Skip to main content

Glasgow Film Festival · 2012

Glasgow Film Festival 2012

Great Scots

The best of Scottish cinema, old and new.

Programme

6 films · 3 reviews

Jump to a film

Big Banana Feet

A documentary about the comedian Billy Connolly.

(Country: US; Year: 1976; Director: David Peat; Writer: Billy Connolly; Stars: Billy Connolly)

The Decoy Bride

A local girl acts as a decoy when a Hollywood actress comes to Scotland to get married, but romantic complications ensue.

(Country: UK; Year: 2011; Director: Sheree Folkson; Writer: Sally Phillips; Stars: Alice Eve, Kelly Macdonald, David Tennant, Michael Urie)

Irvine Welsh's Ecstasy (Ecstasy)

Review preview for Irvine Welsh's Ecstasy

It would seem fairest to judge this film on its own merits but that's hard when it's trying so self-consciously to be Trainspotting.

Jennie Kermode · 2 out of 5
A young Edinburgh man struggles to escape the grip of a brutal drug dealer while falling in love with a Canadian woman.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2011; Director: Rob Heydon; Writer: Rob Heydon, Matt MacLennan, Paul McCafferty, Ben Tucker, based on the novel by Irvine Welsh; Stars: Adam Sinclair, Kristin Kreuk, Billy Boyd, Carlo Rota, Ashley Pover, Keram Malicki-Sánchez, Olivia Andrup, Natalie Brown, Stephen McHattie, Dean McDermott, Alex Lifeson, Luke Gordon, Stefen Hayes, Colin Mochrie, Shaun Austin-Olsen)

Full review See: Interview with Adam Sinclair about Irvine Welsh's Ecstasy

The Maggie (High And Dry, The Maggie at The Tall Ship)

An American businessman in Scotland is conned into shipping valuable cargo to an island using a coal powered boat.

(Country: UK; Year: 1954; Director: Alexander Mackendrick; Writer: Alexander Mackendrick, William Rose; Stars: Paul Douglas, Alex Mackenzie, James Copeland, Abe Barker, Tommy Kearins)

The Somnambulists

Review preview for The Somnambulists

The Somnambulists is a powerful, unapologetically political contribution to the discourse about this country's questionable manoeuvrings abroad since 9/11, lest we forget.

Anton Bitel · 3.5 out of 5
Richard Jobson's committed, imaginative response to our collective apathy to the war in Iraq.

(Country: UK; Year: 2011; Director: Richard Jobson; Writer: Richard Jobson; Stars: Jack Monaghan, Michael Nardone, Jack O'Connell, Rhodri Lewis, Belinda Everett, Paul Thornley, Tom Padley, Johnathan Kerrigan, Alan Mckenna, David Fynn, Tobi Bakare, Joseph Creeth, Steven Robertson, Jessye Romeo, Scott Arthur)

Full review

Up There

Review preview for Up There

While Up There is jam-packed with dry Scottish humour and absurd situations brought on by the dead's physical handicap, the film never fails to engage with its audience on a more philosophical level.

Lindis Kipp · 5 out of 5
A dead man stuck in a dead end job welcoming new arrivals to the afterlife fears things will get even worse when he accidentally loses a soul.

(Country: UK; Year: 2011; Director: Zam Salim; Writer: Zam Salim; Stars: Burn Gorman, Jo Hartley, Warren Brown, Iain De Caestecker)

Full review See: Interview with Zam Salim about Up There