Pomona Rewind

   Actor, writer, producer, director, activist - sometimes it seemed like there was nothing Robert Redford couldn't do. As a screen actor, he was unquestionaly charismatic and, like his good friend Paul Newman, beneath the good looks was an actor of considerable intelligence and skill.  Redford was also an Oscar winning director, often bringing hefty dramatic stories to the big screen. But his greatest contribution to cinema was the helping hand he gave to other talent. As one of the brains behind the Sundance Institute and its film festivals, he provided a launch pad for directors like Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, David O Russell, Kevin Smith, Damian Chazelle and Jordan Peele. But he was also an ardent campaigner for environmental and LGBT causes. Born in Santa Monica in 1936, Redford's family had English, Scotch Irish and Irish ancestry. His father Charles was an accountant and was married before he met his mother Martha.  He also had a step brother, Willi...

HAPPY GILMORE If you Google search 'Happy Gilmore,' one of the first questions that appears is: what's the point of 'Happy Gilmore'? It's a good question. Watching it 29 years on from it's original release, I'm not quite sure. Yes, it's supposed to be a comedy vehicle for 'Saturday Night Live' alum Adam Sandler . But watching it in the UK and Ireland on Netflix ahead of its hugely hyped sequel on the streaming service, it feels hugely overrated. Sandler is, of course, Happy Gilmore, a working class lad who aspires to be a NHL hockey player whose love of the game was instilled by his father. Unfortunately, his dad, played by Louis  O'Donoghue, dies when Happy is a kid in a freak spectator accident at a hockey game and he is sent to live with his grandma. Fortunately, Frances Bay's Grandma Gilmore is a lovely woman, greeting his younger self, played by Donnie MacMillan, dressed like Gene Simmons from Kiss. In adulthood, Happy struggles...

  CIVIL WAR Suicide bombers detonating devices and devastating a New York street. Dead bodies hanging from underpasses. Soldiers and armoured vehicles engaged in a fierce gun battle to storm the White House. These are some of the images that burn into your brain during Alex Garland's 'Civil War'. But are they really that far fetched given the polarisation of US politics right now? 'Civil War' tells the story of journalists covering a conflict that has erupted between an alliance of troops from California and Texas and a US Army whose Commander In Chief is Nick Offerman's unnamed three term President. Covering the conflict are Kirsten Dundst's celebrated photojournalist Lee Smith and Wagner Moura's Reuters reporter Joel who we first see in Brooklyn observing disturbances between civilians and troops. As the civilians start to scuffle with the soldiers, Lee spots Callie Spaeny's wet behind the ears photojournalist Jessie Cullen being struck during the ...

  CAL Sometimes, it's fun to revisit an old film from your youth. In this case, it's Pat O'Connor's sobering Northern Ireland romance 'Cal' which has been restored 41 years after it was released when the Troubles were still raging. Starring John Lynch and Helen Mirren and adapted by the author Bernard MacLaverty from his own novel, it has been restored and re-released in the UK and Ireland, thanks to Film Hub NI - a community cinema organisation. Believing it to be a significant milestone in the development of Northern Irish cinema, Film Hub NI's revival reveals it to be a surprisingly effective movie which is not without its flaws. Lynch plays Cal McCluskey, the son of Donal McCann's abattoir worker Seamie in a rural Mid Ulster town. Cal is involved in the IRA, driving Stevan Rimkus' Crilly to a local farmhouse where his colleague  murders an off-duty Royal Ulster Constabulary officer and wounds the victim's elderly father. A year later, Cal com...