Issue 602

Honeydripper

8 May 2008

DRAMA (PG) 124min God may have given rock’n’roll to us but Alabama gave us the electric blues. The story of its genesis is one that writer and director John Sayles (Lone Star, Matewan, Silver City) sets out in his latest film treatise in search of the…

Nova Scotia

8 May 2008

NEW WORK Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 24 May Next time you’re trapped behind an oldie trying to use a cash point, quietly contemplating the benefits of euthanasia, you might want to reflect on Phil and Spanky, and buy yourself some patience.

As You Always Do

8 May 2008

NEW WORK Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 21–Sat 24 May Behind the stories of the media there are truths that we will never see. When we view reports of murders, disappearances and wars, our perspective is controlled by the scripting, editing and camera…

Iron Man

8 May 2008

SUPERHERO (12A) 125min The mighty world of Marvel superheroes continues to receive the big screen treatment with this blockbuster adaptation of just about the last of the comic book publisher’s original creations from the 1960s (Matthew Vaughn’s…

The Wasp Factory

8 May 2008

REVIVAL Regal Theatre, Bathgate, Thu 15 May, then touring Our fractured, alienating and individualist society is bound to produce some disquieting anomalies among its youth. In a world where the first priority is self, our capacity to empathise with…

Jeremy Raison - The Sound of My Voice

8 May 2008

Perhaps it’s merely a coincidence, but it seems somehow appropriate that the Citizens’ Theatre production of The Sound of My Voice should premiere exactly 40 years after the Paris disturbances of May 1968. For this great outcry was not about a lack of…

Tigerfest

8 May 2008

This year’s Tigerfest once again brings some of the most exciting Scottish acts to Dunfermline and Fife, but also branches out with gigs in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Names like Twilight Sad, Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake and Paul Haig will all be gracing…

Grand Theft Auto IV

8 May 2008

Typical, isn’t it? You wait two years for the most anticipated videogame of all time and it turns out all wrong. What have Rockstar being doing with their time? The driving feels different. They’ve changed the shooting. And Liberty City is only a…

Heartbeat Detector

8 May 2008

DRAMA (12A) 135min Visually spare, leisurely in pace, wordy and featuring an eclectic, occasionally jarring soundtrack, this French corporate thriller is demanding and rewarding in equal measure. Adapted from François Emmanuel’s novel La Question…

LGBT TV Special

8 May 2008

Televised gay kisses may have come a long way since Beth Jordache on Brookside but mainstream programming still lacks fair representation (for the supposed 10% of us) with only the occasional out and proud offering, mainly The L Word and Queer as Folk.

Property special - Beat the credit crunch

8 May 2008

If you are looking for a new mortgage, consider the issues around affordability, the tie-in period of the deal, the loan to value percentage available and other conditions. Do not focus on the published headline rate and assume that is the deal for you.

Property special - City guides

8 May 2008

EDINBURGH HOTSPOTS Leith How much: Average one bed £126,540; two bed £164,420 What: For better or worse, the Leith of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting is almost unrecognisable as new cafés, restaurants and bars jostle for space alongside the…

Property special - Do it yourself

8 May 2008

A survey by online listings company Gumtree found that nine out of ten people do not think estate agents justify their high fees, while 40% told the Office of Fair Trading they offer poor value for money. So the recent explosion of people deciding to…

Property special - Old versus new

8 May 2008

For many property buyers these days, draughty old flats in need of repair just won’t cut it. Luckily there are plenty of shiny new options available across Scotland’s central belt, from swanky waterfront developments such as Coalhill in Leith to sleek…

Property special - Rental guide

8 May 2008

Know what you want Where do you want to live and who with, if anyone? What are your expectations? Be realistic but don’t settle for something which, in a few weeks, won’t make the grade. Go it alone or agent Consider if you want to scour the…

Property special - Sarah Beeny offers some advice

Moving on up

8 May 2008

Sarah Beeny may have flirted with the idea of a different career path but property was definitely in her stars. ‘My father is an architect and I grew up around building sites so they didn’t seem daunting,’ she explains. As her then-boyfriend (now…

Singles & Downloads

8 May 2008

Get ready, kids, it’s New Morrissey Single of the Fortnight time! And this one’s a stormer, all taut and driving, and laced with that familiar austerity which, you suspect, hides a well of uncertainty somewhere just below the surface. And it’s got these…

Chinese Contemporary Art - Asking for It

8 May 2008

China has become something of a cause célèbre in contemporary art market circles. Tales abound of international collectors swooping in to snap up entire bodies of work, leaving artists with empty studios and considerably enriched bank accounts. Whether…

The Curve Foundation 10th Anniversary Gala

8 May 2008

CONTEMPORARY DANCE King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 20 May ‘I thought if I were to have a party to celebrate ten years of the Curve Foundation, who would I invite?’ says Ross Cooper, artistic director of Curve Foundation. ‘Who has been relative to our…

John Burnside - Glister

8 May 2008

SOCIAL DRAMA (Jonathan Cape) It’s safe to say this latest novel from Fifer John Burnside won’t be sparking a tourism boom on the east coast anytime soon. But his bleakly beautiful tale digs beneath the surface of the everyday to do what he does best…

XXY

8 May 2008

DRAMA (15) 90min What would you do if your only child was a hermaphrodite? Would you let this anomaly of nature lie or would you welcome the intervention of major surgery? This is the dilemma at the centre of Argentinean screenwriter Lucía Puenzo’s…

Mark E Smith with Austin Collings - Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E Smith

8 May 2008

MUSIC BIOGRAPHY (Viking) The real joy of Mark E Smith and The Fall has always been expecting the unexpected. His music has always stuck to a rigid formula but is somehow never formulaic, and he’s survived every British musical subculture since punk…

The Stranger

8 May 2008

THRILLER (PG) 95min (Eureka) Having failed to turn a profit on either Citizen Kane or its follow-up The Magnificent Ambersons, Orson Welles directed this relatively conventional film noir for RKO in 1946. In the process, he proved to the studio that…

O Lucky Man!

8 May 2008

COMEDY/SATIRE (15) 169min (Warner Home Video) Lindsay Anderson’s 1973 masterpiece is long overdue a proper DVD release, particularly since it’s rarely shown on our television or cinema screens. In O Lucky Man!, Clockwork Orange star Malcolm McDowell…

Eating & Drinking Guide Launch Party

8 May 2008

At Cabaret Voltaire, four excellent restaurants received Eating and Drinking Guide Best Newcomer awards, with two more receiving our inaugural Readers’ Awards in association with Taste of Edinburgh. Attendants sipped a range of refreshments courtesy of…