Maurice O'Donoghue Movies

In a series of character studies, director Cathal Black tells the story of Jimmy (Jimmy Brennan) and the people who end up living with him. After Jimmy, who is gay, leaves prison looking for a way to survive in the world, he finds an abandoned house in Dublin and settles in. Before long, others join him, including a pimp, a con man, and a drug pusher. At times poignant and perceptive, this short film lacks any real narrative and either for that reason or because of its length, goes no further than sympathetically examining these socially displaced people. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Rival groups of boys from two neighboring Irish villages engage in a running battle in this remake of the 1962 French movie of the same name, based on a novel by Louis Pergaud. The boys from Ballydowse, who dress as they please, exchange insults with boys from nearby Carricksdowse -- who wear school uniforms. One day, the Bally gang cuts the buttons off the clothes of a bully in the Carricks gang. The Carricks retaliate by swiping the buttons from the clothes of the leader of the Bally boys, Fergus (Gregg Fitzgerald). The Ballys deface the Carricksdowse church, though both groups are Catholics. They rout the Carricks by charging at them naked. Marie (Eveanna Ryan), who heads the Ballys' girls auxiliary, tries to calm down the boys by raining new buttons on them to replace those lost in warfare. When Fergus' abusive stepfather (Jim Bartley) finds out about the war, he beats Fergus and sends him away. Fergus goes to the cliffs along the valley between the two villages, chased by the Carricks' leader, Geronimo (John Coffey). Geronimo, who has come to help, slips, and Fergus rescues him from a fall. In the end, Fergus, riding a horse, leads his troops, dressed in motley medieval suits, into a final battle. The allegorical anti-war film is primarily aimed at children. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi