Film Index
Howl’s Moving Castle (PG) ●●●●● (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan, 2005) Voices of Christian Bale, Lauren Bacall, Billy Crystal. 119min. Miyazaki, the director of Spirited Away returns with a version of Diana Wynne Jones’ children’s book Howl’s Moving Castle. The result is a strange hybrid that starts out as a cheery kids adventure then changes direction halfway through to envisage the hell of a dystopian futureworld ruled by war. Despite Miyazaki’s undoubted gifts for story, character and cute animation, the diverse cultural agendas jar badly. East meets West so awkwardly here. Cineworld Parkhead, Glasgow. An Inn in Tokyo (PG) ●●●●● (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1935) Takeshi Sakamoto, Yoshiko Okada, Choko Lida. 72min. Moving tale of depression era hardships with naturalistic performances as an unemployed father wanders the streets in search of employment and his sons are reduced to catching stray dogs to sell to the municipal pound. Part of Yasujiro Ozu: From Spring to Autumn season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Invasion of The Body Snatchers (15) ●●●●● (Phil Kaufman, US, 1978) Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy. 115min. Excellent remake of Don Siegel’s archetypal exercise in sci-fi paranoia turns away from the McCarthyite dread of its 1950s predecessor to concentrate on 1970s lifestyle angst, but a host of knowing cameos and sparse use of special effects make it more than worth a look. Part of Cult! USA season. Glasgow Film Theatre. The Invention of Lying (12A) ●●●●● (Ricky Gervais/Matthew Robinson, US, 2009) Ricky Gervais, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner. 99min. WIN BIRDWATCHERS ON DVD
Get your binoculars out because here comes Marco Bechis’ wonderful new film Birdwatchers on DVD. Set in rural Brazil this hard hitting political drama follows the escalating tension between wealthy GM farmers in the area and the indigenous Guarani-Kaiowá people live an uneasy existence on the fringes of the farmers land. Artificial Eyes release Birdwatchers on Mon 25 January but The List has five copies for our readers to giveaway. To be in with a chance of winning one visit www.list.co.uk/offers/ 54 THE LIST 21 Jan–4 Feb 2010
Whimsical but likeable romantic comedy starring Gervais as a writer who discovers the power of lying in a world where it doesn’t exist. Odeon at the Quay, Glasgow. It’s Complicated (15) ●●●●● (Nancy Meyers, US, 2009) Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwyn, Steve Martin. 118min. Alec Baldwin and Meryl Streep play ex-husband and wife who suddenly get the hots for each other after ten years apart, in this farce of revived lust. While Baldwin’s Jake – now married to a much younger model, with a nightmare toddler in tow – jumps at the chance, Streep’s bakery owner Jane is initially appalled at her own behaviour. Uneven but not unfunny. General release. July Rhapsody (15) (Ann Hui, Hong Kong, 2002) Jackie Cheung, Karena Lam, Anita Mui. 103min. An upstanding teacher of Chinese literature is forced to reassess his emotional stability when he falls for one of his students. Part of Visible Secrets: Hong Kong's Women Filmmakers season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Katalin Varga (15) ●●●●● (Peter Strickland, Romania/UK/Hungary, 2009) Hilda Péter, Tibor Pálffy, Norbert Tankó. 84min. Filmed in two weeks on a micro budget, Strickland’s debut – a tale of revenge set in Transylvania – is proof of how good independent filmmaking can be. The film’s slowly unfolding narrative, non- didactic approach and blistering central performance from Péter contribute to an utterly breathtaking film. Part of 10 from 09 season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
✽✽ Late Autumn (PG) ●●●●● (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1960) Setsuko
Hara, Yoko Tsukasa, Mariko Okada. 129min. See Also Released, page 49. Part of Yasujiro Ozu: From Spring to Autumn season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Late Spring (PG) ●●●●● (Yasujito Ozu, Japan, 1949) Chishu Ryu, Setsuko Hara, Yumeji Tsukioka. 108min. Full of insight, this subtle film explores the areas of family and marriage. A widowed father feels he is keeping his daughter from marriage, but when she is informed by mistake that he is about to remarry, she begins to form marriage plans of her own. A beautifully balanced character study. Part of Yasujiro Ozu: From Spring to Autumn season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Law Abiding Citizen (18) ●●●●● (F Gary Gray, US, 2009) Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, Colm Meaney. 108min. Messily attempting to juggle crowd-pleasing retribution with cheap pot shots, this tale of one man’s fight against the corrupt judiciary system and the ambitious attorney (Foxx) that set free his wife’s murderer is undermined by a dubious morality and an unpleasant glorification of violence. Selected release. Let the Right One In (15) ●●●●● (Thomas Alfredson, Sweden, 2008) Kare Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragna. 114min. Adapted from his debut novel by Swedish horror writer John Ajvide Lindqvist, this chilling coming of age story breathes new life into a tired vampire genre. It’s the early 1980s in the Stockholm suburb of Blackeburg and a life-changing friendship is struck between lonely 12-year- old Oskar (Hedebrant) and pale newcomer Eli (Leandersson). A work of nuance, sophistication and calmness – the blood soaked poetry of which is not easy to forget. Part of 10 from 09 season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Machan (15) ●●●●● (Uberto Pasolini, Italy/Germany/Sri Lanka, 2008) Dharmapriya Dias, Gihan de Chikera, Hdarshan Dharmaraj. 110min. Immigration comedy based on a true story of a group of Sri Lankans flying to Bavaria and pretending to be the national handball team. Glasgow Film Theatre. Me and Orson Welles (12A) ●●●●● (Richard Linklater, UK, 2008) Ben Chaplin, Claire Danes, Zac Efron. 113min. Likeably frothy behind-the-scenes drama set over the space of one week the film’s time frame is guided by the rehearsals and first night of the Mercury Theatre’s legendary production of Ceasar, directed by Welles in 1937. In to this theatrical bear pit enters young artisan Richard (Efron) who lands himself the role of Lucius. Between Welles’ explosions and
sexy assistant Sonja (Danes) it’s going to be a week he won’t forget in a hurry. Cameo, Edinburgh. Ming Ming (15) (Susie Au, Hong Kong, 2007) Zhou Xun, Tony Yang, Daniel Wu. 105min. This debut feature from renowned music video director Au follows lead character Ming Ming (Xun) as she robs from an underworld boss, and whilst fleeing from his henchmen, runs into her doppelganger. Part of Visible Secrets: Hong Kong's Women Filmmakers season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Moon (15) ●●●●● (Duncan Jones, UK, 2008) Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey, Dominique McElligott. 97min. With this cleverly conceived, evenly paced and consistently intriguing old-school science fiction piece Jones eschews special effects and action-oriented clatter, instead delivering a cerebral adventure that’s as thought-provoking as it is thrilling. Rockwell plays a mining engineer working for a corporation that’s found a new source of energy for the clapped-out planet Earth, but as he nears the end of his three-year contract, cabin fever begins to take hold. Part of 10 from 09 season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Nation (E) (Melly Still, UK, 2009) 170min. Play about two young refugees thrown together following a tsunami, based on a novel by Terry Pratchett, filmed at the National Theatre in London in high definition and broadcast live by satellite. Glasgow Film Theatre. Nine (12A) ●●●●● (Rob Marshall, US/Italy, 2009) Daniel Day-Lewis, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard. 118min. Federico Fellini’s most perplexing and iconic work 8 1/2 gets the Broadway to movie adaptation treatment with Day-Lewis (showing a previously unseen penchant for song and dance) in the lead. His mistress Cruz is the real star turn, among a strong female cast of Cotillard, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Judi Dench and Sophia Loren. Selected release. Ninja Assassin (18) ●●●●● (James McTeigue, US/Germany, 2009) Rain, Naomie Harris, Shô Kosugi. 98min. Daft yet dull thriller in which pop-star Rain plays pyjama-clad killer Raizo – the most girlie- looking ninja ever captured on film. Although it opens with two blood-drenched set pieces, as police agent Mika (Harris) enlists Raizo’s help to track down the secret ninja brotherhood led by Ozunu (Kosugi), McTeigue’s film bogs itself down in mundane dialogue, drab Berlin locations and tedious fistfights. General release. No Distance Left to Run: A Film About Blur (15) (Dylan Southern, UK, 2010) 104min. See review, page 49. Cameo, Edinburgh. Nowhere Boy (15) ●●●●● (Sam Taylor-Wood, UK/Canada, 2009) Kristin Scott Thomas, Thomas Sangster, Aaron Johnson. 97min. Artist Taylor-Wood turns feature director with Nowhere Boy, a portrait of John Lennon’s (Johnson) adolescence. Scott Thomas and Anne-Marie Duff come off best in this 1950s period tableaux but, shorn of Lennon’s rapier wit, Johnson comes over as just another moody pretty-boy, railing at the world to conceal his lack of self-understanding. Grosvenor, Glasgow; Cameo, Edinburgh. OSS 117: Lost in Rio (15) ●●●●● (Michel Hazanavicius, France, 2009) Jean Dujardin, Louise Monot, Rudiger Vogler. 101min. Dujardin returns as France’s dumbest super spy. This time he’s looking for Nazi’s in Brazil with a sexy Jewish female spy and the hippie son of a Nazi in tow. Glasgow Film Theatre. An Officer & A Gentleman (15) ●●●●● (Taylor Hackford, US, 1982) Richard Gere, Debra Winger, Lou Gossett Jr. 124min. On the surface this popular 80s romance is a manipulative weepie charting the relationship between Gere’s military pilot and lover Winger. Beneath, it’s a hymn to Reagan’s self-serving America. It’s also racist, misogynistic and pro-military trash. Avoid. Scotsman Screening Room, Edinburgh. Oil City Confidential (15) ●●●●● (Julien Temple, UK, 2009) Lee Brilleaux, Wilko Johnson, John B Sparkes. 180min.
The last in his trilogy on British music of the 1970s, Oil City Confidential is a prequel to Temple’s film about the Sex Pistols, The Filth and The Fury (2000) and his film about Joe Strummer, The Future Is Unwritten. Dr Feelgood are the subject this time round and their story is rendered in an irreverent style of montage of archive and fictive footage. Glasgow Film Theatre. Paul Blart: Mall Cop (PG) ●●●●● (Steve Carr, US, 2009) Kevin James, Keir O’Donnell, Jayma Mays. 90min. Adam Sandler’s regular cohort James plays a big- hearted, small-time lawman who takes on a gang of acrobatic skateboarding thieves after a lengthy set up introducing him as an over-zealous store detective. Despite the vanilla blandness of the conceit, James provides a likable enough hero and scattered moments of self-referential wit will be appreciated by older audiences. Vue Ocean, Edinburgh. Planet 51 (U) ●●●●● (Jorge Blanco/Javier Abad, US, 2009) Voices of Dwayne Johnson, Jessica Beil, Gary Oldman. 90min. Dull, mildly offensive Spanish animated feature about one astronaut’s adventures as an illegal alien on a far-flung planet. Selected release. Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man (15) ●●●●● (Joseph Strick, UK, 1977) Bosco Hogan, TP McKenna, John Gielgud. 92min. A decade after his bold attempt to film James Joyce’s Ulysses, Joseph Strick turned in a reverential treatment of the high points of the writer’s earlier work, again capturing a nice Irish atmosphere and irreverent attitude to the country’s political and religious hypocrisies. Part of The films of Joseph Strick season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
✽✽ Precious: A Novel By Sapphire (15) ●●●●● (Lee
Daniels, US, 2009) Gabourney Sidibe, Mo’Nique, Paula Patton. 110min. See review, page 48. Glasgow Film Theatre.
✽✽ A Prophet (18) ●●●●● (Jacques Audiard, France/Italy, 2009) Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif. 150min. See review, page 47. Selected release.
✽✽ The Queen of Spades (PG) ●●●●● (Thorald 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. Glasgow Film Theatre.
✽✽ The Road (15) ●●●●● (John Hillcoat, US, 2009) Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Guy Pearce. 111min. In this largely faithful adaptation, Hillcoat and cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe have successfully recreated the barren, grey, burnt out landscape described in Cormac McCarthy’s text. Mortensen is admirable as the man journeying with his son (Smit- Mcphee) and it’s bleak in a way that Hollywood rarely dares to be. Even with an overused voiceover however, this adaptation is at times frustratingly more about the physical rather than existential journey. General release. Road Movie (18) ●●●●● (Joseph Strick, US, 1974) Robert Drivas, Regina Baff, Barry Bostwick. 88min. Strick’s bleak Road Movie sees two down-on-their-luck truckers pick up a prostitute on their way into New York. Barely got a release before disappearing into cult obscurity. Part of The films of Joseph Strick season. 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