Movie of the week – The Straight Story
The Lighthouse continue their David Lynch season with a screening of 1999’s The Straight Story on Wednesday. Loosely based on a true story, it tells the tale of Alvin Straight, an elderly man who rode a lawnmower across several states in order to visit his estranged ill brother. A relatively mainstream narrative, it was a departure from Lynch’s surreal antics, but it’s one of his finest works, featuring a stunning performance from former Hollywood stuntman Richard Farnsworth in the lead role.
American Honey
Lynch’s movie would make a great double bill paired with the week’s must see new release, Andrea Arnold’s American Honey, another road trip, but one focussed on youth. Teenager Sasha Lane is outstanding in her debut performance as a troubled young woman who hits the road with a rough and tumble gang of young magazine subscription sellers led by Shia LaBeouf. At close to three hours, it’s an epic journey through America’s barely beating heartland. Arnold’s impressive but bleak 2011 adaptation of Wuthering Heights screens in the Irish Film Institute on Sunday.
Inferno
Inferno sees Tom Hanks return to the role of Robert Langdon, hero of author Dan Brown’s bestselling series of airport thrillers. This one has Langdon chased across Southern Europe as he attempts to solve a puzzle and save the world from an impending catastrophe. The locations are beautiful, but the film is awfully dull, like a Jason Bourne movie shorn of action.
Network
How’s this for a choice – on Monday evening you can decide between a screening of Sidney Lumet’s classic 1976 media satire Network, or the 1966 big screen spinoff of that decade’s cult and camp Batman series. Both have their own merits, but I have to opt for the former, especially given how there are two new movies on the way based on the life of Christine Chubbuck, the Florida news reporter whose onscreen suicide inspired the film’s script.
By Eric Hillis of themoviewaffler.com
