list.co.uk/fi lm HISTORICAL DRAMA LINCOLN (12A) 150min ●●●●●
Lincoln has been a lengthy labour of love for Steven Spielberg. Screenwriters and a lead actor have come and gone over more than a decade spent striving to tunnel out a cohesive drama from within the life of such a monumental and seemingly familiar figure. In the end playwright Tony Kushner has written an elegant, eloquent screenplay that focuses on the final four months of Lincoln’s life and the political fight to secure the constitutional abolition of slavery
It may sound the stuff of a dry history lesson but the attraction of Lincoln lies in the way it brushes off the dusty hand of the past and brings the fight for the soul of the nation so vividly to life. Daniel Day- Lewis does a remarkable job of making Lincoln flesh and blood. The bitter arguments with his wife Mary (Sally Field), aching concern for son Robert (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and jousting with the qualms of Secretary of State William Seward (David Strathairn) all contribute to a portrait of Lincoln as both a
shrewd political force and complex human being. The film largely eschews the sentimentality that is considered a Spielberg trademark and the result is a film as absorbing and unassuming as the central character. (Allan Hunter) ■ General release from Fri 25 Jan.
BIOGRAPHY HITCHCOCK (12A) 98min ●●●●●
A master of cinematic surprise and misdirection is here subjected to a portrait that tells its audience what’s going on at every turn. One might suppose the man to be turning in his grave, had prurient pathologisation of him and his relationships with actors not become somewhat de rigueur of late. Based on Stephen Rebello’s Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, this film goes so far as to give the director an imagined confidante in the form of Ed Gein (Michael Wincott), the killer who partly informed Psycho’s tragic monster Norman Bates. It’s a ludicrous leap of logic and credibility, not to mention a hefty insult to a real man’s memory. Hitchcock fancied gorgeous actresses, got a thrill out of making them afraid, and flaunted both inclinations in his wife’s face. None of that’s particularly nice, but it hardly justifies aligning him with a multiple murderer and graverobber who made belts out of human nipples.
As ‘Hitch’ (‘Hold the “cock”,’ as he cheekily reminds people), Anthony Hopkins is impeded by a make-up job that restricts his facial movement while making him look less like the film’s subject than like a bad waxwork thereof. Supporting performers do better impersonations – Scarlett Johannson is particularly impressive as Janet Leigh – with the exception of Helen Mirren, who plays Hitchcock’s wife Alma exactly the way that she plays every role: as Helen Mirren. But no-one is a character: they’re to a man mere mouthpieces for an astonishingly cloddish script. ‘I guess he’s like any great artist,’ offer’s Alma’s fancyman Whitfield Cook (Danny Huston) at one point, ‘impossible to live with, but it’s worth the effort!’ This is Hitchcock for a tabloid audience: simplistic, judgemental, smug and pat. Rewatch the actual films instead. (Hannah McGill) ■ General release from Fri 8 Feb.
Reviews | FILM
5 REASONS GLASGOW YOUTH FILM FESTIVAL A handful of essential picks from Glasgow Film Festival’s feisty young counterpart. The Glasgow Youth Film Festival, carefully curated by the GFT’s Youth Team, packs feature and short films, masterclasses, outdoor screenings and even a cosplay red carpet parade into 10 days this February
1. Girl Walk // All Day An outdoor, interactive screening of this New York-set dance film, a hit at last year’s South by South West Festival. It follows three dancers performing across the city to the sounds of DJ Girl Talk’s album All Day. River Clyde Embankment, adjacent to the red pedestrian bridge on Clyde St, Wed 13 Feb.
2. Wreck-It Ralph 3D Recently Oscar- nominated and featuring a voice cast packed with proper character actors (John C Reilly, Jane Lynch, 30 Rock’s Jack McBrayer), this new animated comedy from Disney sees video game character Ralph seeking to escape his bad-guy role. Toy Story for the X-Box generation? GFT, Mon 4 Feb. 3. First Position A brilliantly-observed documentary about the young competitors in world-renowned ballet contest the Youth America Grand Prix. Fascinating and moving, and told with a true documentarian’s eye, it’s the anti-X Factor in all the right ways. GFT, Tue 5 Feb.
4. Wolf Children This fantastical Japanese anime from the director of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is arguably the most intriguing pick from a very strong animation strand that also features the latest from Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away, Ponyo) and a surprise film. GFT, Sun 10 Feb 5. The We and the I Michel Gondry, endlessly creative director of Eternal Sunshine and Be Kind Rewind, shrugs off Hollywood and jump-starts his mojo with this lo-fi story of a bunch of Bronx kids on their final bus ride of the school term. GFT, Wed 13 Feb. (Paul Gallagher)
■ Glasgow Youth Film Festival, various venues, Sun 3–Wed 13 Feb.
24 Jan–21 Feb 2013 THE LIST 61