www.list.co.uk/film
25 Years of Filmhouse One score and five great films screened over one month mark this landmark birthday for Edinburgh’s premier art house cinema. The many treats include
Kurosawa’s Ran, My Life as a Dog, killer double bill Jean De Florette and Manon des Sources, Ratcatcher, Hidden and Wings of Desire (pictured). Happy Birthday Filmhouse. Here’s to 25 more. Ticket deals available. ■ Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Sat 3 Jul.
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). Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow. Shrek Forever After 2D (PG) ●●●●● (Mike Mitchell, US, 2010) Voices: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz. 93min. See review, page 46. General release. Shrek Forever After 3D (PG) (Mike Mitchell, US, 2010) Voices: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz. 93min. See above. General release. A Single Man (12A) ●●●●● (Tom Ford, USA, 2009) Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult. 99min. The fashion industry’s Ford adapts Christopher Isherwood’s spare, lyrical study of alienation and loss for his film debut. Tracing a day in the life of George Falconer (Firth), a middle-aged English college professor, a series of flashbacks outline George’s 16-year relationship with the recently deceased Jim (Goode). A frustrating experience, this is at times achingly moving, but ultimately it relies too heavily on redundant visual gimmicks. Empire, Clydebank. Skeletons (15) ●●●●● (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. Cameo, Edinburgh. Some Like it Hot (PG) ●●●●● (Billy Wilder, US, 1959) Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe. 120min. Two impecunious male musicians inadvertently witness the St Valentine’s Day Massacre and take refuge in Florida with Sweet Sue
and her Society Syncopators, an all-female band. Brilliant, brittle, crackerjack farce with all concerned at a peak in their careers. Part of Tony Curtis evening. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Space Chimps (U) ●●●●● (Kirk De Micco, US, 2008) Voices of Andy Samber, Cheryl Hines, Jeff Daniels. 80min. On the whim of a sinister senator (Tucci), Ham III (Samberg) – the circus performer grandson of one of the first chimpanzees in space – is sent into orbit to retrieve a missing satellite. With endless monkey and banana puns and bog-standard animation, Space Chimps is strictly for easily pleased little monkeys. Empire, Clydebank. Space Chimps 2 – Zartog Strikes Back 2D (U) ●●●●● (John H Williams, US, 2010) Voices: Laura Bailey, Zack Shada. 75min. Those box office-busting chimps are back for more family fun. Dominion, Edinburgh. Space Chimps 2 – Zartog Strikes Back 3D (U) ●●●●● (John H Williams, US, 2010) Voices: Laura Bailey, Zack Shada. 75min. See above. Selected release. 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. Selected release. StreetDance 3D (PG) ●●●●● (Max Giwa/Dania Pasquini, UK, 2010) Nichola Burley, Charlotte Rampling, George Sampson. 98min. See above. General release.
✽✽ Tetro (15) ●●●●● (Francis Ford Coppola, US/Italy/Spain/Argentina,
2009) Vincent Gallo, Maribel Verdú, Alden Ehrenreich. 126min. See preview, page 43 and review, page 47. Cameo, Edinburgh. The Third Man (PG) ●●●●● (Carol Reed, US/UK, 1949) Joseph Cotton, Orson Welles. 100min. Holly Martins has been invited to unstable, post-World War II Vienna by his old chum Lime, who is now
in the grand-scale drug dealing business, only to discover that he is dead. Except, he isn’t of course, and a multilayered cat and mouse scenario is triggered. So, what’s so good about it? Well, you have a stirring zither score by Anton Karas, the ferris wheel and the ‘cuckoo clock’ speech yet possibly its greatest triumph is to cram so much wonder into so little time. CCA, Glasgow. 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. Toute la memoire du monde (All the memory of the world) (E) ●●●●● (Alain Resnais, France, 1956) 21min. Documentary short by French new wave filmmaker Resnais about the Bibliotheque National in Paris. Showing on a loop in CCA4 from 12noon–5pm. CCA, Glasgow. Under the Sea 3D (U) (Howard Hall, UK, 2009) Jim Carrey. 65min. Carrey narrates an underwater 3D look at the impact of global warming upon the diverse coastal regions of Southern Australia, New Guinea and the Indo-Pacific areas. IMAX Theatre, Glasgow. Up 2D (U) ●●●●● (Pete Docter/Bob Peterson, US, 2009) Voices of Christopher Plummer, Edward Asner, Paul Eiding. 96min. Seventy-eight–year-old curmudgeon Carl Fredericksen and eight-year-old Junior Wilderness Explorer Russell embark on the adventure of a lifetime in South America. While it unfolds on a grand scale, at its heart is a human story that will resonate with viewers of every age. Marrying sadness with triumph, Pixar have created another masterpiece. Empire, Clydebank. The Vanishing (15) ●●●●● (George Sluzier, Netherlands, 1988) Bernard Pierre Donnadieu, Gene Bervoets, Johanna Ter Steege. 106min. A young Dutch woman on holiday with her boyfriend in France disappears inexplicably, and her partner
Index Film
spends years of his life tracking her down, eventually to meet up with her mysterious abductor under the most nerve-shattering of circumstances. Part of 25 Years of Filmhouse. Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
✽✽ Videocracy (15) ●●●●● (Erik Gandini, Sweden/Denmark, 2009)
80min. See review, page 44. Glasgow Film Theatre; Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Vincere (15) ●●●●● (Marco Bellocchio, Italy/France, 2009) Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Filippo Timi, Corrado Invernizzi. 125min. With this postmodern collage, featuring Futurist-style flourishes and fictional re- enactments, Bellocchio focuses on Mussolini as a young man, re-writing the unwritten secret of the dictator’s past – early on, he had a wife and son, both excluded from historical record. Matinees only. Cameo, Edinburgh. A Walk Down Memory Lane (E) (UK)Archive footage of the West End of Glasgow shot from the 1920s onwards and compiled by the Scottish Screen Archive. With live piano accompaniment. Part of the West End Festival. Grosvenor, Glasgow. Whatever Works (12A) ●●●●● (Woody Allen, US, 2009) Ed Begley Jr, Patricia Clarkson, Larry David. 91min. See review, page 45. General release. When in Rome (PG) ●●●●● (Mark Steven Johnson, US, 2010) Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel, Anjelica Huston. 87min. See review, page 45. Selected release.
✽✽ When You’re Strange (tbc) ●●●●● (Tom DiCillo, France, 2010)
104min. See Also Released, page 47. Glasgow Film Theatre.
✽✽ White Material (15) ●●●●● (Claire Denis, France, 2010) Isabelle
Huppert, Christopher Lambert. 100min. See review, page 44. Glasgow Film Theatre. Wild Target (12A) ●●●●● (Jonathan Lynn, UK/France, 2010) Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt, Eileen Atkins. 90min. Unconvincing and unfunny remake of 1994 French farce about a middle-aged hitman (Nighy) who finds his professional routine upset by the feelings he develops for his latest target, kooky thief Rose (Blunt). 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. Woman on The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (15) ●●●●● (Pedro Almodovar, Spain, 1988) Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Julieta Serrano. 98min. When Pepa’s illicit affair with an older man is abruptly terminated, she sets out for revenge, but is distracted by a succession of offbeat visitors seeking her calming influence. A splendidly bizarre character comedy from the maker of Law Of Desire. Part of 25 Years of Filmhouse. Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
24 Jun–8 Jul 2010 THE LIST 51