They were so good I’ll even forgive them for doing a Coldplay cover in the second half.

One of my very favourite haunted mirror films (well, segment of a portmanteau film). Dead of Night’s classic segment is up there too.

Great stuff! Many congrats to you both.

Belated congrats, man. 👍👍👍

Hey, I’m sure they’re all perfectly cromulent words.

Probably my favourite DeNiro performance in possibly my favourite Scorsese movie. It’s excruciating, and sad, and very very funny. The ending is obviously very Taxi-Driver-like in its ambiguity, but the final bits we see of Pupkin the performer? He could cut it at the Catskills. Or on cruise ships.

I got to ask Gabriel Byrne a question about the performance at the Galway Film Fleadh years ago, and it was a genuine thrill. As it’s one of my favourite performances of anybody in anything. So restrained & distant & understated but absolutely bubbling under with longing & tenderness & melancholy.

And Tom’s motivations for everything he does or doesn’t do in the movie (& it can be hard to keep track) are simultaneously a mystery even to himself (the smartest guy in the room, supposedly) & the logical and inevitable outcome of a VERY complicated love triangle. Where he knows he has to ‘lose’.

Also, Gabriel Byrne has never looked more beautiful than in this. 😍

Tom: Think about what protecting Bernie gets us. Think about what offending Caspar loses us.

Leo: Come on, Tommy, you know I don't like to think!

Tom (adjusting hat, probably): Yeah. Well, think about whether you should start.

Tom exits. Cut to black. And…credit sequence.

*chef’s kiss*

One of my fave ever pre-credit sequences too. From the ice cubes clinkin’ in the glass to the incomparable John Polito (RIP) talkin’ about friendship, character & ethics, to Leo & Tom’s sparring, Tom’s exit & then…straight into Carter Burwell’s sublime & soaring adaptation of Lament for Limerick.

Thoughts also with all of Seán’s family and friends and the wonderful producers and researchers who worked on Arena down through the years. A fabulous group of people. A joy to work with.

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