You've seen stories of substance abuse and its effects on a family, but rarely one as deeply unsentimental and candid as this one.

| May 3, 2016

Glassland smartly plays off Jean's unhinged disintegration against John's tense, subdued control. In that contrast lies the power of this film.

| Mar 31, 2016

It earns its tears, even if it skimps out on everything else.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 31, 2016

Glassland is impressive, although Barrett struggles to give this carefully crafted narrative a coherent resolution.

Full Review | Mar 31, 2016

A downbeat serving of kitchen-sink social realism with the sink itself thrown in for good measure.

| Mar 31, 2016

Glassland is a small film with an emotional punch that wallops above its weight class.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 11, 2016

This is a hard, spare, tough movie, at times nearly jarring in its lack of adornment.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 12, 2016

There's much in the movie to admire until it runs headlong into a stone wall.

| Feb 11, 2016

In the movie's best scene, as mother and son dance to an old pop song, the look on Reynor's face speaks volumes about loss and hope. It's a look that's going to be breaking hearts on screen for decades to come.

| Feb 11, 2016

The film is an intensely descriptive, head-to-the-ground mood piece, and when it's not talking too much, Glassland is the satisfyingly tangled love story of a boy and his mama.

| Feb 11, 2016

Jean is such a monster, and John such a put-upon sweetheart, that Glassland offers little more than undiluted bathos for over an hour.

| Original Score: C | Feb 11, 2016

Bring plenty of Kleenex. A nickel pack won't do.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 11, 2016

The film trudges along in Collette's wake, fumbling for something to focus on apart from the bleeding wound just offscreen.

| Feb 11, 2016

Gerard Barrett's second feature isn't short of integrity, but it's hampered by solemnity and - even for this school of hard-times realism - a somewhat puritanical refusal of visual appeal.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 19, 2015

The best Irish film in years.

| Apr 17, 2015

Through coiled tension, hooded frustration and, eventually, voluble remonstrating, he gets across a terrible truth about addiction.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 17, 2015

Slow-moving and sometimes very bleak but benefits from two exceptional central performances.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 16, 2015

While there are some powerful emotional moments, the sense of despair is enervating.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 16, 2015

Like the emotional equivalent of a massage with a sandpaper loofah, the film leaves you feeling raw and tender, thanks particularly to the knockout performances from the small cast, especially Collette.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 16, 2015

A proper film, robustly made and beautifully acted.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 16, 2015