Cinema reviews
Cinema reviews
Out of the Furnace (15)
Dir: Scott Cooper
With: Christian Bale, Casey Affleck
Runtime: 117 minutes
SUCH is the born in the USA, blue-collar bent of Scott Cooper's drama you could be forgiven for thinking Bruce Springsteen was the director. He isn't. It would have been a far livelier picture if he had rocked up and shook matters up a little.
As it is, Christian Bale and Casey Affleck slog their way through the picture playing brothers Russell and Rodney, steel mill worker and soldier respectively. Life is tough in the Rust Belt, what with jobs going overseas and foreign wars.
But for local gangster Harlan DeGroat (Woody Harrelson) there is money to be made in these hard times from organising bare knuckle boxing contests.
In the midst of all these testosterone-drenched goings on, Russell's girlfriend Lena (Zoe Saldana) tries to bring a little tenderness and the female touch to proceedings. The performances are decent enough, even if Affleck struggles to convince as a soldier turned bare knuckle scrapper, but the tone is one note bleak and depressing.
The Armstrong Lie (15)
Dir: Alex Gibney
Runtime: 124 minutes
OSCAR-winning documentary maker Alex Gibney had a problem. He had been working on a documentary on Lance Armstrong's comeback when the scandal of the Tour de France winner's doping well and truly erupted.
Oprah Winfrey landed the first sit-down with the cyclist, headlines were made all over the world, and the circus moved on.
You might then wonder what else Gibney could bring to the story, and you will likely still be wondering that at the end of 124 minutes.
The director of We Steal Secrets and Mea Maxima Culpa goes through the tale in typically thorough and stylish fashion, and those who cannot get enough of the Armstrong story will find much of interest.
Overall, though, this feels like two documentaries bolted together, a before and after Oprah, and as such doesn't reveal much that is new.
Glasgow Film Theatre and Filmhouse, Edinburgh, from tomorrow
That Awkward Moment (15)
Dir: Tom Gormican
With: Zac Efron, Imogen Poots
Runtime: 94 minutes
THIS Sex and the City-style comedy drama substitutes young guys for mature women and wit for crassness as it charts the dating life of the lesser spotted, late twentysomething New York male.
Zac Efron, also a producer, plays Jason, a graphic designer who likes to keep his women on a rota and lives in fear of that "awkward moment" when one of them asks for a little more commitment than knowing their phone number.
Predictably enough, along comes a kooky sort (Imogen Poots) to make him think again.
Tom Gormican's picture is stuffed to the gunwales with awkward moments, which include conversations about toileting habits and F-bombs being dropped left, right and centre.
What is most likely to bring on a blush, followed by extreme boredom, are the attempts of Efron and his co-stars to riff humorously on their lives and loves.
The material is about as funny as a giant plook appearing on the nose before a first date, and Efron's twinkly eyed charisma is soon stretched painfully thin.
As for his co-star Miles Teller's continuing attempts to be the noughties John Belushi, much work remains to be done.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article