This week our resident film critic, George Byrne, reviewed the much anticipated Ex_Machina, Mark Wahlberg's The Gambler and the new Jessica Chastain vehicle, A Most Violent Year.
Byrne gave Ex_Machina four stars, saying that this is a very tight and intelligent three hander which exploits the confines of a single house in order to create a tense and exciting sci fi thriller. The film also stars the increasingly ubiquitous Alicia Vikander, whom we saw in last week's The Testament of Youth.
Byrne expressed a number of infrastructural problems with Wahlberg's The Gambler, not least the fact that Wahlberg himself is not believeble as an English Lit professor. Secondly, while the original, with the great James Caan, was set in New York, this updated version is set in the rather less appropriate Los Angeles. The film concerns a man who has gotten in under his head with a number of debts due to his gambling addiciton.
A Most Violent Year was described by Byrne as a fantastic crime drama, with outstanding performances from leads Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaacs, two actors who have known each other for years having attended Julliard together.
Byrne recommended listeners choose either Ex Machina or A Most Violent Year for their weekend cinema trip.
Tune in next Thursday at 10pm for George Byrne's analysis of the week's best new releases.
