Outside Sales DVD Release Party
View photos at WireImage or view photos at Getty Images.
Rave Reviews For MacIntyre’s ‘British Gangster’ Stateside
Irish investigative journalist Donal MacIntyre’s documentary ‘A Very British Gangster’ has opened in cinemas in LA and New York to rave reviews.
The Irish Film Board funded documentary, MacIntyre’s directorial debut, opened in the Cinema Village Theater, New York City and the Culver Plaza, Los Angeles on July 18th.
The film, an in-depth look at one of Britain’s most dangerous crime families and its leader, Dominic Noonan, was hailed by the Los Angeles times as “stylish and compelling” while The Hollywood Reporter declared the film was “beautifully shot”.
Variety described the documentary as “a very watchable movie, one that explores an oft-exploited mob milieu and busts some of its fictional bubbles. These are troubling people, to be sure, but MacIntyre makes them human, as well as frightening.”
Produced by MacIntyre, Sam Emmary and Lill Cranfield for TV3 and Five, the doco was shot by DOP’s Nick Manly and Mike Turnbull and was a compilation of three and a half years of filming with the Noonan family in Manchester. MacIntyre previously fronted undercover investigation series ‘MacIntyre Underworld’ and ‘MacIntyre Investigates’ for the BBC.
The documentary screened at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year as well as at the recent Galway Film Fleadh. MacIntyre also won the Grand Prix at the Cognac Film Festival 2007- the first time a documentary was allowed into the competition.
A Very British Gangster
4 stars
Chronicle of one of England’s most violent crime bosses. At the Cinema Village (1:37). NR: language, violence.
“Manchester is where I was born, where I live, and where I’ll die,” announces Dominic Noonan at the start of Donal MacIntyre’s gripping documentary. You’d be forgiven for assuming the full cycle will be completed sooner rather than later.
One of the UK’s most notorious criminals, Noonan has spent 22 years in 27 prisons - and that’s before hitting forty. All that time behind bars hasn’t exactly cramped his style, though. Armed robbery, kidnapping and witness intimidation are among the acts that have been pinned on him; a host of murders are among the ones he may have gotten away with.
Charismatic and complicated, Noonan tries to run the movie the way he runs his town. But while the director sometimes appears to be glorifying Noonan’s choices, reminders of uncomfortable reality intrude regularly. We see the path that leads to this life, and we see the eventual outcome. An imposing, cold-blooded killer who’s happiest with a house full of kids, Noonan is England’s answer to Tony Soprano. Except that he, and all his victims, are real. - E.W.