Film & TV

John Maguire: Slow-burning Conversations with Friends is tempered by a sharp script

Sally Rooney’s debut novel comes to the small screen, while Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan bring us a high-spirited homage to Asian cinema

Sasha Lane and Alison Oliver in Conversations with Friends on RTÉ One: painstaking naturalism allows for sly commentary on class and culture. Picture: Hulu

A gorgeous, smart but self-conscious young woman from down the country, studying at Trinity College Dublin, falls in love with a good-looking young man whose perfect jawline sits just below an equally active mind and above a guarded heart. From different worlds, the pair are drawn to one another by forces they struggle to process. They meet for sex in secret, but circumstances force them apart. While their bond allows them to share innermost feelings, ...