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Introduction to Edinburgh International Film Festival

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Edinburgh International Film Festival begins this week, running from this Wednesday, 16th June until Sunday 27th. Now in its 64th year, EIFF is the longest consecutively running film festival in the world.
This year features an electric programme. Artistic director Hannah McGill has continued the trend towards first- and second-time filmmakers and the prominence of British films and premieres.

Leading attractions include the European premieres of Toy Story 3, Mr Nice, and the long-awaited World’s Greatest Dad (which I recommend). The retrospective this year is entitled After the Wave and features the forgotten classics of British cinema from 1967-1969.

The Rosebud strand is a big part of this year’s festival, featuring first and second films from upcoming directors. The Animation and Shorts strands are also particularly strong this year, injecting some vitality into short-form cinema that is less prevalent in cinema.

The big draw this year is, of course, the opening gala: Slyvain Chomet’s (Belleville Rendez-Vous) The Illusionist. The script from Jacques Tati is set in 1950s Edinburgh, Chomet’s adopted home.

If, despite the festival’s rebirth as a home for new and upcoming filmmakers, you are still interested in the high-profile guests, there will be an in-person BAFTA Scotland Interview with the newly-knighted Sir Patrick Stewart. Nick Hornby, still fresh off the critical success of An Education, will also be taking an in person Q&A. Slyvain Chomet will also be there to present a panel on The Making of the Illusionist. Other guests include America Ferrera of Ugly Betty fame, Ryhs Ifans, Tilda Swinton, and Mark Cousins.

I will be doing a little reportage from the festival, so keep an eye out for updates and reviews!

What are you excited for at this Edinburgh International Film Festival?

Review: Black Death

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Black Death, from British director Christopher Smith (Triangle, Severance) is a bleak historical drama set during the 13th Century.
As the bubonic plague sweeps across the medieval villages of England, Ulrich (Beam) and his men seek to uncover a demonic necromancer rumoured to live in a Godless village untouched by the disease. He takes Osmond (Eddie Redmayne, The Other Boleyn Girl), a young monk, as his guide.
Death is endemic throughout, poignantly protracted with fevered, blood-spattering gore.  Switching at will from dramatic fight scenes to visions of grief, the film is at once an historical thriller and horror.
It is difficult to reconcile the patriarchal archaism of the film with a modern reading of history. Although Smith creates a dichotomy between the vengeful Christians and the Godless pagans they seek to destroy, both theologies are portrayed as deeply flawed, abject, and moral-less. Carnage is the currency by which righteousness is enumerated.
Tense but grim, Black Death is as dark as the plague and as joyless as the period in which it is set.
Black Death is on limited release in the UK from Friday 11th June.

Review: Brooklyn’s Finest

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Brooklyn’s Finest marks Antoine Fuqua’s return to the mean streets.

Though the trailer had a distinctive Training Day feel to it, the only real similarity here is that it stars Ethan Hawke.

The 3-strand plot follows three cops whose interpretations of justice and fairness are scattered, jaded, and deeply personal: street patrol Eddie (Gere) has only 7 days until retirement, drug raid specialist Sal (Hawke) scavenges for drug money, and Tango (Cheadle) is an undercover ex-con.

Though their professional roles create a feedback loop, there are no overarching attempts to link the characters in the mode of Crash. Rather the stories play out as three different films, intercut in what feels like real time. Only at cursory moments do they cross paths.

Cheadle plays against type, proving that he can roll with grittier characterisations, though his performance is more understated than those of his nefarious contemporaries. Straddling the line between renegade and cop brings turbulence when he is assigned the task of framing his best friend and former gang buddy.

Though Tango is not the most interesting character in his group, he far outshines Gere’s Eddie, a jaded alcoholic officer. After 22 years on the force the only respect he gains is from the new kids, and even they will cross him. Lonely, cynical and hardened, he has not much to offer. Pathetic and generally unsympathetic, he is by far the dullest part of the film.

Most interesting is Sal, Hawke’s family man, who has 5 kids and another on the way. In the opening scene we find him in a car, trading stories with a man whom he kills for a wad of cash. The man in the car tells him that a man will pay any price to save his own life. Sal, we soon learn, will do anything for his family. Tortured and praying for help over forgiveness, his moral compass points due “family” and he has no qualms about taking lives for what is rightfully theirs. An excellent performance from Hawke.


Brooklyn’s Finest is the type of film Fuqua does best. Towards the end, though, the connection that draws all three cops into the same building is complicated and requires a little too much exposition.

Intense without pretence, but ultimately forgettable.

Brooklyn’s Finest is released in the UK on Wednesday 9th June.