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Film and Allan Hunter

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The Source

The Source

A sincere story of the struggle for female emancipation in an African village

(3 stars)18 May 2012

You could easily dismiss The Source as a simplistic, sentimental fare but the latest film from director Radu Mihaileanu (The Concert, Live And Become etc.) is told with such warmth and sincerity that it is hard to resist. The struggle for female…

Even The Rain

Even The Rain

Well-intentioned, if heavy-handed, political drama from writer Paul Laverty

(3 stars)18 May 2012

The sting of injustice and oppression echoes down the centuries in Even The Rain, an ambitious, well-intentioned political drama from writer Paul Laverty and his partner, director Iciar Bolain. Inspired by true events, the film is set in…

Beloved

Beloved

A sprawling, messy epic on unrequited love from French director Christophe Honoré

(3 stars)10 May 2012

Christophe Honoré's Love Songs (2007) established a talent for musical melodrama that eschewed all the traditional razzle-dazzle trappings of Hollywood. Characters break into song as they casually stroll down a city street and the often banal…

Juan Of The Dead

Juan Of The Dead

Cuban zombie comedy features cheerful mixture of political comment and splatter

(3 stars)4 May 2012

Another zombie film. Really? It sounds like the last thing anyone would want to encourage but Juan Of The Dead overcomes any zombie fatigue with a cheerfully anarchic mixture of splatter and political comment. If that just brought the early films of…

Clone

Clone

Stilted science fiction psychodrama starring Matt Smith and Eva Green

(2 stars)4 May 2012

Originally entitled Womb, 2010 film Clone proves to be a painfully earnest slice of sci-fi psychodrama that attempts to meld burning questions of genetic ethics with the starkness of a Greek tragedy. The clipped, stilted script often appears to have…

Monsieur Lazhar

Monsieur Lazhar

A classroom drama with unexpected charm, quiet dignity and emotional integrity

(4 stars)17 Apr 2012

(12A) 94min Inspirational schoolteachers have been a cinematic staple from Goodbye Mr. Chips to Laurent Cantet’s Cannes prize-winner The Class. Monsieur Lazhar successfully avoids treacly sentimental as it charts how a teacher and a group of…

This Must Be the Place

This Must Be the Place

Bracing aesthetic and gentle humanity despite risking absurdity at times

(4 stars)19 Mar 2012

(15) 119min There is a strong sense of the baroque running through the films of Paolo Sorrentino, not least his bravura portrait of former Italian Prime Minister Andreotti in Il Divo. His first English language venture This Must Be The Place neither…

Headhunters

Headhunters

Jo Nesbo adaptation is breathlessly, outrageously entertaining

(4 stars)19 Mar 2012

(15) 101min The twisty, tangled, page-turning bestsellers of Norwegian author Jo Nesbo seem tailor-made for the screen. The narratives move with all the momentum of a runaway train and there are enough flawed individuals and crumbling moral…

Oscars 2012 - predictions

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…

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…

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 Hot 100 2011: 100-40

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…

HOT 100 2011 - 49 to 1

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…

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.

The Deep Blue Sea

The Deep Blue Sea

Unashamedly old-fashioned film luscious proof of genius of Davies and Rattigan

(4 stars)9 Nov 2011

(12A) 98mins The combination of Terence Davies and Terence Rattigan is a match made in heaven. Rattigan’s centenary year has brought renewed appreciation of his gifts as an astute chronicler of loneliness and longing, whilst Davies is a past master…

Weekend

Weekend

Poignant and captivating story of unexpected love cut short

(4 stars)20 Oct 2011

(18) 96min A casual one night stand unexpectedly blossoms into a much more meaningful connection in Weekend, a tender heartbreaker from writer/director Andrew Haigh that is easily one of the most impressive British independent features of the…

Restless

Restless

Sweet romantic drama from Gus Van Sant, starring Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hopper

(3 stars)17 Oct 2011

(12A) 95min Gus Van Sant’s unpredictable career has run the gamut from mainstream sentimentality (Good Will Hunting, Finding Forrester) to experimental arthouse angst (Gerry, Last Days). Restless falls softly between these extremes as it offers a…

We Need to Talk About Kevin

We Need to Talk About Kevin

Faithful adaptation of Lionel Shriver's bestselling story of motherhood and teen violence

(4 stars)12 Oct 2011

(15) 112min Lynne Ramsay admirers can breathe a sigh of relief. Her first feature since Morvern Callar in 2002 confirms that she has lost none of her skill as a compelling storyteller or visual stylist. Her smart, thought-provoking adaptation of the…

Anonymous

Anonymous

Surprisingly adept Shakespeare-themed historical romp from blockbuster director Roland Emmerich

(3 stars)12 Oct 2011

(12A) 129min Director Roland Emmerich is long established as the king of the apocalyptic blockbuster with a career defined by gung-ho event movies Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow. It is quite a surprise to witness him diving…

Midnight in Paris

Midnight in Paris

Another warm and witty all-star comedy from Woody Allen

(4 stars)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

Hell and Back Again

Moving but occasionally muddled documentary about the war in Afghanistan

(3 stars)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

Sleeping Beauty

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

(2 stars)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…

The Skin I Live In (La Piel Que Habito)

The Skin I Live In (La Piel Que Habito)

Almodovar's adaptation is measured, playful and spellbinding

(4 stars)19 Aug 2011

(15) 120min The Skin I Live In has all the elements of a campy Vincent Price B-movie. There is a meddlesome scientist driven mad by grief, a grisly revenge plot and a hapless victim, not to mention multiple murder, kidnap and rape. In the hands of…

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