www.list.co.uk/film
The Crazies (15) ●●●●● (Breck Eisner, US/United Arab Emirates, 2010) Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson. 101min. Eisner directs this timely remake of George Night of the Living Dead Romero’s 1973 survivalist classic about a biological weapon accidentally discharged into the water supply of a small town, turning the inhabitants into rampaging lunatics. Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow. Crazy Heart (15) ●●●●● (Scott Cooper, US, 2009) Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Keane. 111min. Based a novel by Thomas Cobb, leisurely southernfried character study Crazy Heart focuses on the travails of down-on-his-luck western singer-songwriter Bad Blake, played by the remarkable Bridges. Things begin to look up when he hooks up with a young music journalist and single mother (Gyllenhaal), but Bad is sadly on a one way ticket to rehab. Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow; Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Date Night (15) ●●●●● (Shawn Levy, US, 2010) Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg. 88min. See review, page 45. General release from Weds 21 April. Dear John (12A) ●●●●● (Lasse Hallström, US, 2010) Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried, Richard Jenkins. 108min. See review, page 47. General release from Wed 14 Apr.
✽✽ Double Take (12A) ●●●●● (Johan Grimonprez, UK, 2009) Alfred
Hitchcock. 80min. See review, page 45. Glasgow Film Theatre. Easy Rider (18) ●●●●● (Dennis Hopper, US, 1969) Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson. 94min. Two dudes on choppers with a couple of tanks full of drugs, riding across America in search of . . . what? The Dream? Freedom? Well, they don’t find it. What they do find at the close of the 1960s is the butt end of a bad trip. Whether you regard this as the best biker movie ever made or a generation-defining classic (or both), the impact, now and then, of Easy Rider can’t be overstated. New 35mm print. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. An Education (12A) ●●●●● (Lone Scherfig, UK, 2009) Peter Sarsgaard, Emma Thompson, Alfred Molina. 99min. Sarsgaard is on top form as seductive cad David, the older man responsible for educating bright but confused schoolgirl Jenny (Mulligan) in matters of love and life in swinging sixties London. With only a few tired stereotypes to detract from a superbly managed depiction of the central relationship, director Scherfig here combines romantic drama and the coming- of-age tale to wholly enjoyable effect. Filmhouse, Edinburgh; Odeon at the Quay, Glasgow. Enchanted (PG) ●●●●● (Kevin Lima, US, 2007) Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden. 107min. Two fairytale characters struggle to find each other and make it in the ‘real’ world in this mix of live and animated action (à la Who Framed Roger Rabbit). Enchanted is one of the nastiest, most insidious children’s films adults will have the displeasure of seeing this year. Chock full of pseudo Christian ideas, Waspish imperialism, product placement and celebrations of consumer culture this is about as evil as Disney gets. Leave your critical faculties, reason and humanity at the door. Empire, Clydebank. Equations (12A) (UK, 2010) 60min. Artist and writer Matt Collings explores some of the most important equations in science – Einstein’s E=mc2, Paul Dirac’s equation on anti-matter and Newton’s law of gravity. Introduction and Q& A with producer Andrew Thompson. Part of Edinburgh Science Festival. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Exit Through the Gift Shop (15) ●●●●● (Banksy, UK, 2010) 85min. In his first foray into filmmaking, mysterious artist Banksy places the issue of identity at the centre of his pseudo-documentary on street art. It’s to his immense credit that he gives a potted history of the art form in an interesting and funny way, and most impressively, the questions about identity, society and life that the filmmaker posits over the course of this anarchically
intelligent documentary feature mirror those found in his artwork. Glasgow Film Theatre. The Father of my Children (15) ●●●●● (Mia Hansen-Love, France/Germany, 2009) Chiara Caselli, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Alice de Lencquesaing. 110min. Inspired by the fate of French producer Humbert Balsan, this impressively mature second feature from writer-director Hansen-Love is both a convincing portrait of the punishing realities of funding arthouse cinema and an affecting study of a family coping with an unexpected bereavement. Cameo, Edinburgh. Film Discussion Group Meet up with film buffs to swap opinions and perceptions of both art house and big blockbuster recent releases. Held on the second Wednesday of every month. Glasgow Film Theatre. Finding Nemo (U) ●●●●● (Andrew Stanton/Lee Unkrich, US, 2003) Voices of Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould, Willem Dafoe, Brad Garrett, Allison Janney. 100min. Pixar’s latest now that it is free from the umbrella of Disney is the delightful tale of a little fish and his daddy’s attempts to find him when he gets scooped out of the water by a human. Clever, funny and better than The Little Mermaid (just). Scotsman Screening Room, Edinburgh. Fingers (18) ●●●●● (James Toback, US, 1978) Harvey Keitel, Tisa Farrow, Jim Brown. 90min. Toback details the feverish life of a troubled loner who leads a double life as both a concert pianist and underworld criminal. Was later remade in 2005 as the critically acclaimed The Beat That My Heart Skipped. Glasgow Film Theatre. 400 Years of the Telescope (12A) (Kris Koenig, US, 2009) 57min. Visually arresting history of the telescope featuring interviews from leading astronomers and cosmologists from around the world. Introduction and Q&A with director Kris Koenig. Part of Edinburgh Science Festival. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (18) ●●●●● (Niels Arden Oplev, Sweden, 2009) Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Peter Haber. 152min. When investigative journalist Mikhael Blomkvist (Nyqvist) is called upon by an ageing Swedish industrialist to investigate the 40-year-old disappearance of his beloved great niece, his careful investigations get nowhere until a mysterious gothic Pippi Longstocking (Rapace) intervenes. The first of Stieg Laarson’s deservedly successful millennium thrillers receives a faithful but laborious film treatment. Selected release. Gold Diggers (U) ●●●●● (Sally Potter, UK, 983) Colette Laffont, Julie Christie. 89min. The feature debut of the director of Orlando and The Tango Lesson embraces an experimental narrative structure and was made with an all female crew. Laffont plays Celeste, a computer clerk in a bank who becomes fascinated by the relationship between gold and power, whilst Christie stars as Ruby, an enigmatic film star in search of the truth about her own identity. CCA, Glasgow. The Greatest (15) ●●●●● (Shana Feste, US, 2009) Pierce Brosnan, Susan Sarandon,Carey Mulligan. 95min. Drama about a family coping with the loss of their son. Brunton Theatre. Edinburgh. Green Zone (15) ●●●●● (Paul Greengrass, US, 2010) Matt Damon, Jason Isaacs, Brendan Gleeson. 114min. This very adult thriller dissects the lies that were told to enable and maintain the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Adapted from Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s brilliant 2007 non-fiction book Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone, this is a brave and intelligent attempt to engage with a very recent history and its implications of governmental abuse of all of us. Muscular, sexless and deterministic filmmaking – undoubtedly the best thing Greengrass has done to date. See profile, page 53. General release. Hachi: A Dog’s Tale (PG) ●●●●● (Lasse Hallström, USA/UK, 2009) Richard Gere, Sarah Roemer, Joan Allen. 93min. This maudlin pet-sploitation flick transports the 1920s Japanese story of a faithful dog
who waited nearly ten years for his master’s return, to an idyllic Rhode Island setting. Selected release. Harvey (U) ●●●●● (Henry Koster, US, 1950) James Stewart, Josephine Hull, Peggy Dow, Charles Drake. 104min. Elwood P Dowd (Stewart) is a nice, pleasant man who just happens to have an invisible friend resembling a six foot rabbit. Classic adaptation of Mary Chase’s brilliant play, this features one of Stewart’s most memorable roles. The film is in fact a metaphor for the post war bewilderment that GIs faced on returning home. Scotsman Screening Room, Edinburgh.
✽✽ The Headless Woman (12A) ●●●●● (Lucrecia Martel,
Spain/Italy/France/Argentina, 2008) Maria Onetto, Claudia Cantero, Daniel Genoud. 89min. An upper-middle class Argentinean dentist suffers traumatic estrangement when she hits something with her car on a deserted country road in this enigmatic Antonioni-esque thriller from one of recent world cinema’s most distinctive talents. Martel’s visual and aural techniques intensify the atmosphere of confusion and anxiety, and Onetto’s performance is a masterclass in expressing internal emotion. Glasgow Film Theatre. How to Train Your Dragon 2D (PG) ●●●●● (Dean DeBlois/Chris Sanders, US, 2010) Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrera. 97min. Commendable new DreamWorks animation set in the mythical world of Vikings and dragons, and based on the book by Cressida Cowell. Hiccup, a Viking teenager, befriends a dragon. General release. How to Train Your Dragon 3D (PG) ●●●●● (Dean DeBlois/Chris Sanders, US, 2010) Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrera. 97min. See above. General release. Hum Tum Aur Ghost (12A) (Kabeer Kaushik, India, 2010) Diya Mirza, Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani. 125min. Bollywood ghost story about a young man who helps spirits fulfil their final wishes. Odeon at the Quay, Glasgow.
✽✽ I Am Love (15) ●●●●● (Luca Guadagnino, Italy, 2009) Tilda
Swinton, Flavio Parenti, Edoardo Gabbriellini. 120min. See review, page 46 and profile, page 50. Glasgow Film Theatre. I Love you Phillip Morris (15) ●●●●● (Glenn Ficarra/John Requa, US, 2009) Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Leslie Mann. 97min. Demented comedy based on a true story from writers of Bad Santa Ficarra and Requa about a gay con man, his prison squeeze and his inexhaustible appetite for scheming. By far the best work leads Carrey and McGregor have done for years. General release. In the Land of the Free (15) ●●●●● (Vadim Jean, US, 2009) 84min. Samuel L Jackson narrates this documentary examining the story of the Angola 3, three political prisoners who spent 37 years in solitary confinement within the US prison system. Glasgow Film Theatre; Cameo, Edinburgh. The Infidel (15) ●●●●● (Josh Appignanesi, UK, 2010) Matt Lucas, Omid Djalili, Richard Schiff. 104min. See feature, page 44 and review, page 46. Selected release from Fri 9 Apr Inglourious Basterds (18) ●●●●● (Quentin Tarantino, US/Germany/France, 2009) Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth. 152min. Pitt’s Lieutenant Aldo Raine and his band of Nazi-bushwhacking Jewish- American GIs provide the film’s Dirty Dozen element, but their bloody antics are only one of the plot strands of this multiple narrative romp through occupied France. Plenty of action, a good deal of black humour and a number of superbly staged set pieces. Odeon at the Quay, Glasgow. Check out the GreatOffers on page 6
Index Film PROFILE
WARWICK THORNTON Born 1970, Alice Springs, Australia Background Thornton left school unable to read and write, and started working as a radio DJ. He soon graduated to having his own show called Green Room. His infatuation with images led to him working as a camera assistant before going to study at the Australia Film and Television School in Sydney. His failure to get enough cinematography work led to Thornton writing five, ten and 20-minute films and he started to receive funding from grant bodies. Before he knew it, he was a movie director.
What’s he up to now? Thornton has followed up his short film hit Nana with Samson and Delilah, a tale about an aboriginal boy and girl forced to run away from their community. The film poses important questions about modern day Aboriginal life without ever letting up on entertainment value. On it’s release, the film, which has little to do with the bible story even as allegory, caused uproar over it’s piercing social commentary.
On the electronic soundtrack ‘Sound has got a lot more to play in a film then people give it credit for. It’s always used to fill the spaces between the pictures. That’s the wrong way to think about sound. Switch the picture off and if you can still tell a story you’re on the right track. Maybe it’s my radio background – I love sound. I think it’s under- utilised. You can do a lot without dialogue. I hate dialogue. I find it really cheap in cinema nowadays.’
On supermarkets in Alice Springs ‘There’s one big supermarket in Alice Springs – it’s the place to go. I used to do a lot of window shopping as a kid because I was too afraid to go in because you used to be followed by a security guard. Even if you have money, they still follow you.
Interesting fact Thornton gave the role of Gonzo to his brother on condition that his brother would first go to a drug rehabilitation centre in order to kick his habit. Once he was clean he got given the part. (Kaleem Aftab) ■ Samson and Delilah, GFT, Glasgow & Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 2 Apr. See review, page 46.
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