James Mottram

A Fantastic Fear of Everything

Crispian Mills' directorial debut starts well but quickly loses pace

11 May 2012

A film by the former lead singer of Kula Shaker might not sound an appetising prospect. But before dismissing A Fantastic Fear of Everything, we should remember that Crispian Mills’ film pedigree is pretty spot-on. He is, after all, the son of Hayley…

Interview: Emile Hirsch on Killer Joe

William Friedkin’s violent thriller set to open 2012 Edinburgh International Film Festival

25 May 2012

‘Oh man, the human punching bag is here!’ laughs Emile Hirsch, as he walks into the room. Don’t worry, though the 27-year-old star of Speed Racer and Into The Wild is not covered in bruises (unless you count a bruised ego). He’s recounting his time on…

The Cabin in the Woods

Excellent horror has something in its box of tricks to scare everyone

19 Mar 2012

(15) 94min A film that’s almost impossible to talk about without ruining its multiple pleasures, The Cabin In The Woods is the most original horror movie of the year. Reverential to the genre, yet shaking it up simultaneously, it’s exactly what you’d…

Ill Manors

A jarring, grimy and a searing indictment of Broken Britain, from debut director Ben Drew aka Plan B

11 May 2012

To say Ill Manors doesn’t pull punches is like saying Mike Tyson hits quite hard. Raw, uncompromising and brutal, this urban tale of violence, prostitution and drugs smacks you round the face, then kicks you in the groin for good measure. It marks the…

Moonrise Kingdom

Wes Anderson's latest echoes his earlier triumphs, but breaks no new ground

17 May 2012

Wes Anderson’s seventh film feels like a Greatest Hits package. Which if you’re a Wes fan will make you very happy. Set on a New England island in the summer of 1965, the opening sequence of Moonrise Kingdom, with its incessant camera-pans around the…

Dark Shadows

A fun, if forgettable vampire movie, starring Johnny Depp, Eva Green and Michelle Pfeiffer

10 May 2012

Like a kid who turns up late to a Halloween party, Tim Burton arrives with his latest, vampire movie Dark Shadows. After Twilight, 30 Days of Night and Let The Right One In, not to mention TV’s True Blood…aren’t fangs, dusty coffins and dissolving in…

Glasgow Film Festival hosts UK premiere of The Greatest - Carey Mulligan interview

17 Feb 2010

In just a few years Brit actress Carey Mulligan has gone from guesting in Doctor Who to winning an Oscar nomination for her role in An Education. As her film, The Greatest, hits the Glasgow Film Festival, she tells James Mottram how she’s learning to…

Piggy

Ultra-violent London-set thriller starring Martin Compston

23 Apr 2012

(18) 106mins Fight Club meets Death Wish in this ultra-violent vigilante movie, one so gratuitous it will turn even the strongest of stomachs. Set in a modern-day London where hoodies wielding knives seem to lurk on every street corner, Martin…

Persepolis - An interview with Marjane Satrapi

24 Apr 2008

Sitting across from me in a tartan-walled basement of a London hotel room, Marjane Satrapi cuts an imposing figure. Arms folded, with an all-black outfit reflecting her mood, the Iranian-born 38-year-old is in town to discuss Persepolis, her…

Interview: Felicity Jones, star of Like Crazy

Young actress set to follow Sundance hit with films by Warren Beatty and Ralph Fiennes

17 Jan 2012

A year ago, Felicity Jones was asleep when she got a call from America. ‘I thought there’d been a terrible accident,’ she laughs. But this was no accident. On the line was the producer of her new film Like Crazy: the Sundance Film Festival had just…

Project X

Major league mayhem with a dark, twisted edge

1 Mar 2012

(18) 88mins Animal House meets The Blair Witch Project, only this time the horror is very real in a movie that will undoubtedly give all parents nightmares. No, this is not a film about paranormal activity, but a high school party that gets…

Trash Humpers

2 Jul 2010

Returning Harmony Korine to the downbeat Nashville locations of his 1997 debut feature Gummo, in some ways his new effort, Trash Humpers, has its roots in films like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. Like those, Korine wants you to think…

The Divide

A nasty and nihilistic portrait of rapid decline of civilisation

19 Mar 2012

(18) 108mins Rarely will you see a film as nasty and nihilistic as Xavier Gens’ The Divide. The Frenchman scored a cult hit with 2007’s Frontier(s) before making his first foray into the studio system with the by numbers video game adaptation Hitman.

The Raven

Thriller hypothesing final days of Edgar Allan Poe falls prey to genre cliches

17 Feb 2012

(15) 111min As the opening titles to The Raven tell us, until he was found near death on a park bench in October 1849, Edgar Allan Poe’s final days remain a mystery. Spinning a macabre tale that might feel at home in one of Poe’s stories, this…

Jim Loach's Oranges and Sunshine a worthy follower in dad Ken's footsteps

Emily Watson, Hugo Weaving and David Wenham solid in social drama

18 Mar 2011

(15) 104min Jim Loach, son of Ken, was always going to be on a hiding to nothing with his debut feature. Bringing a worthier-than-thou tale to the screen, the comparisons to his father’s immense body of work are inevitable, even more so given how…

Carnage

Polanski's comedy of upper-middle class savagery is fast, funny and filthy

24 Jan 2012

(15) 79mins Roman Polanski’s adaptation of Yasmina Reza’s play Gods of Carnage opens with a playground spat. Set over the opening credits, it’s this innocuous bust-up that drives the bitterly funny four-hander, as the parents of both children try to…

The Messenger

Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson film begins well but let down by unfocussed second half

18 Apr 2011

(15) 105min The Messenger is the perfect example of a film of two halves. The first segment is breathtaking, as injured US Army Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) is reassigned to the Casualty Notification Team. Partnered with career soldier…

Albert Nobbs

Glenn Close's period drama passion project is a squandered opportunity of intriguing premise

18 Apr 2012

(15) 113mins Fifteen years in development, Rodrigo Garcia’s adaptation of George Moore’s short story The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs arrives on the back of two deserved Oscar nominations for stars Glenn Close and Janet McTeer. And while it’s just…

Interview: Jason Segel on Jeff, Who Lives at Home

The Forgetting Sarah Marshall on new slacker comedy and future plans

17 Apr 2012

Jason Segel may well look back on 2012 as his year. Already the 32-year-old actor-writer has seen The Muppets, his nostalgia-tinged feature film revival of the beloved TV show, gross $158m around the world. Even better, the film’s signature tune ‘Man or…

Interview: John C Reilly on Carnage and Terri

The actor discusses his prolific rate of appearances in both higher and lower profile movies

1 Feb 2012

‘I have been a busy boy, haven’t I?’ grins John C Reilly. And it’s true. Last seen as the luckless father in We Need To Talk About Kevin, the Chicago-born actor now stars in Roman Polanski’s Carnage and US indie Terri. Factor in two major upcoming…

Rampart

A compelling performance from Woody Harrelson can't quite support the weight of this cop drama

24 Jan 2012

(15) 108mins At this rate, Woody Harrelson should keep Oren Moverman on a retainer. The director guided Harrelson to an Oscar nomination in 2009’s The Messenger. And their latest collaboration Rampart sees the actor on similarly searing form. Set in…

Like Crazy

Sundance-wowing romance starring Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones

24 Jan 2012

(12A) 89mins Winner of 2011’s Sundance Grand Jury prize, Like Crazy is a long-distance love story mired in the complications of modern-day living. Anna (Felicity Jones) is a British student living in Los Angeles who spends the perfect summer with…

One Day

Director of An Education tackles David Nicholls' novel

12 Aug 2011

(12A) 108min Following An Education, Danish director Lone Scherfig attempts to conjure the same magic on another slice of hit Brit lit – David Nicholls’ One Day. Fans of the book have already been protesting that the casting of Anne Hathaway as…

Red Hill

Australian modern-day western makes up for lacks in originality with bravado and tension

29 Jun 2011

(15) 97min With its tale of a convict on the loose and a rookie cop on his first day on the job, Red Hill is hardly original. Written and directed by debuting Aussie director Patrick Hughes, if you crossed No Country For Old Men with Assault on…

Hanna

A wonderfully curious, bold and original film

28 Jun 2011

(12A) 111min What a wonderfully curious and beguiling film this is. Hanna is the story of the eponymous 16 year-old (Saoirse Ronan), trained in the arts of combat and survival in the remote wilds of Finland by her ex-CIA father (Eric Bana).