Film, Niki Boyle

The Hijacking

Tense Danish thriller about a ship taken over by pirates in the Indian Ocean

Tobias Lindholm’s seafaring thriller explores contrasting claustrophobic environments through the eyes of two protagonists: Mikkel (Pilou Asbæk), the ship’s cook on board a hijacked freighter in the Indian Ocean, and freight firm CEO Peter (Soren…

Vehicle 19

Car-based thriller starring Paul Walker neither fast nor furious enough

Having made his name with souped-up vehicular antics in the Fast and Furious franchise, there’s a small smirk to be had when Paul Walker’s Michael Woods lands in Johannesburg and finds himself mistakenly saddled with a sedentary rental minivan. Fans of…

Dabangg 2

Enjoyable Bollywood action sequel starring Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor

Dabangg, released in 2010, introduced us to hyper-macho super-cop Chulbul Pandey (Salman Khan), a sharply dressed unorthodox policeman living and working in rural northern India. The sequel, produced and directed by Arbaaz Khan (who also stars in both…

Dylan Moran discusses RockNess, stand-up and his next film, Calvary

The Irish comic headlines the comedy stage at RockNess 2013

You’re one of the headliners in the RockNess comedy tent this year – are you much of a festival-goer? I have been over the years – I mean I’ve been to loads of them but it’s generally because I’m on, you know? You can’t really generalise about them…

Citadel

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

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

Gimme the Loot

A naturalistic, sun-kissed indie film about two New York graffiti artists

In a documentary clip at the beginning of fiction feature Gimme the Loot, a trio of New York graffiti artists discuss the art form’s holy grail: tagging the Mets' Apple (a gimmicky trophy that appears whenever the baseball team hit a home run). Sofia…

Hot 100 2012: 19-11

David Greig, Karen Gillan and Chris Hoy among Scotland's hottest cultural contributors in 2012

The Hot 100 is our list of Scotland’s 100 hottest individuals and groups who’ve made a splash this year, from comic book writers to comedians, artists to actors. If they've contributed to Scotland's cultural landscape in 2012, you'll find them here.

Watch: trailers for the Richard Fleischer retrospective at EIFF 2013

Edinburgh International Film Festival to screen six of the American director's films

The Edinburgh International Film Festival has started releasing the first few snippets of information about its 2013 programme. As well as featuring Karen Gillian romcom Not Another Happy Ending as its closing film (read what Gillan says about it in our…

All Things to All Men

Formulaic cops and robbers thriller starring Gabriel Byrne and Rufus Sewell

The opening minutes of All Things to All Men suggest that something interesting could be in the offing. ‘It’s good to see you again,’ says a gun dealer as stony-faced thief Riley (Toby Stephens) concludes their transaction. ‘Just like old times,’ says…

Blancanieves

1920s set silent take on the Snow White story, with seven bullfighting dwarves

It’s going to be difficult to get through a review of Blancanieves without mentioning The Artist, so let’s get it out of the way now. Both films are European, black and white, reduced format silent films in romanticised 20th century period settings.

How to Survive a Plague

Moving, Oscar-nominated documentary about the early days of AIDS campaign group ACT UP

Founded by playwright Larry Kramer and a group of fellow activists in March 1987, the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP) is a grassroots group dedicated to influencing US AIDS policy and research. David France’s documentary charts the group’s…

Mama

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

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

Hot 100 2012: 29-20

Chvrches, Cora Bissett and Grant Morrison among Scotland's hottest cultural contributors in 2012

The Hot 100 is our list of Scotland’s 100 hottest individuals and groups who’ve made a splash this year, from comic book writers to comedians, artists to actors. If they've contributed to Scotland's cultural landscape in 2012, you'll find them here.

Hot 100 2012: 49-40

FOUND, Paul Brannigan and Kerry Hudson among Scotland's hottest cultural contributors in 2012

The Hot 100 is our list of Scotland’s 100 hottest individuals and groups who’ve made a splash this year, from comic book writers to comedians, artists to actors. If they've contributed to Scotland's cultural landscape in 2012, you'll find them here.

Hot 100 2012: 100-90

JK Rowling, Tilda Swinton and Andrew Fairlie among Scotland's hottest cultural contributors in 2012

The Hot 100 is our list of Scotland’s 100 hottest individuals and groups who’ve made a splash this year, from comic book writers to comedians, artists to actors. If they've contributed to Scotland's cultural landscape in 2012, you'll find them here.

The Host

This Stephenie Meyer-adapted sci-fi has some good ideas let down by dull scripting and wooden acting

Whoever decided to combine the talents of author Stephenie Meyer and writer-director Andrew Niccol should never eat lunch in this town again. Both have form in coming up with intriguing, high concept storylines: an adolescent human falls in love with…

Fire with Fire

Dull action revenge flick starring Bruce Willis and Josh Duhamel

Oh, Josh Duhamel – is there nothing you can do? In between contributing nothing much to each instalment of the Transformers series, he has popped up in low-to-middling romantic ventures like Safe Haven and New Year’s Eve. He even joined the cast of this…

Spring Breakers

Harmony Korine's ludicrously bad drama about four girls gone wild on spring break

Incoherent, brash and self-consciously 'arthouse' in execution, Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers is an intriguing cinematic spectacle: an awful film that seems aware – nay, aggressively boastful – of its own awfulness. It follows a quartet of…

The History of Future Folk

Charming but slight sci-fi music comedy in the vein of Flight of the Conchords

Cosmic-folk twosome Future Folk started life on the underground New York music scene, playing acoustic guitar-and-banjo tunes with sci-fi lyrics to crowds of bemused punters. The gentle whimsy and a focus on music rather than jokes puts their foot…

John Dies at the End

Self-conciously bizarre cult comedy offering from director Don Coscarelli

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

Men at Lunch

Lightweight documentary about the iconic New York photograph, Lunch Atop a Skyscraper

The photograph of 11 construction workers grabbing a bite to eat on a girder 800 feet above street level is one of the most iconic images of the 20th century, capturing the spirit of the American Dream and fuelling the mythic ideal of New York as the…

The Thieves

Patchy Korean heist flick with an overly large cast but some impressive action set-pieces

Korean writer/director Choi Dong-Hoon follows up previous efforts The Big Swindle and Tazza: The High Rollers with another crime caper aiming to be the Eastern equivalent of Ocean’s Eleven. Unfortunately, The Thieves comes in rather below those slick…

Spring culture preview 2013

Nick Evans: Solar Eyes Evans' forthcoming solo show features a new set of his striking amorphic white plaster sculptures. The most ambitious is a large architectural complex which mimics the geometry of an Aztec temple. Evans' fascination with motifs…

Hollywood actor John C Reilly to play intimate music show in Glasgow

The star of Wreck-It Ralph is also a roots musician

Hollywood star John C Reilly will be visiting the Glasgow's St Andrews in The Square on Tue 12 Feb to play an intimate gig, alongside fellow musicians Becky Stark and Tom Brosseau. Reilly, who is signed to Jack White's Third Man Records label, plays…

Silver Linings Playbook leads the pack in 2013 Oscar nomination

Lincoln, Amour and Les Miserables also nominated

The nominations for the 2013 Academy Awards have been announced, with Silver Linings Playbook, Lincoln and Amour leading the pack of those films who stand a chance of winning at the awards ceremony on Sunday 24 February. Silver Linings Playbook, a…