Film, Issue 690
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The Hot 100 2011: 100-50
16 Dec 2011
The definitive list of Scottish creative talent
100: Gordon Ferris. Kilmarnock crime author makes good. The already packed Scottish crime writing field has finally found a bit of elbow room for another burgeoning talent. Joining the likes of Rankin, Brookmyre, McDermid and co is this Ayrshire-born…
Hot 100 2011 - No. 49 to 1
16 Dec 2011
The definitive list of Scottish creative talent
The Hot 100 is the definitive list of Scottish creative talent. From fashion designers to performance artists, everyone who has made a sizeable splash in 2011 has a place in this countdown. It’s for people who’ve created a buzz, but it’s also about…
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
13 Dec 2011
Mara and Fincher elevate a populist novel into a compelling drama of bleakness and corruption
David Fincher directs a version of Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy – revenge thrillers don’t come with more high-powered credentials than that. While Steven Zaillian’s script sticks a little too closely to the labyrinthine plotting of the original…
Interview: Nanni Moretti, writer-director of We Have a Pope
15 Nov 2011
Director of moving and downbeat film on Catholic Church
Did you ever think of casting yourself in the lead role of Melville, the newly elected Pope, who suffers a crisis of confidence? When I was still in the initial stages of the script, I was chatting to friends and I told them I was thinking of writing a…
Gifts that keep giving: Postal subscriptions
19 Dec 2011
Subscribe to NotAnotherBill.com, or film memberships at the GFT, Cameo or LOVEFiLM
Fluffy slippers that can be heated in the microwave. Mobile phone holders in the shape of endangered species. Socks bearing the legend ‘world’s best grandad’. Ned Corbett-Winder promises that his gift-a-month website notanotherbill.com will most…
The Hot 100 2011 - No. 1: Peter Mullan
16 Dec 2011
Tyrannosaur, Neds, BAFTAS and the upcoming War Horse - 2011 has been Mullan's year
‘I’m confused but delighted,’ says Peter Mullan when I inform him he’s number one on The List’s Hot 100 for 2011. Speaking over the phone from Glasgow in the midst of tucking into ‘a roll and sausage’, Mullan lets out a sort of gravelly, staccato-like…
Best of 2011: Films
14 Dec 2011
Best films of 2011, including Drive, Neds, A Separation, Black Swan and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy Starring a firmament of male British character actors, this taut, sparse and moody le Carré adaptation, directed by Swede Tomas ‘Let The Right One In’ Alfredson, is an incredibly stylish orange-tinged 70s package (yet not a…
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
13 Dec 2011
Slight but entertaining sequel from Guy Ritchie, Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law
Guy Ritchie’s 2009 Sherlock Holmes was considerably better than could reasonably have been expected from the fading and formerly feted Lock, Stock director. Ritchie and his writers successfully pulled off a tough balancing act, rooting the character in…
Interview: Stephen Graham BBC Christmas comedy Lapland
13 Dec 2011
Star of Shane Meadows’ This is England
First record you ever bought Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Last extravagant purchase you made A cashmere hat. £80 is extravagant, isn’t it? First film you saw that really moved you Kes. Last lie you told It was a few days ago. I’m not gonna tell…
The Phantom of the Opera
12 Dec 2011
Unmissable HD restoration of 1925 Rupert Julian version starring horror icon Lon Chaney
(PG) 77/114min There have been several adaptations of novelist Gaston Leroux’s classic macabre horror romance, among them the original 1916 silent German version, the 1943 Hollywood version with Claude Rains, the racier 1962 Hammer offering, Brian…
The List launches new cultural awards
12 Dec 2011
The List Award 2011 shortlist includes David Greig, Karla Black, Aidan Moffat and David Mackenzie
The List introduces its own end-of-year cultural award, plus a Best Newcomer award. The awards complement The List's annual creative talent list The Hot 100, the 2011 edition of which is published on 14 Dec The winners to be announced at a Hot 100…
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
12 Dec 2011
Solid crowd pleaser despite disappointing villain and some dodgy CGI
(12A, 132mins) Pixar director Brad Bird makes the leap from animation to live action in spectacular fashion with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, a frequently awe-inspiring entry into the franchise. As he did with The Incredibles and…
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - The story so far
12 Dec 2011
Background on David Fincher adaptation on Stieg Larsson novels
The imminent release of David Fincher’s adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the first in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, is a bona-fide global pop culture event. Larsson’s books have sold over 50 million copies worldwide, and have spawned…
Profile: Carol Morley
9 Dec 2011
Director of documentary-drama Dreams of a Life
Born 1966, Stockport, England. Background The sister of music critic Paul Morley, film director Carol left school aged 16 to pursue a career as a singer in various post-punk Mancunian bands. Having studied fine art film at Central Saint Martins…
The Lady
9 Dec 2011
Aung San Suu Kyi biopic does nothing to alleviate Luc Besson's downward course
(TBC) tbcmin Luc Besson is best known for his action adventures such as The Fifth Element, The Big Blue and Leon. The French director’s career has been in decline in recent years and this jump into serious drama has done nothing to alleviate this…
The Artist
8 Dec 2011
Delightful celebration of the bygone age of silent cinema, starring Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo
(PG) 100min The Artist has in-built appeal for movie buffs who believe that the arrival of talking pictures was one of the worst things that ever happened to an art form that had found a universal language in the visual poetry of the late silent era.
Dreams of A Life
7 Dec 2011
Compelling UK documentary-drama investigation into life of dead woman
(12A) 90min Back in January 2006 a 38-year-old Londoner of Afro-Caribbean descent, Joyce Vincent, was found dead in her Wood Green housing association flat located above a busy shopping centre. Her decomposing corpse had lain there undisturbed for…
St Andrew's Day - The best film from Scotland
25 Nov 2011
Our editors pick highlights from Scottish film through history
Scotland shares Saint Andrew with areas of Russia, Romania, Greece and Malta, though this list is closed to the corruption of arthouse favourites like Theo Angelopoulos and Sergei Bondarchuk with their long names and even longer films. We’re assuming St…
New Pixar film Brave set in Scottish highlands
17 Nov 2011
Stars Kelly MacDonald, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson and Robbie Coltrane
Pixar – the CG animation powerhouse behind hits such as Finding Nemo, Up and Wall-E – are turning their attention to Scottish shores for their next feature, Brave. Due to be released on Fri 22 Jun 2012, it stars Kelly Macdonald as the voice of Merida, a…
Film books round-up
16 Nov 2011
The Man in the Seventh Row, Cinema: The Whole Story, Hitchcock’s Magic and more reviewed
Brian Pendreigh must surely be the hardest working movie-mad journalist and writer in Scotland. The Man in the Seventh Row (Blasted Heath ●●●) is his seventh book following biographies of Ewan McGregor and Mel Gibson, as well as Scottish cinema and…
Black Pond
15 Nov 2011
Smartly observed and cleverly constructed British comedy drama is something special
(15) 83min This low budget British comedy drama is something special. Smartly observed and cleverly constructed, it’s at once funny and tragic and lyrical, and the deadpan humour is perfectly pitched with nicely underplayed performances from the…
Interview: Alex Gibney, writer-director of Magic Trip – Ken Kesey’s Trip for a Kool Place
15 Nov 2011
Documentary on iconic 60s group the Merry Pranksters
What was your inspiration for making a documentary about the cross-America bus trip undertaken by Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters in the summer of 1964? I was going out to the Sundance film festival in 2005 with my film Enron: The Smartest Guys in…
Immortals
14 Nov 2011
Brutal but shaky retelling of the Greek myths
Tarsem Singh is the latest in a long line of movie directors with roots in the music video genre. He has an eye for the arresting, eye-catching image – something fellow music vid-turned-feature directors David Fincher and Spike Jonze saw in him, leading…
The Rum Diary
14 Nov 2011
Johnny Depp channels Hunter S Thompson once again, with lacklustre results
Of the two fictional representations of Hunter S Thompson to grace the silver screen so far – by Bill Murray in Where the Buffalo Roam and Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Depp’s is commonly regarded as the best. Depp had the advantage of…
Arthur Christmas
14 Nov 2011
Jolly enough, but lacking usual Aardman Animation wit and charm
(U) 97mins In over two decades since Wallace and Gromit’s A Grand Day Out, Aardman Animation have become a byword for family entertainment, but Arthur Christmas, their latest attempt at a blockbuster, never reaches the same lovable heights. As he…
