Film Index
The Railway Children (U) ●●●●● (Lionel Jeffries, UK, 1970) Dinah Sheridan, William Mervyn, Jenny Agutter. 108min. A trio of youngsters’ involvement with the railway that runs past their garden leads them into adventure. Pleasing family film with an old-fashioned, comfortably British feel that sets it apart from contemporary kids movies. Cineworld Parkhead, Glasgow. [REC]2 (15) ●●●●● (Jaume Balagueró/Paco Plaza, Spain, 2009) Manuela Velasco, Jonathan Mellor, Óscar Zafra. 85min. Swapping a TV reporter and some firemen for a SWAT team and a medical officer, this zombie-horror sequel picks up minutes after the original and continues to unfold through a hand-held video camera. Just as chaotic, with more shocks and a higher body count. Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow; Cineworld Fountainpark, Edinburgh. Remember Me (12A) ●●●●● (Allen Coulter, US, 2010) Robert Pattinson, Emilie De Ravin, Pierce Brosnan. 112min. A US box-office belly flop, this overwrought drama sees ‘RPatz’ play rebellious rich boy Tyler Hawkins, a misfit New Yorker who unwisely gets into a punch-up with a police sergeant (Cooper). Memorable only for its crass attempt to exploit genuine tragedy for entertainment purposes. Grosvenor, Glasgow. Rice People (PG) (Rithy Panh, France, 1993) 125min. An achingly slow portrait of a Cambodian rice-growing family, this demands saintly patience, but its depiction of a community and way of life entirely distanced from the affluent West is intriguing and ultimately moving. Part of Rithy Panh season. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow. Robin Hood (12A) ●●●●● (Ridley Scott, USA/UK, 2010) Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Matthew MacFadyen. 140min. Ridley Scott’s fifth film with Crowe never quite musters up the epic power of its predecessor Gladiator, yet still, with Scott going for a gritty take on the legend of the outlaw who robbed the rich to give to the poor, at least Crowe lends the character a level of credability Kevin Costner never attained. General release. The Sea Wall (12A) ●●●●● (Rithy Panh, France/Cambodia/Belgium, 2008) Isabelle Huppert, Gaspard Ulliel, Astrid Berges-Frisbey. 116min. This measured if unexceptional adaptation of Marguerite Duras’ semi-autobiographical novel by Cambodian-born director Panh unfolds in French Indochina in the early 1930s. When floods destroy a widowed landowner’s (Huppert) rice crop, Huppert’s character faces bankruptcy and the repossession of her terrain by the French Land Registry office. Part of Rithy Panh season. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow. Sex and the City 2 (15) ●●●●● (Michael Patrick King, US, 2010) Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon. 146min. Here come the girls again. General release. She’s Out of my League (15) ●●●●● (Jim Field Smith, US, 2010) Jay Baruchel, Alice Eve, Mike Vogel. 104min. Cartoonish and vulgar but largely effective comedy in which rising comedy star Baruchel makes his leading man debut playing an every day schmuck who suddenly comes into the radar of a stunning young lady (Eve). General release. Skeletons (tbc) (Nick Whitfield, UK, 2009) Ed Gaughan, Andrew Buckley, Jason Isaacs. 93min. A darkly fanciful British comedy about two on-call ‘emotional exorcists’, who come laden with their own woeful baggage. Preview screening only. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow. Space Chimps 2 – Zartog Strikes Back 2D (U) ●●●●● (John H Williams, US, 2010) Voices: Laura Bailey, Zack
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60 THE LIST 10–24 Jun 2010
Skeletons Early preview screening of Nick Whitfield’s Beckettian British comedy about travelling salesman and personality tests. Director Whitfield will be on hand to introduce the film and
participate in a Q&A after it. ■ GFT, Glasgow, Wed 23 Jun. Shada. 75min. Those box office-busting chimps are back for more family fun. Selected release. Space Chimps 2 – Zartog Strikes Back 3D (U) ●●●●● (John H Williams, US, 2010) Voices: Laura Bailey, Zack Shada. 75min. See above. General release. The Spy Next Door (PG) ●●●●● (Brian Levant, US, 2010) Jackie Chan, Amber Valletta, Madeline Carroll. 94min. Chan follows in the footsteps of Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop and Vin Diesel in The Pacifier in a role as a put- upon babysitter to bratty kids. After an opening sequence of fabulous stunt-work from Chan’s earlier work, the action hero struggles gamely to inject any reality into this patronising comedy-thriller. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow; Vue Ocean, Edinburgh. Stevenson College (15) (Various, UK, 2010) 120min. Entertaining programme from the talented students of Stevenson College Edinburgh. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. StreetDance 2D (PG) ●●●●● (Max Giwa/Dania Pasquini, UK, 2010) Nichola Burley, Charlotte Rampling, George Sampson. 98min. Carly (Burley) and her crew attempt to triumph at the UK Street Dance Championships with the unlikely help of some ballet students. Cultures clash, romance is found and the kids find new ways to express themselves – a conventional story, which brings absolutely nothing new to the genre. Showcase Cinema, Coatbridge, Glasgow; Showcase Cinema, Paisley. StreetDance 3D (PG) ●●●●● (Max Giwa/Dania Pasquini, UK, 2010) Nichola Burley, Charlotte Rampling, George Sampson. 98min. See above. General release. Sweet and Lowdown (PG) ●●●●● (Woody Allen, US, 2000) Sean Penn, Samantha Morton, Uma Thurman. 95min. Penn is simply awesome as 1930s musician Emmet Ray, the self-proclaimed second best guitar player in the world. Respect for the ‘gypsy guitar man’ Django Reinhardt is Ray’s sole element of humility; he is rude, egomaniacal and utterly selfish and the one who suffers most is the mute Hattie (the splendid Morton). Visually, musically, dramatically and comedically, Sweet And
Lowdown can sit comfortably among Woody Allen’s best works. And with the passing of cinematic time, they will surely be reflected upon as his lead pair’s finest hour and a half. Part of Allen retrospective. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. The Time That Remains (Chronicle of a Present Absentee) (15) ●●●●● (Elia Suleiman, UK/Italy/Belgium/France, 2009) Elia Suleiman, Saleh Bakri, Samar Qudha Tanus. 109min. Suleiman again interweaves the personal and the political in the third film in his wryly observed Palestinian trilogy. Inspired by his own memories, his father’s diaries and his mother’s letters to exiled relatives, this eloquently conveys the absurdity of everyday existence for Palestinian citizens in Israel. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow; Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Tooth Fairy (PG) ●●●●● (Michael Lembeck, US, 2010) Dwayne Johnson, Ashley Judd. 101min. Leaden fantasy in which The Rock plays a a cynical ice- hockey player who is whisked to Fairyland when he cruelly disabuses a toddler of the notion that the tooth fairy exists, and is sentenced to a punishment of two weeks hard graft as a fairy. General release. Trouble Sleeping (12A) ●●●●● (Robert Rae, UK, 2008) Hassan Naama, Alia Alzougbi, Waseem Uboaklain. 102min. The first feature film from Edinburgh Theatre Workshop chronicles Halla (Naama), who has put her life in Palestine behind her and forged a new one in Edinburgh. Things become complicated when a figure from her past reappears. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Unveiled (Fremde Haut) (15) (Angelina Maccarone, Germany, 2005) Jasmin Tabatabai, Navíd Akhavan. 97min. An examination of sexual and migrant identity. Persecuted lesbian Fariba (Tabatabai) escapes Iran to seek freedom in anonymity by passing as a man in Germany. Part of Refugee Week. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow; Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Vicky Cristina Barcelona (12A) ●●●●● (Woody Allen, Spain/US, 2008) Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall. 96min. Young Americans Vicky (Hall) and Cristina (Johansson) go to stay in Barcelona for one summer. When artist Juan Carlo (Bardem) declares his lust for both of them a series of events are put in place that may just be a bit too ‘Latin’ for either of them. Dampened by uneven shifts from farce to melancholy, two-dimensional characters and indifferent direction from Brooklyn bard Allen. Part of Allen retrospective. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. The Vikings (PG) ●●●●● (Richard Fleischer, US, 1958) Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh. 116min. Rollicking Viking adventure featuring Douglas as vicious warrior Einar and Curtis as his half brother Eric. Part of Jack Cardiff season. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow. White Material (15) (Claire Denis, France, 2010) Isabelle Huppert, Christopher Lambert. 100min. Following on from her first film Chocolat, Denis returns to Africa to tell the tale of Maria (Huppert) the manager of the Cafe Vial plantation, who must fight to keep her family life and business together. Preview screening only. Part of Refugee Week. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow. Wild Target (12A) ●●●●● (Jonathan Lynn, UK/France, 2010) Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt, Eileen Atkins. 90min. See review, page 53. General release. Winstanley (PG) ●●●●● (Kevin Brownlow/Andrew Mollo, UK, 1975) Miles Halliwell, Jerome Willis, Terry Higgins. 96min. Docudrama style account of England’s first commune, established in 1649 by Gerrard Winstanley on St George’s Hill in Surrey. It lead to the development of Digger’s communes being set up throughout the English civil war. Unique and near seminal low budget feature from two of Britain’s most overlooked filmmakers. Do not miss this rare screening. CCA, Glasgow. Witness for the Prosecution (U) ●●●●● (Billy Wilder, US, 1957) Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich. 140min. Convalescing QC Laughton takes on a routine case that leads him into a web of deceit in this courtroom drama to beat them all. Cracking dialogue, some miscasting, and a brilliant central performance contrive to make this a great entertainment. Part of Refugee Week. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow.