Arts & Culture

21 Jump Street****Directed by: Phil Lord, Chris MillerStarring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle Headhunters*****Directed by: Morten TyldumStarring: Aksel Hennie, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Synnøve Macody Lund, Julie Ølgaard My only memories of 21 Jump Street – the TV show that is – are from when it ran on RTÉ in the 80s. The sound of the theme song taunted me as I left my granny’s every Sunday.  

The 2012 Kilrush Traditional Music and Set Dancing Festival got underway on Wednesday in the West Clare town and a host of events continue culminating this weekend in a new concertina competition for over and under 16s.Events kicked off on Wednesday with a seisiún at Teach Cheoil and other local establishments followed suit with sessions from 10pm. Speaking about this year’s festival, Vincent O’Halloran of the organising committee explained the annual event attracts visitors from the UK, New Zealand and Australia – many return visitors, as well as a regular local following. “We have a steady following and many come back every year and the numbers are holding. We try to add to the programme every year based on the limited resources we have. This year we added the concertina competition and we have some big prizes in that. We decided to hold it to try to encourage the young musicians to get involved as there are a good few …

The VIEWfinders Film Festival, which opened in Ballyvaughan for the first time in March of this year, is to return for one special screening this month in preparation for a new schedule in 2013.The festival, organised by Kerry resident and Burren College of Art graduate Róisín McGuigan, is due to return in August next year and not March as planned. In preparation there will be a special screening on Saturday, August 25, at 8pm in the Burren College of Art giving the public a flavour of what to expect in 2013. The film being shown is Certified Copy and it is the first European film from Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami.Speaking about the change of dates and about the festival itself Ms McGuigan said this special screening will help to mark the festival on the calendar ahead of next year’s event as well as being a nice thing to see during the inclement summer weather. She explained the reason for the …

As the busiest ever programme for Clare Heritage Week is announced, a host of arts events take place over the coming week aimed at the promotion of the county’s heritage. On Saturday, August 18, at 7pm, a photographic exhibition will be launched at Parliament Street in Ennistymon in conjunction with Built Heritage Collective (Ireland).Meanwhile on August 20 from 7.30pm to 9.30pm, St Cronan’s 10th century church in Tuamgraney will be the venue for the Celtic Traditions Folk Concert, which is being held as part of the Spirit of Lough Derg series of events during Heritage Week. The concert will showcase the best of folk music and dancing from Kate Purcell and an array of local musicians and dancers.Noted local historian Brian Ó Dálaigh will be at the de Valera Public Library in Ennis where he will discuss the background to the newly published Royal Irish Academy Ennis Atlas on Tuesday August 21 at 7pm.Frances Madigan will lead a stroll through …

This September, the Tulla Trad Festival marks its sixth year and as in previous events, this year’s festival offers a jam packed programme.  A parade through the Main Street will get the show on the road on Friday, September 7 at 8pm, led by the Chapel Gate Wrenboys, 2011 All-Ireland champions. This will be followed by the official opening at Tulla Courthouse by Paula Carroll of Clare FM, and will again feature the Wren Boys. Later that evening there will be a Power Session in the Powerhouse at 9.30pm led by Mick, Michelle and Louise Mulcahy, while dancers will be catered for in John Minogues where the opening céilí gets underway at 10pm with music by Danny Hunt and band. The festival continues on Saturday, September 10, when a host of workshops will get underway at St Joseph’s Secondary School and the tutors this year are all masters in their own fields.Registration for these classes takes place at 10.30am at …

Brave DIRECTED BY: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman VOICES: Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Robbie Coltrane CERT: PG Brave is the latest feature from the animation geniuses at Pixar, not that you’d know it right away. It’s a nice little movie, a fine piece of entertainment, but it isn’t really in the same league as Toy Story, Monsters Inc or Finding Nemo. It bears more of a resemblance to the kind of animated story produced down the years by Disney, Pixar’s corporate partners, if not their masters. Which might be a worrying development and, by all accounts, the production had its problems with original storywriter and director Brenda Chapman, being replaced by Mark Andrews over that handy old standby, creative differences. So there may be trouble in cartoon paradise. There’s certainly trouble in the highlands. Flame-haired Scottish princess Merida (Macdonald) is not one for pomp and tradition. She’s a tomboy who’d rather be off gallivanting. She was given a bow …

I have a process for writing this nonsense you know. Typically after watching a film I’ll go to bed and try to reconstruct what happened in my head – it helps me work out whether the plot makes sense or not and what parts of a flick really stuck with me. So imagine my poor grey matter’s shock when it tried to reconstruct Battleship.Also known (by me anyway) as Transformers-on-Sea, Battleship is based on the board game of the same name and proof that the last person in Hollywood capable of independent, imaginative thought was taken down a back alley somewhere just off Ventura Boulevard and shot in the back of the head about 18-months ago.The light of creativity well and truly snuffed out, the money machine cast its Sauron-like eye around the world and happened upon board games as the next great frontier for exploitation by studios greedy for blockbusters and the beaucoup dollars the summertime tie-ins they bring …

AS the grand finale of Strictly Come Dancing East Clare approaches, the organising committee has announced Ger Loughnane and Paula Carroll as MCs for this exciting event, which sees representatives from 12 towns and villages in East Clare battle it out.The final takes place at the West County Hotel in Ennis on August 31 and is set to be a tense and exciting occasion. The competition is now heating up throughout East Clare with many of the dance couples fancying their chances of winning on the night. The ‘strictly’ event has resulted in numerous fundraising campaigns, undertaken by each dance couple. Kilkishen’s dancers Evelyn McMahon and Mary O’Neill claim to be strong contenders in the competition and vow to inject their performance with oodles of energy at the grand finale.  Meanwhile, the Flagmount/Killanena dance couple Laura Flaherty and Alan McNamara have also increased the tempo and are getting great support in their local community as they strive to match the …