A highly stylised vision of Britain, Little Joe is the first fully English-language feature from acclaimed Austrian director Jessica Hausner. A fan of Hausner’s distinct filmography to date, British actor Emily Beecham jumped at the chance to work with her. For her efforts, she received the Best Actress prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival…
Monthly Archives: February 2020
Midnight Family (Luke Lorentzen, 2019)
“Ambulance chasing” is a term usually reserved to derogatorily describe personal injury lawyers, originating from the stereotype of them following ambulances to the emergency room in order to find clients. Luke Lorentzen’s fly-on-the-wall documentary explores the work life of the Ochoa family, for whom the definition of “ambulance chasing” could be expanded to include. They are the “chasing ambulances”, looking for the next injured person to take to the hospital. And they are just one set of hands behind the wheel in a sea of private ambulances patrolling the streets of Mexico City…
Simon Bird on directing ‘Days of the Bagnold Summer’
Best known for his leading roles in The Inbetweeners franchise and the still ongoing Friday Night Dinner, actor Simon Bird delivers a gentler comedic offering with his feature debut as a director, Days of the Bagnold Summer. It’s a sweet coming-of-age film that examines the wobbly relationship between a mother and son over one long summer in the suburbs. Mopey metalhead Daniel Bagnold (Earl Cave, son of Nick) was meant to be spending the season in Florida visiting his dad, who has a new partner expecting a baby. When the trip is cancelled, his well-intentioned librarian mum, Sue (Monica Dolan), attempts to both entertain the introverted lad and help him get his act together, while also trying to come out of her own shell…
First Love (Takashi Miike, 2019)
“Fuck. How many does this make today?” an exasperated, backstabbing yakuza says to himself, as he attempts to tie up yet another loose end in the fallout of a scheme gone disastrously wrong. He has no idea that the previous loose end he thought he tied up – i.e. someone he left for dead – is very much still alive, kicking and maniacally set on revenge. Welcome to Takashi Miike’s First Love, the Japanese icon’s 103rd film to date: a high-energy slice of pulp fiction with a dozen distinctive characters…
10 things to see at the Glasgow Film Festival 2020
Glasgow Film Festival returns for its 16th edition in 2020, running from 26 February to 8 March. For the first time in GFF’s history, the opening and closing gala films are both directed by women filmmakers, with the closing night falling on International Women’s Day.
Based on Caitlin Moran’s semi-autobiographical novel, festival closer How to Build a Girl stars Booksmart’s Beanie Feldstein as a young working-class woman becoming a music critic. It’s to be the first theatrically released feature in more than 20 years from English director Coky Giedroyc (Stella Does Tricks), who has worked on recent TV favourites like The Hour and Harlots. French director Alice Winocour will open the festival with her latest, Proxima, in which Eva Green plays an astronaut and mother preparing for a year-long space mission.
On International Women’s Day, every film screened that day will be either directed or written by a woman or featuring a female lead. Women directors are also the subject of Mark Cousins’ 14-hour documentary Women Make Film: A New Road Movie through Cinema, which will be shown in five instalments. Overlooked gems from the past from directors Joan Micklin Silver, Larisa Shepitko, Euzhan Palcy and more will screen in support.
With nine world premieres, 10 European premieres, 102 UK premieres and 39 Scottish premieres to choose from, as well as retrospectives, talks and immersive events, choosing tickets wisely can be difficult. Here are 10 highlights from across this year’s bumper programme…
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