CineDaily – 21 Feb: Wild Tales, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, today's reviews and more
When Dancing at a Cinema Screening Makes Total Sense
We at The Skinny are usually sticklers for hush during film screenings. We’re that guy who’s always shushing canoodling couples, asking the person two rows down to put their retina-searing iPhone away or tutting at ironic hate-watchers who are unable to sit through a film made before 1994 without guffawing at the fact time has passed. But when the right movie and the right crowd come together, our insistence on decorum melts away and it’s replaced with pure joy.
This was the case with last night’s late screening of Jonathan Demme’s Talking Heads concert film, Stop Making Sense. It’s a movie that takes you over: it builds, from one man alone on stage to a cacophony of voices and sounds, becoming even more intense and euphoric. About half way through the film you realise you’ve not stopped grinning and your toes have not stopped tapping since David Byrne played the first cord of opening track Psycho Killer.
I’m not sure exactly when the audience turned the space at the front of the screen into a dancefloor, but by the time we joined the crowd for a boogie to Once in a Lifetime, a simple film screening of a 30 year old movie had turned into one of those cinema experiences you’ll never forget. Other people can often be the worst thing about movie-going: nights like last night remind us that they’re also the best.
Pick up a CineSkinny!
The new issue of the CineSkinny is out today, covering all the GFF highlights from 21-23 Feb. In it you'll find interviews with Mommy director Xavier Dolan, and Ron Mann, whose doc Altman pays tribute to one of the giants of American cinema.
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: THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN [GFT, 11.30PM]
What we said: "Gomez-Rejon, meanwhile, throws a bag of tricks at the screen: jump-cuts, Dutch angles, dual-focus, dream sequences and at least one belting tracking shot invoke De Palma and other B-movie masters in a film that's way more stylish and thoughtful than one might expect." (Read full review...)
Video Interview: Daniel Wolfe on Catch Me Daddy
Catch Me Daddy is the first feature film from music video whizz Daniel Wolfe (he co-wrote the film with his brother, Matthew, who also provides the score). Best known, perhaps, for his promo for The Shoes single Time to Dance, which featured Hollywood star Jake Gyllenhaal as a serial killer offing hipsters, Catch Me Daddy sees the 36-year-old filmmaker in similarly blistering form. The film centres on 17-year-old Laila, played by newcomer Sameena Jabeen Ahmed, who’s walked out on her strict Pakistani parents so that she can be with her boyfriend Aaron (NEDS star Conor McCarron), who’s white.
Taking the form of a western, the film takes place over one night, with the young couple on the run from a group of thugs, who include Laila’s brother.
Catch Me Daddy received its Scottish premiere at Glasgow Film Festival. Here's the director and two of his cast members, local lads Conor McCarron and Gary Lewis, discussing the film's unconventional shoot.
Today's Highlights
Power Suit Yourself
CCA, from 1pm
Look out your shoulder pads, folks, because power suits are back – for one day, at least – as GFF celebrates female power dressing in cinema, from Mildred Pierce to Working Girl.
When Animals Dream
GFT, 8.45pm
The coming-of-age film combines with the werewolf movie in this nifty little shocker from Denmark that does for lycanthropes what Let the Right One In did for blood-suckers.
Cinema, City, Ceilidh!
St Andrew’s in the Square, 7pm
In this night paying tribute to Glasgow on film, you can show off your reel on the dancefloor while you admire a showreel of movies that show off No Mean City.
OUR REVIEWS OF TODAY'S FILMS
Burroughs: The Movie: "Its fragmented tone calls to mind the writer’s famous literary ‘cut-ups.’" (Read full review...) | GFT, 10.45am
Family Goldmine: "We’re told the patriarch is a ‘force of nature’, but not once does he display the compelling characteristics of a man on a quixotic quest. Instead he chuckles to himself like Popeye and makes the occasional tired joke in a second language. (Read full review...) | GFT 12.45pm
It Follows: "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. The term ‘instant classic’ is being bandied around a lot on this one – deservedly." (Read fill review...) | GFT, 11.15pm
The New Girfriend: "Loosely based on a Ruth Rendell story, Ozon’s film quivers between psychological thriller and playful farce." (Read full review...) | GFT, 3.45pm
Still Alice: "Fans of [Julianne] Moore’s brand of damaged women might find traces of her career cornerstones – the likes of Safe – in Still Alice. It’s a mesmerising performance, quietly devastating rather than showy." (Read full review...) | GFT, 9pm
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, 3.30pm
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, 3.20pm
Wild Tales: "This really is a feat of storytelling and narrative cinema, full of wit and cruelty." (Read full review...) | Grosvenor, 6.45pm
Twitter Chat
Lots of birthday wishes for ace British thesp Alan Rickman, who's in town with his new movie A Little Chaos.
Mark Fletcher (@fletch49er)
'Theeb' at @glasgowfilmfest was a smashing wee film to kick my festival off with everything about it was just good. Next up 'Elle l'adore'
Sarah Ennis (@sennis)
Can't wait to see A Little Chaos at @glasgowfilmfest tonight. Also delighted Alan Rickman is spending his birthday with us! #Glasgow #GFF15
Jess (@JessKatweet)
Happy birthday Alan Rickman! Hope the city and @glasgowfilmfest help you celebrate in style. #GFF15
Chris Ward (@iamchrishello)
You may think tonight's STOP MAKING SENSE crowd would be the most raucous at #GFF15 but the 10.30am AUTUMN SONATA's gonna be *off the hook*
Links of the day
The Herald's Jan Patience on Margaret Tait Award recipients Charlotte Prodger and Florrie James: Glasgow Film Festival puts art in a screen-shaped frame
GFF's official blogger, Sean Welsh, has been taking a closer look at the films nominated for the new GFF15 Audience Award: here he is on Five Things You Need to Know About Mardan
Still Alice has its Scottish premiere at GFF today. Here's the Scotsman's Alistair Harkness talking to its star, Julianne Moore