I’ve Got a Tape I Wanna Play

Hello everyone! For such a small country, Ireland has been the origin of many in the film industry, including Colin Farrell, Jessie Buckley, Andrew Scott and all 28 branches of the Gleeson family tree—to name a few. Irish actors and filmmakers were even the underdogs of the Academy Awards categories this past year. There were 12 nominations for Irish films, nine of which for The Banshees of Inisherin and a nomination for Irish heartthrob Paul Mescal. With my Irish husband Cillian Murphy’s performance in Oppenheimer, the Irish nominations are likely to continue. Not only did Ireland represent at recent award shows, but they also represent most moviegoers in the EU. In fact, Ireland leads the EU in cinema attendance, or at least that’s what it said on the screen before I watched a movie at the Irish Film Institute.

My film of choice was The Talking Heads’ 1984 concert documentary, Stop Making Sense, directed by Jonathan Demes. To celebrate the film’s 40th anniversary, A24 rereleased Stop Making Sense in theatres worldwide. Thankfully, IFI was showing the film, and I wasn’t going to miss it. Despite listening to the original soundtrack, I’ve never seen the film in full, let alone on the big screen. To prepare myself for such a momentous occasion, I knew I had to dine in IFI’s own cafe and check out their gluten-free options for myself.

With temperatures dropping and fall beginning, soup season is in full swing. It was only right for me to order a bowl of soup at IFI’s cafe before catching the movie. How am I to enjoy David Byrne dancing in a big suit if I don’t have a warm soup beforehand? Although the gluten-free options at the IFI cafe are limited, their soup of the day is always gluten-free, and they offer gluten-free bread with it. My mushroom soup and gluten-free bread were the perfect way to ring in the autumnal season without breaking the bank. Dinner and a show don’t have to be expensive; you just have to know what to order.

The Talking Heads never performed in Ireland, but the audience acted as if we were watching them live and in concert as we watched Stop Making Sense. Looking around and seeing all these people who come from a different place than me tapping their feet and bopping their heads to the same music I love was an effect that only music and film could have on people. Even though I went to the movie theater by myself in a different country, I couldn’t have been more surrounded by the beauty and community of music.