Film

GFF 2012 - Mark Millar interview

The comic book creator of Kick-Ass and Wanted tells us about his role at the Glasgow Film Festival

13 Feb 2012

Mark Millar has written some of the biggest comics of the last 20 years. He’s tackled the X-Men, Spider-Man, Superman and Fantastic Four alongside...

Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

By-the-numbers old age comedy drama

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…

Arrietty

Studio Ghibli takes on The Borrowers and delivers charming results

13 Jul 2011

(U) 94min Over three decades, the Studio Ghibli brand of animated storytelling has become a worldwide phenomenon through beloved classics My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away and the recent Ponyo. Although not directed by the studio’s co-founder Hayao…

Kung Fu Panda

3 Jul 2008

COMEDY/ANIMATION (PG) 91min In the words of Carl Douglas’ 1974 disco hit: ‘Everybody is kung fu fighting.’ Everybody, that is, apart from overweight panda Po (voiced by Jack Black). He dreams about joining his heroes, the Fierce Five, in butt-kicking…

The best free and cheap things to do in Glasgow and Edinburgh

Visit a library, go for a walk, bake a cake or see some cheap theatre

21 Jan 2011

Beat the January blues with these guaranteed pick-me-ups, suggested by our writers and some friends of The List. They’re all free, or cost just a few quid, so you’ll come out of winter with your bank balance intact and a smile on your face

Glasgow Film Festival highlights

A selection of the best events at GFF 2012

3 Feb 2012

Music We’re excited about DIY promoter Cry Parrot’s event with soundtrack dark lord Umberto who will provide the music for a secret film of his choice (SWG3, 25 Feb, 8pm). Douglas Hart, founding member of The Jesus and Mary Chain, has made videos for…

The Edge of Love

19 Jun 2008

DRAMA (15) 110min Dylan Thomas, he of the milk wood, once remarked that: ‘When one burns one’s bridges, what a very nice fire it makes.’ The Edge of Love is the story of how the great Welsh poet burnt a very big bridge, one that connected him to an…

Electric Man

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

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…

Macbeth

6 Sep 2007

There’s nothing particularly new about updating Shakespeare’s medieval Scottish tragedy to a modern criminal underworld setting - see the 1956 American mob movie Joe Macbeth - but Australian filmmaker Geoffrey Wright nevertheless makes a decent stab at…

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…

Room In Rome (Habitacion En Roma)

Julio Medem continues exploration of sexuality, but delivers emptiest film yet

22 Nov 2010

(18) 103min (Optimum) Two women, one gay, Alba (Elena Anaya), the other the heterosexual Natasha (Natasha Yarovenko) have an overnight fling in a Rome hotel room, talk about their pasts and prepare for their future. Director Julio Medem continues…

Glasgow Film Festival 2012 programme announced

Highlights include Your Sister's Sister, The Muppets and Tom Twyker's 3

19 Jan 2012

The programme for the Glasgow Film Festival 2012 was launched today, providing details of the films and events taking place in Cinema City during February. The main branch of the Festival takes place from Thu 16–Sun 26 Feb, and starts off with a gala…

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…

Glasgow Film Festival: Why I love Gene Kelly

Miles Fielder makes a song and dance about the charismatic movie star

3 Feb 2012

For a film lover who hates musicals (this writer), the GFF’s Gene Kelly retrospective ought to be a hard sell. Telling stories through song and dance, Kelly’s forte (the latter of which endeavours earned him a special Oscar in 1951), is anathema to this…

Lady Godiva

17 Jan 2008

ROMANCE (12A) 95min According to legend, Lady Godiva was the wife of an 11th century nobleman, who rode naked through the streets of Coventry in a successful act of protest against her husband’s taxation of his subjects. Here, in her debut…

Safe House

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

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.

Interview: Zach Braff, writer, director and star of All New People

The Scrubs and Garden State star discusses his new theatre production

2 Feb 2012

‘I’m still Jenny from the block,’ says Zach Braff after a moment’s reflection. ‘Even now I feel a bit underground in the acting world.’ For those who enjoyed Braff (and 20 million viewers around the world did) as the lovable JD in US comedy drama…

Young Adult

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

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…

Edinburgh gets first IMAX screen

Cineworld Fountain Park to launch IMAX cinema with Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

20 Dec 2011

Cineworld Fountain Park is to introduce Edinburgh's first IMAX screen from 21 December. The new cinema promises, 'ground-breaking, crystal clear digital projection, cutting edge audio technology and one of the largest screens around'. With 3D…

An Appointment with the Wicker Man

Robin Hardy’s 1973 classic to become the play-within-the-play for new NTS production

1 Feb 2012

‘There are many films that people would love to see adapted cleanly onto the stage,’ says Greg Hemphill, and if current trends are anything to go by, he looks to be right, ‘but when we discussed it with Vicky [Featherstone, National Theatre of Scotland…

Oscars 2012 - predictions

Some of The List's film critics give their predictions on who'll win what at the Oscars

25 Jan 2012

Best Picture. The Artist; simplicity is the reason that is soars above the other Oscar bait. The Artist probably will win, as it has won pretty much everything else going. It deserves it - when was the last time a film came along that made everyone fall…

Bare Behind Bars, Sea Purple, Here Come the Girls 3 and Dare

LGBT DVD Roundup

27 May 2011

If it’s a quiet night on the sofa you’re after, beware Bare Behind Bars (Arrow Video ●●●●). Described as a ‘chicks in chains grindhouse explosion’, we’re given sadistic lesbian guards, a permanently aroused screwball nurse and convicts with cabin fever…

Hunger

Protest picture

30 Oct 2008

'Were you out last night my friend?' 'Is it that obvious?' I say pulling down a wrinkled lower eyelid to expose an eye as bloodshot as those of the two men opposite me. They are hot young actor Michael Fassbender - all fair brown hair, blue eyes, slight…

Zach Braff: Ten things you might not know

The star of Scrubs, Garden State and All New People also voices the US Andrex puppy

2 Feb 2012

1 He is the youngest of four children. He has two brothers, Adam and Joshua, and a sister, Shoshanna. His mother and father are divorced and have both remarried. He says he now spends Thanksgiving with his ‘four parents’. 2 He had an ‘American…

Bronson

5 Mar 2009

The brutal true story of Britain’s most notorious and dangerous prisoner Michael Gordon Petersen aka Charles Bronson is given an expressionistic makeover by gifted Dutch auteur Nicolas Refn Winding (Pusher Trilogy, Fear X, Bleeder).

Films for Valentine’s Day

5 Feb 2009

If you want to go and see a film with your beloved this Valentine’s Day you can chose between Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s lovely 1945 Highland flit I Know Where I’m Going, a couple of Audrey Hepburn films (Funny Face and Sabrina) and four…

GFF 2012 - 85A presents: Jan Svankmajer

Judd Brucke of 85A discusses the art collective's tribute to the Czech filmmaker

2 Feb 2012

‘One of our comrades was approached by the GFF to do something with the festival,’ says Judd Brucke, a member of the collective of Glasgow-based multi-disciplinary artists that stage weird and wonderful live events under the banner 85A. That something…

Film You Instead shot at music festival - David Mackenzie interview

Hallam Foe and Young Adam director on making a film at T in the Park

18 Feb 2011

David Mackenzie, director of Hallam Foe and Young Adam, discusses his new movie You Instead, a rock'n'roll romcom that aims to capture the excitement of T in the Park.

Piranha 3D

16 Aug 2010

Alexandre Aja, the gifted French filmmaker who has so far had the cajones to tackle remakes of Wes Craven’s 1977 wilderness horror The Hills Have Eyes and feted J-horror Mirrors, finally tackles the big one – Joe Dante and John Sayles’ 1978 frat comedy…

It’s Only A Movie - An Evening with Mark Kermode launches his autobiography

1 Feb 2010

The Exorcist-obsessed, leather-clad and utterly iconic film critic is in (both) town(s) this fortnight, to discuss his autobiography, It’s Only A Movie, probably in a sardonic and slightly sarcastic fashion. Little-known Kermode fact: he plays double…

The best film websites

21 Jan 2010

If you work in an office and, like us, you love great movies you probably spend your lunch hour on any number of film-specific websites. So, after a totally unscientific survey of the cinema obsessives at The List, here’s our guide to what’s good and…

New film & DVD releases

4 Sep 2008

Witness the fitness of this autumn's movie schedule.

Hot 100 2011 - No. 49 to 1

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

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…

Interview: Kaya Scodelario on Skins, Wuthering Heights and Now Is Good

Former star Skins takes lead in Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights

21 Oct 2011

You were in line to work with Red Road and Fish Tank director Andrea Arnold on Wuthering Heights, yet you missed your first audition for the role? How come? ‘I was incredibly nervous about doing a period drama. I thought that to play period you had…

Love & Other Drugs

14 Dec 2010

(15) 112min Edward Zwick’s Love & Other Drugs may stylistically represent a throwback to the sort of intimate character driven drama of his first film About Last Night but it also possesses the epic scope of a director more commonly associated with…

'Self-amputation' scene in Danny Boyle's 127 Hours disturbs cinema audiences

Five of the best self-surgery scenes in film

23 Nov 2010

Danny Boyle's new film 127 Hours has been met with much critical acclaim after its US premiere. While it isn't out in the UK until January, the buzz has still been brewing just as much. Panic attacks have been reported as a result of the climactic…

The Meerkats

30 Jul 2009

There’s something about meerkats. Maybe it’s their little beady eyes, or their curiously stiff, upright posture that makes them appear to be striving to be human. Whatever that quality is, the camera clearly loves them, making the humble meerkat an…

The Descendants

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

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…

Ghosted - Art Malik, John Lynch & Craig Viveiros interview

Prison drama cast includes Martin Compston and David Schofield

27 Jun 2011

It’s that if actors of the calibre of John Lynch and Art Malik want a meaty role in a British feature film, the odds are number one, it’s going to have to be set in a criminal world of some description and number two, it’s more than likely going…

David Fincher remakes The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Here are five reasons to expect great things from the Fight Club and The Social Network director

3 Jan 2011

Fight Club and The Social Network director David Fincher returns with the American remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at the end of 2011, starring Rooney Mara. Here are five reasons to expect great things 1: Daniel Craig With the new James…

Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel

17 Dec 2009

(U) 88min The singing chipmunk trio contend with the pressures of high school, celebrity and rival female band The Chipettes. General release from Mon 21 Dec.

Wedding Daze

21 May 2007

COMEDY In an excruciatingly embarrassing opening sequence worthy of the notorious warm apple tart shag in American Pie, the star of both somewhat infantile romantic comedies, the charmingly gormless Jason Biggs, proposes marriage to his sweetheart…

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

The devil plays guitar

13 Nov 2006

Tearing modesty a new asshole, Tenacious D describe themselves as ‘the world’s greatest rock band’. The D’s two members, Jack Black (vocals and rhythm guitar) and Kyle Gass (lead guitar and backing vocals), name check among their inspirations Kiss, Dio…

War Horse

Unashamedly sentimental cinema from Spielberg

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…

Film Noir

19 Feb 2009

(18) 96min (Optimum DVD retail) ANIMATION/THRILLER Mixing the conventions of its genre namesake with explicit sex scenes, this adult animated feature is a cross between 40s noir The Big Sleep and 70s underground cartoon Fritz The Cat. It…

The Battle of the Somme

11 Dec 2008

(E) 74min Originally released in 1916, right in the middle of World War I, this important documentary might not be known to viewers in its entirety, but individual moments will probably be familiar: its images are regularly ransacked for various…

Klimt

1 Aug 2007

Chilean Raul Ruiz is one of the most remarkable avant-garde filmmakers working today. Having exited Chile after the Allende assassination he found a home in Paris and made a series of films that played with narrative structure and form in a manner…

A Dangerous Method

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

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…

Carnage

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

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…

The Woman In Black

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

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…

Janice Galloway biopic set for production in association Andrea Gibb and BBC

Adaptation of author's books This Is Not About Me and All Made Up

13 Jan 2012

A Glasgow-based production company has teamed up with scriptwriter Andrea Gibb to create a biopic of Scottish novelist Janice Galloway. The BBC commissioned the project in December and the first drafts of the screenplay are being written with a view…

Loose Cannons (Mine Vaganti)

Enjoyable gay rom-com-cum-family soap by Turkish/Italian filmmaker Ferzan Ozpetek

14 Dec 2010

(12A) 112min This gay rom-com-cum-family soap by Turkish/Italian filmmaker Ferzan Ozpetek is as enjoyable as his winning 1996 debut, Hamam (The Turkish Bath). And over the 14 years since that international success introduced a bright new talent to…

Big Tit Zombies 3D

22 Oct 2010

(15) 73min (Terracotta) Where a film like The Horde takes its zombies seriously, this isn't is something you could ever accuse Takao Nakano’s Big Tit Zombies of doing. BTZ goes for simple pleasures as a troupe of strippers fight off a plague of the…

The Illusionist - Sylvain Chomet's animated feature creates an Edinburgh never seen before

2 Jun 2010

Sylvain Chomet's The Illusionist, the film opening the 2010 Edinburgh International Film Festival, puts a vision of Edinburgh, and rural Scotland, on screen like no other. Set in 1950s Edinburgh and the Western Isles, locations depicted in the animated…

The Last Song

29 Apr 2010

(PG) 107min The meteoric rise to tween fame of Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana has paralleled the rising popularity of writer Nicholas Sparks (A Walk To Remember, The Notebook), so having Sparks create a vehicle specifically for Billy Ray’s daughter must…

The Uninvited

16 Apr 2009

(15) 87min Kim Ji-woon’s Korean horror A Tale of Two Sisters undergoes the Hollywood treatment in this plush-but-empty DreamWorks remake, with Emily Browning and Arielle Kebbel cast as disturbed siblings Anna and Alex Ivers. The two sisters are…

Lesbian Vampire Killers

19 Mar 2009

HORROR/COMEDY Overexposure can shoot down even the most promising career. And while Mathew Horne and James Corden aren’t quite there yet, they need to be careful. A double act since their award-winning Gavin & Stacey, for their first big screen…

Profile - Dev Patel

22 Jan 2009

Name Dev Patel Born London. April 1990 Background Raised in Harrow, Dev turned to drama when his exuberance got him into trouble at school. He was a natural, performing in a school production of Twelth Night. Indeed, drama was the only subject…

Igor

16 Oct 2008

ANIMATION/COMEDY It’s a tough life for hunchbacked assistants of mad scientists. Igor (voiced by John Cusack) ekes out his precarious existence as humble servant to the sinister Dr Glickenstein (John Cleese), an evil genius set on winning the annual…

RocknRolla

4 Sep 2008

Is there a filmmaker in Britain who’s been more derided than Mr Madonna? A bit unfair all this criticism is too: it’s not Guy Ritchie’s fault that the competent, very watchable gangster flicks Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch were some of…

Girl Model

Clinical expose of the modeling industry

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

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

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…

The Hot 100 2011: 100-50

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

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…

Profile: Carol Morley

Director of documentary-drama Dreams of a Life

9 Dec 2011

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…

La Planete Sauvage, The Funhouse, Tenebrae and Pulp Fiction rereleased

Blu-ray releases round-up

21 Oct 2011

While inevitably the picture quality and audio track are vastly improved by the high definition offered by Blu-ray another bonus is the extra features you can cram on to the format. Trippy animated sci-fi allegory La Planete Sauvage (Eureka!) ●●●● is…

Wuthering Heights

Andrea Arnold's retelling of Brontë’s novel lacks an emphasis on story

20 Oct 2011

(15) 129min Andrea Arnold hit home runs with her first two films, Red Road and Fish Tank. Her new film, an attempt at adapting Emily Brontë’s seminal novel, gets bogged down in the Yorkshire Moors. The director seems more concerned with paying…

Interview: Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey at 2011 Document 9 film festival

Director Leila Doolan's doc on radical Irish politican Bernadette Devlin

11 Oct 2011

Leila Doolan's remarkable documentary Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey is one of the absolute highlights in Glasgow-based human rights film festival Document 9's very strong line up this year. The film follows the ideological and political…

Sue Bourne's Irish Dancing documentary Jig fails to excite

25 Apr 2011

(PG) 97min A year on from being named one of the UK’s top ten directors by Broadcast magazine, documentary filmmaker Sue Bourne would seem to actually be obeying the law of diminishing returns. Her last film for Channel 4’s Cutting Edge series The…

Ron Peck on Thatcher-era thriller Empire State

Director of Nighthawks discusses overdue DVD and Blu Ray release

2 Mar 2011

It’s mad to think that Ron Peck’s Thatcherite era thriller Empire State has lain dormant for so long. Set in and around the gay clubbing scene, which at the time was exploding in vast warehouse clubs in the UK, the film easily still stands next to The…

The Adjustment Bureau

Philip K Dick-inspired sci-fi thriller starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt

2 Mar 2011

The work of Philip K Dick has inspired some of cinema’s great sci-fi films, from Blade Runner to Minority Report via Total Recall. The Adjustment Bureau, which is derived from one of the author’s short stories, doesn’t quite measure up to the former or…

Norwegian Wood

Haruki Murakami's novel is transferred to the screen by Anh Hung Tran

2 Mar 2011

(15) 133min Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami has a unique voice in contemporary fiction, both hugely imaginative and intensely intimate. But with this adaptation of one of his most popular books, French-Vietnamese filmmaker Anh Hung Tran fails to…

4.3.2.1

28 May 2010

(15) 116min The shadow of Quentin Tarantino looms large over Noel ‘Adulthood’ Clarke’s ambitious second film, in which four girls (Emma Roberts, Tamsin Egerton, Ophelia Lovibond and Shanika Warren-Markland) have the weekend from hell. Clarke and his…

Wallace and Gromit Present: A World of Cracking Ideas

31 Mar 2010

Oscar-winning characters Wallace and Gromit take centre stage at this Aardman Animations exhibition, as visitors get the chance to tour around Wallace and Gromit’s 62 West Wallaby Street home, as well as looking at, and interacting with, their most…

All About Steve

5 Jan 2010

(12A) 98min Sandra Bullock follows twin box-office strikes The Proposal and The Blind Side with supposedly kooky comedy All About Steve. Combining the male charms of The Hangover’s Bradley Cooper and Sideways star Thomas Hayden Church must have…

Lisbon Story

4 Nov 2009

(PG) 100min (Axiom DVD retail) Wim Wenders’ little seen 1994 film is a sequel of sorts to his 1982 work The State of Things with characters (played by the same actors) re-emerging 12 years on another enigmatic quest in the Portugese heartland.

Leon: The Director's Cut

4 Nov 2009

(15) 133min (Optimum DVD retail) Luc Besson adds 24 minutes of material removed from the original release for this re-release of his commercially successful 1995 film about hired assassin Leon’s initially reluctant and finally euphoric relationship…

Larry Charles: Beyond Belief

2 Apr 2009

‘The controversy of people standing in front of a theatre with placards means nothing to me,’ announces Larry Charles. The Borat director and US comedy colossus, famed for his creative input into genre-redefining TV shows Seinfeld and Curb Your…

Step Brothers

21 Aug 2008

COMEDY ‘Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream’ is the George W Bush quotation which opens new Will Ferrell comedy Step Brothers. Such crude expression sets the tone for a sporadically funny but generally gross comedy in…

Shutter

19 Jun 2007

HORROR In lieu of a forthcoming US remake, this half arsed 2004 Thai ghost story is getting an overdue and limited release. Driving home after getting drunk with a few of his old friends, photographer Tun (Ananda Everingham) and his girlfriend…

The Muppets' most memorable moments

A gallery of clips from our favourite frog and his friends

1 Feb 2012

The Muppets have a string of movies to their names already, including The Muppet Movie, The Muppets Christmas Carol, The Muppets Take Manhattan, and The Great Muppet Caper. Never ones to shirk away from serious film, darling, they’ve also had cameos in…

GFF 2012 - Italo-horror artist Umberto

The soundtrack specialist fits comfortably into the Glasgow Music and Film Festival strand

1 Feb 2012

Horror-score revivalist Matt Hill channels the creepyass compositions of Goblin, John Carpenter and Fabio Frizzi in his eerie synthjams, conjuring up a sonic witches brew. A member of drone-merchants Expo 70, Hill has, in his Umberto guise, explored the…

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

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

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…

Geoff Dyer - Zona

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

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…

The Adopted

Quirky, saccharine directorial debut from French actress Melanie Laurent

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…

Like Crazy

Sundance-wowing romance starring Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones

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…

The Woman In The Fifth

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

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…

Ralph Fiennes, star and director of Coriolanus - profile

Man behind the modernised Shakespeare adap has Bardic pedigree

5 Jan 2012

Name Ralph Fiennes Born Ipswich, Suffolk, 22 December, 1962 Background Initially a star onstage with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Fiennes gained international film recognition for his Oscar-nominated performance as Nazi Commander Amon Göth in…

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

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

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

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

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…

Scottish BAFTA awards 2011 shortlist announced

Peter Mullan's NEDS receives four nominations in this year's shortlist

18 Oct 2011

The Scottish BAFTA Awards have returned after a one-year absence, with the nominations shortlist announced yesterday by Karen Dunbar. Peter Mullan's NEDS, a film telling the story of a teenage boy growing up in 1970s Glasgow, received four…

The List Awards at Edinburgh International Film Festival

The Last Circus, Perfect Sense and Project Nim among winning films

22 Jun 2011

It’s been well documented that as a result of what festival director James Mullighan refers to as ‘straightened times’, the Edinburgh Film Festival has scaled back its more expensive operations this year, including cutting several awards. However…

A Separation (Jodaeiye Nader Az Simin)

Award-winning Iranian film is skilfully crafted, intelligent and considered

21 Jun 2011

(PG) 122min A Separation begins with the event of its title: Nader (Peyman Moaadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami) sit in front of a local judge debating their decision to get a divorce. Simin wants to move abroad, where she feels their daughter, Termeh…

Reel Science events programme among highlights of Edinburgh Film Festival

Tomboy, My Brothers and Project Nim among film highlights

17 Jun 2011

After my fearless leader’s less-than-generous appraisal of this aged Festival’s opening night, I’m hoping to bring a little bit of love for EIFF back to these web pages. Admittedly, the pared-down nature of this year’s Festival is most noticeable in the…

Profile: Gregg Araki - director of Kaboom

A wild, sex-filled ride heavily influenced by the B-movie genre

23 May 2011

Name Gregg Araki Born 17 December 1959, Los Angeles Background Araki came to prominence in the 1990s as one of the leading figures in what was labelled New Queer Cinema (a collection of films by directors including Derek Jarman and Todd Haynes…

Profile: Ken Wardrop, director of documentary His & Hers

Irish director paints collective picture of woman in Irish Midlands

10 Mar 2011

Wardrop grew up in a farming community in rural Ireland. After a stint working in London he enrolled at the National Film School, Dublin where he graduated in 2004 specialising in creative documentary making. His graduating short film, Undressing My…

Ken Loach's Route Irish doesn't shy away from asking some tough questions

Mark Womack and John Bishop in Paul Laverty-penned Iraq drama

10 Mar 2011

(15) 104min You can almost feel Ken Loach and Paul Laverty bracing themselves for another critical onslaught by the establishment. It happened to the director/screenwriter duo with their Irish civil war drama The Wind that Shakes the Barley, and it’s…

Solomon Kane's James Purefoy discusses new medieval siege movie Ironclad

UK actor on upcoming role, Paul Giamatti and inclement weather

28 Feb 2011

List: Ironclad is another historical film after Solomon Kane and your role as Mark Antony in HBO’s Rome – what draws you to these parts? JP: It could just be what I’m getting offered. I try to take every script on it’s own merit, and if it happens to…

Restrepo

6 Oct 2010

(15) 93min Filmmakers Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger present a gripping insight into the experiences of a US platoon in their award-winning documentary Restrepo. The film, shot over the course of one year, follows the group of soldiers as they…

Life on Mars

18 May 2010

(12) 710min (Fox) Transplanting a classic British show into a US setting has more often than not borne rotten fruit. The Office and Queer as Folk are two that never quite lived up to the UK original. Remaking Life on Mars proved so tough that the…

The Queen of Spades - Michael Medwin interview

17 Dec 2009

‘The Queen of Spades is a terrific film,’ Medwin says. ‘It’s a very gripping piece. At the time, it was one of the most expensive British films and, at the time, it was critically acclaimed. It’s nice that it’s being resuscitated.’ Born in London in…