Film Index
Post Grad (12A) ●●●●● (Vicky Jenson, US, 2009) Alexis Bledel, Jane Lynch, Michael Keaton. 88min. Bittersweet story in which would-be career girl Ryden Malby (Bledel) suffers from post-graduation blues. Occasionally hitting the heights of John Hughes’s genre-classic Pretty in Pink and evoking the tonally similar (500) Days of Summer, Jenson’s small-but-perfectly-formed trifle will do nicely until the next big thing comes along. Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow.
✽✽ The Queen of Spades (PG) ●●●●● (Thorold Dickinson, UK,
1949) Anton Walbrook, Edith Evans, Yvonne Mitchell. 95min. Re-release of Dickinson’s classic in which a young officer in the imperial Russian army tries to wrest the secret of winning at cards from a strange old countess. Dickinson’s eerily prowling camera and designer Oliver Messel’s sets give this adapation of a Pushkin story an effective atmosphere. Faintly ridiculous on a surface level, but enjoyable nonetheless. See DVD review, page 48. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. The Red Desert (Il Deserto Rosso) (15) ●●●●● (Michaelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1964) Monica Vitti, Richard Harris, Carlo Chionetti. 116min. A woman who has recently suffered a nervous breakdown begins a tentative affair with a friend of her husband. Antonioni uses muted colours and an industrial landscape to magnificent effect, as Vitti’s fraught heroine becomes dislocated and menaced by her surroundings. A masterpiece of cinema as art. Part of Introduction to European Cinema course. Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
✽✽ The Road (15) ●●●●● (John Hillcoat, US, 2009) Viggo
Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Guy Pearce. 111min. See feature, page 44 and review, page 46. Selected release. Santa vs The Snowman 3D (PG) (Various, US, 2002) 32min. IMAX big screen presentation telling the story of a lonely snowman who’s swept away by the magical wonders of Santa’s village. IMAX Theatre, Glasgow. The Savage Eye (18) ●●●●● (Joseph Strick, US, 1960) Barbara Baxley, Gary Merrill, Herschel Bernardy. 68min. Compelling blend of documentary and fiction that follows a recent divorcee who has moved to Los Angeles in the hope of shaking up her life. Winner of the BAFTA Flaherty Documentary Award, the Venice Festival Critics prize and the Mannheim Golduktar. This screening will be followed by Strick’s short film The Balcony. Part of Strick retrospective. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. The Sea Wall (12A) ●●●●● (Rithy Panh, France/Cambodia/Belgium, 2008) Isabelle Huppert, Gaspard Ulliel, Astrid Berges-Frisbey. 116min. See review, page 47. Glasgow Film Theatre; Filmhouse, Edinburgh. The Sea Wall (12A) ●●●●● (Rithy Panh, France/Cambodia/Belgium, 2008) Isabelle Huppert, Gaspard Ulliel, Astrid Berges-Frisbey. 116min. This measured if unexceptional adaptation of Marguerite Duras’ semi-autobiographical novel by Cambodian-born director Panh unfolds in French Indochina in the early 1930s. When floods destroy a widowed landowner’s (Huppert) rice crop, Huppert’s character faces bankruptcy and the repossession of her terrain by the French Land Registry office. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. A Serious Man (15) ●●●●● (Joel Coen/Ethan Coen, USA, 2009) Michael Stuhlbarg, Sari Lennick, Fred Melamed. 105min. An idiosyncratic gem filled with details dredged from the Coen brothers’ fertile imaginations and woven into a tapestry as rich as anything they’ve produced in 25 years of filmmaking.
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Stuhlbarg is wonderful as a physics professor for whom everything is going wrong, and the rest of the cast is largely unknown, making this the polar opposite of the empty and A-list heavy Burn After Reading. Glasgow Film Theatre; Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
✽✽ Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (18) ●●●●● (Mat Whitecross, UK,
2010) Andy Serkis, Olivia Williams, Naomie Harris. tbcmin. See review, page 46. Selected release. Sherlock Holmes (12A) ●●●●● (Guy Ritchie, UK/Australia/US, 2009) Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Rachel McAdams. 128min. Ritchie’s long- awaited, high-octane action interpretation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary hero. General release. Shorts (PG) ●●●●● (Robert Rodriguez, US, 2009) William H Macy, Jimmy Bennett, Jake Short. 88min. 11- year-old Toe Thompson (Bennett) gets hit on the head by a mysterious rainbow- coloured rock, and soon his neighbourhood is swarming with tiny spaceships, crocodile armies and much more. Slyly anti-corporate kiddie caper with an able cast and fun digital effects. Grosvenor, Glasgow. Singin’ in the Rain (U) ●●●●● (Gene Kelly/Stanley Donen, US, 1950) Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Cyd Charisse. 102min. Hollywood undergoes the transition from the silent era to the talkies and reputations rise and fall. Absolutely wonderful musical entertainment, with the slickest of snappy dialogue, enduringly catchy numbers, a cast of genuine charisma, and an engaging picture of the industry in transition into the bargain. Quite splendid. Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow. Spread (18) ●●●●● (David MacKenzie, US, 2009) Ashton Kutcher, Anne Heche, Sebastian Stan. 96min. Would-be Lothario Nikki (Kutchner) links up with prosperous cougar Samantha (Heche, excellent), using her wealth to seduce younger women in this very conventional morality fable. The talented
Mackenzie (Young Adam, Hallam Foe), working in America for the first time, is plagued by Jason Dean Hall’s abysmal script and Kutchner’s acting inadequacies, managing to wring little good out of a bad situation. Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow. St Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold (PG) (Barnaby Thompson/Oliver Parker, UK, 2009) Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Talulah Riley. 106min. More naughty girls’ adventures in this revived Ealing comedy franchise starring various members of Girls Aloud. This time the girls go in search of hidden treasure. General release. Surprise Movie (15) What will it be?. Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow. Sweet Smell of Success (15) ●●●●● (Alexander Mackendrick, US, 1957) Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison. 96min. Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman scripted this brilliant study of the destructive effect of power. Sweet Smell of Success tells the story of Sidney Falco (Curtis), a slimy publicist worming his way to the top via venomous newspaper columnist J.J Hunsecker (Lancaster). The two leads are brilliantly cast against type; James Wong Howe’s photography of Broadway at night is as evocative as film noir ever got, while Elmer Bernstein’s crime jazz score (with contributions from the Chico Hamilton Quintet) completes the impression of a filthy, corrupt city. Astonishingly, the whole film was pulled together by Scotsman Alexander Mackendrick, who until this time was best known for whimsical Ealing comedies. Part of Journalism On Screen season. Glasgow Film Theatre. Sweetie (15) ●●●●● (Jane Campion, Australia, 1989) Genevieve Lemon, Karen Colston, Tom Lycos. 100min. Controversial debut feature from New Zealand born Campion follows the fortunes of two sisters: the quiet, nervy Kay (Colston) and the unpredictably psychotic Sweetie (Lemon), whose behavioural eccentricities involve eating china ornaments and painting herself blue. Boldly scripted and composed, the film brings a dreamlike quality to the everyday, but beneath all the self-consciously challenging camerawork, there breathes a very simple tale of common humanity. Cameo, Edinburgh. Taking Woodstock (15) ●●●●● (Ang Lee, US, 2009) Henry Goodman, Edward Hibbert, Imelda Staunton. 110min. Focusing primarily on the personal trials of Woodstock’s organiser, this amiable comedy about how the world’s most iconic music festival came to pass is less about the goings-on on stage and more about the vibes, man. Milder than Lee’s previous work, it nevertheless hints at the dark clouds gathering on the horizon with a late reference to Altamont. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. 3 Idiots (12A) (Rajkumar Hirani, India, 2009) Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Madhavan. 135min. A knockabout comedy journey of two friends searching for their third amigo – Bollywood-style. Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow. Titanic (12) ●●●●● (James Cameron, US, 1997) Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane. 194min. Cameron tackles the story of the doomed ocean liner through a touching love story that isn’t overwhelmed by the awesome special effects. Rich girl Rose (Winslet) is unhappily engaged to arrogant Cal (Zane) but falls for third-class passenger Jack (DiCaprio). Love blossoms as the ship hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic. In all its on-screen glory, Titanic does indeed look like the most expensive film ever made, conveying both the scale of the disaster and the feeling of claustrophobia as the water rises. Scotsman Screening Room, Edinburgh. Tokyo Story (U) ●●●●● (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1953) Chishu Ryu, Chieko Higashiyama, Toru Abu. 135min. Ozu’s brilliant seminal meditation on age and the generation gap was always one of cinema’s postwar masterpieces, and now it receives the digital restoration treatment. If you haven’t seen this before then miss at
Luise Rainer Short season of films celebrating the troubled times of centenarian and silver screen living legend Rainer. The first actress to win consecutive Academy Awards (for The Great Ziegfeld, pictured, and The Good Earth respectively, both shown here), Rainer was both celebrated and persecuted by her famous friends and lovers throughout the 20th century (among them screenwriter husband Clifford Odets, Gershwin, Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt). But after watching any of these rarely seen films there is no denying Rainer’s gift as an actress. Ticket deals available. ■ Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Tue 12-Sun 24 Jan.