Film and Paul Dale

Book of Eli

6 Jan 2010

(tbc) tbcmin Man has destroyed the earth and all that is left is a ravaged post apocalypse landscape. Loner Denzel Washington wanders through Mad Max style communities with just one aim – to protect the sacred tome that could hold the key to the…

Daybreakers

6 Jan 2010

(15) 97min It’s 2017, and the undead now outnumber the living. A virus has spread across the earth, turning its inhabitants into vampires. With their blood supply dwindling, the vampires must find a way to sustain their source of food. Intelligent…

OSS 117: Lost in Rio

6 Jan 2010

(15) 101min New French comedy film franchise begins to unfurl with this follow up to the equally silly OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies. Jean Dujardin returns as France’s dumbest super spy, this time he’s looking for ex-Nazi’s in Brazil with a sexy…

Treasure Island

5 Jan 2010

(PG) 86min (HBF) Robert Louis Stevenson’s 19th century tale of peg-legged pirates, treasure maps and derring-do has been surprisingly ill served by cinema. Countless Disney adaptations aside, this 1971 Russian version and Chilean filmmaker Raoul…

44 Inch Chest

5 Jan 2010

(18) 94min Ray Winstone reteams with Sexy Beast screenwriters for gritty crime film. Also stars British favorites John Hurt, Tom Wilkinson, and Ian McShane. General release from Fri 15 Jan.

James Cameron and Avatar - Popcorn and dissent

17 Dec 2009

Fourteen years in the making, James Cameron’s Avatar is finally released this week. Will it be any good? Who cares, asks Paul Dale, it’s all just a media hoodwink

Profile: Lynn Shelton

17 Dec 2009

Name Lynn Shelton Born 1966, Seattle Background Having worked as an actor, photographer and editor, Shelton made her feature debut in 2005 with the surreal black comedy We Go Way Back. For her follow-up film My Effortless Brilliance, which…

Profile: Gerard Naranjo - director of I'm Gonna Explode

17 Dec 2009

Name Gerard Naranjo Born 1971, Salamanca, Mexico. Background Having grown up in the small town of Salamanca, Naranjo studied filmmaking at the National University Film School in Mexico City and the American Film Institute in Los Angeles.

Spread

17 Dec 2009

(18) 96min Lothario, gigolo or Casanova? Shallow, handsome city of angels resident Nikki (Ashton Kutchner) is not really sure what he is, but he knows one thing. He’s too skint to be a playboy. Then one night he links up with prosperous cougar…

Best films of 2009

Film Editor Paul Dale's Top films of the year

17 Dec 2009

The White Ribbon Strange events in a small German village before World War One. Che Part One and Part Two Brilliant two-part biopic of revolutionary hero Che Guevara by US filmmaker Steven Soderbergh. Fish Tank Dance and sex on an Essex…

Best DVD releases of 2009

17 Dec 2009

Kenneth Anger: Magick Lantern Cycle His satanic majesty’s maddest and most brilliant experimental filmworks in extras heavy set. Boom! Bizarre 1968 Tennessee Williams adaptation starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and directed by the…

The Red Shoes

17 Dec 2009

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese proclaimed Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1948 classic, ‘the most beautiful Technicolor film ever made’. Scorsese should know, given he spearheaded the restoration to its original glory of this breathtaking melodrama…

Did You Hear About The Morgans?

17 Dec 2009

Fish out of water comedy pairing Hugh Grant with Sarah Jessica Parker as married thespians going through a rocky patch. Their relationship begins to show signs of recovery when they are sent in to a witness protection scheme after witnessing a…

Sherlock Holmes

17 Dec 2009

(12A) 128min Guy Ritchie’s long awaited high octane action interpretation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary hero starring Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law and Rachel McAdams. General release from Sat 26 Dec.

It Might Get Loud

17 Dec 2009

(PG) 97min Documentary paean to the electric guitar as seen through the eyes of three virtuosos from three different generations. Cameo, Edinburgh and selected release from Tue 5 Jan.

Tokyo Story

17 Dec 2009

(U) 135min Digital restoration of Yusujiro Ozu’s timeless familial classic. An Ozu season will follow this re-release. Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 1 Jan.

Me and Orson Welles

4 Dec 2009

(12A) 113min The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success. Nobody is greater testament to that than Orson Welles – broadcaster, actor and director who ended his days bloated, impoverished and doing voiceover work on…

Cracks

4 Dec 2009

(15) 104min Jordan Scott, daughter of Ridley Scott (nepotism, it’s a wonderful thing) follows the promise of her shorts Jonathan and Portrait with this ludicrous and feeble attempt to posit William Goldman’s Lord of the Flies in a 1930s girls…

Paris Va Par

4 Dec 2009

(15) 95min (Artificial Eye) Long overdue reissue of above average 1964 portmanteau film featuring the youthful efforts of some of the French New Wave’s finest. The idea was to invite six directors to contribute a short film named after and set in a…

Betty's Bath and Other Stories

4 Dec 2009

(18) 36min (Film First) If you like your erotica antiquated and a little bit naughty then this collection of eight short, silent black and white films shot in Hollywood in the early 1920s may be of archival (or other) interest. Filmed by some couch…

Koyaanisqatsi screening in Glasgow with live score by Urban Farm Hand

19 Nov 2009

Organised by Take One Action to mark the lead up to the global climate change talks in Copenhagen and the national climate change march in Glasgow on Saturday 5 December this screening of Godfrey Reggio’s still prescient 1982 film collage will be scored…

End of year film magazines round-up 2009

19 Nov 2009

It’s time to drop into the wonderful world of film magazines. December is a crucial month for these cinephile glossies – it’s the time when readers decide whether to renew their loyalty for another year – so let’s have a look at what you are really…

Eugenics season

19 Nov 2009

Who says scientific theory and cinematic endeavour are mutually exclusive? Certainly not the organisers of this weekend long Biomedical Ethics Film Festival, which delves into the ethically fraught discussion of human perfection and our right to strive…

William McLaren – An Artist Out of Time

19 Nov 2009

Edinburgh based filmmaker Jim Hickey’s fascinating new documentary about the life and times of Scottish painter, commercial illustrator and muralist McLaren is the latest feature to the grace the rightly celebratory Made in Edinburgh screening slot.

Southern Softies

19 Nov 2009

Comic singer/organist makes his film debut in this comedy documentary which takes Shuttleworth and his ever on hand neighbour Ken down to the Channel Islands to find out if it really is ‘soft down south.’ A Q&A with star/director Graham Fellows will…