Jamie Neish
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Film Review: Edie
★★★★☆ 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 living under the hand of her husband, who she’s been taking care of for the…
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Edinburgh 2017: That Good Night review
★★☆☆☆ 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 Festival this week.That Good Night is an adaptation of a successful stage play, with Hurt…
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Edinburgh 2017: Tom of Finland review
★★★★☆ 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 in 1991.The film spans numerous years of Touko’s life, from his time serving as a…
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Edinburgh 2017: Goodbye Berlin review
★★★☆☆ 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 interested and he has no friends.Maik is smitten with classmate Tatjani (Aniya Wendel), but she…
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Edinburgh 2017: Programme highlights
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 to screen in the city include Final Portrait, directed by Stanley Tucci and starring Geoffrey…
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Film Review: My Life as a Courgette
★★★★☆ First shown at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it screened to acclaim as part of the Directors’ Fortnight selection, My Life as a Courgette is a tender, funny and wise-beyond-its-years stop-motion animation that takes on tough subject matter through the eyes of a child.Nine-year-old Icare (Gaspard Schlatter) is placed into an orphanage after…
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Film Review: Baywatch
★☆☆☆☆ Seth Gordon remakes the cult TV phenomenon Baywatch, about a team of lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County that propelled its stars Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff to international fame, while winning fans for its tongue-in-cheek humour.Instead of Anderson and Hasselhoff, who both pop up in brief cameos, this version stars…
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Film Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge
★★★☆☆ Outside of Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Pirates of the Caribbean is one of Disney’s most successful franchises, amassing millions at the worldwide box office over four films. Thirteen years after the first, a fifth is here.Salazar’s Revenge, or Dead Men Tell No Tales as it’s known in the US, takes the…
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Film Review: Mindhorn
★★★★☆ Mindhorn is the brainchild of Julian Barratt and Simon Farnaby, both of whom are well known for their roles in The Mighty Boosh. Together with theatre director Sean Foley, they’ve crafted a hysterical farce that will appeal to those who have a particular fondness for absurdist humour. Barratt stars as Richard Thorncroft, the former…
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Film Review: Lady Macbeth
★★★★☆ The blunt moors of the British countryside provide the backdrop to Lady Macbeth, a caustic drama adapted by playwright Alice Birch from Nikolai Leskov’s controversial novel Lady Macbeth of the Mtensk District. Its star is Florence Pugh, a relative newcomer already making waves thanks to her committed performance here.Pugh, last seen in The Falling,…