The Review at the End of the Universe
Now that I’ve finally finished all of my Edinburgh International Film Festival reviews I thought I would cap it all off by sharing my 5 personal favourites from my time at the festival. I saw a lot of films and had so many great experiences but there are 5 that stand out. There is a…
Based on the stage play, Radio Luxembourg by Mick Donnellan; Simon Dixon’s Tiger Raid follows two mercenaries in an unspecified Middle Eastern location on a morally questionable mission. The important thing here isn’t the details of the plot. They are kept really ambiguous. I assume the reason for this is to not have the film…
Brian Cox stars as a retired Shakespearean actor suffering from ill health in his old age and pining for the glory days while people tend to his every need in János Edelényi’s The Carer. There are certainly other people in Sir Michael Gifford’s (Brian Cox) life as we see throughout the film but the majority…
Blackmail and loneliness are the order of the day in Michael Lennox’ A Patch of Fog when a security guard threatens to expose a respected novelist’s tendency towards petty crime if he doesn’t become his friend. In the beginning the film plays out like a fairly standard stalker thriller but quickly becomes a really complex…
The Eighties were a long time ago. A long, long time ago. So, now that a 4K remastered print of Russel Mulcahy’s Highlander is available, and some of us had the chance to sample it at the Edinburgh International Film festival, will the past thirty years have taken the shine off this classic, in spite…
My first outing to the Edinburgh International Film Festival, although not the first I’ve reviewed, was a jaunt along to catch The First Monday in May. This promising piece is brought to us by documentary film-maker Andrew Rossi (Ivory Tower, Page One: the New York Times). I will admit to going into this as a…
Rebecca Daly’s Mammal explores how grief can completely consume someone’s life and make them imprint on other things as a coping mechanism. The focus of the film is Margaret (Rachel Griffiths); a woman who is really detached from the world around her. She’s a good citizen and very active in her community but she doesn’t…
The sheriff of a small town along the U.S. and Mexico border finds himself investigating a drug cartel deal that went very wrong in Gonzalo López-Gallego’s The Hollow Point. In many ways this is a buddy movie with young Lawman Wallace (Patrick Wilson) and old Lawman (Ian McShane) teaming up on the investigation that lands…
Athena (Rose Leslie) is forced to consider her life choices when she is called back home to care for her sick father in Amanda Sharp’s Sticky Notes Off the rails is a good way to describe Athena. Her goal in life is to be a dancer and she certainly seems good enough to have success…
Journey to a dystopian society in Alex Helfrecht and Jorg Tittel’s The White King. The world is explored through the eyes of a young boy who wonders what happened to his father when he is taken away during a family picnic. The young boy is named Djata (Lorenzo Allchurch) and he initially seems to have…
