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FILM Hannah McKennett Shane O’Reilly Rory Kiberd
Jack O’Higgins illustration Sam Geraghty Animals Director: Sophie Hyde Talent: Holliday Grainger and Alia Shawkat Released: 2 August “Sooner or later the party has to end” “Why?” – Jean (Amy Molloy) tries to curb the freewheeling antics of her sister Laura (Holliday Grainger) and her best friend Tyler (Alia Shawkat) in Animals, Sophie Hyde’s study of friendship and life choices set in Dublin. Sex, drugs, and… friendship? This is what has bonded Laura and Tyler together for the past ten years, and it is what they continue to seek – and abuse – throughout Sophie Hyde’s Animals. Set in Dublin, this film is both a meditation on the present moment in a centuries-old city, and a quarter-life coming-of-age story about two women faced with the universal question: Must we grow up? Laura (played graciously by Holliday Grainger) is a 32-year-old woman being challenged by her own morality. We first meet her in the midst of a hangover, each of her limbs tied to bed posts with her own clothing. She selfidentifies as a writer, but has written only ten pages in the past ten years. More accurately, she is a barista that carries a notebook around in the large pockets of her chic charity-shop jackets, always poised to write down a fleeting thought, phrase or worry. Her best friend and flatmate is Tyler (played perfectly by Alia Shawkat), an emphatic American wild child who acts as Laura’s supportive, though destructive, quasi-wife. We first meet her as she answers the calls of a tethered Laura, strolling into the bedroom in only underwear and an open kimono, like a morning-after disco queen. She, too, is in a dead-end job – and hungover. Together, the women love white wine, MDMA, cocaine and sex. Separately, however, Laura wants to get married and move out of their Dublin flat, while Tyler wants a sustained life of polygamy and casual hook-ups. The relationship with Laura’s love interest, a knock-off Jon Snow type (played by Fra Fee), is Gaza Director: Garry Keane, Andrew McConnell Released: 9 August At one point in Garry Keane and Andrew McConnell’s documentary, a lifeguard reflects on the city he has known his entire life, “Everyone knows Gaza is in complete darkness… Like an open prison.” The Gaza Strip has been the victim of a blockade between Israel and Egypt for over ten years now. Its population is trapped, two million people restricted to a 25 by seven-mile area that’s ravaged by unemployment and Israeli air raids. Regardless of your politics, it’s undeniable that Palestinians live under dehumanising conditions. That’s something that Keane and McConnell don’t shy away from. McConnell’s incredible cinematography frames his subjects against the half demolished buildings that many consider home. In one stunning shot, a group of men pray under a tower that has toppled into the front of an apartment block. McConnell’s eye for a telling panoramic is undisputed. But that’s only half the story. Gaza certainly doesn’t romanticise conditions on the strip, but it also strives to put a human face on an area that is often considered a mere warzone. We meet young boys living in refugee camps, taxi drivers, upper-middle class teenagers, paramedics, a rapper. We travel through busy markets, late night parties and busy fishing ports. We learn about the hopes and fears of the Gazan people, take a deep dive into their culture, and see that this city has so much to offer if it is afforded its basic human rights. Unfortunately, Keane and McConnell overstretch themselves with the vignette structure. Gaza is a sprawling doc that struggles to develop its subjects in its relatively brief 92-minute runtime; its attempts to cover everything from Israeli fishing policies to the hijab make Gaza feel like a jack of all trades. Yet despite this, Keane and McConnell are to be commended for making a film of such compassion and surprising warmth. JOH just one of many cracks perforating the women’s curated life of reckless freedom. Laura’s ex-party girl sister has settled down in the suburbs, with a baby on the way, and Tyler has lost her job as a barista, as well as her seemingly estranged father. Thus comes the dwindling end of their Thelma and Louise double feature, pistols ablazing. It isn’t graceful, or tidy, or moralistic; and the characters aren’t either. However, we’re not asked to sympathise with either of the women, only to understand Laura’s helpless desire to make something of herself and Tyler’s desperate plea for everything to stay fun, sparkly and a little bit punk rock. This story, adapted from Emma Jane Unsworth’s novel of the same name, rages against the expected and overused plot points about womanhood, female friendship and modern love. The result is a film that feels raw: relatable, yet gritty and seductive. It also feels perfectly placed in a city that is in constant battle between preserving the old and tearing it down to make room for the new. Dublin’s Georgian houses and classic party venues (Sin É makes an appearance), contrasted with the city’s trendy bridal shops and chic rooftop bars, tell just as much of a story as the internal conflict between the two women. Animals is inviting us into a world that we can’t help but simultaneously yearn for and recoil from; one that is all too familiar, yet ever evolving. In it, we join Laura and Tyler as they stumble through drug deals, careless nights and carnal desire – and then, at the end, we too are faced with the requirement of growing up. HMK JT LeRoy Director: Justin Kelly Talent: Kristen Stewart, Laura Dern, Diane Kruger Released: 16 August In 2005 both the New York Times and Vanity Fair published revelatory articles that the author JT LeRoy of the biographical memoirs Sarah and The Heart is a Deceitful Thing wasn’t who he said he was. In fact, he was a composite of two women; the actual author being Laura Albert and her public persona avatar acted out by Savannah Knoop. At the time, it was one of the most bizarre literary scams, if not the most convoluted. Following the brilliant 2016 documentary on LeRoy, this is director Justin Kelly’s Hollywood retelling. Now, pay attention. Dern plays Albert and Albert plays the mysterious author LeRoy on the phone. Albert also plays LeRoy’s British manager Speedie when she’s out in the real world accompanying the physical LeRoy. Unable or unwilling to deal with her past traumas so openly in the real world, the physical presence of LeRoy was played by Knoop for the press, who is played by Stewart in the movie. Still following me? A story as ludicrous as this needed a more abstract or surreal approach, along the lines of I, Tonya or Josephine Decker’s films. Here the story is played as straightforward as it can be, and the angle doesn’t suit. Instead, the story comes across somewhat slapstick at times. It goes without saying that Dern and Stewart are both capable actresses, with CVs anyone would be jealous of, but Dern alternates between various levels of irritating throughout, in particular, whenever the ridiculous character of Speedie is onscreen. Stewart plays it flat, as she has to, but too flat, for too long. When she’s playing LeRoy, she has to be this stunted, ultra-shy writer and she does this simple task effectively. The problem is that the character of LeRoy is immensely uninteresting and beyond annoying. The story of LeRoy is well documented, so while this is a fresh approach to the story, there’s little in the way of revelation. People new to the whole saga might enjoy the film immensely, or not, I couldn’t tell you, but honestly, I’d just dig out the 2016 documentary and watch that instead. Dern’s Speedie is just too horrible to bear. SOR 76