Top Ten Things To See At Glasgow Film Festival 2018

Last night Glasgow Film Festival announced the full line up for this year and boy have that delivered once again.
Not only does the festival feature five of my 18 Most Anticipated Films of 2018 but over 330 events and screenings will take place in a variety of venues across the city including 13 World and European premieres, 77 UK premieres, 52 Scottish premieres and some incredibly special  event screenings.
The full brochure can be viewed and downloaded here but for now, here are my top ten screenings you should grab a ticket for when they go on sale at 10.00am on Monday 29th January*

*NB - not including the Opening Gala of Isle of Dogs as it is completely sold out!

Dawn Of The Dead

Sunday 25th February

1978's Dawn Of The Dead helped to define the zombie genre as we know it, as well as being a prescient social satire on consumerism. Glasgow Film Festival pride themselves on delivering some of the very best pop-up and interactive Event Cinema experiences each year and you can enjoy a 40th anniversary screening of this horror classic after evading zombies around the city centre in an interactive treasure hunt towards the film's secret location.

Die Hard

Friday 23rd & Saturday 24th February

The greatest Christmas film ever made is so good, you can even enjoy it in an office building in Glasgow in the middle of February. Welcome to the party pal!

Ghost Stories

Thursday 1st March

Frightfest returns to GFT for another two days of heart-pounding horror on the 2nd & 3rd March but it kicks off on the Thursday with the Scottish premiere of Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson's terrifying screen adaptation of their chilling stage show Ghost Stories. Nyman & Dyson will be there to introduce the film and take part in a Q&A following the screening.

Groundhog Day

Thursday 22nd February - Saturday 3rd March

One of the most frustrating things about a festival is that a film will generally only have one or two screenings and the times may clash with something else so you will inevitably miss something you really want to see. Well #GFF18 have thought of a genius and elegant solution to seeing a classic film during the festival. Because Groundhog Day will play every day from 22nd February to 3rd March at same time in the same place!

In Person: Ben Wheatley

Sunday 4th March

GFF favourite Ben Wheatley returns to the festival where he has debuted Down Terrace, High-Rise and Free Fire. This year he doesn't have a film to premiere so instead expect a hugely entertaining interview and Q&A as he talks about his career to date.

Lucky

Sunday 25th & Monday 26th February

Star of Alien, Repo Man and Pretty In Pink, Harry Dean Stanton was one of the finest character actors to ever grace the silver screen. Lucky is his final big screen performance and a fitting swansong to his immense talents and starring with his longtime collaborator David Lynch.

Sicilian Ghost Story

Thursday 1st & Friday 2nd March

A real-life Mafia kidnapping is transformed into a gothic, supernatural fantasy with echoes of Pan's Labyrinth as a young girl Luna attempts to find out what happened to her classmate Giuseppe when he is kidnapped by the Mafia to silence his father.

Surprise Film

Wednesday 28th February

Let the speculation begin! The annual surprise film screening always has people chipping in their two cents worth of opinions over what people might see. In the past the surprises have included The Voices, Love & Friendship and The Lost City Of Z. Personally, this year I'm thinking I, Tonya or The Leisure Seeker.

The Party's Just Beginning

Saturday 24th & Sunday 25th Febuary

Between filming the huge box office blockbusters Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle and Avengers: Infinity War, the incredibly busy and talented Karen Gillan has found the time to write and direct her first feature film set in her hometown of Inverness. The story of a young woman coming to terms with the loss of a friend will debut at the festival with Gillan taking to the red carpet to introduce the film.

You Were Never Really Here

Friday 23rd & Saturday 24th February

Director Lynne Ramsay will receive a hero's welcome when she returns to her home town with her hard-boiled, brutal tale of Joaquin Phoenix's avenger Joe tasked with rescuing a Senator's daughter from the sex trade... by any means necessary.

Also bonus points for calling a strand of Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian film Pure Baltic!

Edge Of Tomorrow - review

By the end of the first act of Edge Of Tomorrow, it is clear that it isn't your typical Tom Cruise movie as it has him dying on the beach at Normandy with an alien's blood eating through his face.

Suddenly we snap back to earlier that day when Cruise wakes up again in Army custody being sent to the front line for the final battle against an alien invasion.

Stuck in a Groundhog D-Day-style time loop he is forced to relive the same day over and over again every time he dies.

It gives Cruise one of his best roles in recent years, with a character arc that sees him change from a weasely, Army PR man with a shit-eating grin to battle-hardened warrior.

After going through the five stages of grief/loss upon reliving the same situation again and again: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance, he works towards a Phil Connors-style redemption and seeks to have the perfect day and defeat the enemy and break the cycle.

Surely this can't fit into the Tom Cruise plot device where he is a successful soldier who suffers from a crisis of confidence before the love of a beautiful women teaches him that he can be a great soldier again...

Well, sort of.

While he doesn't start off as a great warrior (he can't even turn the safety off on his exo-suit), he discovers that the Army's most decorated soldier Rita Vrataski aka "Full Metal Bitch" previously had the same alien power and she trains him up to become a "Full Metal Jack Reacher", part of which includes one of the best training montages since Team America which revolves around Blunt repeatedly shooting Cruise in the face.

Blunt is an forceful and intimidating presence. Cold and steely to begin with before opening up the more Cruise interacts with her character.

She will inspire a lot of women to Cosplay as The Angel of Verdun and was potentially a new strong female sci-fi icon in the mould of Ripley and Sarah Connor. Personally I would have just liked to see a bit more of her in action to provide evidence of her legendary fighting skills.

Edge Of Tomorrow is up there with Scott Pilgrim Vs The World as the best movie based on video games only they are not based on actual video games.

It unfolds like an incredibly difficult third person platform shooter that doesn't have the benefit of auto-save points. One mistake can cost you your life and you get zapped back to the start where you have to do it all over again from the very beginning.

Like a video game it can get frustrating and repetitive to begin with but it handles it with great pace and humour, particularly the interactions with Bill Paxton's gruff Sergeant Farell.

Soon advancing through the game becomes like muscle memory (Cruise and Blunt talk through the battle time and time again choreographing their movements) and you breeze through it in no time until you come up to a new section you need to master.

Each new section comes with its own challenges and the screenplay plays nicely with the audience and characters. Is this the first time they have been here or not?

Like Tom's previous venture into science fiction Oblivion, this films wears its influence on the sleeves of its exo-suits with echoes of Starship Troopers, Aliens and Source Code.

Yet unlike Oblivion, you are not constantly comparing it to the originals and it really works on its own merits right up until the end which doesn't really work with what has come before and threatens to collapse in on itself like a giant plot black hole.

If it wasn't for the misstep at the end, this really could have Edged it as the most enjoyable blockbuster of the summer. Best start over and try again!

4 stars