Coming on the heels of the Venice debut this week of Paolo Sorrentino’s memories of Growing up in 1980’s Naples is a trip back in time for yet another celebrated director, and of course…
, Northern Ireland right in the middle of troubles breaking out between the Protestants and the Catholics that so ravaged the country. Like Sorrentino, Branagh says it has taken a long time, 50 years to be exact, to sort out those memories and try to put them into some context that has universal meaning all these years later.
For the director who was born in Belfast at the end of 1960, he has struck a tone of joyful family life mixed with the terrifying breakout of hostilities between the two factions that changed things forever in his neighborhood and the country, all told through the eyes of Buddy who we can take as a stand in for Branagh himself, a colorful young kid who particularly loves American westerns likeon TV, is a fan of football and toy cars, and going to the local movie house to see films like with his...