EIFF 2013: Full programme unveiled
Last month saw the release of the full lineup for the 67th Edinburgh International Film Festival. In his second year as artistic director, Chris...
★★☆☆☆ “An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,” Percy Shelley once wrote in his sonnet England in 1819. He was firing his barbs at King George III but the words could just as well be used for any number of English monarchs including Henry VIII.
★★★★★ Turkish master director Nuri Bilge Ceylan returns to the Cannes Croisette with About Dry Grasses, a wonderful wintry meditation on male fragility and the way we often make our own hells and then deceive ourselves that we’re trapped.
★★★★☆ From sub-Saharan Africa to Afghanistan, Syria to Iraq and Iran, the climate crisis, drought, war, and oppression has created a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. It is treated as an ethical conundrum, but it isn’t. Either we wish to save those who are in danger of dying, or all our talk of human rights is just so much hot air. This is the core concern of Green Border.
★★★★☆ With Luca Guadagnino’s terrific Challengers, the acclaimed director of Call Me By Your Name brings us the sub-genre we never knew we needed: the erotic tennis thriller.
★★☆☆☆ Directors Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s “Abigail” mashes up crime caper and monster movie, but fails to deliver fear or humor. Spoilery trailers and unoriginal characters overshadow promising elements, resulting in a dull, lifeless experience lacking creativity and wit.
★★☆☆☆ Maïwenn’s French period drama Jeanne du Barry is the perfect opening salvo for the 76th Cannes Film Festival. It is as glitzy and gaudy as the festival itself, with its vacuous politics drowned out by the thunderous sound of it slapping its own back.
Last month saw the release of the full lineup for the 67th Edinburgh International Film Festival. In his second year as artistic director, Chris...
★★★☆☆ The opening film of this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, Drake Doremus’ sophomore effort Breathe In (2013) is the discreetly anticipated follow-up to...
★★★★☆ Before Midnight (2013) is the final part of an extraordinary trilogy, directed by Richard Linklater and starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. For...
★★★☆☆ British make-up effects maestro Paul Hyett turns his hand to directing with The Seasoning House (2012), a technically meticulous effort that certainly tries...
★★★☆☆ It would seem that 2013 is shaping up to be the true second coming of legendary Manchurian outfit The Stone Roses. Following triumphant...
★★★☆☆ Even regular films by the Children’s Film Foundation are known for a slightly ‘detached’ quality. As a result those with intentional fantastical themes...
★★★★☆ In 1928, at the tender age of just 28 years, British director Anthony Asquith was already a driven and passionate filmmaker – exactly...
★★★★☆ Starring Gael García Bernal and Alfredo Castro, Chilean director Pablo Larraín’s No (2012) offers an entertaining look at the way the Pinochet dictatorship...