Breathing (15)
HHHH
Dir: Karl Markovics
With: Thomas Schubert, Rudolf Kienast
Running time: 93 minutes
ROMAN, 18, lives in a juvenile detention centre in Vienna. Unwilling to engage with anyone or anything, the authorities are struggling to find him work outside. When a job at a mortuary comes up, he asks to be sent.
Karl Markovics's drama is in no hurry to bring the audience on side with Roman. Like the teenager and the world, we keep the character at arm's length. Bit by bit, however, the blanks begin to be filled in and the result is a deeply moving, well-observed study of a young life broken before it had even begun. Thomas Schubert delivers a terrific performance as Roman.
Filmhouse, Edinburgh, tomorrow-May 10; Glasgow Film Theatre, May 11-17.
Monsieur Lazhar (12A)
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Dir: Philippe Falardeau
With: Mohamed Fellag, Emilien Neron
Running time: 94 minutes
OSCAR-nominated for best foreign film, Philippe Falardeau's classroom drama is an A-grade heartbreaker.
Mohamed Fellag plays the Algerian asylum seeker turned inspirational sir who arrives in a Montreal school with a lot of work to do. Fellag is superb, his gentle presence lending the film a restrained air throughout, but it's the young cast of 11-year-olds, asked to deal with some tough material and never faltering, who elevate this Canadian drama from above average to outstanding.
Silent House (15)
HH
Dirs: Laura Lau and Chris Kentis
With: Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese
MUCH like the original it is copying, horror remake Silent House is notable for having been shot in one single take. Yet while competently pulling off the same technical achievement as its Uruguayan predecessor (and Hitchcock's Rope before that) Open Water directors Laura Lau and Chris Kentis still fail to fix the problems that ultimately bedevilled the original.
Elizabeth Olsen (on similarly striking form to Martha Marcy May Marlene) plays a woman who becomes convinced she is being stalked by a possibly supernatural presence while helping her father and uncle clear out a family seaside cottage. While early scenes are marked by tension and unease, the reveal fails to leave you satisfied. For all its technical sleight of hand, this is yet another remake that underwhelms due to a lazy storytelling approach.
Reviewed by Rob Carnevale.
Juan of the Dead (15)
HH
Dir: Alejandro Brugues
With: Alexis Diaz de Villegas, Jorge Molina
Running time: 92 minutes
ALEJANDRO Brugues's Havana-set comedy horror is a rum old business. The Juan of the title is an Olympic level waster who likes to take life easy. But then his city becomes populated by drooling flesh eaters.
Are they zombies or, as the state television has it, subversives funded by the US government? Brugues' film can't decide whether it wants to be clever-clever or crude-crude, so it goes for both. As a result, a strong stomach and broad sense of humour are required.
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