How it’s New York: The film festival largely takes place in downtown Manhattan.
How it’s Irish: It’s not always Irish but it sometimes is! Sinéad O’Connor and Daryl McCormack feature in two of the films covered here.
Second chances abound in the following selection highlights of offerings from Tribeca’s 2022 film festival.
Nothing Compares
Over the course of just six years, Sinead O’Connor went from an international superstar to a pariah. Nothing Compares, directed and partly written by Kathryn Ferguson, tells the story of O’Connor’s life as a musician, mother, and iconoclast in her own words.
This award winning documentary covers the iconoclast’s life with footage from her rise to fame including her numerous appearances on Ireland’s ‘The Late Late Show’ with Gay Byrne, narrated by her present day self. Ahead of her time, O’Connor raged against the then theocracy in Ireland, and the resulting second class status of women (no access to contraception not to mind abortion at the time), and highlighted the abuses of the church as she had first hand experience with the infamous Magdalene laundries, where as a teenager in reform school she was shown women who had lived in the laundries as deterrents. Stories we are all familiar with now but in the 1970’s and 80’s were taboo topics.
She was pilloried for this as well as her protests against US wars in her now infamous refusal to sing the US National Anthem. Her final performance of the time at Madison Square Garden is heartbreaking to watch when the crowd booed her off the stage, before being momentarily rescued when Kris Kristoferson all but cradled her off the stage.
This is a wonderful and timely telling of one Ireland’s feminist forerunners.
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
Emma Thompson shines in this British comedy about the connection between Nancy, a conservative retired teacher, and Leo (Irish actor, Daryl McCormack) a younger man she hires to help awaken her sexually. The two enter into a series of conversations that reawakens them both in ways beyond the physical. Directed by Sophie Hyde and written by Katy Brand.
Heart Valley
Heart Valley follows a day in the life of a shepherd from the small village of Cellan in Wales. Kind and inquisitive, the film looks at the world through Wilf’s eyes, asking questions about what it is we should truly value.
This absolutely gem and festival prize winner, documents Wilf Davies’ solitary and simple approach to living is like watching a meditation on how to live a happy life. He loves his sheep and the land, and is unencumbered with human relationships, but for his weekly trips to Lidl, where he delights in the variety of foods available. It is heartwarming and beautifully shot by director, Christian Cargill.
Jerry and Marge Go Large
In this charming, feel-great comedy inspired by a true story, recent retirees Jerry (Bryan Cranston) and Marge (Annette Bening) discover a new sense of drive (and a whole bunch of money) when they find a legal loophole in the lottery system.
Sinead O’Connor
