The Blazing World Review: Carlson Young s Exhaustively Art-Directed but Enervating Adult Fantasy The Blazing World Review: Carlson Young s Exhaustively Art-Directed but Enervating Adult Fantasy
Writer-director-star Carlson Young pours much effort and feeling into this loose riff on a 17th-century sci-fi text, but who is it for?
Guy Lodge, provided by
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Running time: Running time: 99 MIN.
Courtesy of Greenbelt Films
For a filmmaker to take a possessive credit in their debut is already a confident move; for the opening credits of the first feature by writer-director-star Carlson Young to present it as “Carlson Young’s ‘The Blazing World’” is a brazen one. That title, of course, belongs first to a somewhat more established female author: Margaret Cavendish, whose 1666 book “The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World” was a foundational work of science fiction. Cavendish’s adventurous exploration of alternate dimensions has giv
Irene Falvey follows Colin Broderick’s film in which Northern Irish writer Matt Donnelly returns home to Tyrone having not been back for 30 years, to face the ghosts of his past.
A Bend in the River directed by Colin Broderick and starring John Duddy as Matt who journeys back into his past, battling demons he had long since run away from. The film opens with some beautifully lush shots of Irish countryside, green enough to make any expat weep. We get a quick flash of the current life Matt has carved out for himself – a once note-worthy Irish writer living in New York who is no longer able to coast on the success of his book and in desperate need of inspiration. There is a suggestion that he returns to Ireland. The idea comes from Matt’s editor; however, we get the impression that he won’t necessarily be welcomed back gladly into the arms of his native land.