Restaurant review: This unofficial Four Courts canteen serves up tasty toasties with a side of prime people-watching
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RTÉ News
27-07-2025
- RTÉ News
10 great Seventies movies you may not have seen
You'll find a new favourite or two here - guaranteed. 1) The Paper Chase (1973) "Never assume anything in my classroom!" If you like college movies, then here's an Oscar-winning one from the old school, perfect for a Sunday afternoon, as writer-director James Bridges (The China Syndrome - another 70s must-see) brings John Jay Osborn Jr's bestseller to big-screen life. Here, Timothy Bottoms plays James Hart, a Minnesota boy in his first year of law at Harvard. As Hart makes his way through mountains of books, he becomes fascinated with his enigmatic Contract Law lecturer Charles Kingsfield (John Houseman) and also falls for Susan Fields (Lindsay Wagner), a woman he meets by chance and who proves to be every bit as difficult to figure out as Kingsfield! Legendary stage and screen producer Houseman, who was also the founding director of the world-famous Juilliard School, embarked on a fascinating third act in his own life when he agreed to take on the scene-stealing role of Kingsfield, a nixer that would see him win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and become a much-in-demand gentleman of a certain age. If you enjoy The Paper Chase, there's a spin-off series that follows Hart through all four years of college. James Stephens takes over the lead role, but Houseman returns for the entire run as Kingsfield. 2) Slap Shot (1977) Paul Newman said that Slap Shot was the most fun he ever had making a film. It shows. This OTT treasure of a sports comedy reunited Newman with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting director George Roy Hill, and scene for scene it's every bit as enjoyable (and rewatchable) as those two gems. Newman plays Reggie Dunlop, the beleaguered player-coach of Rust Belt ice hockey team The Charlestown Chiefs. The mill is about to close down; the team will become collateral damage, and the town hates them all anyway! But, as the saying goes, never waste a crisis, and when the team's skinflint manager (the great Strother Martin) signs a trio of new players, the Hanson Brothers, Dunlop comes up with a plan as all hell breaks loose... Slap Shot ships bawdiness, bravado, and beatings by the tonne - you'd never think it was written by Nancy Dowd, who would soon share a screenplay Oscar for the romantic war drama Coming Hom e. It's an ante-upping delight that would never get made today. The clip above is the only one that's clean enough to feature! 3) Capricorn One (1977) "You don't really think you're going to get away with this..." A caveat: do not read up on the plot of Capricorn One, as it will ruin the surprise. And oh, lucky you if you're seeing this ripper of an action-thriller for the first time. Here's all you need to know: Elliott Gould, at his 1970s coolest, plays Robert Caulfield, a journalist who's nicknamed 'Scoop' because so many of his stories turn out to be duds. But then Caulfield stumbles on the big one. It's huge, and you'll be hooked. Chock full of tension and humour, Capricorn One 's great cast sees James Brolin, Hal Holbrook, and Brenda Vaccaro hitting their marks in style, and there are magic scenes with the wisecracking David Doyle (aka Bosley from Charlie's Angels) and Telly Savalas, who turn out to be as much the stars of the film as Gould and Brolin. Still need convincing? You'll also get one of the best closing scenes in movie history. Buckle up, you won't want this thrill ride to end. 4) Coming Home (1978) Jane Fonda won the Best Actress Oscar and Jon Voight won Best Actor for this landmark film, one of the first to examine America and the Vietnam War, released 10 months before The Deer Hunter. Fonda plays Sally, the military wife who breaks free from her drudgery and embarks on a relationship with former classmate Luke (Voight) while her husband Bob (Bruce Dern) is serving in Vietnam. Voight's Luke has returned from the war a paraplegic. Through Sally's compassion, he finds a way back to life. Nominated for eight Oscars (it won Best Screenplay too), Coming Home 's power still holds up today and deserves its place alongside The Deer Hunter, The Best Years of Our Lives, and more on the anti-war honour roll. It was also part of a remarkable 1970s run from the late director Hal Ashby, whose other credits that decade included Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo, and Being There - add them all to that never-ending list. 5) The Parallax View (1974) "There will be no questions." That's the chilling diktat in director Alan J Pakula's conspiracy classic. From the get-go, you'll have plenty. Released two years before Pakula's era-defining Watergate drama All the President's Men (yes, you have to watch it too), The Parallax View sees Warren Brady perfectly cast as Joe Frady, a Jack the Lad journalist who puts himself in the crosshairs of the masters of deception. Frady is smart, but is he as smart as they are? Based on the 1970 Loren Singer book of the same name, The Parallax View deftly mixes menace, action, and suspense as Frady tries to make all the pieces fit. No spoilers here, suffice it to say that, if anything, this film has become all the more terrifying with age. Its key montage scene, which runs for over five minutes, has yet to be bettered in any thriller. Don't look the other way... 6) Fat City (1972) Any film that opens with Kris Kristofferson's Help Me Make It Through the Night is already looking like a contender, and sure enough this study of boxing and booze from director John Huston (The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Dead) turns out to be one of the most poignant and grittily authentic slice-of-life films that you will ever see. Stacy Keach is down-on-his-luck fighter Billy Tully, Jeff Bridges is young prospect Ernie Munger, and the Oscar-nominated Susan Tyrrell is Billy's latest flame Oma Lee Greer in this adaptation of Leonard Gardner's revered 1969 book, his only novel. Filmed on Skid Row in Stockton, California, and the grubby halls and changing rooms of the fight circuit, Fat City feels like a documentary at times as cinematographer Conrad Hall (Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Road to Perdition, American Beauty) delivers another masterclass. Don't go in expecting fight scenes galore, but be ready for your heart to take a hiding. 7) Straight Time (1978) The narrator will leave you certain of two things at the end of the trailer: 1) The film stars Dustin Hoffman. 2) It's called Straight Time. Retro gags aside, this is one of Hoffman's most overlooked performances. Based on Edward Bunker's (Mr Blue in Reservoir Dogs - he also appears here) book No Beast So Fierce, Straight Time explains Bunker's assertion that those with criminal records aren't just locked down, they're also locked out upon release. As the just-paroled Max Dembo, the cast-against-type Hoffman tries to stay out of trouble, only to find that the system appears determined to put him back inside. And as desperation mounts, things go downhill very fast. Directed by Ulu Grosbard (True Confessions, Falling in Love), Straight Time is a savage study of ever-decreasing options and a real word-of-mouth find. Keep an eye out for a young Kathy Bates in just her second film. 8) The Candidate (1972) "You don't have a chance, so say what you want." Fans of The West Wing and The Thick of It, this one's for you. Robert Redford is at his boyish best as Bill McKay, the idealistic lawyer who is persuaded to run as the Democratic candidate in the California senate election. McKay, the son of former governor John J McKay (Melvyn Douglas), is up against the gloriously monikered Crocker Jarmon (Don Porter), an 18-year incumbent. As McKay gets into the campaign and realises that he needs to sup with a longer spoon than even he expected, he's cajoled, chided, and coerced by permanently hyper political consultant Marvin Lucas (an excellent Peter Boyle). Sure, the race to the bottom has been turbocharged in the 50-plus years since The Candidate was released, but director Michael Ritchie's on-the-hoof study of McKay's campaign remains pacy, pertinent, and prescient. That's thanks to an Oscar-winning, rust-proof script from author Jeremy Larner, the principal speechwriter during US Senator Eugene McCarthy's bid to secure the Democratic nomination for the 1968 presidential election. Larner brilliantly summed up The Candidate in a 2016 interview with Brooklyn Magazine: "The better McKay gets at campaigning, the more he loses himself." 9) Sorcerer (1977) A disaster when it came out in the same summer as Star Wars, William Friedkin's take on Georges Arnaud's book The Wages of Fear - there's also a must-see 1953 adaptation - is now considered gold. Friedkin's French Connection star Roy Scheider leads a story of desperate men "willing to do a dangerous job". The job? Transporting leaking dynamite 200 miles through the South American jungle to an oil well fire. Here, the terrain, the elements, and the cargo all combine to create a sweat-soaked existential thriller about the will to survive and, as Friedkin described it, "the mystery of fate". After a critical mauling upon release, fate has ultimately proved kind to Sorcerer; more people discover it every year, and they tell others, "Wait until you see the scene with the rope bridge..." Friedkin, who died in August 2023, said he wouldn't change a frame of his personal favourite. He was right all along. 10) The Offence (1973) Sean Connery's finest work, The Offence is also one of his least-seen films. Despite critical acclaim, it flopped upon release, but its status has grown by the decade. For The Offence, Connery reunited with The Hill (another must-see) and The Anderson Tapes director Sydney Lumet for writer John Hopkins's adaptation of his own play This Story of Yours for the screen. Connery plays Detective Sergeant Johnson, a time bomb investigating the rape of a young girl. Ian Bannen superbly plays Kenneth Baxter, a drunk man who is brought in as a suspect. What unfolds is as riveting as it is disturbing, with powerhouse supporting turns from Trevor Howard as Detective Superintendent Cartwright and Vivien Merchant as Johnson's wife, Maureen. Try this for an endorsement: when Cillian Murphy and director Christopher Nolan visited the Konbini store on YouTube to talk about their favourite films, Nolan told his Oppenheimer star that The Offence was Connery's crowning glory as an actor, hailing "a level of craft from Sean Connery that you won't have seen anywhere else".
RTÉ News
03-06-2025
- RTÉ News
From 30 Rock to Deadwood: 6 US TV classics to binge on RTÉ player
Just when you think you've watched everything, it might be time to go back and discover (or rediscover) some classic U.S. telly via RTÉ Player - but where to begin? Here are five of our favourites, currently available to binge in their entirety... 30 Rock Liz Lemon, head writer of the sketch-comedy show TGS with Tracy Jordan, must deal with an arrogant boss and a crazy star while trying to run a successful television show without losing her mind... Tina Fey's whipsmart classic is often ranked among the greatest (and most eminently quotable) US sitcoms of all times, and rightfully so; her banter with co-star Alec Baldwin is for the ages - watch all seven seasons here. Deadwood People flee to Deadwood, South Dakota, with the dream of getting rich. However, not everyone can survive the chaos and lawlessness of the town... One of the cornerstones of the modern age of Peak TV, David Milch's western epic boasts one of the greatest anti-heroes of them all, Ian McShane's despicable (and eminently quoatable) Al Swearengen - watch all three seasons here. The West Wing Martin Sheen stars as U.S. President Jed Bartlett in Aaron Sorkin's seminal political drama, documenting the triumphs and travails of White House senior staff - 25 years on, it's a snapshot of a radically different era in U.S. politics, anchored by one of the great ensemble casts - watch all seven seasons here The Good Fight First came The Good Wife, then came this spin-off starring theincomparable Christine as Good Wife scene-stealer Diane Lockhart, a high-flying lawyer scammed out of her life savings and forced to start afresh... It's a choice legal drama, one unafraid to tackle the madness of modern American politics, with a knockout lineup of guest stars (including Matthew Perry's last great performance - watch all six seasons here Frasier One of the few TV spin-offs that holds its own against the original, Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) leaves the bar at Cheers and moves back to his hometown of Seattle, where he lives with his father (the late, great John Mahoney), works as a radio psychiatrist and blunders his way through an endless number of sublimely farcial scenarios - for a masterclass in comedy, watch all 11 seasons here Mad Men In 1960s New York City, an ad agency mixes cutthroat business and social ambition with glamorous allure... Often found vying for the top spot in lists of the Greatest TV Show Of All Time, this gives us another unforgettable anti-hero, Jon Hamm's inscrutable Don Draper, and totally lands the ending, to boot - watch all seven seasons here
The Irish Sun
01-06-2025
- The Irish Sun
Nepo baby daughter of huge US TV star mom and writer dad stuns in plunging top – can you guess her famous parents?
THIS is the daughter of a very famous Emmy Award winning actress. Her father was also a very famous playwright who starred in films with the likes of Advertisement 8 Lily Cowles is known for high profile roles in a huge sci-fi series Credit: Instagram 8 The actress stars as Isobel Evans in Roswell New Mexico 8 The actress regularly gives fans a behind the scenes look at her life on social media Credit: Instagram Lily Cowles, 37, is the daughter of She is best known for her role as Isobel Evans in The CW sci-fi drama, Roswell, New Mexico . The actress also voices the character Helen Park in the smash-hit game, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. But she's also very active on social media and she regularly posts either throwback images of her childhood, snaps with her mother or promotion for upcoming projects. Advertisement READ MORE ON HOLLYWOOD One post came in the form of a selfie in a plunging and sleeveless jumpsuit. The star held the camera up to make the most of her skinny figure as she gave a gazing look into the lens. Her mother is an internationally recognised actress, having starred in huge productions. She rose to fame playing the role of Maryann Thorpe in the hit nineties sitcom, Cybill. Advertisement Most read in Celebrity Live Blog Breaking Breaking Exclusive The actress went on to star as Diane Lockhart in the legal drama series The Good Wife where she later reprised the role in the spin-off called, The Good Fight. Christine, 73, is also known for her extensive film work as she starred in Chicago alongside the likes of Huge period drama with A-list cast returning to screens - and it's just days away She is also known for her role as Donna's friend and band-mate Tanya in the Mamma Mia film franchise alongside Other high-profile projects have included Into The Woods, Cruel Intentions, and The Big Bang Theory. Advertisement Most recently, fans could see her in the Lord Julian Fellowes penned period drama, The Gilded Age. She stars as the snobby and stubborn old money socialite Agnes van Rhijn, alongside the likes of Before he passed away in 2014, her father had a supporting role in Martin Scorsese's film Shutter Island alongside Leonardo DiCaprio. His first film came in the form of the 1969 comedy-drama, Me, Natalie alongside Al Pacino. Advertisement 8 Lily is the daughter of the late playwright Matthew Cowles and actress Christine Baranski Credit: Getty 8 She's also the daughter of A-list actress Christie Baranski Credit: Getty 8 She regularly appears alongside her mother at exclusive star-studded events Credit: Getty 8 Christine is famous for her role as Diane in the legal drama, The Good Wife and the spin-off, The Good Life Credit: CBS Advertisement 8 Her most recent project sees the actress play a snobby and stubborn old money American socialite in The Gilded Age Credit: HBO
