Irish Film Institute -REVIEW ROUNDUP: APOLLO 11, METAL HEART, IN FABRIC, SUPPORT THE GIRLS

REVIEW ROUNDUP: APOLLO 11, METAL HEART, IN FABRIC, SUPPORT THE GIRLS

We have four shiny new releases at the IFI on Friday June 28th 2019: spectacular moon landing doc Apollo 11, Irish comedy/drama Metal Heart, the zany In Fabric from Peter Strickland and acclaimed drama Support the Girls starring Regina Hall.

Read on for a selection of review or pop in to make up your own mind!

APOLLO 11
“The film plays like one deep breath nervously exhaled. It’s also eye-wateringly beautiful to behold.” 5/5 – Irish Times

“Dispensing with talking heads and retrospective context, Todd Douglas Miller’s film uses digitally scanned archive footage of the launch, the flight, the moonwalk and the watching technicians below to illustrate what a breathtaking achievement Apollo 11 was.”
4/5 – Irish Independent

“A riveting and awe-inspiring tribute to one of mankind’s great achievements.”
4/5 – Little White Lies

“The NASA mission at the heart of the must-see documentary Apollo 11 reminds you what it feels to be truly awestruck”
Entertainment Weekly

“As an act of film restoration and preservation, Apollo 11 is a marvel.”
Vanity Fair

“This doesn’t just feel like a movie. It gives you the sensation that you’ve been transported right into the middle of history.”
5/5 – Rolling Stone

“Apollo 11 will bring you to tears — it’s a reminder of national functionality, of making the big dream happen without ego or divisiveness.”
5/5 – Time Out

“Much of the footage in Apollo 11 is, by virtue of both access and proper preservation, utterly breathtaking.”
Hollywood Reporter

 

METAL HEART
“Metal Heart is so stuffed with good dialogue spoken by good actors that the familiarity hardly matters”
4/5 – Irish Times

“It’s an easy watch, well cast and acted”
3/5 – RTÉ

“With a light touch and a knowing regard, O’Conor manages to avoid the genre’s most egregious cliches and simplistic life lessons, instead focusing on the sisters’ often amusing rivalry and their ultimately unshakable familial bond.”
Hollywood Reporter

“This coming-of-age film delivers plenty of sweet sentiments about sisterhood, kinship, and honesty, though the package that surrounds it isn’t as unique as one would hope.”
Variety

“It bounces over a boggy third-act thanks to a breakthrough performance from Jordanne Jones as the Goth-leaning sibling Emma.”
Screen International

IN FABRIC
“A fabulous, spooky thing”
4/5 – Irish Times

“It’s a bit like an x-rated Tales of the Unexpected episode, or an epic video art installation, and an absolute delight to watch.”
4/5 – Irish Independent

“It is a deadpan-bizarre spectacle with stabs of electronic music on the soundtrack and could have been shot decades ago, forgotten, and then revived on the Talking Pictures TV channel.”
4/5 – Guardian

“A raucous, full-tilt descent into bishop-sleeved madness.”
Little White Lies

“A movie of ravishing colors and textures that ultimately elevates style and sensuality into something genuinely meaningful.”
LA Times

“As funny and beautiful and troubling as anything I have seen this year.”
5/5 – Telegraph

SUPPORT THE GIRLS
“Deep, thoughtful characterisation, right down to the smallest role, make for something richer than nervous energy. The dialogue is authentic and often hilarious”
5/5 – Irish Times

“Support the Girls is a shrewdly observed, day-in-the-life-style portrait of a woman under pressure. It’s way too early to be thinking about awards season, but Regina Hall could be in line for some silverware.”
4/5 – Guardian

“A neorealist take on our capitalist times, reaffirming the essential need for camaraderie every day of the working week.”
5/5 – Little White Lies

“The unlikely, bittersweet, bristling comedy Support the Girls is easily one of the best films of the year, and the most sympathetic to women.”
Wall Street Journal

“The sharp-elbowed humor is laced with aching tenderness, tightrope-tense frustrations over money and love, and an underlying mix of social pathologies that bubbles through the show-biz surfaces…”
New Yorker

“Hall’s performance – tender, tough, empathetic, controlled – crumples from tears to laughter in a blink. It’s phenomenal.”
Variety


The IFI is supported
by The Arts Council

Arts Council of Ireland