Padaí Ó Maolchalann

Irish, autistic, trans non-binary. Pro-Palestine, communist. Surrounded by the enemy! Current bylines at and

[Padaí Ó Maolchalann @screenonscreen]

Manuela Martelli's The Meltdown is mysterious, but the mystery itself is mid. Me for @InRO at #LFF https://t.co/djoyqVmdbj

[Padaí Ó Maolchalann @screenonscreen]

Hanabi (Vaz): Evocative and beautifully filmed. Vaz identifies that we don't experience movies on the screen, but in our minds, but I wish she'd given our minds more to work with here - the material is too wayward, frequently lacking purpose and power. 5/10 #LFF

[Padaí Ó Maolchalann @screenonscreen]

Clio Barnard's I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning is just another kitchen sink soap opera. Me for @InRO at #LFF https://t.co/5ziyGYNOK8

[Padaí Ó Maolchalann @screenonscreen]

Bathory returns for blood, and Ottinger returns for a camp delight! Me for @InRO on The Blood Countess at #LFF https://t.co/V7LcwfahAt

[Padaí Ó Maolchalann @screenonscreen]

A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra (Lentzou): A whimsical drift through ephemeral beauty and laboured poignancy. I like my movies with a bit more meat on their bones than this. 3/10 #LFF

[Padaí Ó Maolchalann @screenonscreen]

Passion is subsumed into stricture in Aung Phyoe's graceful, if underwhelming, Fruit Gathering. Me for @InRO at #LFF https://t.co/EHS3qHkxIb

[Padaí Ó Maolchalann @screenonscreen]

Club Kid (Firstman): No amount of gay party lingo (often resembling a Party Kid 101 class) can disguise the clichés, though Firstman resists the plot's conservative tendencies, and he has a solid handle on drama, comedy, and accuracy - the vibes are mostly right. 6/10 #LFF

[Padaí Ó Maolchalann @screenonscreen]

Minotaur (Zvyagintsev): The ego's desperate grasp for control when control is imposed upon it. Good use of Zvyagintsev's eye for detail and wry sense of dark humour - the clean-up sequence is terrific. Glib political commentary and mundane character drama though as per. 6/10 #LFF

[Padaí Ó Maolchalann @screenonscreen]

Tender Loving Care (Leigh): When Leigh trains his focus here, it's as powerful as anything he's done before. When he doesn't, it's mannered and overly broad - his slice-of-life style has never been so unlifelike. A career low. 5/10 #LFF

[Padaí Ó Maolchalann @screenonscreen]

A Long Winter (Haigh): Midway between restraint (Haigh's best quality) and forced poignancy (his worst), leaning toward the former in its refusal to wrap up its emotional threads too cosily. Has a surprising, disarming cumulative power. 7/10 #LFF

[Padaí Ó Maolchalann @screenonscreen]

Rebellion (Fero, Mehmood): Rhetorically persuasive, but formally sloppy and narratively lopsided. Gets by on passion alone. 5/10 #LFF

[Padaí Ó Maolchalann @screenonscreen]

Shahrbanoo Sadat's No Good Men is no good movie. Me for @InRO at #LFF https://t.co/VVCZfXINUQ

[Padaí Ó Maolchalann @screenonscreen]

A Good Little Soldier (Brizé): A convincing plea for compassion, and Brizé remains astute to the nuances of human interaction. But the movie has only one point to make, and it makes it constantly and with zero subtlety. 5/10 #LFF

[Padaí Ó Maolchalann @screenonscreen]

Everytime (Wollner): A ripple of mystery that gradually becomes a great wave. Arresting in its treatment of perception and perspective, but as a meditation on grief it has little original to comment. 7/10 #LFF

[Padaí Ó Maolchalann @screenonscreen]

What use are human beings in the future we've destroyed? Me for @InRO on Leonardo Pirondi's Tropical Fractals at #LFF https://t.co/XPjpRAiQYU

[Padaí Ó Maolchalann @screenonscreen]

The Unknown (Harari): Protean and confounding. An existential drama in the vague guise of an erotic thriller - that guise dissipates as swiftly as any other assumptions you might infer. Identity as seen from within and without. Questions that have no answer. 9/10 #LFF

[Padaí Ó Maolchalann @screenonscreen]

Woman Unknown (el-Toukhy): Austere cinema directs the viewer's gaze beneath the surface, but el-Toukhy dredges all her protagonist's secrets up, so this is much too obvious. Commits to its scheme, but the scheme itself is flawed. 5/10 #LFF

[Padaí Ó Maolchalann @screenonscreen]

I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning (Barnard): Saved from being soap opera slop by excellent performances, but then some soap operas have that. Gritty realism without either grit or realism. 4/10 #LFF

[Padaí Ó Maolchalann @screenonscreen]

Being Heumann (Heder): Ironic (and insulting) that a movie about radical disabled people has to hold the audience's hand every step of the way. Cut the sex and swearing and this would be indistinguishable from a Disney Channel movie. 3/10 #LFF

[Padaí Ó Maolchalann @screenonscreen]

Atlantic Rhapsody (Zhong): Identity refracted through absurdity. Frequently compelling in its curiousness, often amusing, sometimes distancing in its lack of clarity. 6/10 #LFF