Donald Clarke

• Avatar Oscars
• October 29, 2009, 17:52

Oscar voters consider the year’s releases. Before anybody else says it, let me clarify that I am aware the Oscars are nothing more than a combination of crap shoot and marketing beano. Look through the records and you will struggle …

• The Simpsons Uncategorized
• October 29, 2009, 01:36

Sod Avatar. The film that is really going to get the Nerdisphere agitated over the next eight months is surely Chris Nolan’s Inception. If you are in any doubt as to the reputation Nolan has for blending mainstream entertainment with …

• 3-D Posters
• October 27, 2009, 23:49

Do I have an improper mind or is there something a little, well, off about this poster for Disney’s upcoming animated version of A Christmas Carol? Maybe Scrooge (who never married, remember) is just excited to be clutching his flying pointy-thing. Quite …

• The Simpsons
• October 25, 2009, 20:17

Marjorie. How could you? I’ve never got on with Lisa Simpson. I don’t watch cartoons — even sophisticated post-modern ones — to be lectured by some self-righteous, faintly pompous bore about the iniquities of capitalism or the insensitivity of the …

• Film of the Week Keith Jarrett London Film Festival
• October 23, 2009, 20:15

I make it up as I go along, you know. Film of the week is Wes Anderson’s agreeably strange version of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox. It’s not all that faithful to the book and it’s maybe a little too …

• Box Office Figures
• October 21, 2009, 22:02

Citizens of the rest of the world contemplate their stupidity. The appalling advance of Rest-of-World stupidity goes on and on. For decades, snooty people in good shoes — the sort of folk that read The Irish Times — have buttressed …

• Shutter Island Trailerspotting
• October 21, 2009, 00:21

Today, Trailerwatching has a glance at one of the most controversial promos of the season. When some more sober Martin Scorsese fans caught sight of the trailer for Shutter Island, they dropped their pinze nez in shock, pressed a reversed …

• Uncategorized
• October 18, 2009, 00:45

It’s Franz Liszt. Get it? It is beginning to look as if an entire generation has been deprived of a great cultural pursuit by the inconvenient arrival of a new millennium 10 years ago (or nine years ago if you’re …

• Film of the Week
• October 16, 2009, 23:40

By the time this message manifests itself, you will have long ago digested your soaraway Ticket and pressed the paper (you do buy the print edition, don’t you?) into the base of a grateful budgie’s cage. My apologies. But, as …

• London Film Festival Uncategorized
• October 15, 2009, 15:08

A lot of the chat at The London Film Festival concerns the hoaxes carried out against tabloid newspapers in a mischievous documentary by Chris Atkins called Starsuckers. Seeking to demonstrate how gullible celebrity journalists can be (as if!), the film-makers …

• London Film Festival
• October 13, 2009, 21:51

   Well,  the blog has only been around a few days, but it is already set to go through a period of mild inactivity. The London Film Festival starts on Wednesday and Screenwriter is about to head off on the first of many jaunts …

• Trailerspotting
• October 13, 2009, 00:37

Since it was instituted just five minutes ago, readers have eagerly looked forward to the regular Trailerspotting section on the Screenwriter blog. This week we’ll be considering the promo for Gentlemen Broncos by singular Mormon prankster Jared Hess. Here it …

• Bride of Frankenstein Uncategorized
• October 11, 2009, 19:32

God, lists are irritating, aren’t they? Every time you open the stupid paper there’s a “Best This” or a “Worst That” chart taking up space that should be devoted to analysing the decline of the public library or bemoaning the …

• Brief Encounter Romcoms
• October 9, 2009, 19:15

I’m sorry to go on about this. But the tendency to describe any film featuring kissing as a “romantic comedy” is driving me bloody crazy. Our latest exhibit is an execrable new Jennifer Aniston film entitled Love is Nice. No, hang on …

• Avatar
• October 7, 2009, 21:19

Hello, hello, hello, hello. Oh, let’s just let Mr Lydon do the intros:What you are looking at is the first pathetic spasms of (to punctuate in the style of The Irish Times letters page) a “blog” by obscure, Irish Times …