Issue 596

Savage Grace - interview with Julianne Moore

Glasgow Film Festival

14 Feb 2008

Since coming to the public’s attention in Robert Altman’s 1993 film Short Cuts, Julianne Moore has built a career on playing roles other starlets would run a mile from. Who else would have the guts to go from playing a porn star in Boogie Nights (a role…

Zurich

14 Feb 2008

On my first visit to Zurich, my Swiss boyfriend dragged me along to the city’s annual Street Parade. I went along expecting a paler version of Berlin’s famous Love Parade and was bowled over by some 800,000 people partying frantically through the city…

Hot Chip

14 Feb 2008

ELECTRO-POP Barrowland, Glasgow, Tue 26 Feb ‘I guess we’ve always been outsiders,’ says Felix Martin, one fifth of geeky electro-pop outfit Hot Chip. ‘I think that comes across in our music. We seem to be unique, we’ve never felt closely related to…

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - interview with Alan Grant and Cam Kennedy

14 Feb 2008

Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde has spawned countless adaptations since its publication in 1885. The stage play ran for 20 years and there have been numerous film versions, with stars as diverse as Fredric March, Spencer Tracy and…

Woody Allen - Cassandra's Dream

Glasgow Film Festival

14 Feb 2008

With those thick-rimmed glasses, that wisp of brown hair and the deeply cut grooves in his forehead, Woody Allen owns one of the most iconic faces in American cinema. These days, at 72, it’s a little more wizened and walnut-like – presumably from all…

Restaurants in Edinburgh’s Old Town

14 Feb 2008

There have always been bars with ideas above their station when it comes to food, and there have always been restaurants with the notion that their bar area can be both a bit on the side and the hippest hangout in town. It’s not often that both are…

Dillinger Escape Plan

14 Feb 2008

Most bands have their share of bad luck. Dillinger Escape Plan have their share and others’ too. The New Jersey noisecore troupe’s misfortunes include: five years between debut and sophomore albums, approximately seven line-up changes (songwriter and…

Daniel Jackson

14 Feb 2008

The smell of burnt toast and old carpet, the familiar Sunday re-runs of popular television shows glinting from the screen in the corner, the dreich weather outside... there’s something about the home people shared with parents in the earliest years of…

Fairtrade Fortnight

14 Feb 2008

Hey! You there! Traipsing about in your fashionable budget high street coat, sipping at your chainstore coffee! This is your conscience calling! Since 1996, the ever-expanding, UK-wide Fairtrade Fortnight has been nagging Scotland’s consumers to put…

There Will be Blood

14 Feb 2008

EPIC/DRAMA (15) 158min As the American industrialist Jean Paul Getty noted, ‘Oil is like a wild animal. Whoever finds it keeps it.’ It’s a notion that lone silver prospector Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis) soon discovers when he finds black gold…

Star Gazers

14 Feb 2008

Blow the budget Celeb spotting? How very 90s. For seriously cool star-gazing, you need to head south, to the Pic Du Midi. This mountain in the Pyrenees is famous for its observatory; among its collection of telescopes is a 106-cm whopper which was…

Crazy Love - interview with Don Klores

Glasgow Film Festival

14 Feb 2008

Crazy Love isn’t your everyday romantic comedy: boy meets girl, boy loses girl and arranges for hoods to throw acid in her face, boy goes to jail, then re-emerges to marry the very same girl. Arguably the darkest date movie ever, Dan Klores’ new film…

DJ Format

14 Feb 2008

Three years since the last album and having apparently denounced hip hop while throwing himself headlong into DJing and re-editing duties you might be surprised to find that DJ Format, aka Southampton-born Brightonian Matt Ford, has been quietly…

Mark Millar

14 Feb 2008

Despite being one of the most successful writers of comics ever, Mark Millar still resides in Coatbridge. Like most UK writers he earned his stripes on 2000AD. ‘The older guys like Grant Morrison, Pete Milligan, Alan Grant and John Wagner had all…

Chinese New Year

14 Feb 2008

It’s the Year of the Rat, and Scotland is celebrating. See page 9 for other events in the nationwide China Now project, or just mosey on down to Kelvingrove Museum for a day of music dance and craft. Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Glasgow, Tue 19…

Retro technology

14 Feb 2008

In some ways Jack Black and Mos Def’s new film Be Kind Rewind (see our review on page 46) highlights the end of an era for old technology such as the VHS. Today it’s hard to imagine DVD disappearing completely and being replaced by Blu-Ray and HD DVDs…

Nick Evans and Tony Swain

14 Feb 2008

It seems Paul Nesbit can do no wrong at Inverleith House in the Botanic Gardens. The curator has a back catalogue of excellent exhibitions under his belt, having shown work by some of the most respected national and international artists. Following a…

Taste Test - Hot breakfast sarnies

14 Feb 2008

Sausage & egg sandwich, £4 Always Sunday, 170 High Street, Edinburgh, 0131 622 0667 While Always Sunday’s statuesque, custom-made breakfast sandwich is evidently quality produce, the £4 price tag, and impracticality when it comes to trying to keep…

Baby Bible Bashers

14 Feb 2008

DOCUMENTARY Channel 4, Thu 14 Feb, 9pm; repeated Tue 19 Feb, 11.05pm It never fails to chill the blood to see people who claim to be working on behalf of the little baby Jesus with banners denouncing everyone from liars to homosexuals and adulterers…

Burlescapades! Valentine Venetian Masked Ball

14 Feb 2008

BURLESQUE The Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, Fri 15 Feb ‘Some of the acts will have a Valentine’s theme, some a Venetian, and others a bit of both. We even have a pillow fight,’ laughs burlesque performer and Burlescapades! organiser Lily White. ‘It’s not…

Retro websites

14 Feb 2008

www.aquarterof.com From Anglo Bubbly and Wham! bars to foiled chocolate cups and Space Dust, this website is a joy to behold for those of us nostalgic for long-forgotten treats. Oh, to return to the days when a two pence Highland toffee was the size…

Jo Caulfield

14 Feb 2008

STAND-UP The Stand, Glasgow, Thu 14–Sat 16 Feb Jo Caulfield knows that it’s good to let off some steam now and again. On her website, she allows her fans to rant on her Angry and Annoyed page. Among the more recent complaints was the woman who gets…

Camilla Low: Straight Letters

14 Feb 2008

SCULPTURE DCA, Dundee, until Sun 30 Mar Despite receiving her education at Glasgow School of Art, this is the first major solo exhibition in the UK by Norwegian sculptor Camilla Low. With this in mind it’s fortunate that a venue the size of the DCA is…

Glasgow Film Festival - LGBT

14 Feb 2008

LGBT CINEMA Various venues and times, Thu 14–Sun 24 Feb From early, openly queer flicks such as Victim, through the work of landmark filmmakers Derek Jarman, Todd Haynes and Gus Van Sant, to the recent mainstream success of Ang Lee’s Brokeback…

Food For Thought

14 Feb 2008

I love to start the day with a breakfast of a greasy fry-up from a local café in Holloway where I live. I’m spending a lot of time on the road just now, so lunch is usually a cheeseburger from McDonalds. I’d love to say I eat healthy sandwiches with…

5 Things you might not know about - Des Clarke

14 Feb 2008

1 In 2000 at the tender age of 19, Des Clarke was runner-up in the prestigious So You Think You’re Funny awards. The victor was one Drew Rokos. He’s Australian. That’s all we know about him. 2 His first major TV exposure was on ITV’s Saturday…

Speed climbing!

14 Feb 2008

Ever fancied finding love at 100ft? Boldly going where almost certainly no one else has gone before and combining popular 00s social activities speed dating and rock climbing, this post-Valentine’s Day event for lovelorn cliff face enthusiasts begins…

Side Dishes

14 Feb 2008

Despite raised expectations, no new Michelin stars have been awarded to restaurants in Glasgow and Edinburgh, though there’s one for West Lothian with the unexpected elevation of the Champany Inn near Linlithgow. Places awarded a Bib Gourmand (good food…

Ansel Adams: Celebration of Genius

14 Feb 2008

Inspired by the centenary of his birth in 2002, this exhibition is the most comprehensive overview of Adams’ career ever exhibited in the UK. Adams was one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century, best known for his visionary…

Remote Control

14 Feb 2008

The internet is a wonderful, wonderful place. Where else can you tap a few buttons and see men lip-synching to Romanian hit songs or witness dogs interfering with cats or watch a yardful of hardnut prisoners do the ‘Thriller’ dance or gasp in amazement…

Rambo

14 Feb 2008

ACTION/THRILLER (18) 90min Last year Sylvester Stallone successfully revitalised the Rocky franchise with Rocky Balboa. After a number of dud sequels, Stallone breathed life back into the pugilist by revisiting him in his decrepitude to winning…

X Factor Dance Company

14 Feb 2008

SITE-SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE Freemason’s Hall, Edinburgh, Tue 19 Feb–Sat 1 Mar Eighteen years after its first performance, X Factor Dance Company is coming of age. And, like most new recruits to adulthood, is striking out into uncharted territory. For…

The Bucket List

14 Feb 2008

COMEDY/ADVENTURE (12A) 96min After four decades as one of cinema’s most personable superstars, Jack Nicholson deserves the extended curtain call he gets in The Bucket List, even if it is sentimental, mawkish and manipulative. Ideally cast as filthy…

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane

14 Feb 2008

HORROR (18) 90min Here’s a welcome example of that all too rare thing in American horror movies: a teen slasher that’s actually very good. The simple answer to that conundrum is that appearances can be deceptive: Mandy Lane isn’t simply a teen slasher…

Heelie-Go-Leerie

14 Feb 2008

CHILDREN’S THEATRE Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Wed 20–Sat 23 Feb, then touring When Virginia Radcliffe decided to write a show about play, she knew her imagination would only take her so far. That if she wanted to capture the fantastical worlds…

The Visible Men

14 Feb 2008

NEW WORK Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 16 Feb Contemporary dance and comedy double act are two concepts that aren’t usually found in the same sentence. The two genres appear to attract such widely different types of audiences, and philosophies that…

Scottish Dance Theatre

14 Feb 2008

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Dundee Rep, Thu 21–Sat 23 Feb, then touring. When dance and music come together, it’s usually a fusion of creative sources – a symbiotic partnership of composer and choreographer. But when artistic director, Janet Smith commissioned…

Inglorious Bastards

14 Feb 2008

WAR (15) 87min (Optimum DVD rental/retail) ‘War’ as the French statesman, physician and journalist Georges Clemenceau remarked ‘is too serious a matter to entrust to military men.’ But then again he never met this raggle-taggle bunch of escaped…

The Cool Kids

14 Feb 2008

HIP HOP Ego, Edinburgh, Sun 17 Feb For the past few years hip hop in the states has been suffering. In 2007 album sales nose-dived and the ‘hip hop tycoon’ icon with clothing labels, butlers and perfumes finally crumbled under street level scrutiny.

Gallows

14 Feb 2008

HARDCORE PUNK ABC, Glasgow, Sat 23 Feb If you’re under the misapprehension British rock was in trouble you obviously haven’t heard Gallows, the most exciting band Britain has to offer at the moment, a snarling feral injection of true hardcore and raw…

Baillie and the Fault

14 Feb 2008

INDIE Barfly, Glasgow, Tue 29 Jan Can Gary Lightbody have fooled everyone on the Glasgow scene into thinking that being just the right side of average is something to aspire to? Baillie and the Fault’s Mike Baillie – a man who has served his time on…

Six Characters in Search of an Author - interview with cast and crew

14 Feb 2008

Trying to get to the nub of Luigi Pirandello’s 1921 absurdist classic Six Characters In Search of An Author is an infuriating, intellectually taxing, challenging and rewarding process. Essentially, six characters – fictional characters, but somehow…

Gamerz

14 Feb 2008

‘The elevator pitch for Gamerz is that’s it’s a bittersweet love-triangle set in Glasgow University’s Dungeons and Dragons society,’ says one-time role-playing geek and now film actor, writer and director Robbie Fraser (pictured, right). His low-budget…

Glasgow Film Festival highlights

Glasgow Film Festival

14 Feb 2008

Honeydripper John Sayles’ first film as director since 2004’s Silver City is a multilayered 1950s Alabama-set music business melodrama starring Danny Glover. GFT, Sat 16 Feb, 8pm; Cineworld Renfrew Street, Sun 17 Feb, 6.15pm. Zam Salim…

Mister Lonely - on-set feature

Glasgow Film Festival

14 Feb 2008

When news broke that Harmony Korine had cast Y tu mamá también star Diego Luna as a Michael Jackson impersonator it seemed a typical act of provocation from the Gummo and Julien Donkey Boy director. How many other directors would be brave enough to cast…

Lars and the Real Doll - interview with Emily Mortimer

Glasgow Film Festival

14 Feb 2008

Emily Mortimer is laughing. ‘Bianca’s a very subtle actress and incredibly modest. She sits quietly, she waits. She doesn’t pace around, throw hissy fits or demand things. And her performance is incredibly low key.’ Bianca is Mortimer’s Danish/Brazilian…

All glimmers in limbo: Tramway

14 Feb 2008

Glasgow’s Tramway has a rich, varied history that closely mirrors the city’s development from a noisy industrial town to a centre of arts and culture. The building began life as a tram terminus (the clue’s in the name), housed the Museum of Transport…

DVD Round-Up

14 Feb 2008

It’s that time of year when everything goes a little bit box set crazy. If you go on the right website (I suggest www.moviemail-online.co.uk) you can pick up newly released The Complete Coen Collection 1984-2004 (Spirit ••••) for around the £50. With…

Great Expectations

14 Feb 2008

ADAPTATION Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Fri 15 & Sat 16 Feb; Paisley Arts Centre, Thu 21 Feb; MacRobert, Stirling, Tue 26 Feb Much of Charles Dickens’ most successful work draws on his own life experiences. Strange, then, that perhaps his most…

Afghan film festival

14 Feb 2008

FESTIVAL For exasperated introductions to the complexities of Afghanistan’s political situation it is difficult to beat Atiq Rahini’s (A)fghanistan: An Impossible State. Rahini simply allows the attending members of a loya jirga (political gathering…