Reviews

Epic

A celebrity cast including Beyonce Knowles and Colin Farrell can't save this rather wet adventure

The title of the latest animated film from Ice Age and Rio creators Blue Sky Studios refers to the scale; although offering a sweeping story of huge armies, arduous journeys, lost princesses and aerial assaults, the action never travels beyond the…

The Moth Diaries

Suspense-less boarding school vampire thriller starring Sarah Bolger, Sarah Gadon and Lily Cole

Arriving a week before Neil Jordan’s vampire tale Byzantium, you have to wonder if those releasing The Moth Diaries were hoping to steal a march on Jordan’s film. They needn’t have bothered. A pale shadow of Byzantium, it doesn’t even hold a candle to…

Adam Buxton presents: The Best of BUG

The comedian’s music video-themed show is still going strong

Who’d have thought there was so much comedic scope in music videos and the inane YouTube comments they attract? But scope there undeniably is, as Adam Buxton has proved with his hugely successful show BUG. A bimonthly event at the British Film Institute…

Fast & Furious 6

If you like your stunts outrageous and your plot soapy and undemanding, this won't disappoint

For a franchise with simple tastes – gleaming cars, well-oiled muscles and bikini babes – the Fast & Furious series has always been ultra-willing to re-tune its engines. This time, we’re in London – a first – and the gang, led by Vin Diesel’s Dom…

Public Service Broadcasting - ABC2, Glasgow, Wed 8 May 2013

An overwhelming visual spectacle outshines the electronic duo's music

Despite having only released their debut album Inform-Educate-Entertain two days prior to this gig, the London based duo have already started to gather a steady cult following due to a slew of well received EPs and heavy exposure on BBC 6 Music. The…

eagleowl - The Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 10 May 2013

It only took ten years, but eagleowl’s first album finally hatches

Despite being Edinburgh and UK gig-playing regulars for almost a decade now, this was the night they launched their debut LP This Silent Year, an evening that saw the Fence-signed sextet eagleowl beam in all their slowcore majesty. Well thought-out…

The Stone Roses: Made of Stone

Shane Meadows' rockumentary fails to satisfy either as a concert film or fly-on-the-wall doc

To borrow from an old Stone Roses B-side, the Mancunian band’s much-hyped reunion may well have been ‘what the world is waiting for’, though it’s hard to claim the same for this accompanying Shane Meadows-directed documentary. The director of Dead Man’s…

EP review - Garden of Elks, 'Extended Play'

Noise pop/college rock debut from a Glasgow band, starting to grow antlers

Fuzzy, relentless and slathered in Pixies and Sonic Youth influences, 'Extended Play' is a frantic debut affair which announces Garden of Elks as a band with genuine promise. Billing themselves as a ‘noise pop’ outfit, GOE are worthy of a place…

Sparrow and the Workshop – Caves, Edinburgh, Thu 9 May 2013

The alt.country/rock trio launch latest album Murderopolis with aplomb

There’s a party atmosphere to tonight’s gig at the Caves, the second of two launch parties for Sparrow and the Workshop’s new album, Murderopolis. Bunting and balloons festoon the stage; a bottle of whisky makes its way round the crowd; and both Sparrow…

The Iceman

Impressive mafia-themed dramatic thriller starring Michael Shannon, James Franco and Ray Liotta

Is there no film Michael Shannon doesn’t excel in? Here the star of Take Shelter plays real-life New Jersey hitman Richard Kuklinski, who – upon his arrest in 1986 – is thought to have committed over 100 assassinations. Directed by Israeli-born…

Sparrow and the Workshop - Murderopolis

Third album from Glasgow rock-noir trio has psych-rock heart

(Song, By Toad) This album starts with the words ‘when love was the greatest thing’ - and it is all you need to unravel the third long-player from a Glasgow rock-noir trio who variously conjure The Bad Seeds, The Shangri-Las, Johnny Cash and Melanie…

Dirty Beaches - Drifters/Love is the Devil

A beguiling, globe-trotting, genre-spanning lo-fi album from Alex Zhang Hungtai

(Zoo Records) Alex Zhang Hungtai’s peripatetic lifestyle has taken him from Taiwan to Canada and then around the globe, and his lo-fi compositions as Dirty Beaches have a sense of dislocation that is both engaging and unnerving. There is no real sense…

The Stoker (Kochegar)

A strange, dark and clever Russian black comedy with an unexpectedly forceful moral message

Edinburgh’s beloved Filmhouse cinema has chosen an unusual and intriguing curio for its first release as a distributor. Directed by the prolific Alexey Balabanov - known for his unflinching but darkly comic fables of the Russian criminal underworld…

Neil Young: Journeys

An intimate homecoming documentary by the country rock legend, shot by Jonathan Demme

‘This is a town in North Ontario,’ are the first interview words uttered by Neil Young in this Jonathan Demme-directed documentary, and it’s probable that he’s consciously referencing the lyric of his own song ‘Helpless’. In the opening few minutes of…

Kate Manning - My Notorious Life by Madame X

A timely historical drama about abortion and the female body in the Victorian era

After a year of American politicians sounding off about women’s bodies like it was the 19th century, Kate Manning’s novel, inspired by an infamous midwife/abortion provider from that era, comes as a reminder of how grim things used to be. Axie…

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - King Tuts, Glasgow, Wed 1 May 2013

Infectious, hallucinatory reveries, marred slightly by too much sound desk tweaking

Perhaps it is shell-shock after their recent propulsive success at SXSW, or possibly their own astonishment at selling out King Tuts on their first UK headline tour, but Unknown Mortal Orchestra turn up tonight as nervous as if it were the first day at…

The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish

The theatre production, adapted from Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's book, is performed with gusto

Sitting in a dark room and keeping quiet for an hour isn’t for everyone – especially if you’re under ten. Promenade theatre solves that problem, with movement actively encouraged and the odd noise generally tolerated. So on that front, The Day I…

Nothing but the Truth

Serviceable political thriller starring Kate Beckinsale, Matt Dillon, David Schwimmer and Alan Alda

It’s amazing how many films with big name casts slink out direct to DVD. Take Nothing But the Truth, featuring Kate Beckinsale, Matt Dillon, Angela Bassett, David Schwimmer and Alan Alda. To be fair, NBT was a victim of circumstance rather than some…

'The Comedy Explorers' Alternative Comedy Club' and 'Comedy and Cocktails'

Jay Richardson talk us through the hot new comedy clubs in Glasgow

The current slow-down in gig attendances, suggesting even comedy isn't recession-proof, puts new nights under pressure to be distinctive. Two ambitious ventures launched in Glasgow recently take diametrically-opposed approaches to persuading punters…

The National - Trouble Will Find Me

A great sixth record, but not one which parades the fact before you

(4AD) The idea that much of the music here was written by guitarist Aaron Desner while bedevilled by bone-aching fatigue and sleepless nights following the birth of his baby daughter is a compelling one. It ties into the sense of a band shattered…

James Robertson - The Professor of Truth

A contemporary story dealing with the aftermath of a Lockerbie-like attack

Twenty-one years after the death of his wife and child in a plane bombing, Dr Alan Tealing remains unconvinced by the official account of this atrocity. Tealing’s obsession with what he calls The Case defines the novel: this is Lockerbie in everything…

Helen Ivory - Waiting for Bluebeard

The poet's latest collection dissolves the barriers between reality and fantasy

In what is undoubtedly her most bewitching poetry collection to date, Helen Ivory peels away the layers of reality and leaves her reader a tantalising world to explore. Each poem is beautifully woven together to create a dream-like narrative. Through…

Curtis Sittenfeld - Sisterland

A tense, gripping narrative let down by hard-to-swallow racist and homophobic tendencies

When Kate’s identical twin sister, professional psychic Vi Shramm, has a premonition that a giant earthquake is about to strike their hometown of St Louis, Kate begins to set in motion a plan to protect her family. As Vi gets carried away by the media…

Podcast review: Resident Advisor

As the best online-only dance magazine in the world, there are many reasons to visit Resident Advisor. They do international club listings, ticket sales, features on new and established artists, short documentaries, a forum and an aggregated news feed…

Discopolis, Dems and Jonnie Common among highlights at Big Day In

Inaugural Edinburgh indoor mini-fest: Wan day, hunners o’ bands

Having successfully assembled an astounding line-up of electronic indie talent from across the UK, the initial concern for Electric Circus’s inaugural Big Day In mini-festival was getting people through the doors, especially given that the…