Fintan Connolly - Recognition

Recognition

Ciaran Carty in the Sunday Tribune said “What’s exciting about this new crop of directors is that they’ve broken away from the preoccupation with theory and ideology that for so long bedeviled Irish independent film-making. They’re not interested in using movies as part of an argument about the nature of Irish identity: instead they show Irish life as it is – or was – and let the audience make what they like of it. Their movies are movies, not statements or messages.” Michael Dwyer in the Irish Times described the film as “a lean, tightly coiled contemporary drama resourcefully achieved on a remarkably low budget.” John Daly in The Examiner stated “It is a stroll through a sleazy, sexy modern Dublin where danger and romance dance a back-street tango a mighty long way from any Bord Failte advert.” This theme was continued by another reviewer “This is a radical departure from the drab facades which featured in Family and The Commitments, and marks an acknowledgement on the part of a new breed of filmmakers that Dublin council-housing, tower-block, urban-cowboy image has become as much a Bord Failte stereotype as John Hinde’s picture-postcard turf-cutters of the 1960’s”.

Pete Walsh, programmer at the Irish Film Institute wrote “Connolly’s impressive first feature makes a welcome addition to the relatively small band of truly independent low-budget Irish films. Written by Connolly himself, and developed with producer Fiona Bergin, the finished work has a genuinely “indie” feel and a strong sense of its makers’ commitment to a vision. That vision included making Dublin a virtual character in the drama, and few films have made more expressive use of city locations. Add a mesmerising performance from David Murray, a terrific score by Niall Byrne and genuinely atmospheric photography by Owen McPolin, and Flick emerges as something of a triumph for local filmmaking.”

The Sunday Times referred to the films Flick and Trouble with Sex as "Irish noir fiction", saying "Fintan Connolly’s movies Flick and Trouble with Sex depict a thoroughly noir-looking Dublin full of moody shadows and drenched in blue light, but there is no corresponding heart of darkness in the plot." In The Irish Times Donald Clarke wrote “Featuring gloriously chocolaty photography by the always-terrific Owen McPolin, Trouble With Sex presents the capital city as a glass space-station populated by sleek achievers who keep their supernaturally crisp underwear on while rutting in various semi-public places. After being dumped by a boyfriend oikish enough to own golf clubs, a well-dressed lawyer (Renée Weldon) takes up with an enigmatic barman played by Aidan Gillen. Connolly, whose 2000 movie Flick demonstrated considerable flair, creates an impressively dreamy atmosphere." Another reviewer said "The film vacillates between modes of melodrama and avant-gardism, unsure what kind of film it is."

Yvonne Hogan in Irish Independent stated “There is a palpable chemistry between the two leads that make the viewer care about whether or not they get together. Weldon has a raw, gutsy screen quality and it is always great to see Gillen in an Irish production. The ennui of single thirty somethings in the newly wealthy Ireland is a field ripe for cinematic interrogation and Connolly is to be commended for grappling with it.”