I’ve just heard about the passing of NOW’s longtime film critic John Harkness. I never had the opportunity to meet John, but his reviews have been a staple in the pages of NOW since its inception in 1981. He also contributed articles to Sight and Sound and Take One, as well as writing for the Cinematheque Ontario programme guides. Over the years, I’ve absorbed thousands of his carefully-chosen words and I hope at least a little of his talent has rubbed off. He will be sorely missed by the film community in Toronto and far beyond.
His friend and fellow critic Norm Wilner has a more personal remembrance.
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Critics
I’d read about director Martin McDonagh’s upcoming feature In Bruges a few weeks ago, and was intrigued by the setting (I’ve spend long stretches here on both my backpacking trips around Europe in the late 1980s) and the casting (Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes). Now the trailer is up and I’m convinced this will be a winner.
I’ve never been much of a Colin Farrell fan, but here he gets to play a Dublin hitman sent to a Belgian tourist town after a botched hit. The accents and dialogue are spot-on and the humour in the trailer promises to make this a unique spin on the hitman genre.
By the way, the trailer is hosted on Film in Focus, a new advertorial site from Focus Features that actually features a lot of great content.
In Bruges Trailer
P.S. Martin McDonagh is actually much better-known as a playwright, and I remember seeing his play The Lonesome West back in 2002 and having a very mixed reaction to it.
P.P.S. Watching this trailer brought back memories of another great Irish mob film with Brendan Gleeson called I Went Down. Inexplicably, it’s not available on DVD. It was briefly released in Region 4 (Australia) but is now out of print. Considering that this was the highest-grossing Irish film at the time of its release (1997), its unavailability seems criminal, if you’ll pardon the expression.
UPDATE (January 4, 2008): I’ve just learned that the film will be the Opening Night presentation at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, so we shouldn’t have to wait too long to hear what the reviewers there thought of it.
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belgium,
ireland,
Theatrical Release,
trailers
