Calvary (John McDonagh, director of The Guard)

Sarxos

Cavalry, a new Irish film by The Guard director John Michael McDonagh has just begun production. The film sees Brendan Gleeson play a priest whose parish turn against him. It also stars Chris O’Dowd, Aidan Gillen, Domhnall Gleeson, Dylan Moran and Pat Shortt and should be a right laugh.

Murph_D

Eh, that's Calvary. It's not a cowboy film. Well, not intentionally anyway.

JP Liz V1

Surprised no trailer out yet for this considering it is released here the 1st of November 2013

Murph_D

Ha, You are assuming that Irish films compete in a commercial marketplace.Why would they need a trailer?

JP Liz V1

murphd77 wrote: »

Ha, You are assuming that Irish films compete in a commercial marketplace.Why would they need a trailer?

Yes

Sarxos

First trailer for the film has been released.

Gingervitis

Only saw the trailer for this today, didn't know anything about it. The cast list of this is phenomenal, it's almost the Irish equivalent of a Harry Potter movie in terms of prestige!

Looks a lot more serious than the Guard, but I'm sure there will be a lot of dark humour as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UlI6wJzOpc

CatInABox

Looks good, a veritable who's who of Irish acting and comedy.

For all it's faults, I enjoyed The Guard.

OwaynOTT

When is it out?

Murph_D

Calvary has been accepted for the Sundance Film Festival, so I wouldn't expect a general release until after that (the more prestigious festivals generally insist on a premiere). I understand it's down for Irish release in April.

brevity

Looks good but had to stop it half way though far too long.

losthorizon

brevity wrote: »

Looks good but had to stop it half way though far too long.

No wonder you are called brevity!

JP Liz V1

OwaynOTT wrote: »

When is it out?

Looks to be out here the 11th of April

OwaynOTT

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Looks to be out here the 11th of April

Yeah saw an ad for it in cinema recently

Looper007

It's amazing reading the jameson film festival thread how many on there disliked this but the reviews coming out for this are all top notch, the same happened with The Guard many hated it here but it was critical acclaimed. Maybe it's too close to home for many on here to enjoy it, basically too Irish. Got to say from the trailers it looks a very good dark comedy with Gleeson on top form. But I could be wrong.

e_e

Looper007 wrote: »

It's amazing reading the jameson film festival thread how many on there disliked this but the reviews coming out for this are all top notch.

Yeah I'm sort of in the middle. It's an inconsistent film but it has enough to recommend, also found it to be a big step-up from The Guard.

leggo

Saw this today and wrote up a review:

There's a line in this movie where Brendan Gleeson says, "That's a line that sounds like it's clever, but makes no sense when you think about it." Unfortunately that also describes this entire film.

It's like they had an idea, got a fantastic ensemble cast together (pretty much every notable Irish actor makes an appearance), then realised they didn't know what they wanted the movie to be about. It's all very full-of-itself and cocksure, begging the media to like them by showing the Times and Sindo in clear view, then begging the audience too by having Gleeson berate a property developer for ruining the country. It can't pick its battles and decide what it's actually railing against though, like listening to an emigrant patronise the Irish from abroad offering solutions on how to 'fix the country' while pretending their own life is perfect.

The problem is that if you can't decide if the enemy is the bankers, the property developers, people's sense of victimisation, the church or people's apathy towards faith, you don't have a movie. And loads of empty symbolism won't help you if there's no ultimate point to it all. Saying "we just put it out there, make up your own mind: that's art, man," is a cop out. Not exploring topics deeply enough for people to get a balanced view of it is lazy and fence-sitting.

The actors take the piss, Aidan Gillen in particular is having a laugh with his accent, full sure that they have a winning script freeing them to focus on their 'range'. Even stellar turns from the dependable Brendan Gleeson and Chris O'Dowd can't help the fact that they've nothing really to work with.

I wanted to like this movie. So did the audience I watched it in the cinema with, who politely and patiently laughed to the weak jokes that opened the movie. But that patience waned as the film's over-weighty script wore everyone down, and further 'jokes' barely got a cough. Very disappointing. The only people who'll like this are Ray Darcy listeners, people trying to look intelligent and British people who still feel guilty about that 700 years business.

Looper007

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taRhVn7cv0o

No Mark Kermode today but a great review with the great David Morrissey getting in on it. They seemed to think it was great.

Lukehandypants

The Guard was a completely overrated film I went in excited about seeing it but after a good start it just left me cold, such a let down.
I thought the photography was less than impressive, almost like they couldn't afford a generator for the lights and had to make do with whatever was lying around.
It was a bit too Orish for me as well.
The most impressive thing in it was the young guard that get shot on the side of the road, the realisation of the character that he was about to be shot was the highlight of the movie for me, the sub plot about him being gay was completely unessary.
The shoot out at the end felt like it was just something to make the film exciting.

But saying that I'm looking forward to seeing calvary although the above review isn't instilling great hope in me now.

Addle

Not at all what I expected.
I won't forget it in a hurry.

Mickeroo

Saw it tonight. It was a decent enough film but overall it felt a bit clunky.

I admire the ambition behind it in terms of the social commentary they attempt but a lot of didn't work for me.

Some of the "quirky" local characters didn't really fit in the film for me, in particular the guy with the bow tie and also the scene in the prison just seemed very tacked on.

I found it very hard to

take Chris O'Dowd seriously in the scene at the end.

Also, I seriously think Aiden Gillen is becoming a worse actor everytime I see him on screen. The actress who played the woman who was sleeping around was also terrible.

Despite the above I still thought it was a good effort, the armchair philosophy McDonagh seems to love didn't seem as out of place as it did in The Guard (a flawed film I enjoyed for what it was and was fairly puzzled at the vitriol it attracted on here). Kelly reilly and Brendan Gleeson are great in their roles too.

Definitely worth a watch, and a more interesting film than The Guard for sure. Don't expect the "it's like The Guard but with a priest!!" type film the trailers seem to be trying to depict though, it's a much more somber affair than it's been marketed as.

CatFromHue

Saw it today too and thought it was quite good, dark, but good.

The question it left me with, which I presume the is one of the points of the film, is where/what do we see the Church as now?

The Doctor's accent in the film was fairly bad and the guy with the Dickie Bow didn't work as well as he could (I presume he was the nice but dim character) but the other characters were very good. Good in the sense they were well acted and believable but like Love/Hate I didn't personally like them in any way. If anything I strongly disliked them actually.

Also who killed his dog if Chris O'Dowd didn't? Or was that meant to be a part of the general populace's dislike at the Church?

adox

A lot of it filmed a couple of hundred yards from my house in both directions, from the church and beach scenes to the pub scenes, looking forward to seeing this.

leggo

CatFromHue wrote: »

Also who killed his dog if Chris O'Dowd didn't? Or was that meant to be a part of the general populace's dislike at the Church?

I don't think they'd have a good answer for that. I think it came down to

wanting to keep Chris O'Dowd's character somewhat sympathetic

that he didn't. That's the kind of problem I had with it. Just twists for the sake of it then a deferral to 'art' and high-mindedness as an excuse for lack of answers.

e_e

leggo wrote: »

That's the kind of problem I had with it. Just twists for the sake of it then a deferral to 'art' and high-mindedness as an excuse for lack of answers.

I don't see an issue with this as long as it's genuinely provocative and thought-provoking. But yeah that part felt completely obvious to me and sorta distasteful/manipulative, especially when the exact same thing was more or less done in The Hunt 2 years ago too. There isn't even much of a question that the film asks, it's so clearly referring to the society's attitude to the church. It shows a real lack of confidence and subtlety on the writer's part too.

leggo

e_e wrote: »

I don't see an issue with this as long as it's genuinely provocative and thought-provoking. But yeah that part felt completely obvious to me and sorta distasteful/manipulative, especially when the exact same thing was more or less done in The Hunt 2 years ago too. There isn't even much of a question that the film asks, it's so clearly referring to the society's attitude to the church. It shows a real lack of confidence and subtlety on the writer's part too.

Exactly, it was trolling (

as was the likes of Gleeson berating Dylan Moran saying, "You ruined this country!"

). Lazy writing to try and elicit a short-term emotional reaction rather than weaving the story naturally toward the same end. The fact that they didn't even try to tie up this loose end or give any subtle clues pretty much proves that they had nothing.

Just saw the 5 Live review, had to laugh as it pretty much proved my point about Brits calling this a masterpiece on account of their residual guilt. Tenner bets that once it's out of cinemas we never hear it mentioned on that show again.

mindfuldrone

Leggo:
Explain what "residual guilt" of the Brits has to do with standing by while Catholic priests rape Irish kiddies for hundreds of years. Did you even watch the movie or was the view obscured by the collosal chips on each shoulder?

leggo

mindfuldrone wrote: »

Leggo:
Explain what "residual guilt" of the Brits has to do with standing by while Catholic priests rape Irish kiddies for hundreds of years. Did you even watch the movie or was the view obscured by the collosal chips on each shoulder?

You're missing my point completely, I'm referring to how English professionals tend to laud undeserved praise on a lot of mediocre/poor Irish projects like this. See also: how they celebrate our sporting success.

It has nothing to do with the church. It's a comment on the type of people who overlook gaping holes like those prevalent in movies like this and, thus, how those people will likely consider this genius when it's far from it and more of a lazy, clunky, evocative look at...well I don't think even the filmmakers know what exactly they're looking at here.

johnny_ultimate

I just don't think McDonagh has managed to get the right mix between broad comedy and sombre philosophising down. Calvary's biggest problem* is that it's so all over the gaff tonally speaking - while there's undoubtedly interesting stuff going on throughout (more so than The Guard anyway), it always feels undermined by its fondness for crude clownery and caricatures. Gleeson does lend a weight and sophistication to the material that's much needed, however: even when the film is farting around or overstating its themes, it seems as if Gleeson can navigate the tonal tightrope even when his director can't.

*I lied - its biggest problem is Aidan Gillen turning in one of the worst performances in the history of Irish cinema.

philstar

haven't seen it but why is he dressed like a priest from the 1950s ??

priests don't dress like that anymore surely

safetyboy

Aidan Gillen was dodgy, but I enjoyed the film apart from David Wilmot, he's only good in intermission!