Irish writer-director John Michael McDonagh won much love in these pages with his debut feature The Guard, an odd couple action comedy that got enormous mileage out of the casting of Brendan Gleeson as a politically incorrect small town cop.
It has been known for some time that Gleeson and McDonagh would be reuniting for McDonagh's sophomore effort Calvary - in which Gleeson will play a priest put upon by the members of his parish. Which means that Gleeson will be the straight man this time out but we didn't yet know who would be playing his parishioners.
Well, here they are:
Chris O'Dowd (Bridesmaids, The IT Crowd), Aidan Gillen (Game Of Thrones), Kelly Reilly (Sherlock Holmes), Isaach de Bankole (24) and David Wilmot (The Guard) have all signed on in support roles. O'Dowd is the obvious reason to celebrate here as despite his somewhat low profile outside of Ireland and the UK he is one seriously funny man.
Calvary begins production in September.
It has been known for some time that Gleeson and McDonagh would be reuniting for McDonagh's sophomore effort Calvary - in which Gleeson will play a priest put upon by the members of his parish. Which means that Gleeson will be the straight man this time out but we didn't yet know who would be playing his parishioners.
Well, here they are:
Chris O'Dowd (Bridesmaids, The IT Crowd), Aidan Gillen (Game Of Thrones), Kelly Reilly (Sherlock Holmes), Isaach de Bankole (24) and David Wilmot (The Guard) have all signed on in support roles. O'Dowd is the obvious reason to celebrate here as despite his somewhat low profile outside of Ireland and the UK he is one seriously funny man.
Calvary begins production in September.
I'm curious what info you have about The Guard. The casting of O'Dowd immediately brings comedy to mind, and wikipedia lists it as a "dark comedy drama", but thefilmstage.com (linked by imdb) quotes it as being a "serious and dramatic narrative" and the Reprisal Films website calls it a "dark drama about a good priest tormented by various members of his community", though they have an accompanying video of a Q&A and when he says what it's about there are laughs from the audience and maybe a smile on his face.
I loved The Guard and am glad John's not taking his time making his next flick like his damn brother is, but I'd really like to get some concrete idea of what it will be.
Hello Todd Brown (and Garth).
This is a good opportunity for me to clarify a few things:
The film is a blackly comic drama, but the humour here is Bunuelian: anarchic, dark and lacerating.
Other websites have mistakenly described the plot as revolving around "a priest who becomes a pariah in his parish after being involved in an abuse scandal". In fact, the reverse is true. Everyone knows that the priest is a good man, but this still does not prevent his community from tormenting him. Hence the Bunuelian comedy.
Imdb has the most succinct and accurate synopsis: "After Father James Lavelle is threatened during a confession, the good-natured priest must battle the dark forces closing in around him."
Obviously, the plot is a reference to Hitchcock's I CONFESS, but the style is basically Bresson. With jokes.