Reviews & features: Drama
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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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Ill Manors
11 May 2012
A jarring, grimy and a searing indictment of Broken Britain, from debut director Ben Drew aka Plan B
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…
Free Men
11 May 2012
A Prophet's Tahar Rahim stars in worthy but flawed WWII espionage drama
Loosely based on real events, this espionage drama set during World War II focuses on the largely overlooked cooperation between Arabic immigrants and the French Resistance. Tahar Rahim (who shot to fame in A Prophet) plays a North African worker named…
A Royal Affair
11 May 2012
A skillfully delivered but coldly aloof period drama from the Swedish Dragon Tattoo team
Reuniting the writing team behind the original Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, A Royal Affair is a welcome break from the current plethora of morbid Scandinavian thrillers; instead, Rasmus Heisterberg and Nikolaj Arcel have co-adapted an unfamiliar but…
Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth in Edinburgh to film The Railway Man
27 Apr 2012
A true story about a British soldier’s experience of torture during WWII
After Brad Pitt’s stint in Glasgow and Scarlett Johansson’s visit to the Highlands, it’s nice to see Edinburgh getting some Hollywood love. Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard and Jeremy Irvine are among the stars who will be filming in and…
Seminal Souls - Antonioni and Bergman in the 21st century
26 Apr 2012
A look at the significance of Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman
Dying within twenty four hours of each other, the demise of two great filmmakers in 2007 was clearly a loss, but though Ingmar Bergman came out of retirement to make Saraband in 2002, and Antonioni made one feature, Beyond the Clouds (and a later short…
The Monk director Dominik Moll - interview
26 Apr 2012
The French director discusses his dark and beautiful adaptation of Matthew Lewis’ Gothic horror
'Film has a lot to do with dreams and nightmares,' says Dominik Moll, 'and what I like about making films is that they allow you to show a surface and also what’s underneath. I’m attracted to this double-layer idea.' The German-born French filmmaker…
Piggy
23 Apr 2012
Ultra-violent London-set thriller starring Martin Compston
(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…
Revisiting: The Bad and the Beautiful
23 Apr 2012
Vincente Minnelli’s classic Hollywood melodrama still shines on the big screen
(PG) 118mins Vincente Minnelli’s momentous 1952 melodrama returns to the big screen and it’s as bewitching and stinging as ever. The Bad and the Beautiful is justifiably regarded as one of the finest films ever made about the filmmaking process…
Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy
19 Apr 2012
An agonisingly watered-down imitation of Welsh's short story
Nothing dates faster than drug culture, and writer-director Rob Heydon’s Irvine Welsh adaptation arrives nearly two decades after the era of the dedicated pill-popper. Taken from Welsh’s story 'The Undefeated', part of the 1996 compilation that provides…
Jeff, Who Lives at Home
18 Apr 2012
The Duplass Brothers' slacker comedy bears too much resemblance to its underachieving protagonist
(15) 83mins No one would have believed in the last years of the 20th century that of all the stars to emerge from Judd Apatow’s extraordinary talent nursery Freaks and Geeks, the household name would end up being Jason Segel. He’s not as gorgeous as…
Albert Nobbs
18 Apr 2012
Glenn Close's period drama passion project is a squandered opportunity of intriguing premise
(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…
North Sea Texas
18 Apr 2012
Sensitive performances fail to make this predictable coming of age story engaging
(15) 98 mins Given how difficult we’re lead to believe it is to get an independent film distributed in cinemas in the UK, you’d be forgiven for wondering why some of those that do reach our screens seem so familiar. North Sea Texas, the story of…
Interview: Jason Segel on Jeff, Who Lives at Home
17 Apr 2012
The Forgetting Sarah Marshall on new slacker comedy and future plans
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…
Apocalypse archives: Whit Stillman
17 Apr 2012
The Damsels in Distress director picks five films he’d save in an impending apocalypse
That Sinking Feeling (Bill Forsyth, 1980) ‘I wanted to include something Scottish. Aside from how enjoyable Bill Forsyth’s film about kids in rainy Glasgow is, I want to include it for its economy of means. To see how much was done with so little was…
Amara Karan, star of All in Good Time - profile
17 Apr 2012
The actress is also set to star alongside Simon Pegg in A Fantastic Fear of Everything
Born 29 March, 1984, London Background Oxford-educated Karan spent two years working as an investment banker before plucking up the courage to pursue her interest in acting. Her audition tape was enough to impress revered director Wes Anderson, who…
Damsels in Distress
17 Apr 2012
Whit Stillman's return to filmmaking features wordy, droll dialogue but often inept direction
(15) 99min Following a 14-year break from filmmaking, American writer-director Whit Stillman returns to the big screen with another highly idiosyncratic comedy, one that audiences are likely to find either delightfully urbane or else utterly…
Monsieur Lazhar
17 Apr 2012
A classroom drama with unexpected charm, quiet dignity and emotional integrity
(12A) 94min Inspirational schoolteachers have been a cinematic staple from Goodbye Mr. Chips to Laurent Cantet’s Cannes prize-winner The Class. Monsieur Lazhar successfully avoids treacly sentimental as it charts how a teacher and a group of…
The Lucky One
17 Apr 2012
Unconvincing, one-dimensional drama starring Zac Efron and Taylor Schilling
(12A) 101mins The latest adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel is as schmaltzy as ever but also hopelessly contrived and unconvincing. Stretching credibility from the start, Zac Efron stars as a US Marine who comes across a photo of an unknown blonde…
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