FILM | Index
5 REASONS
TO GO TO... SOUTHSIDE FILM FESTIVAL
The lovingly put together film festival is back for a third year
You can discover forgotten former cinemas Glasgow’s Southside may be lacking in cinemas today but that hasn’t always been the case. Take a meander around the area’s architecturally-diverse former picturehouses on a walking tour with the knowledgeable folk from scottishcinemas.org.
It’s committed to Scottish cinema
By the time you read this, the festival will have already hosted an audience with John McKay, director of upcoming Karen Gillan romcom Not Another Happy Ending. There’s more in store though: their opening film is crowd-sourced Scot-doc Northern Lights (pictured), while their closer is the Scottish BAFTA- winning Up There.
Site-specific screenings a go-go The SFF programme is light on exclusives, but makes up for it in unique viewing experiences, including a screening of Gosford Park in the grandeur of Pollok House library followed by dinner in the servants’ quarters, and the squirm-inducing prospect of see- ing dark British comedy Sightse- ers in a Scouts Hall.
The Glad Café
Remember that moment 10 years ago when Shawlands was poised to be Glasgow’s new West End? Seems like a mythical dream now, except for the existence of the Glad Café, a socially-conscious, multi-faceted arts venue/drink- ery with atmosphere to spare. It already hosts an excellent film club under the SFF banner, so it’s a no-brainer that it should be the nerve centre for the Festival proper. There’s a quiz
SFF’s organisers know that no film festival experience is complete without the opportunity to prove oneself in a battle of useless movie trivia. Just remember: winners don’t use smartphones. (Paul Gallagher) ■ Southside Film Festival, various venues, Glasgow, Thu 16–Sun 19 May.
74 THE LIST 16 May–13 Jun 2013
✽The Stoker (Kochegar) (15) ●●●●● (Alexey Balabanov,
Russia, 2010) Mikhail Skryabin, Yuriy Matveev, Aleksandr Mosin. 87min. A minimalist black comedy about a war veteran who works as a stoker while writing a novel in his spare time. See review, page 71. Limited release from Fri 17 May, incl Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow; Filmhouse, Edinburgh. The Stone Roses: Made of Stone (15) ●●●●● (Shane Meadows, UK, 2013) Meadows’ documentary charts the eagerly anticipated return of the seminal Madchester band. See review, page 70. Limited release from Wed 5 Jun. Thérèse Desqueyroux (12A) ●●●●● (Claude Miller, France, 2012) Audrey Tautou, Gilles Lellouche, Anais Demoustier. 110min. When Thérèse (Tautou) finds herself stifled by her marriage to Bernard (Lellouche), she begins to plot her way out. Miller’s adaptation of Mauriac’s 1927 novel works best as a character study, with Tautou impressive as a shrewish, unhappy woman who finds that her fate is frustratingly beyond her control. See review, page 70. Limited release from Fri 7 Jun, incl Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow; Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
STILL SHOWING 21 and Over (15) ●●●●● (Jon Lucas/Scott Moore, US, 2013) Miles Teller, Justin Chon, Jonathan Keltz. 93min. Promising student Jeff (Chon) is coerced by best friends Miller (Teller) and Casey (Astin) into going on a drinking spree the night before his medical school interview. The central trio lack presence, the gags mostly miss and it’s not as much fun as Lucas and Moore’s script for The Hangover. General release. All Stars (U) (Ben Gregor, UK, 2013) Theo Stevenson, Akai Osei-Mansfield, Ashley Jensen. 106min. To save the youth centre, two kids look to the power of movement to raise funds in an ambitious dance show. General release. Chimpanzee (E) ●●●●● (Alastair Fothergill/Mark Linfield, Tanzania/ USA, 2012) Voice of Tim Allen. 78min. Kid-friendly documentary about a baby chimp’s struggle for survival. Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Sat 18–Tue 21 May. The Croods (U) ●●●●● (Kirk De Micco/ Chris Sanders, US, 2013) Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone. 98min. This animation follows a prehistoric family as they leave the safety of their cave behind, accompanied by a genius who keeps inventing things like fire. Limited release. Dead Man Down (15) ●●●●● (Niels Arden Oplev, US, 2013) Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace, Terrence Howard. 118min. Wilfully serious and convoluted thriller whose action scenes, although enjoyable enough, don’t make up for the artless and unfocused construction. Showcase Cinema Paisley, Paisley, Thu 16 May. Deadfall (15) ●●●●● (Stefan Ruzowitzky, US, 2012) Eric Bana, Olivia Wilde, Charlie Hunnam. 95min. After a heist goes awry, two siblings (Bana and Wilde) must cut and run, separating forever. Or, so they think until they run into each other at another family’s Thanksgiving dinner. Showcase Cinema, Glasgow, Thu 16 May; Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow, Thu 16 May. The Evil Dead (18) ●●●●● (Fede Alvarez, US, 2013) Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Jessica Lucas. 91min. Diablo Cody joins Sam Raimi and others in penning this remake of the 1981 horror classic. Showcase Cinema, Glasgow, Thu 16 May; Showcase Cinema, Paisley, Thu 16 May. Go Goa Gone (tbc) (Krishna DK/Raj Nidimoru, India, 2013) Saif Ali Khan, Anand Tiwari, Kunal Khemu. 108min. Zombies go Bollywood in this comedy from writing/directing duo Krishna DK and Raj Nidimoru. Cineworld
Fountainpark, Edinburgh, Thu 16 May; Odeon at the Quay, Glasgow, Thu 16 May. A Hijacking (15) ●●●●● (Tobias Lindholm, Denmark, 2012) Pilou Asbæk, Roland Møller, Søren Malling. 99min. Thriller about the hijacking of a freighter in the Indian Ocean, as experienced by both the desperate ship’s cook (Asbæk) and the ice-cool CEO (Malling). Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 16–Thu 23 May; Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, Fri 31 May–Thu 6 Jun; Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Fri 17–Thu 23 May. In the Fog (12A) ●●●●● (Sergei Loznitsa, Germany/Netherlands/ Belarus/Russia/Latvia, 2012) Vladimir Svirskiy, Vladislav Abashin, Sergei Kolesov. 127min. A man wrongly accused of collaboration during the German occupation of the USSR must make an impossible decision. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow, Sat 18 May. I’m So Excited (Los amantes pasajeros) (15) ●●●●● (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, 2013) Javier Cámara, Pepa Charro, Cecilia Roth. 90min. In Almodóvar’s oddball comedy, a passenger plane suffers technical failure threatening mortal danger to all onboard. Limited release. Iron Man 3 (12A) ●●●●● (Shane Black, US/China, 2013) Robert Downey Jr, Guy Pearce, Gwyneth Paltrow. 129min. Screenwriting legend Shane Black takes the reins for Robert Downey Jr’s third individual outing as billionaire eccentric Tony Stark. General release. Mud (12A) ●●●●● (Jeff Nichols, US, 2012) Reese Witherspoon, Matthew McConaughey, Michael Shannon. 130min. McConaughey stars as a fugitive who enlists the help of two teenage boys to escape his pursuers. Limited release. Oblivion (12A) ●●●●● (Joseph Kosinski, US, 2013) Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Andrea Riseborough. 126min. Cruise stars as one of the few humans left on a war-ravaged Earth, overseeing the robotic drones who plunder it for resources. Macrobert, Stirling, Thu 16 May; Showcase Cinema, Paisley, Thu 16 May; Dominion, Edinburgh, Thu 16 May. Olympus Has Fallen (15) ●●●●● (Antoine Fuqua, US, 2013) Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman. 120min. When a team of Korean paramilitaries take the US President (Eckhart) hostage, it’s up to disgraced security chief Mike Banning (Butler) to stage a rescue attempt. General release. The Place Beyond the Pines (12A) ●●●●● (Derek Cianfrance, US, 2012) Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes. 140min. Luke (Gosling) is a stunt motorcyclist who takes to robbing banks on his bike, until his pat crosses with ambitious cop Avery (Cooper). Dominion, Edinburgh, Thu 16 May; Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow, Thu 16 May; Vue Omni, Edinburgh, Thu 16 May. The Reluctant Fundamentalist (15) ●●●●● (Mira Nair, US/UK/Qatar, 2012) Riz Ahmed, Liev Schreiber, Kiefer Sutherland. 130min. Changez (Ahmed, impressive) is a Pakistan-born Wall Street financial analyst who finds himself ostracised after 9/11. Cineworld Fountainpark, Edinburgh, Thu 16 May; Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow, Thu 16 May. Star Trek: Into Darkness (12A) ●●●●● (JJ Abrams, US, 2013) Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto. 129min. When ex- Starfleet commander John Harrison (Cumberbatch) attacks Earth, the Enterprise crew pursues him. It’s more of the same: funny, dramatic and exciting, and if it’s not as fresh as the 2009 film, Pine and Quinto’s squabbling bromance gives it heart, Simon Pegg and Karl Urban are excellent and Cumberbatch is thrillingly cold. General release.
SCARECROW A rightful winner of the Palme d’Or in 1973, this drifting American road movie has recently been treated to a re-release. Featuring stellar performances from Gene Hackman and Al Pacino, it follows two lost souls who meet in California and plan to start a business together once they reach Pittsburgh. These special screenings celebrate the film’s 40 year anniversary, an excellent opportunity to rediscover a forgotten delight of New Hollywood. ■ GFT, Glasgow, Sun 9 and Tue 11 Jun.