Reviews & features
Interview: Emile Hirsch on Killer Joe
25 May 2012
William Friedkin’s violent thriller set to open 2012 Edinburgh International Film Festival
‘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…
Shinji Somai retrospective at Edinburgh International Film Festival 2012
25 May 2012
Introduction to one of Japan’s most popular and respected filmmakers
It often seems like there’s an infinite wellspring of Japanese filmmakers revered in their home country yet barely heard of overseas, with every year bringing yet another retrospective of some unheralded cinematic maestro. It’s all enough to leave those…
Our top three Charlize Theron roles
25 May 2012
The former model is much more than just a pretty face
Discovered during the midst of an argument with a bank employee in California, South African born former model Charlize Theron is a critically acclaimed actress, yet due to the conventional roles Hollywood churns out for beautiful women (see the Milla…
Men in Black 3
25 May 2012
Silly, lightweight, completely unnecessary but surprisingly fun
In these times of austerity Hollywood seems scared of originals ideas. Studios demand ‘brand recognition’ before they’ll stump up the multi-million dollar budgets blockbusters require. And they seem willing to latch onto almost any brand, from comics to…
Lynne Ramsey reported to be working on new title with Natalie Portman
25 May 2012
The two will pair up on western Jane Got a Gun
Glasgow born director Lynne Ramsay's next project has just been announced: a Western that will star Natalie Portman. Jane Got A Gun will focus on a young woman whose outlaw of a husband is brutally attacked by his own gang. When the band of men head to…
Cannes 2012: On the Road
25 May 2012
Walter Salles’ adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s classic novel struggles to capture a sense of the times
If, for two and a half hours, you can put aside the fact that Walter Salles’ (Central Station, The Motorcycle Diaries) latest work is an adaptation of one of the most famous, influential books in recent American history, you might just enjoy this…
Cannes 2012: The Paperboy
25 May 2012
Lee Daniels’ plot hole-ridden latest film is still a compelling, if occasionally ludicrous, ride
Lee Daniels follows up his sleeper hit Precious with an enjoyably trashy, if often misguided, story based on the book by Pete Dexter. It’s 1969 and journalist Ward (Matthew McConaughey) returns to his hometown of Lately, Florida to investigate what…
Anchorman 2: 5 things we’d like to see
24 May 2012
In honour of the sequel's new teaser trailers, we speculate on what should be in the final film
1 Champ’s struggle with his sexuality Sports presenter Champ Kind (David Koechner) obviously had a thing for Ron (Will Ferrell) in the first film – he broke down when Ron started spending more time with Veronica than the news team, and was visibly…
New trailer available for Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby
24 May 2012
The 3D film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire
This December sees the release of Baz Luhrmann's take on F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Renowned for his epic stories of love and tragedy – see Moulin Rouge and Romeo and Juliet – Luhrmann seems like a fitting director to put an original spin on…
Cannes 2012: Killing Them Softly
24 May 2012
Andrew Dominik’s stylish gangster film is visually impressive if occasionally lacking momentum
Killing Them Softly, Andrew Dominik’s third film following Chopper and The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford, is a bleakly humourous gangster flick with an underlying commentary on modern day moral bankruptcy. It begins with…
Cannes 2012: Trashed
24 May 2012
British documentary about waste pollution could have done with burrowing deeper
Watching British documentary Trashed it’s curious to think who the filmmakers imagined their audience to be. Exploring the impact and problems of waste disposal, the film barely scrapes the surface of its subject matter, giving the air of a dry…
Paul Brannigan, star of Ken Loach's The Angels' Share - profile
23 May 2012
The actor is also set to appear with Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin
Born 1987, Glasgow, Scotland Background After working as a football coach in the Barrowfield community in Glasgow and helping to tackle knife crime as part of a Strathclyde Police initiative, Paul Brannigan was spotted by screenwriter Paul Laverty…
The Angels' Share
23 May 2012
Loach and Laverty's latest suffers from attempts to attract all-comers
Here persists the noble quest of Ken Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty to create accessible, populist films about the lives of the UK’s so-called underclass. Unfortunately, The Angels’ Share is straining so hard to be accessible and populist that it…
What To Expect When You’re Expecting
23 May 2012
A witless and bland work based on the pregnancy self-help book
‘You don’t know what love is until you’ve wiped someone’s ass,’ offers one of the many baby-boomers in Kirk (Waking Ned, Everybody’s Fine) Jones’ multi-stranded adaptation of the bestselling self-help book about the dos and don’ts of pregnancy.
She Monkeys
23 May 2012
Impressive coming-of-age drama with frank depiction of adolescent sexuality
A courageous, periodically unsettling coming-of-age tale, She Monkeys is the arresting first feature from director Lisa Aschan. It’s a Swedish production which - in its frank approach to adolescent sexuality - bears comparison with Katell Quillévéré’s…
Crispian Mills on A Fantastic Fear of Everything - interview
22 May 2012
The ex-Kula Shaker frontman has directed a black comedy starring Simon Pegg
Fearless The frontman of Kula Shaker directing a film? Given Crispian Mills’ family heritage it’s not such a surprise after all, discovers Paul Gallagher. Received wisdom might suggest that rock stars who try their hands at filmmaking are essentially…
The Apocalypse Archives - Nikolaj Arcel
22 May 2012
Screenwriter of original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Screenwriter of the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movie and director of new Danish drama A Royal Affair, Nikolaj Arcel, picks five films he’d rescue in the face of the apocalypse. 1. Gone With The Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939) ‘Just to show I’m…
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
18 May 2012
Crisp restoration of the 1940s satire by Powell and Pressburger
Spry and delightful nearly 70 years on, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is one of many masterpieces from filmmaking virtuosos Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, collectively known as The Archers. Their fifth collaboration, from 1943, is an…
If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle
18 May 2012
Drama depicting tensions of prison society from Romanian director
18-year-old Silviu (George Pistereanu) has nine days left to serve of what has been an uneventful, well-behaved prison sentence. When an unexpected visit from his younger brother brings some unwelcome news, Silviu’s previously-held composure begins to…
The Source
18 May 2012
A sincere story of the struggle for female emancipation in an African village
You could easily dismiss The Source as a simplistic, sentimental fare but the latest film from director Radu Mihaileanu (The Concert, Live And Become etc.) is told with such warmth and sincerity that it is hard to resist. The struggle for female…
2 Days in New York
18 May 2012
Modern screwball comedy from writer, director and actor Julie Delpy
In the intermittently sparkling sequel to 2007’s 2 Days in Paris, writer-director-actor Julie Delpy once again turns her attention to family dysfunction. This time her alter-ego’s Parisian family are holidaying at her NY home, where they continue to…
Even The Rain
18 May 2012
Well-intentioned, if heavy-handed, political drama from writer Paul Laverty
The sting of injustice and oppression echoes down the centuries in Even The Rain, an ambitious, well-intentioned political drama from writer Paul Laverty and his partner, director Iciar Bolain. Inspired by true events, the film is set in…
Moonrise Kingdom
17 May 2012
Wes Anderson's latest echoes his earlier triumphs, but breaks no new ground
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…
Death Watch
16 May 2012
Well-deserved re-issue of Bertrand Tavernier's prescient Glasgow-set sci-fi thriller
Its plot is a credibility stretch even in these days of de rigueur media paranoia, and its relentlessly murky, moody tone might raise the odd giggle, but Tavernier’s long-neglected sci-fi curiosity is compelling nonetheless. Romy Schneider plays…
Polisse
16 May 2012
Sprawling French ensemble drama that veers between compelling and ridiculous
This sprawling ensemble film, which tracks the harrowing daily routines of a Parisian Child Protection Unit, veers wildly between the compelling and the ridiculous. Scripted and directed by Maiwenn, with Emmaneulle Bercot acting as co-writer, it shifts…
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