Maggie’s Plan (15)
four stars
Dir: Rebecca Miller
With: Greta Gerwig, Julianne Moore
Runtime: 99 minutes
GRETA Gerwig (Frances Ha) plays the Maggie of the title, whose plan is to get pregnant via a sperm donor. Just when all the arrangements have been made, along comes a man (Ethan Hawke) she wants to have a baby with the old fashioned way. Just one problem - daddy-to-be is married already, to a brilliant, mercurial academic (Julianne Moore) who won’t give him up so easily. Directed by Rebecca Miller (daughter of Arthur, if you are interested), Maggie’s Plan is a comedy drama of Brooklyn manners you will either find delightful (if you enjoy gabby pictures and Gerwig) or monstrously irritating. Four stars gives my position away.
The Mafia Kills Only in Summer (15)
three stars
Dir: Pierfrancesco Diliberto
With: Cristiana Capotondi, Alex Bisconti
Runtime: 90 minutes
Set in Palermo “where the mafia influences everyone’s lives”, Pierfrancesco Diliberto’s coming of age picture is a light, witty yet at the same time deadly serious affair. It is at heart the story of Flora and Arturo, childhood sweethearts growing up in the Andreotti years, when mafia violence claimed the lives of the many brave Italians who dared to take them on. Spanning 20 years, Diliberto’s picture has a tough road to walk, being resolutely sunny on one side and decidedly bleak on the other, but it rarely puts a foot wrong, largely due to the performance of Alex Bisconti as Arturo as a bambino.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here