Glasgow Film Festival 2024

[Sebastian Cobb]

I've had a load of holiday to use up so am seeing 30 films (well 33 if I manage to score tickets to the free 'just turn up' 'old film' performances that include Brick, Foxy Brown and A History of Violence) at this over the next week. I feel the need to log what I've seen somewhere but it probably doesn't seem wise to flood the board with a load of threads that will probably die before anything goes to release.

Last night I kicked things off with the Candadian-Filipina film Asog, about a transgender entertainer who turned their hand to teaching after their tv show got scunnered by a big flood. She sacks that off to travel across the country to win a beauty pagent, but bumps into a former student along the way who wants to go near the same place to see his father who left after his mother died. It's a kind-of road movie I guess, with documentary elements - they meet real Filipina people who've had their land destroyed and stolen by natural disasters and colonialism and the film finishes describing their fates.

It's an interesting concept and informative film, there's a decent slice of humour in there as well, but it felt like it was missing something and felt slightly dry. I'm glad I saw it but probably wouldn't rush to rewatch it. There were a few walk-outs as well so I guess it isn't for everyone.

Seeing 2 films later on.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Martinez - curmudgeonly Chilean office w worker is being made to take retirement while training his replacement, his downstairs neighbor dies who he was fond of and has to clear out her stuff. Was OK but a bit wooden

Do Not Expect Much From the End of the World - weird Romanian comedy following a woman who's a runner for a production company, fair bit of commentary about how Romanians are exploited by richer EU states, it's interspersed with flashbacks of a woman taxi driver in the Soviet era for contrast, UWE Boll cameos, and she amuses herself by posting satirical tiktoks of herself saying misogynistic and bigoted stuff while using a filter to make her look like Andrew Tate, she claims this is 'extreme caricature, like Charlie Hebdo'. Sounds better now I've written it but I found it a bit long and boring.

[privatefriend]

I have booked 3 tickets so far, would possibly be more if the website gft wasn't so annoying to use. What's the deal with the free screenings?

There is also the Glasgow short film festival as well.

Please keep up with the reviews anyway.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I have booked 3 tickets so far, would possibly be more if the website gft wasn't so annoying to use. What's the deal with the free screenings?
.

They're at 10:30 every morning and they just hand tickets out so you probably wanna get there early. Check the site for proper listings but I earmarked Brick, Foxy Brown and History of Violence. Not seen one yet but got to see Dog Day Afternoon in a previous year which was great!

[Sebastian Cobb]

Anyhow today was a step up film wise, I enjoyed them all.

La Chimera - Italian film set in the past following an English guy who is skilled at finding tombs and teams up with a bunch of criminals who go grave robbing. There was something really quite charming about it all and some decent gallows humour.

La Otra - Incredible 1945 Mexican noir where Dolores del Río plays a woman who kills her twin sister to get her inheritance. Great stuff.

Yannick - Absurdist Quentin Dupieux comedy where a car park attendant who works 7 days a week gets fed up in a boring play and holds the actors hostage to make his own script. Typical Dupieux absurdism here - mostly daft dialogue holding it together.

I'd definitely recommend the first two to anyone, the third to people who like QD, although it does feel a bit 'more of the same'. It's not long though.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Yesterday:
Bleeding Love - film co-written/produced by and starring Clara McGregor and her dad, Ewan McGregor. Essentially a estranged father/daughter road trip after the dad picks her up from od'ing in hospital. It's revealed he used to be an addict/drunk too.

It's well made and funny, if a bit too sentimental, but it's one of those things I've seen many times before. The chemistry between Ewan and Clara is good and Clara's a decent funny actor in her own right.

The Vourdalak - French Gothic, a noble emissary seeks refuge from a family where it turns out the father is a vampire type thing. It had a nice old-timey look about it and some pretty ropey puppet work that'd have been passe in the 80's. Was ok but didn't really grip me.

[Inspector Norse]

La Chimera - Italian film set in the past following an English guy who is skilled at finding tombs and teams up with a bunch of criminals who go grave robbing. There was something really quite charming about it all and some decent gallows humour.

Saw that at the Gothenburg Film Festival recently and liked it a lot too. It was an odd one in that while it was going on, I wasn't really sure about it - all very ramshackle and low-key and it seemed to drag a bit and not have too much point, yet afterwards I found it had really stuck with me.
The same director did Happy As Lazzaro a few years ago which was really good.

[Sebastian Cobb]

^ same tbh, although a couple of dry (but not terrible) starts meant I appreciated a level of warmth in it I can't put my finger on.

Today I watched The Burning Season - a Canadian drama played in reverse chapters that starts with a couple going to a wedding and finding out the woman had been having an affair with the groom. It's all centered around a cabin resort and stuff that went down when the two were teenagers. I liked it.

[Mobbd]

This is great stuff, Cobber. Enjoying your capsule reviews. Added Martinez and La Otra as films to see eventually based on your descriptions.

Is there anything coming up that you're particularly looking forward to seeing?

Asking because I'm in Glasgow myself from tomorrow but have no idea what to see at the fest if anything.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Is there anything coming up that you're particularly looking forward to seeing?

Asking because I'm in Glasgow myself from tomorrow but have no idea what to see at the fest if anything.

There is but I'll have to flick through my programme to find it. I sat in the pub a couple of Sundays ago flicking through a printed list of the films,
 marking off 'definitely' and 'maybe' then a while later I got what I could on the calendar without clashes so at this point I'm just following what I circled with no idea why!

[privatefriend]

Saw After Hours again in a packed out GFT1, the second ever screening of the new 4k remaster. Doesn't get much better than that!

[Sebastian Cobb]

I wanted to see that but it clashed with stuff I hadn't seen before so begrudgingly had to drop it.

[privatefriend]

UK premiere of Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger with a short introduction/q&a by the director. Labour of love Scorsese led documentary including some rare archive footage. A must see for casual P&P enjoyers like me.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Tuesday I saw:
Only the River Flows
Chinese police thriller set in the 90's, where it looks open and shut but isn't. Was pretty decent.

Blue Sunshine
Indian film about a teacher that comes out as a trans woman and the hostility they face at home and in the school they work in. Was pretty good, and the directors debut feature.

Thursday:
Maria Candelaria
Delores Del Rio melodrama about the daughter of a prostitute being shunned by the townspeople and the ways her and her lover try and settle a debt. Apparently this is supposedly her best work but I much preferred La Otra. Dunno if there are good rips available but this seemed to be screened from a badly interlaced dvd which looked shite on a big screen.

A House in Jerusalem
Ghost story through the eyes of a child who was taken to a mansion in Jerusalem to get over her dead mother. She starts seeing visions of a young Palestinian child who used to live there which then raises questions about ownership, the Nakba etc. Thought it was really well done.

In Flames
Pakistani thriller about women living in patriarchal Pakistan who face dangers real and supernatural. Was pretty good.

Sometimes I Think About Dying
Imagine Office Space but without the heist element, but Peter's played by Rey from Star Wars and doesn't really have any friends either so it's largely the bits where it's just depicting someone being tortured by ennui as the world goes on around them. It felt like it was missing something as I watched it but have been thinking about it since and I did like it, Daisy Ridley was great at playing an unhappy lonely woman.

Friday:
Hoard - British film about the young daughter of a Hoarder starting off as her being a child (the mum played by Hayley Squires) who inevitably ends up in foster care then focuses on her as a teenager who has just left school and her having a tryst with someone who moves back into the foster house. I thought this was really good, although could've probably done with a bit more aggressive editing as it felt slightly long.

The Deep Dark
French horror about miners sent down into an old mine with a historian who won't really say what they're up to, they unearth a spirit that picks them off one by one as they try and escape. Bit of an 'Alien but in a mine' type thing.

Coup!
Set as Spanish Flu takes hold, covers a rich (but left-leaning) journalist on an island trying to keep away from it while writing as if they were on the front line. A cook arrives and things aren't what they seem and he begins to rile the staff and family up against the patriarch. Reminded me of The Servant quite a bit but Peter Sarsgaard was great as the charming usurper.

The Beast
Set in the future where emotions are considered bad for decision making a woman (Léa Seydoux) undergoes a procedure to rid herself of them which takes her through some past lives in 1910, 2014 and 2044 where she keeps having romantic feelings for a man played by George MacKay. I thought this was a bit too long and meandering to be enjoyable really although the hopping about time did make me forget why she was doing the stuff in the first place. Maybe it was just fatigue from seeing several films in one day but I didn't really get on with it.

Kill Your Lover - budget British horror about a couple trying to split up as the bloke comes down with some big mad virus. Didn't really like it tbh.

[privatefriend]

Bill Douglas: My Best Friend - UK premiere of a new documentary about Scottish filmmaker Bill Douglas centered around his relationship with a man named Peter Jewell (who seems to be worthwhile subject in his own right). Was interested in seeing this after seeing the My Childhood/My Ain Folk/My Way Home trilogy on Mubi last year. Bill grew up in mining village misery but somehow found his way into middle class london life and began to make autobiographical films inspired by european cinema. Enjoyed this short documentary although it did leave me wanting more reflection on Bill's relationship to Scotland and on his class journey. How he ever made the movies he did still feels like an unexplained miracle.

Later this month they are showing some of his early short films as part of the GSFF but I can't make that screening.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Saw a trailer for this Cliff Twemlow documentary, not aware of him but it looks great.

https://thegeekshow.co.uk/mancunian-man-frightfest-2023-review/

Looks like the GFT are doing a one off screening on the 4th of May.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Saturday involved a few Frightfest screenings, I'm afraid they weren't great.

Mom - horror involving post-natal depression, infanticide and denial. Been done better before.

The Funeral - Turkish film about an undertaker given a bung to take away a body for a few days. It turns out to be undead and he ends up feeding it humans. Was meh but had a foreign charm.

Custom - story of a couple who make custom scud films who get asked to make some weird stuff on a vhs camcorder that they must not watch. This should be right up my street, there's a bit of a videodrome pastiche in that there's hidden signals in the tape although of a spiritual nature rather than a cabal. But it was all too hammy. The shady porn studio operator looked like a greasy Guy Ritchie reject.

Mother, Couch - second Ewan McG film I saw throughout this. A matriarch of a dysfunctional family refuses to leave the sofa of a furniture store. Stars Rhys Ifans and Lara Flynn Boyle as EMG's siblings, they're all awful. The only likeable character is played by Taylor Russell who was lovely. I liked this even if it had a daft ending that looked like it might've nicked bits from Beau is Afraid.

Jehrico Ridge - this wasn't a frightfest film but felt thematically similar to some of them. By comparison it had charm, slick dialogue and good editing, it was a breath of fresh air. At the same time it was essentially a lone disabled policewoman getting assault on precinct 13'd. I liked it though.

Last Straw - not too dissimilar to the above but no disability and it's hoodlums in a diner, meh.

I think I'll avoid the Frightfest stuff in the future. I love shite horror but all this seemed wooden and dull. I feel like a cunt saying that as the attendees and the organisers seemed to be having a blast and clearly put a lot of effort in, just not for me. I feel like I've seen scud films where the people involved had more inspiring things to say in script and dialogue.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Today I saw

Late Bloomers - Karen Gillan is a 28 year old car crash who breaks her hip drunkenly trying to climb through an ex's window. In hospital she meets a cantankerous Polish granny who she ends up caring for. Thought it was a decent charming film, would recommend.

Ratcatcher - 25 year old anniversary screening. Bleak but excellent.

And that's me done. Can't belive how tired I've gotten doing fuck all. Might have to watch a bit of straight to video schlock on my own sofa tonight.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Saw a trailer for this Cliff Twemlow documentary, not aware of him but it looks great.

https://thegeekshow.co.uk/mancunian-man-frightfest-2023-review/

Looks like the GFT are doing a one off screening on the 4th of May.