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Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

By-the-numbers old age comedy drama

(2 stars)10 Feb 2012

Early in this by-the-numbers comedy drama, a young salesperson eagerly enthuses to retiring couple Douglas (Bill Nighy) and Jean (Penelope Wilton) that 'the grey pound is very strong at the moment'. We’re quite clearly supposed to see this…

Steve Strange and the Detroit Starrzz, Citrus Club, Edinburgh, Fri 3 Feb 2012

Steve Strange and the Detroit Starrzz - Citrus Club, Edinburgh, Fri 3 Feb 2012

Disappointing gig from the New Romantic

(2 stars)8 Feb 2012

When 80s tribute band, and tonight's support act Party Fears Three dedicate their bombastically unsubtle cover of David Bowie's 'Ashes To Ashes' to Steve Strange,…

Raydale Dower - Cryptic Nights at CCA, Glasgow, Thu 2 Feb 2012

Raydale Dower - Cryptic Nights at CCA, Glasgow, Thu 2 Feb 2012

Experimental but playful sound installation

(3 stars)8 Feb 2012

The title of Raydale Dower's new 'spatial sound composition' speaks volumes about the former Uncle John & Whitelock bassist and current Tut Vu Vu clarinettist and sonic architect's methodology.…

Electric Man

Electric Man

A patchy, if well intentioned, Edinburgh-set comic comedy

(3 stars)8 Feb 2012

(12A tbc) 98min Shot in Edinburgh on a micro-budget, comic shop comedy Electric Man declares its intentions from the off: this is to be no social realist kitchen sink drama, typical of the UK film industry, but rather a light-hearted love-letter to…

Lana Del Rey - Born to Die

Lana Del Rey - Born to Die

The starlet's debut album outshines the blogocentric hype

(4 stars)8 Feb 2012

(Polydor) Amid the conspiracy theories, the double-standards, the cosmetic surgery obsessions, the questions of authenticity (or lack thereof – like pop was ever without a scheme); amid the histrionic revelations (how dare she have tried before!…

Safe House

Safe House

Brutally slick but flawed action thriller starring Denzel Washtington and Ryan Reynolds

(3 stars)8 Feb 2012

(15) 115mins Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds make a formidable partnership in Daniel Espinosa's Safe House, a brutally slick, if flawed, action thriller.

Still Corners, Captain’s Rest, Sat 4 Feb

Still Corners, Captain’s Rest, Sat 4 Feb

Dreamy shoegaze five-piece tour recent album

(4 stars)8 Feb 2012

Still Corners had one heck of a 2011, playing SXSW, touring Europe and the US and releasing their debut LP, Creatures of an Hour, and the little basement of the Captain’s is full of people wondering if they can be as lovely live as they are on record.

Joost Swarte: Is That All There Is?

Joost Swarte: Is That All There Is?

Compendium of the Dutch cartoonist’s satirical alternative comics

(4 stars)3 Feb 2012

Apparently so. Or almost so. Is That All There Is? collects virtually all of the Dutch cartoonist’s alternative comics from way back in 1972 to the present day, translates them into English and assembles them, under Swarte’s own supervision, in this…

Hazy Recollections – O2 ABC2, Glasgow, Sun 22 Jan

Hazy Recollections – O2 ABC2, Glasgow, Sun 22 Jan

Electro-folk and French lullabies bring weepie and comedy moments

(4 stars)3 Feb 2012

Celtic Connections’ Hazy Recollections sessions are great for two main reasons. Firstly, they provide a gathering place for the legion of those with beards and plaid shirts. Secondly, you get to see just how far the festival’s remit of ‘folk, roots and…

The Unthanks, Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Tue 24 Jan

The Unthanks, Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Tue 24 Jan

Sisters deliver inventive tribute to Robert Wyatt and Antony Hegarty

(4 stars)3 Feb 2012

This Celtic Connections show was the last planned outing for what Rachel Unthank, with inordinate modesty, refers to as ‘our self-indulgent experiment’ – that is, the Northumbrian folk collective’s double tribute to the songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony…

Henry Rollins – Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Fri 13 Jan

Henry Rollins – Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Fri 13 Jan

Prolific punk-rocker gets gut laughs on his three-hour rant

(4 stars)3 Feb 2012

Few people can make a decent living out of talking on stage for two hours. Henry Rollins, on the other hand, has it down to a fine art. An honorary punk rock graduate having earned his stripes fronting S.O.A. and Black Flag in the 80s, and later, his…

Explosions in The Sky - O2 Academy, Glasgow, Mon 23 Jan

Explosions in The Sky - O2 Academy, Glasgow, Mon 23 Jan 2012

An elemental, foundation-shaking post-rock rollercoaster

(4 stars)3 Feb 2012

Explosions in The Sky’s music has always had very elemental feel to it. As the unforgiving Glasgow winter freezes the breath in every pair of lungs waiting to get into the Academy tonight, the Texan’s set, which could soundtrack the bleak, sparse cold…

M83 - The Arches, Thu 19 Jan

M83 - The Arches, Thu 19 Jan

Revered French electro act let down by bad sound

(2 stars)3 Feb 2012

The problem with eagerly anticipating a show for any great length of time is that you always leave yourself open to disappointment if things don’t live up to your expectations, such is the way with live music. Sold out weeks in advance, M83’s…

Ed Sheeran, Tue 10 Jan, HMV Picture House, Edinburgh

Ed Sheeran - Tue 10 Jan 2012, HMV Picture House, Edinburgh

Unlikely chart-topping teen idol performs angsty ballads

(3 stars)3 Feb 2012

‘I have some news’, Ed Sheeran casually mentions amidst the screaming adoration, after a nice loop-pedal driven cover of 'Wayfaring Stranger'. ‘My album’s just gone triple platinum’. (More screams). Quite impressive, really, for the unlikely teen idol…

Wild Flag, Oran Mor, Mon 30 Jan

Wild Flag, Oran Mor, Mon 30 Jan

Indie-rock supergroup prove more than the sum of their parts

(4 stars)3 Feb 2012

The word ‘supergroup’ often sets alarm bells ringing. What if the weight of previous successes is too much pressure? What if this new project isn’t as good? Hell, what if it’s downright rubbish (see exhibit A: Velvet Revolver)? Wild Flag are of…

Alex Dordoy

Alex Dordoy

Overarching sense of the mutability of physical objects

(4 stars)3 Feb 2012

Alex Dordoy’s new body of work mixes the digital and the analogue, the abstract and the real, in a search for new means of perception. Three bright and eye-catching panoramic canvases – meticulously painted reproductions of digitally abstracted figures…

Paul McCartney - Kisses on the Bottom

Paul McCartney - Kisses on the Bottom

Macca covers 1920s and 1930s standards, with vanilla results

(3 stars)3 Feb 2012

Paul McCartney has the weirdest back catalogue of any Beatle. This is an album of the 20s and 30s standards his dad used to play and it's less weird than perplexing, thanks to the unfortunate choice of Tommy 'Mainstream' LiPuma as producer. After his…

The Banana Sessions - Mixtape

The Banana Sessions - Mixtape

Long-awaited debut album from the folksy Edinburgh fivesome

(3 stars)3 Feb 2012

Waiting four years before releasing debut album Mixtape, Edinburgh five-piece The Banana Sessions certainly can't be accused of rushing in to anything. Exhibiting an eclectic combination of styles Mixtape opens with 'Two Seasons' a well crafted folk…

Young Adult

Young Adult

A fiercely dark comedy from Juno writer-director team Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman

(4 stars)2 Feb 2012

(15) 94min This reteaming of Juno director (Jason Reitman) and writer (Diablo Cody) is a fiercely dark character comedy that once again demonstrates the pair’s refusal to be limited by genre conventions, no matter how sacred. The set-up is…

Swallows and Amazons

Swallows and Amazons

Slick, spirited musical play with Neil Hannon score grasps essence of original

(4 stars)2 Feb 2012

The four children of the Walker family, aged 12 to 7, are given permission by their naval father to set off alone on the sailing dinghy Swallow to camp on an uninhabited island on Coniston Water in the Lake District. Their imaginations let loose, they…

Late'n'Live Guide to Comedy

Late'n'Live Guide to Comedy

The greatest hits of the legendary Fringe bear-pit makes an appearance on TV

(4 stars)2 Feb 2012

‘The performing equivalent of self-harm’ is how Johnny Vegas describes the bearpit hell of the notorious Late’n’Live. Brainchild of the Gilded Balloon’s head honcho Karen Koren, this Edinburgh Fringe staple has been sending chills down the spines of…

Red Dog

Red Dog

Hilarious and tearjerking scenes of human folly played as classic comedy

(4 stars)1 Feb 2012

(PG) 92min 2012 is turning into the year of the dog for cinema fans. After Uggie stole the show in The Artist comes this wonderful tale of canine tomfoolery. Told in a zippy boy’s own adventure style, this ‘inspired by a true story’ tale is set in…

The Sculpture Show

The Sculpture Show

Well-managed and educational group sculpture show also contains big impressions

(4 stars)1 Feb 2012

Those who find their attention can escape the orbit of this show’s central spectacle – Ron Mueck’s striking ‘A Girl’, a life-like model of a quite grumpy-looking newborn baby girl rendered as a vast monolith many dozens of times the size of nature…

Shalom Auslander - Hope: A Tragedy

Shalom Auslander - Hope: A Tragedy

Probably the funniest book that’s ever going to be written about the Holocaust

(5 stars)1 Feb 2012

(Picador) This is probably the funniest book that’s ever going to be written about the Holocaust. But then Shalom Auslander has previous experience of laugh-out-loud writings about Jewish guilt, paranoia, misery and self-loathing. His short story…

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Elizabeth Olsen is remarkable in a film weak on intensity and narrative

(3 stars)1 Feb 2012

(15) 102min A young woman making her escape from a Manson-like sex cult sounds like the stuff of a lurid made-for-TV potboiler, but Sean Durkin’s debut eschews melodrama, instead presenting its protagonist’s ordeal in a hushed and gloomy style…

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