Belfast film review: This warm passion project by Kenneth Branagh is well worth a watch
BELFAST (12A) 98mins A FILM based in Northern Ireland during the Troubles of 1969 does not exactly scream “heart-warming”. Yet the semi-autobiographical movie by director Kenneth Branagh will have you skipping from the cinema. It is seen through the eyes of the sweet and boisterous nine-year-old Buddy — played charmingly by newcomer Jude Hill — […]
BELFAST
(12A) 98mins
★★★★☆
A FILM based in Northern Ireland during the Troubles of 1969 does not exactly scream “heart-warming”.
Yet the semi-autobiographical movie by director Kenneth Branagh will have you skipping from the cinema.
It is seen through the eyes of the sweet and boisterous nine-year-old Buddy — played charmingly by newcomer Jude Hill — who lives in a mixed neighbourhood in Belfast where Protestants and Catholics co-exist peacefully.
Buddy is meant to be Branagh, who grew up in the capital city. He loves movies, his family and has a crush on a local blonde girl at school (Olive Tennant).
Through Buddy, Branagh strips away the politics and gives the audience a different view of living through the turbulent times of the Troubles.
Pinching chocolate
As Buddy puts it, there are the Catholics “who have confession” and the Protestants “who have fire-and-brimstone preachers”.
Buddy also has the best-looking parents in town — and perhaps the whole country — in the form of Jamie Dornan and Caitriona Balfe, while his loving grandparents, Judi Dench and Ciaran Hinds, live on the same street.
His dad is a pacifist, who works away in England and his views don’t sit well with the locals when he returns to the neighbourhood. While many of their close friends leave to save themselves from violence, Buddy’s folks feel a duty to stay with the grandparents, who are not in great health and are a huge part of their kids’ lives.
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The Troubles are present in this film, but certainly not the main focus of it.
It’s more a touching coming-of-age tale about an inquisitive boy who is trying to navigate school crushes, homework and pinching chocolate, while his stable, comforting home shatters around him.
The movie is shot in black and white, which gives it a feeling of nostalgia, as though looking into a memory. Branagh very occasionally uses splashes of colour when watching through Buddy’s eyes the movies he so adores — which is a nod to his own admiration for moving pictures.
Belfast isn’t perfect. There are some characters that don’t get enough airtime, the parents look extraordinarily glamorous and stick out like a glossy-varnished thumb among the locals.
But this warm passion project by Branagh is well worth a watch.
NIGHTMARE ALLEY
(15) 140mins
★★★★☆
GUILLERMO DEL TORO wrangles a star-studded cast for this latest adaptation of William Lindsay Gresham’s 1947 novel of the same name.
It boasts an eerie balance of the Mexican filmmaker’s gothic sensibilities and classic film noir.
It’s a gorgeous-looking film, set in 1940s New York, and Bradley Cooper plays Stanton Carlisle, an endearing loner type with a dark secret, to increasingly repugnant effect.
It follows his journey from impoverished carni hand to gentleman performer, after learning a few tricks in the magic trade from clairvoyant Zeena (Toni Collette) and her husband Pete (David Strathairn).
But things start to go awry when Stan misuses his psychic show to con the wealthy elite. The female cast can only do so much with pretty stereotypical characters. Rooney Mara is a natural fit as Stan’s meek lover, while Cate Blanchett delivers the dictionary definition of femme fatale as psychologist Dr Lilith Ritter.
She oozes glamour and foreboding intrigue. While the story’s ending is rushed, with questions hanging over it, del Toro’s visual delivery of the horror is so bloody and beautiful, it’s hard to not to be mesmerised by the brutality of his new nightmare.
- By Hannah Flint
BRIAN WILSON: LONG PROMISED ROAD
(12A) 93mins
★★★☆☆
WHEN it comes to films about The Beach Boys, this isn’t Brian Wilson’s first rodeo.
The band’s leading light has been the subject of, and participated in, many documentaries over the years. But that’s no reason to swerve this latest outing.
Directed by Brent Wilson (no relation), this film joins the music legend on an intimate journey through his career as he shoots the breeze with long-time pal and Rolling Stone editor Jason Fine in a casual Carpool Karaoke format.
The pair, who met in the mid-90s, drive around Wilson’s old haunts in Los Angeles, talking and listening to music. Wilson offers up brief insights into his state of mind over ice cream sundaes at the Beverly Glen Deli. Such moments glitter between archive TV footage, family photos and past live shows.
Tales of Wilson’s mental health struggles, his abusive father and his “quack doctor” Eugene Landy are retold, but feel new again.
And there are interviews with Elton John, Bruce Springsteen and Nick Jonas among others. Elton ties this doc up neatly: “When I hear his music it makes me smile . . . I have that love of him that will never ever die.” One to make the superfans smile.
- By Judy Cogan