CineDaily – 23 Feb: Mommy, William McIlvanney, today's reviews and more
Who needs the Oscars?
So, now that the Oscars are over everyone can start getting excited about the real highlight of the awards season: the CineSkinny awards at GFF. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last four years, the CineSkinny awards are an irreverent and wholly subjective set of accolades with which we garland our favourite films and performances at Glasgow Film Festival. But there’s been a change to this year’s format. As well as the CineSkinny’s writers putting their heads together to come up with the best films at GFF, we also want you, the readers, to get involved. We’re asking you to take to Twitter, tweet #cineskinny, and with the remaining 129 characters tell the world what your pick of the festival has been.
One contender might be Clouds of Sils Maria, from the always interesting Olivier Assayas, which had its UK premiere yesterday. It’s chillier than his most recent film, semi-autobiographical coming-of-age movie Something in the Air, but no less impressive. Juliette Binoche is Maria, a world renowned movie star who’s considering a return to the stage – she turns down a role in a certain comic-book franchise because she’s “sick of hanging from wires and acting in front of green screen” – in a revival of the play that made her famous 20 years ago. The only problem is she’s not being offered the role of the seductive personal assistant she played at 19, she’s being cast as the foolish older woman who falls for the ingenue.
The majority of the film takes place in Maria’s Alps retreat where she runs lines and debates the play’s merits with her own PA, Valentine, played by Kristian Stewart. Art is soon mirroring life: often Assayas drops us into scenes with the women in deep conversation, and we only realise they’re running lines from the play when Maria screams at herself for messing up or Valentine reads a stage direction. Things make a move towards the satirical when Chloë Grace Moretz makes an appearance as Jo-Ann, the wild-child starlet cast in Maria’s original role. Both women represent two epochs of movie stardom: Maria fits into the elegant, mysterious Golden Age while Jo-Ann epitomises the TMZ era, where stars’ personal lives are more compelling than their movie performances.
While the film is a sharply intelligent investigation into stardom and aging, it’s most exciting on a human level, and its chief joy is watching Binoche spar with her co-stars, who both match their luminous leading lady in the acting stakes, particularly Stewart, who deservedly picked up the César Award for best supporting actress at the weekend.
Win Tickets to Xavier Dolan's Mommy!
Fancy winning tickets to one of the absolute gems of the festival? We've five pairs of tickets to give away to see Mommy (24 Feb, Grosvenor, 3pm), the fifth film from 25-year-old wunderkind director Xavier Dolan (read our 5 star review!). To enter, simply head over to Twitter and tell the world the best film you've seen at Glasgow Film Festival so far and include the hashtages #cineskinny and #mommy. Your answers will be used to help us crown our Readers' Best of GFF award in our annual CineSkinny awards roundup. Send your tweets by midnight tonight to be in with a chance of winning.
Today's Highlights
William McIlvanney: Living with Words
GFT, 6pm
He’s the 'Godfather of tartan noir'; without his Laidlaw novels, there’d be no Taggart, no Rebus. Director Maurice O’Brien and McIlvanney himself will attend the screening, so grab a whisky from the bar and spend some time with Scottish literature's Don.
Margaret Tait Award: Stoneymollan Trail
GFT, 7pm
There’s no advanced word on Charlotte Prodger’s Margaret Tait Award piece yet, but if the work of past winners is anything to go by, this world premiere is not to be missed.
Buster Keaton Night
Old Fruitmarket, 7.30pm
Paul Merton and pianist Neil Brand celebrate cinema’s deadpan master with a night of classic comedy, live music and insight into this fascinating filmmaker and performer.
Film of the Day: Mommy [GFT, 8.30pm]
What we said: "Mommy is an unabashed melodrama that's constantly swinging for the fences, and the emotional force of the picture is irresistible, with Dolan nailing a series of bold and emotionally wrenching sequences, and even finding unexpected textures in a number of familiar pop songs." (Read full review...)
What he said: "“I’m not interested in documentary-like restraint and pastel-toned characters acting like losers. It’s not that I only relish histrionic display and balls-to-the-wall scenes; there is a time for silences, and calm and rest, and I love to find the balance between both.” Mommy is a full-throttle melodrama and Dolan makes no apology for that, in fact he believes that cinema should offer a heightened alternative to our reality rather than a reflection of it. I just think that life can be boring enough to the point where cinema is – more than any other media or art – its revenge. So characters are allowed to dream bigger, scream louder, cry uglier, sing better, dance without shame, and have the last say with sassy dialogue that they perhaps couldn’t come up with in normal life. They are allowed to win.” (Read full interview...)
#GFF15 Videos and Interviews
Saluting Hollywood's Maverick: Ron Mann and Kathryn Reed Altman discuss the Nashville director
Altman director Ron Mann and Kathryn Reed Altman discuss the "indestructible" filmmaking force of nature, Robert Altman [Altman, GFT, 4pm]
"I couldn't make a conventional film about an unconventional filmmaker" – Ron Mann
Esoteric Horror at GFF 2015
Are we going through a mini horror renaissance? Upcoming releases, including inventive slasher It Follows and allegorical animal-uprising oddity White God, suggest a resounding yes [White God, GFT, 3.45pm]
“WE WANTED TO SHOW THAT SOCIETY CREATES ITS OWN MONSTERS” – KORNÉL MUNDRUCZÓ
Daniel Wolfe and cast discuss directorial debut Catch Me Daddy
Alan Rickman brings A Little Chaos to GFF
OUR REVIEWS OF TODAY'S FILMS
52 Tuesdays: "The film represents queer characters as fully human – selfish, virtuous, mundane; suffering the micro-aggressions of heteronormativity." (Read full review...) | CCA, 1.30pm
Phoenix: "Phoenix opens like a horror movie. A disfigured woman, her face swaddled in bloody bandages, is crossing the German border following the fall of the Third Reich. But director Christian Petzold’s touchstone isn’t Eyes Without a Face – it’s Vertigo." (Read full review...) | GFT, 1.40pm
Rosewater: "Absurdity is Jon Stewart's weapon of choice in his directorial debut, Rosewater." (Read full review...) | Grosvenor, 3pm
Tender: "The pacing is slow and there isn’t much of a dramatic hook, but Tender’s insistence on capturing “ordinary” people simply doing good for each other is refreshing – this is not a flashy exposé, but a snapshot of a tight-knit community coming together in mutual love and support." (Read full review...) | CCA, 9pm
White God: "White God’s structure is delightfully mad. There’s at least three tonal zigzags: from realist melodrama to Disney-esque creature feature yarn and then, thrillingly, to all-out animal uprising movie." (Read full review...) | GFT, 5.45pm
Twitter Chat
James McVinnie (@jamesmcvinnie)
Amazing score for organ and electronics for Fall of the House of Usher #glasgowfilmfestival
Rebecca DeWald (@DeWald_Rebecca)
Epstein's The Fall of the House of Usher with Wurlitzer cinema organ live score has got to be my #GFF15 highlight!
Flossie Topping (@flossietopping)
#GFF15 Top 10: Mommy, Still Alice, 52 Tuesdays, Rosewater, X+Y, Clouds of Sils Maria, White Bird in a Blizzard, Stray Dog, A Second Chance and Appropriate Behaviour!
Joe Waterfield (@joerpwaterfield)
thanks @glasgowfilmfest for making me cry cinetears at Boy And The World! #GFF15 luckily @illustrationetc was on hand
David McGroove (@1dmg)
'White God' - Brilliant stuff. Utterly original and really quite bonkers.
Best. Dog. Acting. Ever. #GFF15