1917 - a beautiful, meaningful, exhausting ride
Thu, Jan 16, 2020
I WOULD be very surprised if, next December, when putting together my Top 10 list of 2020, I do not feature two films released this week - Uncut Gems and the WWI set, 1917.
Read more ...Stories about French people with peculiar hairdos
Thu, Jan 09, 2020
THE IRISH writer Mary Byrne has gained her many accolades for her writing, including a Hennessy Award and inclusion in widely read anthologies such as the Faber Book of Best New Irish Short Stories.
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Jojo Rabbit - uneven and almost admirable
Thu, Jan 09, 2020
THE CONCEPT of Jojo Rabbit is quite shocking. Jojo is a 10-year-old boy in Nazi Germany in the last few months of the war. He loves life in the Hitler Youth which seems more like Boy Scouts than anything else.
Read more ...Galway Advertiser's Best Albums of 2019
Thu, Dec 19, 2019
1. Lankum - The Livelong Day (Rough Trade) - Galway Advertiser album of the year
Read more ...Black Christmas - not a very scary yuletide horror
Thu, Dec 19, 2019
CHRISTMAS MOVIES and horror go well together, and there is a long tradition of great Christmas horror films. Gremlins is the gold standard and showed a good Christmas horror has a good amount of comedy.
Read more ...Ó Cadhain’s last, existential, word
Thu, Dec 19, 2019
A RARE Christmas gem has just been offered to those who are fans of Máirtín Ó Cadhain’s work, but who have great difficulty in reading him in the vernacular.
Read more ...Lusting after the tastes and aromas of Istanbul
Thu, Dec 19, 2019
AUSTRALIAN-BORN poet Robyn Rowland has been a significant figure on the Irish poetry scene since she first came here in 1983, and it is more than a bit ridiculous her poetry is not more celebrated than it is.
Read more ...Honey Boy - Shia LeBeouf's on-screen therapy session
Thu, Dec 12, 2019
HONEY BOY, written by the actor Shia LeBeouf, is about his life as a child star and his time in rehab. He wrote the script in rehab after his therapist told him to write what he remembered from his childhood, after diagnosing him with PTSD.
Read more ...Album review: The Flaming Lips
Thu, Dec 05, 2019
THE LIVE album is very much a 1970s creature. In a time when your favourite band was unlikely to come to your town, it allowed you the vicarious thrill of 'almost being there' once the needle hit the vinyl.
Read more ...Knives Out - a great whodunit in the Agatha Christie mould
Thu, Dec 05, 2019
DIRECTOR RHIAN Johnson has made some of my favourite films of recent years, but while his last film was a Star Wars, his best work has always been his own scripts, particularly his spin on film noir with 2005’s Brick.
Read more ...Celebrating the quiet man of sixties British pop
Thu, Nov 28, 2019
WHILE THE name Ivor Raymonde may not be familiar, the songs he wrote, produced, or provided orchestral arrangements for, are among the finest of British sixties pop.
Read more ...Powerhouse performance from Christian Bale in Les Mans 66
Thu, Nov 28, 2019
LE MANS 66 could easily be called The Myth of American Exceptionalism: The Movie. Usually in such Hollywood stories - this chronicles the clash between European Enzo Ferrari and American Henry Ford II - it is the other way around.
Read more ...A break-up film that is a breath of fresh air
Thu, Nov 21, 2019
MARRIAGE STORY is a film about divorce. The obvious comparison is with Kramer versus Kramer but perhaps a better comparison is with Annie Hall - remember that movie starts with "Annie and I broke up” in Alvy’s monologue.
Read more ...EP review: Hiperson
Thu, Nov 14, 2019
IN A world so dominated by the English language, it is refreshing when a band goes against the grain and sings in their native tongue. Hiperson, from Chengdu in southwest China, is one such act.
Read more ...The Irishman - big cast, big cost, and worth it
Thu, Nov 14, 2019
THIS WEEK saw the release of the much anticipated The Irishman in Irish cinemas. We are lucky here in Ireland, due to Netflix's role in financing the film that is has not been released in American cinema chains.
Read more ...Geraldine Mills' poetic trek into her family history
Thu, Nov 14, 2019
THE OPENING verse of Geraldine Mills' new poetry collection, The Bone Road, reads: “They’re glad to see the back/of all the wind-crippled whins,/turn their heads from/the rain over Achill Island,/smoor the final fire.”
Read more ...Danielle Holian’s brutal truth telling
Thu, Nov 07, 2019
DANIELLE HOLIAN'S debut poetry collection, Beautifully Chaotic, is part of a boom in the popularity of poetry among young people – particularly young women – over the past few years.
Read more ...Album review: Starcrawler
Thu, Oct 31, 2019
WHAT A difference a year makes. In 2018 LA's Starcrawler's debut album arrived after much hype and celebrity endorsements from Dave Grohl and Elton John. It was spirited and energetic, but scrappy and inconsistent.
Read more ...Comedy Carnival - laughter in the Eyre in spite of Brexit
Tue, Oct 29, 2019
THE BIGGEST Vodafone Comedy Carnival Galway to date just might have been the most memorable, with routines, views, and actions that delighted audiences over the last weekend, and the memory of which will keep up giggling for some time yet.
Read more ...Album review: Lankum
Thu, Oct 24, 2019
'THE WILD Rover' is known as a rambunctious, 'no regrets' ode, to a one time life of boozing. In the hands of Lankum though, it is a very different proposition.
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