From ‘Barbie’ to ‘The Bear’ – what to watch and read this week

Monday, July 17

Breaking Point, Sky 

Two brothers’ rise through the ranks of the British Breakdance Team try-outs for a once-in-a-lifetime chance at the world stage. The warring brothers defy grief and their differences to compete their way through national try-outs. aiming high to get a chance to compete with the very best international breakers in the London World Championships. If they can overcome their differences and make their mark on this world stage, they could just start to dream about heading to the Olympics in 2024.

Tuesday, July 18

Kala, by Colin Walsh 

Looking set to be one of the must-reads of the summer, Kala by Irish author Colin Walsh is set in the seaside town of Kinlough, on Ireland’s west coast, where three old friends are thrown together for the first time in years. Once part of an original group of six inseparable teenagers, the reckless Kala Lanann was the group’s white-hot center. Soon after the summer of 2003’s peak, Kala disappeared without a trace. Fifteen years later, human remains have been found in the woods and two more girls have gone missing, and as past and present begin to collide, the estranged friends are forced to confront their own complicity in the events that led to Kala’s disappearance, and to try to stop Kinlough’s violent patterns repeating themselves once again…

Wednesday, July 19

The Bear Season 2, Disney+

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5U-w1yL4r0

Season two follows Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), Sydney Adamu (Ayo Edebiri) and Richard “Richie” Jerimovich (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) as they work to transform their grimy sandwich joint into a next-level spot. As they strip the restaurant down to its bones, the crew undertakes transformational journeys of their own, each forced to confront the past and reckon with who they want to be in the future.

Thursday, July 20

Seventeen: A Coming of Age Story, by Joe Gibson

It’s 1992. Like every other seventeen-year-old boy, Joe has one eye on his studies, and the other on his social life – smoking, Britpop, girls. He’s looking ahead to a gap year full of travel and adventure before university when his teacher – attractive, mid-thirties – takes an interest in him. It seems like a fantasy come true. For his final two years at school, he is bound to her, a woman twice his age, in an increasingly tangled web of coercion, sex and lies. Their affair, a product of complex grooming and a shocking abuse of authority, is played out in the corridors of one of Britain’s major private schools, under the noses of people who suspected, even knew, but said nothing. Thirty years on, this is Joe’s gripping record of the illicit relationship that dominated his adolescence and dictated the course of his life for seventeen years. 

Friday, July 21

Barbie, in cinemas nationwide 

The day we’ve all been waiting for; Barbie opens in Irish cinemas on Friday. To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis.  Or you’re a Ken. Grab your Barbies and get thee to the pictures stat.

Saturday, July 22

Oppenheimer, in cinemas nationwide

If you couldn’t manage a double-feature yesterday (I don’t blame you, at three hours long Oppenheimer is a real commitment), then add Oppenheimer to your weekend to-do plans. Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer is an IMAX-shot epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it. Cillian Murphy plays J. Robert Oppenheimer with Emily Blunt as his wife, biologist and botanist Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer. Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr. and Florence Pugh also star.

Sunday, July 23

Fifteen-Love, Prime Video

When former tennis prodigy, Justine Pearce (played by Irish newcomer Ella Lily Hyland), makes an explosive allegation against her former coach Glenn Lapthorn (played by fellow Irishman Aidan Turner), those around her are forced to reconsider everything they thought they knew about the duo’s past success. Having already gotten a sneak preview of the first two episodes, I can guarantee this is going to be your next obsession. Catch it on Prime Video from Friday this week.

Feature image © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.