Edinburgh 2014: ‘Hide and Seek’ review
★★★☆☆ The debut feature from Joanna Coates, Hide and Seek (2014) is a sensual attempt to examine the psychological mindset of a generation in...
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.
★★★★☆ In Alex Garland’s Civil War, a group of journalists embark on a road trip to interview the US President amidst a second American Civil War, while exploring media’s dehumanizing relationship with violence.
★★★★☆ Having won the Jury Prize in 2013 for Like Father, Like Son and the Palme d’Or in 2018 with Shoplifters, Cannes favourite and Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda returns with Monster, a masterful work of intricate storytelling, complemented by a lovely score by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto.
★★★★★ Theodor Adorno famously wrote that poetry was not possible after Auschwitz, but is cinema? Billy Wilder certainly thought so, getting footage from the camps as evidence as much as anything else. Steven Spielberg, Claude Lanzmann, Alain Resnais and Roberto Benigni have all with differing degrees of success tried their hands.
★★★☆☆ The debut feature from Joanna Coates, Hide and Seek (2014) is a sensual attempt to examine the psychological mindset of a generation in...
★★☆☆☆ Greyhawk (2014), the debut feature from Guy Pitt, takes a simple premise and unravels it slowly under the ominous shadow of a dilapidated...
★★★☆☆ The brief three-year reign of King Amadeo of Savoy is the unlikely focus of Luís Miñarro’s Falling Star (2014). Miñarro’s mischievous period piece...
★★★★★ “What is madness?” is the question never spoken, yet burdens Wang Bing’s brutal yet poignant documentary ‘Til Madness Do Us Part (2013). Shot...
★★★★☆ Opening with a Spanish cover of The Pixies’ Where Is My Mind, the laidback rhythm of this angst-laden classic sets the tone for...
★★★☆☆ Ryan Piers Williams returns to Edinburgh with his sophomore feature as director (following 2010’s The Dry Land) with X/Y (2014), a largely insightful...
★★★☆☆ Consume and conform, worship and prey, is there really any difference between organised religion and consumerism? In Something, Anything (2014), Paul Harrill’s sombre...
★★★☆☆ Based on a series of disparate short stories written by James Franco – who also stars – Palo Alto (2013) is the directorial debut...