Paul Gallagher
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Weekender
19 Aug 2011
Brazenly shallow ode to the do-it-yourself 90s rave scene
(15) 89min The do-it-yourself rave explosion in ‘90s Manchester is a moment of recent history ripe with storytelling potential – Michael Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People demonstrated that wonderfully – but Weekender, Karl Golden’s...
Project Nim
9 Aug 2011
Excellent ape project documentary a complex meditation on human nature
(12A) 99min It’s not surprising that director James Marsh has chosen to follow his Oscar-winning 2008 documentary Man On Wire by taking an approach often favoured by bands following up a hit album: don’t mess with the formula, just try and do the…
How should the EIFF move forward?
27 Jun 2011
Reflections on Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011
When the lights came up on The Guard, this year’s opening film, my overriding thought was, 'that was fine'. It was quite funny and had a good cast, but was entirely unadventurous filmmaking. Fine, but nothing more. As a tone-setter for the 'reinvented…
Weekender - Henry Lloyd-Hughes and Jack O’Connell interview
25 Jun 2011
Film charting 1990s British rave scene
“We’re a bit like a double-act”, quips Jack O’Connell, referring to himself and his co-star Henry Lloyd-Hughes, and it proves true as they talk to me. They’re ostensibly discussing Weekender, which has it’s World Premiere at this year’s Festival, but…
Perfect Sense an ambitious film that demands a lot from audience
20 Jun 2011
David Mackenzie’s feature thought-provoking and quietly moving
The weekend saw one of the biggest events of this year’s EIFF programme, as the massive Festival Theatre played host to the European premiere of David Mackenzie’s new film, the Glasgow-set sci-fi romance Perfect Sense, on Saturday night. I interviewed…
Reel Science events programme among highlights of Edinburgh Film Festival
17 Jun 2011
Tomboy, My Brothers and Project Nim among film highlights
After my fearless leader’s less-than-generous appraisal of this aged Festival’s opening night, I’m hoping to bring a little bit of love for EIFF back to these web pages. Admittedly, the pared-down nature of this year’s Festival is most noticeable in the…
Bridesmaids
23 May 2011
Kristen Wiig writes and stars in sharp Apatow comedy
(15) 125min Kristen Wiig (Adventureland, Whip It!) comes close to grasping the comedy crown from her Saturday Night Live colleague Tina Fey with this hilarious reinvigoration of the chick flick. As co-writer and star, Wiig disposes of traditional…
Life in a Day
23 May 2011
Kevin Macdonald's documentary is an ambitious global undertaking
(12A) 94min This film is the result of a massive YouTube project, directed by Kevin Macdonald and produced by Ridley Scott, that asked people around the world to make a film of their life on a specific day, 24 July 2010. From the 80,000 videos…
Attack the Block - Joe Cornish interview
28 Apr 2011
First time director on turning the hoodie horror genre on its head
These are interesting times for British film comedy. Last year Chris Morris’ suicide bomber farce Four Lions presented an intelligent reflection on a thorny problem, while earlier this year Richard Ayoade’s Submarine proved that British comedy could…
Dark Australian crime thriller Animal Kingdom
18 Feb 2011
James Frecheville, Jacki Weaver and Guy Pearce star in David Michôd's crime flick
(15) 113min This dark Australian crime thriller has had critics lining up to heap praises upon it since its prize-winning debut at Sundance last January, and it arrives on these shores fresh from a deserved Oscar nomination in the Best Supporting…
Paul
2 Feb 2011
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost riff on the same notes as Tim and Mike characters from Spaced
The Shaun of the Dead boys have come a long way. Having followed up Shaun’s critical success with UK box office smash Hot Fuzz, stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and director/co-writer Edgar Wright were firmly established as major British talent. Last…
Project Nim - James Marsh interview
21 Jun 2011
Man on Wire director charts 1970s chimp experiment in extraordinary film
‘I’m here bleary-eyed straight from four weeks of shooting a feature film in Dublin!’ So claims Project Nim director James Marsh when I meet him, but you wouldn’t know it from the espresso-fuelled 30 minutes of rapid discussion that follows, in which…
Profile: Richard Ayoade
2 Mar 2011
Boosh, IT Crowd and Darkplace star directs Joe Dunthorne adap Submarine
Name Richard Ayoade Born 12 June 1977, Whipp’s Cross, London Background Best known for playing Moss in Graham Linehan ’s hit TV comedy The IT Crowd, Ayoade first came to the notice of cult comedy fans as writer, director and co-star of spoof…
Tomboy
19 Aug 2011
Childhood gender identity struggle handled subtly and beautifully
(U) 82min As the title suggests, this quietly beautiful film is about a little girl who wants to look and act like a boy. But given that indicator, audiences may still be surprised when writer/director Celine Sciamma reveals that the character…
You Instead
19 Aug 2011
Poor dialogue lets down an otherwise whimsical love story
(15) 80min This breathless mismatched love story, filmed entirely over two days at T in the Park 2010, is the first of two new Scottish films from David Mackenzie (Young Adam, Hallam Foe), the second being next month’s Glasgow-set sci-fi Perfect…
Profile: Chris Weitz, director of A Better Life
18 Jul 2011
Director known for American Pie, About a Boy and The Golden Compass
Name Chris Weitz Born 30 November 1969, New York City Background Weitz began his career co-directing the hit teen comedy American Pie (1999) with his brother Paul. After another successful collaboration, 2002’s About A Boy, Weitz’s first solo…
Troll Hunter - André Øvredal interview
23 Jun 2011
Director of the Norwegian moc doc taking film festivals by storm
Something that’s pretty thin on the ground at Edinburgh this year are genuine ‘festival finds’; films from unknown filmmakers that seem to come out of nowhere and really impress audiences. TrollHunter is perhaps the closest thing to that in this year’s…
Holy Rollers
21 Jun 2011
Formulaic coming-of-age drama saved by understated Jesse Eisenberg performance
(15) 88min Released over a year ago in the US, this true-life drama about naïve young Hasidic Jews unwittingly smuggling Ecstasy into Brooklyn in the late 90s would probably have skipped UK cinemas entirely if not for the presence of Jesse…
Attack the Block
25 Apr 2011
Plays for scares more than laughs, and succeeds admirably
(15) 87min Coming from the same production team as Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs the World, this confident debut from Joe Cornish (one half of duo Adam and Joe) is much less a comedy than might have been expected. Rather it’s a…
Your Highness starring Danny McBride is a load of fantasy rubbish
14 Apr 2011
James Franco, Zooey Deschanel and Natalie Portman fail to improve it
(15) 102min Before Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy heralded a resurgence of the ‘fantasy quest’ movie, this much-derided genre enjoyed a kind of golden age in the late 1980s, when Labyrinth, The Princess Bride and Willow captured the…
Submarine
2 Mar 2011
British coming of age tale, directed by Richard Ayoade
(15) 98min Here is a rare thing: a British comedy debut that’s surprising, witty, hugely accomplished and fully capable of finding an audience worldwide. Richard Ayoade, previously best known for his TV roles in The IT Crowd and The Mighty Boosh…
Norwegian Wood
2 Mar 2011
Haruki Murakami's novel is transferred to the screen by Anh Hung Tran
(15) 133min Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami has a unique voice in contemporary fiction, both hugely imaginative and intensely intimate. But with this adaptation of one of his most popular books, French-Vietnamese filmmaker Anh Hung Tran fails to…
West is West an uninspired and unrewarding sequel to East is East
18 Feb 2011
Andy DeEmmony's plodding, bland drama stars Om Puri and Aqib Khan
(15) 103min East is East was one of the British box office successes of the late 90s, and found an even bigger audience on video and DVD, but it’s hard to believe that there is much, if any, anticipation for this belated sequel. That is probably for…
Never Let Me Go
2 Feb 2011
Kazuo Ishiguro adaptation akin to science fiction in bleak tone and existential theme
The students of Hailsham boarding school are special: set apart from normal society, they are being prepared for an unspecified purpose. No further details are apparent, to them or us, as this story begins, and to divulge more would take away the unique…
Morning Glory - Lightweight comedy pits Harrison Ford against Rachel McAdams
18 Jan 2011
Comic performers cut loose and have fun with a formulaic but enjoyable script
(12A) 107min A few years ago it looked like Harrison Ford had resigned from movie stardom, but putting Indiana Jones’s fedora back on in 2008 seems to have refocused the old curmudgeon. This summer he’s headlining insane sci-fi western Cowboys and…
