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Cannes 2012: Amour

Cannes 2012: Amour

Deeply sad and affecting film from Michael Haneke, and winner of the 2012 Palme D’Or

(4 stars)28 May 2012

Unlike The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke’s Palme D’Or winning film from 2009), which stands out for its thematic and narrative complexities, Amour sees the Austrian director take a far simpler approach to filmmaking, with an intimate story of an elderly…

Cannes 2012: Holy Motors

Cannes 2012: Holy Motors

Hugely satisfying and inventive celebration of cinema from Leos Carax

(4 stars)28 May 2012

Monsieur Oscar (Denis Lavant) is picked up by his driver Celine (Edith Scob) for a day’s work - 9 appointments that will take him across Paris and into the paths of an array of characters. If that sounds vague, it’s deliberate - to say anymore would…

Cannes 2012: On the Road

Cannes 2012: On the Road

Walter Salles’ adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s classic novel struggles to capture a sense of the times

(3 stars)25 May 2012

If, for two and a half hours, you can put aside the fact that Walter Salles’ (Central Station, The Motorcycle Diaries) latest work is an adaptation of one of the most famous, influential books in recent American history, you might just enjoy this…

Cannes 2012: The Paperboy

Cannes 2012: The Paperboy

Lee Daniels’ plot hole-ridden latest film is still a compelling, if occasionally ludicrous, ride

(3 stars)25 May 2012

Lee Daniels follows up his sleeper hit Precious with an enjoyably trashy, if often misguided, story based on the book by Pete Dexter. It’s 1969 and journalist Ward (Matthew McConaughey) returns to his hometown of Lately, Florida to investigate what…

New trailer available for Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby

New trailer available for Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby

The 3D film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire

24 May 2012

This December sees the release of Baz Luhrmann's take on F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Renowned for his epic stories of love and tragedy – see Moulin Rouge and Romeo and Juliet – Luhrmann seems like a fitting director to put an original spin on…

The Angels' Share - EMBARGO 22 MAY

The Angels' Share

Loach and Laverty's latest suffers from attempts to attract all-comers

(2 stars)23 May 2012

Here persists the noble quest of Ken Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty to create accessible, populist films about the lives of the UK’s so-called underclass. Unfortunately, The Angels’ Share is straining so hard to be accessible and populist that it…

She Monkeys

She Monkeys

Impressive coming-of-age drama with frank depiction of adolescent sexuality

(4 stars)23 May 2012

A courageous, periodically unsettling coming-of-age tale, She Monkeys is the arresting first feature from director Lisa Aschan. It’s a Swedish production which - in its frank approach to adolescent sexuality - bears comparison with Katell Quillévéré’s…

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Crisp restoration of the 1940s satire by Powell and Pressburger

(5 stars)18 May 2012

Spry and delightful nearly 70 years on, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is one of many masterpieces from filmmaking virtuosos Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, collectively known as The Archers. Their fifth collaboration, from 1943, is an…

Polisse

Polisse

Sprawling French ensemble drama that veers between compelling and ridiculous

(3 stars)16 May 2012

This sprawling ensemble film, which tracks the harrowing daily routines of a Parisian Child Protection Unit, veers wildly between the compelling and the ridiculous. Scripted and directed by Maiwenn, with Emmaneulle Bercot acting as co-writer, it shifts…

Ill Manors

Ill Manors

A jarring, grimy and a searing indictment of Broken Britain, from debut director Ben Drew aka Plan B

(4 stars)11 May 2012

To say Ill Manors doesn’t pull punches is like saying Mike Tyson hits quite hard. Raw, uncompromising and brutal, this urban tale of violence, prostitution and drugs smacks you round the face, then kicks you in the groin for good measure. It marks the…

Free Men

Free Men

A Prophet's Tahar Rahim stars in worthy but flawed WWII espionage drama

(3 stars)11 May 2012

Loosely based on real events, this espionage drama set during World War II focuses on the largely overlooked cooperation between Arabic immigrants and the French Resistance. Tahar Rahim (who shot to fame in A Prophet) plays a North African worker named…

A Royal Affair

A Royal Affair

A skillfully delivered but coldly aloof period drama from the Swedish Dragon Tattoo team

(3 stars)11 May 2012

Reuniting the writing team behind the original Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, A Royal Affair is a welcome break from the current plethora of morbid Scandinavian thrillers; instead, Rasmus Heisterberg and Nikolaj Arcel have co-adapted an unfamiliar but…

Nicole Kidmman, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard in Edinburgh to film The Railway Man

Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth in Edinburgh to film The Railway Man

A true story about a British soldier’s experience of torture during WWII

27 Apr 2012

After Brad Pitt’s stint in Glasgow and Scarlett Johansson’s visit to the Highlands, it’s nice to see Edinburgh getting some Hollywood love. Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard and Jeremy Irvine are among the stars who will be filming in and…

Seminal Souls - Antonioni and Bergman in the 21st century

Seminal Souls - Antonioni and Bergman in the 21st century

A look at the significance of Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman

26 Apr 2012

Dying within twenty four hours of each other, the demise of two great filmmakers in 2007 was clearly a loss, but though Ingmar Bergman came out of retirement to make Saraband in 2002, and Antonioni made one feature, Beyond the Clouds (and a later short…

Dominik Moll, director of Gothic horror The Monk - Interview

The Monk director Dominik Moll - interview

The French director discusses his dark and beautiful adaptation of Matthew Lewis’ Gothic horror

26 Apr 2012

'Film has a lot to do with dreams and nightmares,' says Dominik Moll, 'and what I like about making films is that they allow you to show a surface and also what’s underneath. I’m attracted to this double-layer idea.' The German-born French filmmaker…

Piggy

Piggy

Ultra-violent London-set thriller starring Martin Compston

(2 stars)23 Apr 2012

(18) 106mins Fight Club meets Death Wish in this ultra-violent vigilante movie, one so gratuitous it will turn even the strongest of stomachs. Set in a modern-day London where hoodies wielding knives seem to lurk on every street corner, Martin…

Revisiting: The Bad and the Beautiful

Revisiting: The Bad and the Beautiful

Vincente Minnelli’s classic Hollywood melodrama still shines on the big screen

(5 stars)23 Apr 2012

(PG) 118mins Vincente Minnelli’s momentous 1952 melodrama returns to the big screen and it’s as bewitching and stinging as ever. The Bad and the Beautiful is justifiably regarded as one of the finest films ever made about the filmmaking process…

Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy

Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy

An agonisingly watered-down imitation of Welsh's short story

(2 stars)19 Apr 2012

Nothing dates faster than drug culture, and writer-director Rob Heydon’s Irvine Welsh adaptation arrives nearly two decades after the era of the dedicated pill-popper. Taken from Welsh’s story 'The Undefeated', part of the 1996 compilation that provides…

Jeff, Who Lives at Home

Jeff, Who Lives at Home

The Duplass Brothers' slacker comedy bears too much resemblance to its underachieving protagonist

(3 stars)18 Apr 2012

(15) 83mins No one would have believed in the last years of the 20th century that of all the stars to emerge from Judd Apatow’s extraordinary talent nursery Freaks and Geeks, the household name would end up being Jason Segel. He’s not as gorgeous as…

Albert Nobbs

Albert Nobbs

Glenn Close's period drama passion project is a squandered opportunity of intriguing premise

(3 stars)18 Apr 2012

(15) 113mins Fifteen years in development, Rodrigo Garcia’s adaptation of George Moore’s short story The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs arrives on the back of two deserved Oscar nominations for stars Glenn Close and Janet McTeer. And while it’s just…

North Sea Texas

North Sea Texas

Sensitive performances fail to make this predictable coming of age story engaging

(2 stars)18 Apr 2012

(15) 98 mins Given how difficult we’re lead to believe it is to get an independent film distributed in cinemas in the UK, you’d be forgiven for wondering why some of those that do reach our screens seem so familiar. North Sea Texas, the story of…

Jason Segel on Jeff, Who Lives at Home - interview

Interview: Jason Segel on Jeff, Who Lives at Home

The Forgetting Sarah Marshall on new slacker comedy and future plans

17 Apr 2012

Jason Segel may well look back on 2012 as his year. Already the 32-year-old actor-writer has seen The Muppets, his nostalgia-tinged feature film revival of the beloved TV show, gross $158m around the world. Even better, the film’s signature tune ‘Man or…

Apocalypse archives: Whit Stillman

Apocalypse archives: Whit Stillman

The Damsels in Distress director picks five films he’d save in an impending apocalypse

17 Apr 2012

That Sinking Feeling (Bill Forsyth, 1980) ‘I wanted to include something Scottish. Aside from how enjoyable Bill Forsyth’s film about kids in rainy Glasgow is, I want to include it for its economy of means. To see how much was done with so little was…

Amara Karan, star of All in Good Time - profile

Amara Karan, star of All in Good Time - profile

The actress is also set to star alongside Simon Pegg in A Fantastic Fear of Everything

17 Apr 2012

Born 29 March, 1984, London Background Oxford-educated Karan spent two years working as an investment banker before plucking up the courage to pursue her interest in acting. Her audition tape was enough to impress revered director Wes Anderson, who…

Damsels in Distress

Damsels in Distress

Whit Stillman's return to filmmaking features wordy, droll dialogue but often inept direction

(3 stars)17 Apr 2012

(15) 99min Following a 14-year break from filmmaking, American writer-director Whit Stillman returns to the big screen with another highly idiosyncratic comedy, one that audiences are likely to find either delightfully urbane or else utterly…

Monsieur Lazhar

Monsieur Lazhar

A classroom drama with unexpected charm, quiet dignity and emotional integrity

(4 stars)17 Apr 2012

(12A) 94min Inspirational schoolteachers have been a cinematic staple from Goodbye Mr. Chips to Laurent Cantet’s Cannes prize-winner The Class. Monsieur Lazhar successfully avoids treacly sentimental as it charts how a teacher and a group of…

The Lucky One

The Lucky One

Unconvincing, one-dimensional drama starring Zac Efron and Taylor Schilling

(2 stars)17 Apr 2012

(12A) 101mins The latest adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel is as schmaltzy as ever but also hopelessly contrived and unconvincing. Stretching credibility from the start, Zac Efron stars as a US Marine who comes across a photo of an unknown blonde…

Silent House

Silent House

A ponderously slow psychological drama packaged as a horror film

(2 stars)17 Apr 2012

(18) 85min With Martha Marcy May Marlene, Elizabeth Olsen proved herself to be a young actress with great potential by persuasively playing a refugee haunted by her experiences with a murderous cult. Silent House features her in a disappointingly…

All in Good Time

All in Good Time

Sweet-natured culture clash comedy starring Amara Karan and Meera Syal

(3 stars)17 Apr 2012

(12A) 93min Originally a 1965 play and subsequently a film by Irish writer Bill Naughton, this sweet-natured comedy became a theatre hit again in 2007 when East is East writer Ayub Khan-Din adapted it into a present-day British-Asian setting. The…

Goodbye First Love

Goodbye First Love

Intimate but unenlightening romance populated with unlikeable characters

(2 stars)17 Apr 2012

(15) 110mins It’s supposed to be unbearably boring hearing about other people’s dreams. But often that’s not nearly as bad as hearing about other people’s formative love affairs. Watching vain, drippy, lugubrious teenager Camille (Lola Créton) fall…

Cafe de Flore

Cafe de Flore

An objectionable, distasteful and ultimately pointless exercise in parallel plotting

(1 star)17 Apr 2012

(tbc) 120 min In crisply-shot present-day Montreal, celebrity DJ Antoine (Kevin Parent) has recently left his wife Carole (Hélène Florent) and set up a home with their two children and his new girlfriend, Rose (Evelyne Brochu). In dull and dingy Paris…

Watch the trailer for US indie American Animal

Watch the trailer for US indie American Animal

A dark comedy from writer/director/star Matt D'Elia

12 Apr 2012

This one looks interesting... Matt D'Elia writes, directs and stars in the story of Jimmy, a terminally ill (and, from the evidence available, totally unhinged) young man who discovers his best friend and roommate James (Brendan Fletcher) is getting a…

Bonsai

Bonsai

A likeable drama about past love and missed opportunities

(3 stars)10 Apr 2012

There’s much to like in this gentle drama about young love and missed opportunities but Chilean feature Bonsái feels a little too familiar to make a lasting impact. Julio (Diego Noguera) is an aspiring writer, working in a bookshop by day and…

Revisiting: La Grande Illusion

Revisiting: La Grande Illusion

The chance to see Jean Renoir’s eloquent anti-war statement on the big screen should not be missed

4 Apr 2012

It’s usually described as an anti-war statement, and La Grande Illusion is certainly and eloquently that, but Jean Renoir’s masterpiece – re-released this month – is warmer and less didactic than that tag suggests. The film makes its moral point about…

Return

Return

A fine example of independent filmmaking, despite familiar subject matter

(3 stars)3 Apr 2012

American filmmaker Liza Johnson is by no means the first to take a crack at the ‘soldier comes home from war’ story, and she certainly won’t be the last, but Return is a worthwhile addition to the genre. It’s a focused, unshowy character study, light on…

StreetDance 2

StreetDance 2

A sequel of so-so dances, hackneyed plotting and wooden performances

(2 stars)2 Apr 2012

(PG) 85mins The ‘kids dancing their way out of the ghetto’ trope has been a staple of cinema since the 1950s but taking inspiration from recent US products like Step Up and Stomp the Yard, StreetDance 3D inexplicably became the UK’s most popular…

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games

Adaptation that successfully transcends its teen-fiction origins, with excellent cast and direction

(4 stars)21 Mar 2012

(12A) 142min A dystopian thriller with cross-generational appeal, The Hunger Games is an adaptation of the first novel in Suzanne Collins’ trilogy. From writer and director Gary Ross (Pleasantville) and co-written by Collins herself, it’s set in…

Director Paolo Sorrentino discusses This Must Be the Place

Director Paolo Sorrentino discusses the Sean Penn-starring This Must Be the Place

The drama merges themes of America, rock music and the Holocaust

19 Mar 2012

The protagonist at the heart of Paolo Sorrentino’s This Must be the Place isn’t your typical Nazi-hunter. Endearingly played by Sean Penn, Cheyenne is a retired rock star, now living in Dublin, whose mental and physical faculties have been impaired by…

Le Havre

Le Havre

Aki Kaurismaki's French language debut is a grimly funny working class drama

(4 stars)19 Mar 2012

(PG) 93min Migrating south to shoot his latest feature in France seems to have lightened the mood of the Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki, whose brand of deadpan humour has previously proved to be the key in crafting a series of delightfully…

Cleanskin

Cleanskin

A gratuitously violent Sean Bean action vehicle light on sociological insight

(2 stars)9 Mar 2012

'I love my country. I’ve killed for it and I’ll die for it', growls Ewan (Sean Bean), an ex-soldier turned secret service agent who is tasked with tracking down a cell of homegrown suicide bombers in this London-set thriller by British writer-director…

The Kid with a Bike

The Kid with a Bike

Naturalistic storytelling from the Dardenne brothers, starring Cecile de France and Thomas Doret

(5 stars)28 Feb 2012

(12A) 87min The Dardenne brothers’ latest film is one of their very best – the story of the relationship between a young boy Cyril (Thomas Doret), recently taken into foster care, and local hairdresser Samantha (Cecile de France). The two meet by…

Michael

Michael

Challenging and non-sensationalist portrayal of a paedophile

(4 stars)28 Feb 2012

(18) 96min Doubtless Austrian writer-director Markus Schleinzer, a former casting director for Michael Haneke, will be pilloried in some quarters for making a film which ‘humanizes’ its paedophile protagonist. Yet what makes this rigorously observed…

Bel Ami

Bel Ami

Pretty but shallow romantic period drama starring Robert Pattinson, Uma Thurman and Christina Ricci

(3 stars)28 Feb 2012

(15) 102min A young man gains social and financial advancement via his irresistibility to women, but has trouble securing professional credibility. And then he gets cast in a film called Bel Ami! Yes, it’s hard to imagine that Robert Pattinson…

GFF 2012 - Kid With a Bike and On The Ice

GFF 2012 - Kid With a Bike and On The Ice

Dardennes brothers film strikes a chord but Inuit thriller fails to excite

20 Feb 2012

Before the Film Festival began, when talking to people about highlights, one of the picks that kept coming up was the Dardennes brothers' Kid With a Bike. The Dardennes (Jean-Pierre and Luc) are the Belgian filmmaking pair responsible for La Promesse…

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

Revisiting: Twin Peaks - Fire Walk With Me

David Lynch and his troubled relationship with television

17 Feb 2012

In May 1990, David Lynch controversially stormed the Cannes Film Festival with his adaptation of Barry Gifford’s Wild at Heart, picking up the prestigious Palme d’Or. Two years later, when he premiered Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me – the feature length…

GFF 2012 blog - Opening Gala: Your Sister's Sister

GFF 2012 - Opening Gala: Your Sister's Sister

Mumblecore director Lynn Shelton introduces her latest film at the opening of the Glasgow Film Fest

17 Feb 2012

Director Lynn Shelton was at the Glasgow Film Theatre last night to introduce her opening gala feature, Your Sister's Sister. She seemed ecstatically happy to be there, hugging co-director Allison Gardner ahead of the screening. Then, after the usual…

Chronicle

Chronicle

Suspenseful non-horror addition to the found footage canon

(3 stars)16 Feb 2012

(12A) 84min The found footage genre is beloved by horror filmmakers (Blair Witch, [REC], Paranormal Activity). With its panicked shakiness and POV perspective, it’s a neat shortcut to instilling a sense of panic. Godzilla clone Cloverfield attempted…

GFF 2012 - director Lynn Shelton on Your Sister’s Sister

GFF 2012 - Director Lynn Shelton on Your Sister’s Sister

Mumblecore icon on her film which opens 2012 Glasgow Film Festival

10 Feb 2012

Seattle-based filmmaker Lynn Shelton has specialised in revelling in the foibles of her characters across each of her four movies, so it’s no surprise to hear her say, 'People are flawed, that’s what I love about them... I want people to like characters…

Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

By-the-numbers old age comedy drama

(2 stars)10 Feb 2012

Early in this by-the-numbers comedy drama, a young salesperson eagerly enthuses to retiring couple Douglas (Bill Nighy) and Jean (Penelope Wilton) that 'the grey pound is very strong at the moment'. We’re quite clearly supposed to see this…

GFF 2012 - Day planner

GFF 2012 - Day planner

Our highlights for each day of the Glasgow Film Festival

6 Feb 2012

It can be difficult, when any festival rolls around, to decide which events to skip in favour of others. Searching rigorously through the programme, referring back to the calendar, trying to fit in as much as possible - it's a painstaking piece of work…

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