CineDaily – 20 Feb: It Follows, Stop Making Sense, today's reviews and more
Day three of Glasgow Film Festival and it’s starting to feel like we’re in full swing. CCA’s Saramago, the GFF’s official post-cinema watering hole, was pretty lively last night, with lots of chatter from those in the bar who had just been wowed down the road earlier that night at O2 ABC for A Night at the Regal. We were also hearing great things about Wild Tales, a black comedy from Argentina that weaves six short stories together. Like all anthology films, there are a couple of duds in the pack, but when it’s good, we’re told, Wild Tales is hilarious.
As for The Skinny, we’d just come from Gregg Araki’s White Bird in a Blizzard, which was gorgeous and evocative, but missing some of the zest of his best movies. Like Nowhere and Mysterious Skin, it’s a film about repressed trauma and selective memory, but the best reasons for recommendation are the film's two stars: Eva Green and Shailene Woodley. The latter plays it cool and charismatic as Kat – grungy, sexy and funky, she’s the perfect Araki heroine. Green, who plays Kat’s depressed mother Eve; well, she’s from another type of movie – maybe even another planet.
I can’t think of another female star who could be less convincing as a stay at home housewife (maybe Angelina Jolie), and that’s the point! She plays the whole movie like she’s in a gothic horror tragedy, and somehow her nutty scenes where she’s facing off against the easy-going naturalism of Woodley work, both actors like opposite sides of the same coin. There are also delights to be found in the minor roles, with Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) super sassy as Kat’s best friend and the ever brilliant Dale Dickey as an all-seeing blind neighbour.
While we're here, have you picked up the CineSkinny yet? You'll find it across the GFF venues, with a brand-new issue arriving tomorrow. Also, we want to hear your take on this year's GFF – get in touch on Twitter using the hashtag #cineskinny, and you could win tickets to some of our favourite films in this year's programme.
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 (on 23 Feb, GFT, 8.30pm or 24 Feb, Grosvneor, 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 on Sun 22 Feb to be in with a chance of winning.
Film of the Day: It Follows [Grosvenor, 8.30pm]
What we said: "...the film just plain delivers as a bold, terrifying attack of cinema, immersive on the levels of imagery both beautiful and grotesque, and scares from the shallowest to the most pervasive." (Read full review...)
We also spoke to It Follows' director David Robert Mitchell, who tells us how he turned his childhood dream into this indelible cinematic nightmare:
What he said: “In the dream I sort of knew it was a monster coming to kill me but it looked like different people.” In the film, too, the eponymous “It” takes many forms, sometimes seemingly-benevolent (a girl in pigtails, a lost-looking old woman) and some disturbing (a rape victim, the main protagonist's father sans clothes). In old-school horror movie style, the creature was shuffling but relentless. “In the nightmare I could get away from it very easily but that wasn’t comforting because of the fact it was always coming towards me.” (Read full interview...)
Today's Highlights
Stop Making Sense
GFT, 11.15pm
Jonathan Demme’s best films centre on kooks and in David Byrne he found his perfect subject. This isn’t just a concert movie – it’s a celebration of the alchemy of a band, of creation. If you're not a Byrne fan, check out our list of five other great concert movies.
Square Legs, Round Bowls
Stereo, 7pm
The most mysteriously titled event in the GFF programme, this is a night of new commissions by artists whose work straddle the mediums of music and visual art.
Jodorowsky’s Dune
GFT, 4pm
What’s the greatest film never made? Tarkovsky's proposed Hamlet? Darren Aronofsky's Batman? Our money’s on Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune. GFF have the next best thing: this incredible doc unearthing the wild auteur's sci-fi vision.
OUR REVIEWS OF TODAY'S FILMS
Black Coal, Thin Ice: “The film is as dark and cold as its title, unravelling its mysteries amidst frost, fog and murky streetlights.” (Read full review...) | GFT, 3.20pm
Catch Me Daddy: "Robbie Ryan's intimate roving camera gets close-up to the point of abstraction, but in doing so firmly places the viewer in the midst of the unfolding events, with the palette not drained, but cold, and the handheld visuals augmenting the dramatic urgency. It is never less than visually arresting." (Read full review...) | GFT, 3.50pm
The Grump: "What marks out this effort from Dome Karukoski is how wholesome its world is in comparison to the likes of, say, St. Vincent and Big Daddy. The central character isn’t an embittered, beer-swilling pornographer or emotionally underdeveloped slacker, but rather a quaint, puritanical nostalgist.' (Read full review...) | GFT, 1.30pm
Tales of the Grim Sleeper: "Here Broomfield focuses on a string of murders committed in South Los Angeles between 1985 and 2007... But at times Broomfield appears to be having more fun than his subjects warrant. He also seems to forget that, in spite of the weight of evidence against Franklin Jr., he remains ‘the accused’." (Read full feview...) | GFT, 1pm
Monsters: Dark Continent: "Dark Continent marks the feature debut of TV director Tom Green (Misfits, Blackout). He is not to be mistaken with the notorious late 90s/early 2000s shock auteur of the same name. Had that Tom Green been behind this film, there might have been an ounce of interest to these proceedings." (Read full review...) | GFT, 10.45pm
The New Girfriend: "Loosely based on a Ruth Rendell story, Ozon’s film quivers between psychological thriller and playful farce." (Read full review...) | GFT, 8.30pm
White Bird in a Blizzard: "Closer in spirit to his Mysterious Skin than The Doom Generation, White Bird in a Blizzard sees director Gregg Araki adapting a Laura Kasischke novel and applying his trademark gifts for depicting both the sweet and the sour of adolescence." (Continue readling...) | Grosvenor, 3pm
Uzumasa Limelight: "Uzumasa Limelight is a heartfelt tribute to the samurai-saturated chanbara films of Japanese cinema... Elegiac, evocative, and often funny, this modest movie cuts deep." (Read full review...) | GFT, 8:15pm
READERS' REVIEWS
Lots of GFF chatter on Twitter, with much love for The Grump, Catch Me Daddy, Wild Tales and sonic cinema event Night at the Regal. And someone really disagrees with our take on Black Coal, Thin Ice.
andreareid (@andreareid)
#GFF15 really special Night At The Regal at ABC- beautiful film and music from Eagleowl, Joe McAlinden and British Sea Power. Stunning.
The Pixel Collector (@craigwhiteford)
#CatchMeDaddy at #GFF15 tonight. Brutal, raw and watched through fingers & on the edge of my seat. #GFT #danielwolfe
ELab (@elab49)
The Grump was a gem - one of those you know nothing about & luck on by chance. #GFF15 Funny with a core of real character & beautifully shot
David Johnstone (@DJFilmRisks)
'A Night at the Regal' was fantastic last night - Live music with film. @markcousinsfilm and @iainandjane my favs. Thanks #GFF15
Corinne (@MissCorinneOh)
Day 1 of @glasgowfilmfest down! Love seeing the GFT & CCA buzzing w/ film fans. British Sea Power @O2ABC was a sublime end to the day #GFF15
David McGroove (@1dmg)
'Wild Tales' - Gloriously funny/twisted, like an Argentinian #InsideNo9 with added extreme violence. Will take some film to beat it. #GFF15
Alistair Harkness (@aliharkness)
#gff15 pick of the day: New Zealand drama THE DARK HORSE. Star Cliff Curtis is doing a Q&A and man, has he got some stories.
But you can't please everyone...
Arin Fanny Ferguson (@arinferguson)
A truly awful start to #GFF15 with Black Coal, Thin Ice. A clichéd piece of nonsense, with an award checklist of camera angles and music
Links of the Day
The Herald's Alison Rowat rounds up the best of the international movies at Glasgow Film Festival
Gary Lewis and Conor McCarron joined the Riverside Show to talk about their film Catch Me Daddy
Read the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw on Catch Me Daddy, which he calls "John Ford on the Yorkshire moors"