Michael Casey Movies

Adapted from the stage play The Kings of the Kilburn high Road by Jimmy Murphy, writer/director Tom Collins' incisive examination of the Irish immigrant experience stars Colm Meany, Donal O'Kelly, Brendan Conroy, Donncha Crowley, and Barry Barnes as a group of longtime friends unable to let go of the past. When their mate Jackie (Sean O' Tarpaigh) dies suddenly under a subway car, a group of old Irish friends now living in London come together to celebrate his life. Thirty years ago this crew from Connemara was young and full of hope, but these days most of them have sunken into a dire world of drink and depression. Joe (Meany) may have proven the most financially successful of the group, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he has overcome his demons- he simply chooses to indulge in expensive cocaine rather than cheap liquor. Jap (O'Kelly) and Git (Conroy) largely view the world through the bottom of a bottle, Mairtin (Barnes) is struggling to wean himself from spirits and hold on to his family, and contented vegetable vendor Shay (Crowley) has finally embraced his lowered expectations. The only one who doesn't seem steeped in nostalgia is Jackie's father Micil (Peadar O'Treasaigh) - who has recently arrived from Ireland to claim his son's body. Later, when the group heads out to the bar, the liquor flows freely and the accusations begin to fly. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Brian Kirk's gothic thriller Middletown excoriates the actions and attitudes of the Irish Catholic clergy by honing in on one psychotically deranged fire-and-brimstone preacher. Matthew MacFadyen is Gabriel Hunter, a priest fresh from missions work in Africa. After 15 years of service in the field, Gabriel returns to his hometown in Ireland to occupy the now-vacant pulpit. Once there, he re-encounters three members of his working-class brood: his father, Bill Hunter (Gerard McSorley); his younger brother, the service station attendant Jim (Daniel Mays); and Jim's expectant wife Caroline (Eva Birthistle), who runs the local speakeasy. The family welcomes Gabriel home, but from the first moments of his arrival, he projects a violent, hair-trigger temper; relentless, psychopathic bursts of unchecked anger; and a sadistic obsession with inflicting pain and cruelty on everything and everyone around him -- from squelching live mice beneath his heels to strangling the neck of a chicken that he seizes during a cockfight. From the pulpit, Gabriel uses sermons to relentlessly damn the members of his congregation for their sins, including all activity at the local pub, which he perceives as a den of iniquity. When Gabriel hears Caroline's refusal to have her child baptized, the statement pushes him completely over the edge and triggers a string of increasingly violent acts that will bring the entire community to its knees -- and threaten the lives and safety of Bill, Jim, Caroline, and the newborn baby. Daragh Carville authored the script. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

They say that just because you're paranoid it doesn't mean someone isn't really out to get you, and a man learns the truth behind that little joke in this British thriller. Sean Veil (Lee Evans) was accused of the gruesome murder of a woman and her two children on the basis of circumstantial evidence, and when the case gained nationwide media attention, he found himself portrayed as a violent psychopath in the press, even though he was cleared of all charges. The constant scrutiny and bitter accusations had a profound effect on Veil, and now, deeply paranoid, he lives in a tiny basement apartment, where he obsessively videotapes his every move in order to have an alibi against future accusations, and even straps a camera to his chest whenever he ventures outside. When noted forensic pathologist Saul Seger (Ian McNeice) publishes a book about the murders, Veil finds himself back in the public eye, and vindictive police detective Emeric (Sean McGinley) decides to take a final stab at hanging the charges on Veil and making them stick. Veil becomes certain that someone is determined to put him away, a belief that gets stronger when parts of his video archive suddenly go missing. Freeze Frame was the first feature film from writer and director John Simpson. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi