Thanks for the memories!

Fresh and Exciting

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

ADAM & PAUL is one of those zero budget films that turns out to be a lot, lot better than bigger-budgeted fare. It's a quirky Irish indie, doing what ONCE did for musicals for the drug genre if you look at it that way; the sparse narrative follows a couple of low life characters as they go through the course of a day shoplifting, mugging, and indulging in petty crime to get the money for their next fix.There's something fresh and naturalistic about films like this and ADAM & PAUL is indeed a wonderful little production. The simple, episodic nature of the storyline brings this into comparison with the classic 'journey' narratives of old and the characters are delightfully scuzzy, which make the viewing experience all the more fun. In fact, I was surprised at how funny this is for such an unrelentingly grim tale; it's true to life, made with plenty of that Irish charm, so there's little to dislike here. Tom Murphy gives the best performance as the put-upon Paul - there wouldn't be much of a film without him - and knowing the actor died of cancer some three years after this film's release only adds to the bittersweet nature of the production.

A variant Drug-ee Midnight Cowboy in Rain Drenched Dublin, two dun-fer deadheads work out how to spend the remaining hours in their own personal hell. There's some very consummate acting from the two lead roles,and lots of lovely character acting, an unashamed range of strong urban Dublin accents, some nicely comedic situations and relations, some nice bits of cinematography and some touching moments, worthy of viewing for those accepting of its strong themes of addiction poverty and no hope grime, though there some similarities between this and midnight cowboy, its updated for the modern age and stands elements on its head without too strongly pulling on the emotional levers that are obviously available, and the truth is this story is perpetual and endless, we tend to iconify and re-project that small proportion who win, but the opposite portion are the truer story, the ending was inversed and more modernist and harder to swallow, but true enough to itself. A tale for those who understand the dark end of the street is in nearly every town everywhere.

This is a beautiful film made in Dublin which I have just seen in Tel Aviv at the Israel Irish film festival, in the presence of the director. At first I did not think I would enjoy it, it is, after all not an endearing subject but the longer it went into its 83 minutes, the more I enjoyed it. This is the story of two homeless heroin addicts called Adam and Paul but which is Adam, which is Paul, you never find out. Similar to "Waiting for Godot" but filmed in a great number of locations rather than a single room. Although its a sombre subject, you follow a single day in their lives (and the death of one from an overdose) but the film is much filled with humor in a style reminiscent of Laurel and Hardy. The dialog is simple, in very short sentences, which is accurate of these folk, and there is, I warn you, much use of the word f**k which gives the Hebrew subtitlers a lot of grief. All the characters are believable and are based on the lives of real Dubliners. The script was written by the taller addict. How do they eat, how do they go to the bathroom, how do they survive? You follow their lives and ultimately you yearn for one of their scams to survive in order that they "earn" some money but then you realize that it would not be spent on food but drugs. They meet a varied collection of other losers on their travels and I could add a spoiler by revealing the funniest one-liner in the film - when they meet a man they think comes from Romania - but I won't. Another funny sequence is outside a gas station where they are supposedly watching for the police during an attack on the station by two men with baseball bats, pure L & H. The photography is superb, stark, revealing of slums, the direction brilliant. The director was forced to take jobs making commercials to earn a living whilst making the film. As to which one is which, the director confirmed that they were interchangeable and, probably, a single entity. This is the sort of film most English-speaking film-making countries could not make, they lack the observational powers of this writer and director. If you get the chance to see it, don't miss it. And better in a cinema than on television where it will lose much of its qualities.

I usually don't like Irish films but the trailer for this was funny so i had to see it and i was not disappointed! Hilarious!! I loved it! Especially Paul who is always getting injured and messes up everything,i love when he tries to smash the car window and hurts his hand.Adam is a bit darker but he is a very good portrayal of a junkie,during the bit where they rob the handicapped guy I think i was the only one in the cinema that laughed when Adam talks really slowly and clearly to him "DO YOU HAVE ANY MON-EY".It was probably meant to show how low these guys will sink to but it was still kinda funny. Also loved it when Adam is driving the car and is sayin to Paul "you see i notice things" then he crashes the car and of course poor old paul gets the brunt of it!But what about the piece at the end,I was wondering if Adam has overdosed and is dead or is he just asleep? Probably just in a deep sleep but i think the ending would be better if he did O'd