list.co.uk/film
Horrid Henry: The Movie 2D (U) ●●●●● (Nick Moore, UK, 2011) Theo Stevenson, Anjelica Huston, Richard E Grant. 92min. Big screen off-shoot of popular British children’s television show about a naughty boy and some pretty scary adults. General release. Horrid Henry: The Movie 3D (U) ●●●●● (Nick Moore, UK, 2011) Theo Stevenson, Anjelica Huston, Richard E Grant. 92min. See above. Selected release. Hot Fuzz (15) ●●●●● (Edgar Wright, UK, 2007) Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Bill Bailey. 120min. Unimpeachable London copper Nicholas Angel (Pegg) is moved to a rural beat where he uncovers lurking danger with only impressionable young PC Danny (Frost) for back up. A parody of US action/buddy/police movies it will be a huge hit, despite being overlong, with a strong plot that’s stretched to snapping point. Cameo, Edinburgh. Huge (15) ●●●●● (Ben Miller, UK, 2010) Noel Clarke, Johnny Harris, Oliver Chris. 78min. Mildly diverting comedy- drama about a feuding comedy double act, directed and co-written by comedian and panel show regular Miller. Macrobert, Stirling. The Illusionist (12A) ●●●●● (Sylvain Chomet, UK/France, 2010) Voices: Jean- Claude Donda, Eilidh Rankin. 83min. The product of five years’ work in an animation studio that Chomet (Belleville Rendezvous) set up in Edinburgh when he fell in love with the capital after attending its International Film Festival, this is an uncannily accurate portrayal of Edinburgh and Scotland. The story is an unfilmed script from Jacques Tati and the main character, an ageing magician whose beloved act no longer interests the rock’n’rolling 1950s youth, is based somewhat on Tati himself and is carefully and emotively rendered by Chomet and his team. Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
✽✽ In a Better World (Hævnen) (15) ●●●●● (Susanne Bier,
Denmark/Sweden, 2010) Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, Markus Rygaard. 119min. See review, page 100. Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
✽✽ The Inbetweeners Movie (15) (Ben Palmer, UK, 2011) Simon Bird,
James Buckley, Blake Harrison, Joe Thomas. 96min. See feature, page 90 and Also Released, page 101. General release.
✽✽ Kind Hearts and Coronets (PG) ●●●●● (Robert Hamer, UK, 1949) Dennis Price, Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Valerie Hobson. 106min. See Also Released, page 101. Selected release. Klunkerz (12A) (William Savage, US, 2006) 83min. Using archive footage, interviews and still photographs,Klunkerz chronicles the inception of the early 1970s precursor to the modern mountain bike. The early pioneers spent years scavenging in junkyards, obsessively tinkering and modifying their bikes in a bid to find a better way down the mountain. Macrobert, Stirling. Knut Asdam: Tripoli and Abyss (tbc) (Knut Asdam, Various, 2010) 67min. Two shorter films by Norwegian film and video artist Asdam. The first, Tripoli, is part architectural documentary and part historical drama, dealing with the destruction of an ambitious building project during the Lebanese civil war of 1975. The second film deals with the travels of a character through an ever-changing urban landscape. CCA, Glasgow. Kung Fu Panda 2 2D (PG) ●●●●● (Jennifer Yuh, US, 2011) Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan. 90min. Sequel to the popular animated comedy about the martial arts master in a chubby panda body (voiced by Black). Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow. Larry Crowne (12A) ●●●●● (Tom Hanks, US, 2011) Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Bryan Cranston. 98min. Hanks and Roberts team up for post economic crash rom-com about a recently unemployed company man who forms a crush on a teacher at the adult college he starts to attend. Selected release. Last Year in Marienbad (12A) ●●●●● (Alain Resnais, France/Italy,
Pina
Dance lady dance! Wim Wenders’ fantastic documentary record of the late great choreographer Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater Wuppertal ensemble performing her greatest work returns for some matinee screenings. If you love dance this should not be missed. These screenings are not in 3D. ■ Cameo, Edinburgh, Fri 19–Thu 25 Aug
1961) Delphine Seyrig, Giorgio Albertazzi, Sacha Pitoeff. 94min. Resnais’ seminal abstract 1961 love story gets a new lease of life on cleaned up print in this evocative and enigmatic tale of a man who meets a woman in a rambling hotel, and believes he had an affair with her the previous year. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow. Lynch (Lincz) (15) (Krzysztof Lukaszewicz, Poland, 2011) Leszek Lichota, Agnieszka Podsiadlik, Wieslaw Komasa. 81min. In 2005 a sixty-year-old man was lynched by youngsters in a Polish village. The old man had been a habitual offender and had terrorised the town for years and this film explores the issues behind the story. Part of Play Poland festival. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Mr Popper’s Penguins (PG) ●●●●● (Mark Waters, US, 2011) Jim Carrey, Carla Gugino. 94min. Family comedy starring Carrey as Mr Popper, a humourless businessman who inherits six penguins. The penguins turn his posh New York apartment into a winter wonderland and they change his life in ways he never imagined. This likeable adaptation of popular book was controversially filmed on a refrigerated sound stage with real Emperor Penguins. General release. My Own Private Idaho (18) ●●●●● (Gus Van Sant, US, 1991) River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, William Richert. 105min. Shakespeare’s Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 are given a sleazy, contemporary twist in Van Sant’s follow-up to the admirable Drugstore Cowboy to create a compelling, idiosyncratic, left field gem. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow. Mystification (Mistyfikacja) (15) (Jacek Koprowicz, Poland, 2010) Jerzy Stuhr, Maciej Stuhr, Ewa Blaszczyk. 120min. A study of the life of Stanislaw ‘Witkacy’ Witkiewicz, one of Poland’s premier avant-garde poet/artists, who committed suicide in 1939. Part of Play
Poland festival. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow.
✽✽ One Day (12A) ●●●●● (Lone Sherfig, UK/US, 2011) Jim Sturgess, Anne hathaway. 108min. See review, page 101. General release. Pina (U) ●●●●● (Wim Wenders, Germany/UK/France, 2011) 103min. Wim Wenders’ 3D documentary is rooted in newly filmed excerpts from four of Pina Bausch’s productions and interspersed with theatrical performance footage and interviews. It’s a beautifully assembled tribute; unsentimental, insightful and ravishing to look at, with something for everyone. Cameo, Edinburgh. Poetry (12A) ●●●●● (Chang-dong Lee, South Korea, 2010) Jeong-hie Yun, Nae- sang Ahn, Hira Kim. 139min. The quest to write a single poem becomes a heroic act in this intricately plotted melodrama. Emerging from a lengthy period of retirement, Yun Jung-hee plays an elegant 66-year-old constantly confronted by the harshness of a world she no longer recognises. Deeply moving and satisfying. Cameo, Edinburgh.
✽✽ Project Nim (12A) ●●●●● (James Marsh, UK, 2011) Bob
Angelini, Bern Cohen, Reagan Leonard. 93min. Marsh follows Oscar-winning documentary Man On Wire by playing it safe stylistically with a similarly formatted documentary package. Telling the story of a baby chimp taken away from its family and placed in a surrogate home in 70s New York, Project Nim proves deeply affecting through a mix of intelligent storytelling and expert direction. Filmhouse, Edinburgh; Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow; Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee. Prom (U) ●●●●● (Joe Nussbaum, US, 2011) Aimee Teegarden, Thomas McDonell, DeVaughn Nixon. 104min. Popular girl Nova Prescott (Teegarden) is in charge of organising the titular end-of-year
INDEX Film
celebration of her fellow high schoolers. But when a fire throws her plans into chaos, Nova is forced to work alongside her nemesis, hunky bad boy Jesse (McDonell). Even the most gullible will find Prom’s sugar-sweet shenanigans to be gratingly predictable. Macrobert, Stirling. Le Quattro Volte (U) ●●●●● (Michelangelo Frammartino, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, 2010) Giuseppe Fuda, Bruno Timpano, Nazareno Timpano. 88min. Part human drama, part anthropological study, Le Quattro Volte explores the interconnectedness of life in a hilltop village in Calabria, Italy. Carefully paced and without dialogue, it relishes in the small details of rural life, encouraging audiences to immerse themselves in the rhythms and traditions of the community. Macrobert, Stirling.
✽✽ Rise of the Planet of the Apes (12A) ●●●●● (Rupert Wyatt, US, 2011) Tom Felton, James Franco, Andy Serkis. 104min. Intelligent and at times exhilarating prequel to the 60s cult classic, adeptly handled by Wyatt, who mixes headline influenced narrative with all the visual spectacle required of a blockbuster. Franco plays a scientist on the hunt for the cure for Alzheimer’s whose experiments result in a test ape developing human-like characteristics, the animal’s capture and abuse setting the scene for rebellion and the astonishing dystopian fiction that follows. General release. Rocky (PG) ●●●●● (John G Alvidsen, US, 1976) Sylvester Stallone, Burgess Meredith, Talia Shire. 119min. Back to the days when Stallone used to make good films (well, one, and this is it). It’s the old rags-to-riches saga dressed up by writer Sly as a boxing drama about a dim-witted Philadelphia lad who makes it good in gloves. This one took the Best Picture Oscar, the four that followed adhered to the law of diminishing returns. Sloans, Glasgow. Rowthiram (15) (Gokul, India, 2011) Jeeva, Shriya Saran, Prakash Raj. 161min. Indian Tamil action film. Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow.
✽✽ The Salt of Life (Gianni e le Donne) (12A) ●●●●● (Gianni Di Gregorio, UK, 2011) Gianni Di Gregorio, Valeria De Franciscis, Alfonso Santagata. 90min. Writer-director Di Gregorio plays a middle aged Italian struggling with his relationships with women, including a spendthrift mother, condescending wife and daughter, and a party-girl neighbour. Unashamedly autobiographical as he pokes fun at his own foibles, Di Gregorio succeeds in making a poignant and warmly funny piece of Italian cinema. Filmhouse, Edinburgh; Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow; Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee. Sarah’s Key (Elle s’appelait Sarah) (12A) ●●●●● (Gilles Paquet-Brenner, France, 2010) Kristin Scott Thomas, Mélusine Mayance, Niels Arestrup. 111min. The life of a journalist in present-day Paris becomes entwined with that of a young Jewish girl who died in the Holocaust as she investigates a shameful chapter in France’s history. Unsurprisingly earnest and visually restrained, director Paquet-Brenner is aided by a fine ensemble cast in his creation of a real sense of moral ambiguity. Selected release. Shaun of The Dead (15) ●●●●● (Edgar Wright, UK, 2004) Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Dylan Moran, Lucy Davis, Bill Nighy. 99min. The team behind the cult TV series Spaced venture into film with a likeable zom-rom-com that pits a bunch of London slackers against the undead. Pleasingly puerile. Cameo, Edinburgh. Shrek Forever After 2D (PG) ●●●●● (Mike Mitchell, US, 2010) Voices: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz. 93min. A fourth and final installment, rebooting the flagging franchise with a new alternate-reality twist which sees Shrek escape fatherhood for a one-day return to his bachelor years. A warmed-over sequel that lazily re-configures familiar elements to mildly pleasing effect. The Hippodrome, Bo’ness.
18–25 Aug 2011 THE LIST 103