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Spawn of Dawn (18) (Various) This slightly milder offspring of the Dead by Dawn festival offers a screening of five horror features and ten shorts from the main festival programme. Those who dare to know more should visit www.deadbydawn.co.uk Filmhouse. Edinburgh. The Spiderwick Chronicles (PG) 0”.- (Mark Waters. US. 2008) Sarah Bolger. Freddie Highrnore. Nick Nolte. 95min. Upon moving into the dilapidated Spiderwick Estate. siblings Jared (Highrnore). Simon (Highmore) and Mallory (Bulger) find a guide to a fantastical world of faeries and creatures in this adaptation of Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi‘s series. They must battle against Mulgarath. however. the evil shape-shifting ogre who is also after the key to the fantasyland of faeries. General release. Stan Brakhage ( 15) (Stan Brakhage. US. 2000) 75min. A collection of three short films by this great US avant garde filmmaker. Water/or Maya is a hand- painted animation. The Day [lad Gone Down Upon Him is the final part of Brakhage's Vancouver Island 'I'rilogy and Persian Series #9 is devoted to Persian miniature an. Glasgtm' Film Theatre. Glasgow: Step Up 2 the Streets (PG) 00 (Jon M (‘hu. US. 2008) Robert Hoffman. Briana livigan. Will Kemp. 97min. Stupid sequel to 2006‘s dance romancer Step Up. General release.
Stop-Loss ( IS) 00.. (Kimberly
Peirce. US. 2008) Ryan Phillippc. Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Rob Brown. I l 1min. See interview. page 46 and review. page 47. Cineworld Renfrew Street. Glasgow; Shoii'case ('inema. Paisley: Paisley. Street Kings ( l5) .0. (David Ayer. US. 2008) Keanu Reeves. Hugh Laurie. Forest Whitaker. 108mm. Tom Ludlow (Reeves) is a vodka-soaked LA cop forced to take on his own department when a fortner colleague is murdered. Reeves is impressive. but Whitaker's corrupt police chief is less so. For all its pedigree Street Kings is a misfiring entry into the corrupt cop genre. General release. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street ( I8) 000. (Tim Burton. US/UK. 2007) Johnny Depp. Helena Bonharn Carter. Alan Rickman. 1 16min. Stephen Sondheim‘s landmark I979 Broadway musical is given the Burton treatment with Depp as the murdering butcher single-mindedly determined to avenge the kidnapping of his wife and daughter. With Mrs [.ovetl (Bonhatn Carter) as the emotional lynchpin of the piece. Rickman as the perfect pantomime villain and daring production design from Dante Ferretti. this is a visual and aural treat. Selected release. T-Rex 30 (U) (Brett Leonard. US. 1998) 40min. Amazing looking [MAX movie about a father and daughter in danger from a vicious camivorous dinosaur. Great fun. IMAX Theatre. Glasgow: The 39 Steps (U) “0. (Alfred Hitchcock. UK. 1935) Robert Donat. Madeleine Carroll. Godfrey Teale. 85min. New digital print for Alfred Hitchcock's classic l935 man-on-the-run thriller about the accidental immersion of insouciant Canadian Richard Hannay (Donat) into the murky world of espionage. Having been framed for murder. Hannay hightails it for the Scottish Highlands with Madeleine Carroll in tow. The weight of history has made this wonderful film ripe for readings for symbolism. but at its heart it's just a rattling good yarn. Cameo. Edinburgh. The Take (E) (Avi Lewis. Argentina. 2004) 87min. Produced and written by Canadian joumalist Naomi Klein. this documentary chronicles 30 unemployed Argentinian auto-pans workers as they take over their idle factory. With this act. Klein champions a radical economic manifesto for the 21st Century. ACE. Edinburgh. Targets (IS) eeee (Peter Bogdanovich. US. 1968) Tim ()‘Kelly. Boris Karloff. Arthur Peterson. l()0min. When a Vietnam vet (O‘Kelly) becomes a psychotic sniper the only thing between him and carriage is an elderly horror star making
se me LIST 24 Apr—8 May 2008
a personal appearance at a drive-in theatre. Bogdanovich‘s early horror thriller. made under the auspices of the Connan studios and starring the great Karloff in one of his last great roles. has most definitely stood the test of time. By turns strange. odd. satirical and other worldly this great film really deserves to be revisited. A Fiendish Friday presentation. Cameo. Edinburgh. Tashan (IS) (Vijay Krishna Acharya. India. 2008) Akshay Kumar. SaifAli Khan. Kareena Kapoor. l48min. First Bollywood feature from Acharya. about a call centre executive. a gangster and Pooja (Kapoor). a girl who can't be trusted. whose paths cross on a dangerous joumey across India. Selected release.
There Will Be Blood (15) 0000. (Paul Thomas Anderson. US. 2007) Daniel Day-Lewis. Paul Dano. Kevin J O‘Connor. |58min. Silver prospector Daniel Plainview (Day-Lewis) and his adopted son move to the impoverished evangelically centred town of New Boston and finds himself in a battle of wits against sleazy child preacher Eli Sunday (Dano) over oil. ethics and the American Dream. Utterly riveting and with Day Lewis playing a wonderful part with a poisonous zeal. Anderson finally returns to Punch Drunk Love form. Dominion. Edinburgh. 30 Mania (U) (US. 2003) Stuart Pankin. Elvira. lMAX 3D animation hell. For masochists and computer render geeks only. IMAX Theatre. Glasgow:
Three and Out (15) 00 (Jonathan Gershfield. UK. 2008) Mackenzie Crook. Colm Meaney. lrnelda Staunton. 106mm. See review. page 48. General release.
To Catch a Thief (IS) 00” (Alfred Hitchcock. US. [955) Cary Grant. Grace Kelly. Charles Vanel. l()7min. Not considered one of Hitch's best. this lightweight comedy thriller about a cat and mouse game between Grant's thief and Kelly's French Riviera socialite nevertheless scores for its breezy screen couple and picturesque locations. This film is not seen nearly as often as the likes of the superior Psycho and Vertigo. so don‘t miss the opportunity to catch this thief. Scotsntan Screening Room. Edinburgh.
21 (I2A) 0. (Robert Lukctic. US. 2008) Kevin Spacey. Kate Bosworth. Jim Sturgess. l23min. Spacey plays a professor
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who teaches six MIT students to card count in this heavy-handed. unfaithful adaptation of Ben Mazrich's book. which was based on the gambling exploits of card shark Jeffrey Ma. This is filmmaking by numbers and it‘s not a winning formula. General release. 27 Dresses (12A) eaaaa (Anne Fletcher. US. 2008) Katherine Heigl. James Marsden. Malin Akennan. llOmin. Wedding obsessed Jane (Heigl) juggles gigs as bridesmaids with a rocky love life while the conundrum of how you should behave when your sister is manying the man you love is given short shrift. as Heigl attempts to send feminism back to the dark ages. 27 Dresses is as bland as century-old wedding cake. General release.
U, Me Aur Hum (12A) «asters (Ajay Devgan. India. 2008) 125min. Another week. another brain-rotting Bollywood romantic musical. This one follows the relationship between a savvy psychiatrist and the pretty young lady he can‘t get out of his mind. This is Devgan's directorial debut. and on this evidence he needs to stick to his day job. Odeon At The Quay. Glasgow.
The Ugly Duckling and Me! (U) 0” C- (Michael Hegner/Karsten Kiilerich. France/UK/Denmark/lreland/ Germany. 2007) Kim Lamey. Paul Tylack. Anna Olson. 88min. Quirky Danish animated adaptation of the popular Hans Christian Andersen story. Fun but visually disappointing and lacking the humour and innovation of the comparable Ratatouille. Selected release.
Vantage Point ( 12A) 0...: (Pete Travis. US. 2008) Dennis Quaid. Sigoumey Weaver. William Hurt. 89min. Eight strangers - including Secret Service agents Thomas Barnes (Quaid) and Kent Taylor (Mathew Fox). tourist Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker) and American TV news producer Rex Brooks (Weaver) — try to unlock the truth behind an assassination attempt on the US President Ashton (Hurt). Competently made but ridiculously silly and badly acted thriller which attempts to pollinate Oliver Stone‘s JFK with Groundhog Day. Showcase Cinema. Coatbridge. Glasgow.
La Vie En Rose (La Home) (12A) eee -. (Olivier Dahan. France/UK/Czech
Republic. 2007) Marion Cotillard. Sylvie Testud. Pascal Greggory. l40min. This highly stylised film ricochets between different time periods of French singer Edith Piaf‘s (Cottilard) turbulent life. The brief and often overwrought scenes are sometimes hard to grasp without prior knowledge of Piaf. but Cotillard‘s central lip-synching performance is magnificent. Filmhouse. Edinburgh.
View from a Grain of Sand(15) (Meena Nanji. US. 2006) 82min. A compelling study of the position of women in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow. Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (PG) eeeee (Jay Russell. US/UK. 2007) Emily Watson. Brian Cox. Joel Tobeck.
l l 1min. Blending monster thrills with a thoughtful pacifist message. this adaptation of Dick King-Smith‘s well-loved book tells of the friendship between Angus and the legendary creature Nessie. who he rears from an egg into a full-blown beastie. Although mainly shot in New Zealand to facilitate the involvement of the Weta Digital special-effects house. the film is firmly set in WWII-era Scotland. An old- school alternative to the frantic nature of most children‘s films. Water Horse finally provides our beloved monster with the film it deserves. Vue Edinburgh Ocean, Edinburgh.
The Wobblies (E) (Stewart Bird/Deborah Shaffer. US. I979) 89min. A moving history of the international union of the industrial Workers of the World. ACE. Edinburgh.
You, the Living (IS) 00.2.2.3. (Roy Andersson. Sweden/Gennany/France/ Denmark/Norway. 2007) Jessika Lundberg. Elisabeth Helander. Bjorn Englund. 93min. The bizarre 50 or so vignettes that constitute Andersson‘s first feature since 2000‘s apocalyptic Songs from the Second Floor drop a traditional narrative for a series of precisely framed tableaux where the boundaries between dreams and reality are freely blurred. Described as ‘a farce about the human condition'. it's darkly comic with fleeting moments of hopefulness in its absurdist vision. Glasgow Film Theatre. Glasgow; Filmhouse. Edinburgh.
Scotland’s oldest, biggest and best international horror film festival opens its doors again for gore aficionados everywhere. This year’s programme will be topped and tailed by Scottish-themed horrors. Doomsday (pictured), Neil Dog Soldiers Marshall’s new apocalyptic horror was filmed north of the border as was Steve Barker’s WWII bunker horror Outpost. Both will be reviewed in the next issue of The List. Other highlights include a complete 35mm screenings of Dario Argento’s Three Mother’s trilogy (Suspiria, Inferno and Mother of Tears) and Matthew Hope’s much anticipated zombie flick The Vanguard.
I Filmhouse. Edinburgh, Thu 24—Sun 27 Apr.