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The Last Rifleman is one of those films from a genre I have often described as “a movie.” It was made for that lazy Sunday afternoon that makes you appreciate what you have or long for what you don’t. This British war drama, which Sky Films has finally dusted off, is now allowing the rest of the world to see it. This is welcomed because The Last Rifleman is a good genre picture.

That’s because Terry Loane’s (In the Land of Saints and Sinners) The Last Rifleman has a bevy of quality messaging that also happens to be highly entertaining. Along with a touching central performance from a well-known movie star and some cameos from the late John Amos in his last film role, it’s a movie experience that is funny, moving, and, above all else, satisfying.

Pierce Brosnan and Samuel Bottomley star in The Last Rifleman...

That the mother-son film movie remains, for some reason, the least-covered quadrant when it comes to parent-child relationships on screen may say something about patriarchal bias in the industry — though the best examples say plenty themselves about how men are raised and made. A modestly framed domestic comedy with surprising reserves of wisdom and sadness, Darren Thornton’s thoroughly disarming sophomore feature “Four Mothers” earns itself a place in the mother-son pantheon only a few minutes in, as mild-mannered writer Edward (James McArdle) helps his disabled mother Alma (Fionnula Flanagan) select and put on an outfit for the day, drily hamming up the routine to distract from the pain of her dependency. A simple scene of reversed care roles, it’s nonetheless rare in its everyday tenderness, and sets the tone for a film packed with similarly lovely, unforced observations.

A world premiere at the London Film Festival, where it played in the main competition,...

Every week there are large numbers of indie and specialty releases vying for attention. It’s impossible to do them all, so when the option of reviewing Nowhere Special was placed in front of me I resisted at first after discovering it actually premiered at the 2020 Venice Film Festival. That’s right, four years ago. I had to wonder what could possibly be good about a film delayed for that long in terms of getting a U.S. release date? Finally caving in to the persistent requests by the distributor and its passionate PR team, I decided to check it out.

What I discovered was not that this was some sort of troubled film, not even close. Instead I found a spare but moving drama, powered by a remarkable lead performance, that is all about life and death and all things in between. At its heart it is also an...

"He's chasing me right now!" Well Go USA has re-released their official trailer for the US premiere of the Irish revenge thriller Bad Day for the Cut, which originally premiered years ago at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival playing in the Midnight section. Even with a small release back then it has been lost in time, but Well Go has officially released it on VOD and Blu-ray in the US for anyone interested in catching up with it. A middle-aged Irish farmer, who still lives at home with his mother, sets off on a mission of revenge when his mother is murdered. The indie film stars Nigel O'Neill, Susan Lynch, Józef Pawłowski, Stella McCusker, and Stuart Graham. Reviews out of the festivals years ago say that this is "a taut vengeance thriller that doesn't completely come together as one would hope but has enough solid entertainment value, well-directed visuals, and nasty...

The Paris-based sales company has a hefty slate for AFM.

Paris-based mk2 Films is kicking off sales on Darren Thornton’s Ireland-set comedy-drama Four Mothers at the AFM this week.

The title is an Irish twist on Gianni Di Gregorio’s 2008 Italian hit Mid-August Lunch that won several awards including the Luigi De Laurentiis prize when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Thornton, whose previous credits include RTÉ comedy-drama series Love Is The Drug and his debut feature A Date For Mad Mary, penned the script with his brother Colin Thornton who also co-wrote the script for A Date For Mad Mary.

Exclusive: James McArdle (Mare Of Easttown) and Fionnula Flanagan (The Others) have been set to lead the ensemble cast of Four Mothers, an Irish-set adaptation of Gianni di Gregorio’s 2008 festival and box office hit Mid-August Lunch (Pranzo Di Ferragosto).

Filming is underway in Dublin on the comedy feature which heralds from Ida producer Eric Abraham and former Working Title exec Jack Sidey’s Portobello Films and Television (Moffie) and Martina Niland for Port Pictures (Sing Street).

Dearbhla Molloy (Wild Mountain Thyme), Paddy Glynn (Cinderella) and Stella McCusker (Nowhere Special) also star.

Darren Thornton directs and co-wrote the script with his brother, Colin Thornton. They previously collaborated on their IFTA-winning debut A Date For Mad Mary.

Olivier-award nominee McArdle plays a self-sabotaging novelist, saddled with caring for his mother (Flanagan) after a stroke. After his book becomes an overnight hit, his plans for a U.S. promotional tour are thrown...

Stars: Nigel O’Neill, Susan Lynch, Józef Pawlowski, Stuart Graham, David Pearse, Anna Próchniak, Stella McCusker, Ian McElhinney, Brian Milligan, Shashi Rami, Lalor Roddy, Ryan McParland | Written by Chris Baugh, Brendan Mullin | Directed by Chris Baugh

Northern Ireland is pretty well known for having its fair share of “troubles” and as such makes for a pretty bleak backdrop to a dark, twisted and, at times, awkwardly funny tale of revenge, a camper van road trip, suicide and the murder of a mans mother… First rule of being a baddie, don’t mess with another guys mother, especially the quiet farmer type.

Donal (Nigel O’Neill) is a quiet lonesome farmer still living at home in a quiet Irish village with his mother (yes, his mother) Florence (Stella McCusker) . Donal spends his days fixing up the farm and drinking himself to sleep. When we meet him the only real thing he...

Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.

– Kino Lorber has acquired the North American rights to Bill Morrison’s “Dawson City: Frozen Time,” about the true history of a collection of 533 reels of film (representing 372 titles) dating from the 1910s to 1920s, which were lost for over 50 years until being discovered buried in a sub-arctic swimming pool deep in the Yukon Territory. The film tells the unique history of a Canadian gold rush town and how cinema, capitalism and history intersect.

“Dawson City” had its world premiere at the 73rd Venice Film Festival and North American premiere at 2016 New York Film Festival. The film also played at the BFI/London Film Festival and the 2017 Rotterdam International Film Festival, and screened Thursday at the TCM...

“This is the third person I’ve buried this week.”

Violence begets violence. It’s a lesson we all (or most of us, at least) learn early on, and it’s a lesson firmly driven home by co-writer/director Chris Baugh in Bad Day for the Cut. His Irish gangster thriller pits an unassuming farmer against the ruthless members of a slick crime syndicate, and the results are both explosive and heartbreaking.

In Bad Day for the Cut, we meet Donal (Nigel O’Neill), a middle-aged man who lives at home with his mom, Florence (Stella McCusker), on their remote farm in the Irish countryside. He spends his free time fixing cars or drinking at the local pub, with nothing remotely out of the ordinary ever really happening in his quietly mundane existence. But one night, Donal discovers his mother brutally murdered in their home, and he sees a mysterious...

The Sundance Film Festival premieres numerous films in and out of competition across many different sections — U.S. Dramatic, World Documentary, Next, etc. — but the one section that features films that defy convenient genre trappings is the Midnight section. This year, the Midnight section will feature new work from Annie Clark (a.k.a St. Vincent), Jeff Baena and the first feature-length film from Chris Baugh entitled “Bad Day for the Cut.”

Read More: 10 Surprises and Hidden Gems from the 2017 Sundance Lineup

The film follows Donal (Nigel O’Neill), a quiet, content farmer who still lives at home in a little Irish village with his mother Florence (Stella McCusker). But when Florence is killed in an apparent home invasion, Donal sets off for Belfast looking to avenge her death and discovers a secret for revenge about his mother that will shake him to his core. The film co-stars Susan Lynch...

Stars: Lauryn Canny, Eva Birthistle, David Murray, Levi O’Sullivan, Justine Mitchell, David Herlihy, Declan Conlon, Emily Nagle, Stella McCusker, Shauna Griffith | Created by Rob Crawley, Paul Duane

If there is one type of television show we’ve got a lot of right now it’s the drama. While mostly concentrating on murder and politics there are some though that look to hit a much more emotional nerve by using the subject of children. Amber is one of the latest to use children as the subject using the theme of abduction.

When fourteen year old Amber Bailey disappears her family are left in turmoil. As they search for her at her friends they find she lied about visiting there and with no sign of her return it’s left to the police and pleas to the public for any news on where she could be. As the days go by...