Manglehorn

three stars

Dir: David Gordon Green

With: Al Pacino, Holly Hunter

Runtime: 97 minutes

AL Pacino is on low peep, marvellous form in this tale of a locksmith who fell out of love with life when he lost his beloved Clara. David Gordon Green drips clues to what has happened to make Manglehorn as bitter, twisted and disillusioned as he is (except when it comes to animals), but otherwise it is up to the actors to fill in the blanks. Pacino and Holly Hunter, playing a bank clerk Manglehorn seems to be sweet on, duly deliver the goods in highly watchable ways. A strange but beguiling piece from the director of Joe and Pineapple Express, and it is great to see the criminally under-used Hunter again in a starring role.

June 28, 18.25, Cineworld

Swung

one star

Dir: Colin Kennedy

With: Elena Anaya, Owen McDonnell

Runtime: 90 minutes

WERE you aware that Glasgow is teeming with couples just itching to get it on with strangers? No, me neither, but believability is just the start of the problems besetting this watch-through-the-fingers drama starring Elena Anaya and Owen McDonnell as Alice and David, a young couple who fancy a walk on the sexual wild side. From set up to dialogue to denouement, Swung lurches from one toe-curling scene to another like some Weegie attempt at a porn movie crossed with a middle class couples drama. Beamers all round.

Misery Loves Comedy

three stars

Dir: Kevin Pollak

Runtime: 94 minutes

IS explaining a joke the fastest way to kill it? It is a question that comes to mind when watching director Kevin Pollak's interviews with an array of contemporary comedians. He certainly bagged some big names, including Tom Hanks, Steve Coogan, and Lisa Kudrow, together with some faces only the most dedicated of stand-up fans will be familiar with. Pollak asks the obvious questions: what made you funny, what is funny, is comedy public therapy, and so on. The answers range from the fairly dull and overly navel-gazing to the sharp and telling. Perhaps fittingly enough, the comedy directors interviewed, including Jon Favreau, Jason Reitman and Judd Apatow, offer the best value being alternately funny, wise and informative.

Tonight, 20.40, Cineworld; June 27, 15.50, Cineworld

Bereave

two stars

Dirs: Evangelos Giovanis, George Giovanis

With: Malcolm McDowell, Jane Seymour

Runtime: 99 minutes

MALCOLM McDowell did not make it to the Festival for his In Person event due to a continuing row over the failed production of the film Monster Butler (crew not paid, McDowell says he was in the same boat, the dispute continues). A pity for those looking forward to hearing from the star of A Clockwork Orange about his long career, but at least his non-appearance will save most folk the pain of sitting through the intensely odd Bereave. Starring McDowell and Jane Seymour as a couple about to celebrate 40 years of marriage, it is very much an actors' piece - stagey and melodramatic when it is not being shouty. As the couple, and his brother, experience their competing meltdowns, half the time with the viewer being clueless as to why they are behaving in this way, the picture comes across like a poor man's Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf with swisher, architect-designed interiors.

Tonight, 18.00, Dominion; June 27, 16.00, Filmhouse

Dope

three stars

Dir: Rick Famuyiwa

With: Shameik Moore, Tony Revolori

Runtime: 115 minutes

MEET Malcolm, an African American teenager who wants to get out of the ghetto and into Harvard. Malcolm and his friends Diggy and Jib don't want to conform to anyone's cliched idea of what kids from poor backgrounds should be, but fate lands them in a heap of trouble and Malcolm must use all his smarts, street and otherwise, to try to get them out of it. Rick Famuyiwa's coming of age drama is a fascinating, flawed, but clever piece. It wants to challenge stereotypes - rapping, drugs, guns, etc - but it goes ahead and uses them anyway in a have your cake and scoff it kind of manner. About half way through, Famuyiwa seems to forget the need to stick to the storyline entirely. But there are a lot of ideas bubbling away here, Shameik Moore as the canny, sweet Malcolm is definitely a star in the making, and Famuyiwa is a genuine talent.

Tonight, 20.55, Cineworld; tomorrow, 18.05, Cineworld

Battle Mountain: Graeme Obree's Story

three stars

Dir: David Street

Runtime: 99 minutes

AFTER two cylcing world records and two world championships, Scotland's Graeme Obree was after a new challenge. Appearing on the Nevada horizon before him was the World Human Powered Speed Challenge at the titular Battle Mountain. Could the sports star who once built a bike from washing machine parts create another record breaking speed machine? Director David Street's profile of this complex, driven athlete covers the familiar ground of his depression and fight back to health, but it is a tale well worth hearing again. One too many scenes of bike building in kitchens and garages mean the film is slow to take off, but when it does it proves a compelling watch.

Tonight [THURS], 20.50, Cineworld