DVD & Digital · GFF26 · Interviews

Couture Interview: Alice Winocour – ‘Angelina used to be a punk in her teenage years but she still is, I think’.

Difficult to define by genre, writer and director Alice Winocour is a self-proclaimed cinephile who wants to explore all types of films. Her latest drama is Couture, which marks her English-language debut and takes place during Paris Fashion Week. Angelina Jolie stars as artist and filmmaker Maxine Walker and the plot gives us a glimpse behind the glitz of the star-studded event as three women face very difficult challenges. After its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival earlier this year, I was lucky enough to sit down with the director to discuss the piece…

It’s noted that your work not only spans various genres but has taken place all over Europe. Your last two films, Couture included, have been set in Paris. What do you think has pulled you back to your home city to tell these stories?

Yeah, actually it’s a good question as to me, my work is so personal and intimate that it always has to be set in a very distant world. I prefer fiction to be far away from me…then I really enjoyed shooting in Paris for Revoir Paris, and it felt very fresh to me. I feel very European as a director, and I’m attracted by European countries in my identity.

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DVD & Digital

Film review: Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man

 After thirteen years, six series, and countless razor-sharp haircuts, creator and screenwriter Steven Knight brings his iconic Birmingham gangsters to the big screen. Directed by Tom Hopper who worked on some of its early television episodes, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man takes place during World War II and sees the great Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) living in self-imposed exile, mourning the loss of loved ones and writing a novel.

 In the city, his son Duke (Barry Keoghan) has taken the reins of the family business and is approached for a lucrative job by fascist politician John Beckett (Tim Roth) who is allied with Nazi Germany. Following desperate pleas from his sister Ada (Sophie Rundle) and the mysterious Kaulo (Rebecca Ferguson), Tommy is forced to return to the life he’d left behind.

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DVD & Digital · GFF26

Film review: Couture

As well as being an actor, filmmaker, and humanitarian, Angelina Jolie is considered a style icon due to her headturning red carpet looks over the years. She heads to Paris Fashion Week for her latest leading role in French drama Couture, written and directed by Alice Winocour. The plot centres around Maxine (Jolie), an American horror director who lands the gig to make a short that will introduce the fashion show. During production she meets teenage model Ada (Anyier Anei), and make-up artist Angèle (Ella Rumpf), and the women’s emotional stories begin to intersect within the harsh underbelly of the event, behind the glitz and the glamour of the runway.

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DVD & Digital · GFF26

Film review: The Good Boy

Off the back of the phenomenal global impact made by TV series Adolescence last year, Stephen Graham portrays another, but very different, complex father in his latest picture, The Good Boy (known by the title Heel in the US). Marking the English-language debut of Polish director Jan Komasa, the story centres around the shocking abduction of teenage tearaway Tommy (Anson Boon) after a raucous night out. Finding himself chained up in the basement of eccentric couple Chris (Graham) and Kathryn (Andrea Riseborough), he is subjected to their unconventional methods of rehabilitation.

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DVD & Digital · GFF26

Film review: One Last Deal

The one-location chamber piece can be a difficult trick to pull off, even more so with just one actor appearing on-screen. This is the challenge presented in the latest feature by Irish director Brendan Muldowney who has garnered acclaim for his ambitious storytelling. Set entirely within a London office suite, psychological drama One Last Deal follows a day in the life of foul-mouthed football agent Jimmy Banks (Danny Dyer), charting his ecstatic highs and miserable lows as he tries to secure a lucrative contract for his top client whilst hoping to salvage his own somewhat disgraced reputation.

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DVD & Digital

Film review: Wasteman

 In the relatively fresh film career of actor David Jonsson, he’s already impressed in rom-com Rye Lane, sci-fi Alien: Romulus, and horror The Long Walk; he was even recognised as BAFTA’s rising star last year too. His latest role comes in prison thriller Wasteman, the directorial debut of artist-turned-filmmaker Cal McMau. It centres around mild-mannered convict Taylor (Jonsson) who, if he keeps his head down, has the opportunity of an early release. However, when his volatile new cellmate Dee (Tom Blyth) arrives, he becomes embroiled in a vicious feud that threatens his chances of parole.

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DVD & Digital

Film review: Is This Thing On?

 Since his attention turned to directing, actor Bradley Cooper has taken on emotionally weighty productions in adapting the much-loved musical A Star is Born and taking on the biopic of one of America’s great composers with Maestro. His third effort is lightweight in comparison, inspired by comedian John Bishop’s unorthodox introduction to stand-up. Comedy drama Is This Thing On? transports his tale from the clubs of Manchester to Manhattan and centres around middle-aged man, Alex Novak (Will Arnett) as his marriage with Tess (Laura Dern) is on the rocks. Having left the family home to find a small apartment in the city, he finds himself at an open mic night and to avoid paying an entrance fee, he puts his name down to perform.

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DVD & Digital

Film review: Twinless

After premiering at Sundance just over a year ago, psychological black comedy Twinless has been decorated with numerous festival awards. It marks the sophomore feature from filmmaker James Sweeney who not only directs, but produces, writes and acts in the piece as well. The story begins at a funeral where thirty-something Roman (Dylan O’Brien) grieves the tragic death of his identical twin brother Rocky, who O’Brien also portrays in flashback sequences. At an emotional support group for twinless twins, he meets Dennis (Sweeney) and the pair strike up an unlikely bond, united in their shared experience of grief. However, as their friendship develops and the plot thickens, we discover that all is not as it seems.

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DVD & Digital

Film review: 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

 It’s been less than a year since this post-apocalyptic zombie series was revived by Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, and Nia DaCosta has taken on the directorial duties for the latest instalment. Bridging the gap between the beginning and end of this sequel trilogy, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple picks up directly where the last one left off. Reeling from the tragic death of his mother, young Spike (Alfie Williams) has been taken under the wing of cult leader Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) and his gang of followers. Meanwhile, Dr Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) forms an unlikely friendship with “Samson” (Chi Lewis-Parry) who has been infected by the ‘rage virus’.

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DVD & Digital

Film review: Marty Supreme

 Still in the relatively early days of their filmmaking career with acclaimed indies such as Good Time and Uncut Gems to their names, it was a surprise when the Safdies announced they would go their separate creative ways. While younger sibling Benny took quite a departure in form with his biographical sports movie The Smashing Machine, elder brother Josh has played the hits to a degree with his own solo directorial debut. A biographical sports movie of sorts in itself, comedy drama Marty Supreme is set in 1950s New York City and follows the relentless efforts of shoe salesman Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) to become a table tennis champion. As childhood friend Rachel (Odessa A’zion), businessman Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary) and actress Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow) become embroiled in his schemes, he risks everything he has to get anything he wants.

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