My Review of The Commitments (1991)

 

Written by Dick Clement And Ian La Frenais And Roddy Doyle

Directed by Alan Parker

Dean: "You don't think, eh, well, like maybe we're a little white - for that kind o' thing."

Jimmy: "Do ya not get it, lads? The Irish are the blacks of Europe. And Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. And the Northside Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin. So say it once, say it loud. I'm black an' I'm proud!"

Seeing as it's the month of March, I do want to try and get a few Irish films in as best I can and there's a certain trilogy that I've been meaning to review for a while now. Yup, it's The Barrytown Trilogy of course.

Starting with this one, what do you do with a group of strangers who want to form their own soul band? That was something that working class lad Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) was about to find out as he really wanted to break into the music scene and couldn't do it all by himself.

Nope, he needed a band who could play instruments and could sing soul music like he could. This band would be called The Commitments and it's members were definitely a lively bunch of people, who brought their own talent and chaos into the group.

The back up singers included Bernie McGloughlin (Bronagh Gallagher), Natalie Murphy (Maria Doyle Kennedy) and Imelda Quirke (Angelina Ball). All three women would be seduced by trumpet player Joey Fagin (Johnny Murphy). This caused a certain degree of tension within the group itself.

The rest of the group included lead singer Deco Cuffe (Andrew Strong), guitarist Outspan Foster (Glen Hansard), keyboardist Steven Clifford (Michael Ahearne), alto saxophonist Dean Fay (Félim Gormley) as well as bassist Derek Scully (Kenneth McCluskey) and drummer Billy Mooney (Dick Massey). It's a large group of characters to focus on.

As a band, The Commitments actually did have talent and were even securing some good gigs until one of them lead to disaster and the band's eventually dissolution. There's a nice montage towards the end that showed how each of the groups lives changed and in most cases, for the better tbh.

- The other two movies in this trilogy are The Snapper (1993) and The Van (1996). Colm Meany played Mr Rabbitte in this movie but different characters in the other ones.

- If you're a fan of The Corrs (it was the 1990s), Andrea had played Sharon Rabbitte while her siblings had smaller roles here.

- Standout music: Mustang Sally, Dark End Of The Street and Try A Little Tenderness.

- Chronology: Roddy Doyle's book came out in 1987 and it's set in the Northside of Dublin.

The Commitments gets The Barrytown Trilogy off to an excellent start. It's a riot of a film with a brilliant cast, a brilliant soundtrack and a nice exploration into the working class and aspirations for more. How can anyone not be entertained by this one?

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of The Beauty: "Beautiful Betrayal"

 

Written by Ryan Murphy And Matthew Hodgson 

Directed by Michael Uppendahl 

Diana (re Cooper): "The rebirth has begun."

And we're into the finale - or will it be series finale? If it's the latter, then Ryan Murphy learned nothing when he ended the likes of Ratched and Grotesquerie on cliffhangers. Hopefully the same fate isn't awaiting this one.

To this finale's credit, it's an improvement on the penultimate with three plot strands being weaved into one another with decent results. Even the Bella plot suddenly became a lot more interesting as a result of this episode.

Bella met up with the hunky Conor (Carson Rowland) who offered to sleep with her to pass on the Beauty. Conor also took an extra dose and Bella became horribly mutated as a direct result. It's probably the most sci-fi looking moment we've had in the entire show.

Bella's grotesque transformation was not only pitiful to look at but it became another reason for Byron to grow a conscience. Yes, our villain of the piece finally realised that his little product was causing a 17% rate of damage. What also spurred this change of tack? Oh yes, Byron's dopey sons.

Being good looking did nothing to improve Tig and Gunther's IQ as they decided to inject Franny with the Beauty. Franny now looked like Nicola Peltz Beckham and she wasn't happy about being younger. In fact, her reasoning for it not only made perfect sense in general but it was the thing to get through to Byron. That also put both Byron and Tig at odds with each other.

Tig aligned with Diana and they had a reverse for the Beauty that Cooper was willing to try. The cliffhanger being everyone reacting to the reversed version of Cooper. Do we get Evan Peters back next season? Will there even be a next season? 

- Franny II was styled the same way that Isabella Rossellini was in Death Becomes Her. It was a nice nod.

- Ray was killed off screen and Gunther didn't seem to be part of Tig's attempts to usurp Byron.

- Standout music: Guns N' Roses Sweet Child O' Mine.

- Chronology: From where the penultimate episode left off.

Beautiful Betrayal made for a strong enough finale. The main plots looped together rather nicely but has the show done enough to get a second season? I bloody hope so.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of The Beauty: "Beautiful Beauty Day"

 

Written by Ryan Murphy And Matthew Hodgson 

Directed by Michael Uppendahl 

Student (re Tina): "She got the shot."

To get this one thing out of the way first - I would have taken these last two episodes, condensed parts of this one and merged it with the last episode. This was a complete filler episode that probably needed to happen earlier in the season or not at all.

I mean it did pick up from where Cooper had been transformed into a pre-teen and Jordan doing her best to reassure. The reality was that Jordan had no idea if Cooper would ever grow up and I think Cooper knew that as well.

On the other hand, I liked the bond that Jordan has formed with both Jeremy and the Assassin. Some snarky banter, both of them seemed surprisingly sympathetic to Cooper's current predicament. Cooper remained determined to actually stop Byron in his tracks.

Then there's Beauty Day. It came and went and The Beauty itself was spreading like wildfire among the American population. The focus on most of this episode was on the unfortunate Bella Grant (Emma Halleen).

Bella wanted to get The Beauty having witnessed a formerly dumpy classmate named Tina get the desired results as well as an influencer she followed online. Bella's parents on the other hand weren't going to let her do, rightly pointing out the possible side effects of the treatment.

The last scene saw Bella being openly envious of her friend Ruthie (Annabelle Wachtel/Paige McGarvin) being turned so dramatically by the process. Ruthie explained to Bella there was another way fot her to get the treatment. Then the episode abruptly ended.

- Bella's father was using Ozempic and this episode was rather critical of that too.

- Emma Halleen who played Bella previously appeared in American Horror Stories episode, Bestie. 

- I think people were way too calm about Tina being aggressive and even that classmate starting his transformation in the middle of class.

- Chronology: A week since the events of Beauty Day.

Beautiful Beauty Day was pure filler as an episode. It's fine for what it is but it didn't need to be it's own episode. I would've merged these last two episodes together.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of I Swear (2025)

 

Written And Directed by Kirk Jones

John Davidson: "The problem is not Tourette's, the problem is that people don't know enough about Tourette's."

After the uproar of last week's BAFTAs, this movie was something I needed to watch. I'll admit that I don't have an extensive knowledge on Tourette's but I was familiar with real life campaigner John Davidson. This movie was about the earlier part of his life.

The movie began with his early days as a 12 year old and when played by Scott Ellis Watson. He had aspirations to be a footballer but it was around this time his Tourette's had started to come into play. It was something that also saw his parents Heather (Shirley Henderson) and David (Steven Cree) desperate as well.

The movie mostly focused on an older version of John, played by Robert Aramayo. We saw the strain between John and his mother while a chance reunion with John's old school friend, Murray Achenbach (Francesco Piacentini-Smith) had John moving in with the latter's mother, Dottie (Maxine Peake).

The relationship between John and Dottie was by far the best thing about the movie. Dottie's experience as a nurse factored into her empathy for John. Dottie seemed to be able to help John in ways that his mother wasn't able to. She helped him get a job in the community centre and John formed a close relationship with his boss, Tommy (Peter Mullan).

As the movie progressed, John had to witness Tommy's death, had been a victim of an assault and had interactions with the law. They weren't as understanding of his condition. He also learned to live on his own and even stepped up for the community centre after Tommy's death.

Towards the end of the movie, we saw the ways in which John was able to live with his condition and even saw the positive impact he was making within his community as more people were trying to understand Tourettes. From this movie alone, it's hard not to admire John Davidson.

- The end credits of the movie had clips from the John's Not Mad documentary as well as others.

- A lot of this movie did focus on John's meeting with the Queen and how that went down.

- Standout music: New Order's Blue Monday and Oasis's Stop Crying Your Heart Out.

- Chronology: This started in the early 1980s Galashiels, Scotland with most of the movie set in the 1990s and 2000s.

I would definitely recommend watching I Swear as a movie. It's a brilliant look into the condition and into the life of John Davidson. Robert Aramayo gave one hell of a performance throughout as do Maxine Peake, Shirley Henderson and Peter Mullan.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Industry - Season 4 (2026, HBO/BBC)

 

Written by Mickey Down And Konrad Kay And Joseph Charlton

Directed by Mickey Down And Konrad Kay And Michelle Savill And Luke Snellin

Whitney (to Henry): "Everybody wants you. You're worth everything. Everybody wants you."

I started this show as the fourth season was making the rounds on HBO and BBC respectively and managed to catch up with the current season as it was heading into it's final three episodes. I really have become a convert in such a short space of time.

With Pierpoint no more and the sexiness that was Harry Lawtey's Robert Spearing absent, it was really a case of Yasmin and Harper being the last two standing. Both women were in separate places at the start of the season and were further pulled apart by the end of the season.

In fact both women really went in very different directions. With Yasmin, her marriage to Henry really did both her and Henry no favours. In fact I was rooting for them to divorce and was more than happy when the finale granted my wish. However where Yasmin ended up, post divorce just showed how far she's fallen as a person.

Yasmin and Henry getting into bed with Tender and it's CFO Whitney Halberstram (Max Minghella) certainly compromised their morality. There's a Talented Mr. Ripley vibe between Henry and Whitney that nearly crossed into some homoerotic tension. As a villain, Whitney's brilliant to watch and there's something delightful in seeing Henry getting the better of him by the finale.

As for Harper, this season might have been her at her least scheming and most sympathetic. She's largely working with Sweetpea and newcomer, Kwabena Bannerman (Toheeb Jimoh) and even formed a partnership with Eric before things went spectacularly bad for the latter. Was that a permanent exit for the character? I'm not so sure.

For this season, Harper was on the right side. She knew something was up with Tender and actively made the right moves in order to try and expose Whitney. She even tried to pull Yasmin back from the dark path the latter was heading towards. I don't think I've ever been more Team Harper than I was with this season.

- Episode titles were PayPal of Bukkake, The Commander and the Grey Lady, Habseligkeiten, 1000 Yoots, 1 Marilyn, Eyes Without A Face, Dear Henry, Points Of Emphasis and Both, And.

- Lot of new characters this season including escort Hayley Clay (Kiernan Shipka), journalist James Dycker (Charlie Heaton), Labour Minister Jennifer Bevan (Amy James-Kelly). Those three got a lot of screen time. Claire Forlani and Kal Penn also popped up this season.

- Rishi really went off the deep end in his grief and addiction, which led to a mid season exit for the character.

- Henry turned forty in the second episode, had visions of his dead father (Jack Farthing) and admitted that he's slept with men in boarding school.

- HBO and BBC confirmed that the fifth season will be it's last one.

- Chronology: Mostly set in 2025 and 2026 and mainly in London though the fifth episode was set in Ghana.

I really have gotten into this show in such a short space of time and this fourth season made for some captivating television. The dynamics between Henry/Whitney and Harper/Yasmin were the best thing and there's timely commentary on various issues to boot. Honestly, this show has gotten better every season. I can't wait to see how it'll end.

Rating: 9 out of 10 

My Review of The Dreadful (2026)

 

Written And Directed by Natasha Kermani

Morwen (to Anne) "They will pull you down to Hell."

In the last few days I've watched three horror films released this year and this would be the third one, so to speak. I guess I fancied something medieval with two former Game Of Thrones actors in the mix.

Those actors of being Sophie Turner and Kit Harington. Once pon a time, they were sort of half siblings on the show that launched their respective careers. In this movie, they're more than that and oh god, the chemistry isn't there.

I mean it's not unusual to see actors go from playing relatives in one production to playing lovers in another and there's been enough distance since Game Of Thrones ended. Unfortunately, they just don't have an ounce of chemistry.

Needless to say that's a bad thing because this movie needed then to be convincing as an ill suited couple and they just dont have what it takes. I don't know which one of them might be miscast here. Maybe both. Maybe Kit Harington should have been cast as a different character or the romance between Anne and Jago should've been scrapped altogether.

In flashbacks, both Anne and Jago were childhood friends along with Anne's husband, Seamus (Laurence O'Fuarain). Then Jago and Seamus went off to war and Anne was under the control of her domineering mother in law, Morwen (Marcia Gay Harden). The latter seemed to enjoy constantly gaslighting Anne, including dragging into murdering people in order to scrape by.

Needless to say Anne got caught between both Morwen and Jago trying to control her as well as a supernatural killer Knight with a cursed helmet. Throw in corruption, betrayal and asserting agency, this movie ended on a rather ambiguous note for Anne. 

- Sophie Turner was a producer for this movie and Jonathan Howard appeared as the doomed Brother Pentos.

- Jago killed Seamus when the latter went mad during the war but it seemed like he did just to get Anne.

- Both Sophie Turner and Kit Harington talked about much they didn't like playing a couple and it absolutely reflected in their performances.

- Chronology: Medieval times, during the War of the Roses.

It's tempting to say that The Dreadful lived up to its title because it's not a good horror film whatsoever. Casting two actors with no romantic chemistry what so ever didn't help and the ideas are largely undercooked. It's very disappointing.

Rating: 5 out of 10 

My Review of Twisted (2026)

 

Written by Jonathan Bernstein And James Greer

Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman 

Robert: "I'm a surgeon. God plays to me."

If you read my blog posts and you're a Doctor Who fan and I said the word Mindwarp, it may give you a clue as to what the general concept of this movie might be. I mean there are likely better comparisons I should make but right now, it's the one springing to mind the movie.

Anyways, you've got Lauren LaVera, who thanks to the Terrifier franchise has managed to solidify herself as a modern day Scream Queen. In this movie she's a reasonably charismatic con woman named Paloma Joia. Along with her friend/girlfriend Smith (Mia Healey), the two of them have a sweet operation scamming tenants.

It was a sweet operation until Paloma (pretending to be Marnie) set her sights on a doctor named Robert Kezian (Djimon Hounsou). Trying to scam him went spectacularly wrong when he saved her from a would be attacker. Let's say that Robert's bedside manner could do with a lot of work.

On a serious, Paloma realised to her absolute horror that Robert was keeping her prison with the rather brain damaged Lenny (Renes Rivera) effectively guarding her. It turned out that Robert's wife, Rebecca (Alicia Witt) needed a healthy brain. Unfortunately, that wasn't good news for Paloma.

We got to see Paloma's attacker with Smith's brain inside him before it went wrong and Paloma's hope of rescue with Robert's co-worker Bradshaw (Neal McDonough) were a no go when Robert killed the latter for being opposed to the brain transfer idea.

Throw in two rather ineffective detectives with Crase (Jacob Lukas Anderson) and Warricker (Gina Philips) and Paloma was basically doomed. Robert essentially got what he wanted but he didn't live long to enjoy it. 

- Paloma went through names and wigs during the course of the movie before her head was shaved. Her family died in a car crash three years ago.

- There was a few literary allusions, including a timely reference to Wuthering Heights.

- Standout music: Sylvia Massey's American Dream.

- Chronology: Present day New York City. I did like Robert's Brownstone place.

Twisted (2026) had a good premise and there are undoubtedly solid performances from both Lauren LaVera and Djimon Hounsou. That's the good bit but it's also a movie with an intriguing premise let down by sloppy execution and dull direction at times.

Rating: 5 out of 10 

My Review of Scream 7 (2026)

 

Written by Kevin Williamson And Guy Busick And James Vanderbilt

Directed by Kevin Williamson 

Sidney (to Jessica): "Past my prime? Fuck you!"

I promised myself that when I'd get around to both seeing and reviewing this movie that I was going to be fair and objective with it. I wasn't going to mindlessly bash it or praise it out of my love towards the franchise. I will say one thing though - Spyglass/Paramount your treatment of cast members certainly deserves all the criticism in the world and you should be ashamed of yourselves.

The movie itself decided to go a little nostalgic at the beginning. The home of Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) was now a tourist attraction. This was a way to introduce Stab fan Scott (Jimmy Tatro) and girlfriend, Madison (Michelle Randolph) into the mix. They also made up the opening kills with the latter getting the sort of death that she didn't want to happen to her. 

That's your lot for Woodsboro because the rest of the movie took place in Pine Grove. Sidney Prescott-Evans (Neve Campbell) ran The Little Latte cafe, was married to a cop named Mark (Joel McHale) and was struggling to connect with her oldest daughter, Tatum (Isabel May). Tatum wanting to know more about her mother's past was a source of contention for Sidney. You'd think by now Sidney would realise that she can't avoid her past.

In fact this movie kind of drove that point home. Ghostface rocked up in Pine Grove and began to make the usual threats to Sidney. Soon enough, Tatum's friend circle were dropping like flies. The likes of Hannah Turman (McKenna Grace), Chloe Parker (Celeste O'Connor), Lucas Bowden (Asa Germann) and even boyfriend Ben Brown (Sam Rechner) were all subjected to a variety of gruesome deaths but had little characterisation before meeting their ends.

As a friendship circle, they're disappointing in the sense that they're not fleshed out particularly well. Tatum herself fared better but being the daughter of Sidney and Mark, she kind of had to, didn't she? I do think Isabel May did well with the material that she's given and by the end of the movie, Tatum had a better understanding of who her mother really was.

In terms of returning faces, I actually really liked how Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) was used in this movie overall. This was a Gale that was going back to her roots and had taken on both Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding) as her interns. The twins in particular were utilised rather well and I liked their scenes with Tatum and the latter's friends.

I also loved the examination into Sidney and Gale's complicated relationship and that after thirty years, Gale got to interview Sidney on live television, courtesy of Robbie Rogers (Mark Consuelos). There was something cathartic in that moment with bits of the old Gale resurfacing as both her and Sidney mused the possibility of Stu being alive. Spoiler: he's still dead.

Now, the Ghostface part of this movie would be where a lot of the criticism would be justified. There's Lucas's mother, Jessica (Anna Camp). She was a disillusioned Sidney fangirl who wanted to make Tatum into the new Sidney. Her motive wasn't that outlandish and I think Anna Camp played the reveal part pretty well. Saying that, we've had better female Ghostfaces and that almost included the previous one.

The other two Ghostfaces are almost not worth mentioning because they felt so irrelevant to the plot and had no personal connection to anyone. There was mental patient/serial attacker Karl Gibbs (Kraig Dane) and mental asylum employee Marco Davis (Ethan Embry). The movie did nothing to flesh them out and I was happy to see them out of the way. I honestly think it should've just been Jessica doing everything. It would've worked better overall. 

- Sidney's younger daughters, Emma and Rebecca briefly appear but were staying with Mark's mother in Denver.

- Every single Scream movie got a shout-out, including AI cameos from Dewey Riley (David Arquette), Nancy Loomis (Laurie Metcalf) and Roman Bridger (Scott Foley). Jessica was also a big fan of Sidney's Out Of Darkness book and Tatum wore Sidney's leather jacket from the second movie.

- Between movies, Gale lost her morning TV show with a pointed reference to her contract not being renewed. Mindy also wanted to usurp Gale and wasn't shy about it either.

- There's references to some Wes Craven movies, the Halloween franchise (yet again) and in fitting timing, Wuthering Heights.

- Standout music: Wouldn't be this franchise without the use of Red Right Hand. Oh and there's Ice Nine Kills and McKenna Grace's Twisting The Knife.

- Chronology: Began in Woodsboro, was mostly in Pine Grove and took place thirty years after the original movie.

Scream 7 in my opinion doesn't deserve the review bombing it's currently getting. In no universe would I consider this to be a bad movie, even in this franchise alone. At worst/best/take your pick, it's mostly decent with some nice Easter Eggs, some much needed character moments but it's also slightly letdown by a weak third act/Ghostface choices and not doing anything too meaningful with it's commentary on AI and Deep Fakes. I imagine when the heat dies down, it'll be reassessed more favourably as a movie.

Rating: 7 out of 10