Cinema Roundup March 4th

Movie of the Week - His Girl Friday

Movie of the Week – His Girl Friday

Howard Hawks’ landmark 1940 screwball comedy His Girl Friday screens at the Irish Film Institute on Saturday afternoon, followed by a panel discussion focussing on the strength of its female lead, Rosalind Russell’s Hildy Johnson. With Russell and Cary Grant on top form, the dialogue moves at a rapid pace, making Hawks’ film a wild, comic ride.

Hail, Caesar!

Sticking with screwball comedy, the Coen Brothers’ latest, Hail, Caesar!, takes us back to the ’50s where a Hollywood fixer played by Josh Brolin attempts to keep a corral of troublesome stars in line. The movie is a loving homage to the era with some wonderful recreations of period musical numbers.

Truth

Cate Blanchett received an Oscar nomination for her role in Carol, but she’s even better in the otherwise mediocre Truth. Blanchett plays Mary Mapes, the CBS producer who lost her job after airing a 2004 story denigrating George W Bush’s time in the National Guard, one which was based on documents subsequently proven to be fake. Blanchett is different class here, but the movie’s another bland awards season true life tale.

Hitchcock/Truffaut

The documentary Hitchcock/Truffaut purports to examine the 1962 meeting between the two iconic filmmakers that resulted in the book of the same name, but after a brief intro it evolves into just another run of the mill Hitch doc. Those new to the director will be pleased, but there’s nothing here film buffs won’t already be familiar with.

Goodnight Mommy

Goodnight Mommy is an Austrian thriller with a novel premise. Following a plastic surgery procedure that results in her face being wrapped in bandages, the twin sons of a TV personality begin to doubt the woman is really their mother. The movie has won much acclaim, but I found it a dull, mean-spirited slog.

The Other Side of the Door

Even more of a slog is The Other Side of the Door, a blatant knockoff of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. This is mainstream horror at its worst – lazy, inept, derivative and xenophobic in its use of Indian culture.

London Has Fallen

London Has Fallen is the surprise sequel to the dire, offensive and mean spirited Olympus Has Fallen. This one goes out of its way to be even more crass, and comes off like a child a child losing an argument, resorting to crude insults. Vile.

By Eric Hillis of themoviewaffler.com