Film

US TV boxsets: DVD round-up

Bored to Death, The Killing, Weeds and In Treatment reviewed

16 Sep 2011

If you thought that Ted Danson had delivered career-remoulding performances as ‘himself’ in Curb Your Enthusiasm, you should check out the dazzle he brings to the first series of Bored to Death (Warner Home Video ●●●●). Jonathan Ames’ Brooklyn-set…

Brad Pitt wants Paddy's story on the big screen

TV Gossip

16 Sep 2011

Brad Pitt wants to turn 'Big Brother' winner Paddy Doherty's life story into a film. The Hollywood actor first saw Paddy on reality series 'Big Fat Gypsy' weddings and is intrigued by his Irish traveller lifestyle and his history as a bare-knuckle…

Crazy, Stupid, Love

Interesting observational comedy smothered by rom-com farce and sentimentality

16 Sep 2011

(12A) 118min Suburbia, modern day. Emily (Julianne Moore) tells husband Cal (Steve Carell) that she wants a divorce. Cal agrees to move and hits the local bar. After a period of drunken self-pity, local lothario Jacob (Ryan Gosling) takes him under…

Red State

Uneven political horror-thriller from Kevin Smith

14 Sep 2011

(18) 88min Outspoken filmmaker Kevin Smith hit a creative and commercial low with his last studio-backed production, the Bruce Willis-starring flop Cop Out, but before that film was even released Smith had shifted focus to this long-gestating…

Midnight in Paris

Another warm and witty all-star comedy from Woody Allen

14 Sep 2011

(12A) 94min Midnight in Paris is one of the warmest and wittiest Woody Allen films in recent memory. The jaunty manner and literary bent are reminiscent of Vicky Cristina Barcelona as Allen invests what could be a New Yorker short story with a…

Hell and Back Again

Moving but occasionally muddled documentary about the war in Afghanistan

14 Sep 2011

(15) 86min Constant television coverage of the Vietnam War so shocked American households that it is said to have helped turn the tide of public opinion against the conflict. The war in Afghanistan has received saturation coverage across all media…

Sleeping Beauty

Julia Leigh's modern retelling of the classic fairy tale falls short of its feminist ideals

14 Sep 2011

(18) 101min You could easily mistake Sleeping Beauty for a piece of male wish fulfilment. Australian novelist Julia Leigh’s first film as a writer and director may purport to be a feminist re-interpretation of traditional fairytale elements but the…

Page One: Inside the New York Times

Personality-driven documentary about the world-famous publication

14 Sep 2011

(15) 91min These are dark days for the newspaper business. Advertising revenues and circulations are slumping in the face of ‘free’ online competitors, whilst scores of titles have already folded. Andrew Rossi’s fly-on-the-wall documentary charts a…

Warrior

Unfulfilling sports drama starring Nick Nolte, Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton

14 Sep 2011

(12A) 139min The underdog fighter with family issues is back in a big way this year. First came David O. Russell’s Oscar-winner The Fighter, and now writer/director Gavin O’Connor (Pride and Glory) delivers his challenger, a two-hour-plus…

Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival

Annual arts festival returns for biggest year yet

13 Sep 2011

Unless you’ve been gently nestled under some rock for the past several years, you will probably be aware of the annual autumnal arts treat that is the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival (SMHAFF). This year’s brochure boasts almost 300 events…

Albatross

Well-balanced coming-of-age comedy starring Downtown Abbey's Jessica Brown Findlay

13 Sep 2011

This British coming-of-age comedy drama from debut director Niall MacCormick retreads familiar ground with its story but, thanks to a very funny script and a combustible lead performance from newcomer Jessica Brown Findlay, it’s never dull. Findlay…

Don't be Afraid of the Dark

Unimaginitive reboot of 70s cult horror film

13 Sep 2011

(15) 99min Looming large in the childhood memories of many US pop culture aficionados, the original Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark was a minor but effective 1973 TV movie in which Jim Hutton and Kim Darby played a couple menaced by demonic creatures in…

Third Star

Complex emotional journey of a man in the final stages of life, starring Benedict Cumberbatch

9 Sep 2011

(15) 85min In this road-trip movie with a twist, Benedict Cumberbatch plays James, a young man who is dying of cancer, on a camping trip with three friends. What is sold as a simple, matey excursion soon degenerates. The group lose their belongings…

Profile: Melissa George

Aussie actress Melissa George tells us all about her new film A Lonely Place to Die

1 Sep 2011

Born 6 August, 1976, Perth, Australia. Background Yet another Aussie soap alumni done good, after starring as Angel in over 300 episodes of Home & Away. ‘I’m a very good quitter, I always quit a job at the right time,’ explains George. ‘I was…

Cabinet of Dr Caligari with Live Score by Minima

Inventive musical accompaniment to the classic silent horror

26 Aug 2011

Made in 1920 by director Robert Wiene, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari is one of the touchstones of German expressionist cinema. Using angular set design, thick make-up and creative lighting techniques, it tells the tale of a murderous doctor and his…

Perfect Sense was filmed in my flat

A List writer recounts her experience of having a film crew use her flat as a set

26 Aug 2011

Director David MacKenzie almost didn’t use our flat as Ewan McGregor’s bachelor pad in Perfect Sense. The Timorous Beasties wallpaper in the bedroom was too distinctive. They considered painting it over, then repapering it. Then they discovered the…

We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lynne Ramsay interview

The Ratcatcher director discusses adapting Lionel Shriver's best-seller

25 Aug 2011

‘Every film has its ups and downs. Each time it seems like pushing a boat over a mountain. I worked on The Lovely Bones for five years before my involvement fell apart. I am committed when I make a film and if it takes a long time I would rather wait. I…

Take One Action Film Festival 2011

Event highlights from the political film fest

25 Aug 2011

Radical, committed, and delivering a great, high-quality programme, this year the Take One Action Film Festival, celebrating, as patron Archbishop Desmond Tutu puts it ‘the people and movies that are changing the world’, has an excellent programme of…

Detours film project at 2011 Edinburgh Art Festival

Responses to work by Aidan Moffat, Josie Long and Ross Sutherland

24 Aug 2011

While everyone might know about the Edinburgh Art Festival, a series of collaborations have been quietly reflecting the works exhibited in the various exhibitions around the city. Suzy Glass (behind the creative social network Central Station) and Angie…

Profile: Andre Ovredal

Writer and director of Troll Hunter

24 Aug 2011

Born 1973, Norway Background After studying at Santa Barbara’s Brooks Institute, where he made his first film, Future Murder (2001), Ovredal established himself as a successful director of commercials in Norway. What’s he up to now? He’s written and…

Final Destination 5

Horror franchise gets back on track with some suitably gory bloodshed

24 Aug 2011

(15) 92 min In many ways the Final Destination series is the ultimate streamlined horror franchise, they have dispensed with a villain and it is death itself that stalks our victims. And FD 5 returns the glorious gory yucks to the screen after the…

The Troll Hunter

'Found footage' mock doc ends up somewhere between horror and comedy

24 Aug 2011

This monster movie was an unqualified box office hit in its native Norway, and has picked up dozens of rave reviews on the worldwide festival circuit, but aside from a couple of good jokes and a handful of impressive visual effects sequences, there’s…

Post Mortem

Powerful sophomore feature based on 1970s Chilean politics

23 Aug 2011

(15) 97min It’s 1973 and work on President Salvador Allende’s ‘Chilean Path to Socialism’ is about to be brought to an abrupt halt by a Chilean military coup. Mario (Alfredo Castro) works for the Santiago morgue as a typist. Quiet, efficient, Mario…

The Hedgehog (Le Herisson)

Smart and faithful adaptation of Muriel Barbery's best-selling book

23 Aug 2011

(12A) 99min There’s no demographic quite like the French bourgeoisie. Their revolution may as well not have happened, Gustav Flaubert pretty much summed things up when he wrote: ‘The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level…

The Art of Getting By

22 Aug 2011

(12A) 83min ‘110 billion humans have walked the planet since the dawn of time, and none of them have made it.’ So begins schoolboy George Zinavoy’s narration in this melancholic teen comedy with heavy echoes of Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything. George…

Film adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy to premiere at Toronto Film Festival

20 Aug 2011

The premiere of Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy will take place at the Toronto Independent Film Festival WHEN, which takes place from 8–18 September. The film is directed by music video director Rob Heydon, making his big screen debut, and stars Scottish actors…

Jane Eyre

Gothic yet modern adaptation helped by excellent performances

19 Aug 2011

(PG) 120min The latest adaptation of Charlotte Bronte’s classic book demonstrates that great texts can have many different interpretations. Director Cary Fukunaga (Sin Nombre) dumps the childhood chapters, makes insinuations as to the cruel…

Tomboy

Childhood gender identity struggle handled subtly and beautifully

19 Aug 2011

(U) 82min As the title suggests, this quietly beautiful film is about a little girl who wants to look and act like a boy. But given that indicator, audiences may still be surprised when writer/director Celine Sciamma reveals that the character…

Friends with Benefits

Sappy rom-com fails to deflate clichés of the genre

19 Aug 2011

(15) 109min The rom-com has been a moribund genre for years now, excepting Marc Webb’s acerbic and adventurous (500) Days of Summer. Despite promising a similarly caustic examination of the gap between real-life relationships and romantic clichés…

Weekender

Brazenly shallow ode to the do-it-yourself 90s rave scene

19 Aug 2011

(15) 89min The do-it-yourself rave explosion in ‘90s Manchester is a moment of recent history ripe with storytelling potential – Michael Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People demonstrated that wonderfully – but Weekender, Karl Golden’s...

You Instead

Poor dialogue lets down an otherwise whimsical love story

19 Aug 2011

(15) 80min This breathless mismatched love story, filmed entirely over two days at T in the Park 2010, is the first of two new Scottish films from David Mackenzie (Young Adam, Hallam Foe), the second being next month’s Glasgow-set sci-fi Perfect…

Attenberg

Clinical emotional awakening both intrigues and mystifies

19 Aug 2011

(18) 95min Unfolding in a strangely deserted seaside Greek industrial town, Attenberg charts the gradual emotional awakening of a withdrawn young woman Marina (impressive newcomer Ariane Labed), whose dying architect father Spyros (Vangelis Mourikis…

Kill List

Genre-schizophrenic crime spree lacks clarity

19 Aug 2011

(18) 95min Down Terrace director Ben Wheatley second feature is another tale of crime, skullduggery and mystery. Kill List is one of those movies that starts off in one genre (kitchen sink drama) and turns into another (horror). Robert Rodriguez…

The Inbetweeners - We meet some real Glasgow teenagers

Are Scottish teens anything like the loveable social misfits on screen?

18 Aug 2011

The old crusties amongst us probably don’t know much about ‘real’ teenagers. We get most of our understanding of the acne-addled angst-mongers when gasping aloud at the ruddy rudeness of Skins and chin-scratching over the almost impenetrable lingo in…

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, with live score by Minima

Expressionist horror flick with live soundtrack performance

16 Aug 2011

‘It’s a truly, truly amazing film,’ is the simple reason given by guitarist Alex Hogg as to why his band Minima chose to create a live score for Robert Wiene’s classic 1919 German expressionist silent horror film The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. ‘Even more…

In a Better World (Hævnen)

Oscar-winning, powerfully acted work that loses its way

15 Aug 2011

(15) 117min The winner of the 2011 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, the digitally shot In a Better World is another of director Suzanne Bier’s emotionally intense male melodramas, scripted by her regular collaborator Anders Thomas Jensen. It…

Olivia Wilde: James Bond taught me to shoot

Music Gossip

15 Aug 2011

Olivia Wilde thinks it's "cool" she'll always be able to say James Bond taught her how to shoot a gun. The 'Cowboys and Aliens' actress - who portrays mysterious Ella Swenson in the Western sci-fi movie - admitted she was thrilled that co-star Daniel…

Sex and the City to return to TV

TV Gossip

15 Aug 2011

'Sex and the City' could return to TV screens. The hit TV series - which ended in 2004 after six series before being turned into two movies - is being lined up for a new run after creator Darren Star and the show's main star Sarah Jessica Parker…

Cowboys and Aliens

Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford in film rarely rising to cartoonish mayhem title promises

12 Aug 2011

(12A) 118min Comic-book adaptation Cowboys & Aliens is two genre films in one. It mashes up the western with sci-fi – a strategy which worked well in the outer-space frontiers of Star Trek and Star Wars, but creates frustratingly patchy results in…

One Day

Director of An Education tackles David Nicholls' novel

12 Aug 2011

(12A) 108min Following An Education, Danish director Lone Scherfig attempts to conjure the same magic on another slice of hit Brit lit – David Nicholls’ One Day. Fans of the book have already been protesting that the casting of Anne Hathaway as…

The Room

Gloriously awful Rocky Horror-style particapatory film screening

11 Aug 2011

The midnight movies phenomenon is well documented – starting in the 1970s at fleapit cinemas, movies that were too bizarre, too violent or too extreme for the mainstream were shown to cult film-loving audiences in the dead of night. The Rocky Horror…

Profile: Eyad Zahra - Director of Muslim punk scene film The Taqwacores

Film adapts novel by Michael Muhammad Knight

10 Aug 2011

Name Eyad Zahra Born 20 Safar 1403 AH (Islamic calendar) in Cleveland, Ohio. Background Zahra’s family is Syrian. He was the first of his family born in America, his older brother was born in Syria. Growing up, his mother taught him about…

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Expertly mixes intelligence and spectacle to hugely impressive effect

9 Aug 2011

(12A) 106min After the folly that was Tim Burton’s remake of Planet of the Apes in 2001 many questioned the wisdom of trying to breathe new life into the franchise when this prequel was first announced. But Rupert Wyatt’s Rise of the Planet of…

The Salt of Life (Gianni e le Donne)

Warm and sincere bittersweet comedy with loose, naturalistic style

9 Aug 2011

(12A) 89min Rome-born Gianni Di Gregorio is one of Italian cinema’s late starters. Having studied acting as a young man, he spent many years working as assistant director and screenwriter before beginning a fruitful collaboration with young…

The Devil's Double

Rambunctious romp with career changing performance from Dominic Cooper

9 Aug 2011

(18) 106min Subtlety is not in director Lee Tamahori’s repertoire. His excellent 1994 debut, Maori drama Once Were Warriors was full of well caught masculine bravado and tearful repercussions but the director’s career went wayward and reached its…

Elite Squad 2 - The Enemy Within (Tropa de Elite: O Inimigo Agora e Outro)

Returns to Rio's criminal world with pace, plot and violent set pieces

9 Aug 2011

(18) 114min Returning to the favela killing fields of his reactionary 2008 thriller, the schizophrenically talented writer/director Jose Padilha (Bus 174, Garapa) resurrects Captain Nascimento, but this time the right wing, law and order sympathies…

The Interrupters

Intimate documentary exploring gun crime in the US

4 Aug 2011

(12A) 125min Best known for his epic account of teenaged African-American basketball hopefuls Hoop Dreams, director Steve James returns in collaboration with the writer Alex Kotlowitz to inner-city Chicago for this sprawling documentary, which…

Play Poland Film Festival screens Polish cinema UK-wide

Little Rose, General Nil and Mystification among highlights

3 Aug 2011

Film-lovers have reason to be cheerful this month, following news that mobile filmfest Play Poland has landed on our shores. Screenings and events, which began on 2 Aug, will run until 25 Sep throughout Scotland, mostly at the Glasgow Film Theatre and…

Film Socialisme

Jean-Luc Godard tells story of Europe in decline

29 Jul 2011

(PG) 101min Jean-Luc Godard’s Film Socialisme is about as difficult a film as you’ll see this or any other year, but if some will conclude the film is unwatchable, it might be useful to say why that is so, why it may even be partly intentional on…

Super 8

JJ Abrams sci-fi a loving homage to the way blockbusters used to be

29 Jul 2011

(12A) 112min Lost creator JJ Abrams’ Super 8 may be heavily inspired by the early films of Steven Spielberg but if you’re going to borrow from someone, why not make it a master? It’s a science fiction adventure that harks back to the…

Sarah’s Key (Elle s’appelait Sarah)

Wartime drama based on deportation of 13,000 Parisian Jews

29 Jul 2011

(15) 111min Like the recently released The Round-Up, this respectful adaptation of Tatiana de Rosnay’s best-selling novel revisits one of the most shameful episodes of 20th-century French history, namely the Vel d’Hiv raid on July 16 1942. Some…

The Referees (Les Arbitres)

Revealing study about the much-maligned professional whistle-blowers

28 Jul 2011

(15) 77min Following on from Fire in Babylon and Senna, The Referees is another impressive sports-related documentary. Belgian filmmaker Yves Hinant and his co-directors Eric Cardot and Lehericey Delphine were given full access by UEFA to the…

Focus on events at Edinburgh International Film Festival

22 Jul 2011

One of the departures the revamped Edinburgh International Film Festival took this year, in moving away from the glitz and glamour of red carpet premieres and must-see movies, was an increased emphasis on film-related events. By moving the festival’s…

A Better Life

Chris Weitz's immigration drama is admirable but predictable

21 Jul 2011

(12A) 97min There’s no denying American comedian Pat Paulsen’s dictum that the problems the United States faces today can be traced to the American Indian’s slack immigration policy. A Better Life is the mainstream cinemagoing public’s worst…

The reviewers reviewed: Terence Malick's The Tree of Life

What we said, and they said, about the Brad Pitt-starring Canne-divider

21 Jul 2011

The Tree of life What we said: ‘The result is a sprawling, sometimes unfathomable epic on the endless conflict between "the way of nature and the way of grace".' The List What they said: ‘Cinema that’s thinking big. [Director Terrence] Malick…

Cult bad film The Room set for Edinburgh Festival Fringe screenings

Tommy Wiseau's 2003 film now has cult following

20 Jul 2011

The Room is infamous as one of the worst films ever made. Yet its popularity just keeps on increasing. Ahead of debut Fringe screenings, John Darley looks at the story so far, revealing the true horror behind the ‘Citizen Kane of bad movies’

DVD reviews: The Kingdom, Giallo, The Pack, Bloodrayne 3, Evil Rising and Lake Mungo

Summer horror DVD round-up

18 Jul 2011

Forget Hollywood – this month we embark on a European horror odyssey. First up, Lars von Trier's superlative haunted hospital drama The Kingdom (Second Sight ●●●●). Collecting both of his four-part Danish TV series into one boxed set for the first time…

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

The boy-wizard franchise goes out on a high

18 Jul 2011

(12A) 130min It gives this critic great pleasure to confirm that the final film in the franchise adapted from JK Rowling’s boy wizard publishing phenomenon is among the top three of the eight-part series. Since the series hit the ground running ten…

Profile: Chris Weitz, director of A Better Life

Director known for American Pie, About a Boy and The Golden Compass

18 Jul 2011

Name Chris Weitz Born 30 November 1969, New York City Background Weitz began his career co-directing the hit teen comedy American Pie (1999) with his brother Paul. After another successful collaboration, 2002’s About A Boy, Weitz’s first solo…

Trust

David Schwimmer’s powerful movie should resonate with every parent and teenager in some way

18 Jul 2011

A hard-hitting look at the dangers posed by internet predators, as witnessed by a family whose lives are torn apart by the grooming and eventual rape of their teenage daughter, the film stems from Schwimmer’s decade-long involvement with Santa Monica’s…

Beginners

Whimsical, autobiographical drama from Mike Mills, starring Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer

13 Jul 2011

(15) 104min You cannot accuse Beginners of lacking ambition. Directed by Thumbsucker's Mike Mills, this wistful, intensely autobiographical drama combines a love story, a reflection on the ties that bind the generations and a history lesson on the…

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…

Horrible Bosses

Seth Gordon's comedy rides high with the titular bosses, but is let down by their minions

13 Jul 2011

(15) 97min The blunt title of Seth Gordon’s star-packed comedy might lack finesse but it is certainly accurate: Horrible Bosses features three utterly repulsive Los Angeles-based line managers as its villains. Dr Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston) is…

Cars 2

Uninspired sequel fails to keep the Pixar engine running

13 Jul 2011

(U) 112min After 25 years of animation production and a run of critical and commercial smash-hits, the super-smooth Pixar production line finally blows a gasket with Cars 2, a colourful but overstuffed, noisy and heartless sequel that feels more like…

Zookeeper

Kevin James stars in woefully bad family rom-com

13 Jul 2011

(PG) 101min Part rom-com, part Doctor Dolittle style family comedy, Zookeeper, starring lardarse comic actor Kevin James (The Dilemma, Grown Ups), is a wholly unsatisfactory experience for all but the most juvenile minds. The latest offering from…

Qatsi trilogy with Philip Glass live score highlight of Edinburgh International Festival

EIF 2011 screening of Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi

5 Jul 2011

One of the earliest Edinburgh screenings of Koyaanisqatsi, the first of Godfrey Reggio’s remarkable trilogy of films scored by minimalist composer Philip Glass, was in an old porn cinema opposite what is now the Festival Theatre, then a bingo hall.

The Beaver - Jodie Foster interview

The director on working with Mel Gibson on comedy drama

1 Jul 2011

The Beaver is the third directorial effort from the iconic Jodie Foster. The 48-year-old actress burst onto the international scene as a child star in 1976 with films such as Taxi Driver, Bugsy Malone and Freaky Friday. Lauded as a teenager for her…

The Princess of Montpensier - Bertrand Tavernier interview

The cineaste speaks on his inspiration for returning to the past

1 Jul 2011

In a career spanning four decades and some 27 films, the French director Bertrand Tavernier has often been drawn to historical subjects: think for example of his 17th century swashbuckler D’Artagnan’s Daughter, or his dramas set in the aftermath of…

Green Lantern

Intergalactic special effects spectacle

1 Jul 2011

(12A) 114min So many adaptations of superhero comic books have received the blockbuster treatment it’s now safe to say we have seen the best of them. And its questionable what more or different there is that can be done with the super-powered…

Julia's Eyes

A very well made chiller in the stalk ‘n’ slash tradition

1 Jul 2011

(15) 112min In addition to directing visionary adult horror-fantasies (The Devil’s Backbone, Pan’s Labyrinth) and outstanding Hollywood blockbusters (Hellboy and its sequel), Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro is also carving a second career for…

X-Men: First Class

Latest in franchise makes clever use of Cold War-era setting

30 Jun 2011

(12A) 132min The novelty of the Hollywood franchise reboot has worn thin, but this re-launch of the initially excellent adaptations of the Marvel comic book benefits from a canny central concept that takes the mutant superhero team back to their…

The Governor, Being Human and Traffik among DVD highlghts

The old school fares well against newbies in TV drama releases

29 Jun 2011

The Governor ●●●● features a curious performance from Janet McTeer, just four years before her 1999 Oscar nomination for Tumbleweeds. In the first season of Lynda La Plante’s excellent prison drama, she switches between giggling schoolgirl and feisty…

Outside The Law (Hors La Loi)

Forceful thriller about 1950s Algerian freedom fighters

29 Jun 2011

(15) 138min Franco-Algerian writer-director Rachid Bouchareb follows his hard-hitting Palme d’Or nominated WWII adventure Days of Glory with this similarly forceful thriller about Algerian freedom fighters in the 1950s. Like its predecessor, this…

Red Hill

Australian modern-day western makes up for lacks in originality with bravado and tension

29 Jun 2011

(15) 97min With its tale of a convict on the loose and a rookie cop on his first day on the job, Red Hill is hardly original. Written and directed by debuting Aussie director Patrick Hughes, if you crossed No Country For Old Men with Assault on…

Ben Miller interview - Actor/director on cycle crime, Thandie Newton and urine

Moving Wallpaper actor directs first feature film Huge

28 Jun 2011

The Moving Wallpaper actor has taken time off from his comedy partnership with Alexander Armstrong to direct a feature film, Huge. He confesses to abusing his banana privileges

Hanna

A wonderfully curious, bold and original film

28 Jun 2011

(12A) 111min What a wonderfully curious and beguiling film this is. Hanna is the story of the eponymous 16 year-old (Saoirse Ronan), trained in the arts of combat and survival in the remote wilds of Finland by her ex-CIA father (Eric Bana).

DVD review - Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

Uncompromising, awkward and confrontational style and content cements reputation

28 Jun 2011

(2entertain) The second series of Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle will do very little to alter the entrenched opinions on both sides of his critical fence. Those detractors will switch off in their droves at the uncompromising, awkward and…

Senna

Fast-paced documentary on life and death of Formula One racing driver

28 Jun 2011

(12A) 106min This fast-paced documentary about the life and death of the legendary Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna plays more like a dramatic biopic than a feature-length doc. Taking his lead from and building upon dramatic documentaries such…

Strong EIFF short film programme includes Night Mayor, The Great Race and Pentecost

Edinburgh International Film Festival shorts round-up

27 Jun 2011

Sometimes the short film programme can look like a lesser sibling of the main festival, but this year it was one of the few aspects of EIFF that was in better health than ever. With a fancy new venue in the form of an upgraded George Square Theatre, a…

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…

Highlights among mixed bag suggest hope for return to cinephilia at EIFF

Reflections on Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011

27 Jun 2011

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. And when life gives you a programme for an international film festival that misspells the Coen Brothers name (among other heinous typographical and grammatical crimes), best take the bull by the horns and make…

How should the EIFF move forward?

Reflections on Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011

27 Jun 2011

When the lights came up on The Guard, this year’s opening film, my overriding thought was, 'that was fine'. It was quite funny and had a good cast, but was entirely unadventurous filmmaking. Fine, but nothing more. As a tone-setter for the 'reinvented…

Calvet - Dominic Allan & Jean Marc Calvet interview

Documentary charting extraordinary life of French artist

25 Jun 2011

CALVET depicts the struggles of Jean Marc Calvet, now an artist with burgeoning international success, to come to terms with his past and, more particularly reconcile with the son he abandoned. So far, so straightforward, but Jean Marc has quite a few…

Bikini Machine compose a 'cinéconcert' score for Desperado

24 Jun 2011

Each year, the French Institute for Scotland takes part in the Edinburgh International Film Festival and strives to bring the media of music and film together to form one piece of intercontinental art. This year, the Institute have invited five…

DVD reviews: Amer, My Soul to Take, Season of the Witch, The Resident and more on DVD

Horror DVD round-up

24 Jun 2011

Time for another dastardly delve into the horror DVD pile. We’ll start on a highnote. Amer (Anchor Bay) is actually French but is a studied homage to Italian 70s gialo filmmaking, more concerned with sound, colour, style and mood than coherent…

Troll Hunter - André Øvredal interview

Director of the Norwegian moc doc taking film festivals by storm

23 Jun 2011

Something that’s pretty thin on the ground at Edinburgh this year are genuine ‘festival finds’; films from unknown filmmakers that seem to come out of nowhere and really impress audiences. TrollHunter is perhaps the closest thing to that in this year’s…

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…

Project Nim - James Marsh interview

Man on Wire director charts 1970s chimp experiment in extraordinary film

21 Jun 2011

‘I’m here bleary-eyed straight from four weeks of shooting a feature film in Dublin!’ So claims Project Nim director James Marsh when I meet him, but you wouldn’t know it from the espresso-fuelled 30 minutes of rapid discussion that follows, in which…

Attack of the Herbals - David Keith interview

Young Scottish filmmaker's tea-based horror lands US distributor

21 Jun 2011

David Keith has been making low-budget horror films in the North East of Scotland for years. His latest is about to get a widescale release in America. Could he be the saviour of Scottish cinema? Martin Howden meets him.

DVD Box sets of work by Terence Rattigan, Andrei Tarkovsky and Danny Boyle

Abbas Kiarostami and David Leland collections also released in June

21 Jun 2011

If you are still buying DVDs in these straightened, downloaded times then you are going to want a bit of bang for your buck. Box sets are the way forward and late June and July are surprisingly full of intriguing new releases. The Terence Rattigan…

Hobo With A Shotgun

Rutger Hauer stars in second feature spawned from Grindhouse homage

21 Jun 2011

(18) 82min This blood-splattered Canadian shlocker is, following Robert Rodriguez’s Machete, the second film to be expanded from one of the handful of tantalising fake trailers inspired by Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s exploitation movie homage…

The Guard

Regrettable, cliché-ridden tale is entirely forgettable

21 Jun 2011

(15) 96min Don’t you just love the Irish? They’re cultured, funny, nihilistic and big-hearted. They can be naughty, but they love their mammies and they are always up for the craic. OK let’s not beat about the Gaelic bush here, The Guard, written…

Bobby Fischer Against The World

Lovingly realised documentary on American chess master

21 Jun 2011

(12A) 93min Bobby Fischer was the greatest of all past chess masters, and certainly the best America has ever had. Like most geniuses, however, Fischer’s life was a bizarre trajectory of success, fame, delusion and ultimately (possibly) madness.

Cell 211

Spanish prison riot thriller with plenty of meaty political subtext

21 Jun 2011

(18) 112min European genre cinema has been delivering some cracking titles of late, none more compelling than prison riot thriller Cell 211. Daniel Monzón’s award-winning Spanish hit takes a clever premise and moulds it into an intense, cat-and-mouse…

Holy Rollers

Formulaic coming-of-age drama saved by understated Jesse Eisenberg performance

21 Jun 2011

(15) 88min Released over a year ago in the US, this true-life drama about naïve young Hasidic Jews unwittingly smuggling Ecstasy into Brooklyn in the late 90s would probably have skipped UK cinemas entirely if not for the presence of Jesse…

Our Day Will Come - Romain Gavras interview

Provocative debut feature from director of MIA's Born Free furthers redhead theme

20 Jun 2011

From the stage of the Filmhouse on Friday night, Romain Gavras introduces the UK premiere of his debut feature film as a “romantic comedy”. Those who have seen his controversial music video for MIA’s Born Free are not fooled. And shortly, that will be…

Oliver Sherman - Ryan Redford interview

Director of drama charting reunion between two war veterans

20 Jun 2011

In retrospect, the odds were against us: Fresh-faced freelancer meets first time director straight from transatlantic travel and at the end of a long day’s junket. Ryan Redford, a 31-year-old director showing so few signs of media training one would…

Hell and Back Again depicts life of a Marine in Afghanistan

EIFF screening of photojournalist Danfung Dennis’ first feature film

17 Jun 2011

History suggests that the constant drip of unfettered, prime-time images depicting death and defeat made a vital contribution to turning the tide of American popular opinion against the war in Vietnam. It’s hard to imagine a similar decisive impact in…

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…

The Tree of Life

Terrence Malick's sprawling epic a sermon urging re-engagement with spirituality

17 Jun 2011

(12A) 138min Terrence Malick often seems to be the last apostle of rugged individualism still at work in the American film industry. He painstakingly crafts films that are symphonic in structure with the character of poetic, intensely personal…