Stuart Dannell-Foran Movies
- 1996
Aimed at older children, this gentle, gender-bending coming-of-age drama set in Ireland centers on the friendship between bookish, outcast Irish lad Chris and the new kid in town, Joe, an all-American boy. Whereas Chris is wimpy and bullied by the village toughs, Joe is strong, clever and the best fighter around. When Joe befriends Chris, it looks as if things will be improving. At it least it does until Chris finds out that Joe is actually Joanne. Orphaned by her parents, former tightrope walkers, she has been living with her cruel, woman-hating Uncle Curt, an embittered ex-acrobat who make her pose as a male. Joe's main female influence comes from Chris' mother a feminist sculptor of Rubenesque goddess statues. Unfortunately, Uncle Curt doesn't want her associating with her. Poor Joe also finds some solace helping Simon, her parents former coach who became a depressive clown after their fatal accident. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1994
- PG
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liam Cunningham, Gregg Fitzgerald, (more)
