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Outpost III: Rise of the Spetsnaz
20 Jun 2013
Third instalment in the Nazi zombie series, starring Bryan Larkin and Michael McKell
Outpost was part of the first wave of the current mini-craze for Nazi zombie movies (sitting alongside Dead Snow, the genre has also spawned Nazis at the Center of the Earth and War of the Dead) and has become Scotland’s most successful horror franchise…
What Maisie Knew
19 Jun 2013
Well-crafted drama starring Julianne Moore showing divorce from a child's point of view
In an upmarket Manhattan apartment, rock singer Susanna (Julianne Moore) and her art dealer partner Beale (Steve Coogan) are having an explosive argument. The camera quickly moves to an adjacent room, where the couple’s infant daughter Maisie (Onata…
The Battle of the Sexes
19 Jun 2013
A captivating documentary on Billie Jean King's eponymous historic game to fight for sexual equality
Some real-life stories are such a narrative gift for documentary makers you wonder why they weren’t filmed years ago. Co-directors James Erskine and Zara Hayes’ engrossing doc about the efforts of a few, pioneering female tennis players to bring sexual…
RockNess - Clunes Farm, Dores, Fri 7 & Sat 8 Jun 2013
18 Jun 2013
Part 1 of our RockNess review coverage features The Vaccines, Basement Jaxx and more
Having cooled on its ambitions to try and rival T in the Park for size and stature, RockNess has found a strong identity all of its own in recent years. It’s compact in size and layout (moving the campsite lochside behind the main stage this year is a…
Edinburgh International Film Festival 2013: Surprise Movie candidates
18 Jun 2013
The EIFF Surprise Movie is a closely guarded secret - here's what we think could be showing
Filth The James McAvoy-starring Irvine Welsh adaptation is a bit of a long shot, considering it isn't scheduled for general release until October. That said, the news broke recently that Filth was coming out in Scotland a week before anywhere else in…
Edinburgh International Film Festival 2013: the best thrillers
18 Jun 2013
Magic Magic, Upstream Color and Il Futuro among our top picks for festival thrills
Magic Magic Director Sebastian Silva returns for his fifth feature film with Magic Magic, a psychological thriller set in his native land of Chile. All the elements for a gripping film are aligned: a young shy foreign woman sets out to spend holidays…
RockNess - Clunes Farm, Dores, Sun 9 Jun 2013
18 Jun 2013
Part 2 of our RockNess review coverage features Lianne La Havas, Madness and Camera Obscura
At any British festival the tendency is to review the weather first, and RockNess certainly comes off best when you do that in this case. Sunday’s line-up rounded off a glorious Highland weekend in one of Scotland’s most scenic spots, with a diverse…
A$AP Rocky - O2 Academy, Glasgow, Sun 26 May 2013
18 Jun 2013
A powerful, swaggering show from the Harlem rapper
With a slew of recent hip hop hits played over its PA system serving as the only warm-up, the anticipation for A$AP Rocky’s impending arrival is palpable in a packed, hot but not quite full Academy. Owing his moniker to membership of the Harlem-based…
Shooting Bigfoot
18 Jun 2013
Quirky Sasquatch documentary about the men who hunt the legendary beast
We have consigned notions of dragons, minotaurs and giants to the status of fables but there are some monster myths that persist even in the modern world. The Yeti, the Chupacabra and Scotland's own Loch Ness Monster live on in the popular imagination…
Edinburgh International Film Festival 2013: the breakout contenders
18 Jun 2013
Stories We Tell, Jiseul and Upstream Color are likely to be the runaway successes of EIFF 2013
Stories We Tell Sarah Polley’s first feature documentary has caught the eye of film critics after a warm reception at Sundance Festival. The multi-layered investigation of her mother Diane oscillates between home Super 8 footage, conflicting family…
Dummy Jim
18 Jun 2013
Matt Hulse’s second feature is both very beautiful and utterly bonkers
Dummy Jim is inspired by the book I Cycled into the Arctic Circle, James Duthie’s account of the three-month long bike ride he undertook in the summer of 1951 from his home in a small Scottish fishing village, through a big chunk of Europe and up into…
A Haunted House
18 Jun 2013
A derivative, mean-spirited, misogynist Paranormal Activity spoof from Marlon Wayans
The Paranormal Activity model, whereby cheap, lo-fi horror films gain surprisingly high grosses, seems to work for horror spoofs as well; after contributing to the first two entries in the lamentable Scary Movie franchise, Marlon Wayans goes solo with A…
The Seasoning House
18 Jun 2013
Paul Hyett's horror-thriller is tense but cheaply exploits the issue of sex slavery
First time director Paul Hyett has described his horror-thriller The Seasoning House as a dark fairytale based in the real world, a troubling description given the the nature of the film. Set in the war-torn Balkans, it takes place in a house where…
Danny Brown – The Arches, Glasgow, Sat 15 Jun 2013
18 Jun 2013
Energetic show from bizarre Detroit rapper fails to keep crowd’s attention
By no means the sole hot ticket of Glasgow’s gig scene this evening (The Stone Roses are performing just along the road), an appearance from Detroit rapper Danny Brown at the Arches nevertheless generates a certain level of excitement among the…
Edinburgh International Film Festival 2013: the best documentaries
17 Jun 2013
Dummy Jim, Lunarcy and Shooting Bigfoot among the 10 finest real-life stories at EIFF 2013
Dummy Jim Not an out and out documentary this one, as there's some fictitious/dramatised elements mixed in (a theme that crops up elsewhere in the programme), but filmmaker Matt Hulse was inspired by a true story: that of James Duthie, a deaf-mute…
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - SECC, Glasgow, Thu 13 Jun 2013
17 Jun 2013
A sublime rock'n'roll show spanning the guitar god's varied career
Before Neil Young and Crazy Horse rolled into Glasgow there had already been online grumblings about the Alchemy Tour's extended guitar solos, feedback workouts and supposed lack of classics. It's a Crazy Horse show; what did they expect? Cosy campfire…
LeithLate - various venues, Edinburgh, Thu 13 Jun 2013
17 Jun 2013
Sterling art and music evening based on and around Leith Walk
If there’s one criticism of LeithLate, it’s that there’s not enough time to take it all in. With performances and exhibitions taking place in 17 venues on and around Leith Walk, three hours is nowhere near enough time to get a taste of everything. You…
Edinburgh International Film Festival 2013: the best action films
17 Jun 2013
Car chases, kidnappings and counter-espionage thrills at the EIFF
Days of Grace With a frenetic pace and a full-on soundtrack to match (featuring Nick Cave and Bad Seeds/Grinderman cohort Warren Ellis), this Mexico City-set thriller uses the confusion and bustle of three World Cup football matches (in 2002, 2006 and…
ECA and GSA Degree Shows
17 Jun 2013
The degree shows at Edinburgh College of Art and Glasgow School of Art provide two distinct flavours
Edinburgh College of Art ●●●● In Edinburgh, the sculpture is particularly strong. In one studio, you are greeted with Abigail McPaul’s row of bright blue trees. They are beautifully delicate, and the corresponding prints, showing close-ups of the…
Spike Island
17 Jun 2013
A messy, nostalgic coming-of-ager set around the legendary Stone Roses gig
Arriving just before Shane Meadows’ Made of Stone documentary comes another disappointing tribute to the era of ‘Madchester’ and the music of The Stone Roses. Directed by Mat Whitecross, who already brought us the Ian Dury biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock…
Snitch
17 Jun 2013
A solid thriller that hints at a life beyond blockbusters for leading man Dwayne Johnson
Dwayne Johnson moves away from film franchises to flex some acting muscles in this appealing new thriller. Dispensing with Johnson’s tough guy persona in favour of a more down-to-earth, everyman approach, Snitch offers a commentary on America’s war on…
New trailer for Scorsese and DiCaprio’s The Wolf of Wall Street
17 Jun 2013
Strutting new production also starring Jonah Hill, Rob Reiner, Kyle Chandler and Matthew McConaughey
The trailer has just arrived for Martin Scorsese’s next directorial effort, The Wolf of Wall Street. Based on the memoir of the same name by criminal stock broker Jordan Belfort, it tells the story we’re only too well acquainted with in the days of…
Interview: Lauren Mayberry of Chvrches ... gives an interview to her former place of work
14 Jun 2013
Claire Sawers chats with former work colleague about touring, success and giving up the day job
LGBT and Around Town editor at The List up until a couple of issues ago, Lauren Mayberry is in Chvrches, the synth-pop trio who, just a year after forming, are set to play TITP, then tour with Depeche Mode. She still has time for the little people…
Paradise: Love
14 Jun 2013
An unsettling romantic drama of moods and moments that doesn't quite gel into a compelling whole
The pursuit of happiness leads to inevitable disappointment in Paradise: Love, the first in a trilogy from Austrian director Ulrich Seidl that focuses on three women from the same family. In Love, plump, fifty-something mother Teresa (Margarete Tiesel…
Summer in February
14 Jun 2013
A Downton-esque middlebrow melancholic melodrama starring Emily Browning and Dominic Cooper
The success of Downton Abbey clearly points to the arrival of Summer In February, a middlebrow melancholic melodrama set amongst the real-life Newlyn School artists’ colony in pre-WWI Cornwall. Co-produced by and starring Downton’s Dan Stevens, it’s…
