty,...
Despite Colin Farrell losing out the best actor award to Mescal, “The Banshees of Inisherin” beat out competitors to win best film. In the international category “All Quiet on the Western Front” took home the top award on Sunday night.
Read on for the full list of winners.
Film Categories
Best Film
“Aisha”
“The Banshees of Inisherin” – Winner
“God’s Creatures”
“Lakelands”
“Róise & Frank”
“The Wonder”
Director – Film
“Aisha” – Frank Berry – Winner
“The Banshees of Inisherin” – Martin McDonagh
“It Is In Us All” – Antonia Campbell Hughes
“Joyride” – Emer Reynolds
“Let the Wrong One In” – Conor McMahon
“Róise & Frank” – Rachael Moriarty & Peter Murphy
Script – Film
“Aisha” – Frank Berry – Winner
“The Banshees of Inisherin” – Martin McDonagh
“God’s Creatures” – Shane Crowley
“Joyride” – Ailbhe Keogan
“Let the Wrong One In” – Conor McMahon
“Róise & Frank” – Rachael Moriarty,...
- 5/9/2023
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
’The Banshees Of Inisherin’ has 11 nominations including best film, director and actor.
Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees Of Inisherin leads the way at the 2023 Irish Film And Television Academy (IFTA) awards with 11 nominations.
The film earned nods for best film, director and script, lead actor for Colin Farrell, supporting actress for Kerry Condon, and supporting actor for Barry Keoghan and Brendan Gleeson. Farrell also has a supporting actor nod for The Batman.
Scroll down for film nominations
Frank Berry’s immigration drama Aisha, starring Letitia Wright and Josh O’Connor, is next up with 10 nominations including best film.
Paul Mescal has...
Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees Of Inisherin leads the way at the 2023 Irish Film And Television Academy (IFTA) awards with 11 nominations.
The film earned nods for best film, director and script, lead actor for Colin Farrell, supporting actress for Kerry Condon, and supporting actor for Barry Keoghan and Brendan Gleeson. Farrell also has a supporting actor nod for The Batman.
Scroll down for film nominations
Frank Berry’s immigration drama Aisha, starring Letitia Wright and Josh O’Connor, is next up with 10 nominations including best film.
Paul Mescal has...
- 3/7/2023
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
Calvary’s Father James (Brendan Gleeson) is a good priest who is faced with troubling circumstances brought about by a mysterious member of his parish. Although he continues to comfort his own fragile daughter (Kelly Reilly) and to help members of his church with their various problems, he feels a foreboding sinister force closing in, and begins to wonder if he will have the courage to face his own personal Calvary.
From the director of The Guard, John Michael McDonagh, Calvary opens in St. Louis August 15th.
Wamg invites you to enter to win passes to the advance screening of Calvary on Tuesday, August 12th in the St. Louis area. We will contact the winners by email.
If you are a winner, you will need to head over to FoxSearchLightScreenings.com and register to receive your two passes.
Answer the following:
What profession did Brendan Gleeson leave in order to pursue a career in acting?...
From the director of The Guard, John Michael McDonagh, Calvary opens in St. Louis August 15th.
Wamg invites you to enter to win passes to the advance screening of Calvary on Tuesday, August 12th in the St. Louis area. We will contact the winners by email.
If you are a winner, you will need to head over to FoxSearchLightScreenings.com and register to receive your two passes.
Answer the following:
What profession did Brendan Gleeson leave in order to pursue a career in acting?...
- 8/5/2014
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Trials of Faith Without Error; Glesson’s Good Priest Suffers for Sins of the Fathers
Two years after The Guard, the most commercially successful Irish film of all time, writer-director John Michael McDonagh and actor Brendan Gleeson return with considerably darker arthouse fare. Part Two of the unfinished “Glorified Suicide Trilogy”, Calvary begins inside a shadowy confessional with the announcement, “I first tasted semen when I was seven years old”. To the voice behind the lattice, Gleeson’s priest replies, “Certainly a startling open line” – speaking, more or less, on behalf of Calvary’s wrong-footed audience. The recollection of sexual abuse precedes a heavy dose of theological and moral insight, but lively, quick-witted dialogue will sweeten the pill.
In McDonagh’s words, it’s “Bresson’s Diary of a Country Priest with a few gags thrown in”. To give a sense of these gags – Father Timothy Leary (David Wilmot) inquires...
Two years after The Guard, the most commercially successful Irish film of all time, writer-director John Michael McDonagh and actor Brendan Gleeson return with considerably darker arthouse fare. Part Two of the unfinished “Glorified Suicide Trilogy”, Calvary begins inside a shadowy confessional with the announcement, “I first tasted semen when I was seven years old”. To the voice behind the lattice, Gleeson’s priest replies, “Certainly a startling open line” – speaking, more or less, on behalf of Calvary’s wrong-footed audience. The recollection of sexual abuse precedes a heavy dose of theological and moral insight, but lively, quick-witted dialogue will sweeten the pill.
In McDonagh’s words, it’s “Bresson’s Diary of a Country Priest with a few gags thrown in”. To give a sense of these gags – Father Timothy Leary (David Wilmot) inquires...
- 7/30/2014
- by Caitlin Coder
- IONCINEMA.com
'The Eclipse', a new feature from Irish writer/director Conor McPherson (The Actors, I Went Down), starring Aidan Quinn (32A), Ciaran Hinds (There Will Be Blood ) and Iben Hjejle (High Fidelity) will receive its World Premiere screening at the Tribeca Film Festival running from April 22 - May 3 in New York. The supernatural drama was filmed in Cork last summer and will feature as part of the World Narrative category which will screen among other titles Woody Allen's new project 'Whatever Works' and the Polish Brother's 'Stay Cool,' starring Winona Ryder. 'The Eclipse' produced by Robert Walpole at Treasure Entertainment saw a line up of top Irish crew come together including costume designer Consolata Boyle (The Queen); production designer Mark Geraghty (Get Rich or Die Tryin') and cinematographer Ivan McCullough (The Sound of People).
- 3/10/2009
- IFTN
"Tristan & Isolde" suffers from a bad case of anemia. The ancient Celtic romance of forbidden love, later transformed by Anglo-Norman and German writers into the courtly literature of lies and delusions, has been reduced here to a sappy Dark Ages soap opera interrupted by brutal battles and dialogue of astonishing prosaic deadness. At its core is a pair of lovers no contemporary audience could possibly care for, and at the periphery are characters that threaten to become interesting but never quite do.
"O, what have I done?" wails one lover, and director Kevin Reynolds and writer Dean Georgaris ("The Manchurian Candidate") might be asking the same question. Reportedly, this was a "dream project" for exec producers Tony and Ridley Scott, who nevertheless handed it off to another filmmaker. Perhaps there's a lesson in this: Dream projects delivered to others cease to be dreams and become mere projects. Boxoffice outlook for Fox might bring new meaning to the term Dark Ages. International and home video business looks more promising.
Drifting far from its source material -- but then who other than a medievalist would care? -- "Tristan & Isolde" is a thoroughly contemporary "epic" about a guy with the hots for the wife of his mentor/savior/king/father figure. Think an early draft of Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere.
After the fall of Rome, Irish warlords have divided and conquered the English tribes. Lord Marke (Rufus Sewell) seeks to unite those tribes against the Irish with the help of his No. 1 warrior Tristan (James Franco in a performance that can only be called inert). A clever ambush results in a resounding victory for the English, but at the cost of the apparent death of Tristan.
His body is shoved into the Irish Sea on a burning funeral pyre, and that's that. But wait! He's alive and washes ashore in -- would you believe it? -- Ireland with a nasty gash on his tummy. His rescuer is none other than Isolde (Sophia Myles), the daughter of King Donnchadh (David Patrick O'Hara). The medieval world was indeed a small one.
Without revealing her identity, Isolde nurses him back to health, takes him to her bed, puts him in a sailboat and, voila, he's back home without anyone asking the most obvious question: Where have you been the past few months? So Tristan has no idea who his savior is, and Isolde has no idea that it was Tristan who conveniently slayed the brutal general to whom she had been so unwillingly betrothed.
Instead of reinvading England with a depleted army, the wily Irish king comes up with another divide-and-conquer trick: He promises his no-longer-engaged daughter in a tournament among the English tribes that looks like the medieval equivalent of a bum fight. Wouldn't you know it, the recovered Tristan wins the tournament, unwittingly securing his lover's hand in marriage for his king, Lord Marke. Talk about missing the mark!
The problem here is that no one, with the possible exception of cinematographer Arthur Reinhart, brings this world to life. The film is like a Monty Python movie with the jokes removed. Reynolds has Franco mope around like a boy who has lost his puppy. Myles fares better as she is beautiful and smart but has little to play against. Sewell, O'Hara and Mark Strong as a conniving tribal leader play characters vastly more interesting than the leads.
Then there is the dialogue. Isolde to Tristan on her wedding night: "I'll pretend it's you". Marke to Tristan in the glow of connubial bliss: "I didn't know how empty I was". Isolde to Tristan: "Why does loving you feel so wrong?"
Reinhart drains away any bright colors, any reds, greens or blues, in favor of earthen tones. This suits designer Mark Geraghty's glum fortresses and rude hovels. Anne Dudley's score is a tad mournful but, hey, this is Tristan and Isolde.
To paraphrase Isolde, why does everything in this film feel so wrong?
TRISTAN & ISOLDE
20th Century Fox
An Apollopromedia-MFF (Tristan and Isolde) Limited Stillking-Qi Quality International-Co-Production of a Scott Free production
Credits:
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Screenwriter: Dean Georgaris
Producers: Moshe Diamant, Elie Samaha, Lisa Ellzey, Giannina Facio
Executive producers: Ridley Scott, Tony Scott
Director of photography: Arthur Reinhart
Production designer: Mark Geraghty
Music: Anne Dudley
Co-producers: Anna Lai, Jan Fantl, Morgan O'Sullivan, James Flynn
Costumes: Maurizio Millenotti
Editor: Peter Boyle
Cast:
Tristan: James Franco
Isolde: Sophia Myles
Marke: Rufus Sewell
Donnchadh: David Patrick O'Hara
Wictred: Mark Strong
Melot
Henry Cavill
Bragnae: Bronagh Gallagher
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 126 minutes...
"O, what have I done?" wails one lover, and director Kevin Reynolds and writer Dean Georgaris ("The Manchurian Candidate") might be asking the same question. Reportedly, this was a "dream project" for exec producers Tony and Ridley Scott, who nevertheless handed it off to another filmmaker. Perhaps there's a lesson in this: Dream projects delivered to others cease to be dreams and become mere projects. Boxoffice outlook for Fox might bring new meaning to the term Dark Ages. International and home video business looks more promising.
Drifting far from its source material -- but then who other than a medievalist would care? -- "Tristan & Isolde" is a thoroughly contemporary "epic" about a guy with the hots for the wife of his mentor/savior/king/father figure. Think an early draft of Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere.
After the fall of Rome, Irish warlords have divided and conquered the English tribes. Lord Marke (Rufus Sewell) seeks to unite those tribes against the Irish with the help of his No. 1 warrior Tristan (James Franco in a performance that can only be called inert). A clever ambush results in a resounding victory for the English, but at the cost of the apparent death of Tristan.
His body is shoved into the Irish Sea on a burning funeral pyre, and that's that. But wait! He's alive and washes ashore in -- would you believe it? -- Ireland with a nasty gash on his tummy. His rescuer is none other than Isolde (Sophia Myles), the daughter of King Donnchadh (David Patrick O'Hara). The medieval world was indeed a small one.
Without revealing her identity, Isolde nurses him back to health, takes him to her bed, puts him in a sailboat and, voila, he's back home without anyone asking the most obvious question: Where have you been the past few months? So Tristan has no idea who his savior is, and Isolde has no idea that it was Tristan who conveniently slayed the brutal general to whom she had been so unwillingly betrothed.
Instead of reinvading England with a depleted army, the wily Irish king comes up with another divide-and-conquer trick: He promises his no-longer-engaged daughter in a tournament among the English tribes that looks like the medieval equivalent of a bum fight. Wouldn't you know it, the recovered Tristan wins the tournament, unwittingly securing his lover's hand in marriage for his king, Lord Marke. Talk about missing the mark!
The problem here is that no one, with the possible exception of cinematographer Arthur Reinhart, brings this world to life. The film is like a Monty Python movie with the jokes removed. Reynolds has Franco mope around like a boy who has lost his puppy. Myles fares better as she is beautiful and smart but has little to play against. Sewell, O'Hara and Mark Strong as a conniving tribal leader play characters vastly more interesting than the leads.
Then there is the dialogue. Isolde to Tristan on her wedding night: "I'll pretend it's you". Marke to Tristan in the glow of connubial bliss: "I didn't know how empty I was". Isolde to Tristan: "Why does loving you feel so wrong?"
Reinhart drains away any bright colors, any reds, greens or blues, in favor of earthen tones. This suits designer Mark Geraghty's glum fortresses and rude hovels. Anne Dudley's score is a tad mournful but, hey, this is Tristan and Isolde.
To paraphrase Isolde, why does everything in this film feel so wrong?
TRISTAN & ISOLDE
20th Century Fox
An Apollopromedia-MFF (Tristan and Isolde) Limited Stillking-Qi Quality International-Co-Production of a Scott Free production
Credits:
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Screenwriter: Dean Georgaris
Producers: Moshe Diamant, Elie Samaha, Lisa Ellzey, Giannina Facio
Executive producers: Ridley Scott, Tony Scott
Director of photography: Arthur Reinhart
Production designer: Mark Geraghty
Music: Anne Dudley
Co-producers: Anna Lai, Jan Fantl, Morgan O'Sullivan, James Flynn
Costumes: Maurizio Millenotti
Editor: Peter Boyle
Cast:
Tristan: James Franco
Isolde: Sophia Myles
Marke: Rufus Sewell
Donnchadh: David Patrick O'Hara
Wictred: Mark Strong
Melot
Henry Cavill
Bragnae: Bronagh Gallagher
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 126 minutes...
Like the Eminem starrer "8 Mile", "Get Rich or Die Tryin'", starring rapper Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, takes many elements from the rap star's real life and folds them into the contours of a quasi-fictional film that charts the entertainer's path through poverty and despair to stardom. Both stories are similar in that this path is littered with daunting obstacles, which its true-life hero did overcome. The difference here is that for all its biographical truth, "Get Rich"'s journey into a ghetto of hustlers, gangstas and mindless violence is all too familiar.
Stretching back to blaxploitation in the '70s to recent films by John Singleton, Ernest Dickerson and others, we've moved down these mean streets, watched drive-by shootings and witnessed drug deals and gang feuds ad infinitum. Fortunately for the film's boxoffice, it will draw from two distinct demographics. Director Jim Sheridan has a definite following in major urban markets, colleges and special venues thanks to such films as "In America" and "My Left Foot", while 50 Cent, of course, has a huge following among rap fans and blacks. So boxoffice looks strong.
Sheridan and writer Terence Winter, once a staff writer on "The Sopranos", do have several things going for them to partially offset the been-there, done-that feeling. One is a ruthlessly unsentimental and nonjudgmental approach to a life mired in poverty, where crime seems the only way out. The film offers no emotional pleas or social messages; rather, its makers deliver an unblinking distillation of the urban experience for far too many young black males.
Another positive is 50 Cents himself. There should be no surprise that rappers such as Eminem and 50 Cent prove talented actors. As performers onstage, performers who have renamed themselves, they have long played a character based on but not to be confused with their own personas. They are actors.
50 Cent's range is not as wide as Eminem's, but he creates plenty of empathy for the fatherless boy, here called Marcus, whose drug-dealer mom (Serena Reeder) dies when he is 12. Marcus' grandparents take him in, but the boy heads down the only path he sees open to him when he gets into crime just like his mom.
The film hits all the well-publicized highlights of the life of 50 Cent in his ascension in a gang of drug dealers, their war with Colombian dealers, a flirtation with rap that never takes hold since crime seems so much easier and finally the nine gunshot wounds that miraculously failed to take his life.
In cinematographic terms, Winter's screenplay is always in intense medium close-up, never pulling back for a wider angle of society or even New York. Does his character really have no other options than crime? Does society take any blame? Could his grandparents (Viola Davis and Sullivan Walker) have intervened? The film doesn't even ask. It just barrels ahead with a life heading for tragedy that, again miraculously, takes a detour into creativity. That it leads to musical success is merely gravy. For the portrait here is one of creativity winning the day and saving a life -- or maybe several -- when Marcus' girlfriend (Joy Bryant) gives birth to his son and he accepts responsibility for his family's well-being.
As with all Sheridan movies, this one contains fine acting. The suddenly hot Terrence Howard stands out as Bama, a fellow ex-con and friend who encourages Marcus' move into rap and winds up as his manager. London-born Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje brings an icy chill to his portrait of a gangsta whose friendship can turn lethal in a moment.
Veteran Bill Duke enters "Godfather" territory with his heavy-limbed, dignified portrait of a ruthless drug kingpin. Newcomer Reeder shows exceptional talent and beauty as Marcus' mother.
And, as with many Sheridan movies, the director demonstrates a fascination with how family units function and flourish under adverse conditions. It is especially attentive to the changing attitudes of its lead character, who is marvelously played as a child by Marc John Jefferies until 50 Cent can take over.
The soundtrack is not, fortunately, chockablock with music and rap. Music is used discreetly for dramatic impact, though there is more than enough to guarantee huge album sales. Declan Quinn and designer Mark Geraghty, both of whom worked with Sheridan on "In America", definitely capture the grit and seemingly omnipresent darkness of the South Bronx.
GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN'
Paramount Pictures
An Interscope/Shady/Aftermath/MTV Films production
Credits:
Director: Jim Sheridan
Screenwriter: Terence Winter
Producers: Jimmy Iovine, Paul Rosenberg, Chris Lighty, Jim Sheridan
Executive producers: Gene Kirkwood, Stuart Parr, Van Toffler, David Gale, Arthur Lappin, Daniel Lupi
Director of photography: Declan Quinn
Production designer: Mark Geraghty
Music: Quincy Jones, Gavin Friday, Maurice Seezer
Costumes: Francine Jamison-Tanchuck
Editors: Conrad Buff, Roger Barton
Cast:
Marcus: Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson
Bama: Terrence Howard
Charlene: Joy Bryant
Levar: Bill Duke
Majestic: Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje
Keryl: Omar Benson Miller
Justice: Tory Kittles
Grandma: Viola Davis
Young Marcus: Marc John Jefferies
Antwan: Ashley Walters
Katrina: Serena Reeder
Running time -- 112 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Stretching back to blaxploitation in the '70s to recent films by John Singleton, Ernest Dickerson and others, we've moved down these mean streets, watched drive-by shootings and witnessed drug deals and gang feuds ad infinitum. Fortunately for the film's boxoffice, it will draw from two distinct demographics. Director Jim Sheridan has a definite following in major urban markets, colleges and special venues thanks to such films as "In America" and "My Left Foot", while 50 Cent, of course, has a huge following among rap fans and blacks. So boxoffice looks strong.
Sheridan and writer Terence Winter, once a staff writer on "The Sopranos", do have several things going for them to partially offset the been-there, done-that feeling. One is a ruthlessly unsentimental and nonjudgmental approach to a life mired in poverty, where crime seems the only way out. The film offers no emotional pleas or social messages; rather, its makers deliver an unblinking distillation of the urban experience for far too many young black males.
Another positive is 50 Cents himself. There should be no surprise that rappers such as Eminem and 50 Cent prove talented actors. As performers onstage, performers who have renamed themselves, they have long played a character based on but not to be confused with their own personas. They are actors.
50 Cent's range is not as wide as Eminem's, but he creates plenty of empathy for the fatherless boy, here called Marcus, whose drug-dealer mom (Serena Reeder) dies when he is 12. Marcus' grandparents take him in, but the boy heads down the only path he sees open to him when he gets into crime just like his mom.
The film hits all the well-publicized highlights of the life of 50 Cent in his ascension in a gang of drug dealers, their war with Colombian dealers, a flirtation with rap that never takes hold since crime seems so much easier and finally the nine gunshot wounds that miraculously failed to take his life.
In cinematographic terms, Winter's screenplay is always in intense medium close-up, never pulling back for a wider angle of society or even New York. Does his character really have no other options than crime? Does society take any blame? Could his grandparents (Viola Davis and Sullivan Walker) have intervened? The film doesn't even ask. It just barrels ahead with a life heading for tragedy that, again miraculously, takes a detour into creativity. That it leads to musical success is merely gravy. For the portrait here is one of creativity winning the day and saving a life -- or maybe several -- when Marcus' girlfriend (Joy Bryant) gives birth to his son and he accepts responsibility for his family's well-being.
As with all Sheridan movies, this one contains fine acting. The suddenly hot Terrence Howard stands out as Bama, a fellow ex-con and friend who encourages Marcus' move into rap and winds up as his manager. London-born Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje brings an icy chill to his portrait of a gangsta whose friendship can turn lethal in a moment.
Veteran Bill Duke enters "Godfather" territory with his heavy-limbed, dignified portrait of a ruthless drug kingpin. Newcomer Reeder shows exceptional talent and beauty as Marcus' mother.
And, as with many Sheridan movies, the director demonstrates a fascination with how family units function and flourish under adverse conditions. It is especially attentive to the changing attitudes of its lead character, who is marvelously played as a child by Marc John Jefferies until 50 Cent can take over.
The soundtrack is not, fortunately, chockablock with music and rap. Music is used discreetly for dramatic impact, though there is more than enough to guarantee huge album sales. Declan Quinn and designer Mark Geraghty, both of whom worked with Sheridan on "In America", definitely capture the grit and seemingly omnipresent darkness of the South Bronx.
GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN'
Paramount Pictures
An Interscope/Shady/Aftermath/MTV Films production
Credits:
Director: Jim Sheridan
Screenwriter: Terence Winter
Producers: Jimmy Iovine, Paul Rosenberg, Chris Lighty, Jim Sheridan
Executive producers: Gene Kirkwood, Stuart Parr, Van Toffler, David Gale, Arthur Lappin, Daniel Lupi
Director of photography: Declan Quinn
Production designer: Mark Geraghty
Music: Quincy Jones, Gavin Friday, Maurice Seezer
Costumes: Francine Jamison-Tanchuck
Editors: Conrad Buff, Roger Barton
Cast:
Marcus: Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson
Bama: Terrence Howard
Charlene: Joy Bryant
Levar: Bill Duke
Majestic: Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje
Keryl: Omar Benson Miller
Justice: Tory Kittles
Grandma: Viola Davis
Young Marcus: Marc John Jefferies
Antwan: Ashley Walters
Katrina: Serena Reeder
Running time -- 112 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 12/5/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
LONDON -- "When the Sky Falls" is based on the events leading up to the 1996 murder of crime journalist Veronica Guerin in Dublin, Ireland. As directed by John MacKenzie (who made the excellent British crime film "The Long Good Friday"), the film is stylish and gritty and features fine central performances. While it should win critical plaudits, "Sky", which at times feels a bit like a movie of the week, isn't likely to attract big audiences.
Screenwriters Michael Sheridan, Ronan Gallagher and Colum McCann have put together an intelligent, well-constructed and moving script. Before her death, Guerin collaborated with Sheridan on an early draft of a screenplay that focused on her crusade against Dublin gangsters and the various attacks against her.
The film tells the story of fictional Sunday Globe journalist Sinead Hamilton (wonderfully played by Joan Allen), whose writings about the Dublin gangs cause an increase in her newspaper's circulation along with the violent attention of the gangsters. Her investigations also bring her into close contact with the Irish Republican Army -- which denounces the gangs' drug dealing -- and the police, who struggle to stop the mobsters.
But her efforts push gang boss Dave Hackett (Gerard Flynn) to take the ultimate step. On her way home from a court appearance, she is shot dead. Ironically, her death finally forces attention to Ireland's criminal laws, so drug dealers can be identified and apprehended and their assets seized.
In this role, Allen is the personification of steely dignity, and she does a good job with a Dublin accent. She achieves a fine balance between crusading journalist and attentive mother.
Her performance is aided by Patrick Bergin's turn as grumpy maverick cop Sgt. Mackey, though he is lumbered with the cliched dim assistant in the form of Jason Barry's Dempsey. Bergin and Allen's scenes together work particularly well. And the ever-excellent Pete Postlethwaite makes a brief but fine appearance as crime boss Martin Shaughnessy, who is knocked off early in the film.
MacKenzie handles action sequences extremely well -- particularly a car chase through the city estates -- and pushes the story with skill and ease. Technical credits are all fine, especially Mark Geraghty's production design, and DP Seamus Deasy gives the film an atmospheric hue.
WHEN THE SKY FALLS
Sky Pictures
In association with Irish Screen, the Irish Film Board and Redeemable Features
Producers: Nigel Warren-Green,
Michael Wearing
Director: John MacKenzie
Executive producers: Kevin Menton,
Peter Newman, Marie Louise Queally
Screenwriters: Michael Sheridan,
Ronan Gallagher, Colum McCann
Director of photography: Seamus Deasy
Production designer: Mark Geraghty
Music: Pol Brennan
Costume designer: Lorna Marie Mugan
Editor: Graham Walker
Color/stereo
Cast:
Sinead Hamilton: Joan Allen
Mackey: Patrick Bergin
Mickey O'Fagan: Jimmy Smallhorne
John "The Runner" Cosgrove: Liam Cunningham
Tom Hamilton: Kevin McNally
Martin Shaughnessy: Pete Postlethwaite
Dempsey: Jason Barry
Jimmy Keaveney: Des McAleer
Dave Hackett: Gerard Flynn
Running time - 107 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Screenwriters Michael Sheridan, Ronan Gallagher and Colum McCann have put together an intelligent, well-constructed and moving script. Before her death, Guerin collaborated with Sheridan on an early draft of a screenplay that focused on her crusade against Dublin gangsters and the various attacks against her.
The film tells the story of fictional Sunday Globe journalist Sinead Hamilton (wonderfully played by Joan Allen), whose writings about the Dublin gangs cause an increase in her newspaper's circulation along with the violent attention of the gangsters. Her investigations also bring her into close contact with the Irish Republican Army -- which denounces the gangs' drug dealing -- and the police, who struggle to stop the mobsters.
But her efforts push gang boss Dave Hackett (Gerard Flynn) to take the ultimate step. On her way home from a court appearance, she is shot dead. Ironically, her death finally forces attention to Ireland's criminal laws, so drug dealers can be identified and apprehended and their assets seized.
In this role, Allen is the personification of steely dignity, and she does a good job with a Dublin accent. She achieves a fine balance between crusading journalist and attentive mother.
Her performance is aided by Patrick Bergin's turn as grumpy maverick cop Sgt. Mackey, though he is lumbered with the cliched dim assistant in the form of Jason Barry's Dempsey. Bergin and Allen's scenes together work particularly well. And the ever-excellent Pete Postlethwaite makes a brief but fine appearance as crime boss Martin Shaughnessy, who is knocked off early in the film.
MacKenzie handles action sequences extremely well -- particularly a car chase through the city estates -- and pushes the story with skill and ease. Technical credits are all fine, especially Mark Geraghty's production design, and DP Seamus Deasy gives the film an atmospheric hue.
WHEN THE SKY FALLS
Sky Pictures
In association with Irish Screen, the Irish Film Board and Redeemable Features
Producers: Nigel Warren-Green,
Michael Wearing
Director: John MacKenzie
Executive producers: Kevin Menton,
Peter Newman, Marie Louise Queally
Screenwriters: Michael Sheridan,
Ronan Gallagher, Colum McCann
Director of photography: Seamus Deasy
Production designer: Mark Geraghty
Music: Pol Brennan
Costume designer: Lorna Marie Mugan
Editor: Graham Walker
Color/stereo
Cast:
Sinead Hamilton: Joan Allen
Mackey: Patrick Bergin
Mickey O'Fagan: Jimmy Smallhorne
John "The Runner" Cosgrove: Liam Cunningham
Tom Hamilton: Kevin McNally
Martin Shaughnessy: Pete Postlethwaite
Dempsey: Jason Barry
Jimmy Keaveney: Des McAleer
Dave Hackett: Gerard Flynn
Running time - 107 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 7/20/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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