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Film and Reviews

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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…

Electric Man

Electric Man

A patchy, if well intentioned, Edinburgh-set comic comedy

(3 stars)8 Feb 2012

(12A tbc) 98min Shot in Edinburgh on a micro-budget, comic shop comedy Electric Man declares its intentions from the off: this is to be no social realist kitchen sink drama, typical of the UK film industry, but rather a light-hearted love-letter to…

Safe House

Safe House

Brutally slick but flawed action thriller starring Denzel Washtington and Ryan Reynolds

(3 stars)8 Feb 2012

(15) 115mins Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds make a formidable partnership in Daniel Espinosa's Safe House, a brutally slick, if flawed, action thriller.

Young Adult

Young Adult

A fiercely dark comedy from Juno writer-director team Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman

(4 stars)2 Feb 2012

(15) 94min This reteaming of Juno director (Jason Reitman) and writer (Diablo Cody) is a fiercely dark character comedy that once again demonstrates the pair’s refusal to be limited by genre conventions, no matter how sacred. The set-up is…

Red Dog

Red Dog

Hilarious and tearjerking scenes of human folly played as classic comedy

(4 stars)1 Feb 2012

(PG) 92min 2012 is turning into the year of the dog for cinema fans. After Uggie stole the show in The Artist comes this wonderful tale of canine tomfoolery. Told in a zippy boy’s own adventure style, this ‘inspired by a true story’ tale is set in…

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Elizabeth Olsen is remarkable in a film weak on intensity and narrative

(3 stars)1 Feb 2012

(15) 102min A young woman making her escape from a Manson-like sex cult sounds like the stuff of a lurid made-for-TV potboiler, but Sean Durkin’s debut eschews melodrama, instead presenting its protagonist’s ordeal in a hushed and gloomy style…

Steven Severin: Vampyr - Cameo Cinema, Edinburgh, Thu 12 Jan

Steven Severin: Vampyr - Cameo Cinema, Edinburgh, Thu 12 Jan

Ex-Banshees bassist delivers brooding live score to 1930s horror classic

(3 stars)1 Feb 2012

The man with the flowing white hair walks towards a small table and chair to one side of the Cameo’s big screen. Sporting a long black winter coat and carrying a glass of red wine, the man looks as if he’s stepped in from another, altogether darker age…

Best Laid Plans

Best Laid Plans

Predictable grim Northern tale that fails despite Stephen Graham's great central performance

(2 stars)1 Feb 2012

(15) 108min Positive arguments for the public financing of UK films will not be encouraged by the release of Best Laid Plans, a dreary miserablist fable haplessly reconfiguring John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men into the world of Northern…

Jack and Jill

Jack and Jill

Mirthless comedy atrocity sets a new low for all concerned

(1 star)1 Feb 2012

(PG) 91min Adam Sandler’s run of popular low-brow comedies has rarely hit the charming heights of The Wedding Singer, but even fans of Don’t Mess With the Zohan or I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry will choke on their popcorn when confronted by his…

Tekken: Blood Vengeance

Tekken: Blood Vengeance

Fluid but uneven CGI movie based on the popular games franchise

(2 stars)1 Feb 2012

This is actually the third movie based on the immensely popular fighting games, but Tekken: Blood Vengeance (Manga Entertainment) is the first fully computer animated version and was originally available as part of the Tekken Hybrid package. It looks…

A Dangerous Method

A Dangerous Method

Cronenberg's cerebral study of psychoanalysis, starring Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender

(4 stars)27 Jan 2012

(15) 99min David Cronenberg’s new film is a change of pace for the seldom gore-shy director of The Fly and A History of Violence, being a talky period drama about the birth of psychoanalysis in the early 20th century. But while the body-horror…

Girl Model

Girl Model

Clinical expose of the modeling industry

(3 stars)27 Jan 2012

(tbc) 78min Far from the fairy-tale fiction of America’s Top Model is Girl Model, a clinical, disturbing industry expose by documentary makers David Redmon and Ashley Sabin (Mardi Gras: Made in China). Ashley Arbaugh is an ex-model and now a…

Black Gold

Black Gold

Cliched, desert-set action adventure starring Mark Strong, Antonio Banderas and Tahar Rahim

(2 stars)27 Jan 2012

(12A) 130min The financial muscle of the Middle East has had a major impact on many spheres in recent years. Now that money is being directed towards movies. Bankrolled by the Doha Film Institute this action-adventure is set at the turn of the 20th…

Geoff Dyer - Zona

Geoff Dyer - Zona

The multi-talented humourist turns his able hand to film criticism

(4 stars)27 Jan 2012

(Canongate) Having previously mashed-up fiction, journalism, essay, biography and travel writing, polymath and humourist Geoff Dyer once more defies genre with a book that’s one part film criticism, one part autobiography and several parts random…

Carnage

Carnage

Polanski's comedy of upper-middle class savagery is fast, funny and filthy

(4 stars)24 Jan 2012

(15) 79mins Roman Polanski’s adaptation of Yasmina Reza’s play Gods of Carnage opens with a playground spat. Set over the opening credits, it’s this innocuous bust-up that drives the bitterly funny four-hander, as the parents of both children try to…

Hadewijch

Hadewijch

Provocative religious drama from French director Bruno Dumont

(4 stars)24 Jan 2012

(cert tbc)105mins Don’t be put off the fact that it’s taken a couple of years for this provocative examination of contemporary religious martyrdom to gain a cinematic release in the United Kingdom. The film, which explores how extreme faith can…

The Adopted

The Adopted

Quirky, saccharine directorial debut from French actress Melanie Laurent

(2 stars)24 Jan 2012

(15) 100 mins Still only 28-years-old, French actress and musician Melanie Laurent makes her directorial debut with this offbeat family tale, which owes more to her recent performances in US indie Beginners and the sentimental melodrama The Concert…

Rampart

Rampart

A compelling performance from Woody Harrelson can't quite support the weight of this cop drama

(3 stars)24 Jan 2012

(15) 108mins At this rate, Woody Harrelson should keep Oren Moverman on a retainer. The director guided Harrelson to an Oscar nomination in 2009’s The Messenger. And their latest collaboration Rampart sees the actor on similarly searing form. Set in…

Like Crazy

Like Crazy

Sundance-wowing romance starring Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones

(3 stars)24 Jan 2012

(12A) 89mins Winner of 2011’s Sundance Grand Jury prize, Like Crazy is a long-distance love story mired in the complications of modern-day living. Anna (Felicity Jones) is a British student living in Los Angeles who spends the perfect summer with…

Bombay Beach

Bombay Beach

Half real, half dream-like American documentary from director Alma Har'el

(4 stars)23 Jan 2012

(Cert tbc) 80min There was a time when documentary at least generally gave the impression of being a medium distinct from fiction, where various movements (Direct Cinema, cinema verité) put their faith in the relative objectivity of the image, as…

The Woman In Black

The Woman In Black

Daniel Radcliffe's first post-Potter film lacks the requisite scares for a classic ghost story

(2 stars)23 Jan 2012

(12A) 95mins Susan Hill’s Victorian ghost story has been terrifying theatre audiences for the best part of twenty-five years, second only to The Mousetrap as the longest running show in the history of London’s West End. It has already been…

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

This Tom Hanks-starring adaptation of the 9/11-themed bestseller lacks poignancy

(3 stars)23 Jan 2012

(12A) 129mins Are the memories of the 9/11 attacks now distant enough to justify their use at the heart of a personal tale of loss and grief? Stephen Daldry’s beautifully crafted adaptation of the Jonathan Safran Foer bestseller leaves the question…

The Woman In The Fifth

The Woman In The Fifth

Elegant but baffling Paris-set drama starring Ethan Hawke and Kristin Scott Thomas

(2 stars)23 Jan 2012

(15) 85mins Hollywood studios are often derided for making simplistic dramas that feel obliged to spell everything out. The Woman In The Fifth errs in the opposite direction, leaving bewildered viewers scratching their heads and trying to figure out…

Man on a Ledge

Man on a Ledge

Well paced, high concept thriller starring Sam Worthington, Jamie Bell and Elizabeth Banks

(3 stars)23 Jan 2012

(12A) 102mins Sam Worthington’s latest is an occasionally tense but mostly silly thriller that at least realises its own absurdities. The Hollywood debut of former documentary filmmaker Asger Leth (Ghosts of Cité Soleil), the film follows a…

Shame

Shame

Steve McQueen's second directorial effort is an unflinching portrayal of sex addiction

(5 stars)5 Jan 2012

(18) 101min Sexual imagery oozes from every blockbuster and frat boy comedy, but serious discussion rather than cheap titillation is a rarity. Cinema actually finds it hard to confront sex, partly because the American censorship board takes such a…

The Descendants

The Descendants

Star performances from George Clooney and Shailene Woodley in Alexander Payne's latest comedy drama

(4 stars)5 Jan 2012

(15) 115m In Alexander Payne’s first film since his 2004 critical darling Sideways, George Clooney plays Matt King, a Hawaii-based businessman and heir to a hugely valuable piece of Hawaiian land. On the eve of him signing a deal to sell the land and…

Haywire

Haywire

Steven Soderbergh's fast-paced chase movie stars Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor and Michael Douglas

(4 stars)5 Jan 2012

(15) 93min While other directors talk endlessly about the next great movie they are going to make, Steven Soderbergh keeps on quietly making films at a frequent rate, never repeating himself (Ocean’s sequels notwithstanding), and consistently…

War Horse

War Horse

Unashamedly sentimental cinema from Spielberg

(4 stars)5 Jan 2012

(12A) 146m As War Horse begins, with soaring shots of rolling English hills and a sweeping John Williams overture, director Steven Spielberg sends a clear message: settle down for some large-canvas, unashamedly romanticised, old-fashioned big-screen…

Coriolanus

Coriolanus

Ralph Fiennes proves as adept behind the camera as in front of it in this Shakespeare adaptation

(4 stars)5 Jan 2012

(15) 123min Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut is a powerful reimagining of the Shakespearean tragedy and is a resonant story about leadership, politics and power. Acting as well as directing, Fiennes stars as the central character, the eponymous…

The Iron Lady

The Iron Lady

Meryl Streep shines in a film that avoids tackling Thatcher's politics

(3 stars)5 Jan 2012

(12A) 105min In The Iron Lady director Phyllida Lloyd (Mamma Mia!) and writer Abi Morgan (Shame) take arguably the most significant British politician in living memory as their subject, and perversely evade questioning her policies. The result is a…

Intruders

Intruders

Derivative, moderately engaging paranormal horror starring Clive Owen

(3 stars)5 Jan 2012

(15) 110min Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has never quite delivered on the promise of his clever debut feature Intacto. Retro chiller Intruders is cleverly constructed and suspenseful but fades when pitted against superior genre fare like…

The Sitter

The Sitter

Zippy but unappealing sub-Apatow comedy starring Jonah Hill

(2 stars)5 Jan 2012

(15) 81min After springing to stardom in Superbad, Jonah Hill gets his first lead role in The Sitter, an amiable low-brow comedy from director David Gordon Green which throws Hill’s laid-back slacker persona into a similar underworld of criminal…

W.e.

W.E.

Occasionally perceptive but overall flat second movie from Madonna

(2 stars)5 Jan 2012

(15) 119min Madonna’s second film as director after the forgotten comedy Filth and Wisdom aims considerably higher. The initials W.E. refer to the joint signature of American divorcee Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII, whose relationship shook the…

J Edgar

J Edgar

Clint Eastwood's biopic of the legendary FBI chief is well-acted but unfocused

(2 stars)5 Jan 2012

(15) 137min Clint Eastwood’s biopic on former FBI head J Edgar Hoover offers an askew perspective on American history that eventually buckles under the weight of its own misguided ambition. Written by Dustin Lance Black (who won an Oscar for his…

Mother and Child

Mother and Child

A strong but plodding triptych starring Annette Bening, Naomi Watts and Kerry Washington

(3 stars)5 Jan 2012

(15) 126min Mexican cinema’s love affair with the triptych continues with Mother and Child. Executive produced by Babel director Alexandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, the latest film from Nine Lives helmsman Rodrigo Garcia stars Annette Bening as a nursing…

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Mara and Fincher elevate a populist novel into a compelling drama of bleakness and corruption

(4 stars)13 Dec 2011

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…

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Slight but entertaining sequel from Guy Ritchie, Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law

(3 stars)13 Dec 2011

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…

The Phantom of the Opera

The Phantom of the Opera

Unmissable HD restoration of 1925 Rupert Julian version starring horror icon Lon Chaney

(5 stars)12 Dec 2011

(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…

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Solid crowd pleaser despite disappointing villain and some dodgy CGI

(3 stars)12 Dec 2011

(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 Lady

The Lady

Aung San Suu Kyi biopic does nothing to alleviate Luc Besson's downward course

(2 stars)9 Dec 2011

(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

The Artist

Delightful celebration of the bygone age of silent cinema, starring Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo

(4 stars)8 Dec 2011

(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

Dreams of A Life

Compelling UK documentary-drama investigation into life of dead woman

(3 stars)7 Dec 2011

(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…

Black Pond

Black Pond

Smartly observed and cleverly constructed British comedy drama is something special

(4 stars)15 Nov 2011

(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…

The Awakening

The Awakening

Superior British period ghost story sets a tone of creepy unease

(3 stars)15 Nov 2011

There’s been a glut of cinematic ghost stories this year. The likes of Paranormal Activity 3 and Insidious often relied on jump scares and cheap parlour tricks, whereas The Awakening goes in the opposite direction letting the story unfold to reveal the…

Immortals

Immortals

Brutal but shaky retelling of the Greek myths

(3 stars)14 Nov 2011

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

The Rum Diary

Johnny Depp channels Hunter S Thompson once again, with lacklustre results

(2 stars)14 Nov 2011

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

Arthur Christmas

Jolly enough, but lacking usual Aardman Animation wit and charm

(2 stars)14 Nov 2011

(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…

Trespass

Trespass

Over-complicated home invasion/heist movie starring Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman

(2 stars)14 Nov 2011

Joel Schumacher’s latest directorial effort (and Nic Cage’s latest swipe at paying off his mounting tax and legal debts) Trespass is a film that bears many comparisons with David Fincher’s underrated 2002 thriller Panic Room. Both feature…

Sound It Out

Sound It Out

Funny and surprisingly moving documentary on Teeside record shop

(4 stars)11 Nov 2011

The tagline for this affectionate record store documentary is ‘High Fidelity with a Northern accent’, and it is a rare case of the marketing being bang on the money. A labour of love for director Jeanie Findlay, who also produced the film and did most…

Another Earth

Another Earth

Indie hit with science fiction premise explores complexities of flawed human interaction

(4 stars)9 Nov 2011

(12A) 92min Indie hit Another Earth belongs to a microscopic subgenre of love stories revolving around parallel universes; in this case, a planet hidden by the sun which is an exact mirror image of our own planet, right down to the names of the…

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