One of the great things about attending the Glasgow Film Festival every year is how inclusive it feels. There is literally something for everybody screening during the festival. That includes the opportunity to see a classic film for FREE every morning from Thursday 22nd February to Sunday 4th March as part of their Rebel Heroes strand. Rebel Heroes salutes the classic male mavericks and misfits who left an indelible impression on the movies. These include the likes of Steve McQueen, Marlon Brando, James Dean and Elvis Presley.
The season began with Angels With Dirty Faces starring James Cagney as gangster Rocky Sullivan, a lifelong criminal who is asked to give up his wicked ways by his childhood friend who is a priest looking to steer the local neighbourhood children away from a life of crime.
It features a tour-de-force performance from Cagney and one of the all-time great and most debated movie endings of all time.
Just as good as the films that are selected are the introductions that accompany every screening delivered by Festival Co-Director Allan Hunter. Allan provides some history and context to the film you will watch along with some fascinating film trivia. The perfect way to start your festival day!
Here is a list of the screenings coming up during the rest of the fest. Free tickets available on the door each morning prior to the screening.
Friday 23rd February - The Grapes Of Wrath
Saturday 24th February - On The Waterfront
Sunday 25th February - Rebel Without A Cause
Monday 26th February - Jailhouse Rock
Tuesday 27th February - The Defiant Ones
Wednesday 28th February - Breathless
Thursday 1st March - Cool Hand Luke
Friday 2nd March - Bullitt
Sunday 4th March - Dog Day Afternoon
In 1492, Columbus went looking for India. He didn't find what he was originally looking for but it turned out to be a fortuitous stroke of luck that he discovered America.
In Kogonada's Columbus, two strangers are both searching for something. A way out of their current existence. Instead they find each other and even though it wasn't what they were initially seeking, it turns out they were exactly what they were looking for.
John Cho plays Jin (with an N), the son of a Korean architect who arrives in Columbus, Indiana to visit his father who has suffered a stroke. It is clear that he would rather be anywhere else but is stuck there until his father recovers or passes away.
It is here that he meets Cassandra (although everyone calls her Casey), played by Haley Lu Richardson in what should be a breakout performance. Casey works in a local library but has the potential to excel in studies outwith the small town but she remains there to look after her mother who is a recovering drug addict.
Together the two of them form a bond walking around the town admiring the modern architecture that has made Columbus a mecca for design enthusiasts whilst building the foundations of a relationship stronger than the buildings around them.
Just like these visionary structures, Columbus looks absolutely beautiful. Every single shot has been carefully designed and constructed to enhance the viewing pleasure, delivering a sense of symmetry not seen outside of a Wes Anderson film.
For Jin and Casey, each of them could be one another's guardian angel and a reading of the story could be that Columbus is Purgatory. A waiting room for lost souls. Operating on a one in, one out policy that will see tough choices and sacrifices to be made in order for one of the characters to achieve their potential.
Writer-director Kogonada has previously developed short documentaries on filmmakers such as Anderson, Ozu and Linklater and it is easy to see their influence on his debut feature but has shown enough subtlety and craftsmanship to suggest he is the architect of his own career from now on.
Wes Anderson makes a triumphant return to the Glasgow Film Festival (The Grand Budapest Hotel launched the 2014 festival) and the world of stop motion animation following 2009’s Fantastic Mr Fox, with Isle of Dogs.
Set in Megasaki City, Japan, it follows the story of a young boy Atari who travels to Trash Island to save his dog Spots who has been exiled there along with all canines following an outbreak of Dog Flu by the villainous Mayor Kobayashi, whose family has been holding a grudge against the animals ever since an amusing prologue sequence where their cat-loving ancestor was defeated in battle against the dogs.
Crash landing on the island after stealing a plane, Atari is met by a pack of dogs who will help him on his quest to be reunited with his pet. Even if one of them is resistant to the idea of helping a human, a stray called Chief (voiced by Anderson-newcomer Bryan Cranston).
With that synopsis, so far, so Pixar but that is where the comparisons end… with the exception that Trash Island, built up of cubes of rubbish, looks like it was constructed by Wall-E.
Just like his adaptation of Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox, Anderson manages to fill every frame, character and line of dialogue with his unique style and sense of whimsy, quirkiness and humour.
This is clear from the outset when the audience is told that the human characters will speak in their native tongue (Japanese with the odd piece of translation by an interpreter) but all the dogs barks have been changed to English.
This trick puts the audience firmly on the side of the dogs, who are the victims of “fake news” and propaganda from a government who is using the dog flu outbreak to push through their own personal agenda to rid the country of canines before the flu crosses over to the human population. Even to the point of covering up a cure for the disease.
This cover up brings in the second part of the story, which features a group of students investigating the corruption and leading protests against the government, which handily features a foreign exchange student from America (Greta Gerwig, whose tones prove a Great Earwig) to provide a recognisable voice in the fight.
Indeed, the story is much more grown up than Fox and it will be interesting to see what the audience will be for this film as it feels like a more adult tale told within the animation medium.
So in that respects, Anderson has chosen wisely by setting the story in Japan because Studio Ghibli has spent the last few decades making films for families that have very difficult subject matter e.g. My Neighbour Totoro is about loss of a family member, Grave Of The Fireflies is set during the Hiroshima bombing.
However the central crux of the role of man’s best friend in society, the importance of looking after them and rewarding their loyalty is matched with boundless charm and levity by the voice work of a stellar cast of Anderson regulars including Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton and Jeff Goldblum who is hilarious as a gossip-hungry dog whose catchphrase becomes “Did you hear the rumour about…”
Yet it is Bryan Cranston’s scrappy stray Chief who is the Best In Show, going on an arc that is as epic as Noah’s, and all of it is believable thanks to Cranston’s vocal performance.
Also, as strange as it may sound, Isle of Dogs provides what could be 2018’s most flirtatious and sexiest scene of the year… between two stop motion animation dogs as Chief is introduced to show dog Nutmeg voiced by Scarlett Johannson.
But that is just a credit to the outstanding work of the animators and puppet designers who handcrafted each animal to a level of believability that the audience forget they are watching an animation.
The detail on each individual dog is astounding and helps in providing each with its own sense of character and identity.
You know that a filmmaker has achieved the desired effect when an entire auditorium collectively “Awwwws” at the sight of five newborn puppies on screen. Yes, hundreds of people audibly reacting to a puppy made out of plasticine and fur.
The design of the characters and settings provides a Kurosawa feel to the movie, enhanced by Alexandre Desplat’s wonderful score that makes great use of Taiko drumming.
Deftly walking the tightrope of Eastern and Western influences, Anderson has bred a film of the highest pedigree that must already be the favourite to win the Best Animated Film at next year’s Oscars.
Just like the play on words in the title, even the most ardent cat person will come out of Isle Of Dogs boldly exclaiming “I love dogs!”. You would be barking mad to miss it!
This week I had the pleasure of guest starring on The Nerd Party's Filibuster podcast hosted by fellow film fan Lee Hutchison, to talk about all things Duncan Jones related ahead of the release of Mute on Netflix this Friday 23rd February.
You can listen to the two of us talk Moon, Source Code and Warcraft: The Beginninghere.
During the podcast, I talk about an article I wrote for Clothes On Film about the double meaning of the costume design in the film and you can read the full article here.
We'll be returning to the pod booth at the weekend to review Mute so until then you'll find me casually leaning on a lamp post on the corner of the street until a certain little lady walks by...
The BAFTA awards take place this Sunday and while once again the viewing public will have to deal with a two hour delay to watch the ceremony on BBC1, it is time to make my predictions on the winners in the categories that due to Brits being British, could throw up some surprises that we might not see at the Oscars. Plus it is nice to see Blade Runner 2049 get a bit more love and attention as it completely deserves it.
Best Film
Call Me By Your Name Darkest Hour Dunkirk The Shape Of Water Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - Winner
Outstanding Best Film
Darkest Hour The Death Of Stalin God's Own Country - Winner Lady Macbeth Paddington 2 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer
The Ghoul I Am Not A Witch Jawbone Kingdom Of Us Lady Macbeth - Winner
Film Not In The English Language
Elle First They Killed My Father The Handmaiden - Winner Loveless The Salesman
Documentary
City Of Ghosts I Am Not Your Negro - Winner Icarus An Inconvenient Sequel Jane
Animated Film
Coco - Winner Loving Vincent My Life As A Courgette
Director
Guillermo Del Toro - The Shape Of Water Luca Guadagnino - Call Me By Your Name Martin McDonagh - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Christopher Nolan - Dunkirk - Winner Denis Villeneuve - Blade Runner 2049
Original Screenplay
Get Out I, Tonya Lady Bird The Shape Of Water Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - Winner
Adapted Screenplay
Call Me By Your Name - Winner The Death Of Stalin Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool Molly's Game Paddington 2
Leading Actress
Annette Bening - Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool Sally Hawkins - The Shape Of Water - Winner Frances McDormand - Three Billboards Margot Robbie - I, Tonya Saoirse Ronan - Lady Bird
Leading Actor
Jamie Bell - Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool Timothee Chalamet - Call Me By Your Name Daniel Day-Lewis - Phantom Thread Daniel Kaluuya - Get Out Gary Oldman - Darkest Hour - Winner
Supporting Actress
Alison Janney - I, Tonya Lesley Manville - Phantom Thread - Winner Laurie Metcalf - Lady Bird Kristin Scott Thomas - Darkest Hour Octavia Spencer - The Shape Of Water
Supporting Actor
Willem Dafoe - The Florida Project Hugh Grant - Paddington 2 Woody Harrelson - Three Billboards Christopher Plummer - All The Money In The World Sam Rockwell - Three Billboards - Winner
Original Music
Blade Runner 2049 Darkest Hour Dunkirk Phantom Thread The Shape Of Water - Winner
Cinematography
Blade Runner 2049 - Winner Darkest Hour Dunkirk The Shape Of Water Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Editing
Baby Driver - Winner Blade Runner 2049 Dunkirk The Shape Of Water Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Production Design
Beauty And The Beast Blade Runner 2049 - Winner Darkest Hour Dunkirk The Shape Of Water
Costume Design
Beauty And The Beast Darkest Hour I, Tonya Phantom Thread - Winner The Shape Of Water
Make Up & Hair
Blade Runner 2049 Darkest Hour - Winner I, Tonya Victoria & Abdul Wonder
Sound
Baby Driver Blade Runner 2049 Dunkirk - Winner The Shape of Water Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Special Visual Effects
Blade Runner 2049 Dunkirk The Shape Of Water Star Wars: The Last Jedi War For The Planet Of The Apes - Winner EE Rising Star Award Timothee Chalamet Daniel Kaluuya - Winner Josh O'Connor Florence Pugh Tessa Thompson
The road to Avengers: Infinity War marches on with the Marvel Studios' 18th film since the Marvel Cinematic Universe began with Iron Man ten years ago in 2008.
With 18 films under their belts, it could be easy for Marvel to rest on their laurels and produce carbon copies of their greatest hits time and time again. Instead they are taking bigger and bigger risks.
After all, this is the company that gave us a movie starring a talking raccoon and a tree monster and a Flash Gordon-esque Thor sequel from the director of What We Do In The Shadows.
There are only two things they are still to achieve:
1) We still don't have a female-led solo movie yet. We have to wait till 2019 and Captain Marvel for that, and is the only thing that DC can claim they have bettered Marvel at.
2) A MCU origin film that doesn't end with two CGI characters beating the crap out of each other.
While Black Panther might not buck the trend in this department, it represents a huge leap forward in other ways and could be one of the most significant cultural events in Hollywood.
Writer-director Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Creed) brings Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa back to his home country of Wakanda for his coronation as King and take on the mantle of Black Panther following his father's death in Captain America: Civil War.
To tell this story, Coogler has assembled an incredible cast of veterans, rising stars and two "Tolkien" white guys. It is truly an embarrassment of riches that include Oscar winners Forest Whitaker & Lupita N'Yongo, nominees Angela Bassett & Daniel Kayuula and Emmy winner Sterling K. Brown.
It is impossible to overstate how important this moment in cinema could be. To have so many people of colour in the leading roles in a mainstream movie outside of Madea marks a welcome change and not only that, it passes the Bechdel Test with flying colours. The four leading women are all strong, independent queens, warriors, spies and inventors who are not sidelined in a wasted romantic subplot.
All this looks to deliver a bumper box office weekend as the audience, often underserved by Hollywood, come out in force. It's just a shame that the final product doesn't quite live up to the hype, instead coming in around mid-tier Marvel and plays out like a standard superhero origin tale.
The early signs are promising with the first half playing out like a Bond movie with Boseman as the gentlemen spy supplied with Vibranium powered gadgets by his precocious little sister Shuri who is a teenage Q and played with gleeful delight by Letitia Wright. The action jet sets around the globe from a daring robbery in London to a casino shootout and car chase in Busan with Martin Freeman's Everett Ross as Felix Lighter and Ulysses Klaue as the accented, maniacal super villain. Having spent so many years hidden underneath CGI and a motion capture suit, he is clearly relishing the chance to ham it up in front of the camera, and get time for a Hobbit reunion with Bilbo.
The issues come when the action returns to the CG heavy Wakanda and the real plot and villain in the form of Michael B. Jordan's Eric "Killmonger" come to the fore and the film switches from a spy movie to Marvel's version of TheLionKing, with a prince battling to regain the throne from an evil relative following the death of his father.
The central struggle between T'Challa and Killmonger comes from an interesting place in that both want to advance the fortunes of Wakanda albeit from different perspectives and methods. One wants the country to do more through outreach and development while the other wants to provide arms to have communities rise up against their oppressors. This is Boseman's stoic MLK vs Jordan's charasmatic Malcolm X.
At the heart of it is a fascinating struggle but the power is somewhat lost as it descends into a standard Marvel third act which includes a mass CG brawl involving war rhinos, a one-on-one fight that could have been cut straight out of TronLegacy and story beats right of the original IronMan playbook.
It might follow the superhero formula but this is a standalone film with very few references to the wider MCU so the casual filmgoer can enjoy it for what it is without worrying too much about how it sets things up for InfinityWar.
This is a superhero film straight outta Wakanda but this reviewer has a feline that BlackPanther will, like the lion, find it's roar in the future.
On paper, the design of Phantom Thread suggests a masterpiece. A creation of such exquisite beauty that it could grace the front of cover of Vogue as a work of art.
You have Paul Thomas Anderson. Writer & director of some of the greatest American movies of the last twenty years (Boogie Nights, Magnolia, The Master). And the man who won an Oscar as Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood, Daniel Day-Lewis in his final acting performance before retiring.
Only time will tell if this "retirement" is a definitive one or a Steven Soderbergh retirement.
However this tale of a tortured genius whose latest muse threatens to destroy everything he has created left this reviewer with a feeling of confusion and befuddlement.
It was a similar reaction as to seeing a haute couture, high end fashion statement come towards you on the catwalk. You can appreciate the time and effort and creativity that went into its creation but it leaves you wondering who on earth it is actually aimed at and who would wear it.
The film at times feels like it could become FiftyShadesOfGrey if it had been written and filmed by Merchant Ivory.
Day-Lewis's wonderfully monikered Reynolds Woodcock is a fashion designer whose creative genius is contained, controlled and channelled by his sister Cyril (Lesley Manville). A woman not above removing distractions and obstacles to his work, even if that includes his girlfriends.
It is clear who wears the tailored trousers in that relationship, as evidenced by one of the best lines of dialogue of 2018 when she warns him "Don't pick a fight with me, you certainly won't come out alive. I'll go right through you and it'll be you who ends up on the floor. Understand?"
Yet the Woodcock's perfectly patterned lives will soon be thrown into disarray when Reynolds discovers the young and beautiful Alma, who becomes his new muse. A fiery, fiesty character who doesn't need a corset to give her a backbone. Vicky Krieps gives as good as she gets and goes toe to toe with the formidable Day-Lewis, particularly during a dinner argument over asparagus.
The film is rather threadbare on plot but it doesn't need it. This is a character study sumptuously scored by Jonny Greenwood. One of a twisted and tangled love triangle where if the phantom thread is continually pulled, the whole thing will start to unravel. Phantom Thread is like that stunning piece of clothing that you see in the shop window, convinced it will be perfect but when you get home and finally try it on, it just doesn't fit right. You wear it out once, just to check if it works but ultimately you'll return home to put it in your wardrobe never to be worn again.
