The Cinema Corner – May 12th

Manhattan

I can’t single out a movie of the week as there are three must see gems returning to Dublin screens this week. Woody Allen’s career defining Manhattan plays all week at the Irish Film Institute in a newly restored print. Those glorious black and white New York vistas really need to be seen on the big screen. Staying at the IFI, on Wednesday it hosts a rare screening of Robert Altman’s little seen Images, a disturbing Wicklow set drama featuring a gripping central performance by Susannah York as a wife slowly going insane. Twin Peaks returns to our TV screens next weekend, and you can prepare by catching the screening of big screen spinoff Fire Walk With Me at the Lighthouse, again on Wednesday.

Frantz

We also have an outstanding new release in the form of Frantz, the latest from prolific French director Francois Ozon. A semi-remake of Ernst Lubitsch’s 1932 melodrama Broken Lullaby, the film is a soulful romance set in the aftermath of World War I. You’ll fall in love with all of its central characters by the end, especially the grieving war widow played by excellent newcomer Paula Beer.

Alien: Covenant

Alien: Covenant is the latest misfire in the floundering sci-fi franchise. After a promising opening that recalls the early installments of the series, this one returns to Prometheus territory and gets bogged down in its retro-fitted mythology. Another missed opportunity.

Miss Sloane

Jessica Chastain is on fire as the titular anti-hero of Miss Sloane, a Washington set political drama that apes the ‘walking and talking’ style of screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s work, but lacks a soul and is ultimately far from credible in the behaviour of its protagonist.

By Eric Hillis of themoviewaffler.com