In The New York Review of Books, the novelist John Banville wrote that too many Samuel Beckett scholars “treat their subject as a secular saint, unworldly and impregnably innocent, a cross between Saint Francis of Assisi and the prophet Jeremiah.” In other words, they reduce the Irish writer to an archetype—and by doing so, miss the full picture. Dance First looks straight at the man. Directed by James Marsh, this biographical film gives us Beckett (Gabriel Byrne) from his early childhood until his death, in 1989. We watch him become friendly with James Joyce (Aidan Gillen), fight in W.W. II, write Waiting for Godot and rise to literary fame, meet and marry Suzanne Déchevaux-Dumesnil, and everything in between. Dance First is a treat for both Hibernian-literature obsessives and the average moviegoer. —Jack Sullivan

Dance First also premieres on August 9 in Los Angeles, at the Laemmle Monica Film Center.