Edinburgh International Film Festival 2013: The Picks

The brochure for the 67th Edinburgh Film Festival is hot off the presses and Chris Fujiwara and his team's selection has proved as eclectic and exciting as last year's programme. Here's what we're most looking forward to...

Feature by Jamie Dunn | 31 May 2013

If you’re a UK-based film fan, there are few things quite as exciting as leafing through a hot-off-the-presses Edinburgh International Film Festival brochure. Unlike the UK’s other big festivals (London, Glasgow), where the films that have made a splash at recent international festivals make up a large slice of their programmes, EIFF has always leaned towards lesser-spotted talents. And this is even more so the case under Chris Fujiwara’s stewardship. This, of course, makes recommending ten films to see at this year’s festival a bit of a stab in the dark. I still shudder at my inclusion of Bobcat Goldthwait’s super-lame God Bless America in last year’s picks – if you went along on my say-so and were as disappointed as I was, I'll happily give you a refund.

If I wanted to play it safe, I’d just tell you to go see the ten films playing in the Jean Grémillon retrospective. And you should totally do this by the way – my absolute highlight of last year’s festival was diving into the dynamic cinema of its retrospective subject, Shinji Somai; getting to know Grémillon’s work is my chief priority at this year’s event. Another safe bet would be to see the new film from Noah Baumbach. After his brilliant trilogy of awkwardness (The Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding and Greenberg) his latest, Frances Ha, looks to be a bit less acidic. It also stars (and is co-written by) Greta Gerwig, who worked so well with Baumbach in Greenberg. But as we spoke to the New Yorker for The Skinny’s June issue, I’ve taken him out of the running.

So here they are, the ten films not directed by Jean Grémillon or Noah Baumbach that you should seek out at the 67th Edinburgh International Film Festival …

The Bling Ring (Sofia Coppola)
There are two main schools of thought when it comes to Sofia Coppola: 1. She’s nepotism gone mad, a talentless rich girl riding on her genius father’s coattails. 2. Lost in Translation is pretty good. I reject both: she’s getting better with each film, and I’m inclined to trust the small band of critics who've got behind Bling Ring, the based-on-real-events story about a bunch of Beverly Hills kids who break into celebs’ mansions and treat them like shopping malls.

C.O.G. (Kyle Patrick Alvarez)
Four years ago Kyle Patrick Alvarez made a big impression at EIFF with his cool, funny and transgressive phone-wank drama Easier with Practice. C.O.G. is another film about a loner with sexual hang-ups making a trip across America. It’s based on an autobiographical essay by the brilliant David Sedaris. So expect LOLs.

Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction (Sophie Huber)
A quixotic billet-doux to the world’s greatest character actor. Watch HDS shoot the breeze with David Lynch and Kris Kristofferson; hear him lament losing the love of his life to Tom Cruise; and listen to his beautifully cracked voice as he sing some tunes.

Magic Magic (Sebastián Silva)
Two words: Juno Temple. Here she plays a young woman on the edge. And pushing her over it is Michael Cera, who, for the first time in his career, looks to be playing a character that isn’t Michael Cera – which is surely worth a watch.

Mister John (Joe Lawlor, Christine Molloy)
Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy are bracingly original directors. Films like Helen and Who Killed Brown Owl (short) are deeply ingrained in UK culture yet they neither look nor feel like British cinema. Their style is bravura – their trademark is complex crane and tracking shots that would make Brian De Palma weep – and their sense of humour is twisted and deadpan. If there’s one film you should seek out at EIFF 2013, it’s this.

Oh Boy (Jan Ole Gerster)
Jan Ole Gerster comedy sounds like it could be an early Wim Wenders film: shot in black and white, it follows a feckless young man as he wanders round Berlin for 24hrs. Sounds great. Plus, it’ll be refreshing to see a film about a 20-something slacker that isn’t American.

People’s Park (Libbie Dina Cohn, J. P. Sniadecki)
I’m a sucker for a gimmick, and People’s Park has a great one: it’s an unbroken, single take, feature-length documentary surveying the hive of activity happening in a bustling inner-city park in Chengdu, China.

Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley)
I’ve been told that Stories We Tell, the first doc from Canadian actor-director Sarah Polley, is full of surprises, so I haven’t read up anything about it. All I know is Polley’s two narrative films, Away from Her and Take This Waltz, mark her out as a deeply humane filmmaker with a skill for acute observation of human behaviour and emotion. In other words: a born documentarian.

Three Sisters (Wang Bing)
One of the highlights of last year’s EIFF was its Wang Bing retrospective. The Chinese documentarian’s latest missive, which follows three young girls fending for themselves in rural China while their father schleps across the country looking for work, makes this year’s programme. It’s harrowing and brilliant.

Upstream Color (Shane Carruth)
Writer-director-cinematographer-editor-tea lady-actor Shane Carruth’s sophomore feature is this year’s EIFF hot ticket. Like his debut Primer, this looks to be a cliché-free sci-fi brain-melter. Writer-director-cinematographer-editor-retiree Steven Soderbergh is a massive fan. Carruth is sure to have a lot more by the close of this year’s festival.

Edinburgh International Film Festival runs from 19-30 Jun. See website for more details http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk