The Joy Of Six (15)
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Dirs: Various
With: Peter Mullan, Luke Treadaway
Runtime: 74 minutes
A COMPILATION of six short films from rising stars of British directing. The lack of big names among the directors (apart from The Hour's Romola Garai) doesn't mean the actors are obscure – far from it.
Between Judi Dench as a laptop-wielding dame ("OMG, why did I say LOL?"), Luke Treadaway as a victim of paranoia (or is he?) and Peter Mullan as a shriekingly uncommunicative Scottish dad, the directors of the various films are spoiled for talent. A mixed bag, as you might expect, but mostly fast, fun and impressive.
Filmhouse, Edinburgh, tonight only, 6.10pm, plus Q&A with Dan Sully, director of The Ellington Kid.
Love Crime (15)
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Dir: Alain Corneau
With: Kristin Scott Thomas, Ludivine Sagnier
Runtime: 106 minutes
KRISTIN Scott Thomas, parfait French and all, plays a corporate cougar in this slick but rather too clever neo-noir from Alain Corneau. Scott Thomas's Christine, a high-powered executive in a multinational French firm, has a devoted admirer in her ambitious junior Isabelle (Ludivine Sagnier). In the business jungle, however, it does not do to play too nice.
A terrific set-up, with Scott Thomas coming on like a French Joan Crawford, all power walking and glares, is undone when the film slides from drama into melodrama, but for a long while this is pleasingly flashy, trashy, diverting fare.
Meet Me In St Louis (U)
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Dir: Vincente Minnelli
With: Judy Garland, Tom Drake
Runtime: 113 minutes
THE Glasgow Film Theatre continues its heroic efforts to give us all a merry little cinematic Christmas with Vincente Minnelli's MGM classic. The plot is slight – hingeing on whether a family will or won't up sticks for another city – but the atmosphere is endlessly toasty, the production design sublime, and there's Judy Garland, inset, on magnficent vocal form. With tunes including The Trolley Song and the title track, this is one family musical that fairly rattles along.
Glasgow Film Theatre, December 15-17
Celeste And Jesse Forever (15)
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Dir: Lee Toland Krieger
With: Andy Samberg, Rashida Jones
Runtime: 92 minutes
LEE Toland Krieger's modern romance starts off on a shaky footing and stumbles on from there. Andy Samberg and Rashida Jones are the seemingly blissfully married couple of the title – except all is not what it first appears. They are separated, pending divorce, but determined to stay best pals forever. When someone new enters the scene, it looks as if that pseudo separation is going to become real. Watchable turns from Samberg and Jones, and hip hooray for at least trying something different with the romantic comedy-drama format, but the emotional naval-gazing quickly proves a turn off.
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