Donald Clarke

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Donald Clarke

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1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Donald Clarke

It has actually been a mere 18 years since Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s decent 28 Weeks Later followed up what might be Danny Boyle’s most influential film. Shot on scuzzy-looking digital video, 28 Days Later, a breakout hit in 2002, inveigled a then-novel off-the-cuff sensibility into mainstream cinema. The cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle honours his own innovative work back then – and moves things forward – by shooting most of the current zombie epic on an iPhone with attachments.

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Donald Clarke

Anybody concerned about Liza Minnelli after her delicate appearance at the Oscars three years ago – friends deny she needed the wheelchair provided – will be reassured by her consistently sharp and witty performance in this hugely enjoyable documentary. There are some curious omissions. Nothing on her superb early film performances in The Sterile Cuckoo and Charlie Bubbles. No Arrested Development. Nothing on Arthur, for heaven’s sake.

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Donald Clarke

Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson are in the house. And they are not going to be quiet about it. “What an honour! What an honour!” Wikingsson, the sleeker of the two Swedes, practically bellows. “We’ve been to Dublin! We’ve had great times in Dublin! This feels like coming home!”Even if you were not already aware, their demeanour would immediately clarify that they are not conventional film directors. “Filip och Fredrik” first achieved home fame as pranksters on Swedish television.

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Donald Clarke

Oh no. “Ed Sheeran sparks backlash from fans after revealing he ‘identifies culturally as Irish’.” However will he recover? That Mail Online headline leads, of course, to a mere trickle of X posts raising largely facetious objections to the ginger guitar-basher’s recent affiliation with the land of his fathers. Obviously, some folk (ahem) who don’t enjoy Sheeran’s brand of inexplicably popular busker folk have done a bit of performative grumbling.