Voice of Silence

Voice of Silence is a comedy crime caper about a mute guy, Tae-in, and his pal who get lumbered with a wean that is being held hostage as part of a kidnapping. Tae-in is not a bad guy, he’s just working for the only business employing in the area, namely a crime family. Usually he…

The Masque of the Red Death

Just a great movie. Over half a century on, it still holds up. The score, the set design, the costume, the scares, Vincent Price’s performance, all fantastic. I remember when I watched this as a wean, it always scared me the old woman rolling over all bloody, her eyes wild. It’s still ghastly now. This…

Limbo

What a fucking great movie! I laughed until my vision greyed. My favourite film of the festival so far. I highly recommend you take the chance to see this. Just perfect. The dry, dead-pan comedy is just dead on, combining the asylum process’s Kafkaesque absurdity with the dark Scottish sense of humour. At one point…

Sweetheart

Sweetheart is a coming-of-age first love story set in a crap British caravan resort. Reminded me of holidays at Southerness, enjoying it so much I’d hide in my bedroom wardrobe reading pick-you-own-adventure books. In some ways Sweetheart is like a 21st century British John Hughes film, about one life-changing summer. There’s something so timelessly naive…

BIG vs SMALL

BIG vs SMALL follows Joana Andrade, a professional surfer, and the first Portuguese woman to surf the waves at Nazare, where the waves can reach up to 80ft tall. Andrade at 5ft 1″ cuts a small silhouette by comparison against these monstrous waves. Andrade is frank about the fear she feels regarding tackling these giants.…

Eye of the Storm

My favourite bit in this is when he tells of getting the first exhibitions of his work, this wee Glasgow fella, son of a shipyard worker, and his painting is hanging in Kelvingrove Museum. It’s of Athole Gardens, which is on a slope, so the buildings look all askew in the frame. And there he…

The Swordsman

South Korean samurai movie. Go-hor-geous! A full on eyegasm. From the opening title sequence, I was every kind of Here For It. Kingsguard Tae-yul is unable to stop the deposition of his king, but spirits his daughter away into the mountains, out of harm’s way. Raising her as his own, they live in peace, until…

Handsome

Eeeeeee. A profoundly uncomfortable watch. Handsome is a documentary about Nick and his brother Alex, who has Down’s Syndrome, as they talk to other siblings in the UK, USA, India and Vietnam about providing lifelong daily care for a sibling with Down’s. So, as someone with lifelong mental health issues, my teeth are immediately set…