Film clips - Can only the Irish laugh at themselves?

Finally got to the elegant Cine Albéniz (photo) in historic Málaga Spain last night to see Living, the new Brit film starring Bill Nighy. Nighy is great and a departure from some of his more offbeat and comedic roles, given how serious and steadfast the character is. But surprised the film, directed by Oliver Harmanus, hewed so closely to Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 original. Somehow that film worked. But this rendition seems claustrophobic and could have used a few variations to open it up.

I subscribe to Manhattan Short, an in-theatre and online worldwide competition of short films, and one of the six on view this motnh was from Ireland, An Irish Goodbye (Tom Berkeley and Ross White), which just won a BAFTA. It likely will win here as well. I voted for it even though my heart was in one or two others – the production values couldn’t be denied. And, like the currently well-reviewed The Banhees of Inisherin (Martin McDonough), up for nine Oscars, it’s further confirmation that the Irish must be the only ethnic group not afraid to make fun of themselves and double down on age old negative (if charming) stereotypes. You know, idiots who can barely get a sentence out and whose imaginations are warped by ridiculous superstitions. Brendan O’Neill in the Daily Mail took McDonough’s movie to task for its “two-hour sneer at Auld Ireland and its mad inhabitants” where the Irish are “drunks, imbeciles, gossips and scolds.” Yet it’s still acclaimed, Hollywood’s PC credentials be damned. “The Irish remain fair game in the world of the woke,” O'Neill wrote. The same holds for An Irish Goodbye, also up for an Oscar, a kind of Banshees in miniature, about two brothers mourning – or moaning – the death of their mum. Hilarious, yes, but more of a certain pandering Paddy.

It was a stretch for some TV commentators to say that last year’s White Noise (Noah Baumbach starring Greta Gerwig and Adam Driver), based on the Don DeLillo book, was shot in exactly the same place as where the tragic and possibly toxic, train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, has occurred. But the film, about exactly such a derailment and residents’ fear and flight, is indeed uncanny. Okay, it wasn’t filmed exactly in East Palestine, but about an hour away in Akron.

Here in Spain, I can get a handful of English-language TV channels, including Britain’s top five. I tuned in the other night to the famed The Graham Norton Show on BBC 1 because he had a star-studded line-up and I wanted to see what a Brit iconic TV show was like. Guests were Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Eugene Levy, Hugh Jackman. Michael B. Jordan and Judi Dench. One thing about talk shows is they reveal people, famed or not, as to who they really are. I was fascinated by Dench. Despite her legendary status, she seemed shy and uncomfortable, a wallflower at the party.

Tár lives up to its billing, The Whale so-so

In Todd Field’s film Tár we have one of the greatest actresses of our time, Cate Blanchett, as world-renowned conductor Lydia Tár, an American who has acceded to astral heights as head of the Berlin Philharmonic, her dream job in her dream city, not to mention her wife, Sharon’s (Nina Hoss) - the orchestra’s first violinist - home town. Everything is so perfect. The film opens with Tár being interviewed on stage by the real life New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik. Tár seemingly has accomplished it all, including a rare winner of all four major entertainment awards. The film is a psychological drama which, and I will say no more, addresses themes of fame, sexuality, interpersonal relationships, the elite arts world, and modern day "Me Too” and cancel culture. It may be unexpected in a politically correct Hollywood as the plot turns expected concepts on their heads. It’s reminiscent of a novel like Philip Roth’s The Human Stain. The character Tár, in other words, could not be more sophisticated, intelligent, virtuous, astute and aware. Blanchett is of course top of her game. But we also have great performances in the German actor Hoss, Sophie Kauer as Olga Metkina, whom Tár musically grooms, and Julian Glover as Andris Davis, the philharmonic’s former maestro. Its length of more than two and a half hours feels right (it could have lasted longer IMO) and fully engaging as we’re thrown into Tár’s views on music and the dynamics of her personal and professional worlds. It’s really a tour de force (named top film of 2022 by America's top three critics groups) and one of the best pictures I’ve seen in awhile…..Interestingly, the screening I attended was in the Red Dog Cinemas (photo) in Puerto Banús, Marbella, Spain. And I was one of only eight people (I counted) in the massive theatre. And less we think North Americans are stereotypical louts when it comes to cinema etiquette, I had a couple across the aisle talking incessantly throughout the film. I finally turned and told them to shut up (“you’re not in your living room”) which they mostly did and apologized later.

Last night I returned to the same cinema (this time I was the lone audience member) to see The Whale, Darren Aronofsky’s take on Samuel D. Hunter’s (who also wrote the screenplay) play. Much has been made of principal character Charlie, played by Brendan Fraser, because of his uncontrollable eating habits and gross obesity.  If you’re looking for a “film” – by which I mean a bit of action and varying scenes and drama – this isn’t it. This is a stage play through and through, and in fact could easily be staged by a local thespian group. As for content, The Whale is sometimes hard to watch because of Charlie’s physical incapacity and self-induced nausea. But there’s a flicker of life within that enormous body and that is what the play – sorry, film – is about. The movie, nominated for three Oscars, is dark (figuratively and literally), claustrophobic (because of its setting) and character-driven, which may be just enough for some of the audience.