The Science of Ghosts – Film Review by Killian Laher

Niall McCann’s latest film is a follow-up to last year’s Lost in France.  Thematically it follows on from the previous film in that it paints a portrait of a musical artist.  This time around the subject is Adrian Crowley, Galway-born musician who has been toiling in relative obscurity for 20 years or so.

We don’t get a linear story of Crowley’s musical career.  Instead we get an impressionistic look at Crowley, who is an interesting if a little strange character.  At intervals throughout he is approached by a seemingly random stranger who asks him the time.  And each time, Adrian responds in his own, slightly bewildered way.  Crowley comes across as an artist who can’t necessarily believe he even exists, aspects of his own being seem to leave him in a state of confusion.  The whole thing is beautifully shot with lingering looks at the Connemara countryside, and takes in both Wittgenstein and MTV.

What transpires is kind of like a film about the process of making a film about Adrian Crowley.  Charming at times, perplexing at others.  Kevin Barry talks in the film about the period first thing in the morning when “you’re not quite in the world… that half awake, half alive moment” which serves as a something of a metaphor for Adrian Crowley.