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CONEY ISLAND BABY preceeded by NO VERBAL RESPONSE THURSDAY 30 OCTOBER AT 7:20PM UGC SHAFTESBURY AVENUE SCREEN 2 CANCELLED DUE TO TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: We apologise to all those who attended the screening of this beautiful film and were dissapointed.
Small time con Billy Hayes returns to Coney Island, Ireland, to find his ex-girlfriend engaged and pregnant. The strength of Amy Hobby's debut feature is its central characters. From the start it's obvious that Billy and Bridget are completely, hopelessly in love with each other. Both leads - script writer Karl Geary and Laura Fraser - are utterly charming, their chemistry apparent even when they're staring at each other across a desolate garage. The plot is largely irrelevant aside from Billy and Bridget's inevitably successful courtship. Billy's useless mate Satchmo links them up with Franco and the Duke, two of the least effective crooks in cinematic history, as Bridget's brothers and the local cops (including Billy's brother) are trying to encourage him to get the hell out of town. Billy and Bridget's love story is warm and funny, and defi- antly avoids the standard motifs of Ireland - in this film, family is peripheral, and instead of standard gorgeous scenery and smoky pubs we get backstreets, dismal caf»s and nasty little garages. Hobby's direction uses DV in an unfussy, efficient manner that never distracts attention from Billy and Bridget's charming romance. NS Amy Hobby is a rising star of New York's indie scene. She and partner Andrew Fierberg founded Double A films in 1995. Since then she has produced Secretary with James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hamlet with Ethan Hawke, and Sunday, winner of 1997's Sundance Grand Jury Prize. NO VERBAL RESPONSE UK | 16 mins | Dir Helena Smith Prod Daniel San P/S danny@argonaut.com A doctor is determined to save a man in a coma. Her colleagues are not so sure. |
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