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• Colin Farrell adds his tribute to Michael.

  January 4, 2010 @ 4:20 pm | by Donald Clarke

  It hardly needs to be said that I am very touched by all the comments beneath the notice of Michael Dwyer’s death. He would have been delighted to know that he was remembered so kindly and would have been particularly moved that so many old associates found the time to post a tribute. Please continue to add any further comments at the original post.

  A kind email arrived from Colin Farrell just a little too late to include with the tributes in today’s paper. Here it is:

  Hello Donald,

  So sorry to hear of the loss of your friend and colleague Michael Dwyer.

  Ireland has lost its greatest fan of cinema and the world one of its most uncynical of journalists.  Michael’s involvement in film went beyond the pale of critiquing.  He was a student and professor of film who shared his love for the medium with all.  Though gone he leaves behind a wealth of work, and a very real ambition for the growth of Irish cinema, of which he was such a pioneer.  From the very beginning, for me, his kindness and keen intellect were a wonder to be around.  I will miss speaking with him because an interview with Michael was more than a session of Q and A.  It always felt, quite simply, like a chat between friends.

  Best,
  Colin

• Michael Dwyer 1951 – 2010

  January 2, 2010 @ 2:13 am | by Donald Clarke

  

  My friend Michael Dwyer, this newspaper’s film correspondent, died on New Years Day. He was just 58.

• It’s the tenth anniversary of Millennium Eve.

  December 30, 2009 @ 11:41 pm | by Donald Clarke

  And, of course, the end of a strange decade. To celebrate, The Ticket returns, for one week only, to Thursday’s edition of the paper. Happily, the supplement is as packed with unmissable feature articles and transcendent filler as ever.

  

  Why has Screenwriter put a picture of us on this post, we wonder.

  If you can bear one last list — oh go on, just one wahfer-thin leest — have a glance at the final deliberations of the Dublin Film Critics Circle. A few weeks ago, my colleagues and I had a slap-up lunch and voted for the best films of the year and the decade.

  The ten best of 2009 was as follows:

  1.    Let the Right One In
  2.    The White Ribbon
  3.    Up
  4.    The Hurt Locker
  5.    The Wrestler
  6.    Il Divo
  7.    A Serious Man
  8.    Mesrine Parts 1 & 2
  9.    Slumdog Millionaire
  10.  District 9/Moon

  No surprises in the top three. Let the Right One In, The White Ribbon and Up seem confirmed as the unshakable critics favourites of 2009. Interesting to see Mesrine figuring so high. I have to say, I felt it began to outstay its welcome halfway through Part II.

  Here’s the decade poll:

  1.    There Will be Blood
  2.    Downfall
  3.    Brokeback Mountain
  4.    The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
  5.    The White Ribbon
  6.    Hidden
  7.    United 93
  8.    City of God
  9.    Little Miss Sunshine/In The Mood for Love.
  10.  Spirited Away

  Now look, I don’t want to start a fight — I know many readers sided with my fellow reviewers here — but I really don’t think Downfall belongs at the very top. It’s an excellent film, but it’s really all about the performance. If Oliver Hirschbiegel directs another truly great film then I’ll eat my own head. (In case you’re wondering about the odd discrepancy as regards the relative positions of The White Ribbon and Let the Right One In in the 2009 and decade polls, there was a slightly different electorate for the two votes.)

  We also decided that Waveriders was the best Irish film of the year — though I voted for The Secret of Kells – and that the award for best Irish film of the decade should be shared equally between Hunger and Adam & Paul. You can have a gawp at the full results here.

  Also, in today’s Ticket, I ponder what cinematic delights are coming your way in the New Year. Yeah, we’re all gagging for Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life. Sure, we can’t wait for Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. But I know what’s really got you juddering with hopeful anticipation.

  

  Good grief! This looks awesome. We have been deprived of J-Lo’s talent for so long that this is akin to receiving a new novel from J D Sallinger. Then again, the film looks so different from her earlier work — it’s a romantic comedy involving pregnancy — that it is, perhaps, more like receiving a new opera or an original public sculpture from Mr Sallinger.

  Alas, you’ll have to wait until March for the film itself.

  Oh yeah. So why did we put a picture of Galaxy Quest at the top of the page?