Glasgow Film Festival - viewings so far
Just a few hours later, it's another update!
Quick update from what I've seen at the Glasgow Film Festival so far as I'm pushed for time.
I kicked off with BUNNY CHOW, a low-budget South African film about a bunch of wannabe comedians on a journey to a major South African rock festival. It's a stoner comedy with a likeable cast of slackers and while it's a little rough around the edges and the ending hasn't had much thought put into it, it's still an enjoyable movie that should find a cult following.
Next up was the "Night Terrors" strand of dark short films. The highlights for me were the excellent animated short EVERYTHING WILL BE OK, following a man's descent into nervous breakdown, and Matt Palmer's ISLAND, a tense affair that doesn't bring anything new to the table but does create an air of suspense from start to blackly comic finish. And if I'm not mistaken it looks like it was filmed near where I live too, which is nice.
George Romero's next zombie film, DIARY OF THE DEAD, has perhaps been beaten to the punch by CLOVERFIELD (Romero's film takes us back to the beginning of the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD series and observes it through the camera of a student filmmaker) but nevertheless I found much to enjoy.
If you're one of the many who were underwhelmed by Romero's long awaited LAND OF THE DEAD, this isn't going to win you over. It suffers many of the same flaws, and in greater number. The cast, with the exception of Michelle Morgan, are all unsympathetic nobodies, making it difficult to care about them. They're not helped by some really dodgy dialogue either - some of it's terrible, some of it is just a little too heavy-handed.
That heavy-handedness however stems from one of the film's strengths - the fact that, as always, Romero at least has something he wants to say (this time round, he's looking at media coverage and the YouTube generation). It's unfortunate that Romero seems to be in a minority of horror filmmakers interested in making political horror but it's this integrity, combined with plenty of well-handled set pieces and an atmosphere of dread, that reminds me why even a Romero misfire is usually far more interesting than the very best efforts of many of today's younger generation of horror hacks. Eli Roth, I'm looking at you.
In the Bette Davis retrospective, I took in THE OLD MAID, which is the best film I've seen at the festival so far. It's a weepy old melodrama from the 1930s and it's wonderful. From zombies to weepy melodrama - I love them both.
EMPTIES, a Czech film from the director of KOLYA, is another must-see movie. A hilarious look at the life and exploits of a man approaching retirement who gives up his teaching job and tries his hand at various other pursuits, including meddling in the lives of his companions. It went down really well with the audience I saw it with, and deservedly so, and should find an audience on the arthouse circuit given the critical love of Eastern European cinema.
Finally, I saw the low-budget (almost no-budget) Scottish drama THE INHERITANCE. Its lack of funding is obvious but this Scottish road movie has plenty of heart, captivating performances by Fraser Sivewright and Tim Barrow (the latter also wrote the script) and stunning photography that shines through the shot-on-video roots. Already receiving good word of mouth on the festival circuit, it's unlikely to break out into large theatrical distribution but is far too good to simply fade from view. Part road movie, part film noir, part relationship drama, it's another fine entry in the canon of Scottish cinema. It also gets bonus points for me for a scene towards the end in which director Charles Henri Belleville is surely making visual reference to THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY. Sergio Leone on the Isle of Skye - nice combination.
That'll be the last update for a week or so, as tomorrow night I'll be popping off to the Dublin Film Festival for a few days. If you're there, why not go and see THE INHERITANCE.
I kicked off with BUNNY CHOW, a low-budget South African film about a bunch of wannabe comedians on a journey to a major South African rock festival. It's a stoner comedy with a likeable cast of slackers and while it's a little rough around the edges and the ending hasn't had much thought put into it, it's still an enjoyable movie that should find a cult following.
Next up was the "Night Terrors" strand of dark short films. The highlights for me were the excellent animated short EVERYTHING WILL BE OK, following a man's descent into nervous breakdown, and Matt Palmer's ISLAND, a tense affair that doesn't bring anything new to the table but does create an air of suspense from start to blackly comic finish. And if I'm not mistaken it looks like it was filmed near where I live too, which is nice.
George Romero's next zombie film, DIARY OF THE DEAD, has perhaps been beaten to the punch by CLOVERFIELD (Romero's film takes us back to the beginning of the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD series and observes it through the camera of a student filmmaker) but nevertheless I found much to enjoy.
If you're one of the many who were underwhelmed by Romero's long awaited LAND OF THE DEAD, this isn't going to win you over. It suffers many of the same flaws, and in greater number. The cast, with the exception of Michelle Morgan, are all unsympathetic nobodies, making it difficult to care about them. They're not helped by some really dodgy dialogue either - some of it's terrible, some of it is just a little too heavy-handed.
That heavy-handedness however stems from one of the film's strengths - the fact that, as always, Romero at least has something he wants to say (this time round, he's looking at media coverage and the YouTube generation). It's unfortunate that Romero seems to be in a minority of horror filmmakers interested in making political horror but it's this integrity, combined with plenty of well-handled set pieces and an atmosphere of dread, that reminds me why even a Romero misfire is usually far more interesting than the very best efforts of many of today's younger generation of horror hacks. Eli Roth, I'm looking at you.
In the Bette Davis retrospective, I took in THE OLD MAID, which is the best film I've seen at the festival so far. It's a weepy old melodrama from the 1930s and it's wonderful. From zombies to weepy melodrama - I love them both.
EMPTIES, a Czech film from the director of KOLYA, is another must-see movie. A hilarious look at the life and exploits of a man approaching retirement who gives up his teaching job and tries his hand at various other pursuits, including meddling in the lives of his companions. It went down really well with the audience I saw it with, and deservedly so, and should find an audience on the arthouse circuit given the critical love of Eastern European cinema.
Finally, I saw the low-budget (almost no-budget) Scottish drama THE INHERITANCE. Its lack of funding is obvious but this Scottish road movie has plenty of heart, captivating performances by Fraser Sivewright and Tim Barrow (the latter also wrote the script) and stunning photography that shines through the shot-on-video roots. Already receiving good word of mouth on the festival circuit, it's unlikely to break out into large theatrical distribution but is far too good to simply fade from view. Part road movie, part film noir, part relationship drama, it's another fine entry in the canon of Scottish cinema. It also gets bonus points for me for a scene towards the end in which director Charles Henri Belleville is surely making visual reference to THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY. Sergio Leone on the Isle of Skye - nice combination.
That'll be the last update for a week or so, as tomorrow night I'll be popping off to the Dublin Film Festival for a few days. If you're there, why not go and see THE INHERITANCE.
Labels: Africa, Film festivals, glasgow film festival, scottish film, short films, zombie movies
posted by Alan at 10:28 pm
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