Glasgow Film Festival · 2024
54 films · 40 reviews
McDonald is excellent.
(Country: UK; Year: 2024; Director: Joy Wilkinson; Writer: Joy Wilkinson; Stars: Emma McDonald, Pete Postlethwaite)
(Country: Philippines; Year: 2023; Director: Seán Devlin; Writer: Seán Devlin, Jaya, Arnel Pablo; Stars: Jaya, Arnel Pablo, Ricky Gacho Jr)
Sakamoto manages to keep this light and charming even when people are bleeding, struggling to breathe or actually dying in the dirt.
(Country: Japan; Year: 2023; Director: Yugo Sakamoto; Writer: Yugo Sakamoto; Stars: Akari Takaishi, Saori Izawa, Oto Abe, Tatsuomi Hamada, Junpei Hashino, Joey Iwanaga, Atom Mizuishi, Tsubasa Tobinaga, Nakai Tomo, Tetsu Watanabe)
(Country: Mali, Senegal, France; Director: Ramata-Toulaye Sy; Writer: Ramata-Toulaye Sy; Stars: Khady Mane, Mamadou Diallo, Moussa Sow, Binta Racine Sy)
One of the greatest achievements in documentary to date.
(Country: Chile; Year: 1979; Director: Patricio Guzmán; Writer: Patricio Guzmán, Pedro Chaskel, Jose Bartolome; Stars: Abilio Fernández, Salvador Allende, Augusto Pinochet)
The Beast explores what Henry James diagnosed so devastatingly. The chill of egotism and the feverish dance around the void are so desperately relevant today that it leaves one breathless.
(Country: France, Canada; Year: 2023; Director: Bertrand Bonello; Writer: Bertrand Bonello, Guillaume Bréaud, Benjamin Charbit, based on the novel by Henry James; Stars: Léa Seydoux, George MacKay)
This is more an introduction to Douglas as a man than a creator.
(Country: UK; Year: 2023; Director: Jack Archer)
There is great chemistry between them and Jaques knows when to tread lightly, letting their natural humour take over.
(Country: UK; Year: 2023; Director: George Jaques; Writer: Jamie Flatters, George Jaques; Stars: Jamie Flatters, Keenan Munn-Francis, Nicholas Pinnock, Paul Kaye, Ruby Stokes, Hattie Morahan, Amrita Acharia, Jason Flemyng, Leanne Best, Liv Hill, Flynn Allen, Joe Hughes, Marc Wesley DeHaney, Chicho Tche, Jamie Smelt)
An intriguing piece of work which probes the psychology of contestant, producers and viewers alike.
(Country: UK; Year: 2023; Director: Clair Titley; Writer: Clair Titley; Stars: Tomoaki Hamatsu, Toshio Tsuchiya)
(Country: Mexico, Canada, Denmark; Year: 2023; Director: Viggo Mortensen; Writer: Viggo Mortensen; Stars: Vicky Krieps, Viggo Mortensen, Solly McLeod, Garret Dillahunt, W. Earl Brown, Danny Huston, Shane Graham, Rafel Plana, Alex Breaux, Jason Clarke, Arturo Coronado, Marc Dennis, John Getz, Atlas Green, Angela Lentz)
By mixing the situations of a crime drama with dysfunctional family dynamics, the everyday becomes accentuated, meaning that outbreaks of violence are absurdly comic but still retain a nasty edge.
(Country: UK; Year: 2009; Director: Ben Wheatley; Writer: Robin Hill, Ben Wheatley; Stars: Julia Deakin, Michael Smiley, David Schaal, Tony Way, Mark Kempner, Gareth Tunley, Kali Peacock, Robin Hill, Robert Hill, Kerry Peacock) , Trailer
Aboyan lets Layla drive the film with an emotional intensity alongside which everything else fades.
(Country: Germany; Year: 2023; Director: Milena Aboyan; Writer: Milena Aboyan; Stars: Bayan Layla, Hadnet Tesfai, Derya Durmaz, Nazmi Kirik, Slavko Popadic, Armin Wahedi Yeganeh, Cansu Leyan, Beritan Balci, Homa Faghiri, Réber Ibrahim, Ferman Alkasari, Mehmet Daloglu, Derya Dilber, Taies Farzan, Lennart Gottmann)
(Country: US; Year: 1974; Director: John Waters; Writer: John Waters; Stars: Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Edith Massey)
(Country: Finland; Year: 2023; Director: Selma Vilhunen; Writer: Selma Vilhunen; Stars: Alma Pöysti, Vilhelm Blomgren, Eero Milonoff, Oona Airola, Peter Kanerva, Pietu Wikström, Altamimi Wahab, Joni Sailamaa)
Wells finds within his story many formative elements of 20th Century US history, with Capra’s tragedy and contradictions speaking to the country’s own.
(Country: UK; Year: 2023; Director: Matthew Wells; Writer: Matthew Wells; Stars: Frank Capra, Tom Rothman)
While Ann can handle a knife, there’s a sense that her look might just as easily strike others dead.
(Country: Canada; Year: 2023; Director: Karl R Hearne; Writer: Karl R Hearne; Stars: Dale Dickey, Romane Denis, Roc Lafortune, Bruce Ramsay, Jonathan Koensgen)
Kar-Wai avoids cultish gay stereotyping.
(Country: Argentina / Hong Kong; Year: 1997; Director: Wong Kar Wai; Writer: Wong Kar Wai; Stars: Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung, Chang Chen)
A fascinating piece of work, mixing glamour and darkness and a lot of uncertainty.
(Country: France, US, UK; Year: 2023; Director: Kevin Macdonald; Stars: John Galliano)
Hoard goes further, creeps around, becomes something you can start to smell, to taste.
(Country: UK; Year: 2023; Director: Luna Carmoon; Writer: Luna Carmoon; Stars: Saura Lightfoot Leon, Joseph Quinn, Hayley Squires, Deba Hekmat, Cathy Tyson)
Even non-football fans are likely to find themselves won over almost immediately by this tale of one team’s determination against the odds.
(Country: Iceland; Year: 2023; Director: Smari Gunn, Logi Sigursveinsson)
Writer/director Zarrar Khan uses techniques borrowed from the horror genre to address the experience of living in an environment where one is seen as less than fully human, or even as prey.
(Country: Canada; Year: 2023; Director: Zarrar Kahn; Writer: Zarrar Kahn; Stars: Ramesha Nawal, Omar Javaid, Bakhtawar Mazhar, Mohammad Ali Hasni, Adnan Shah)
First-timer Sarr - who is a musician - is a remarkable lead and matched by the support from fellow novice Fall.
(Country: Italy, Belgium, France; Year: 2023; Director: Matteo Garrone; Writer: Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso, Massimo Ceccherini, Andrea Tagliaferri, Nicola Di Robilant, Chiara Leonardi; Stars: Affif Ben Badra, Hichem Yacoubi, Joseph Beddelem, Bamar Kane, Oumar Diaw, Mariam Kaba, Princess Erika, Taha Benaim, Seydou Sarr, Flaure B.B. Kabore, Beatrice Gnonko, Jackie Zappa, Emilie Adams, Bidar Abdelahad, Observateur Ebène)
(Country: Canada; Year: 2023; Director: MH Murray; Writer: Mark Clennon, Victoria Long, MH Murray; Stars: Mark Clennon, Anthony Diaz, Nat Patricia Manuel, Deragh Campbell, Victoria Long, Kevin A Courtney, Michael Hogan, Grace McDonald, Radcliffe Goldbourne, Randy Davis, Cheryl Wagner, Chris Wong, Lawrene Denkers, Peyton McLean, Ilgi Bodan)
It’s Clennon’s first ever film role, but you wouldn’t think it. The interiority, the subtlety of his performance is what really sells it.
(Country: Canada; Year: 2023; Director: MH Murray; Writer: Writers Mark Clennon, Victoria Long, MH Murray; Stars: Mark Clennon, Anthony Diaz, Nat Patricia Manuel, Deragh Campbell, Victoria Long)
Aslin and Lennon convey this very effectively, without being too blunt.
(Country: Ireland; Year: 2023; Director: Ollie Aslin, Gary Lennon; Stars: Cathal McNaughton)
This may be Will Gilbey’s first feature as director, but his background as an editor means he knows how to construct an action sequence, and he delivers one great set piece after another.
(Country: UK, Kosovo; Year: 2023; Director: Will Gilbey; Writer: Will Gilbey; Stars: Nikki Amuka-Bird, Zack Morris, Chris Reilly, Simon Kunz, Michael Socha, Solly McLeod, Philipp Christopher, Zachary Hart, Capital T., Aidan Kelly, Olivia Chenery, Alex Tate, Ian Virgo, Lucy Thackeray, Pippa Winslow)
Hinton’s documentary visually points to all the complicated, often triangular entanglements.
(Country: UK; Year: 2024; Director: David Hinton; Stars: Martin Scorsese, Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell)
(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Cédric Kahn; Stars: Jonathan Cohen, Emmanuelle Bercot, Denis Podalydès, Stefan Crepon, Emilia Derou-Bernal, Riad Gahmi, Matilda Kime)
(Country: Saudi Arabia; Year: 2023; Director: Ali Kalthami; Stars: Mohammed Aldokhi, Hajar Alshammari, Mohammed Alttowayan, Sarah Taibah)
(Country: Mexico, France; Year: 2023; Director: Lorena Padilla; Writer: Lorena Padilla; Stars: Humberto Busto, Francisco Reyes, Martha Claudia Moreno)
(Year: 2023; Director: François Nemeta)
This is a splendid exercise in world building. Bösch gives us everything we need to believe in this place and understand the character dynamics, but does not stray beyond that.
(Country: Germany; Year: 2024; Director: Sophia Bösch; Writer: Sophia Bösch, Roman Gielke, based on the book by Helene Bukowski; Stars: Mathilde Bundschuh, Susanne Wolff, Viola Hinz)
(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Monica Sorelle; Writer: Monica Sorelle, Robert Colom; Stars: Atibon Nazaire, Sheila Anozier, Chris Renois)
Viewers … must be patient and wait for their rewards – but like the old man, we are sometimes caught be surprise, confronted with sudden moments of exquisite beauty.
(Country: UK; Year: 2023; Director: Nicholas Parish; Writer: Nico Mensinga; Stars: Rory Kinnear, Emily Beecham, Roger Marten)
No matter that the plot development is deliberately murky, it’s the mood that catches you in its tides.
(Country: China; Year: 2023; Director: Shujun Wei; Writer: Chunlei Kang, Shujun Wei, based on the story by Hua Yu; Stars: Yilong Zhu, Chloe Maayan, Tianlai Hou, Tong Lin Kai, Han Chen, Chunlei Kang)
It’s a tremendously challenging role, in which Maadi excels.
(Country: Sweden; Year: 2023; Director: Milad Alami; Writer: Milad Alami; Stars: Payman Maadi, Marall Nasiri, Björn Elgerd, Ardalan Esmaili, Arvin Kananian)
[DuVernay is] not here to tell people what to think – rather, she’s presenting them with the tools to start thinking for themselves and making their own discoveries.
(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Ava DuVernay; Writer: Ava DuVernay, based on the book by Isabel Wilkerson; Stars: Jon Bernthal, Connie Nielsen, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Vera Farmiga, Nick Offerman, Victoria Pedretti, Donna Mills, Niecy Nash, Finn Wittrock, Audra McDonald, Blair Underwood, Leonardo Nam, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Jessica Fontaine, Gissette Valentin)
There’s a reason why formulas work and this one is marked: Caution, may make you cry.
(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Christopher Zalla; Writer: Christopher Zalla; Stars: Eugenio Derbez, Daniel Haddad, Jenifer Trejo, Mia Fernanda Solis, Danilo Guardiola)
(Year: 2023; Director: Paul Sng)
(Country: Japan; Year: 2023; Director: Neo Sora; Stars: Ryuichi Sakamoto)
It’s a reflexive, even self-conscious work, interested in the infrastructure of oil, of film.
(Country: Canada; Year: 2023; Director: Sanaz Sohrabi; Writer: Sanaz Sohrabi)
Mixing horror elements with character study and a tender portrait of a relationship in crisis, Sleep easily slides between genres and, in the process, keeps viewers guessing.
(Country: South Korea; Year: 2023; Director: Jason Yu; Writer: Jason Yu; Stars: Kim Gook Hee, Yoon Kyung-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Jung Yu-mi)
Solo features wonderfully detailed sets which give depth and meaning to its characters’ lives, plus fantastic costume work both on and off the stage.
(Country: Canada; Year: 2023; Director: Sophie Dupuis; Writer: Sophie Dupuis; Stars: Théodore Pellerin, Félix Maritaud, Vlad Alexis)
The film wonderfully captures the dynamics of workplace small talk.
(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Rachel Lambert; Writer: Kevin Armento, Stefanie Abel Horowitz, Katy Wright-Mead; Stars: Daisy Ridley, Dave Merheje, Parvesh Cheena, Marcia DeBonis, Meg Stalter, Brittany O'Grady)
Part fantasy, part western, the film is exquisitely shot, the humid atmosphere of the island creating a degree of visual uncertainty to confound viewers further.
(Country: Chile, Mexico, Germany; Year: 2023; Director: Christopher Murray; Writer: Christopher Murray; Stars: Valentina Véliz, Daniel Antivilo, Sebastian Hulk, Daniel Muñoz)
By taking their time and standing back from the fray, Mones and Suh are able to take a much more objective look at these social phenomena.
(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Caroline Suh, Cara Mones; Stars: Jen Kirkman, Megan Koester)
A Teacher is not the most finely crafted film, but it is a cri de cœur.
(Country: UK; Year: 2023; Director: Farah Nabulsi; Writer: Farah Nabulsi; Stars: Imogen Poots, Stanley Townsend, Saleh Bakri, Paul Herzberg)
Thrums from start to almost finish with the sweaty tension of a looming maths test.
(Country: Germany; Year: 2023; Director: İlker Çatak; Writer: İlker Çatak; Stars: Leonie Benesch, Leonard Stettnisch, Eva Löbau, Michael Klammer, Anne-Kathrin Gummich)
The characters are not unrealistically attached to their well-intentioned lies, and get into trouble in part because of the ease with which they give way to awkward compromises. As a result, they feel very human.
(Country: Sri Lanka, India; Year: 2023; Director: Ilango Ram; Writer: Ilango Ram; Stars: Kaushalya Fernando, Priyantha Sirikumara, Thusitha Laknath, Ranjith Panagoda, Chandani Seneviratne)
Multiverses have become a box office staple lately, courtesy of Marvel and the like, but they are rarely as elegantly mounted as this retro and twisty little mystery from Timm Kröger.
(Country: Germany, Austria, Switzerland; Year: 2023; Director: Timm Kröger; Writer: Roderick Warich, Timm Kröger; Stars: Jan Bülow, Olivia Ross, Hanns Zischler, Gottfried Breitfuss, David Bennent, Philippe Graber, Imogen Kogge, Emanuel Waldburg-Zeil, Vivienne Bayley, Ladina von Frisching, Dirk Böhling, Marie Goyette, Paul Wolff-Plottegg, Peter Hottinger, Dana Herfurth)
The Wizard Of Oz has something fresh and intangibly pure for me every time I see it.
(Country: US; Year: 1939; Director: Victor Fleming; Writer: Noel Langley, based on the book by L Frank Baum; Stars: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton, Charley Grapewin, Pat Walshe, Clara Blandick)
Pure joy from start to finish.
(Country: UK, US; Year: 2005; Director: Steve Box, Nick Park; Writer: Bob Baker, Steve Box, Mark Burton, Nick Park; Stars: voices of Peter Sallis, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Peter Kay, Nicholas Smith, Liz Smith, John Thomson, Mark Gatiss, Vincent Ebrahim, Geraldine McEwan, Edward Kelsey, Dicken Ashworth, Pete Atkin, Noni Lewis, Christopher Fairbank, James Mather)
(Country: Italy, Ireland; Director: Alan Friel; Writer: Alan Friel; Stars: Erin Kellyman, Maxine Peake, Ivanno Jeremiah, Corrado Invernizzi, Peter McDonald, Oscar Coleman, Derek Carroll, Jonathan Gunning, Sophia Adli, Angelica Pascoe, Joseph Palmer, Damien Revins)
This may be, ironically, rather stagey, but for all its artificiality and slightness, it packs an emotional punch.
(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Quentin Dupieux; Writer: Quentin Dupieux; Stars: Raphaël Quenard, Pio Marmaï, Blanche Gardin, Sébastien Chassagne)
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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