GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL

ALISON ROWAT

Pressure (N/C 15+)

three stars

Dir: Ron Scalpello

With: Danny Huston, Matthew Goode

Runtime: 87 minutes

MATTHEW Goode (The Imitation Game) leads the cast of this four men trapped in a diving bell drama. By keeping the incidents coming, director Ron Scalpello does well to keep the tension high as the oxygen starts to run out and the men contemplate their fate, but otherwise you may feel this is a movie you have sat through before, particularly if you caught the recent submarine drama Black Sea.

GFT, February 23 (20.40), February 24 (11.00)

Tales of the Grim Sleeper (N/C 15+)

three stars

Dir: Nick Broomfield

Runtime: 110 minutes

THE latest documentary Nick Broomfield (Kurt and Courtney, Battle for Haditha) is always worth a look, and this portrait of a serial killer (not to be confused with his Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer) is no exception. The Grim Sleeper of the title was the press nickname given to Lonnie Franklin Jr, who was able to kill for 25 years until the police caught a lucky break. Could the fact that Franklin lived and killed in the poorest part of LA have anything to do with the fact he got away with murder for so long? Broomfield makes his points well within the excessive run time, but he lands some good interviews along the way, the final one in particular.

GFT, tomorrow (13.00), February 21 (15.30)

Altman (N/C 12+)

three stars

Dir: Ron Mann

Runtime: 95 minutes

MASH, The Long Goodbye, Nashville, The Player, Gosford Park - Robert Altman was the Hollywood director who made the maverick mainstream. Ron Mann charts his life and work with the aid of such talking heads, and stars of Altman's films, as Julianne Moore and Lily Tomlin. Altman was a pioneer, with many of this techniques and styles, including overlapping dialogue and naturalism, now an accepted part of cinema. But as Mann's film polished and well researched film shows, he had to fight studio executives aplenty to get his way. While not every movie was a classic - see Popeye, for instance - Mann shows how Altman more than merited his lifetime achievement Oscar.

CCA, February 22 (18.20), February 23 (16.00)