Film, Issue 677

Inside Job examines 2008 financial crisis - Charles Ferguson interview

Matt Damon-narrated documentary suggest crash was avoidable

An interview with Charles Ferguson, director of the Matt Damon-narrated Inside Job, an examination of the 2008 financial crisis

Dark Australian crime thriller Animal Kingdom

James Frecheville, Jacki Weaver and Guy Pearce star in David Michôd's crime flick

(15) 113min This dark Australian crime thriller has had critics lining up to heap praises upon it since its prize-winning debut at Sundance last January, and it arrives on these shores fresh from a deserved Oscar nomination in the Best Supporting…

Uplifting documentary Waste Land profiles world’s largest rubbish dump

British film on garbage artist Vik Muniz features score by Moby

(PG) 98min ‘I like to take people into places they can’t access on their own’, is how British documentary filmmaker Lucy Walker (Blindsight, plus the forthcoming Countdown to Zero) recently described her films. Her Oscar-nominated Waste Land…

You Instead - David MacKenzie's film shot in four days at T in the Park

Rock’n’roll romcom that follows two handcuffed-together rockstars

Making a feature film in four days is no mean feat; doing it amid the craziness of T in the Park is even more impressive. ‘It was really invigorating, because you know you can’t spend too much time on any one thing, so it’s all new stuff, you’re not…

The Rite - The human obsession with possession

Latest in line of films exploring possession of the body, spirit and soul

We know that modern society is obsessed with ownership – fancy electrical goods, high fashion and general clutter. But there’s another form of possession with which people have been obsessed for a very long time. It’s possession of the body, the spirit…

The best of Frightfest at Glasgow Film Festival 2011

Paul McEvoy, founder and co-director of the horror film festival within a festival, picks the best of the line-up ‘We always have a snapshot of exactly where the genre is at the moment, so we’re only as strong as the films that are being produced. I…

Glasgow Short Film Festival highlights 2011

Miranda Pennell Retrospective, Lonesome Road and Wounded Knee

GSFF Opening Night Party with LuckyMe The Glasgow arts collective LuckyMe has a reputation for throwing great festival parties. It will helm GSFF’s opening-night shindig, with live performances and DJ sets from American Men, The Blessings, Éclair Fifi…

West is West an uninspired and unrewarding sequel to East is East

Andy DeEmmony's plodding, bland drama stars Om Puri and Aqib Khan

(15) 103min East is East was one of the British box office successes of the late 90s, and found an even bigger audience on video and DVD, but it’s hard to believe that there is much, if any, anticipation for this belated sequel. That is probably for…

The Rite - Demonic possession thriller bogged down by script

Anthony Hopkins, Rutger Hauer and Colin O'Donoghue fail to escape The Exorcist's shadow

(15) 113min ‘What did you expect, spinning heads and pea-soup?’ asks Vatican-approved exorcist Father Lucas Trevant (Anthony Hopkins) in Mikael Håfström’s demonic possession thriller, which initially offers a sober take on a horror genre that usually…

Glasgow Film Festival Meryl Streep retrospective

Festival co-director explains reasons behind 2011 retrospective

Allan Hunter, co-director of the GFF, explains his choice of Meryl Streep for this year’s retrospective ‘Meryl Streep is a star who has stood the test of time, and is currently enjoying a fresh wave of popularity among the generation who've seen The…

No Strings Attached - Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher in casual sexual relationship

Ivan Reitman's sweet-and-sour confection coasts by on personable leads

(15) 107min The moribund romcom genre emits a shrill death-rattle in No Strings Attached, in which Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher play friends who find themselves in a casual sexual relationship, only to find that there are always strings…

Area guide to the Glasgow Film Festival

Kirstin Innes helps you bring the movies to life with our GFF-themed area guide

If you're interested in the Beyond Bollywood, Superheroes in Glasgow, Ceol's Craic or Fashion in Film strands, this is the Glasgow guide for you.

James Franco stars in Ginsberg biopic Howl - interview

We speak to the multi-disciplined actor about what he wants from life

Author, filmmaker, Oscars host and star of 127 Hours, Howl and Spiderman James Franco discusses his work.

Opening film Potiche and Little White Lies among GFF highlights

An overview of the careers of both actresses

The Catherine Deneuve-starring Potiche, opens the 2011 Glasgow Film Festival, while another programme highlight is Little White Lies starring Marion Cotillard. Paul Dale examines the career of both actresses.

The Glasgow Short Film Festival sheds light on influential area of US cinema

Focus on No Wave DIY ethos of 1970s and 80s New York

A look at the Glasgow Short Film Festival's No Wave strand, featuring Vivienne Dick's Lydia Lunch-starring She Had Her Gun All Ready.

Joanna Hogg explains how she made her second feature film Archipelago

British filmmaker returns with perceptive account of family holiday

Joanna Hogg ’s debut feature Unrelated was lauded as one of the most distinctive British films of recent years. She returns to cinema screens with Archipelago, a highly perceptive account of an upper-middle class family on holiday in the Scilly Isles.

William Fichtner stars in new horror Drive Angry - profile

The US actor on playing the accountant from Hell

Name William Fichtner Born 27 November, 1956, Long Island, New York. Background ‘I’ve got a Bachelors degree in Criminal Justice but I had to take one arts course as part of my core requirements,’ explains Fichtner, ‘so I took an improv…

Brighton Rock remake actress Andrea Riseborough - Profile

From Made in Dagenham to starring opposite Guy Pearce

Name Andrea Riseborough Born 27 October 1981, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Background She was Sally Hawkins’ mate in Happy-Go-Lucky, Margaret Thatcher in The Long Walk to Finchley, English Civil War-era crumpet in The Devil’s Whore and busty Brenda…

Inside Job - Absorbing documentary on causes of 2008 global financial crisis

Matt Damon narrates film suggesting crash was not unavoidable

(12A) 108min The causes of the global financial crisis of 2008, which has been the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s, are rigorously explored in this absorbing documentary from American filmmaker Charles Ferguson. That we are continuing…

DVD: The Flying Scotsman

1929 Romantic comedy thriller is silent film with dialogue added

Classic 1929 action-romance set on the titular train, with amazing stunts and future Oscar-winner Ray Milland.

DVD: I Spit on Your Grave

2010 remake of notorious 'Video Nasty'

Sarah Butler stars in Steven R Monroe's reboot of the 1978 rape-revenge Video Nasty.

DVD: Betrayal

War thriller suffers from two-dimensional characters and lack of action

(15) 93min (Optimum) Nazi occupied Oslo in 1943 and the black market is rife. Life is sweet for corrupt businessmen who frequent the nightspot Club Havana, largely thanks to the compliance of the SS Major who turns a blind eye and takes his share.

DVD: Pelican Blood

Suicide and competitive bird-watching meet in dark drama from Irish director

(15) 94min (Icon) Irish indie director Karl Golden ’s second feature is more raw and vicious than his 2003 debut The Honeymooners. Harry Treadaway (Fish Tank, Control) plays Nikko, a suicidal young man whose low-key daily routine of bird watching…

DVD: In Their Sleep (Dans Ton Sommeil)

Quietly unsettling psychological thriller

French psychological thriller directed by Caroline and Eric du Potet, and starring Anne Parillaud (Nikita).

Glasgow Film Festival explores the world of mainstream comics and graphic novels

GFF Ambassador Mark Millar celebrates Scotland’s strength in the field

For a city that doesn’t (yet) boast a gallery of its own Lycra-clad do-gooders in the way that the superhero capital New York does, it’s ironic that it is writers Mark Millar and Grant Morrison, two sons of Glasgow, who are the current creative driving…