★★★☆☆ A man sits alone in a room with a notepad and begins to scribble down his own voiceover. He only writes on one page and seems to always be starting at the top. His thoughts will be meticulous and he will show a certain expertise. When he’s finished writing he will place the pen on the table, neatly aligned with the pad.
★★☆☆☆ Bereavement, mental health, the threadbare US social welfare system and homelessness are the heavy topics that British-born director Deborah Richards tackles in her debut feature. Unfortunately, their worthy but superficial and somewhat incoherent presentation means that Move Me No Mountain is an emotionally and thematically inert experience.
★★★☆☆ Sometimes, it’s tough being really skilled at one thing in particular. Having flown out the blocks with two supremely good, bonafide hit horror films (Hereditary, Midsommar), writer and director Ari Aster had to make a departure to avoid being pigeon-holed as a genre specialist.
★★★☆☆ Damien Power’s feature debut Killing Ground adopts an interesting non-linear structure that nicely builds tension to tell a story that’s otherwise unremarkable. However smart it is in its plotting, the film ultimately succumbs to needlessly over-the-top violence.Ian (Ian Meadows)...
★★★★☆ Simon Hunter’s Edie features a stand-out performance from Sheila Hancock, who takes a fairly standard story and makes it into a truly inspiring tale of overcoming grief and starting anew in later life. Hancock is Edie, an elderly woman...
★★☆☆☆ Esteemed British actor John Hurt sadly passed away earlier this year at the age of 77, with one of his final roles being in Eric Styles’ That Good Night, which receives its World Premiere at the Edinburgh International Film...
★★★★☆ This biopic of celebrated gay icon Touko Valio Laaksonen (known to many as Tom of Finland, played by Pekka Strang) is smartly made by Finnish director Dome Karukoski, whose feature treads on the heels of a well-received documentary released...
★★★☆☆ Adapted from the best-selling novel Why We Took the Car, Goodbye Berlin is a quirky German coming-of-age comedy that’s funny if a bit formulaic. Maik (Tristan Gobel) is a disconnected teen; his mother is an alcoholic, his father isn’t...
★★★★☆ Francis Lee’s God’s Own Country, a poignant gay romance about self-discovery in rural West Yorkshire, has been labelled a Brokeback Mountain on the Dales. It’s an understandable analogy, but it does understate the brilliance of Lee’s vivid depiction of...
★★★★☆ What would you do if you discovered a pile of cash and there was no one watching? In a consumer-driven society, it’s fair to assume most people would pocket the money and run, but not Tzanko (Denolyubov), the hero...
Doors to the Edinburgh International Film Festival reopened tonight with the UK premiere of acclaimed coming-of-age drama God’s Own Country. The festival, now in its 71st year, closes with the World premiere of unofficial Morrissey biopic England Is Mine.Films set...
★★★☆☆ The late art critic and writer John Berger and actress Tilda Swinton share the same birthday: 5 November. They also share the experience of growing up with fathers wounded in war: Berger’s psychologically and Swinton’s with the loss of...
★★★★☆ Documentarian Mark Cousins makes the move to fiction with Stockholm, My Love, also marking singer Neneh Cherry’s feature debut in a melancholy turn peppered with naturalistic renditions of her own music. The result is an uplifting love letter to...
★★☆☆☆ Having wowed audiences with his last work Li’l Quinquin, Bruno Dumont’s much-anticipated seaside comedy Slack Bay arrived with high expectations. Though the farce is occasionally funny, it’s as bloated and windy as its comedy policeman Inspector Machin.Dressed like the...
From European arthouse’s leading misery-guts to absurdist clown, the career switcheroo from Bruno Dumont is without doubt the most surprising volte–face of recent times. His new film is Slack Bay, a 1910-set love story featuring class conflict, inept detectives, cannibalism...