Hello, world. I’m MacDara Conroy, and this is my blog.


Date: October 2024

Genuinely considering a SAD light to get through the next five months. I really don’t like this time of year #aside

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Film review — Brainscan

Contemporary trappings like interactive CD-ROMs (and an early instance of the ‘it’s really about trauma’ trope) can’t disguise the fact that this is a run-of-the-mill demonic disturbance/possession flick like a million you’ve seen before, only this demon has a nose ring and a goofy hairdo and rocks out to Primus and TAD. More…

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Film review — The Substance

This Dorian Gray for the gloopy monster body horror set is far too long, especially for a film that’s so blatantly on the nose (and ironically pretty shallow) with its themes. But Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley give it socks despite their limited characters. And that ending is hilarious! You’ve gotta appreciate that ‘what the hell, let’s just go for it’ attitude. More…

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Film review — Battleship

It’s 2012 and we’re still doing the ‘Asians talk funny’ bit, are we? We’re so tone deaf we’re going into the end credits of a military propaganda picture with “Fortunate Son”? Really? I’m sighing so hard I almost ran out of breath. More…

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Flu shots and Covid boosters received. This week off is turning out to be pretty busy #aside

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That was a day: errands around the city, takoyaki for lunch, burritos picked up for dinner, 14,000 steps #aside

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Imagining the glee on Roots Manuva’s face whenever another fat royalty cheque comes in but let’s be honest, it should’ve been more than 20 years ago #aside

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Film review — Cameron’s Closet

I’d been searching for this one for so long! (A terrible transfer of the TV cut is on Tubi till the end of the month so now’s your chance, fellow non-USians with VPN accounts.) Was it worth the wait? Not really. It’s like someone was handed a grab-bag of iconic 1980s horror imagery and challenged to make a movie out of it. The results almost work — almost! — but the budget simply isn’t there; it plays more like a forgettable episode of Freddy’s Nightmares than anything else. Shame. More…

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Out of Office set; time to unwind for a bit #aside

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Film review — The Invasion

Some seriously skeevy politics in this fairly dull riff on the Body Snatchers theme that are most certainly magnified through the lens of these pandemic years. But Nicole Kidman looks great and Daniel Craig has a funny haircut so it’s not all bad. Apparently I watched this in 2017 but I have zero recollection. Maybe I’ve been snatched… More…

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Film review — Sphere

Thought you were gonna get a blockbuster underwater sci-fi thriller? Think again! It’s a bait-and-switch psychological hodge-podge that gets utterly lost in search of an ending. Never got around to seeing it at the time and I now remember why. More…

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This is pretty cool: Bandcamp Daily have a story up about an Irish band and they’ve posted it with a translation as Gaeilge. Níl aon focal agam but I won’t let that stop me sharing it > daily.bandcamp.com #aside

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Okay, I’m an induction hob convert. This thing is like magic #aside

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Film review — Versus

Twenty-three-odd years after walking out of a screening at the Irish Film Institute in utter boredom and I can finally say I’ve seen all of Versus. And I didn’t miss all that much. It’s still a samey cavalcade with flashes of ultraviolence punctuating extended segments of nothing. Think “Shadowrun nerds LARP in the park” and you’ve got the idea. The ambition is there, for sure, but it looks and feels both tiresomely self-indulgent and really, really cheap. Supposedly it wasn’t actually shot on DV but it sure as hell looks like it. More…

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Film review — Rat Scratch Fever

This isn’t a ‘good’ movie by any stretch, but it’s clearly made by someone who cares about what they’re making, leaning into the zero-budget aesthetics (from tabletop gaming miniatures to the gloriously OTT gloopy gore effects) without taking the piss or any other pretense that they’re above the material. That much I can appreciate. More…

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Gah, missed most of this year’s 24-Hour Horror Movie Mind Melter because I wasn’t following the right Twitch channel and didn’t get any notifications! Ah well, would’ve needed Monday off to recover anyway #aside

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Just learned that Dikembe Mutombo died earlier this week. He was only 58. I’m not a basketball guy and you may not be either, but if you’re my age, you probably played him in NBA Jam #aside

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Lidl were sold out of Football Special so I ordered a case online and… it’s grand. Like red lemonade mixed with cola, or a milder Irn-Bru. It’s no Dr Pepper or root beer, the kings of soft drinks, but I’ll take it #aside

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