Film & Television John Maguire on film: Doom-laden exploration of guilt and shame fails to hit the markPaul Mescal features in God’s Creatures but he’s underused in a story set in rural Ireland that explores the theme of a protective mother that has been done before, and better
Film Reviews Overly elaborate sleuth story entertains but fails to fully persuade Jam-packed with talent, this deftly crafted Banville-as-Chandler hybrid captures the style and tone of both authors as well as the titular detective himself
Profile The Everywhere pair: how the Daniels captured Hollywood with their kung-fu sci-fi comedy-dramaFilmmakers Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who created the Oscar-sweeping Everything Everywhere All At Once, are proof – in today’s creatively stalled Hollywood – that there is still room in cinema for something truly new
Film & Television John Maguire on film: Raw and spiky melodrama charts a sad and strained love triangleCompassionate cast are in top form in a story about vulnerable people trying to do the best in difficult circumstances
Film Film reviews: Bleak shadows of reality darken a shared boyhood innocence in Oscar contenderIt’s impossible to discuss Belgian director Lukas Dhont’s Close in depth without revealing too much of the plot, but the film is notable for extraordinary performances from its two central characters
Interview ‘Irish is a living, active language and we’re part of that’– An Cailín Ciúin director Colm BairéadThe writer and director of The Quiet Girl, the first Irish-language film ever to receive an Oscar nod, may have been rubbing shoulders with Hollywood’s elite but his feet are firmly on the ground in Ireland
Film & Television John Maguire on film: Bear with it, tale of a drugged-up animal is based on a true storyCocaine Bear is a gory horror movie that is by turns funny, violent, stupid and entertaining, plus it has Wicklow standing in for America’s Deep South
Film & Television John Maguire: Little to marvel over in latest wannabe blockbusterThe third film in the Ant-Man trilogy from director Peyton Reed demands nothing from the accomplished cast other than size mutability and a talent for staring at green screens
The Profile For your consideration: Andrea Riseborough, the Oscar nomination and the backlashThe British actress has found herself at the centre of a controversy over how she secured a shock spot on the shortlist for best actress at this year’s Academy Awards
Film & Television Film review: The Whale flounders in its muddled journey from stage to the screenDarren Aronofsky’s maudlin reworking of Samuel Hunter’s play fails to live up to Brendan Fraser’s Oscar-nominated performance in this intensely claustrophobic space
Film & Television John Maguire: Spielberg’s own coming-of-age story writ large on the big screenIntrospective semi-autobiography The Fabelmans takes the audience on an insightful but painful trip down the director’s memory lane
Film & Television John Maguire: Exhausting, over-the-top Hollywood blowout bedazzles and bores by turnsDamien Chazelle’s Babylon mash up follows imagined and real-life figures of the 1920s as they try to negotiate the film industry’s transition from silent films to sound
Film & Television John Maguire: Cate Blanchett elevates Tár in a blistering portrait of power and celebrityTodd Field’s captivating and complex thriller demands that the viewer pay close attention, but the reward is well worth the effort
Film & Television John Maguire: Occult Poe murder mystery loses heart and pace as the grim story unfoldsScott Cooper reimagines real-life historical figure Edgar Allan Poe as an unofficial recruit to help solve gruesome killings at a military academy in this Gothic detective thriller
Film The fable master: Spielberg goes back to the source to reveal the inspiration behind the moviesThe most successful movie director of all time, Steven Spielberg’s latest movie The Fabelmans is a biopic of sorts which details the pain of his parents’ divorce and how it informed a lot of his work
Film OTT action, grá and grief: 2022’s most memorable moviesWhile lasting pandemic habits have many punters choosing home streaming over physical cinemas, movie theatres still served as a welcome escape
Film & Television Beautiful but bloated Avatar sequel drowning in empty mythologyIt’s been 13 years since Avatar broke box office records, and with cinema audiences down and Marvel movies dominating the landscape, director James Cameron has his work cut out if The Way of Water is to recoup its huge production budget
Film & Television John Maguire: A sinister ‘Mary Poppins’ comes visiting in disturbing folk horror taleA wealthy woman who seemingly has it all collapses with a mysterious illness in an intriguing, metaphoric story of the first world’s exploitation of developing nations
Film & Television John Maguire on film: Glass Onion is funnier but not as satifying to unpeel as the original whodunitBond star Daniel Craig is back as the 'world’s greatest detective’ in a follow-up to 2019’s surprise murder mystery hit, Knives Out
