Glasgow
-
Glasgow 2015: ‘Red Army’ review
★★★★☆ If you thought ice hockey was just Canadians and punch-ups, then Gabe Polsky’s documentary Red Army (2014) may come as a cool eye-opener. Featuring candid interviews with the surviving members of the Soviet Union team, as well as chunky 1970s-80s footage with some slick graphics thrown in, Polsky paints a vivid picture not only…
-
Glasgow 2015: ‘Catch Me Daddy’ review
★★★☆☆ If Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant (2013) was a fairytale set in ‘It’s grim up north’ territory, this year’s Glasgow Film Festival offers up a Yorkshire western in Daniel Wolfe’s bleak, windswept thriller Catch Me Daddy (2014), which unexpectedly broods over the multicultural integration of northern Britain. British-Pakistani Laila, played with conviction by non-professional…
-
Glasgow 2015: ‘Black Coal, Thin Ice’ review
★★★☆☆ Cowardice, treachery and bloody murder coalesce in director Diao Yinan’s Golden Bear-winning Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014), a tonally erratic noir that blends the aesthetics and absurd comicality of Johnnie To with a mainstream cop procedural. The apathy and social malaise of Northern China’s contemporary heartbeat provides the rhythm for Yinan’s ostentatious detective drama – a…
-
Glasgow 2015: ‘While We’re Young’ review
★★★★☆ Malaise of various kinds has manifested itself in the work of American director Noah Baumbach. In 2012, the much adored Frances Ha saw the director chronicle the ailing dance career and resultant ennui of an arrested development twenty-something whilst gently ribbing consciously cool New Yorkers. His new picture, While We’re Young (2014), explores both…
-
Glasgow 2015: While We’re Young to open festival
Glasgow Film Festival co-directors Allan Hunter and Allison Gardner took to a makeshift stage at the citizenM hotel to announce the full programme for this year’s 11th edition. Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young, starring Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts, has been chosen to open the festival, while Force Majeure – which won the Un Certain…
-
Glasgow 2015: ‘A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence’
★★★★☆ Tragedy says “We all die”, whilst comedy says “Ah, but life goes on”. The winner of last year’s Golden Lion, Roy Andersson’s first feature film in seven years – the brilliantly titled existential comedy A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014) – is essentially a tragi-comedy which says “We all die and…
-
Glasgow 2014: The Grand Budapest Hotel to open festival
The full programme for the tenth edition of the ever expanding Glasgow Film Festival (20 February to 2 March, 2014) was revealed earlier this evening, with the unmistakable Wes Anderson’s latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, selected as the Opening Gala film. Closing will the Scottish premiere of celebrated British director Jonathan Glazer’s abstract sci-fi…
-
Glasgow 2013: John Dies at the End review
★★★☆☆ Don Coscarelli’s 2012 adaptation of David Wong’s cult novel John Dies at the End (the sequel to which, This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It, was released last October) appeared at this year’s Glasgow Film Festival having reportedly run into problems with its UK distribution; a sad turn of events,…
-
Glasgow 2012: Your Sister’s Sister to open festival
It’s business as usual at this year’s 2012 Glasgow Film Festival. Whilst other arts events are downsizing amid cutthroat public funding cuts – most notably Scotland’s older, loftier, more celebrated film festival in Edinburgh – Glasgow continues to grow, adding a couple of new strands off of which to hang its bursting 2012 lineup. The…