cinema

Film review: Teenage Sex & Death at Camp Miasma

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During a period in which we’ve seen resurrections of iconic franchises such as Scream, Halloween, and Evil Dead, writer and director Jane Schoenbrun presents a satirical take on this concept with their latest feature, Teenage Sex & Death at Camp Miasma. The psychological thriller follows indie filmmaker Kris (Hannah Einbinder) who has been hired to reboot a cult 80s horror series. As part of her prep, she arranges a meeting with reclusive actress Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson), the ‘final girl’ from the original who now lives on its abandoned set somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. The pair soon grow close and when they dig out an old VHS tape of the first film, the lines between fiction and reality become chaotically blurred.

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cinema · EIFF26

Film review: Her Private Hell

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 His neon-soaked pictures are often critiqued as ‘style over substance’ and after a decade away from the big screen, Danish auteur Nicolas Winding Refn is back to polarize audiences again with his latest effort, Her Private Hell. The sci-fi psychological thriller follows actress Elle (Sophie Thatcher) who meets influencer Hunter (Kristine Froseth) ahead of their shoot on a new film by her problematic filmmaker father, Johnny Thunders (Dougray Scott). As he skips town, encouraging Elle to bury the hatchet with her stepmother Dominique (Havana Rose Liu), she crosses paths with a brooding G.I. known as Private K (Charles Melton) who is searching for his own daughter.

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cinema · EIFF26

Film review: The Last Resort

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 An idyllic family holiday takes a sinister turn in The Last Resort, the latest drama from Norwegian director and co-writer Maria Sødahl. It follows Danish married couple Louise (Danica Ćurčić) and Mikkel (Esben Smed) who are enjoying a well-earned break in Gran Canaria with their young daughters Sille (Sif Lucca Gersby) and Ella (Chili Olivia Jensen). One evening while driving back to their digs, they hear a thud as they hit Afghan refugee Ahmad (Aziz Çapkurt) in the road. They give him some cash and drive him to the nearest hospital but as their victim turns up at their luxury hotel the following day to ask for more money, their dream getaway soon becomes a living nightmare.

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cinema · EIFF26 · Interviews

Capsized Interview: Lindsey Ryan – “It’s come at a time where audiences are craving these types of movies”.

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Filmmaking can be a challenge at the best of times so to craft your feature debut mostly on a boat with an ensemble cast displays real ambition. This was the task ahead of NY-based director Lindsey Ryan who has brought her comedy drama Capsized to premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival. It stars Lily Rabe and Rhys Ifans and follows a hard-up Irish-American family who are facing eviction so they take an abrupt vacation on their houseboat. I was fortunate enough to sit down with the director to discuss the piece…

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cinema · EIFF26

Film review: Extra Geography

Garry ArnotLeave a comment

Exciting acting talent has been introduced to the big screen in the feature debut from director Molly Manners. Based on Rose Tremain’s 2007 book of the same name, coming-of-age comedy drama Extra Geography follows teenage besties Flic (Marni Duggan) and Minna (Galaxie Clear) through an eventful term at their all-girls boarding school in Yorkshire. Joint at the hip, the pair concoct a summer project to “fall in love” but their alliance is challenged when they audition for the student production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and only one of them gets the part they hoped for.

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cinema · EIFF26

Film review: Capsized

Garry ArnotLeave a comment

This year we’ve already seen Odysseus charter choppy waters to get home on the biggest of screens and in the feature debut from NY-based director Lindsey Ryan, a hard-up Irish-American family plead with Poseidon for good fortune at sea. Loosely inspired by the filmmaker’s own upbringing, comedy drama Capsized follows Diane (Lily Rabe), her husband (Rhy Ifans), their daughter Nicole (Sarah Catherine Hook), son Pat (Griffin Gluck) and the rest of their kids as they take an impromptu vacation on their houseboat. Reeling from the discovery of an eviction notice, they enter a potentially lucrative fishing competition in the hope of turning their luck around.

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cinema · EIFF26

Film review: Bodyhackers

Garry ArnotLeave a comment

‘Surgery is the new sex’ was the suggestive tagline of veteran filmmaker David Cronenberg’s recent body-horror piece Crimes of the Future and this appears to have inspired the latest work from Angolan-Portuguese writer and director, Carlos Conceição. His third feature and notably his English-language debut, Bodyhackers follows Renée Welles (Joana Ribeiro), a former ballerina who becomes obsessed with surgical procedures. After a consultation at a suspiciously dystopian clinic, she meets environmental activist Denver Blake (McCaul Lombardi) who is investigating the dangerous toxins used in their treatments, and the pair embark on an unusual relationship.

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cinema · EIFF26

Film review: The State of Us

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Within the ‘buddy movie’ sub-genre, often the story revolves around one last blowout before one or all of the friends leaves town or goes off to college or university. In comedy drama The State of Us, the feature debut from directorial duo Ollie Gardner and Jake Harvey, the central night out for two working class pals is a matter of life and death.

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cinema · EIFF26 · Interviews

The Mad World of Harvey Kurtzman Interview: Bart Simpson – ‘I didn’t want this to be a puff piece’.

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Keen comic-book fans may well be aware of the satirist magazine MAD that was first published in the 1950s but they might not be so familiar with its creator, Harvey Kurtzman. In the programme notes for the Edinburgh International Film Festival, festival producer Emma Boa states that his “commitment to integrity and challenging the status quo with humour, edge and resilience is a hymn for our times”. With his sophomore feature, documentary filmmaker Bart Simpson paints a vivid portrait of the man behind the MADness and ‘The Mad World of Harvey Kurtzman’ celebrates its world premiere in Edinburgh. I was fortunate to sit down with the director Simpson to discuss the piece.

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