Steve McQueen's HUNGER

My top 5 favorite film genres:
1. Movie by Terrence Malick
2. French, With a Little or a Lot of Violence
3. "Erotic Thriller"
4. Dreamy Film Set in Hong Kong, With Lots of Nat King Cole on the Soundtrack, Inexplicably
5. Films about the Irish Struggle For Independence

I'd like to talk about number 5, for a minute. HUNGER is the new film about Bobby Sands, the IRA prisoner who led the 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes at the infamous Maze prison near Belfast. To bring attention to the prisoners' demand to be treated as political prisoners, Sands starves himself to death over the course of 66 days.

God damn, if I wasn't blown away by this movie. It's a new kind of film -- the kind that only shows up once in a great while and truly annihilates you with its clarity of vision and purpose. It's also only 90 minutes which I think is an incredible feat -- it will give any film nerd a big hard on, with none of the calories.

HUNGER trailer:



Also:

THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY

Genius Marketing #34: Hunger

In a way, I'm mad I missed the Telluride opportunity. This looks fantastic, unremitting, scary. But I'm also thankful I missed it because this looks scary, unremitting and dangerous. Also, there's the fact that I got to drink beer in the sun with people I now miss a ton more than I can ever miss missing a movie. --RWK