Any Other Business: Part LXIV

As the title suggests, so forth.

As You Were!

And so back to level 3 (plus) lockdown, but the schools stay open. You see the fact that the very noticeable spike in numbers during the level 5 lockdown just happened to coincide with the return of the schools after the mid-term break is just noise not the signal. The signal is that wet pubs are to blame for everything. That’s what compelling evidence, which hasn’t been independently parsed, tells the neo-prohibitionists in the government. And furthermore you, yes you, are to blame: once again you, yes you, got complacent. Indeed this time around the complacency, and the letting down of the guard, and all the other irritating chiding clichés, took on even more magical properties; because, when this line of attack from NPHET voices started, it had not actually been 2 weeks since the announcement of the vaccine, which would mean that people had …  relaxed in anticipation of the announcement? Yes, clearly that makes more sense than not: Bad people!

Here’s my playlist… Give it a listen when you’re ready to take things a bit more seriously…

Spotify these 60 songs for a 00s mood

Metric – Help I’m Alive // Snow Patrol – Spitting Games // Gwen Stefani – What You Waiting For? // Red Hot Chili Peppers – By the Way // Morrissey – Last of the Gang to Die // The Postal Service –The District Sleeps Alone Tonight // Moby – Porcelain // Clint Mansell – Lux Aeterna // Metric – Stadium Love // Interpol – Mammoth // Auf Der Maur – Followed the Waves // Arcade Fire – Neighbourhood 3 (Power Out) // Modest Mouse – Float On // Madison Avenue – Don’t Call Me Baby // Gwen Stefani – Rich Girl // Gnarls Barkley – Crazy // Regina Spektor – Fidelity // Coldplay – Trouble // Metric – Poster of a Girl // The Postal Service – Such Great Heights // Auf Der Maur – Skin Receiver // Muse – Supermassive Black Hole // Gwen Stefani – Hollaback Girl // Lady Gaga – Bad Romance // Muse – Time is Running Out // Modest Mouse – Ocean Breathes Salty // Temper Trap –Sweet Disposition // Muse – Starlight // The Killers – Mr Brightside // The Killers – Smile Like You Mean It // Arcade Fire – Rebellion (Lies) // Coldplay – In My Place // Muse – Stockholm Syndrome // Broken Social Scene – Lover’s Spit // Garbage – Bleed Like Me // Morrissey – Life is a Pigsty // Coldplay – The Scientist // The Killers – All These Things That I’ve Done // Vanessa Carlton – A Thousand Miles // REM –Imitation of Life // Wheatus – Teenage Dirtbag // Modest Mouse – Fire It Up // Johnny Cash – The Man Comes Around // Arcade Fire – Black Mirror // Hans Zimmer/James Newton Howard – Why So Serious? // Auf Der Maur – Real A Lie // Moby – Natural Blues // The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army // Tomoyasu Hotei – Battle without Honour or Humanity // Morrissey – Irish Blood, English Heart // Interpol – Evil // Linkin Park – In the End // Moby – Extreme Ways // Red Hot Chili Peppers – Venice Queen // The Postal Service – Nothing Better // David Holmes – Gritty Shaker // Interpol – Obstacle 1 // Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Zero // Red Hot Chili Peppers – Zephyr Song //Howard Shore – The Fellowship of the Ring theme

My Brothers

Accomplished screenwriter Paul Fraser makes his understated directorial debut with a touching movie about three brothers on a sombre but absurdist road trip around Cork.

At the age of 17 aspiring writer Noel (Timmy Creed) is already weighed down by responsibility; taking over the dawn bread-run job from his father (Don Wycherley), who lies in bed slowly dying of lung cancer. When Noel steals his father’s watch to wear himself, a moment every bit as painful to watch as Hal taking the crown from the ailing Henry IV, he soon finds himself surreptitiously driving to Ballybunnion over the 1987 Halloween weekend to get a replacement from the arcade game where the original was won. Noel, however, has to make the trip not only with a bread-van with a comically obstinate door but with the unwelcome company of his younger brothers Paudie (Paul Courtney) and Scwally (TJ Griffin) after Scwally threatens to tell on him to their mother (Kate Ashfield).Breakdowns mechanical and emotional await them…

It’s displayed prominently on the posters but oddly enough the original soundtrack of acoustic guitars from Snow Patrol singer Gary Lightbody and his producer Jacknife Lee is intrusive and inconsequential. This film is all about the writing, and Will Collins’ IFTA-nominated script is remarkably adept at recreating a real 1980s Irish childhood without getting at all sentimental about it. If you remember RTE’s special 3-D movie presentation you’ll nod in recognition at Scwally’s eagerness to get the coloured glasses and be in front of a TV in time, but you’ll also wince in recognition at the calculated cruelty of Paudie in taking cereal toys Scwally wants because Scwally wants them. Producers Rob Walpole and Rebecca O’Flanagan premiered this film at Tribeca and despite being filmed entirely in Cork it’s a film with universally resonant characters, not least burdened hero Noel.

Timmy Creed is remarkable as Noel. He has the ability to switch from pragmatic adult to awkward teenager depending on where the scene finds Noel’s oscillating self-confidence. Griffin is charming as the enthusiastic 7 year-old Scwally, wielding a light-sabre despite never having seen Star Wars, and delighted to stow away with his big brothers but hurt by their pranks. Courtney gives the most difficult performance as his Paudie is a deeply obnoxious 12 year-old that we only slowly warm to. These three young actors carry the film as due to van trouble they are constantly the only characters onscreen; apart from a sequence with the great Sarah Greene as a publican who welcomes them, and a deeply unnerving encounter with a passing motorist that is one of the few missteps of the movie tonally in its rewriting of the past.

Fraser has written several Shane Meadows films and he and his screenwriter Collins, both being one of three brothers, succeed in their primary aim here – this feels utterly real.

3/5