Cold In July (15)
Cold In July (15)
Dir: Jim Mickle
With: Michael C Hall, Don Johnson
Runtime: 110 minutes
WITH its pick-and-mix approach to genre - one minute it's a revenge drama, the next Texan gothic, a moment later a sly comedy - Jim Mickle's picture certainly scores high on the value for money front.
Then there are the performances from the likes of Don Johnson, playing a private investigator, Sam Shephard, as a grieving father, and Michael C Hall as the ordinary husband and dad who shoots an intruder, only to find the case is not as open and shut as it first appears.
Adapted from the novel by Joe R Lansdale, Cold In July might be too tricksy for those who like their revenge thrillers served straight up, some of the developments are far fetched, and it has its flabby parts even with so much going on. Even so, Hall, Johnson and Shephard make a superb trio, with the Miami Vice star in particular showing that, his appearance in Django Unchained notwithstanding, he has been gone from the screen for far too long.
Time for someone to roll up their Armani jacket sleeves and get cracking on Miami Vice 2?
The Golden Dream (12A)
Dir: Diego Quemada-Diez
With: Brandon Lopez, Karen Martinez
Runtime: 108 minutes
THE warming dream of the title is shared by three young Guatemalans and the destination is the United States of America in this modest but rather moving drama from Diego Quemada-Diez.
Given the extreme poverty in which they live (one ekes a living by scavenging from a rubbish tip) it is easy to see why the trio, later joined by another, wish to head north in the hope of finding a better life for themselves.
While the gang of friends imagine they are ready for whatever lies ahead, the dangers and grind of the trek would test even the oldest, toughest adventurers, never mind three kids.
Director Quemada-Diez coaxes some poignant performances from his youthful, non-professional cast, with Karen Martinez, as the lone girl in the group, proving a standout turn.
Migrant dramas have become well-trodden territory in cinema in recent years, so it is a credit to Quemada-Diez that he manages to make the story fresh and disturbing all over again.
Glasgow Film Theatre, June 27-July 3
Chef (15)
Dir: Jon Favreau
With: Jon Favreau, John Leguizamo
Runtime: 114 minutes
JON "Swingers" Favreau plays chef Carl Casper, a cook once on the culinary cutting edge, but now about as exciting as beans on toast.
Between career slide, a strained relationship with his son and ex-wife and a mini-internet scandal, Carl seems to have forgotten why he ever loved cooking for a living so much in the first place.
Time to hit the road, then, and see if he can get his mojo back.
Favreau makes a convincing chef though a less convincing ladies' man (he and Scarlett Johansson, playing a restaurant manager, have a thing going on), while various mates, including Robert Downey Jr, turn up to lend a hand in making this genial comedy tasty enough to while away yet another World Cup evening.
Ridiculously long, though, for what is a familiar tale of middle-aged man being taught to stop and smell the bouquet garni once in a while.
Foodies will be in heaven with the visuals.
Spring In A Small Town (U)
Dir: Mu Fei
With: Wei Li, Chaoming Cui
Runtime: 98 minutes
UNLESS you happen to be up on classic Chinese cinema, the wonders of this exquisitely crafted drama from 1948 may well have passed you by.
Time to remedy that as the BFI releases a restored version of Mu Fei's classic tale of love, loneliness and longing. Chaoming Cui plays Lao, whose sickly husband barely ever speaks to her.
"I am afraid to die," she laments, "he seems to be afraid to live."
Into the couple's empty life strides Zhang (Wei Li) a man once known to them both at different times and for very different reasons.
The drama is plain, the staging low key, and the events that occur are hardly the stuff of blockbusters.
But Fei's film somehow has a quiet power and poignancy that makes it enchanting.
Glasgow Film Theatre, June 29-July 1; Filmhouse, Edinburgh, June 30-July 6
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