|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvHl53Krxs8 Calvary Dir. John Michael McDonagh DP. Larry Smith PD. Mark Geraghty  Calvary stars Brendan Gleeson as a Priest who is forewarned of his own murder - by his murderer - in confession a week before it is due to happen. In the week that follows, Father James (Gleeson) comes to terms with himself, his relationship with his suicidal daughter (Kelly Reilly), and his role in the small town in which he lives, before going to face his potential end. Over that week, the locals - played by Dylan Moran, Chris O'Dowd, Aidan Gillen, Isaach De Bankolé, M Emmet Walsh (!) and Orla O'Rourke push him to his personal and spritual limits. Spoilers follow  Calvary is not a particularly religious film, despite it's apparent subject matter. A large part of the film focuses on how out of sync with the modern world the Church is, and how James is a relic of a different time, while becoming an attenuator for the deeply pent up sadness and bitterness of his parish. Nor is it a thriller - it's no shock when the culprit, a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of the church as a child, is revealed. The deadline, rather than the instigator, is the driving force. A visit from his suicidal daughter provides reflection for the widowed James.  Each member of his parish seem to be in their own personal hell. O'Rourke and O'Dowd are a couple held together by only the most perfunctory veneer of appearance - adultery being a way of life with a sprinkling of domestic abuse thrown in. Moran plays a depressed Irish banker who "got away with it" - a performance which is painted with perhaps too broad a brush, right up until the end where his character dares display some vulnerability. M Emmet Walsh is much less antagonistic; he plays an elderly man considering his own imminent end. Gleeson's James starts the film playing a pragmatic, sympathetic ear for his parish rather than preaching scripture - he attempts to intervene in the domestic abuse and also calls in favours to procure a gun for Walsh to end his own life.  The locals seem to be determined to rid James of his faith - mocking, teasing, attacking and attempting to destroy him. A conflicted man, he does his best to absorb their attempts to drag him down with them into their own hells, and you sense this is a very necessary relationship; either on a personal level or indicative of a broader attitude with the Church itself - James' role is community punchbag. He takes the insults and jibes either in good faith or giving as good as he gets, but rarely crossing the same line that the locals do. James keeps hold of his faith, but it's in that personal and pragmatic way rather than seeing "the light". He comes to stand for things bigger than him, but these are personal ideals rather than Christian doctrine. It is a very conventional tale, but told in a personal and sincere way.  As you'd expect from McDonagh, it's a sharp script, equal parts witty and crushingly bleak - existential dread deftly mixed with comic understatement. Some parts of it are slightly too on the nose - Moran's banker character leans more towards comic exaggeration, and elements of the conversation with his daughter feel a little forced and clunky - however the tenderness Gleeson shows towards Reilly saves it. Glesson excels at the pragmatic paternal character - 28 Days Later and In Bruges coming to mind as well - and it serves him well here. His perseverance in the face of rejection and active dislike is one of the main themes of the film, and watching him absorb it while dealing with his own personal pain is very compelling. Gleeson is one of my favourite actors - he is a huge, soft man with an incredible empathy.  Shot by Larry Smith and designed by Mark Geraghty, it is a beautiful film. The overall landscape is bleak, but not unremittingly so. Colour in the form of glass, tiling, roughly painted plasters and rays of sun are small sparks in wide open grey and green landscapes - there are several cutaways to helicopter footage of the landscape that are reminiscent of the opening scenes of Prometheus - it's a forebodingly beautiful, oppressive world. Glesson is often shot against these huge backgrounds, a towering presence in these barren landscapes, hair ruffling in the wind. On a personal, macroscopic level, the houses, church, and local buildings are all designed and shot with warm, sticky tones which add to that pent-up, ready to explode feel.     I was lucky enough to attend a screening of Calvary with McDonagh and Gleeson:  McDonagh stated emphatically - through the effects of a couple of pints - that the film wasn't representative of Ireland as a whole nor even the church - but that he and Gleeson had both wanted to make a film about "a good man". McDonagh felt this was a challenge as generally speaking, good men tend not to be that compelling, and they didn't want an anti-hero. Gleeson's character does have his flaws and while he occasionally succumbs to them, by no means is he an anti-hero. Gleeson had Walsh's character changed to be much less antagonistic, and the film is better for it - those moments of warmth add a lot to the film. Despite some clunky moments and an ending that some people might find a troubling tonal shift, Calvary is a very well made, carefully paced film with a lot of heart. The humour is frontloaded and while it never stops being funny it does descend into darkness quickly; Gleeson's constant stoic nature despite the many kickings he recieves allow this darkness not to become too much. 8/10. Calvary is out in the UK on April 11, and 1 August in the US.
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2014 11:55
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 10:53 |
|
|
echoplex posted:McDonagh stated emphatically - through the effects of a couple of pints - that the film wasn't representative of Ireland as a whole nor even the church This is such bullshit - the film is pretty transparently using the village as a microcosm of modern Ireland. Anyway - it rules and is a great performance from Gleeson.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2014 13:13
|
|
|
Mr. Flunchy posted:This is such bullshit - the film is pretty transparently using the village as a microcosm of modern Ireland. I don't disagree really but he was very much on that particular point - he was complaining that "certain" (his term/emphasis) Irish critics were saying it was a representative film and he was saying it wasn't. Authorial intent ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2014 13:23
|
|
|
I did appreciate the mini shout out to In Bruges though. The idea of some kind of McDonagh-verse makes me happy.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2014 13:56
|
|
|
This does look interesting, thanks for putting it my radar!
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2014 08:45
|
|
|
I didn't really respond to The Guard but the trailer for this looks pretty good, thanks for putting it on my radar OP.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2014 00:37
|
|
|
This film is amazing. Amazing.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2014 22:36
|
|
|
This film just blew me away. It starts off slow and is mostly a charming if a little gloomy tale, but as it ratchets up to it's conclusion, the mood shifted and really sucked me in. Seeing a film at a festival that keeps an audience quiet for the first few moments of credit roll is something special. Gleeson is fantastic, but the entire cast is to be commended, with a special nod to Chris O'Dowd.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2014 21:26
|
|
|
This is a great, angry little film. It really seems to be about how the sex abuse scandals in the church have permeated the church in a way that it isn't soon going to recover from. It's effected everything and even it's damaged the Church more than years of war ever did.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2014 13:36
|
|
|
This is a wonderful film. Aidan Gillen's accent is bafflingly bad though, did somebody tell him it was good?
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2014 14:02
|
|
|
kustomkarkommando posted:Aidan Gillen's accent is bafflingly bad though, did somebody tell him it was good? He's actually Irish though so it shouldn't really present a problem. It's the weird voice he affects for no good reason that makes it sound crap.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2014 14:27
|
|
|
Noxville posted:He's actually Irish though so it shouldn't really present a problem. It's the weird voice he affects for no good reason that makes it sound crap. It would have been fine if he spoke in his natural accent, which is a pretty gentle Dublin accent. Instead he attempts some kind of weird west coast brogue which sounds absolutely ridiculous, it's a very weird choice and it wasn't really that consistent. I actually saw this in a relatively large Irish cinema and there was a lot of baffled murmuring when Gillen started speaking. When watching the film it was hard to ignore the audience reaction to certain scenes as well, there where audible gasps after the opening lines of dialogue and some very uncomfortable murmuring during some of the more pointed attacks on the Catholic Church. kustomkarkommando fucked around with this message at 14:43 on Apr 27, 2014 |
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2014 14:39
|
|
|
kustomkarkommando posted:This is a wonderful film. He seems to have issue with putting on other accents. I met him the other day, and I think it's the first time I've heard him talk in a voice that wasn't weird. He's in an indie film called Beneath the Harvest Sky and his American accent isn't any better. The best accent I've heard him do was in Dark Knight Rises. That said, him saying "gobble-de-gook" was magical in how bad it was.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2014 17:55
|
|
|
I think Aidan Gillen sounded fine on The Wire and for some reason his voices have just gotten increasingly awful since then. Even just going from seasons 1 to 4 of Game Of Thrones he went from semi-normal to bizarre videogame voiceover.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2014 18:41
|
|
|
echoplex posted:Calvary is out in the UK on April 11, and 1 August in the US. Damnit, why so long for the U.S. ? For some reason I was hoping I could Redbox or Netflix this but it isn't out yet.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2014 19:43
|
|
|
Thanks for the wonderful OP. I'll definitely be checking this one out when it arrives in Canada.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2014 22:07
|
|
|
Gatts posted:Damnit, why so long for the U.S. ? For some reason I was hoping I could Redbox or Netflix this but it isn't out yet. Its still making the American festival circuit, so that's probably part of it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2014 22:27
|
|
|
We saw it yesterday and it's a really good film. We were incredibly baffled by Aiden's accent too though, it was bloody atrocious. I actually thought he was from the UK so learning he was Irish but still doing such a bad accent really threw me! Here's some spoilers about the end so don't mouse over. We were CONVINCED it was Pat who was going to do it, because in the confession booth it sounded just like him. The film seemed to be inferring it was Dylan Moran, but his accent is so utterly different from what we heard in the booth that it just couldn't have been. When it was Chris O'Dowd we were pretty shocked. But maybe that is the point and it was supposed to sound like Pat?
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2014 12:54
|
|
|
Uncle Boogeyman posted:I think Aidan Gillen sounded fine on The Wire and for some reason his voices have just gotten increasingly awful since then. Even just going from seasons 1 to 4 of Game Of Thrones he went from semi-normal to bizarre videogame voiceover. Yeah, he was fine in The Wire, closer to the top-end of the Idris Elba/Dominic West Scale.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2014 17:23
|
|
|
This was a great OP and has definitely gotten me psyched about seeing the film. I apologize for belaboring a really minor point, but you lean on the construction of "This film is x but not y" or "This film is x but also z" a lot. Which I suppose is just as fair, given that one of thr films strengths appears to be its ability to take familiar, conventional scenarios and treat them uniquely.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2014 18:30
|
|
|
Taear posted:Here's some spoilers about the end so don't mouse over. Apparently McDonagh deliberately cast another actor to perform the confession booth lines to keep the audience guessing. For most of the movie I suspected Gary Lydon's inspector but then I realised he was actually playing the same character he played in the Guard and that changed my mind completely. McDonagh has already said in interviews he's working on the script for a third film with Gleeson to create a thematically linked trilogy he's dubbed The Glorious Suicide Trilogy. Must say I'm looking forward to it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2014 20:03
|
|
|
Jonny Angel posted:This was a great OP and has definitely gotten me psyched about seeing the film. I apologize for belaboring a really minor point, but you lean on the construction of "This film is x but not y" or "This film is x but also z" a lot. Which I suppose is just as fair, given that one of thr films strengths appears to be its ability to take familiar, conventional scenarios and treat them uniquely. I realised as I was writing it out that I almost made the film sound not very good, hence that. It's really much more about the little parts of the bigger journey but it's hard to document that when you're trying to keep it vague. Cannot believe how impossibly old Walsh looks and he's not even "that" old.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 11:58
|
|
|
kustomkarkommando posted:Apparently McDonagh deliberately cast another actor to perform the confession booth lines to keep the audience guessing. For most of the movie I suspected Gary Lydon's inspector but then I realised he was actually playing the same character he played in the Guard and that changed my mind completely. That actually annoys me. We know Gleeson recognised it, but how can he if it wasn't the same voice?
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 12:54
|
|
|
echoplex posted:Cannot believe how impossibly old Walsh looks and he's not even "that" old. And he looked old in Blade Runner (well, 'getting up there in years' shall we say)
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 13:02
|
|
|
Taear posted:That actually annoys me. We know Gleeson recognised it, but how can he if it wasn't the same voice? I think he can just see him through the mesh? It seemed like that later on when his daughter was in the confessional. Though I can't remember if he actually looks towards it in the opening scene.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 14:36
|
|
|
A real stunner of a movie. Gleeson keeps getting more and more captivating as an actor and hits critical mass in this; after a long scene of him just standing on a windy beach in his priest garb I was actually bummed out when it cut to the next scene. He's a complete presence onscreen. Also the fact that Freddie Joyce was played by Domhnall Gleeson, Brendan Gleeson's real-life son, made their scene really stand out for me. I don't know if it'd had the same impact if I hadn't known their connection, what with Joyce's borderline Lecter-esque character and all though.
|
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2014 03:05
|
|
|
Watch this one with headphones if you can, there's some really neat sound design in the outdoor shots. Very mesmerizing. I didn't expect this film to be such a technical powerhouse.
|
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2014 05:52
|
|
|
I really enjoyed this film. Went in with no expectation, other than Brendan Gleeson was in it. It progressed well, but the ending confused me, as it didn't revealed who had interfered with his dog, and why? Definitely worth a watch and may even be worth a second visit to the confessional.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 10:56
|
|
|
Just saw this today and it's definitely one of my top films for the year so far. I love the casting of several well-known comic actors in dramatic roles, it really seems to add something to their performances. As for the dog, I kind of got the feeling straight away that it wouldn't have been Jack that killed him, and I came away with the impression that almost any of the other people in the village might've had some motivation or been just crazy enough to do it. 100% recommended. Aiden Gillen though, between this and Game of Thrones I don't think I have a single clue what he actually sounds like.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2014 05:50
|
|
|
I saw this a couple months back at the Seattle Intl Film Festival and it's stayed with me. It's really good and really emotionally affecting. The only criticism I have is how everybody talks in monologues is kinda jarring when you first start out on the movie but after you adjust to that it's great.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2014 16:37
|
|
|
When I was at the screening the director said that a character can be seen wearing a flesh coloured bandage towards the end of the film - that's the one who killed the dog.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2014 17:49
|
|
|
My wife and I had a double movie night tonight. First we saw Guardians of the Galaxy, which was very very good light entertainment. Then we saw Calvary. I kind of wish we could have watched them the other way around instead of finishing the night with Calvary. Jesus gently caress. Bleak doesn't begin to describe it. We both hated the majority of characters in it and hated the events that happen in it while being forced to acknowledge that it is a worthwhile piece of film-making, but Jesus gently caress. When it ended and the credits rolled there was literally a stunned silence for about 5 seconds and then the reasonably large audience started muttering "gently caress" and similar things to each other. My cursory take on it, thematically, was that Brendan Gleeson's character was, in essence, making a sacrifice of himself to try to redeem the Church as per Jesus sacrificing himself to redeem humanity.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2014 14:43
|
|
|
Tullendar posted:I really enjoyed this film. Went in with no expectation, other than Brendan Gleeson was in it. It progressed well, but the ending confused me, as it didn't revealed who had interfered with his dog, and why? Definitely worth a watch and may even be worth a second visit to the confessional. I think the important thing to take away from that is just that someone else killed the dog. Throughout the movie the aggression is coming from all sides. While it would be nice if all the evil that's being done to this good man is coming from just one place, it says alot that there are more people in the town that are doing horrible things to him.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2014 14:51
|
|
|
Brutal film, but with a, religious, bright side at the end, albeit very melancholic; liked it more than the guard
Honest Thief fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Aug 2, 2014 |
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2014 22:00
|
|
|
I don't know where it 5 playing in Fort Worth. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2014 22:54
|
|
|
My favorite part is when Littlefinger told that hosed up story and Amish was like why the gently caress are you telling me this.
|
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2014 01:24
|
|
|
Good movie. I'm dumb, can someone explain the title to me?
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2014 12:51
|
|
|
According to Wikipedia: Calvary is the hill in Jerusalem where Jesus has been crucified. Calvary may also refer to: Calvary (sanctuary), a complex of chapels imitating Jerusalem Calvary (sculpture), a type of public crucifix with figures Figure it has something to do with one of those things.
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2014 13:50
|
|
|
Stare-Out posted:According to Wikipedia: Did not know any of those definitions. Thanks.
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2014 13:53
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 10:53 |
|
|
I have nothing to say except that this was, without equivocation, the best movie I've seen in recent memory and you should see it in a theater while you can.
|
|
#
?
Aug 10, 2014 04:43
|
|
