The Stag (15A)
Filmed in Dublin and Wicklow on a miniscule budget, The Stag has been winning fans at film festivals abroad and has already been picked up for distribution in several countries.
A big crowd-pleaser on closing night at last month’s Dublin Film Festival, the film’s a real audience movie, delivering enough energy and gags to make you forgive its shortcomings.
The tag of being “The Irish Hangover” is not true as the level of debauchery here is relatively tame and the unfolding action more thoughtful. This is a comedy about friendship.
Hugh O’Conor plays Fionan, a not-your-average groom who prefers planning seating arrangements for the wedding than having a stag party.
Concerned he’s turning into a Groomzilla, his fiancée Ruth (Amy Huberman) begs his best friend Davin (Andrew Scott) to organise his friends to take him away for a male bonding weekend.
Aware that lap dancing clubs in Amsterdam are not Fionan’s thing, Davin organises a hiking trip in the Wicklow Mountians.
The trouble is, Ruth wants the boys to bring along her brother, nicknamed The Machine (McDonald) a boorish loudmouth who’s determined they have a weekend to remember.
The Stag has its flaws. The plotline doesn’t always zip along smoothly and it would have been good to see director John Butler bring more of the slapstick, visual sense of comedy from his sketch shows like Your Bad Self to the big screen.
But the many gags that do work bring on the laughs and help paper over the film’s limitations.
Unlike many merely bawdy comedies it goes deeper too, in its depiction of the complications of male friendships, and can be quite tender and emotional in places.
Its committed young cast help carry the film - in particular Scott, whose heartfelt performance is something special. On top of his much-loved portrayal of the devious Moriarty in Sherlock, it’s easy to see why the movie offers are flooding in.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (15A)
Ralph Fiennes delivers a hilarious performance as a smooth-talking concierge in the new Wes Anderson, which is wacky even by Wes Anderson’s standards.
Fiennes’ comedic turn is the best thing about a movie in which there’s a whole lot to like.
The movie centres on his character, Gustave H, a suave and charming concierge at a famous hotel who knows about the needs of all of his favourite residents - including the sexual ones.
Set between the two World Wars, the movie is also told through the eyes of a young lobby boy named Zero (yes, Zero) who looks up to the older man and in entranced by the romance and glamour of the hotel.
Gustave loves to romance the wealthy older women who stay in the hotel and is thrilled when one of his favourites, Madame D (Tilda Swinton) pops her clogs and leaves him a priceless painting, much to the fury of her family.
They try to prevent him from taking the painting - but Gustave hides it, and when it emerges that the circumstances of Madame D’s death are mysterious, he goes on the run with the young lobby boy.
Edward Norton plays the chief of police tasked with chasing him down, while Saoirse Ronan pops up as Agatha, the love interest of the younger man.
It’s slight in story but beautiful to look at and hilariously funny, right up there with Anderson’s best and most joyful films. A joy.
