Film INDEX
Jewish Film Club (tbc) (Various) 90min. Running since 2006, the Jewish Film Club brings a range of documentary, features and shorts to the CCA, with a focus on contemporary cinema. CCA, Glasgow. Josee, the Tiger and the Fish (15) (Isshin Inudo, Japan, 2003) Satoshi Tsumabuki, Chizuru Ikewaki, Juri Ueno. 116min. Idiosyncratic love story stemming from a strange encounter between a student and a disabled girl who is pushed around in a pram by an old woman. Part of Japanese Cinema Since the Mid-90s season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Jungle Book (U) ●●●●● (Wolfgang Reitherman, US, 1967) With the voices of George Sanders, Louis Prima. 78min. Growing up in the jungle, young Mowgli learns from the animals around him. Enjoyable Disney, a long way after Kipling, but the songs are wonderful. Eastwood Park Theatre, Glasgow. Just Go with It (12A) ●●●●● (Dennis Dugan, US, 2011) Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Nicole Kidman. 116min. Aniston and Sandler team up for this pretty diverting romantic comedy about an ageing lothario plastic surgeon and his loyal assistant, who get dragged in to a web of lies and deceit when he falls for a young schoolteacher. General release. Justin Bieber: Never Say Never 3D (U) (Jon Chu, US, 2011) Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Jaden Smith. 105min. Tedious tour documentary about the nauseating child star who didn’t know what ‘Germany’ meant. General release. The Karamazovs (12A) (Petr Zelenka, Poland/Czech Republic, 2008) Martin Mysicka, Michaela Badinkova, Igor Chmela. 110min. Zelenka uses a Prague theatre company, visiting Krakow with the intention of performing Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, to explore issues of faith, immortality and salvation. Glasgow Film Theatre. Katka (E) (Helena Trestikova, Czech Republic, 2010) 90min. Documentary filmed over thirteen years and following the lives of three women who live on the mean streets of Prague, making a living by hustling, stealing and even attempted murder. Glasgow Film Theatre. The Kid (U) ●●●●● (Charlie Chaplin, USA, 1921) Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Coogan. 68min. Classic family comedy with Charlie Chaplin playing a tramp lumbered with raising an abandoned baby. Part of Festival of Silent Cinema. Hippodrome, Bo’ness. King of Thorn (12A) (Kazuyoshi Katayama, Japan, 2009) Voices of Sendai Eri, Kana Kanazawa, Toshiyuku Morikawa. 100min. Exciting anime about a government’s attempts to fight a mysterious virus that turns sufferers to stone. Part of We Love Anime. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. ✽✽ The King’s Speech (15) Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, Geoffrey Rush. 118min. Firth’s affable persona lends an edge to the sheer frustration with which the King stumbles his way through public performances and contributes largely to the film’s feel-good twist. General release. The Kite Runner (12A) ●●●●● (Marc Forster, US, 2007) Khalid Abdalla, Ehsan Aman, Vsevolod Bardashev. 128min. Gripping and moving adaptation of the novel by Khaled Hosseini, about two boys whose ordinary lives become caught up in Afghanistan’s tumultuous politics. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains (15) (Lou Adler, US, 1982) Diane Lane, Laura Dern. 87min. Rarely screened tale of three teenage girls who form a mouthy punk band. Glasgow Film Theatre. Laputa: Castles in the Sky (PG) (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan, 1986) 124min. Rollercoaster animated adventure set in a 19th century fantasy world concerning two children on a quest to discover the legendary flying castle Laputa. Part of We Love Anime. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. The Lavender Hill Mob (U) ●●●●● (Charles Crichton, UK, 1951) Alec ●●●●● (Tom Hooper, UK, 2010)
72 THE LIST 3–31 March 2011
Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sidney James. 78min. Charming Ealing comedy that has mild-mannered bank clerk Guinness being dragged into a gold bullion robbery. Smashing satire and cracking car chase. Paisley Arts Centre, Paisley. Legacy: Black Ops (15) ●●●●● (Thomas Ikimi, UK/Nigeria, 2010) Idris Elba, William Hope, Monique Gabriela Curnen. 114min. See Also Released, page 68. Selected release. Limitless (tbc) ●●●●● (Neil Burger, US, 2011) Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Abbie Cornish. tbcmin. See Also Released, page 68. General release. The Lincoln Lawyer (15) ●●●●● (Brad Furman, US, 2011) Marisa Tomei, Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Phillippe. tbcmin. See Also Released, page 68. General releas. Linda Linda Linda (12A) (Nobuhiro Yamashita, Japan, 2005) Doona Bae, Aki Maeda, Yu Kashii. 114min. High school movie, Japanese style, as a teenage girl group struggles to find a new vocalist and guitarist just days before a big performance at the school’s cultural festival. Part of Japanese Cinema Since the Mid-90s season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. A Little Bit of Heaven (12A) ●●●●● (Nicole Kassell, US, 2011) Kate Hudson, Kathy Bates, Gael Garcia Bernal, Whoopi Goldberg. 106min. Above average romantic comedy about an uptight woman dying of cancer who finds the threat of falling in love again worse than death. General release. Live at the Met: Lucia di Lammermoor (E) (2011) Natalie Dessay, Joseph Calleja. Donizetti’s tale of a feud between two families is widely considered to be one of the most exhilarating operas of the 19th century. Screened live from the Metropolitan Opera. Cameo, Edinburgh; Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow; DCA, Dundee. Live from the Bolshoi: Don Quixote (E) (Russia, 2011) 180min. A stunning production of Miguel de Cervantes’ ballet, packed with energetic personalities, colourful characters and magnificent choreography by Alexei Fadeyechev. Selected release. Lord of the Dance 3D (U) (Marcus Viner, UK, 2011) Michael Flatley. 95min. A chance to see the phenomenally popular Irish dance show on the big screen. Selected release. Lotte Reiniger: The Fairy Tale Films (U) ●●●●● (Lotte Reiniger, Greek Film Festival
Germany, 2011) 50min. Five films of Reiniger, the innovative German animator who used back-lit silhouettes and who is credited with creating the first animated feature, ten years before Walt Disney. Includes Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella and Thumbelina. DCA, Dundee. Love Like Poison (Un poison violent) (15) (Katell Quillévéré, France, 2010) Clara Augarde, Lio, Michel Galabru. 92min. A tale of teenage sexual awakening and Catholic guilt that poses provocative questions about faith without judgement. Part of Rendez-vous with French Cinema season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. The Man who Fell to Earth (18) ●●●●● (Nicolas Roeg, UK, 1976) David Bowie, Rip Torn, Buck Henry. 138min. A well cast Bowie gives perhaps his best performance in this dazzling, occasionally obtuse, piece of Roegian sci-fi. Part of Nick Roeg season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Little Fockers (12A) ●●●●● (Paul Weitz, US, 2010) Ben Stiller, Teri Polo, Jessica Alba. 97min. The formula remains the same for this third instalment of familial comedy franchise. Likeable and forgettable. Vue Ocean, Edinburgh. Men on the Bridge (15) ●●●●● (Asli Özge, Germany/Turkey/Netherlands, 2009) Cemile Ilker, Umut Ilker, Fikret Portakal. 90min. See Also Released, page 68. Glasgow Film Theatre; Cameo, Edinburgh. Monkey Business (PG) ●●●●● (Howard Hawks, US, 1952) Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Charles Coburn. 97min. More classic comedy from director Hawks, this time with Grant as an absent-minded professor who causes chaos when his elixir of youth gets mixed in with the contents of the office water cooler. Part of Hawks season. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. My Perestroika (15) (Robin Hessman, US/UK/Russia, 2010) 98min. Documentary following five members of the last generation to be brought up in Soviet Russia, with rare home footage from their childhood in the 1970s and 80s. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. National Theatre Live: Frankenstein (15) (Danny Boyle, 2011) Benedict Cumberbatch, Jonny Lee Miller. 180min. Mary Shelley’s classic gothic tale, written by Nick Dear and realised by Danny Boyle in his return to theatre. The roles of Dr Frankenstein and the Creature are alternated between Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller. Glasgow Film Theatre.
The Greeks are coming, again. After the cultural shockwave that was Giorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth, this year’s festival looks at the next generation of Greek filmmakers with screenings of Lanthimos produced drama Attenberg, Filippos Tsitos’ acclaimed comedy about immigration and petty racism Plato’s Academy and postmodern Greek tragedy Strella. The big focus of this year’s festival is on new wave filmmaker Pantelis Voulgaris, whose films from the 1960s to now, are of great political and moral influence in his homeland. The rare UK screenings of Voulgaris’ best films – Quiet Days in August, Soul Deep, Happy Day and Stone Years (pictured) will be followed by post film discussions with the director. Ticket deals available. ■ Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Fri 11-Mon 21 Mar.
Neds (18) ●●●●● (Peter Mullan, UK/France/Italy, 2010) Martin Bell, Connor McCarron, Linda Cuthbert. 123min. An ugly, disturbing and deeply felt account of social betrayal set in 1970s Glasgow. Clever and caustic filmmaking that works hard to dodge the pitfalls of cliché. Selected release. Never Let Me Go (12A) ●●●●● (Mark Romanek, UK, 2010) Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield. 103min. Writer Alex Garland and One Hour Photo director Romanek’s adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s bleak, existential novel is a triumph of casting, featuring deeply felt performances from Mulligan and Garfield as students of the mysterious Hailsham boarding school. Selected release. New York I Love You (15) ●●●●● (Various, US, 2010) Shia LeBoeuf, Natalie Portman, Bradley Cooper. 103min. The second installment of the Emmanuel Benbihy’s Cities of Love franchise interweaves eleven ten-minute tales of love, loss and heartbreak with a flabby predictability that even solid cameos from veterans Ethan Hawke and Eli Wallach fail to salvage. Glasgow Film Theatre. No Strings Attached (15) ●●●●● (Ivan Reitman, US, 2011) Ashton Kutcher, Natalie Portman. 107min. A sweet-and- sour confection that coasts by on personable leads, but stutters awkwardly through lame comedy. General release. No Woman, No Cry (15) (Christy Turlington Burns, US, 2010) 60min. A screening by Take One Action to mark International Women’s Day (Tue 8 Mar) of a moving documentary about four women facing pregnancy and birth in parts of the world where such natural occurrences are still a major danger to health. A Take One Action screening. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Norwegian Wood (15) ●●●●● (Tran Anh Hung, Japan, 2010) Ken’ichi Matsuyama, Rinko Kikuchi, Kiko Mizuhara. 133min. See review, page 66. Glasgow Film Theatre. Nosferatu (PG) ●●●●● (FW Murnau, Germany, 1922) Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, Gustav von Wangenheim. 72min. A wonderfully visual movie, with twisted shadows and sexual undercurrents placing it well above the Kinski/Herzog remake. Hippodrome screening includes a live soundtrack from David Allison featuring live music, eerie samples and sound effects. Part of Festival of Silent Cinema. Hippodrome, Bo’ness; Cameo, Edinburgh. Nostalgia (15) ●●●●● (Andrei Tarkovsky, Italy, 1983) Oleg Jankovsky, Erland Josephson, Domiziana Giordano. 126min. A Russian poet and musicologist researching in the Tuscany hills meets a mysterious stranger who believes the world is about to end. Though often obscure, Nostalgia is still a hauntingly beautiful evocation of exile and the need for faith. CCA, Glasgow. Notting Hill (15) ●●●●● (Roger Michell, UK, 1999) Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, Hugh Bonneville. 123min. The leads don’t strain themselves, but Richard Curtis’ script is filled with witty jokes, particularly about national stereotypes. St Bride’s Centre, Edinburgh. Of Gods and Men (15) ●●●●● (Xavier Beauvois, France, 2010) Lambert Wilson, Michael Lonsdale, Roschdy Zem. 120min. Real-life inspired story of a group of Cistercian monks caught up in a civil war in an unnamed African country. Poignant, understated and masterful filmmaking from director Beauvois. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. On the Clyde (E) (Various, UK, 1956–2010) 66min. Three different angles on life past and present by Glasgow’s great river. Part of This Working Life: Tales from the Shipyard season. Glasgow Film Theatre. 127 Hours (15) ●●●●● (Danny Boyle, US, 2010) James Franco, Amber Tamblyn, Kate Mara. 94min. Accomplished and absorbing filmmaking from the team behind Slumdog Millionaire, relating the gripping true story of mountaineer Aron Ralson (Franco). Cameo, Edinburgh.