DVD & Digital

Film review: Blue Sun Palace

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 In recent years we’ve seen a surge in cinema that has tapped into emotional aspects of Asian-American culture and identity, with the likes of Lulu Wang’s poignant comedy The Farewell, Lee Isaac Chung’s family tale Minari, and Celine Song’s complex romance Past Lives. An arthouse entry into this niche space is Blue Sun Palace, a social-realist drama from writer and director Constance Tsang. Taking place within the Chinese community of Queen’s, New York, the story follows Didi (Haipeng Xu), Amy (Ke-Xi Wu), and Cheung (Kang-sheng Lee) as they navigate life, love, and loss.

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EIFF24 · Interviews

The Radleys Interview: Kelly Macdonald, Damian Lewis & Euros Lyn – ‘I’m a vampire, I will drink blood, and I will enjoy it!’

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Coming soon to Sky Cinema, Matt Haig’s young adult fantasy novel The Radleys has been adapted for the big screen by filmmaker Euros Lyn. The plot follows teen siblings Rowan (Harry Baxendale) and Clara (Bo Bragason), and their loving parents Helen (Kelly Macdonald) and Peter (Damian Lewis) who live comfortably in seaside suburbia. However, a violent attack after a party leads to a shocking revelation that threatens their tight family unit – they are all vampires.

Ahead of its world premiere at the 77th edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, I was fortunate enough to sit down with Lyn, Macdonald, and Lewis to discuss the piece. “It was great to have Whitby Abbey as a backdrop, giving a nod to Bram Stoker’s Dracula” exclaimed Euros Lyn, who is best known for his work on popular TV series such as Broadchurch, Happy Valley, and Black Mirror. The drama unfolds on the east coast of England in a middle class neighbourhood, with a neat commentary at play aligning ‘settling down’ to Helen and Peter’s decision to abstain from their natural vampiric urges.

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DVD & Digital · EIFF24 · Interviews

The Outrun Interview: Saoirse Ronan, Nora Fingscheidt & Amy Liptrot – ‘It was important to make Rona an evolution of the three of us’.

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After a period of disruption which threatened an uncertain future, the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) finds itself on more solid footing for its 77th edition this year. At its new home of the Cameo Cinema, the relaunch was marked by an Opening Gala UK premiere of German director Nora Fingscheidt’s latest film The Outrun. Based on Amy Liptrot’s bestselling memoir of the same name, the drama follows biologist Rona (Saoirse Ronan, who also co-produced alongside her husband Jack Lowden) as she returns to her hometown in the Orkney Islands following a stint at rehab for alcoholism. I was fortunate enough to attend the screening and chat with the team on the red carpet.

Continue reading “The Outrun Interview: Saoirse Ronan, Nora Fingscheidt & Amy Liptrot – ‘It was important to make Rona an evolution of the three of us’.” →
EIFF24 · Interviews

Sing Sing Interview: Greg Kwedar – ‘To witness a film set through their eyes really brought us back to the joy that we have in the work’.

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In 1996, the Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) was founded by Katherine Vockins at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York. This has spawned countless theatrical pieces in maximum security prisons and provides convicts with a sense of community and creativity as they serve their sentences behind bars. Adapting one of the progam’s many stories for the big screen, Sing Sing follows inmate John ‘Divine G’ Whitfield (Colman Domingo) as he and his fellow prisoners as they attempt to stage an original production titled Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code. I was fortunate enough to sit down with director Greg Kwedar to discuss the film…

Obviously Sing Sing is a prison movie but it doesn’t have the trappings of what we’ve come to expect from this subgenre. How did you approach telling a story with such dark themes but with the light that shines through your film?

You know, I think it’s self-evident inside this world and within the program and I think if you really are there to witness it, there is a wonderful warmth and life force emanating from this work and this program despite a dark environment that surrounds it. I think prison is the setting, but it’s not the focus. The focus is on these men and their work and their discovery of the beauty and possibility within them. This is inherently a light – a true light that’s emanating out of them that we’re attracted to.

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DVD & Digital · EIFF24

Film review: Black Dog

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 A household name and noughties heartthrob in his native Taiwan, the latest leading role for actor and singer Eddie Peng marks a departure from his usual line of work. An arthouse crime drama of sorts, Black Dog is written and directed by acclaimed Chinese filmmaker Guan Hu and takes place in the remarkable but desolate fringes of the Gobi desert.

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EIFF24 · Features

Top 5 Must-See Movies of Edinburgh International Film Festival 2024

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Another year, another fresh start for Edinburgh International Film Festival with a new look and new team at the helm in 2024. In the safe hands of director Paul Ridd and producer Emma Boa, the 77th edition will be woven into the festival fabric of the city throughout August, will include an exciting new Midnight Madness strand, and will have 10 world premieres compete for The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence. I previewed the programme during the July episode of the Cinetopia Radio Show which is now available as a podcast, but have also picked out five films to keep an eye on…

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DVD & Digital · GFF24

Film review: About Dry Grasses

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 With many films that have garnered critical acclaim across the span of his thirty year career, Turkish writer-director Nuri Bilge Ceylan can be considered a contemporary auteur due to his distinctive longform storytelling. About Dry Grasses is his latest effort, an epic drama which centres around art teacher Samet (Deniz Celiloğlu) who is on a placement in a remote village in Eastern Anatolia. After returning to work following the winter break, he is dismayed to learn that students Sevim (Ece Bağcı) and Aylin (Birsen Sürme) have accused him and his colleague Kenan (Musab Ekici) of inappropriate behaviour.

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DVD & Digital

Film review: Longlegs

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 As the son of the Anthony Perkins who played the iconic Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Psycho, you could argue that writer and director Osgood Perkins has horror films in his DNA. His latest picture is serial killer thriller Longlegs which follows rookie FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) as she investigates a series of homicide-suicides where families are massacred in their homes and cryptic notes are left behind. Following the clues, she finds that she has a strange flair for clairvoyance and soon suspects that she might have an eerie personal connection to the man behind the murders.

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