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Films screening this fortnight are listed below with certificate, star rating, credits, brief review and venue details. Film index compiled by Paul Dale ✽✽ Indicates Hitlist entry The A-Team (12A) ●●●●● (Joe Carnahan, USA, 2010) Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel. 118min. Just like the 80s TV show that spawned it, The A- Team is over the top, macho fun. Now based in Iraq, the old team reunites to retrieve stolen printing plates used for counterfeiting money. But for all its exuberance, this is an overly flashy endeavour and ends up feeling calculated, uncomfortable and empty. General release. Amélie (15) ●●●●● (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France, 2001) Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Serge Merlin. 120min. Within Jeunet’s fantastical world – a reimagining of Paris’ oldest quarter, Montmartre – the eccentric adventures of his eponymous heroine unfold in a manner as complex as a Swiss timepiece when Amélie decides to bring happiness to deserving people by playing elaborate practical jokes on them. A film that celebrates all the little, great things in life. A Summer Sunday screening. Glasgow Film Theatre. And Then Came Lola (15) (Megan Siler/Ellen Seidler, US, 2009) Ashleigh Sumner, Jill Bennett, Cathy DeBuono. 70min. Lesbian romantic comedy about carefree photographer Lola (Sumner) who has three chances to save both her girlfriend Casey’s (Bennett) design career and Casey herself from the clutches of predatory Danielle (DeBuono). Part of the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival on Tour. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Astro Boy (PG) ●●●●● (David Bowers, US, 2009) Voices of Nicolas Cage, Kristen Bell, Freddie Highmore. 93min. A popular manga in Japan since 1952, and a cult TV show in the US since the early 1980s, Astro Boy makes a bid for worldwide domination in this flashy but flatly realised animation. A robot child cloned by Dr Tenma (voiced by Cage) from the DNA of his dead son, the titular space age Pinocchio (Highmore), is rejected by his father and banished to the robot graveyard that surrounds the city. Vue Ocean, Edinburgh. Baarìa (15) ●●●●● (Giuseppe Tornatore, Italy, 2009) Francesco Scianna, Margareth Made, Angela Molina. 150min. Epic historical melodrama spanning five decades of 20th-century Sicilian history and three generations of the Torrenuova family. Their lives and loves are played out against a backdrop of sudden and extreme political
and social change (which is not always fully explained), lavish production and an overpowering Ennio Morricone score. Cameo, Edinburgh. Bodies of Work (PG) (UK, Daniel Warren, Various) 77min. Three films made by Daniel Warren, documenting and exploring the work of Scottish Ballet, including footage of rehearsals and backstage. Part of Dance:Film10 Fringe. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. The Breakfast Club (15) ●●●●● (John Hughes, US, 1985) Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald. 97min. The film that helped launch the Brat Pack, which ain’t a compliment. Five American teenagers – punk, swot, nut case, etc – spend a Saturday afternoon in school detention, where they go through a tribal bonding experience while spewing all manner of teen angst: it’s all my parents fault and other old chestnuts. Part of Gourmet Glasgow. Grosvenor, Glasgow. Burning: Mogwai (12A) ●●●●● (Vincent Moon, Nathanael Le Scouarnec, UK, 2009) 118min. Black and white concert film from Mogwai. Part of Great Scots season. Glasgow Film Theatre; Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore 2D (U) ●●●●● (Brad Peyton, USA/Australia, 2010) Voices of James Marsden, Nick Nolte, Christina Applegate. 82min. Hairless sphinx cat Kitty decides to enslave humans. Likeable but instantly forgettable sequel to 2001’s live action adventure Cats & Dogs. General release. Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore 3D (U) ●●●●● (Brad Peyton, USA/Australia, 2010) Voices of James Marsden, Nick Nolte, Christina Applegate. 82min. See above. General release. The Cincinnati Kid (PG) ●●●●● (Norman Jewison, US, 1965) Steve McQueen, Ann-Margret, Tuesday Weld. 97min. A poker-table thriller with McQueen oozing typical cool as the ladies (Weld and Ann-Margret) vie for his attentions. Part of McQueen season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Coco Before Chanel (12A) ●●●●● (Anne Fontaine, France, 2009) Audrey Tautou, Benoît Poelvoorde, Alessandro Nivola. 110min. This sumptuously dressed biopic of the early years of Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel faithfully charts the rising hemlines and torn bustiers of a passionate woman repressed by society, with emotion-driven montages of dressmaking as Coco uses sewing machine and scissors to direct her restless energies into clothing. There’s nothing experimental or innovative here, but it provides undeniably classy entertainment. Cameo, Edinburgh.
True to Life This small tie-in season with the Edinburgh International Book Festival features Ron Mann’s new documentary about novelist Margaret Atwood In the Wake of the Flood (pictured) and Murray Grigor’s 2009 film Space & Light Revisited about St Peter’s Seminary in Cardross, which is being shown to coincide with the completion of novelist Brian Dillon’s novella set there. Both films will be followed by Q&As. ■ Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Sat 21 & Sun 22 Aug.
Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky (15) ●●●●● (Jan Kounen, France, 2009) Anna Mouglalis, Mads Mikkelsen, Yelena Morozova. 118min. Nuanced and exquisitely detailed but passionless drama about the romance between the queen of couture and the father of modern classical music. Dutch writer/director Jan Kounan (Blueberry, Dobermann) keeps things a little too minimal and cool for comfort, but stars Anna Mouglalis and Mads Mikkelsen do their best to salvage something from the endless longeurs. Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow; Cameo, Edinburgh. Contemporary Palestinian Documentaries (E) (Nahed Awwad, Palestine, Various) 97min. A selection of short documentaries from Palestinian filmmaker Nahed Awwad, based on personal memories about the colourful, unrestricted life of the past and the bleak and isolated present. Part of Beyond Borders season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Dear John (12A) ●●●●● (Lasse Hallström, US, 2010) Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried, Richard Jenkins. 108min. Seyfried plays Savannah, a student who strikes up a relationship with on leave soldier John Tyree (Tatum), but their romance is stymied when Tyree decides to put his military career first, and the inevitable Dear John letter results in mutual heartbreak. Odeon at the Quay, Glasgow; Odeon, Edinburgh. Diary of a Wimpy Kid (PG) ●●●●● (Thor Freudenthal, US, 2010) Zachary Gordon, Steve Zahn, Rachael Harris. 92min. See Also Released, right. General release. Edinburgh College of Art Post Graduate Show (E) (Various, UK, 2010) 90min. Work produced by students of Screen Academy Scotland at the ECA, including documentaries and fictional work both realist and fantastical. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Edinburgh Interactive Film Screenings (E) (Various, 2010) 240min. Free public screenings as part of Edinburgh Interactive gaming festival, offering a chance to view gameplay on exciting new titles that are yet to be released. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. The Expendables (15) ●●●●● (Sylvester Stallone, US, 2010) Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren. 103min. See review, page 104 and feature, page. General release. Fish Child (15) ●●●●● (Lucía Puenzo, Argentina/France/Spain, 2009) Inés Efron, Mariela Vitale, Pep Munné. 96min. Lesbian crime thriller from director of XXY about the daughter of a prominent judge who is having an illicit affair with their maid. Part of the London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival On Tour. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Five Easy Pieces (15) ●●●●● (Bob Rafelson, US, 1970) Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Billy Green Bush. 98min. Rafelson’s slow, honest, funny and painful study of familial alienation and ennui at a time of war (Vietnam) has been lovingly restored and is well worth revisiting or discovering anew. Reissue. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Fly Me to the Moon (U) ●●●●● (Ben Stassen, US, 2008) Buzz Aldrin, Adrienne Barbeau, Ed Begley Jr. 84min. A 3D film describing mankind’s first trip to the moon is a lively sounding prospect, and moments in Stassen’s animation provide a genuine wow- factor, but such moments of poetry are fleeting and the majority of this film insanely focuses on the uninteresting plight of three houseflies who stowaway onboard. IMAX Theatre, Glasgow. The Fogo Process (E) (Colin Low, Canada, Various) 90min. Films made as part of a pioneering 1960s film project, whereby the residents of Fogo Island in Newfoundland documented their lives and the challenges they faced. CCA, Glasgow. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (15) ●●●●● (Nicholas Stoller, US, 2008) Jason Segal, Kristen Bell, Russell Brand. 110min. Writer and star Segal is Peter Bretter, a composer who gets dumped by his soap star girlfriend Sarah Marshall (Bell). Heading to Hawaii he bumps into her and her new rock star boyfriend Aldous Snow (Brand), who steals the show in an otherwise predictable and grating romantic comedy. Cameo, Edinburgh.
Index Film
ALSO RELEASED
Piranha 3D (15) 96min ●●●●● Alexandre Aja, the gifted French filmmaker who has so far had the cajones to tackle remakes of Wes Craven’s 1977 wilderness horror The Hills Have Eyes and feted J- horror Mirrors, finally tackles the big one – Joe Dante and John Sayles’ 1978 frat comedy horror Piranha. It’s not as cheap, fun, camp or generically incisive as the original but it is a lot of fun and Aja is all too clearly channelling Spielberg’s Jaws rather than Dante’s B-movie plus the 3D really helps and stars Ving Rhames, Elizabeth Shue, Christopher Lloyd and, most pertinently of all, Richard Dreyfuss are clearly all in on the joke. General release, Fri 20 Aug. Mother (Madeo) (15) 129min ●●●●● Excellent South Korean thriller in which a mother desperately searches for the killer who framed her son for a horrific murder. Directed and written by Bong Joon-ho, whose previous films include Memories of Murder and The Host – this powerful, almost schizophrenic film is a mad mix of ‘obsessive mother’ drama and intricately realised whodunit. Seek it out before Hollywood remakes it. Veteran stage and screen actress Kim Hye-ja dominates every frame. Selected release, Fri 20 Aug.
The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (18) 91min ●●●●● Queasy Dutch body horror. See feature, page 103 and full review at www.list.co.uk/articles/film. Selected release, Fri 20 Aug.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (PG) 94min ●●●●● The inevitable adaptation of Jeff Kinney’s illustrated novel about wise- cracking schoolchild Greg (Zachary Gordon) may not be able to transfer all the charm of the literary bestseller but it is likeable, bright and funny. Part two is currently in post-production, allegedly. General release, Wed 25 Aug. Grown Ups (12A) 103min ●●●●● Five school friends reunite 30 years after graduating on the fourth of July weekend and much hi-jinks ensue. Regrettably predictable buddy comedy featuring Saturday Night Live’s almost entire early 1990s cast (Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider etc). General release, Wed 25 Aug.
19–26 Aug 2010 THE LIST 105