April Irish Film Review
b"Patrick Murray Exec Director with a monthly review of Irish Movies. This month: Free Streaming Services: Irish films and shows in free apps Tubi, Film Rise and CBC Gem and the IFI Player which is available all over the world and a link to the IFI Player can be found at www.irishfilmfestivalottawa.ca CBC Gem Moone Boy with Chris O'Dowd set in 1990 Roscommon with his imaginary friend played by Chris O'Dowd. Martin Moone played by David Rawle is the titular lead Chris O'Dowd folks will recognize from the IT Crowd and Bridesmaids Peter McDonald plays his hapless dad. Folks would recognize him from the John Butler comedy The Bachelor Weekend as The Machine, a kind of obnoxious Peter Pan character who is stuck in frosh week even though he's in his 40s, which played at Irish Film Festival Ottawa's first festival back in 2015. If you haven't seen it it's on the free streaming app Film Rise. Tubi TV is full of Irish films I'd love to recommend. John Butler's follow up film Handsome Devil, which also played our festival. That one is a coming of age dramedy about an artisticaly inclined teenager trying to find his way in a private school that values rugby and toxic masuclinity A Date for Mad Mary - starring Seana Kerslake and Tara Lee which is also a dramedy. Seana Kerslake plays Mary who returns from prison to a changed community. Mary is to be her friend's maid of honour and her friend doesn't think she can get a date for the wedding and so Mary accepts that challenge. Along the way she deals with what put her in jail and the way her relationship has changed with her best friend. Also starring Seana is the popular comedic tv series Can't Cope Won't Cope about a mid 20s fund manager grappling with her transition from hard charging party girl in the evening to a career in the financial markets by day and (like A Date for Mad Mary)the growing divide between Seana's character and her best friend. This series is also directed by Cathy Brady who directed Wildfire, which screened at Irish Film Festival Ottawa last year for our online edition. Tara Lee who was in A Date for Mad Mary and a guest of the festival back when we screened it in 2016 stars in The Racer which also screens on Tubi. It's historical fiction based on the time the Tour to France started from Co Wicklow back in 1998. The first time the race ever began outside of France. It also features Game of Thrones star Ian Glen about a racer who is a Domestiques or support rider from Belgium who is facing the end of his career. So he trains at the level of a pro but his job is to lose in order to help his teammate win. Really fascinating human drama that I highly recommend. Floats Like A Butterfly Tubi starring 2022 festival guest Hazel Doupe. Drama about a teen traveller in the 1960s who idolizes Mohammed Ali and fights gender barriers within her family and community. Lastly, for a feel good film I recommend Sing Street. Also playing on Tubi. The 2016 feel good Sundance hit about a teenage boy in 1980s Dublin who forms a band to impress a slightly older girl. The songs are great, if you're of an age where you were around for the 80s, there is a heartwarming nostalgia factor and it's also grounded in some weighty themes surrounding divorce, complicated family and regret that at the same time don't sink the film either in melancholy. It is ultimately an uplifting film."