David R. Walker

Posts Tagged ‘Kerry Condon’

F1: The Movie

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Cast: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Javier Bardem, Kerry Condon, Shea Wingham, Tobias Menzies, Sarah Niles, Will Merrick

Running Time: 2 hours 35 minutes

Film Rating: 8 out of 10

Director Joseph Kosinski follows up his hugely successful 2022 film Top Gun: Maverick with F1: The Movie starring Oscar winner Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) as racing car driver Sonny Hayes who teams up with the young driver Joshua Pierce played by Damson Idris in a bid to revive his racing career in an around the world docudrama which possesses strong production values, great acting and a storyline which is average.

F1: The Movie is not going to appeal to everyone but it is saved by some great performances relying heavily on the star power of Brad Pitt who at 61 still commands the screen with his sparkling blue eyes and that screen charisma which is electrifying. Pairing Brad Pitt with Spanish Oscar winner Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) is a brilliant choice as Bardem plays the flashy Ruben Cervantes the talent manager of a racing car team which travels the F1 circuit from Silverstone in England to Abu Dhabi in the UAE with a pit stop in Las Vegas.

While screenwriter Ehren Kruger’s storyline reads more like a repetitive docudrama about racing cars, there are some significant scenes particularly between Pitt and Bardem and Pitt’s love interest played by Irish star and Oscar nominee Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) who retains her accent for this international racing film.

Initially the young driver Joshua Pierce clashes with the supposedly washed up driver Sonny Hayes who is recovering from gambling debts and failed marriages, Hayes and Pierce at the request of the first female technical director Kate McKenna expertly played by Kerry Condon urges the two drivers to work together as team because that is what racing car driving is all about.

Where F1: The Movie scores big is with the glossy production design by Ben Munro and Mark Tildesley along with expert cinematography by Oscar winner Claudio Miranda who won for Life of Pi. The film’s editing is also brilliant and while the storyline does lag in parts it’s really the acting which carries F1: The Movie across the finish line. Of particular note are the scenes in Las Vegas and the final race in the impressive Abu Dhabi F1 race track.

The screen chemistry between Kerry Condon and Brad Pitt is perfect while rising star Damson Idris does his best to hold his own on screen against these established stars.

Produced by Lewis Hamilton amongst others, F1: The Movie is an interesting film, slightly long but worth seeing without all the glamour and drama of Ron Howard’s 2013 film Rush.

See the film for Brad Pitt who is excellent as Sonny Hayes the man that proves that you can still drive forever.

F1: The Movie gets a film rating of 8 out of 10 and is recommended viewing for those that love sporting films. The technical aspects of this film outweigh any narrative discrepancies. Just watch out for a cinematic experience crammed with strategic brand placement.

The 76th British Academy Film Awards, also known as the BAFAs, were held on 19^th February 2023 at the Royal Festival Hall in London, honouring the best national and foreign films of 2022

Best Film: All Quiet on the Western Front

Best Director: Edward Berger – All Quiet on the Western Front

Best Actor: Austin Butler – Elvis

Best Actress: Cate Blanchett – TAR 

Best Supporting Actor: Barry Keoghan – The Banshees of Inisherin

Best Supporting Actress: Kerry Condon – The Banshees of Inisherin

Best British Film: The Banshees of Inisherin

Best Original Screenplay: Martin McDonagh – The Banshees of Inisherin

Best Adapted Screenplay: All Quiet on the Western Front

Best Costume Design: Elvis

Best Foreign Language Film: All Quiet on the Western Front

Rising Star Award: Emma Mackey

The Banshees of Inisherin

Director: Martin McDonagh

Cast: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan, Pat Shortt, Aaron Monaghan

Running Time: 1 hour 54 minutes

Film Rating: 8.5 out of 10

From the acclaimed writer and director of In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Edding, Missouri, Martin McDonagh reunites his In Bruges cast, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in a slightly dark comedy about friendship gone south, isolation and gossip in the brilliantly titled The Banshees of Inisherin.

Set exactly 100 years ago in 1923 in a small desolate island Inisherin off the coast of Ireland at the time just after the Irish War of Independence in 1922, this superbly scripted film focuses on the friendship between two men: Padriag Sulleabhain expertly played by Colin Farrell in a career best performance and the lonesome fiddler Colm Doherty played by Brendan Gleeson (Hampstead, Live by Night, Assassin’s Creed). Colin Farrell won the Best Actor Prize at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival.

On this beautiful but bleak island in this desolate place, Colm wakes up one morning and decides that the slightly simple Padraig is boring and decides not to talk to him anymore, foregoing any more afternoons at the local pub discussing the world’s problems over a pint of Guinness to while away the hours into the early evening. Naturally, Colm’s sudden snubbing of Padraig leaves the poor man devastated, but initially he thinks Colm is playing an April Fool’s Joke on him, but as the days drag on he realizes that Colm is deadly serious. 

Padraig tries to make sense of the situation while discussing things with his brighter sibling sister Siobhan excellently played by Kerry Condon (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri). Siobhan has been looking after her brother for years but she yearns for a brighter literary career on the mainland to get away from all the mental and bitter people on Inisherin. Kerry Condon is absolutely superb as the no-nonsense Siobhan who realizes that what she really needs is to escape the island.

Meanwhile the sudden feud between Padriag and Colm escalates unexpectedly providing all the villagers something to gossip about. Padriag finds friendship with a simple young guy Dominic Kearney expertly played in an exceptional performance by rising actor Barry Keoghan (American Animals, The Batman) as a browbeaten tragic man trying to escape his brutal father.

What writer director Martin McDonagh does so expertly is peel back the layers of each of the four main characters and the motivations that drive them from spite to compassion, from a desire for freedom to the ideal of being left alone in artistic contemplation. What absolutely makes this film work although quite bizarre but equally plausible considering how tricky human relationships can be, is the brilliant acting by all four main actors set to haunting Irish music courtesy of Carter Burwell.

The Banshees of Inisherin is a top class film, a dark and brittle comedy about friendships that sour and superstition that becomes reality superbly played by four actors completely in tune with their characters and this fascinating narrative.

The Banshees of Inisherin gets a film rating of 8.5 out of 10 and is slow moving in parts but worth the wait in gold and Irish luck. Highly recommended viewing for those that enjoy an inventive character driven story, which is funny, sad and thought provoking.