Reviews of current movies, games, music and books.
This is one of my favourite tracks from the album ‘Torches’ and they’ve made a genuinely funny video to match a brilliant song. Highly recommend picking up the album if you haven’t already.
I saw Werner Herzog’s “Into the Abyss: A Tale of Death, A Tale of Life” this evening in the IFI. I’d heard good things from friends and tonight was the last screening so I didn’t want to miss it. Herzog has crafted a brilliant documentary about two men convicted of a triple homicide in Texas. Michael Perry received a death sentence for the crime, and Jason Burkett received a life sentence. The film focuses on the two convicts and various people affected by the crime. It’s balanced, affecting and never judgmental. Highly recommended.
I’m not exactly an expert when it comes to jazz music but I know the sound of a good festival and the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival (28th-31st October 2011) is shaping up to be just that. The opening act is none other than Damon Albarn, along with his band, Another Honest John’s Chop-Up, a collective of musicians who take inspiration from jazz funk and southern soul.
The Kyle Eastwood Quintet is another outstanding act who will be performing. Son of actor/director Clint Eastwood, Kyle has made a name for himself on the jazz scene, releasing eight albums and composing numerous scores for his father’s films including Gran Torino and Million Dollar Baby.
Other noteworthy acts on the schedule include; Randy Brecker, the acclaimed trumpet player, Tia Fuller, the saxophonist, who not only has her own highly successful band but also plays alongside Beyoncé and Richard Galliano, the renowned accordionist. Galliano’s performance at the festival will be inspired by the work of Coppola and the music from The Godfather.
I hope to be down at some point over the weekend. Tickets are on sale at ticketmaster.ie now.
I really enjoyed ‘Man on Wire‘ (directed by James Marsh), which documented Philippe Petit’s daring, but illegal, high-wire routine performed between New York City’s World Trade Center’s twin towers in 1974. Marsh’s new film, Project Nim, is released in Ireland on August 12th and tells the story of a chimpanzee taken from its mother at birth and raised like a human child by a family in a brownstone on the upper West Side in the 1970s. The trailer looks really good so I’ve got high hopes.
