Ridley Scott made his directorial debut with The Duellists back in 1977, set during the Napoleonic Wars, and now returns to that period of history nearly half a century later with his latest feature. Focusing on the small man behind the big conflicts, Napoleon sees Joaquin Phoenix in the titular role for the story of the emperor’s epic rise and fall. Written by screenwriter David Scarpa, his military exploits are woven into the turbulent tale of his marriage to Joséphine de Beauharnais (Vanessa Kirby), providing a study of the controversial character away from the brutality of the battlefield.
Filmmaker Emerald Fennell has spent most of her career in front of the camera, known for her television roles in Call the Midwife and The Crown. A few years ago, Promising Young Woman was released; a bold, divisive debut that marked her as a writer and director to be reckoned with. Her follow-up feature is Saltburn, a black comedy thriller set in the mid-noughties.
In amongst news of lockdowns and vaccinations, 2021 also saw the short squeeze on shares of dwindling retailer GameStop make the headlines, leading to the ‘war on Wall Street’ between everyday stock sellers and major hedge fund managers. Based upon the best-selling book The Antisocial Network by Ben Mezrich, this inspiring true story has been adapted for the big screen by director Craig Gillespie. Comedy drama Dumb Money centres around analyst turned YouTube celebrity Keith Gill (Paul Dano) who encouraged his online audience to invest in the video game store under his internet alias Roaring Kitty. Through the personal stories of nurse Jennifer (America Ferrara), students Harmony (Talia Ryder) and Riri (Myha’la Herrold), businessman Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogen) and more, the film explores the ripple effects of this controversial financial advice.
Everybody of a certain age remembers the craze of the BlackBerry phone, marking the beginning of the smartphone obsessed era we’re still living in today. However, not everybody will know the story behind the device. Based upon Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff’s book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry, independent filmmaker Matt Johnson brings the tale to the big screen in his trademark mockumentary style as a writer, director, and as an actor. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to discuss the film with him…
Following on from 2021’s origins prequel, the sixth instalment in this gritty British crime saga is Rise of the Footsoldier: Vengeance. Directed by Nick Nevern, this chapter is set in 90s Soho and sees Craig Fairbrass reprising his role as the vicious gangster Pat Tate. Ahead of its release, I jumped at the opportunity to sit down with the actor to discuss the film…
The last time we spoke (our 2022 interview), you mentioned that you enjoyed switching into ‘Pat Tate mode’ for these films. How was that process this time around and were there any big differences to the previous times you’ve played him?
He’s much more of a thinking man in this film. He’s calculating, putting two and two together, and he’s on a mission for revenge. It’s just different, and there’s a little more depth to him in this film. He’s not just running around shouting and screaming and swearing and snorting cocaine and beating people up. You know him a little bit more, but he has the physicality and the violence that goes with it.
Beginning with the brutal retelling of the Rettendon murders, the Footsoldier franchise has since spanned nearly two decades, expanding the saga from true crime into fiction. The sixth instalment, Rise of the Footsoldier: Vengeance is a direct sequel to 2021’s origins prequel and sees actor-turned-filmmaker Nick Nevern return to the director’s chair. Craig Fairbrass reprises his role as Essex hardman Pat Tate who’s out for revenge when one of his loyal footsoldiers is brutally murdered in mysterious circumstances. Crossing paths with Sam (Jamie Foreman), David (Phil Davis), and Fergus (Stephen McCole) in the seedy underbelly of 90s Soho, he will stop at nothing to track down his friend’s killer.
After his seminal novel Trainspotting was published in 1993, the debut work of Irvine Welsh quickly became a cultural phenomenon, spawning theatre productions, the iconic film by Danny Boyle, sequels, and soon it’ll be turned into a stage musical. Other books of his such as The Acid House, Filth, and Crime have since been adapted for the screen and his writing has become instantly recognisable around the world due to its dark humour and Scottish dialect.
Taking a closer look at the man behind the material, documentary Beyond Trainspotting (previously titled Choose Irvine Welsh) celebrates the life and work of the author. Ahead of its premiere at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, I sat down with Irvine Welsh and the film’s director Ian Jefferies to discuss the piece…
Robert Louis Stevenson’s gothic novella has been retold on the stage and screen countless times and is so familiar to us that the title itself has become part of our vernacular. The latest adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde comes from director Hope Dickson Leach, combining mediums in a bold hybrid vision, first shown as a live experience at Leith Theatre in collaboration with the National Theatre of Scotland. Reimagined as an Edinburgh-based noir, Lorn Macdonald stars as Gabriel Utterson, a legal practitioner who turns detective when his friend Dr. Jekyll (Henry Pettigrew) abruptly changes his will, leaving everything he owns to the mysterious Mr. Hyde.
Around twenty years ago, writer and director Shane Meadows made psychological thriller Dead Man’s Shoes and it changed his life. The film premiered at Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2004 and has gone on to become a cult classic amongst film fanatics. Paddy Considine co-wrote the screenplay and also stars as Richard, a violent soldier who comes back to his hometown after years away. While he was gone, his vulnerable brother Anthony (Toby Kebbell) was targeted by a local gang fronted by drug dealer Sonny (Gary Stretch), so Richard is out for revenge. This year, Shane Meadows returned to Edinburgh to celebrate the anniversary with a retrospective screening, and I was delighted to chat with him beforehand…
How do you feel about the cult following and legacy that Dead Man’s Shoes now has, decades after it was made?
It’s mad and comes as a real surprise when something like that keeps earning fans. When it first came out, there was another film called Saw that came out literally at the same time. That ended up with sequels and was a bit of a revenge horror thing…so we ended up not being in the cinema for very long and didn’t really make a splash! Then it became one of those films that got handed around on VHS and DVD as the years rolled by. I don’t get recognised a lot but when I do, people want to talk about Dead Man’s Shoes. It’s kind of mind blowing.
Cinema Perspective 