.
Our movie guy, James Finnegan, looks at what’s playing in Tralee Omniplex this week…
Three very different offerings on show this week at Tralee Omniplex including science fiction (I hope!), a romantic comedy musical and a wonderful Irish made true life documentary that tells a great human story.
Street Leagues is the documentary and, like the best of these, makes you think and truly appreciate your blessings.
I must admit to a personal bias towards the Street League program. It was set up by Sean Kavanagh back in 2003, who set up a small sided soccer league to help give a structure and purpose through sport to those who have faced the most difficult of personal circumstances.
Continued below…
.
He eventually brought a team of homeless guys to represent Ireland in the inaugural Homeless World Cup in Austria.
This film shows the campaign in the 2017 Homeless World Cup in Oslo, which included a Women’s team for the first time.
Street Leagues.
It gives some background to the personal struggles of those involved, and how this involvement has helped them get their lives back on track. As Sean says “a ball can change a life”.
Written and Directed by Daniel Holmes, and including contributions from Colin Farrell in his capacity as Street Leagues Ambassador, which I assure you is not just a token commitment, I strongly urge you to see this life-affirming and uplifting documentary, because there but for the Grace of God go any of us.
La La Land is a romantic comedy musical that follows the “will they, won’t they” storyline so beloved of this type of film.
Emma Stone plays aspiring actress Mia in a Best Actress Oscar-winning role. She meets jazz pianist Sebastian, who insists on playing his style of music no matter what the boss requires.
The story then follows the usual boy meets girl, boy loses girl, they get back together and from then on you will have to watch for yourself to see how it ends.
All this is done around the best of LA (Los Angeles rather than Lower Accrington) locations from the Warner Brothers back lot to the Griffith Observatory.
Winning multiple awards for performance, cinematography, writing and direction, it is the film that almost won the Oscar for Best Picture…until they realised the wrong envelope had been opened at the 2016 ceremony (Moonlight won).
The Matrix tells us that what we perceive of as reality is just a simulation, created by sentient machines who use humanity as an energy source. However, a computer hacker, Thomas Anderson, also known as Neo, begins to suspect the truth.
Neo, in what is perhaps Keanu Reeves signature role, is recruited by Trinity (Carrie Anne Moss) who directs him to Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne) who has the answers to his questions. Naturally the Matrix also has operatives chasing Neo, in the multiple forms of Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving).
Written and Directed by the Wachowskis Siblings, this is superior adult science fiction with eye popping stunts and fight scenes. Enjoy and stay safe!
