You Have Been Listening To… : Part III

It is time to discreetly begin to draw the curtains for Christmas. There will be no more reviews by me of new releases on 103.2 Dublin City FM this year. But here’s a round-up of links to the previous editions of Sunday Breakfast with Patrick Doyle and a list of the many films we discussed since June if you’re eager to explore the back catalogue.

JUNE

X-Men: Dark Phoenix + Classic Ghostbusters II + Classic The Matrix

https://www.mixcloud.com/patrickdoyle/9619-the-sunday-breakfast-show-with-patrick-doyle/

Balloon + TV Choice The Accountant + Classic Dr Strangelove

https://www.mixcloud.com/patrickdoyle/16619-the-sunday-breakfast-show-with-patrick-doyle/

Brightburn + TV Choice Dial M for Murder + Classic Mean Girls

https://www.mixcloud.com/patrickdoyle/23619-the-sunday-breakfast-show-with-patrick-doyle/

Yesterday + TV Choice Casino Royale + Classic Superman II

https://www.mixcloud.com/patrickdoyle/30619-the-sunday-breakfast-show-with-patrick-doyle/

JULY

Apollo 11 + TV Choice Bullitt + Classic Rear Window

https://www.mixcloud.com/patrickdoyle/7719-the-sunday-breakfast-show-with-patrick-doyle/

Stuber + TV Choice Jaws + Classic Ma Nuit Chez Maud

https://soundcloud.com/patrickseandoyle/the-sunday-breakfast-show-film-review-14719

The Current War + TV Choice Arrival + Classic Gone with the Wind

https://soundcloud.com/patrickseandoyle/the-sunday-breakfast-show-film-review

AUGUST

Hobbs & Shaw + TV Choice The Guest + Classic It Happened One Night

https://soundcloud.com/patrickseandoyle/the-sunday-breakfast-show-film-review-1

The Art of Racing in the Rain + TV Choice Patriots Day + Classic Phase IV

https://soundcloud.com/patrickseandoyle/talking-film-on-the-sunday-breakfast-show

Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood + TV Choice Dirty Harry + Classic Army of Shadows

https://soundcloud.com/patrickseandoyle/talking-film-on-the-sunday-breakfast-show-1

Pain and Glory + TV Choice White House Down + Classic Little Women

 SEPTEMBER

Crawl + TV Choice Gone Girl + Classic Whiskey Galore!

IT: Chapter 2 + TV Choice X-Men: Days of Future Past + Classic The Italian Job

https://soundcloud.com/patrickseandoyle/talking-film-on-the-sunday-breakfast-show-2

Extra Ordinary + TV Choice Batman Begins + Classic Ghostbusters

https://www.mixcloud.com/patrickdoyle/15919-the-sunday-breakfast-show-with-patrick-doyle/

Ad Astra + TV Choice Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me + Classic The Godfather: Part II

https://www.mixcloud.com/patrickdoyle/22919-the-sunday-breakfast-show-with-patrick-doyle/

Ready or Not + TV Choice L’Avenir + Classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

https://www.mixcloud.com/patrickdoyle/29919-the-sunday-breakfast-show-with-patrick-doyle/

OCTOBER

Joker + Judy + Classic White Heat

https://www.mixcloud.com/patrickdoyle/61019-the-sunday-breakfast-show-with-patrick-doyle/

Gemini Man + TV Choice Now You See Me + Classic Fight Club

https://www.mixcloud.com/patrickdoyle/131019-the-sunday-breakfast-show-with-patrick-doyle/

Dark Lies the Island + TV Choice Good Night, and Good Luck + Classic Crimes & Misdemeanours

https://www.mixcloud.com/patrickdoyle/201019-the-sunday-breakfast-show-with-patrick-doyle/

Countdown + TV Choice The Shallows + Classic Them!

https://www.mixcloud.com/patrickdoyle/the-halloween-show-with-patrick-doyle/

NOVEMBER

Doctor Sleep + TV Choice Kingsman: The Secret Service + Classic Girl, Interrupted

https://www.mixcloud.com/patrickdoyle/101119-the-sunday-breakfast-show/

Le Mans ’66 + TV Choice Funeral in Berlin + Classic Rio Bravo

https://www.mixcloud.com/patrickdoyle/171119-the-sunday-breakfast-show-with-patrick-doyle/

DECEMBER

Marriage Story + TV Choice World War Z + Classic Field of Dreams

https://www.mixcloud.com/patrickdoyle/

Notes on Judy

Judy was the secondary film of the week in an innovation much earlier today on Sunday Breakfast with Patrick Doyle.

The finances of Judy Garland (Zellweger) are perpetually in a state of vague distress. When she is forced to house her children at the home of their father Sidney (Rufus Sewell), after her hotel releases her suite, she finds herself accepting a five week engagement in London over Christmas 1968 to try and raise some quick cash. Impresario Delfont (Michael Gambon), his fixer Rosalyn (Jessie Buckley), and bandleader Burt (Royce Pierreson) are unprepared for the ramshackle performer who arrives, despite her reputation. Adding to the volatility is her unwise romance with much younger musician Mickey (Finn Wittrock), who she meets at a party where daughter Liza (Gemma-Leah Deveraux) reveals she is about to star in a musical. Such breaks are beyond Judy at this point; her voice and body failing after years of substance abuse, these concerts become a swansong.

Judy isn’t as colourful as one might hope from director Rupert Goold of the Almeida Theatre. Instead it feels an awful lot like the sumptuous but sedate My Week with Marilyn, another BBC Films biopic of an American starlet in post-war London that was simply straining itself to earn Oscar nods. Production designer Kave Quinn and costume designer Jany Temime do a sterling job of recreating a late 1960s London that feels by turns swinging and solid, but the screenplay by Tom Edge; reshaping Peter Quilter’s play and fleshing out Judy’s mistreatment by Louis B Mayer (Richard Cordery in a highly creepy performance perhaps informed by Harvey Weinstein); only occasionally reaches high notes of emotion or insight. On the whole proceedings are quite dull.

Listen here:

Judy

Renee Zellweger goes all in to win an Oscar playing troubled star Judy Garland in her last public concerts before her early death in 1969.

The finances of Judy Garland (Zellweger) are perpetually in a state of vague distress. When she is forced to house her children at the home of their father Sidney (Rufus Sewell), after her hotel releases her suite, she finds herself accepting a five week engagement in London over Christmas 1968 to try and raise some quick cash. Impresario Delfont (Michael Gambon), his fixer Rosalyn (Jessie Buckley), and bandleader Burt (Royce Pierreson) are unprepared for the ramshackle performer who arrives, despite her reputation. Adding to the volatility is her unwise romance with much younger musician Mickey (Finn Wittrock), who she meets at a party where daughter Liza (Gemma-Leah Deveraux) reveals she is about to star in a musical. Such breaks are beyond Judy at this point; her voice and body failing after years of substance abuse, these concerts become a swansong.

Judy isn’t as colourful as one might hope from director Rupert Goold of the Almeida Theatre. Instead it feels an awful lot like the sumptuous but sedate My Week with Marilyn, another BBC Films biopic of an American starlet in post-war London that was simply straining itself to earn Oscar nods. Production designer Kave Quinn and costume designer Jany Temime do a sterling job of recreating a late 1960s London that feels by turns swinging and solid, but the screenplay by Tom Edge; reshaping Peter Quilter’s play and fleshing out Judy’s mistreatment by Louis B Mayer (Richard Cordery in a highly creepy performance perhaps informed by Harvey Weinstein); only occasionally reaches high notes of emotion or insight. On the whole proceedings are quite dull.

It’s hard not to think the film-makers in focusing on shows that lurched to shambolic collapse are trying to pull a Woodstock and valorise what was really a failure.

2/5