Film Review: Nightcrawler (15) (U.S.A. 2014) (Director: Dan Gilroy), The Cameo Cinema Screen One, Edinburgh, Sunday 26.10.2014 11:00 (FREE CAMEO MEMBERS PREVIEW SCREENING) (NOT RELEASED UNTIL FRIDAY 31.10.2014)

This I decided to see due to the level of buzz and the fact it was free for me to go to see. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Lou Bloom, a drifter-bum-chancer who stumbles across 'nightcrawlers' and decides it would be worth his while trying to blag his way into that line of parasitic work. Nightcrawlers are the reprehensible beings that listen in to police signals to find out about crimes to get to as early as possible, to film and sell the footage to news stations.

Jake Gyllenhall is very good as the intensely focused blagger, who is clearly quite happy to spraf hollow shit and quote online-hokum to get where he wants. The portrayal presents the cocky though somehow endearing character who lulls others into a false security of thinking they are smarter than he is and then he turns the tables. Towards the end he nearly takes the manipulating too far, though again knows enough to not be trapped.

The one issue I have with the film is that all of the major characters are morally bankrupt. This certainly includes Mr. Bloom and the head of News within a station called Nina (Rene Russo). Though it is not a stretch to imagine that this may be close to the reality as to how some of these enterprises operate. This can make the film more complex in terms of trying to engage with as it is hard to care for any of the major characters. The only moral relief comes in the forms of  police pursuing Mr. Bloom, who regrettably only get very limited screen time & Mr. Bloom's assistant for most of the film, Rick (Riz Ahmed) is just a desperate schmo trying to hold down work that pays without having to prostitute himself (which sadly in a way he still lands up doing).

The film is engaging and Jake's performance is very impressive, though I feel it is difficult to call this a great film. This is despite the fact that it presents its story without judgement/moral-hand-wringing.

Rating: 09/10.      

Film Review: A Most Wanted Man (15) (U.K./U.S.A./Germany 2014) (Director: Anton Corbjin), Filmhouse, Screen One, Edinburgh, Monday 13.10.2014, 20:30

This is a spy drama based on a novel written by John Le Carre set in Hamburg with Philip Seymour Hoffman in the lead role. This film has had a lot of very glowing responses, I suspect a lot of this is due to the lead being highly regarded before he died. I have to say it was all quite perfunctorily satisfactory. The ticks and gestures done by Hoffman which have often been raised in rave responses appear nothing exceptional to me. All of the micro-gestures done while trying to persuade and appeal, I have seen done by Derren Brown in his performances. It was a perfectly amenable way to spend a Monday eve, though it won't be troubling my memory. 

Rating: (a generous) 06/10.      

Film Review: Ida (12A) (Poland/Denmark 2013) (Director: Pawel Pawlikowski) (Polish with English Subtitles), Filmhouse, Screen Three, Edinburgh, Wednesday 08.10.2014, 20:20

The film is set in 1960's Poland and at the start the focus is upon a girl called Anna who is understood to be an orphan and is raised in a convent. She is getting close to taking her vows, when the nuns insist she goes to visit her only living relative, an aunt. This leads to her finding out that Anna is not her real name, Ida is, and she is Jewish. The rest of the film follows Ida throughout the impact of this and other subsequent discoveries. I don't wish to saw more of the what occurs. 

What I am about to write I have given careful consideration to. This is due to the fact that I have already emailed about and discussed the film with quite a number of friends and colleagues, and also due to the strength of what I am about to write. I don't like being hyperbolic unless I feel it is in some sense warranted...

This film is the finest film I have seen at the cinema this century. It is a masterpiece. So much so that I contemplated going back tonight to see again, though am now going for a 2nd viewing on Saturday eve. The two people who I was there with are also possibly going to come along again. I would go so far as to say that on 1st viewing, it is one of the finest films I have ever scene. 

The film is compact at 82 minutes, though has a fantastically economical and concise approach to its storytelling, with not a single moment wasted. The film is presented in luminous black & white, and every frame is crisp and staggeringly beautiful. Almost every scene has an implicit dichotomy of purpose and approach between the characters. All of these scenes also carry subtle unspoken meanings about identity (both perceived and self), choice & self-determination and how that fits within the wider community and impacts on life's direction. There is a subtlety throughout the film and nothing is presented in a confrontational manner. There is a passage towards the end of the film that is so delicately beautiful that I had tears in my eyes. 

I had a sense by the end, that in some ways is beyond description, that the film covers all essential elements of life. 

When I did the review of '12 years a slave' at the start of the year I thought it would be nigh on impossible for there to be another film out in the same year which would be as important and as good. How wrong I was. This is truly profound art, that in no way would I wish to sully with a rating.  

Live Performance Review: Billy Connolly: High Horse Tour Scotland 2014, Saturday 04.10.2014 20:00, The Usher Hall, Edinburgh 

This is the third time I have had the pleasure of seeing Connolly live, having first see in '94 and then again in '97. The first time was in Eden Court Theatre with my mum when I was in my final year of school, the second was at the Playhouse in Edinburgh. Connolly was infused into the fabric of my childhood, listening to his early material on tapes while being driven around by our dad, trying to listen through the upstairs floorboards as to what he is saying in the latest recording of the telly. 

As time moved on Connolly lost his position as my favorite comedian, though he has always remained a performer who I feel very fond off. I had in recent times began to think that he had begun to tame his material, which I felt was disappointing. To be blunt I only got the ticket for this show as strongly suspect that this may well be his final tour with his varying aliments. 

2 & 1/4 Hours with no break; still one of the best chucklemisters in the bizz. It was quite clear that his movement is restricted at times and there was no attempt to hide that he was using a note of prompts. None of the signs of frailty remained in the mind for long, as Connolly is still as mentally sharp and profanely off-the-leash as ever. Physical spasms and stitches; it's does one good to get that experience every once in a while. 

Rating (without hesitation): 10/10.   

Live Performance Review: Still Game: Live At The Hydro,  The SSE Hydro, Glasgow, Friday 03.10.2014, 19:30

Still Game is a situation comedy set in the fictional Glasgow burgh of Craiglang. It is a programme I was always fond of, though my fondness has certainly grown over the years. The creative hub of the show, Greg Hemphill ('Victor McDade') & Ford Kiernan ('Jack Jarvis') were previously responsible for Chewing the Fat, which I actively disliked many parts of. I feel this was a large part of why my initial fondness for the programme had space to grow. 

This is a live show that I was not aware of wanting to go until the show was announced. I have already come across someone who thought it was the funniest thing they had seen. Sadly much as I enjoyed it, I cant be as generous as that. 

I think firstly I will start with the negatives. In the row directly behind me I had what was clearly a drunk, possibly inbred family, who for the entirety of the first have of the show were holding their own fairly loud inane conversation; loud enough that I actually missed parts of what were being said on stage. They were ignorant to the degree that when being signaled to please zip-it, they pretended to have no idea what was meant. In the second half their was a gap where the worst offenders previously where; hopefully they were taken out and shot.

I also did wonder how they would stretch what is usually a programme just under 1/2 an hour to a performance which is approx 2 Hours and 10 Minutes approx. Essentially it was a very flimsy outline about ensuring one of the central characters, Jack, could contribute to his daughter retaking her vows in Canada, and engineering a new-super-duper prosthetic leg for the character Winston (Paul Riley). 

What I enjoyed most about it was having the opportunity to see the characters of Isa (Jane McCarry) & Naveed (Sanjeev Kohli) just being those characters. 

I would not in anyway say it was side-splitting and it certainly did not have the same ability as the original programmes to make you hoot with laughter. It was mildly chucklesome throughout. It didn't drag and had some nice surprise aspects. I am glad I went, though would now like them to return to making good episodes for the television, as that is still clearly the format this works best in.

Rating: 06/10.     

Film Review: Gone Girl (18) (U.S.A. 2014) (Director: David Fincher), The Cameo Cinema Screen One, Edinburgh, Thursday 02.10.2014 20:30

This is the new David Fincher film, the one about the wife who goes missing and the community, media and police suspect the husband. David Fincher has not misfired often in his career, being the director behind such great films as 'Seven' (1995), 'Fight Club' (1999) & my personal favorite of his, 'Zodiac' (2007). In my opinion, on first viewing, this is an equal to 'Zodiac'. By the end of the film, I found my self wanting to return to the start, to see if there signs/clues that I had not noticed before. The film is 2 & 1/2 Hours long, though it zips by, so much so that by about half way in I was aware of not having moved my body at all for the first half, and by then had numb-bum. 

I don't really wish to say anything about the content of the film beyond the initial premise I covered in the first sentence above. The film is flawlessly constructed and acted, particularly with Ben Affleck playing the role of the husband who is hard to warm to, and most notably Rosamund Pike as the inscrutable wife. I heard someone say on late-night radio a couple of evenings previous that the performance from Rosamund was going to be a game-changer in terms of her career. I have to concur completely with this reaction. With a lesser performance the film would have been in danger of not working nearly so well. Rosamund is the mesmerising centre of the film. 

There are at least three occasions where there are big, plausible twists that I did not see coming. It is such a finely balanced film, that I found sympathies oscillating back and forth. By the end sympathies are still there, though they have taken a bashing. 

The film is a very good portrayal of the regrettable narcissism that can be at the centre of people who are involved in such situations & members of the media and community that fixate and obsess over such local tragedies; and by their focus assist to perpetuate such crimes being committed. Again, as with most films I particularly appreciate, there is no easy tied-up ending. The ending is actually quite uncomfortable and claustrophobic. Though given all that had preceded it in the film, it has the right ending. 

When I heard this film was being released I was unsure, the combination of the Ben & Fincher initially did not appeal. Affleck is one who I generally feel cautious about (don't get me started on the prospect of him being the new Batman) and Fincher has not always struck gold, examples being 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' (2011) (not a patch on the Swedish original) & 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' (2008). Essentially the film was getting such high chat and praise I became curious and I'm glad I did. This is easily in my top three films of the year so far. 

I cannot recommend this highly enough.   

Rating: 10/10.