Ross Miller picks out a top 10 from the Glasgow Film Festival's offering...
Mid90s
JONAH Hill’s directorial debut kicked the festival off in style. It trades in a very specific kind of nostalgia, very much feeling like it’s informed by Hill’s own childhood as it follows 13-year-old Stevie’s (Sunny Suljic) attempts to navigate the trials and tribulations of being a young impressionable teenager and charming his way into a group of older boys who spend their time skateboarding around LA.
Even as it skates along some familiar routes, Hill does so with a refreshing precision, fine-tuning this rose-tinted adventure with an engrossing aesthetic. It’s at once hilarious and pathos-filled and compassionate in its view on a very specific era and period of adolescence and a pure joy to experience.
The Sisters Brothers
FRENCH director Jacques Audiard (A Prophet, Rust and Bone) makes his English-language debut with this oddball Western that really makes the most of an eclectic cast. Joaquin Phoenix and John C Reilly are perfect playing the titular brotherly assassins in 1850s Oregon on a mission to hunt down gold prospector Hermann Kermit Warm (Riz Ahmed), a man also being tracked by eccentric scout John Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal). From its intentionally awkward title, nothing about this Western fits neatly into the moulds we’ve come to expect with the genre. But that’s a large part of why it’s such a delight. With bouts of violence standing in striking contrast to the film’s sumptuous visual style, it’s a playful, spiky and erratic cinematic escapade that benefits from a stellar cast clearly relishing being able to play such volatile men mired in various stages of existential crises.
The Hole in the Ground
THE Babadook and Spanish chiller, The Orphanage, are just some of the palpable influences coursing through the veins of this impressive feature-debut from writer-director Lee Cronin about young mother Sarah (Seana Kerslake) who moves into a new remote Irish home. After encountering both a disturbed neighbour and a mysterious giant hole in the middle of the nearby woods, she starts suspecting that something may be wrong with her young son Chris (James Quinn Markey). Talk of it being this year’s Hereditary turned out to be unfounded, but it digs out a striking place in Irish horror with skin-crawling effectiveness, mounting one unsettling set-piece after another to the tune of a consistently unnerving atmosphere.
Dragged Across Concrete
FOLLOWING the brutally violent one-two punch of Bone Tomahawk and Brawl in Cell Block 99, director S Craig Zahler returns with this lengthy, tough-talking, neo-noir-tinged pulp fiction. Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn make for a surprisingly effective pairing as a couple of tough-as-nails cops who, following their suspension due to a penchant for excessive force, take it upon themselves to investigate a case while eyeing a quick payday they feel is rightfully theirs after years of hard work.
While it’s rarely as graphic as the director’s previous work, a sense of ruthlessness and foreboding brutality pervades throughout, eschewing swift pacing and high-speed thrills for slow-burning character drama along a sliding scale of immorality. It contains many-a-scene that won’t be easily shaken from the mind.
At Eternity’s Gate
WILLEM Dafoe was justifiably nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his chameleonic performance as famed artist Vincent Van Gogh in this impressionistic film from director Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly). To call it a biopic is only a half truth as it diverts the viewer down idiosyncratic paths of interpretation via letters, hearsay and plain old creative invention.
The result is stirring and unforgettable, from its visual palette evoking Van Gogh’s unique artistic style to Dafoe’s dramatically anchoring, fascinatingly unpredictable performance. Schnabel creates a soulful portrayal of the psyche of a clearly tortured man as much which leaves no doubt as to why he’s so revered.
Under the Silver Lake
SINCE leaving the Spider-Man franchise, Andrew Garfield has taken on fun and challenging roles. Director David Robert Mitchell’s follow-up to acclaimed horror It Follows is certainly no different. Garfield plays a millennial version of The Dude from The Big Lebowski who finds himself embroiled in a decidedly bizarre, anarchic mystery after his beautiful neighbour goes missing. Feeling like someone has dunked 21st century bewilderment in skulking 1950s Hollywood noir, it’s absolutely not for everyone, but wade into its kooky waters with open arms and you’ll find something consistently unpredictable, creative, hilarious and unique. An unconventional gem that has future cult classic written all over it.
Eighth Grade
WHAT is it like to be a 13-year-old girl in a society where likes, shares and views are the valued currency of a generation? With this remarkable debut, stand-up sensation Bo Burnham invites us into that world to envelop us in the day-to-day life of introverted but friendly teenager Kayla Day (Elsie Fisher). She spends her time creating videos where she shares tips on life as she sees it. Proving herself as one of the most exciting young talents around, Elsie Fisher gives an extraordinarily open-hearted, beguiling and believably awkward performance, working in harmony with Burnham’s observant, honest script and sensitive direction to create something with a ring of painful, awkward and ultimately beautiful truth about it.
Hotel Mumbai
THIS harrowing thriller dramatises the infamous 2008 terrorist attacks on the prestigious Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai where hundreds of people (staff, locals and tourists alike) were either killed or taken hostage. The film follows various different hostages – including staff member Arjun (Dev Patel) and honeymooners and new parents Zahra (Nazanin Boniadi) and David (Armie Hammer) – as they do their best to stay hidden. Something like this could very easily come off as exploitative, but the drama is handled with a deft mixture of tact and never shies away from the brutal reality of their situation. It’s never an easy watch but nor should it be, giving us an uncompromising look at a recent tragedy that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Arctic
WITH his compelling feature debut, director Joe Penna shows why survival thrillers are such a stalwart of cinema. We follow one man (Mads Mikkelsen) stranded in the Arctic after a plane crash. When a rescue helicopter also crashes, he finds an injured woman on board, quickly deciding to make a perilous journey on foot to find rescue. Penna creates a keen sense of what it means to be stuck in the middle of nowhere with nothing but your wits to survive the harsh conditions, bringing a sense of gritty believability as he delivers some truly teeth-clenching scenes of tension. Mikkelsen only elevates its power, providing a stoic presence and a welcome dose of emotional pathos.
Gloria Bell
THE unexpected but warmly-received choice for this year’s Surprise Film is a shrewdly self-aware character dramedy from fame director Sebastian Lelio (A Fantastic Woman, Disobedience). The incomparable Julianne Moore gives a stunning performance as the eponymous free-spirited mother and divorcee looking for love in her 50s, eventually starting a complex relationship with Arnold (John Turturro) after the two meet at an LA club.
A remake of Lelio’s own 2013 Chilean film, there’s something so wonderfully full of life about this depiction of middle-aged romance, something warm and soothing in the beautiful way it’s shot, disarmingly-comforting in its aptitude for laugh-out-loud observational comedy and awkward character interactions to the point where the unexpected, hard-hitting emotional twists and turns sting potently.
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