A NUMBER OF Irish films have been picking up great reviews and responses at the high-profile Toronto and Venice film festivals.

Isabelle Huppert in Greta

The 2018 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) saw Neil Jordan’s feature Greta have its world premiere, and it went on to score a major sales deal. Neil Jordan said said he was “thrilled that Focus Features have embraced our ‘Greta’ and will let her loose on a wide audience”, adding that “making a film is always a shot in the dark”.

In the film, Frances McCullen (Moretz), a young woman bereaved by her mother’s death, finds a handbag and tries to return it to its rightful owner. She strikes up an unusual friendship with enigmatic widow Greta Hideg (Isabelle Huppert), but Greta’s motives may be more sinister than they appear. Stephen Rea features as a private detective.

Film School Rejects said:

Jordan, whose previous films include Interview With The Vampire and The Crying Game, is skilled when it comes to crafting horror and thriller movies and he manages to subvert a couple of expected tropes, keeping the film engaging until the end despite there being some weak spots along the way.

The Guardian was a bit harsher, saying that the film is “a finely framed skeleton in need of more meat on its bones”.

Other Irish titles at TIFF included Papi Chulo, Rosie and Float Like a Butterfly, which were all supported by Screen Ireland, and which all picked up strong early reviews.

Papi Chulo

John Butler’s (The Stag, Handsome Devil) new film Papi Chulo tells the story of Sean, a lonely and newly single TV weatherman who hires a Latino man to work with him and to be his friend. They have nothing in common but build a friendship – until Sean becomes consumed by a deep and obsessional attraction.

The Hollywood Reporter said of Papi Chulo:

Without hitting any larger agenda too bluntly, Butler’s screenplay also touches on class differences, ethnicity and the role of the Latino immigrant population as an intrinsic part of the fabric of American life, particularly in a sprawling multicultural city like L.A. That gives it timeliness in the current anti-immigration climate.

Variety called it “a scrupulously low-key and unassumingly ingratiating dramedy” which:

makes it clear, without hammering home his point too insistently, that one can intelligently and entertainingly illuminate universal verities about basic human needs by focusing on specific details of place, class, and sexual orientation.

Rosie

Paddy Breathnach’s Rosie – which was written by Roddy Doyle – is about a young family who become homeless. Hollywood Reporter singled out Sarah Greene’s “beautifully modulated performance” and said:

Doyle’s screenplay doesn’t go in for big political grandstanding, to its credit, but it’s hard not to watch this film and wonder why the system is so broken in a country whose economic prosperity has grown exponentially over the last 20 years.

Toronto Now said:

Filmed in long takes with handheld cameras, the movie creates urgency from uncertainty: it’s not the kind of movie where people deliver long monologues about bad luck and overwhelmed social services, because no one has the time.

Screen Daily said:

The naturalistic performances are impressive throughout, with Sarah Greene conveying the pressures on a woman striving to remain positive against all the odds.

Float Like A Butterfly

Of Carmel Winters’ film Float Like a Butterfly – a coming-of-age film about a young female boxer in 1960s Ireland – Now Toronto said:

the stone-faced, determined [Hazel] Doupe and the charismatic, self-destructive Devaney are fascinating to watch as they symbolically – and then literally – spar.

Festival Reviews said:

The result obviously is a solid and satisfying feel-good and entertaining drama.

Chief Executive of Screen Ireland James Hickey said: “It’s great to see such a wide variety of Irish stories being told at the festival and we hope these stories will be picked up and seen by audiences all over the world.”

The Venice Film Festival also took place this week, with Element Pictures’ – the Irish production company behind Room and The Lobster – feature film The Favourite, directed by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (of The Lobster), picking up the prestigious Grand Jury prize and the Volpi Cup for best actress for Olivia Colman.

Irish actress Aisling Franciosi, who starred in The Fall, received great reviews for her performance in the Australian film The Nightingale, which is by Babadook director Jennifer Kent.

The film is set in 1825 Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania), which was a penal colony. Franciosi stars as former convict Clare, who wants to take revenge for a horrifying incident involving her family.

At a press screening of the film, an Italian film critic shouted a sexist comment at the director – he subsequently had his press credentials pulled and an apology was made.

Variety said: “With only terse, mostly practical-minded dialogue between them, Franciosi and Ganambarr’s performances beautifully reflect their characters’ shifting perception of difference”. IndieWire said that Franciosi’s performance is “remarkable”.

Here’s to all the films landing in Irish cinemas soon.