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Movies / Upcoming / Hunger
Hunger

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Hunger (2008)

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90 %
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Reviews Counted: 103

Fresh: 93

Rotten:10

Average Rating: 7.8/10

Consensus: Unflinching, uncompromising, vivid and vital. Steve McQueen’s challenging debut is not for the faint hearted, but still a richly rewarding retelling of troubled times.

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Dec 5, 2008 Limited

Synopsis: Renowned English video artist Steve McQueen's feature film debut, HUNGER, is a cinematic punch to the gut. McQueen brings a visceral intensity to his retelling of the hunger strike instigated by... Renowned English video artist Steve McQueen's feature film debut, HUNGER, is a cinematic punch to the gut. McQueen brings a visceral intensity to his retelling of the hunger strike instigated by Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender) and several other detained Irish Republican Army members in the early 1980s, who were determined to live in a Northern Ireland free from British rule. In prison, Sands and other IRA members--including Davey Gillen (Brian Milligan) and Gerry Campbell (Liam McMahon)--at first protest by refusing to wear the standard prison garb, but soon, they take their protest dangerously further. McQueen comes from an experimental background, and it shows. He and co-screenwriter, the acclaimed Irish playwright Enda Walsh, blow all the prison movie clichés out of the water. They break their film into three distinct acts. In the first, Gillen and Campbell are tormented by prison guards and made to suffer in a cramped, feces-smeared cell. In the second, Sands and Father Moran (Liam Cunningham) have a startling battle of wits--and emotions--that occurs in a dazzling extended one-take sequence. Lastly, we watch as Sands slowly withers away to nothing. It's impossible not to make a political film out of this furiously political material, but McQueen chooses to concentrate on the more visceral, tactile elements of the story to drive his point home. HUNGER is one of the more exciting directorial debuts of recent memory. [More]

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, Stuart Graham, Brian Milligan

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, Stuart Graham, Brian Milligan, Liam McMahon, Helena Bereen, Larry Cowan

Director: Steve McQueen

Director: Steve McQueen
Screenwriter: Steve McQueen, Enda Walsh
Producer: Laura Hastings-Smith, Robin Gutch
Composer: David Holmes, Leo Abrahams
Studio: IFC Films

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Reviews for Hunger

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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If you're going to make a film about an extremist, it makes sense to tell the story using extreme or at least unusual techniques.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
06/07/09
Dan Lybarger
eFilmCritic.com

It’s as stubbornly inscrutable as its subjects.

Full Review Source: Kansas City Star | comment Comment
05/15/09
Loey Lockerby
Kansas City Star

"Hunger" pushes through the cliches of both prison films and political films to make something original, powerful and hard to shake.

Full Review Source: Capital Times (Madison, WI) | comment Comment
05/08/09
Rob Thomas
Capital Times (Madison, WI)

Seriously brutal.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
04/23/09
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Steve McQueen's Hunger is a daring, brutal, vital piece of filmmaking.

Full Review Source: Movie Retriever | comment Comment
04/21/09
Brian Tallerico
Movie Retriever

Midway through the movie there's an epic 24-minute scene...in the claustrophobic cell block the protesters have already internalized their cause so deeply that the world of words seems distant and inconsequential.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
04/17/09
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

An alternately harrowing and poetic take on the fatal 1982 hunger strike of Irish Republican Army prisoner Bobby Sands, Hunger is also one of the most impressive feature directing debuts in years.

Full Review Source: Oregonian | comment Comment
04/17/09
Marc Mohan
Oregonian

It's a strength of this carefully composed, almost obsessively controlled picture that it has no interest in the conventional biographical focus on a subject.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
04/17/09
Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Hunger is daunting and powerful work.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | comment Comment
04/16/09
Steven Rea
Philadelphia Inquirer
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It's by Irish video artist Steve McQueen (yes, that's his name), and it's his visually arresting take on the 1981 hunger strike by IRA leader Bobby Sands, ultimately leading to his death, and the deaths of nine other inmates at Belfast's Maze Prison.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Daily News | comment Comment
04/16/09
Gary Thompson
Philadelphia Daily News

Hunger is not about the rights and wrongs of the British in Northern Ireland, but about inhumane prison conditions, the steeled determination of IRA members like Bobby Sands, and a rock and a hard place.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
04/16/09
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

You can keep your 3-D, thanks. We'll take McQueen's ability to fill in all the dimensions.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
04/10/09
Liz Braun
Jam! Movies

Hunger -- the disturbing, provocative, brilliant feature debut from British director Steve McQueen -- does for modern film what Caravaggio did to Renaissance painting.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
04/10/09
Liam Lacey
Globe and Mail
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

One of the most powerful things movies can do is help us understand people whose behavior seems foreign and inexplicable. By that standard, Hunger is a smashing success.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
04/10/09
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

Relying on images more than words, it's a plea for humanity in times of insanity.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
04/10/09
Peter Howell
Toronto Star
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Hunger is an upsetting, vivid film about going to the ultimate extreme in defense of one's beliefs.

Full Review Source: Seattle Times | comment Comment
04/09/09
Jeff Shannon
Seattle Times

This is strong stuff, a tour of hell on Earth presented in scenes of unbearable tension and pulse-spiking violence. Hunger ends as something else, though, in a vision of transcendence and grace.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
04/09/09
Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Hunger is an intense movie-going experience, one that will leave you both drained and uplifted.

Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | comment Comment
04/06/09
Beverly Berning
culturevulture.net

You don't need to understand the entirety of Hunger's backstory to appreciate the filmmaking.

Full Review Source: Washington City Paper | comment Comment
04/04/09
Tricia Olszewski
Washington City Paper

It's horrific. But Hunger displays uncommon intelligence and visual panache, transcending the goal of making the situation seem real. It feels more than real. It's art.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
04/03/09
Reyhan Harmanci
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
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Latest News for Hunger

March 17, 2009: A fitting, posthumous tribute to a martyr who freely sacrificed his own life to highlight the horror of man's inhumanity to his fellow man. Opens in new window
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