Glasgow Film Festival 2015: Man from Reno

Film Review by Chris Fyvie | 25 Feb 2015
Film title: Man from Reno
Director: Dave Boyle
Starring: Ayako Fujitani, Pepe Serna, Kazuki Kitamura, Elisha Skorman, Derrick O'Connor

Tired of her latest book tour, crime novelist Aki (Fujitani) high-tails it from Japan to San Francisco for some peace and quiet. There she meets a seductive stranger in her hotel bar, only for him to disappear after they spend the night together, leaving some quirky clues behind. Just down the coast, Sheriff Paul Del Moral (Serna) conducts his own investigation after running down a terrified and beaten Japanese man, who then similarly vanishes from his hospital bed.

Beautifully shot and elegantly paced, Dave Boyle’s dreamy, laconic neo-noir plays out kind of like an episode of Murder She Wrote as filtered through the minds of the Coen brothers and Hal Hartley – which is about as high praise as you can get, really. Deadpan encounter follows deadpan encounter as Aki and Paul try to piece together all the strangeness, with broad and innumerable nods made to classic noir tropes up to a finale of genuine sadness. And it’s brilliantly played, Fujitani effortlessly flitting between melancholy and childlike enthusiasm for the hunt, while Serna recalls Jason Robards as the sharp, taciturn copper. Cracking stuff. [Chris Fyvie] 


The Skinny at Glasgow Film Festival 2015:


Read our daily updates from the GFF at theskinny.co.uk/cineskinny

26 Feb, GFT, 4pm

27 Feb, CCA, 8.45pm