Film

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Opinion: Why do we love horror during times of economic uncertainty?

20 Feb 2013

Twilight, The Walking Dead and Dead Set are just some of our recent horrific cultural highlights

After the Wall Street crash of 1929, was it pure coincidence that Universal set about creating a canon of classic horror movies with iconic creations? Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, Boris Karloff’s monster of Frankenstein and Lon Chaney Jr’s Wolf Man continued…

The Great Gatsby enjoys a resurgence on stage and screen

20 Feb 2013

F Scott Fitzgerald's novel is being adapted by both Baz Luhrmann and Northern Ballet

Not for nothing is F Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel deemed one of the greatest books of all time. With descriptive text that often borders on the poetic, The Great Gatsby is a story to savour, not devour. At just over 160 pages, however, it’s as much…

Crawl

20 Feb 20132 stars

Australian thriller that borrows a little too heavily from the Coen brothers

Bucking the recent trend in Australian thrillers and chillers for grittily and gratuitously realistic lurid documentary-style dramas based on real events (see Wolf Creek et al), Crawl is a pointedly cinematic and resolutely fictional old school…

Living Apart Together

20 Feb 20134 stars

Restored 80s lost drama about a Glaswegian pop star starring singer-songwriter BA Robertson

Made for fledgling network-broadcaster Channel 4 in 1982, writer/director Charlie Gormley’s film might seem like an odd choice for restoration; this clearly isn’t a masterpiece in disrepair, but a humble homegrown proposition. Yet after several decades…

John Dies at the End

20 Feb 20133 stars

Self-conciously bizarre cult comedy offering from director Don Coscarelli

Penned by Senior Editor at Cracked.com David Wong (real name Jason Pargin), the 2009 novel John Dies at the End was a comedy-horror tornado of cultural references, paranormality and winking self-awareness. Cult filmmaker Don Coscarelli (Phantasm, Bubba…

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Citadel

20 Feb 20132 stars

Bleak and morally dubious ‘hoodie horror’ set in Glasgow high rises

The ‘hoodie horror’ subgenre can be neatly summed up as the Daily Mail’s favourite nightmare: good, honest (almost invariably white) folks terrorized by gangs of feral (almost invariably multi-racial) urban youths. 2008 horror Eden Lake and the Michael…

Director Ricky Wood discusses David Hayman-starring horror Sawney: Flesh of Man

19 Feb 2013

The film is a modern retelling of the legend of Scottish cannibal Sawney Bean

Sawney: Flesh of Man is a new horror film based on the life of Sawney Bean, the infamous head of a Scottish cannibal clan who robbed and ate travellers in the 15th or 16th century. Starring David Hayman in the title role director Ricky Wood has brought…

Eli Roth, Sawney: Flesh of Man and Lords of Salem among the highlights at FrightFest Glasgow 2013

19 Feb 2013

The Glasgow Film Festival's cult-horror strand also features screenings of Bayantium and The Bay

‘I think our major trump card is getting Eli Roth to come,’ is a minor understatement from Alan Jones, one of the fearsome four who – alongside Ian Rattray, Paul McEvoy and Greg Day – orchestrate the two days of terror that is FrightFest. Roth is…

Vinyl

19 Feb 20132 stars

Clunky Welsh comedy starring Keith Allen and Phil Daniels as ageing punk rockers

This clunky punk rock comedy from Welsh filmmaker Sara Sugarman has its heart in the right place, but despite a decent ‘inspired by real events’ premise and some solid performances, it’s crippled by a half-baked script and a reliance upon…

The We and the I

19 Feb 20134 stars

Michel Gondry shows his imagination is alive and well in his latest drama

French director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) gives the single-location movie a funky twist with this authentically over-the-top slice of Bronx life, following the long, loud journey of a local New York bus, loaded with high…

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Cloud Atlas

18 Feb 20134 stars

Breathtaking action, profound emotion, dark sense of fun and sheer deranged brilliance

A time-trotting, globe-encircling, multi-strand plot; wigs, false noses and flamboyant accents; grandiose theories about the fate-shifting power of romantic love... Cloud Atlas has an unavoidable hint of the Mad Folly about it. One recalls Thomas…

Side Effects

18 Feb 20133 stars

Soderbergh's final cinema outing has a fine cast, an authentic milieu and experimental script

Set for early retirement, Steven Soderbergh says Side Effects will be the last film of his we’ll see in cinemas – possibly for good. Whether this proves to be the case or not, this thriller set in the world of prescription medicines is typical of his…

Stoker

18 Feb 20134 stars

Unusually intense slice of American Gothic adds something fresh to the thriller genre

Despite director Park Chan-wook’s previous involvement with vampires (Thirst), his American debut has nothing to do with Dracula writer Bram Stoker. Instead India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) is a teenage girl mourning the death of her father Richard (Dermot…

To the Wonder

18 Feb 20134 stars

Terence Malick's impressionistic hymn to falling in and out of love

You wait six years for a new Terence Malick film -- that was the gap between The New World and The Tree of Life -- and then another one materialises barely a year later. Advance reports indicated that this was the enigmatic director’s most…

Lore

18 Feb 20133 stars

Beautifully-shot, World War II-set drama explores character raised within Nazi ideology

Nine years after her sensitive debut Somersault, about a teenage runaway in Australia, director Cate Shortland brings us her second feature Lore, adapted from a short story by Rachel Seiffert. Newcomer Saskia Rosendhal plays the titular character in…

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Side by Side

18 Feb 20133 stars

A-list directors on film vs digital debate in doc produced and presented by Keanu Reeves

The title of this reasonably interesting and fairly comprehensive documentary about traditional photochemical film and pioneering digital technology is slightly misleading. Although filmmakers have been using both forms for roughly the last decade and a…

Shell

18 Feb 20133 stars

Impressive feature debut set in Highlands by Scottish writer-director Scott Graham

Shot with a raw eloquence that displays a deep understanding of its Highland setting, and performed with sensitivity and directness, Shell is an impressive debut by Scottish writer-director Scott Graham. Chloe Pirrie quietly but confidently holds the…

Safe Haven

18 Feb 20132 stars

A bland, 'vanilla' film about true love conquering all, starring Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel

The Nicholas Sparks novel-to-screen hit-machine shows no sign of slowing down; A Walk To Remember, The Notebook, The Lucky One, and The Last Song have all delighted teenage girls worldwide. Director Lasse Hallström previously paired Amanda Seyfried and…

Raime (live), part of Sonic Cineplex - The Arches, Glasgow, Sat 16 Feb

18 Feb 20133 stars

A solid and engaging sound from the London duo, with disappointing visuals

Armed with one of 2012’s starkest releases, Quarter Turns Over a Living Line released on the uber-slick record label Blackest Ever Black and performances at last year's Unsound festival and London's South Bank, this London duo's post-industrial…

Mama

18 Feb 20133 stars

Feature-length version of short is a supernatural tale of feral children

Picked up under Guillermo del Toro’s production wing following an utterly terrifying short film, the feature length version of Mama comes to the screen under auspicious circumstances. The film initially makes good on these promises, but as is often the…

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Interview: Steven Soderbergh on retiring and Hitchcock-inspired thriller Side Effects

15 Feb 2013

Also working on Liberace TV biopic Behind the Candelabra with Michael Douglas and Matt Damon

Ever since Matt Damon accidentally let slip publicly that Steven Soderbergh was planning to retire, the director has been plagued with questions about it. And today is no different. Hot on the heels of last year’s male stripper surprise hit Magic Mike…

Populaire

15 Feb 20133 stars

Immaculately styled French period romcom starring Déborah Francois and Romain Duris

This immaculately styled French period romantic comedy signals its pedigree with a colourful cartoon credit sequence reminiscent of cute and kookie Hollywood comedies circa the 1950s and 60s. And in fact, co-writer and director Régis Roinsard’s feature…

A Good Day To Die Hard

14 Feb 20131 star

Disappointing addition to the Die Hard franchise starring Bruce Willis and Jai Courtney

From wretched title to poorly conceived premise, A Good Day To Die Hard is a dispiriting exercise in franchise flogging which should never have seen the light of day. Based on a script by Skip Woods and directed by John Moore (of Max Payne and The Omen…

Cartoon College

14 Feb 20134 stars

Documentary following students at the Center for Cartoon Studies

The Center for Cartoon Studies is a small arts college for aspiring comic artists and writers offering a Master of Fine Art degree to those who pass with their final thesis (which takes the form of a completed comic book). And while there are interviews…

Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope

13 Feb 20134 stars

Documentary on the world’s biggest comic convention

Comic-Con in San Diego is the world’s biggest sci-fi, comic and cult convention and Morgan Spurlock’s new documentary is the perfect guide to geek heaven. A place where fanboys and fangirls can feel normal and revel in their passions; there’s a…