Roll it There, Colette
Get those tricolours at the ready. Niamh O’Reilly checks out some standout Irish films to get your Irish pride pumping.
SING STREET (2016)
Ferdia Walsh-Peelo is Conor ‘Cosmo’ Lawlor who goes from his posh private school to the tough Christian Brothers on Synge Street, after his father's (Aiden Gillen) job succumbs to the ravages of the recession.
The culture shock provides fertile ground for lots of laughs. After falling for the charms of older girl and fellow outcast Raphina (Lucy Boynton) and desperate to impress her, Conor asks her to star in his band’s new music video. There’s just one slight hiccup. Conor’s not in a band… yet!
Evoking the origin stories of bands like U2 and films like The Commitments and School of Rock, Sing Street is a pitch-perfect coming-of-age drama with a kicking soundtrack and superb supporting cast. Jack Reynor gives a particularly memorable turn as Conor’s older, wiser, dropout brother Brendan.
As much a love-letter to the music and pop culture of 1980s, as it is to Dublin itself, this is a real feel-good belter of a film, that can’t help to satisfy even themost straightlaced of viewers.
A DATE FOR MAD MARY (2016)
Seána Kerslake is a revelation in this sharp, funny and surprisingly tender-in-parts film, that may have flown under your radar on its initial release.
Kerslake plays the titular Mad Mary, who’s just been released from prison and finds herself thrust back into her world, only to find it and those who inhabit it have moved on without her. Mary’s once best friend Charlene (Charleigh Baile), is about to walk down the aisle with Mary on Maid of Honour duties. However, the bride-to-be refuses Mary the option of bringing a plus one along to the big day, insisting she wouldn’t be able to find a date.
Cue Mary itching to prove her wrong, with a slew of disastrous dates, until she meets musician Jess (Tara Lee) and the sparks fly. There are big laughs to be had here, but why the film works so well is that it leans away from the well-worn tropes and instead brings enough of Mary’s questionable scruples and sexual discovery to the fore for a much more complex and multi-layered watch.
CALVARY (2014)
Opening with a gloomy promise of his murder in one week's time by the mystery occupant of his confessional, Brendan Gleeson’s Father James is the embattled priest at the heart of John Michael McDonagh’s superb film. From the off, Fr James’ would-be assassin describes in shocking detail his suffering at the hands of a child abusing priest and decides to kill Fr Lavelle precisely because he is a good priest. “There’s no point in killing a bad priest,” he says. “I’m going to kill you because you’re innocent.”
Fr James is now faced with finding out who is going to try to kill him in less than a week and what to do about it.
A much more sombre affair than Gleeson and McDonagh’s previous collaboration together (The Guard), it’s no less enjoyable, although tonally much darker with fewer laughs. Despite the bleaker storyline, it’s still a hugely watchable film and plays out as part whodunnit, part musing on the power of faith.
Gleeson is the standout here, but the oddball collection of villagers played by Pat Shortt, Chris O’Dowd, Domhnall Gleeson, Aiden Gillen, Orla O’Rourke and Isaach De Bankolé are compelling too.
INTERMISSION (2003)
Whether you remember the sick-making combination of brown sauce in tea, the girl with the ‘ronnie’, Colm Meaney’s love of Celtic mysticism or Colin Farrell signing a rather dubious version of I Fought the Law, 2003’s Intermission is a film that will go down in Irish cinema history. Almost 20 years on, Intermission still brings the goods.
Featuring an ensemble who’s who cast of Irish talent such as Colin Farrell, Colm Meany, Deirdre O’Kane and Cillian Murphy, the film felt fresh, modern and particularly ambitious when it was made.
With definite nods to the interwoven narrative style of films like Pulp Fiction, it follows a cast of characters and their interconnecting stories through a breakup, a bank heist and a big dose of the unexpected.
THE GUARD (2011)
Arguably bringing us one of the best onscreen pairings in modern Irish cinema, Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle are on point as the stereotypical Irish sergeant Gerry Boyle and the smooth operating American FBI agent Wendell Everett, on the hunt for a shipment of drugs landing in Galway. John Michael McDonagh’s script sizzles, delivering a combination of seemingly outrageous jokes that belie what’s really going on, with a collection of unforgettable, offbeat characters. Centred around Gleeson’s deadpan and expletive-loving Sergeant Boyle and Cheadle’s straight guy Everett, the pair make the most unlikely duo on the hunt of the film’s trio of drug baddies, brilliantly played by Liam Cunningham (Francis Sheehy Skeffington), David Wilmot (Liam O’Leary) and Mark Strong (Clive Cornell).
Some of the lines will wet your pants or shock them right off you, while others will have you cringing behind your hands. Either way, The Guard is one of the best written and most enjoyable Irish films in decades.
THE HOLE IN THE GROUND (2019)
A richly shot and suspenseful gothic horror, The Hole in the Ground is one of the growing number of internationally regarded Irish horror films.
The story centres on a single mother (Seána Kerslake) who moves to a remote part of the Irish countryside with her young son (James Quinn Markey). Things start to get creepy when she suspects that he may not be her son at all. Throw into the mix a bloody big sinkhole in the forest at the back of their house and you’ve got a perfect recipe for freaky goings-on.
With definite shades of The Babadook, although more of a traditional scare fest, The Hole in the Ground taps into the same parental anxieties, guilt and primal fears of the 2014 film.
CARDBOARD GANGSTERS (2017)
If you’re looking for a gritty slice of gangland Dublin life, then look no further than 2017’s Cardboard Gangsters. Co-written by and starring John Connors, the film takes a deep dive into the world of drugs and crime in north Dublin’s suburb of Darndale. Connors plays Jay Connolly; sometimes DJ, sometimes tough man, as he and his gang of friends look to take control of their future and the drug trade in the area, much to the displeasure of the local crime boss Derra Murphy (Jimmy Smallhorne).
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