#Josie Walker

[moviemosaics]

Kneecap

directed by Rich Peppiatt, 2024

[letterboxd-loggd]

Kneecap (2024) Rich Peppiatt

October 9th 2024

[moviehealthcommunity]

Kneecap (2024)

This is a Movie Health Community evaluation. It is intended to inform people of potential health hazards in movies and does not reflect the quality of the film itself. The information presented here has not been reviewed by any medical professionals.

Kneecap has several unpredictable scenes of extreme strobe lights in bar, nightclub, and concert settings. There are multiple scenes with bright strobe lights on emergency vehicles in dark environments.

There is some infrequent handheld and shaking camera work.

Flashing Lights: 10/10. Motion Sickness: 4/10.

TRIGGER WARNING: There is extensive drug use in this film. This results in a brief vomiting incident in one scene.

NOTE: Admin Brandon's review and evaluation of Deadpool and Wolverine is now available on our Patreon page at Patreon.com/MovieHealth, and will be posted to Facebook, Tumblr, and YouTube on Tuesday.

Video ID: Admin Brandon's Review and Evaluation of Kneecap

[sunshinestatecineplex]

Weekend Catch-Up: KNEECAP, DIRTY POP, and WICKED LITTLE LETTE

Kneecap is a brilliant comedic biopic, starring the Irish rap group of the same name. Dirty Pop explores the Boy Band phenomenon of the 1990s through the crimes of Lou Pearlman. Finally, Wicked Little Letters lands on Netflix after a short theatrical run.

With the weekend upon us, we’re checking out some of the movies and shows to watch this weekend. Kneecap is a brilliant comedic biopic, starring the Irish rap group of the same name. Dirty Pop explores the Boy Band phenomenon of the 1990s through the crimes of Lou Pearlman. Finally, Wicked Little Letters lands on Netflix after a short theatrical run. The film stars Jesse Buckley and Olivia Colman…

[moorheadthanyoucanhandle]

JOINT SESSION

Opening this weekend:

Kneecap--The title refers to a west Belfast rap trio whose members perform in Irish, as in the Irish language. The members play themselves in the film--two youths, who go by the stage names "Mo Chara" and "Móglai Bap," and an older music teacher, JJ aka "DJ Próvai," who performs in a balaclava to hide his identity both from his employers and from his wife.

The group's bristling, furious, insolently funny music gets them in trouble, not only with the police and  politicians but with scuzzy local gangsters, the Orange Order and their own families. Even the pro-Irish language activists react with distate; they don't want the mother tongue associated with this sort of profanity, obscenity, drug use and anti-Brit sentiment. But the music also, of course, finds an enthusiastic audience.

The trailer calls the film, set in 2019 and directed by Rich Peppiatt from a script he wrote with the stars, a "mostly true story." To what extent the adverb in that phrase is strained, I can't say, though the publicity seems to suggest that this is a tall-tale version of the truth.

What I can say is that the movie is irresistible. The three stars are extremely endearing, and hold their own onscreen alongside veterans like Michael Fassbender as Móglai Bap's father and Josie Walker as a forbidding detective. Peppiatt's direction is fast and graphically playful but never merely slick; there's always warmth in the wit. And it's all driven forward by that marvelous music.

I realize that I come to Kneecap as a total outsider; most of the cutural references were opaque to me, and if there's another, darker angle from which this story can be seen, I'm certainly not in a position to recognize it. Things get a bit melodramatic toward the end, but again, the movie never really tries to claim that it's a documentary. Taken on its own terms, it's a delight.

There's also an irony built into the movie's language: the beautifully-spoken Irish is subtitled; the English dialogue is not, and was thus much harder for my Yank ear to follow. Maybe they should have subtitled both languages for the U.S. market, one in orange lettering, the other in green.

[rookie-critic]

The Wonder (2022, dir. Sebastián Lelio) - review by Rookie-Critic

The Wonder has a lot going for it; an incredibly solid story, a cast that won't quit, and a message that is timely and troubling: where is the intersect of religion and medicine when it comes to a child? If life-saving care can be given, but the parents refuse on grounds of religion, is it ethical to allow the child to die instead of saving them? Where is the line drawn between these two often-opposing forces? The Wonder asks all these questions and, in my opinion, delivers its answers on them pretty definitively by its end. For me, and I feel that Lelio conveys this, you absolutely save the child if possible. It's not a very tricky question at all from any angle. I've read articles about the film that seem to think it presents its central question as a moral quandary, that it attempts to read both sides, but I'm not sure how those people came to that conclusion. There are only a couple scenes that even remotely hint at this, and I'm not sure that's how I read them, and if it was attempting to present both sides, I'm not sure that it succeeded.

I think the strangest part of the film has to be its framing device. The film starts on a set. A modern-day, studio lot movie set, and a voice (that of actress Niamh Algar, who plays one of the characters in the film), tells us that this is a movie. She then says that the characters in the film believe their stories fully, and then invites us to do the same. The camera then pans into one of the set pieces in the room where we have actors (including Florence Pugh) and lighting and finally the camera clicks into place, completely cutting out the surrounding room so that we only see the set "in frame." From this point the film plays out like a normal drama (outside of another fourth wall break at the halfway point) until the very end, when we cut back out the film set. From what I can tell, it was meant as a way to kind of nod to the fact that the subject matter in the film has a lot of bearing on modern day events, but honestly I didn't need any of that, at all. I don't need you to keep winking at the camera, nudging the audience and saying "Right? Right? Look how timely our period piece is! Isn't it so upsetting that this is still a problem in the MODERN DAY?!" It's honestly exhausting, immersion breaking, distracting, and frankly it feels like its treating the audience like children. It almost feels like Lelio didn't have faith enough, either in his own script or the audience, to convey or understand what the film was getting at without having to spoon feed it to us with a really contrived framing device. Thankfully the film only commits to this sparingly, and it's easy enough to just look past it.

Ultimately the film's greatest strength, as she is with almost everything she's in, is Florence Pugh, who comes at this story with so much thought and empathy for the other characters in the film that you'd be awestruck by it if this wasn't what she literally does every time she acts. I was also very impressed with Kíla Lord Cassidy, the newcomer who plays the "miracle fasting girl" at the film's center. She plays off Pugh wonderfully and has cemented her place in my mind as a name to watch out for. I really did like The Wonder, it's a well-crafted, well-acted, well-meaning film that just gets a little bogged down in a few pitfalls that keep it from being really great, for me, at least. Check this one out of you've got the time.

Score: 7/10

Currently streaming on Netflix.

[twenty-words-or-less]

Kneecap

Summary: A fictionalised account of the rise of Irish hip hop group Kneecap (played by themselves).

Absolutely wild look into both Irish hip hop and the fight to preserve the language. Stylistic choices a great touch.

Rating: 4.25/5

Photo credit: IMDb

[murderandcoffee]

REJECTION LETTERS FROM SOME INSTITUTE??

IT'S 1995

THE MAGNUS INSTITUTE HASN'T BURNED DOWN YET

NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME IS JUST SOUTH OF MANCHESTER

SNAKE MAN WAS REJECTED FROM THE MAGNUS INSTITUTE

[bob-the-movie-man-film-reviews]

The Wonder (15): All Manna of foolishness and intrigue.

#onemannsmovies review of "The Wonder" (2022). #The Wonder. A tense mystery drama featuring a fabulous performance by Florence Pugh. 4/5.

A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Wonder” (2022). “The Wonder” is another Netflix production that got a lot of critical acclaim but which barely graced the big screen for more than a week before disappearing onto the streaming service. But I finally managed to catch up with it, and what a treat it is with another outstanding performance by Florence Pugh. Bob the Movie Man Rating(s): Plot…

[thelanguageoflovers]

please accept this as an apology for how long it's taking me to write chapter 4 of lost cause <3 (the other three mockups are secret until I finish the fic sorry)

[bumblingest-bee]

listening to the original cast recording version of gun song and i just noticed that moore's high note on the "YEEAAAH there it is!" is a belted E flat. they took it down a full step for future productions but holy shit debra monk just whipped that out like it was nothing.

[moviemosaics]

The Wonder

directed by Sebastián Lelio, 2022

[letterboxd-loggd]

The Wonder (2020) Sebastián Lelio

December 29th 2022

[cinematicjourney]

Enchanted April (1991) | dir. Mike Newell

[autumncottageattic]

Enchanted April is a 1991 British film adapted from Elizabeth von Arnim's 1922 novel The Enchanted April. It stars Miranda Richardson, Josie Lawrence, Polly Walker, and Joan Plowright, with Alfred Molina, Michael Kitchen, and Jim Broadbent in supporting roles.

Part IV

[jugheads-choni]

Life With Archie #24 (Volume 2: The Married Life)