Jamie Neish
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Edinburgh 2015: Picks of the programme
The 69th Edinburgh International Film Festival (17-28 June) gets underway this week with the World Première of actor Robert Carlyle’s directorial debut, The Legend of Barney Thomson and there’s much more to get excited about over the coming ten days of festival offerings. Brand new artistic director Mark Adams revealed this year’s line-up at the…
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Film Review: ‘Results’
★★★☆☆ Results (2015) – the fifth film from Andrew Bujalski, the director of 2013’s Computer Chess – takes a while to find itself. Once it does, it’s revealed to be a funny, well observed and quite touching adult romantic comedy about relationships and happiness, and how those concepts differs from one person to the next.…
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Film Review: ‘Moomins on the Riviera’
★★★☆☆ Nicely timed to coincide with the currently under way Cannes Film Festival, Moomins on the Riviera (2014) – based on Tove Jansson’s beloved books and comic strip – takes the eccentric hippo-like creatures outside of their comfort zone for a softly sweet fantasy adventure. In need of a change of pace and scenery from…
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Film Review: ‘Home’
★★★☆☆ Jim Parsons and Rihanna lend their vocal chords to Home (2015), DreamWorks Animation’s mildly entertaining alien adventure comedy. It delivers plenty of humour for kids, but adults may find it trickier to sit through. Driven out of home after home in fear of the Gorg, the Boov set up residence on Earth, packing the…
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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…
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Film Review: ‘Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb’
★★☆☆☆ There was an effortless charm to the original Night at the Museum (2006) that made it more than passable family fare, albeit of the silliest order. Two films later and the franchise has well and truly passed its sell-by date. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014) exists and contains one or…
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Film Review: ‘Horrible Bosses 2’
★★☆☆☆ Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis reunite for Horrible Bosses 2 (2014), a predictably bland and entirely unnecessary sequel to the 2011 comedy in which three mistreated employees conspired to murder their managers. While that film suceeded in at least partially delivering on its amusing premise, its follow-up does not. Fed up of…
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Film Review: ‘Horns’
★★★☆☆ Daniel Radcliffe takes another unexpected step in his capricious metamorphosis, transforming from iconic boy-wizard Harry Potter, to a man-turned-devil in Alexandre Aja’s uneven adaptation of Joe Hill’s fantasy novel Horns (2013). Falsely accused of raping and murdering his childhood sweetheart Merrin (Juno Temple), Ig (Radcliffe) is outlawed by his friends and family, sinking into…
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Film Review: ‘This Is Where I Leave You’
★★☆☆☆ Shawn Levy, director of Night at the Museum (2006) and Date Night (2010), takes a break from his usual comedy-heavy fare to direct the sparse family drama This Is Where I Leave You (2014). After catching his wife in bed with his boss, radio producer Judd Atlman (Jason Bateman) sinks into a hazy depression,…
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Film Review: ‘The Book of Life’
★★☆☆☆ Experienced animator Jorge R. Gutierrez teams up with fan-favourite producer Guillermo Del Toro for his directorial debut The Book of Life (2014), a visually dazzling but regrettably stale spin on the colourful Mexican holiday, Day of the Dead. Manola (Diego Luna), the sensitive son of a prized bullfighter, and Joaquin (Channing Tatum), an adventurous…