Edinburgh International Film Festival · 2010
A collection of impressive works by first and second time directors who hold great promise.
28 films · 23 reviews
Such a sweet and fun little film that it's hard not to warm to it and be utterly won over by the time its hour and a half is up.
(Country: US, Taiwan; Year: 2010; Director: Arvin Chen; Writer: Arvin Chen; Stars: Hsiao-chuan Chang, Amber Kuo, Ko Yu-Luen, Jack Yao)
(Country: Canada; Year: 2009; Director: Nelofar Pazira; Stars: Marina Golbahari, Abdul Ghafar Quotbyar, Masood Serwary, Nelofer Pazira)
Presumably the fictionalising of the story offered González-Rubio more freedom in terms of shaping the narrative, but he has such a gentle touch that you would be hard-pushed to spot the artifice.
(Country: Mexico; Year: 2009; Director: Pedro González-Rubio; Writer: Pedro González-Rubio; Stars: Jorge Machado, Natan Machado Palombini, Nestór Marín, Roberta Palombini)
This is an upbeat, often hilarious, but never mawkish, celebration of love.
(Country: New Zealand; Year: 2010; Director: Taika Waititi; Writer: Taika Waititi; Stars: Taika Waititi, James Rolleston, Te Aho Eketone) , Official site
Watching this dysfunctional family implode is sobering, if not suicidal.
(Country: Netherlands/Belgium; Year: 2010; Director: Martijn Maria Smits; Writer: Bastiaan Kroeger, Martijn Maria Smits; Stars: Patrick Descamps, Benjamin Willem, Julie Anson)
This is the sort of film that will be lapped up by arthouse cinema lovers who thrive on films with bucketloads of atmosphere and a teaspoon of plot.
(Country: Colombia, France; Year: 2009; Director: Oscar Ruiz Navia; Stars: Arnobio Salazar Rivas, Rodrigo Vélez)
Donkeys is an interesting experiment. But its script is patchy, and at times strands the excellent performances in a wasteland of poorly defined relevance.
(Country: UK, Denmark; Year: 2010; Director: Morag McKinnon; Writer: Colin McLaren, Lone Scherfig; Stars: Martin Compston, Kate Dickie, James Cosmo, Brian Pettifer)
Not outright farce, too naturalistic to mug, but observational, behavioural comedy requires that we be looking from the same perspective.
(Country: Iran, UK, Italy; Year: 2009; Director: Babak Jalali; Writer: Babak Jalali) , Official site
Intelligent writing, direction and performances.
(Country: US, Hong Kong; Year: 2009; Director: Kit Hui; Writer: Kit Hui; Stars: Terence Yin, Eugenia Yuan, Camy Ting, Joman Chiang, Phat Chan, Yung Wong, Tony Ho, Ben Yuen, Lok Yu, Chun Lee, Lawrence Wong, Ching-yu Cheung, Wai-Yip Ho) , Official site
(Country: Ireland, Czech Republic; Year: 2009; Director: Mira Fornayová; Writer: Mira Fornayová; Stars: Rita Bánczi, Jonathan Byrne, Réka Derzsi, Julia Krynke, Marcus Lynch, Brendan McCormack, Aaron Monaghan, Nicholas Pinnock, Yvonne Scanlon, Christopher Simpson)
Gravity is a reasonably skillful and elegant thriller, working well as a piece of visceral moviemaking.
(Country: Germany; Year: 2009; Director: Maximilian Erlenwein; Writer: Maximilian Erlenwein; Stars: Fabian Hinrichs, Jürgen Vogel, Nora von Waldstätten, Jule Böwe, Eleonore Weisgerber, Thorsten Merten, Jeroen Willems, Fahri Ögün Yardim, Jonas Hien, Isabell Hindersin, Waléra Kanischtscheff, Henning Peker)
Despite its stoner credentials, HIGH School thrives on speed.
(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: John Stalberg Jr; Writer: Erik Linthorst, John Stalberg Jr, Stephen Susco; Stars: Sean Marquette, Matt Bush, Adrien Brody, Michael Chiklis, Colin Hanks, Mykelti Williamson, Andrew Wilson, Yeardley Smith, Michael Vartan, Curtis Armstrong, Erica Phillips, Adhir Kaylan) , Official site
The plot is punctured from the start.
(Country: UK; Year: 2010; Director: Col Spector; Writer: Col Spector; Stars: Gerard Kearns, Chris Coghill, Al Weaver, Daisy Haggard)
The plot remains continuously unpredictable.
(Country: Romania, Sweden; Year: 2010; Director: Florin Serban; Writer: Catalin Mitulescu, Florin Serban; Stars: George Pistereanu, Ada Condeescu, Mihai Constantin, Clara Voda)
The photography is stunning and many of the set pieces are visually exciting.
(Country: Iraq, Kurdistan; Year: 2009; Director: Shawkat Amin Korki; Writer: Shawkat Amin Korki; Stars: Shwan Atuf, Govar Anwar, Rojan Hamajaza, Mohamad Hamed, Nasir Hassan, Soheila Hasan)
(Country: Spain; Year: 2009; Director: Antonio Naharro, Álvaro Pastor; Writer: Antonio Naharro, Álvaro Pastor; Stars: Lola Dueñas, Isabel García Lorca, Antonio Naharro, Teresa Arbolí, Joaquín Perles, Ramiro Alonso, Consuelo Trujillo, Susana Monje, Pablo Pineda, Ana De los Riscos, María Bravo, Pepe Quero, Daniel Parejo, Roma Calderón, Tania Román)
Is this the end of life, energy’s car crash?
(Country: Thailand; Year: 2009; Director: Anocha Suwichakornpong; Writer: Anocha Suwichakornpong; Stars: Arkaney Cherkam, Phakpoom Surapongsanuruk, Paramej Noiam, Anchana Ponpitakthepkij)
A quietly humorous, gently endearing examination of one man's attempts to get his hands on the American dream.
(Country: Mexico, Spain; Year: 2009; Director: Rigoberto Pérezcano; Writer: Edgar San Juan, Rigoberto Pérezcano; Stars: Harold Torres, Alicia Laguna, Sonia Couoh, Luis Cárdenas)
(Country: Ireland, Netherlands; Year: 2009; Director: Urszula Antoniak; Writer: Urszula Antoniak; Stars: Stephen Rea, Lotte Verbeek, Tom Charlfa, Fintan Halpenny, Ann Marie Horan, Sean McRonnel)
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Diane Bell; Writer: Diane Bell; Stars: Michael Piccirilli, Frank Hoyt Taylor, Chris Byrne, Gaynor Howe, Grant Mathis, Michael Blackman Beck, Kim Beuche)
A very large cast, outstanding production values and a solid story cement the reality of the situation, and no character's motivations go unexamined.
(Country: India; Year: 2010; Director: Anusha Rizvi; Writer: Anusha Rizvi; Stars: Omkar Das, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Raghubir Yadav, Shalini Vatsa, Farukh Jaffer)
This is a police procedural, but it's also about the nature of policing, about the gap between law and justice, the self and the state.
(Country: Romania; Year: 2009; Director: Corneliu Porumboiu; Writer: Corneliu Porumboiu; Stars: Dragos Bucur, Vlad Ivanov, Irina Saulescu, Ion Stoica, Marian Ghenea, Cosmin Selesi, George Remes, Dan Cogalniceanu, Serban Georgevici, Costi Dita, Alexandru Sabadac, Anca Diaconu, Radu Costin, Viorel Nebunu, Emanoela Tigla)
For the first half an hour, the tension bubbles along nicely... but the further into the runtime we ride, the more the cliches stack up.
(Country: Australia; Year: 2010; Director: Patrick Hughes; Writer: Patrick Hughes; Stars: Ryan Kwanten, Steve Bisley, Tommy Lewis, Claire van der Boom, Christopher Davis, Kevin Harrington)
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez gives us a sensational taste of his talents in front of and behind the camera.
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez; Writer: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez; Stars: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Tatiana Velazquez, Nomar Rizo, Kim Stodel, Rikardo Rodriguez Lopez, Angel Marcelo Rodriguez Chevrez, Marcel Rodriguez Lopez, Becky Vigil, Astrid Magallon, Daniel De La Mar, Chris Salcedo, Valentin Merz, Sonny Kay, Bud William Allen, Ramon Villa)
The road trip device may be a familiar one but it is a choice that broadens the appeal and accessibility of the film and takes it away from more political machinations into the realm of simpler storytelling.
(Country: Iraq; Year: 2009; Director: Mohamed Al-Daradji; Writer: Mohamed Al-Daradji, Jennifer Norridge, Mithal Ghazi; Stars: Yasser Talib, Shazda Hussein, Bashir Al-Majid)
It is formulaic, but it's also bursting with conviction and insight.
(Country: Kenya, Germany; Year: 2010; Director: Hawa Essuman, Tom Tykwer; Writer: Billy Kahora; Stars: Nordeen Abdulghani, Christopher Abuga, Rose Adhiambo, Jones Onyango Ajwala, Consolata Apondi, Micheal Babu, Katherine Damaris, Lucy Gachanja, John Githui, Frank Kimani, Gilbert K. Lukalia, Clementina Makokha, Lydia Makori, Aida Mulafu, Sharleen Njeri) , Official site
This is a delicate examination of attitudes and social mores, touching on issues of self-hate and betrayal.
(Country: Colombia; Year: 2009; Director: Javier Fuentes-León; Writer: Javier Fuentes-León; Stars: Manolo Cardona, Tatiana Astengo, Cristian Mercado)
An unrelenting, yet utterly mesmerising cinematic vision.
(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Debra Granik; Writer: Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini, Daniel Woodrell; Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Lauren Sweetser, Kevin Breznahan, Isaiah Stone, Shelley Waggener, Ashlee Thompson, William White, Casey MacLaren, Valerie Richards, Beth Domann, Tate Taylor, Cody Brown, Ronnie Hall, Sheryl Lee)
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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