Five For Your Radar: Graham Norton in Bantry, Roger Waters on screen, Cian Ducrot
Maritime Hotel, Bantry, Friday, July 18
Wrapping up this year's West Cork Literary Festival on Friday evening is Graham Norton - now the author of five books, the most recent of which is Frankie - who will be in conversation with Ryan Tubridy. The former RTÉ presenter promised on social media that one thing it definitely won't be is boring. There are multiple events around Bantry on the final day of the litfest, including Wendy Erskine, author of The Benefactors, in conversation with Lisa Harding at Marino Church at 2.30pm.
Graham Norton is in Bantry for West Cork Literary Festival. Picture: Darragh Kane
Gigs: Cian Ducrot, D-Block Europe, Kingfishr
Live at the Marquee, Saturday-Thursday, July 19-24
Live at the Marquee is nearing the end of its run for another summer with a whole host of sold-out shows to round things off. Local hero Cian Ducrot makes a triumphant homecoming this weekend, with D-Block Europe bringing the hip-hop vibes on Tuesday and Wednesday, before Kingfishr, who look primed to be one of the biggest acts in the country by the time 2025 is out, take to the stage on Thursday for their second gig of the series.
Cinema: Roger Waters This Is Not A Drill Live From Prague - The Movie
Omniplex, Wednesday, July 23
Directed by Sean Evans and Roger Waters, This is not a Drill is being screened in cinemas around the world, including Omniplex outlets in Ireland. Pink Floyd founding member Waters plays songs from his Pink Floyd days and his solo career, a timespan of 60 years, in this 2.5-hour show. Recorded in Prague in 2003 as part of his Final Farewell tour, it's a huge operation and immersive experience, that, if not seen live in the flesh, is best experienced on cinema screens.
Roger Waters' live concert runs in cinemas around the world.
Exhibition: Enchanted by Marlay
Marlay House, Thursday, July 24
Celebrating Marlay Park's 50th anniversary of being in public ownership, Enchanted by Marlay is a joint art exhibition featuring local artists Kate Bedell, Helen Hyland, Yelena Kosikh, and Jennifer Rowe. The exhibition will be hosted in the ballroom of Marlay House and runs for three days. The opening will be officiated by historian Peadar Curran.
Streaming: Mr Bigstuff
Sky Max/Now TV, Thursday, July 24
A bit of a surprise hit when it hit TVs last year, notching Danny Dyer a Bafta for best male in a lead performance, Mr Bigstuff returns for season two on Thursday. Promising a host of guest stars, the opening episode picks up two weeks after the revelations of the season finale. Mr Bigstuff is created by Ryan Sampson, who stars alongside Dyer as two estranged brothers. Set in suburban Essex, the series was a huge hit with audiences, becoming Sky Max's highest-rated new original comedy in three years.
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Irish Examiner
3 days ago
- Irish Examiner
Book review: Casual misogyny and classism abound in beautifully tackled tale of consent
Wendy Erskine's short story collections, Sweet Home (2018) and Dance Move (2022) have rightly drawn much praise. This novel, The Benefactors, is loosely set around the sexual assault of a young woman which immediately brought to mind the traumatic 2018 Belfast rugby rape trial where all the defendants were acquitted. However, the sexual assault is more of a connective tissue between the characters rather than the engine house for the plot. Misty Johnston, a young working-class girl is raped at a house party by three privileged 18-year-olds Rami, Chris, and Line-Up (real name Lyness) who know her to different degrees. She thinks they are her friends. She has a subscription-based account, similar to OnlyFans, called The Benefactors or Bennyz, where she charges men for access to adult content. However, she mainly talks to lonely Mike in Wyoming. This account, she fears, will potentially be held against her in the aftermath of the sexual assault, and it is one of the first things the victim-blaming mothers note when minimising the abuse of their sons. Erskine makes her point. Working-class women, even ones as endearing and in some ways as innocent as Misty, even though she sells a bit of hash to friends and writhes around on her bed for middle-aged men online, are judged. They do not fit the ideal victim in the hierarchy of victims that the legal system accepts and are therefore innately more vulnerable. We meet the boys' mothers, who are more prominent in the story than the boys themselves. Frankie, a cold and glamorous stepmother to Chris, grew up in care and worked as a high-end escort. She is now married to a tech millionaire. She adopts a Downton Abbey accent to conceal her origins. The widowed Miriam, the warmest of the mothers, whose son Rami seems the most sympathetic, and Bronagh, the hypocritical social justice warrior, who is the only character that Erskine comes close to judging and is mother to Line-Up. Casual misogyny and classism abound. Although Misty's grandmother, Nan D, is a hilarious and tough matriarch, taxi driver Boogie, Misty's stepfather, is the moral heart of the story. He tells us: 'Just getting through the day is the basic objective.' In some ways, he is the saddest character for me; he was once brilliant at art, but that part of him is entirely submerged. But maybe that's projection because he's a loving and stable father and functioning. Without any spoilers, the novel does not head where you think it will, namely, ending in a high-stakes trial, and it is fresher for that. Erskine handles the thorny issue of consent brilliantly. 'There was absolutely nothing to give me, or us, any indication that it wasn't what everyone wanted. Seriously.' 'Some young girl, round one, had sex with three guys; round two, had second thoughts.' 'They shouldn't have presumed anything about what they were doing. But no one should presume anything at any point about anybody.' 'Do I think this, durationally, was entirely nonconsensual? No. Do I think this durationally was entirely consensual? No.' She offers us diverse perspectives and even contradictions within those views. This allows for a nuanced portrayal of motivations and a subtle exploration of what truth even means, often when characters themselves are unaware of the truth. Erskine plays with form, interspersing third-person chapters with unattributed first-person vignettes. These mini talking heads snippets work. Sometimes, they illuminate the key story, but more often add depth and colour, painting the wider Belfast society that spans every social stratum. It's a stand-out debut. In some weird way, maybe it's the cacophony of voices, but Jeffrey Eugenides kept popping into my head. I'd highly recommend this vibrant, sometimes hilarious, at times bleak novel set in Belfast, featuring a rich cast of distinctly 'Erskinesque' characters.
Irish Examiner
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Film reviews: Fantastic Four's First Steps is goofy, ridiculous and enjoyable
THE Fantastic Four have yet to connect with the moviegoing audience in the same way as their Marvel peers – Spider-Man, Ironman, the Avengers et al – and it's unlikely that Fantastic Four: First Steps (12A) will propel the quartet into the blockbuster franchise bracket. It has its own charm, though: Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm / the Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm / the Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm / The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) are already established superheroes as the movie opens, beloved as the Earth's protectors and peacemakers. So when the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) arrives from deep space to inform humanity that it's doomed to be consumed by the planet-devouring Galactus (Ralph Ineson), the foursome suit up and blast off into the galactic depths to confront the voracious 'space-god'. So far, so expected, but do keep an eye on that subtitle, because the Invisible Woman, and despite what we assume is all medical advice to the contrary, goes rocketing off into battle with Galactus whilst heavily pregnant. Which, yes, sounds a touch preposterous, but to be fair Fantastic Four: First Steps takes no more liberties with biology and physics than the vast majority of superhero movies. There's a good chemistry between the four leads, with Vanessa Kirby first among equals as she plays a woman with all manner of unusual gifts but whose real super-strength is her maternal instinct, while Julia Garner's Silver Surfer is one of the coolest things to happen to the genre in the past decade. And then there's the production design, which situates the story in a kind of retro-futuristic 1960s and allows this iteration of the Fantastic Four to hark back to simpler times, when uncomplicated superheroes only ever had to deal with binary issues of good and evil. Endearingly goofy and frequently ridiculous, First Steps is the most enjoyable superhero flick of the year so far. GAZER. Gazer ★★★★☆ Cinematic release - review by Declan Burke Gazer (15A) stars Ariella Mastroianni as Frankie, a young mother who struggles to perceive time correctly due to a condition called dyschronometria, and thus focuses more closely than usual on other people and events as she tries to centre herself in the here and now. When she encounters Page (Renee Gagner) at a grief counselling session, Frankie finds herself drawn into the tangled web of Page's life, and quickly finds herself the main suspect when Page's dead body is discovered in the trunk of her car. Written by Mastroianni and Ryan J. Sloan, with Sloan directing, Gazer is an unconventional, slow-burning and highly stylised film noir that feels like it's been freshly plucked from the 1970s. Ariella Mastroianni is brilliantly befuddled as the cognitively impaired patsy stumbling through the mean streets of New Jersey searching for answers — due to Frankie's condition and paranoia, we're no wiser than she as to what is really going on — and there's strong support from Renee Gagner as the hard-as-nails femme fatale. Jonah Wren Phillips in the movie 'Bring Her Back.' Bring Her Back ★★★★☆ Cinematic release - review by Cara O'Doherty Following the success of their 2023 hit Talk to Me, Australian brothers Danny and Michael Philippou return with Bring Her Back (16s), an exploration of grief through a horror lens. When Andy (Billy Barrett) and Piper (Sora Wong) find their father unconscious, Piper desperately tries to save him, but it's too late. The kids are sent to live with much respected carer, Laura (Sally Hawkins), but while Piper gets a warm welcome, Andy faces a cold reception. Confused by the hostile treatment and the presence of a strange non-verbal foster child, Andy begins to sense that something is amiss. His instincts prove accurate as the situation escalates darkly. The film takes some truly gory turns, but the real horror lies in the lengths people will go to deal with grief. The kids are impressive, but it's Hawkins who steals the show, expertly eliciting sympathy from the audience despite her numerous wrongdoings.
Irish Times
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Gazer review: An impressive, lo-fi and disarmingly intense debut
GAZER Director : Ryan J. Sloan Cert : 15A Genre : Mystery Starring : Ariella Mastroianni, Marcia Debonis, Renee Gagner, Jack Alberts, Tommy Kang Running Time : 2 hrs 14 mins Ryan J Sloan's Gazer springs from the grungy fringes of American indie cinema with the urgent pulse of a noir and the stylings of Barbara Loden's Wanda . Lo-fi, disarmingly intense, and shot on textured 16mm by cinematographer Matheus Bastos, this impressive debut feature casts a twitchy, retro shadow over the less salubrious parts of New Jersey. Frankie (a mesmerising Ariella Mastroianni, who co-wrote the script with producer, editor and director Sloane) plays a single mother trying to wrestle back control of her fractured family and equally fragmented psyche. Frankie suffers from dyschronometria, a rare condition that distorts her perception of time. To cope, she records second-by-second audio prompts reminding her what she's doing and where she is. These serve as both narrative scaffolding and existential red flags, tethering us to her unravelling mind and blackouts. The financially struggling heroine takes a one-time job offered by a stranger named Claire (Renee Gagner). The task: retrieve a car, allegedly belonging to Claire, and leave it out in the wasteland. Inevitably, the vehicle turns up with a corpse in the boot, and Frankie's fingerprints on the wheel. READ MORE Mastroianni's haunted performance plays out against dim interiors, grimy streets, anonymous motels and buzzing petrol stations, with the air of a sinner wandering through purgatory. Mobile phones, we are told, are bad for her, an absence that keeps her rooted in a decaying, tactile world. The score by Steve Matthew Carter, all despondent horns and unsettling reverb, adds to the distress. It's impossible not to think of Christopher Nolan's early work and the classic paranoia of Brian DePalma's Blow Out and Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation . But Gazer swerves from retro pastiche into Cronenbergian body horror, as the already unreliable narrator becomes increasingly unmoored.
