The Ten Best Films of the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival

May 5, 2017 by wondersinthedark

by Sam Juliano

After each and every Tribeca Film Festival, one tries to speculate which films will ultimately gain wide releases, either by way of Manhattan exclusives or nationwide booking. More and more films are leaving the Tribeca box – some gain slots in other festivals and others enjoy multi- week runs before securing DVD and blu ray rights. Unfortunately some languish in cinematic limbo either imminently or indefinitely, and often the matter of quality and strong word-of-mouth is not enough to convince distributors to take the plunge. It is unfathomable to conclude that Tribeca 2017 will produce few works that will open theatrically, as the best films of the festival include some extraordinary titles from abroad, stateside and in the documentary genre. The latter has always been a strong suit at Tribeca, and though 2017 for this writer has proven a particular triumph for narrative features, several documentaries by any barometer of measurement must be included among the festival’s creme de la creme. As of this writing negotiations are underway to pave the path for theatrical releases, and with the right timing and luck we may see the lion’s share of the best films expanding to new audiences. My wife and I were able to fit in a whopping thirty-eight features during the festival’s eleven day run, and aided by the last days of award winner screenings we managed to see just about all the priority and well-reviewed titles. As always my Number 10 spot is a tie between two films, meaning my Top 10 is actually a Top 11.

1. Saturday Church (directed by Damon Cardasis; USA)

The father of a 14 year-old inner-city boy and his younger brother is killed in action as the film opens at the funeral. “Ulysses” is a sensitive boy who slowly begins to experiment with his own gender identity while under the stern eye of a domineering aunt who is called in to supervise as the kids’ single mother is out working. Ulysses wears panty hose under his male clothing and at one point his precocious younger brother Abe barges in while he tries on his mother’s heels. After finding out his indiscretions the uncompromising Aunt Rose issues stern warnings, wielding a bit too much authority, telling the shy and effeminate boy he is a “man.” Director Cardasis acutely chronicles the suffocating behavior of ignorant, insensitive adults, a contributing factor in homelessness, prostitution and deep-rooted depression. To bolster a more masculine image Rose enlists him as an altar boy in local church, but this forced scenario segues into the exploration of the Christopher Street piers, a location long known for gay cruising and drag queens. The good looking young man immediately clicks with this nurturing second family and they introduce him to the all-inclusive “Saturday Church” which provides a shelter and comforting environment for gays and trans-gendered young people. For the first time Ulysses feels wanted and appreciated, and he receives his first kiss from a non-tranny gay boy Raymond, one that enhances his self-image and resolve to become what he feels inside. Cardasis weaves some resonating songs by Nathan Larson that often emanate from the depths of despair in a transformation of the darker reality we saw in Lars Von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark, and the young actor who plays Ulysses -Luka Kain carries the singing and dancing negotiation of songs written to amplify yearning, captivity and the need to blossom. The songs are surprisingly effective and they bring exhilarating closure to a film purposely left open ended by the director. After a tearful rapprochement, when Ulysses is escorted home by one member of his new family, his mother finally turns on Aunt Rose and in song tells the son she adores she will accept him for who is is. The entire cast deliver impassioned turns -particular mention to Regina Taylor as Aunt Rose and Marquis Rodriguez as Raymond- but the film belongs to Kain, who brings a brooding intensity as a boy too long imprisoned who through some inevitable trials and tribulations transforms to wide audience appeal. Saturday Church is a captivating coming-of age story accentuated by liberating music and lyrics, and driven by the power of community and crossing the finish line to acceptance. It is the most wholly irresistible feature at Tribeca 2017, and richly deserves wide distribution. The specter of Rainer Warner Fassbinder is smiling down on this remarkable directorial debut.

2. Son of Sofia (directed by Elina Psykou; Greece/Bulgaria)

A Russian mother and son are reunited in Athens circa the time of the 2004 Olympic Games. The introverted Misha finds to his chagrin that his mom, Sofia has married again, this time to an older man, Mr. Nikos who is resolved to raise the boy as his own, to have him learn Greek and adhere to a rigid discipline. He expects Misha to accept him as his father, but the boy privately laments to Sofia that he expected their reunion would be only between the two of them. A fairy tale subplot is played out as a manner of escape for the boy who finds some harsh realities and deceptions in a family dynamic that is anything but benign. One is reminded of the oppressive atmosphere in Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander, but the tonal elements are more in line with some of the wry humor seen in films like the recent Dogtooth and The Lobster. The film was directed by a talented young woman, Elina Psykou, and she is adept as establishing mood, veering from acute melancholia to visual buoyancy, injecting this oddly alluring tale with subversive elements. The film is a unique coming-of-age story, and as such it brings the young boy full circle after periods of resentment, and escape. He briefly shares company with a male Ukranian prostitute who offers the young boy refuge and later returns in the film’s hair-raising finale. There is plenty both visually and thematically to sink your teeth into, and Son of Sofia showcases another exemplary childhood performance by a markedly cerebral lad named Victor Khomut. The film was awarded First Place Narrative International feature by the Tribeca jury. Distributor alert!

3. Hondros (directed by Greg Campbell; USA)

A visual eulogy done with exceeding empathy and professional veneration, Hondros, was Tribeca 2017’s finest documentary, and the one most of all that moved viewers to their cores. Passed over by the jury who opted to give it a special mention, this propulsive documentary about an extraordinary life secured the Best Documentary of the festival audience award, and in any recap of the festival this must surely rate as one of the very best films in any category. The subject, celebrated war correspondent/photo journalist Chris Hondros was known as a daring, innovative and resilient chronicler of ongoing events in war zones, and his risk was as great as a soldier in the front line. Hondros produced some of the most iconic images, including one of a Libyan youth suspended in mid-air, and he was seen personally and professionally as a true inspiration to all those who were fortunate enough to cross his path. Almost inevitably Hondros was killed by mortar fire in Libya, at the age of 41 in 2011, but he left behind a legacy that all those in his field have held as the highest in devotion. His best friend Greg Campbell, a talented filmmaker in his own right was the perfect choice to move forward with this project and the results bring a special intimacy and authenticity to the personal revelations and interviews including those with his German-American mother (his father was Greek-American), close friends and associates. In turns harrowing, casual and incisive Hondros paints a picture of man we all wish we had known and how one can live such a relatively short time and yet contribute four times as much as those who live twice as long. Hondros was admittedly borderline reckless, and his personal warmth and humor may have obscured the dangers at hand. In the end this is a deeply moving portrait, beautifully made. If ever a documentary deserves a full run and video release, this is it.

4. Ice Mother (directed by Bohdan Slama; Czechoslovakia)

Bohdan Slama is lauded as one of Czechoslovakia’s most accomplished humanists, and his latest, Ice Mother embraces this noble focus with assistance from a humorous script, quirky situations, a largely dysfunctional family and perhaps the most jealous chicken outside of McDonald’s farm. A family matriarch tires of the machinations of her two selfish sons – one who constantly owes money because of collector’s OCD – the other who is married to an exceedingly unpleasant wife, though their young son Ivanek is the focus from which a romantic window is opened for the 67 year-old widow. The man Hana meets is obviously harboring secrets, but his is charismatic and revels in some startling oddities. He lives in a rundown bus with chickens, but he convinces Hana to swim and enrich her life while teaching the young boy the social skills he was long missing while he honed his technological interests. The director acutely examines narcissism and human failings, but is never surrenders to the nihilist aspects of such a lamentable family dynamic. Ice Mother is a celebration of life in off-kilter environs, and as such it is an irresistible work.

5. November (directed by Rainer Sarnet; Estonia)

The venerated animation artist Jan Švankmajer is not the director of the Estonian fantasy November, but you’d sure think he has some input into some of the decision making by director Rainer Sarnet. The film is by far the wildest of the festival yet art house lovers were in for quite the treat with this shimmering black and white visual feast of a film, one that disavows plot and narrative logistics to allow the camera to turn images into a story of creation and primordial desolation, and there is a strong strain of nihilism in a distinctly poetic presentation based on a reasonably famous Estonian novel that brings a kind of perverted context to the philosophical implications of Von Stroheim’s Greed. Basically, the film explores a love triangle, a favorite device in Estonian literature and it brings the full gamut of human behavior and emotions to a haunting work of wintry splendor and brooding intensity that created in tapestry-like sublimity that more often than not follows its protagonist down the darkest of paths. The cinema would be poorer without this gaining a release.

6. Keep the Change (directed by Rachel Israel; USA)

The Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature of the festival was given to Rachel Israel’s Keep the Change, a charming romantic comedy that stars autistic/special needs actors who invariably face some of the same problems and challenges as unaffected couples, yet because of their various limitations and social awkwardness must develop their own functional aesthetic. David, sporting sun glasses and a hulking frame appears outwardly as a successful man. Sarah is a sweetheart, but David’s overbearing nature is also one that’s markedly insensitive, so the road to romantic maturation hits several bumps before finally clicking in the film’s irresistible final scene on a bus. The co-leads – Brandon Polansky and Samantha Elisofon (who meet each other at the Jewish Community Center) share some meaningful quality time in a relationship that recalls the classic Marty, but of course is far more complicated. The film’s fresh literate spontaneity and humor are woven into a thoughtful screenplay that helps to forge a remarkable chemistry between Polansky and Elisofon. The film is honest and spontaneous and both the photography and music help Israel bring this touching story to artistic fruition.

7. A Thousand Junkies (directed by Tommy Swerdlow; USA)

A black comedy about a trio of drug addicts desperately looking for their latest fix, the anarchic, often very funny A Thousand Junkies by Tommy Swerdlow (who also plays one of the leads) recalls in spirit The Gang Who Couldn’t Shoot Straight, and is culled from experience as Swerdlow nearly died for two decades of drug abuse. Hence some of the behavioral revelations recall those in Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which was also featured real experiences, but the director wisely keeps the humorous lines and situations coming. At a brisk 75 minutes the film never overstays its welcome and develops and endearing undercurrent. Definitely ones of the most entertaining rides at Tribeca 2017.

8. LA 92 (directed by Dan Lindsay and T. J. Martin; USA)

One of the most infamous events in American history -the looting and burning of Los Angeles after the unconscionable acquittal of police officers caught on a home video camera repeatedly pummeling African-American taxi driver Rodney King in March of 1991- is examined in all its appalling detail in a highly-praised documentary that ran at Tribeca as a carryover from other festivals. While the judicial aberration wasn’t played down to any degree the film also pointed accusatory fingers at those who took advantage of the volatile situation and others who chose to exploit the devastation for purely financial gain. The co-directors combined interviews with police reports, audio tapes and on location reportage along with all the televised reports back in the early 90’s when this travesty of justice embarrassed the nation in the eyes of the world and underscored the deep racial divisions even with convictions that other factors superseded the ones being attributed to the most.

9. The Pilgrimage (directed by Brendon Muldowney; Ireland)

The opening scene of the fog enshrouded religious epic adventure The Pilgrimage is a violent stoning of a religious martyr. It signals the direction the film will take, as the group of monks in 13th Century Ireland who attempt to transport an ancient holy relic though a foreboding forest are menaced by bands of marauders who want the object for themselves. The film’s best performance is by the superb young actor Tom Holland who plays The Novice, an altruistic monk who miraculously survives the perilous trip not in a mythological realm. The Mute brings a mysterious element into an oddly alluring film that employs atmosphere to powerful effect. The story may seem slender but director Muldowney pays more attention to the visual scheme and the omnipresent darkness. It helps to enhance the hopelessness in this perilous journey. Along with November, the most visual interesting film of the festival.

10. True Conviction (directed by Jamie Meltzer; USA)

The most curious aspect of the stirring documentary True Conviction is its premise. A Dallas detective agency is launched by three ex-convicts who band together to work to free innocent people spending time behind bars. The quietly enveloping film exposes the horrific nature of one of society’s most heinous injustices, point to defects and the demonizing of minority prisoners, who are given jail time with faulty evidence. One of the three spent thirteen years of his life serving time for a murder rap, only walking after the real killer confessed. The other two serves terms twice as long and much of the documentary’s focus is on how difficult it is to win reversals for prisoners with little money or connections. The film’s successful episodes are astonishingly moving as they invariably underscore how nothing can ever make up for wasted time.

Finnish director Dome Karukoski’s biopic of a gay culture icon, Touko Laaksonen, a purveyor of porno fantasies, whose homoerotic drawings developed an international cult following. The artist depicted soldiers, farmers, leather-clad bikers and ever masculine lumberjacks in his attempt to reach an appreciative audience, while fearing his secret hobby and sexual preference would earn him time in prison. The film is sometimes disjointed and episodic, but it portrays this enigmatic character in movingly humanist terms. The film not only follows the artist’s underground maneuverings bu the slow evaporation of the militant opposition to the lifestyle, culminating with full acceptance in the liberal bastions and then on a mainstream scale. The lead Pekka Strange negotiates a solid portrayal in a role has the actor age fifty years. Largely this is a riveting work that often leaves the exploratory box.

I thought Bobbi Jene and The Divine Order overrated, and liked the Heath Ledger documentary to a point. Otherwise the remainder of the films seen were within the mid-range star wise. There were to be sure a few real duds, but every festival has those.

Blu-Ray Review: Pilgrimage

Rob Aldam — June 26, 2017

With the Edict of Milan in 313, which guaranteed the freedom of religion across the Roman Empire, Christianity spread north and west across Europe. Indeed, it tended to mirror the progress of the Romans and meet with the same difficulties. War and strife were endemic across Europe. Ireland, perched on the edge of the empire, was notoriously a difficult, hostile and dangerous land. Set in 1209, Brendan Muldowney’s new film Pilgrimage depicts the religious turmoil, superstition and hardship of the Emerald Isle.

Brother Geraldus (Stanley Weber) arrives in western Ireland on an urgent mission from Rome to return with a monastery’s holiest relic. He’s accompanied east by a young devout novice (Tom Holland) and his mute lay-brother (Jon Bernthal). After they’re ambushed, the trio must attempt to make their way to the coast, protecting their charge in a climate of religious turmoil, local wars and inhospitable lands.

I’m absolutely thrilled that there are films like Pilgrimage being made. Whilst the language and subtitles will put some people off, they only add to the atmosphere of danger and intrigue. It’s a voyage, not only in terms of a physical journey, but also of faith. There’s an impressive ensemble cast, with plots, internecine wars and double-crossing aplenty. Pilgrimage is one of the best Irish film of the decade.

EIFF17 Review: Pilgrimage
17:27

Before Tom Holland hits the A-List as the new Spider Man, he stars in 13th-century set Irish indie action-drama, Pilgrimage. Brendan Muldowney's film has all the makings of a midnight movie hit, but opts for an alternative direction with some poetic direction and a straight-faced tone.

In 13th Century Ireland, a small community of monks are tasked with transporting a religious artefact to Rome by The Cistercian (Stanley Weber). However their journey is interrupted by Norman invaders with the group being thrust into a deadly battle to keep the artefact safe.

Like many I was expecting a rather straight-forward action picture, yet Pilgrimage has echoes of more sophisticated features like Valhalla Rising about it. Directed with an undercurrent of the supernatural about it, director Muldowney and cinematographer Tom Comerford craft a tale of religious superstition and mysticism. The Irish landscape makes the perfect setting for this narrative, with the land's coastal beauty and unsettling rural forestry lending an almost mystic aesthetic quality to Pilgrimage. This is echoed by a soundtrack mostly composed of eerie religious chanting which only furthers the sense of speculation and intrigue surrounding the powers of this religious artefact.

Yet, juxtaposing the mystic elements of Pilgrimage comes an almost exploitative level of gore and slick action set pieces. Whilst this carnage is undeniably going to be satisfying to a genre fan, it never quite marries up with the poetic and mystic build-up that the film receives. This sees the narrative shift with Jon Bernthal's troubled mute character doing battle with dozens of ravenous soldiers turning the film into something of a straight-to-video action picture and not the brooding mystic piece it was channelling before. The prevalence of action spectacle over the previous mystery gives Pilgrimage a somewhat familiar narrative direction and damages the momentum previously built-up. Fortunately Comeford's earthy depiction of the Irish setting remains unscathed.

A talented cast leads further conviction to Pilgrimage. Stanley Weber excels as The Cistercian sent to retrieve the artefact, transfixed by his holy mission to retrieve it safely. Bernthal adds a further sense of mystery as the brooding mute of the pack, whilst Richard Armitage has the chance to chew the scenery. Holland lends some charisma to the fold as the young monk pushed to his extremes on this blood-soaked mission.

There is much to admire about Pilgrimage - particularly its aesthetic charms and its unsettling, evocative tone. More conventional action aspects of the narrative lead into overly familiar territory, but there is still some entertainment to be found here.

★★★

Pilgrimage Review
Henry Bevan July 3, 2017

While filming Pilgrimage, Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal teamed up and sent off some audition tapes. Those tapes led directly to their casting as Spider-Man and the Punisher, respectively. If anything, this is the most memorable and engaging thing about Pilgrimage.

Following a fellowship of monks who are transporting an important Christian object across Ireland, the film attempts exploring our relationship with faith and why it consumes so many people. It’s fertile material, and with the current crisis in Syria featuring many fractions all with a different interpretation of their religion, this film about 11th-century Irish monks and their trek across Ireland is socially relevant.

The depiction of Ireland should please the tourist board – it is frequently stunning, and Brendan Muldowney often has his camera drift off his actors’ beautiful visages so he can film a stream. Except, the pretty stream isn’t important to the story, and the director doesn’t give us any information we actually need. The Connemara location may be picturesque, but the characters’ relationship with the land isn’t always clear; it feels extraneous to the story, as Muldowney doesn’t know what he should be filming.

This lack of focus is fatal to a tale of this kind. Tom Holland’s Brother Diarmuid is set up as the main character, the most religiously flexible who will see the journey strengthen or weaken his faith. It’s the basis for great internal conflict. For example, Andrew Garfield’s performance in Silence shows how engaging it can be, but the film doesn’t explore this in any interesting way. Diarmuid doesn’t really have his faith tested, and his initial doubts are never explored. Holland is a skilled young actor, but he isn’t good enough to overcome this type of bad writing.The external conflict is just as underdeveloped. It is unclear why Richard Armitage’s Sir Raymond de Merville is pursuing the monks, and it appears there is past beef between him and Bernthal’s mute. Yet, too much of this is left to the imagination, and Armitage becomes a straight up villain far too late in the movie. Having a character whose allegiances are mysterious is fine, but there must be a wider external conflict before his true colours emerge. The action scenes between the two forces don’t expand our understanding of the characters, and Muldowney is unsure about how violent the movie should be. One sword swing will make a flesh wound, the very next one will decapitate someone.

It’s not all bad, though. Bernthal gives a good physical performance as a man who can barely contain his anger, and Richard Armitage is suitably menacing. And, you must salute the film’s bravery. It doesn’t try to hold your hand when explaining its complex medieval politics, and the film switches between French, Gaelic and English with ease. Holland, particularly, should be praised for delivering most of his lines in Gaelic. The cast also has an unprecedented dedication to bad haircuts, something missing from most modern films.

This all culminates in a finished film you are as unsure about as the film is about itself. The final shot, which is paired with the end of Holland’s character arc, only adds to our befuddlement. Ambiguity is often a strong way to end a film, but Pilgrimage is sitting on the fence instead. The actors are game, but they can’t turn this water into wine.

★★

Erste Review vom EIFF17 - drei Sterne:

http://www.culturefix.co.uk/2017/07/eiff17-review-pilgrimage.html

Pilgrimage


Director: Brendan Muldowney
Actors: Jon Bernthal, Richard Armitage, Tom Holland
Genre: Adventure, Drama, History
Details: Ireland / 96 mins / 18
Release Date: 14th July 2017


Kilmanan, 1209 and a small order of monks are visited by Brother Geraldus (Stanley Weber) who brings with him a papal decree: he is to take a sacred relic the monks have been hiding back to Rome. To ensure safe passage to Waterford where a France-bound boat awaits, Geraldus is accompanied by the reluctant brothers – novice Diarmuid (Holland), wise Ciaran (Lynch), cowardly Cathal (O'Connor), guarded Rua (Ruaidhrí Conroy), and a muscular mute (Bernthal) - but the fellowship of the rock is beset by treacherous Normans (headed up by Richard Armitage) and marauding Celts…

Similar in some respects to the so-so Nic Cage medieval road trip Season of the Witch, Pilgrimage is an altogether more violent and dour affair. Director Brendan Muldowney (whose Savage and Love Eternal are criminally underrated) works hard to realise the era (the dialogue switches willy-nilly from Irish to English to Latin to French) and instil an air of uneasiness, slowly but surely cranking up the tension with spooky imagery as the journey enters more perilous terrain. Dark woods and dead birds at the foot of gnarled trees give way to impaled foxes, heads on spikes and severed hands. The perpetual grey skies and barren landscapes help with the sodden mood and when there is a moment of silence it's usually punctured by the cry of vixens. It's an unsettling and downbeat film.

And yet despite the walking pace of the travelling party there's a terrific momentum maintained throughout. When action does get underway - the Celt ambush is a bloody one – Muldowney shows himself to be adept at handling the swordplay. It's not all blood and guts either with the director, working from Jamie Hannigan's tight script, playing around with the theme that although there is a desire for peace there is an instinct for violence in men, and the hypocrisy of the pious: a person is worth less than a rock, and the exchange of murder for absolution.

Despite Holland's rising star status and other familiar faces it is Bernthal's (Wolf of Wall Street) mute with the shady past and Armitage’s cold Norman knight that catch the eye. Bernthal veers from menace (just by standing nearby can give a scene an edge) and sensitivity, while Armitage is the perfect villain: highly intelligent and cruel.

If there is a criticism it’s that the soundtrack of sombre strings and monk chants is overused, and at ninety-six minutes the short running time chips away at the epic it wants to be.

Movie Review: Pilgrimage
Updated / Thursday, 13 Jul 2017 00:00


Director
Brendan Muldowney

Starring
Tom Holland, Richard Armitage, Jon Bernthal, Stanley Weber

Brendan Muldowney’s Pilgrimage is a sturdy piece of sophisticated hokum, the sophisticated bit being the use of subtitles as Norman soldiers and Irish monks talk impressive French and Gaeilge while a sacred relic is transported through the scenic wilds of 13th century Ireland.

The producers opted for English as the third language, rather than the vernacular Latin, although there are snatches of Latin here and there.

The film begins in early Christian Cappadocia as one of the first Christians, a man named Matthias, is stoned to death, guaranteeing him martyrdom. A particularly large piece of rock delivers the killer blow and the rock, now a precious relic ends up in a wildly desolate part of Ireland.

Over a thousand years later, Christianity is well established throughout the Western world. In the year 1209, the rock is in the care of monks who are visited by a Cistercian monk from Rome named Giraldus (Stanley Weber.) His instructions are to bring the relic to Rome, so a party of monks set off somewhat reluctantly with the rock, accompanying the messianic nuncio. The party does not get too far before they meet a band of Norman invaders. Their leader is a pious man who asks permission from the monks to allow him venerate the rock so as to bless the conquest of Ireland. The Norman knights then agree to protect the pilgrimage party as it travels along the route towards Waterford from where the monks plan to depart for the continent.

However, the fearful O Mórdha clan, who are sworn enemies of the Norman invaders, mount a bloody, violent attack on the relic transportation party. Many are slaughtered and the rock goes missing. Your reviewer couldn’t help but think if it weren’t for that bloody rock, there would have been a whole heap of trouble spared, a lot of blood and guts, indeed scalps and heads too, would have remained in place.

Tom Holland – the new Spiderman - speaks Gaeilge in a passable accent in the first frames of the movie. He plays Brother Diarmuid, an eager young novice and Holland has revealed that he and Jon Bernthal were auditioning for the roles of Spiderman and Punisher while filming the movie, recording tapes of themselves on set and sending them to Marvel. Veteran Northern actor John Lynch puts in a committed performance as Brother Ciarán - he suffers a violent end than you may have to avert your eyes from, It is arguably the most violent killing in cinema history.

The Irish Film Board provided funding with support also from the Centre du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles. Filming took place in the Clonbur area of County Galway, on the County Mayo coast as well as in the Ardennes are of Belgium. Hokum, but decent hokum or put another way, a decent slice of historical escapism.

Paddy Kehoe

Movie reviews: Cars 3, The Beguiled, Pilgrimage

Cars 3 (G, 109mins) ★★★
The Beguiled (15A, 94mins) ★★★★
Pilgrimage (Club, 96mins) ★★★★

Paul Whitington

July 14 2017 7:00 AM


Cars is the stick with which Pixar's detractors love to thrash it: the franchise, they say, is the weak link in the mighty studio's output, a John Lassiter vanity project that would never have seen the light of day if he weren't the boss. I used to subscribe to this viewpoint, but having a kid has softened my cough. These films do seem to speak to small boys, and while watching Cars 2 for the 25th time, I began to warm to it strangely. The whole cars-are-people thing may not make much sense to me (where, then, are the actual people?), but the first two movies had heart, tolerable story lines and even a sense of humour if you can stomach the aimless ramblings of the rusty old tow truck Mater.

That rusty tow truck does not feature much in Cars 3, which strikes a more sombre tone as it tackles the problem of ageing. Ace racer Lightning McQueen (voiced as always by Owen Wilson) is used to winning, but in this season's Piston Cup he finds himself eclipsed by a new generation of cars led by the cocky Jackson Storm.

When McQueen crashes spectacularly, everyone assumes his career is over. But Lightning is determined to fight back, and seeks out an old friend of Doc Hudson's called Smokey (Chris Cooper), who shows him how older cars must box clever to compete. There's a nice twist involving a female car called Cruz, and the animation in the racing sequences is very good. I saw it with my four-year-old boy, Max, who was intrigued by the film's philosophical themes, and absolutely loved those crashes.

-------------

Based on an obscure novel by Thomas Cullinan, and a 1971 Don Siegel/Clint Eastwood movie, Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled is a dreamy and pleasantly eccentric film, a Civil War comedy of manners with hints of horror. Coppola won best director for it at Cannes, and it is a deftly handled piece, which completely subverts the sleazy misogyny of the Siegel original.

In that film, it was Clint Eastwood's wounded, woman-bedevilled soldier we were supposed to feel sorry for, but Coppola's story is told from the female perspective.

It's 1864, and the inhabitants of a starchy Virginia girls' school have survived the war by laying low. When the youngest of them, Amy (Oona Laurence) is out foraging for mushrooms, she comes across a wounded man wearing Union blue. She helps him back to the school, where his presence causes excitement and discord. The headmistress, Martha Farnsworth (Nicole Kidman), is all for turning the man over to the Confederates, but the girls urge her let him stay, and she relents.

Corporal John McBurney (Colin Farrell) turns out to be a suave and courtly northerner, who flatters the women and coyly flirts with them. But while each assumes that she is his favourite, McBurney would appear to be playing his own game. Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning and Angourie Rice play young, frustrated women whose various foibles are skilfully revealed during Coppola's elegant, well-acted and wickedly funny drama.

-------------

Depressingly few Irish films have explored our extraordinary history, but Brendan Muldowney's Pilgrimage proves that small budgets are no excuse. In 13th century Ireland, a French-speaking emissary arrives from Rome. A remote community of monks have been guarding a holy relic, and now the Pope wants it brought to him. Some of the monks will accompany the relic on its journey, but along the way they fall foul of a Norman commander with other plans.

Current Spider-Man Tom Holland is the resourceful Brother Diarmuid, but the most charismatic turn comes from Jon Bernthal, playing a mute monk with body tattoos that suggest a colourful past. The film's palette is dull and boggy, and the polyglot narrative of English, French and Irish adds to the mystery, and intentional confusion. It's a tense, atmospheric, cleverly crafted period thriller.

Manic monks go mad in the Irish midlands
Pilgrimage review: Zealots, tyrants and opportunists drag themselves across our damp interior.

Donald Clarke

Jon Bernthal and Tom Holland in ‘Pilgrimage’

Film Title: Pilgrimage

Director: Brendan Muldowney

Starring: Tom Holland, Jon Bernthal, Richard Armitage, Stanley Weber

Genre: Adventure

Running Time: 96 min

Thu, Jul 13, 2017, 15:06

First published:
Thu, Jul 13, 2017, 13:15

Why has it taken so long for Irish cinema to deliver a satisfying medieval eye-gouger? Brendan Muldowney’s Herzogian quest movie – from a lean script by Jamie Hannigan – exploits the Ireland’s ancient discontents to satisfying effect as it drags a party of zealots, tyrants and opportunists across the damp interior. There’s something of Nicolas Winding Refn’s unvalued Valhalla Rising to Pilgrimage, but the film is busier, noisier and less oblique. Enjoy with a glass of mead and some scrofula.

We begin with an even more ancient prologue during which some future saint is battered to death with a rock the size of an American football. Centuries later, the relic is guarded by a group of monks in a remote corner of Ireland (as most corners then were). Jerusalem has just fallen and the monks are urged to move their precious item closer to Rome. A journey through the bogs puts them in the ways of Norman invaders and ruthless barbarians.

Hannigan has worked hard at defining characters with a few precise strokes. Jon Bernthal looms menacingly as a mysterious mute. Stanley Weber oils his way around the rough-hewn brothers as the official representative of the hierarchy. Currently soaring between skyscrapers as Spider-Man, Tom Holland is wide-eyed as a novice shouldered with unasked-for responsibility. There is enough there to generate convincing tensions and support modest character arcs.

Solid research has gone into the creation of Pilgrimage. There is a real sense of ordered humanity surviving barbarity (as Kenneth Clark famously said in Civilisation) by the skin of its teeth. The brothers’ faith in the stone’s power seems excusable in such a cruel universe.

What really makes Pilgrimage buzz, however, is an impressively scuzzy ambience powered by repeated outbreaks of raw violence. The film is closer to Conan the Barbarian than Martin Scorsese’s Silence. That is no bad thing. Tom Comerford’s cinematography is drenched. The fight scenes are excellent. The disembowellings play out to damp squelches.

Pilgrimage

Director: Brendan Muldowney
Actors: Jon Bernthal, Richard Armitage, Tom Holland
Genre: Adventure, Drama, History
Details: Ireland / 96 mins / 18
Release Date: 14th July 2017
Kilmanan, 1209 and a small order of monks are visited by Brother Geraldus (Stanley Weber) who brings with him a papal decree: he is to take a sacred relic the monks have been hiding back to Rome. To ensure safe passage to Waterford where a France-bound boat awaits, Geraldus is accompanied by the reluctant brothers – novice Diarmuid (Holland), wise Ciaran (Lynch), cowardly Cathal (O'Connor), guarded Rua (Ruaidhrí Conroy), and a muscular mute (Bernthal) - but the fellowship of the rock is beset by treacherous Normans (headed up by Richard Armitage) and marauding Celts…

Similar in some respects to the so-so Nic Cage medieval road trip Season of the Witch, Pilgrimage is an altogether more violent and dour affair. Director Brendan Muldowney (whose Savage and Love Eternal are criminally underrated) works hard to realise the era (the dialogue switches willy-nilly from Irish to English to Latin to French) and instil an air of uneasiness, slowly but surely cranking up the tension with spooky imagery as the journey enters more perilous terrain. Dark woods and dead birds at the foot of gnarled trees give way to impaled foxes, heads on spikes and severed hands. The perpetual grey skies and barren landscapes help with the sodden mood and when there is a moment of silence it's usually punctured by the cry of vixens. It's an unsettling and downbeat film.

And yet despite the walking pace of the travelling party there's a terrific momentum maintained throughout. When action does get underway - the Celt ambush is a bloody one – Muldowney shows himself to be adept at handling the swordplay. It's not all blood and guts either with the director, working from Jamie Hannigan's tight script, playing around with the theme that although there is a desire for peace there is an instinct for violence in men, and the hypocrisy of the pious: a person is worth less than a rock, and the exchange of murder for absolution.

Despite Holland's rising star status and other familiar faces it is Bernthal's (Wolf of Wall Street) mute with the shady past and Armitage’s cold Norman knight that catch the eye. Bernthal veers from menace (just by standing nearby can give a scene an edge) and sensitivity, while Armitage is the perfect villain: highly intelligent and cruel.

If there is a criticism it’s that the soundtrack of sombre strings and monk chants is overused, and at ninety-six minutes the short running time chips away at the epic it wants to be.


Pilgrimage is an ambitious film that suggests an Irish myths-and-legends actioner is perhaps not out of reach.