Garage (2007)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

May contain minor spoilers.Rarely have i been so captivated by an acting performance. Something can be said for the fact that not a lot happens in the first 35 minutes or so yet I was intrigued as to where this was going. Pat shortt is nothing short of unbelievable (if the Irish readers will pardon the pun). Shortt plays Josie, a quiet, lonely man with no relatives living locally and no friends to speak of. Everyone either bullies him or treats him like the village idiot, someone you never give a second thought to. He has never traveled far form the village he was born in. Any attempts he makes or has made to become intimate fail.The only thing in his life is his Job (At a local garage/shop) and his only pastimes are drinking at the local bar, and walking alone in the countryside.A chance of friendship comes from a 15 year old boy who is hired to help at the garage at weekends. Will this young kid treat him like everyone else or could this be a genuine friendship or possibly be misunderstood as something darker. It certainly a bleak movie but very well filmed on what was surely a very small budget. The Irish landscape almost feels as bleak as the movie but that only adds to story.Being from Ireland, I can say that there is at least one Josie in every town. Where you can sometimes be surrounded by people and be lonely. and in rural Ireland where there are less people about the loneliness could be unbearable. In fact the world is full of Jessies that we don't pass a second thought to.Unless you are from Ireland you may need subtitles for this movie. It's normal speaking and slang and an Irish native will have no problem understanding the phrases. This was a bold move by the makers, It's an Irish movie but the theme is universal "Loneliness" they have made no attempt to Americanize the movie by toning down the language and accents. So many "Orish" movies are ruined by an American cousin or foreign visitor come by just to appeal to an international audience. The people in this movie are Irish, and that's how we talk. Do yourself a favor and watch this movie yes it's emotional, but brilliant.

I had heard so many good things about this film. Poignant, sad, funny, gentle etc etc. However it's a missed opportunity. Pat Shortt portrays a man who is "Childlike". Whether he has some form of autism or not is not made clear, because it's a vague portrayal. Essentially the character never gets angry, rarely shows much emotion other than a general soft confusion. Smiles inanely a lot of the time. Does pointless jobs. As a portrayal of someone with Learning Difficulties it's lacking. People with LD, whether it's through severe epilepsy,Autism or Downs... have a range of emotions. In particular anger, frustration and a pent up sexual frustration. They get lonely, sad and also laugh and cry. Josie just grins. There was a real opportunity with this film to explore some of the issues people with LD face... Instead we got cardboard cut outs. All the characters may as well have worn t-shirts with, sad, sad and lonely, sad and lonely and drunk, sad and lonely and bully, sad and lonely and misunderstood. Every single character in the film was depressed, and had the same general malaise about them. The film has been praised for it's realism, I live in a small Irish town... during one of the most economically depressed times... and mostly people cover up their sadness... we'll all have a good moan and bitch, but the banter and humor is always there. None of the characters gradually revealed their inner thoughts or emotions... they were on display all the time. The only exception to this - everyone is miserable and showing it rule - was a cameo from the always reliable, George Costigan. It's certainly not a tragicomedy. I laughed only once - Josie's attempts to clear up after teenagers. As a drama it also lacks variation, because little happens and the incident that leads us to the film's inevitable conclusion is so slight that a viewer is bound to ask... Why now? After all Josie doesn't change at any point in the film. When he dances with a girl... it doesn't go far enough... When he watches the film with the teenage boy ... it doesn't go far enough... Both presented opportunities for the dramatist that he failed to follow through on.Yet it is enough for Josie to share the same fate as the puppies... And because the puppies are included we know that's the way Josie will choose to resolve his issues. I'm trying to be subtle in this review... but why bother? The film isn't... even the last frames of the film are hokey... a Horse that has been tethered in a field is now loose and free. Good grief!I have also heard good things about Mark O'Haloran's Adam and Paul - Again directed by Lenny Abrahamson - I'll give it a go at some point... but I don't hold out much hope. At the end of the film I just felt bored and disappointed.

Believe me this is the most slow paced, void of dialog, boring independent-ish film I've ever seen. It makes Sling Blade look like an action flick. I was watching it to fight off insomnia one late night. Unfortunately it didn't work because after sticking with it to the end I was blown away by how the depiction of desolate rural Ireland life actually drove the story and gave deep meaning to the unbelievable end.So don't get discouraged and grab that remote because you're so bored with this movie you just can't watch another minute because the deadpan, eventless story line really does say something about our society and modern life in a way that creeps up on you and slaps you in the face and makes you think.

Garage is a 2007 realist (even hyper-realist) film by Irish director Lenny Abramson. The film centers on the daily life of Josie (a petrol station worker who lives in a small Irish village) and the social relations he holds with his neighbor villagers.One of the most interesting aspects of the film is the interpretation of Pat Shortt embodying the naïve Josie. The protagonist of the film is an adorable simpleton who enjoys his banal life and his boring employment at the petrol station. Despite of his utter solitude, everything seems to be alright for Josie, even when he is deliberately mocked he seems to be absolutely happy. He enjoys the pleasures of this routine but it will change when a teenager is designed to help him at the petrol station.The portrayal of Josie is carried out by means of using the camera as a mere spectator in the story, as an objective eye that witnesses the events. It shows us Josie as he really is, without taking into account the subjective point of view of the rest of characters, giving the film an intimate and melancholic mood.Another remarkable issue is that, with a low budget and an ordinary plot, Abramson achieves to tell a warm story, full of humanity, halfway between comedy and tragedy, in which a little piece of reality can be seen.Abramson takes great delight in using long sequences full of long shots, so the movie depicts the Irish countryside with a lot of outdoors sequences.Perhaps, the only negative thing about this film is its slow speed (regarding that it is only an hour and twenty minutes long). At some points this paused rhythm makes the movie tedious and difficult to bear, but it also seems that it is what the director intended: to make the audience stop and enjoy watching the details of each shot.