Film and Paul Dale

St Andrew's Day - The best film from Scotland

Our editors pick highlights from Scottish film through history

25 Nov 2011

Scotland shares Saint Andrew with areas of Russia, Romania, Greece and Malta, though this list is closed to the corruption of arthouse favourites like Theo Angelopoulos and Sergei Bondarchuk with their long names and even longer films. We’re assuming St…

Film books round-up

The Man in the Seventh Row, Cinema: The Whole Story, Hitchcock’s Magic and more reviewed

16 Nov 2011

Brian Pendreigh must surely be the hardest working movie-mad journalist and writer in Scotland. The Man in the Seventh Row (Blasted Heath ●●●) is his seventh book following biographies of Ewan McGregor and Mel Gibson, as well as Scottish cinema and…

Blood In The Mobile

Documentary explores mineral extraction in Eastern DR Congo for use in phone handsets

9 Nov 2011

(12A) 85min The mobile phone, that universal symbol of convenience and progress, comes at quite a price. We are not talking fiscal here, we are talking of a price above rubies, a cost measured in blood, sweat and tears. All mobile phones contain…

The Help

Oscar-bait portayal of the civil rights struggle in the Deep South

17 Oct 2011

(12A) 146min As Lee Hazlewood wrote in his musical paean to the nihilistic life: ‘Honey, I’m gonna snowball Jackson. See if I care.’ He needn’t have bothered, someone already had. A white American baby boom in the Deep South in the 1950s had taken…

Document 9 film festival highlights

The documentary film fest celebrates a 'year of protest' theme

12 Oct 2011

Boasting one of their best film line ups in years, the Document 9 human rights festival takes the theme of protest as its mascot this year. The festival opens with Andrea Roggon's Soy Libre (I am Free) about life and hope in modern day Havana. The next…

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…

Melancholia

Lars von Trier's sci-fi drama features star turns from Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg

21 Sep 2011

(15) 135min Melancholia is like the inversion of TS Elliot’s much quoted dictum. Is this how the world will end? With a bang not a whimper. Lars Von Trier’s curious, enigmatic and deterministic film seeks to equate the black dog of depression with an…

Tyrannosaur - Paddy Considine interview

The star of Dead Man's Shoes discusses his directorial debut

21 Sep 2011

There was a time when if a British actor got a bit of movie money, he (they were invariably male) would direct Henry V, A Bridge Too Far or The Night of the Hunter. But since Gary Oldman made Nil By Mouth in 1997, a very different generation of largely…

Tyrannosaur

Paddy Considine's directorial debut features strong performances from Peter Mullan and Olivia Colman

21 Sep 2011

(18) 92min Unemployed widower, drunk and all-round angry old man Joseph (Peter Mullan) stumbles into the council estate charity shop minded by good Samaritan volunteer Hannah (Olivia Colman), and friendship follows initial hostility. Despite her…

Red, White and Blue

Grimly progressive horror/thriller strips away cliché that surrounds the genres

19 Sep 2011

(18) 103min Erica (Amanda Fuller) is not a good girl. She’s promiscuous but dispassionate, nihilistic but emotionless. The girl’s clearly got some issues. The only person who manages to make any kind of non-sexual connection is weirdy beardy Nate…

Drive

16 Sep 2011

(18) 100min You should never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly. If only Ryan Gosling’s Hollywood stuntman/ getaway driver had heeded this advice he might not have got mixed up with beautiful mum Irene (Carey Mullighan), her jailbird beau…

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…

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 Qatsi trilogy at the 2011 Edinburgh International Festival

Godfrey Reggio's film trilogy with Philip Glass Ensemble live score is a masterpiece

15 Aug 2011

It’s been twenty-eight years since I saw Koyaanisqatsi, twenty-odd since I saw Powaqqatsi, and almost a decade since Naqoyqatsi. The first two I saw in empty art house cinemas on wet afternoons, I watched the third in a somnambulistic state from my sofa…

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…

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…

War correspondent Martin Bell to give Oliver Stone another chance

Martin Bell will be introducing Oliver Stone's Salvador at the EIFF

24 Jun 2011

‘I tend to walk out of films about wars that I reported on. I walked out of Oliver Stone’s Salvador when I first saw it in 1986 that’s why it will be interesting to present it and revisit it in Edinburgh. I remember he satirised a female reporter I know…

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…

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.

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011 opens with an Oirish whimper (not a bang)

65th festival gets underway despite disappointing opener The Guard

16 Jun 2011

So the 65th edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival is now open. It opened last night, a balmy, spitty Wednesday evening, with a screening of John Michael McDonagh’s decidedly patchy Irish comedy policier The Guard starring Brendan Gleeson.

EIFF 2011 - Five to try: Outside The Box

Our picks for the Edinburgh International Film Festival's outsider strands

27 May 2011

Duncan Speakman: Our Broken Voice Speakman’s project is a ‘subtlemob’ – ‘A film that’s happening in a public space where you’re both a performer and an audience member,’ he says. Still baffled? Imagine arriving at a designated public location, with an…

EIFF 2011 - Five to try: Conflict and Reportage

Our picks for the Edinburgh International Film Festival's outsider strands

27 May 2011

Conflict and Reportage Frontline Club: Martin Bell presents Salvador Broadcasting and politics’ ‘man in the white suit’ says of this event: ‘I tend to walk out of films about wars that I reported on. I walked out of Oliver Stone’s Salvador when I…

EIFF 2011 - Five to try: Nokia Shorts Weekender

Our picks for the Edinburgh International Film Festival's outsider strands

27 May 2011

Vice TV Greatest Hits! The great global magazine’s four-year-old spin-off youth internet TV channel celebrates the story so far. Having enjoyed early endorsement from Spike Jonze it now has a global network of correspondents who report on all that is…

Books on cinema - round-up

How the Movie Brats Took Over Edinburgh, Tough Without A Gun, The Faber Book of French Cinema

23 May 2011

As is always the way in Scotland, summer is kind of here, and now is the time to lie in the grass with that growing pile of tosh novels. But let’s face it, you are going to win a lot more kudos from your film-obsessed mates if you create a tower of…

The Pipe

Risteard O’Domhnaill's stirring documentary shows a community's fight against big business

23 May 2011

(12A) 83min In 1996 natural gas was discovered off the west coast of Ireland. Shortly afterwards, Shell UK announced plans to run a pipe through the waters and land of Rossport in County Mayo to an inland refinery. Risteard O’Domhnaill’s remarkable…

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011 - James Mullighan interview

With just under a month to go, the new EIFF director tell us his plans

26 Apr 2011

With just over a month and a half to go until the big event, James Mullighan the new Director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival tells Paul Dale about his plans So how’s it going James? Great – it’s been a busy time for us and we are…

Takeshi Miike's 13 Assassins strikes a balance between measured character development and violent brutality

25 Apr 2011

(15) 126min Prolific to the point of insanity, unpredictable and blatantly controversial, Takeshi Miike is not your average Japanese filmmaker. His notorious body of work which includes loads of straight to video fare, the Dead or Alive trilogy, Ichi…

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…

Farewell (L'Affaire Farewell) - a romantic thriller set in the midst of the Cold War

Starring Emir Kusterica and Guilliame Canet

28 Mar 2011

(12A) 113min Based loosely on the actions of high ranking KGB official and spy Vladimir Vetrov, Farewell is a complex but tender portrait of the Cold War in free fall, a place where a passionate eccentric like Vetrov (here renamed Grigoriev) can…

Toni Servillo and John Turturro events among Italian Film Festival 2011 highlights

Film by Roberto Rossellini and Paulo Virzi also screened

28 Mar 2011

The Romans reconquer the central belt this year with a selection of the ancient and the modern. For the 2011 outing there’s a spotlight on celebrated actor Toni Servillo with screenings of his films The Girl By the Lake and One Man Up. Italian-American…

Tindersticks: Claire Denis Scores 1996–2009

Excellent anthology of film scores from the French filmmaker and regular collaborator Stuart Staples

21 Mar 2011

(Constellation) This five-disc boxset containing six film scores are testament to the remarkable collaboration between French filmmaker Claire Denis, arguably the most intellectually fertile auteur working today, and Tindersticks bandleader Stuart A…

Stone and Who Loves the Sun among DVD release highlights

Featuring boxsets of Akira Kurosawa, Richard Woolley and Luis Buñuel

2 Mar 2011

Here’s what may be of interest on DVD and Blu-ray that’s coming out in March. An Unflinching Eye: The Films of Richard Woolley (BFI ●●●●) brings together the almost complete short and feature work of this overlooked British filmmaker whose films were as…

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…

Fair Game

Thriller based on a true story, starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts

2 Mar 2011

(12A) 107min The CIA leak that effectively ended CIA operative Valerie Plame’s career, and the subsequent fallout that revealed a line of corruption leading all the way from Republican low-lives Karl Rove and 'Scooter' Libby to the Whitehouse…

Benda Bilili!

A documentary on the Congolese rhythm'n'blues band Staff Benda Bilili

2 Mar 2011

Kinshasa is the largest city in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It’s rated as one of the most dangerous cities in the world in terms of crime with a spiraling homeless problem that includes over 20,000 children under the age of 18 living rough…

Opening film Potiche and Little White Lies among GFF highlights

An overview of the careers of both actresses

17 Feb 2011

The Catherine Deneuve-starring Potiche, opens the 2011 Glasgow Film Festival, while another programme highlight is Little White Lies starring Marion Cotillard. Paul Dale examines the career of both actresses.

Brighton Rock reconnects with the novel’s central theme of Catholic guilt

2011 remake addresses fight against Catholic/Christian upbringing

2 Feb 2011

The new film version of Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock reconnects with the novel’s central theme of Catholic guilt. Cinema needs more of it, writes Paul Dal

Boxing biopic The Fighter - Melissa Leo profile

Actor plays Mickey Ward's mother in David O Russell film

2 Feb 2011

Born 14 September, 1960, New York Background Leo is an actor whose early career was predominantly filled with small screen successes. She played Det Sgt Kay Howard on the TV series Homicide: Life on the Street for five seasons and was also a…

Sex in art: Four examples of Scottish eroticism

The Wicker Man, Young Adam, Love Made Easy and The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania

1 Feb 2011

You can find good examples of Scottish eroticism without having to wallow through smut. The List picks four artworks that are worth seeking out for some homegrown, highbrow kicks

Get Low - Slow burn storytelling of character organising own ‘living funeral’

Film is too thin despite great performances from Robert Duvall, Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek

19 Jan 2011

(PG) 103min George W Bush aside, was there ever a greater master of malapropism than gifted American baseball player Yogi Berra? He once noted that: ‘You should always go to other people’s funerals; otherwise, they won’t come to yours.’ Round about…

Genius Within: The Inner Life Of Glenn Gould

Film of archive material untangles the the life of Canadian pianist

18 Jan 2011

(U) 108min What a deliriously nutty double bill this film would make alongside Thirty Two Short Films about Glenn Gould, François Girard’s schematic but pleasingly conceptual project completed in 1993. Michèle Hozer and Peter Raymont’s feature…

Private Road

12 Jan 2011

(15) 89min (BFI) Barney Platts-Mills’ 1971 film is undoubtedly one of the great lost British masterpieces of the 1970s. Platts-Mills was a filmmaker whose previous cult film Bronco Bullfrog had taken a knife to the frothy London set cinema of the…

Enemies of the People

Horrifying but redemptive documentary of the Khymer Rouge’s 1970s genocide in Cambodia

12 Jan 2011

(15) 93min Thet Sambath and Rob Lemkin’s horrifying but remarkably redemptive documentary revisits the architects of the Khymer Rouge’s 1970s genocide of the Cambodian people and somehow gets them to open up about the bloodbath and madness of those…

The best films of 2010

The Secret in Their Eyes, Un Prophet, Exit Through the Gift Shop, South of the Border, Black Death

12 Jan 2011

The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto Des Sus Ojos) Argentinean romantic modern noir/thriller starring the mighty Ricardo Darín that really works. Worthy winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. A Prophet Jacques Audiard’s stunning…

Season of the Witch

Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman in broad but mildly entertaining supernatural medieval action adventure

12 Jan 2011

(15) 94min Broad but mildly entertaining supernatural medieval action adventure in which Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman star as knights who must transport a woman/witch to a remote monastery. Dominic Sena (Gone in 60 Seconds, Swordfish) directs with…

Waiting for Superman

Compelling documentary about the crisis of public education in the United States

12 Jan 2011

(PG) 111min Compelling and persuasive documentary about the crisis of public education in the United States told through interlocking stories. An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim brings a rare clarity to proceedings. GFT, Glasgow…

Mammoth

Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodyson's drama about the rich, the poor, globalisation and power

12 Jan 2011

(15) 125min Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodyson (Together, Lilya 4-Ever) returns to some sort of coherent form with this big canvas drama about the rich, the poor, globalisation and power. Gael García Bernal and Michelle Williams star. GFT…

Collapse

Focused documentary about the reporter who predicted the financial crisis

12 Jan 2011

(15) 88min Focused and interesting documentary about the reporter who predicted the financial crisis. Documentarian Chris Smith (American Movie, The Yes Men) levels his usual mischievous gaze. Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Sun 16 & Mon 17 Jan.

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…

The Hot 100 2010 - Mark Millar, Kevin Bridges and Alasdair Gray take top 3 spots

Our annual chart of the people from Scotland being interesting, successful and creative

16 Dec 2010

The Hot 100 is a list of Scots who’ve made a sizeable creative splash in 2010. It includes musicians, artists, writers, actors, fashion designers, technological innovators, shop owners, festival directors, record label heads and one mad cyclist.

Burlesque may star Cher and Christine Aguilera, but there's too much glitter

So there’s a new musical out about burlesque. They’ve made the wrong movie writes Paul Dale

14 Dec 2010

Burlesque starring Cher and Christine Aguilera is a film that has missed its moment. The resurgence and revival of burlesque dominoed by club nights in New York, Los Angeles and New Orleans, and later globalised by Dita Von Teese, now seems to belong to…

Profile: Nicole Grimaudo of Loose Cannons

Her latest role is in Ferzan Ozpetek’s family-in-crisis comedy, set in Italian city of Lecce

14 Dec 2010

Born 22 April 1980, Caltagirone, Sicily Background As a 15-year-old Grimaudo made her professional acting debut in a Rome production of The Cherry Orchard. In the same year her first screen role came in the children’s’ animated film Sorellina e…

A Bay of Blood

Mario Bava’s 1971 film one of the most influential and imitated horror films ever made

30 Nov 2010

(18) 80min (Arrow Video) Out of all Arrow’s lush new DVD and Blu-ray issues of films from the American and Italian masters of horror, this is the one I have been looking forward to most. I was first introduced to Mario Bava’s 1971 film by friend…

Down Home Music

30 Nov 2010

(E) (Arhoolie) In 1963 German filmmaker Dietrich Wawzyn set out to shoot a series of films for German television that took him through the southern states in search of American jazz and roots music. He asked Arhoolie Records founder Chris…

London Boulevard

Sparky, enjoyable comedy directed by The Departed and Kingdom of Heaven screenwriter

22 Nov 2010

(15) 90min A reclusive London-based actress (Keira Knightley) gives an ex con (Colin Farrell) a job as her bodyguard and ends up falling for him. Sparky, enjoyable comedy (pictured) directed by The Departed and Kingdom of Heaven screenwriter William…

Break Ke Baad

Coming of age romantic comedy with music from Vishal Shekhar and Prasoon Joshi

22 Nov 2010

(U) 125min Coming of age romantic comedy from India about two childhood sweethearts who try and keep their love alive despite separation. Deepika Padukone and Imran Khan (not that one) star. Music by Vishal Shekhar and Prasoon Joshi. Selected…

Broken Sun

Old fashioned but decent WWII POW two hander

22 Nov 2010

Old fashioned but decent two hander set during World War II, in which depressed, lonely Australian outbacker Jack (Jai Koutrae) marches an escaped Japanese prisoner of war (Kuni Hashimoto) back to his camp. Along the way the men reach a mutual…

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Life - But is it any good?

'Arch and tedious' or 'a distinct creative vision'

19 Nov 2010

Slow-burning Thai film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives scooped the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, but critics can't decide whether it's poetically beautiful or deathly dull. Two List film writers take sides on the issue Yes…

Dream Home

Selected release, Fri 19 Nov

16 Nov 2010

(18) 96min Property values – that great middle class dinner party discussion topic of choice – and the slasher movie may not seem to be ideal bedfellows but prolific Hong Kong Chinese director Pang Ho-cheung (Isabella, Exodus) certainly brings a…

Out of the Ashes

Documentary about the rise and rise of the Afghan national cricket team

12 Nov 2010

(PG) 86min Documentary about the rise and rise of the Afghan national cricket team. Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Fri 5–Sun 7 Nov.

RED

22 Oct 2010

(12A) 111min Action romcom adapted from Warren Ellis' graphic novel as a bunch of old duffers (Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren and Brian Cox) are called back from retirement (RED stands for Retired Extremely Dangerous) for…

Paranormal Activity 2

22 Oct 2010

(15) 91min Hasty sequel to the ‘found footage’ horror phenomenon of 2009. This time a family set up surveillance equipment after what appears to be a series of break-ins, but soon realise something far nastier is lurking in the shadows. General…

Saw 3D

22 Oct 2010

(18) min The seventh and supposedly final instalment of the series that defined ‘torture porn’. Expect blood, guts and more intricate terror traps as Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) reeks his final revenge from beyond the grave in goretastic 3D. General…

Chasing Legends

22 Oct 2010

94min Gripping documentary following the HTC-Columbia Team through the grueling 2009 Tour De France. Odeon Braehead; Showcase Paisley, Glasgow, 21 Oct.

New York, I Love You

6 Oct 2010

(15) 103min The second instalment of the wholly spurious ‘Cities of Love’ franchise produced by Paris, je t’aime creator Emmanuel Benbihy, New York, I Love You feels about as fresh as a piss-stained Pan Am flight bag. It’s a collection of eleven…

Digitally restored print of The Leopard (Il Gattopardo)

Luchino Visconti's 1963 epic adaptation

6 Oct 2010

Don’t miss this brief chance to see the digitally restored print of Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti’s 1963 epic adaptation of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel about the decline of one noble family at the time of the Italian reunification in the…

Howard Marks biopic Mr Nice - Rhys Ifans interview

Actor Rhys Ifans chats about what it’s like to portray his old friend and hero Howard Marks in Mr Ni

5 Oct 2010

‘I wasn’t born to play anything really, but for a plethora of reasons this is a very important moment for me as an actor. Howard Marks is a great friend and a great Welshman. We got to know each other in 1995/96 through a band called the Super Furry…

Mr Nice

5 Oct 2010

The popularity of Welsh marijuana dealer and international criminal mastermind Howard Marks’ mischievous, salty and funny 1997 autobiography was due mainly to Marks’ admirable balancing act between outlaw mythology and Lord Byron’s assertion that ‘the…

37 Uses For A Dead Sheep

22 Sep 2010

(E) 84min (Cornerstone) For the last three decades the Pamir Kirghiz have lived in exile in Turkey. In 2005, British filmmaker Ben Hopkins (Simon Magus, The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz) and a film crew arrived in their village and asked the diaspora…

While The City Sleeps

22 Sep 2010

(PG) 100min (Exposure Cinema) Legendary Austrian filmmaker Fritz Lang’s 1956 newspaper world set thriller was his penultimate American film. Lang, whose mighty filmography (both sides of the Atlantic) included stellar masterworks Metropolis…

Resident Evil: Afterlife (3D)

22 Sep 2010

(15) 96min In a world ravaged by a virus infection, turning its victims into the Undead, Alice (Milla Jovovich) continues on her journey to find survivors and lead them to safety, while her deadly battle with the Umbrella Corporation reaches new…

The Maid (La Nana)

22 Sep 2010

(15) 94min Chilean black comedy about a long-serving housemaid who begins to go a bit mental. Writer/director Sebastián Silva’s carefully empathetic screenplay and gutsy direction and an all-dominating performance by Catalina Saavedra make this well…

Welcome to 3D hell - upcoming 3D films

The latest films unable to say no to the film technology

16 Sep 2010

Jackass 3-D The third documentary feature outing for Johnny Knoxville and his merry band of aging masochists is, you guessed it, in 3D. Why and to what effect remains a mystery. Out 5 Nov. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 & 2 The…

I’m Still Here

16 Sep 2010

(15) 108min Joaquin Phoenix meltdown documentary. Selected release, Fri 17 Sep.

My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?

7 Sep 2010

(15) 93min Inspired by true events, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done tells the story of Brad Macallum (Michael Shannon), an aspiring actor who commits the crime he is to enact in a Greek tragedy in which he is performing. So here it is. The…

Winter's Bone

7 Sep 2010

(15) 100min With its all too familiar theme of familial collapse and undercurrents of social disgrace and fear of the local customs, Debra Granik’s excellent second feature film could be a British colonial horror from a distant age, and in some ways…

Bonded By Blood

Solid and unsurprising Brit crime flick

25 Aug 2010

(15) 100min Second attempt (see 2000’s Essex Boys) to dramatise the events that led up to the murders of drug dealers Tony Tucker, Patrick Tate and Craig Rolfe in 1995 in Rettendon in Essex. Decent, solid and unsurprising Brit crime flick.

Cinema as Poetry: Frantisek Vlácil season at Filmhouse

Historical tapestries of blood, sex, sadism and primitive faith

24 Aug 2010

Of all the brilliant artists and filmmakers to emerge from the Czech and Slovak film studios in the 1960s Vlácil was arguably the most gifted. With some exceptions, Vlácil’s films are historical tapestries mixing blood, sex, sadism and primitive faith…

Why Did I Get Married Too?

24 Aug 2010

(12A) 121min Thought-provoking if occasionally lame sequel to actor and director and one man film industry Tyler Perry’s 2007 drama Why Did I Get Married? It’s a similar formula where close couples bond, divide and regroup in the face of a less smug…

No Impact Man

24 Aug 2010

(15) 93min Compelling if mildly conceited documentary about a middle class Manhattan couple who spend a year massively reducing their carbon footprint by going without toilet paper, TV, coffee, a refrigerator and much more. This is a Take One Action…

The Edge of Dreaming ets Glasgow screening

Amy Hardie’s documentary feature

24 Aug 2010

Having received a good reaction at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, Scotland-based filmmaker Amy Hardie’s documentary feature contemplation of life, hope and death will screen for a few dates in Glasgow. A Q&A with Hardie will follow…

The Switch

24 Aug 2010

(12A) 101min Forgettable and schematic but enjoyable fertility rom-com starring Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman and a turkey baster. Blades of Glory directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck manage to just about maintain the momentum throughout the…

Cherry Tree Lane

24 Aug 2010

(18) 77min Real-time home-invasion horror that aims for brutal reality but ends up just brutal. It’s immaculately constructed and well acted, but substitutes shocks and tension for decent characterisation. Selected release from Fri 3 Sep.

Splintered

24 Aug 2010

(18) 85min Dodgy resurrected 2008 creature feature horror filmed largely in Delamere Forest in Cheshire. Selected release from Fri 3 Sep.

Black Dynamite

Enjoyably silly spoof of 1970s blaxploitation

24 Aug 2010

(15) 84min Gutsy and enjoyably silly spoof of 1970s blaxploitation films like Shaft and Superfly. Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Fri 3–Thu 9 Sep.

The Leopard (Il Gattopardo)

24 Aug 2010

(PG) 187min Digitally restored re-issue of Luchino Visconti’s masterful epic familial drama. Selected release from Fri 27 Aug.

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…

Mother (Madeo)

16 Aug 2010

(15) 129min Excellent South Korean thriller in which a mother desperately searches for the killer who framed her son for a horrific murder. Directed and written by Bong Joon-ho, whose previous films include Memories of Murder and The Host – this…

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

16 Aug 2010

(PG) 94min The inevitable adaptation of Jeff Kinney’s illustrated novel about wise-cracking schoolchild Greg (Zachary Gordon) may not be able to transfer all the charm of the literary bestseller but it is likeable, bright and funny. Part two is…

Grown Ups

16 Aug 2010

(12A) 103min Five school friends reunite 30 years after graduating on the fourth of July weekend and much hi-jinks ensue. Regrettably predictable buddy comedy featuring Saturday Night Live’s almost entire early 1990s cast (Adam Sandler, Chris Rock…

Beyond Borders film season promotes small nation cultures

Highlights include Mugabe and the White African and The Other Bank

10 Aug 2010

Taking its name from a Scottish organisation that’s involved in promoting small nation cultures around the world, this film season presents some very fine recent films from Georgia, Palestine and Zimbabwe. Highlights include a screening and Q&A of Lucy…

Filmhouse Steve McQueen screens selection of actor's finest films

Papillon, Love with the Proper Stranger and Bullit among highlights

10 Aug 2010

Arguably the coolest American screen actor of the last 50 years, McQueen gets his six of the best to help us make it through another damp August. Highlights include brutal prison drama Papillon, Love with the Proper Stranger – actor/director Robert…

Gruff Rhys’ Seperado! documentary traces South American family roots

Super Furry Animal frontman's film discovers Welsh diaspora

10 Aug 2010

We didn’t have room to mention it in our review pages but also out this week is Super Furry Animal Gruff Rhys’ fascinating and funny documentary in which he attempts to trace the South American strand of his family and in the process discover a Welsh…

Desperately Seeking Susan 80s dress up screening set for Glasgow

Get those leg warmers out for this themed screening

10 Aug 2010

Take a trip back to the 1980s with this late night 80s dress up screening of Susan Seidelman’s lively feminist life swap comedy starring Rosanna Arquette and then burgeoning singer and actress called Madonna. Leg warmers and big hair are…

Chris Rock's Good Hair examines African-American hair styling

US comedian's take on this cultural phenomenon

10 Aug 2010

Last chance to catch comedian, writer and actor Chris Rock’s fascinating documentary about the crazy world of African-American hair styling at the cinema. GFT, Glasgow, Mon 16-Wed 18 Aug.

Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky

Other film releases, August 2010

4 Aug 2010

(15) 118min Nuanced and exquisitely detailed but passionless drama about the romance between the queen of couture and the father of modern classical music. Dutch writer/director Jan Kounan (Blueberry, Dobermann) keeps things a little too minimal and…

Javier Fuente - León's Undertow

3 Aug 2010

Talk about having your cake and eating it. Impossibly good looking Peruvian fisherman Miguel (Cristian Mercado) has an adoring pregnant wife (Tatiana Astengo) and a hot male lover in the shape of visiting artist Santiago (Manolo Cardona). It’s all…

My Night With Maud

Other film releases, August 2010

3 Aug 2010

(U) 110min New digitally restored print of quintessential bourgeois 1969 drama by late great French New waver Eric Rohmer. The mighty Jean-Louis Trintignant stars as a religious engineer whose belief that he will marry a woman (Françoise Fabian) he has…