Edinburgh International Film Festival: Alistair Harkness's top 20 highlights

Published on Thursday 11 June 2009 15:03

The Scotsman's film critic offers his recommendations from the upcoming EIFF.

1. ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES

The cult music festival gets the big screen treatment, courtesy of Tarnation's Jonathan Caouette. Try to see it at the Picture House, which will be transformed into a 1950s-style holiday camp to recreate the festival's Butlins setting. Live bands, DJs, northern soul dancers and bingo are all promised.

&#149 Picture House, 24 June, 8pm, and Filmhouse, 25 June, 6pm

2. VAN DIEMEN'S LAND

The find of the festival. With shades of Peter Weir, Terence Malick and Apocalypto, this stunningly shot Australian drama, right, is based on a true story of a group of colonial convicts who escape into the wilderness in 1822 only to discover it's even more unforgiving than their prison sentence.

&#149 Filmhouse, 18 June, 9pm, and 22 June, 8pm

3. RUDO Y CURSI

Y Tu Mam Tambin co-writer Carlos Cuarn follows brother Alfonso into the director's chair and re-unites stars Gael Garca Bernal and Diego Luna for this comedy about rival, football-playing brothers who get a shot at the big time.

&#149 Cineworld, 21 June, 8:45pm, and 24 June, 1pm

4. GIALLO

Italian horror veteran Dario Argento directs this serial killer thriller with Adrien Brody as a cop working against the clock to track down a missing girl amid a killing spree by a maniac who likes to disfigure his victims.

&#149 Filmhouse, 25 June, 10:15pm

5. FOR THE LOVE OF MOVIES: THE STORY OF AMERICAN FILM CRITICISM

Possibly for critics and serious cinephiles only, this documentary will hopefully provide some insight into the strange relationship film criticism has had with the movie industry. The bitter rivalry that existed between the New Yorker's Pauline Kael and former Village Voice critic Andrew Sarris should also provide it with an entertaining spark of drama.

&#149 Cineworld, 23 June, 2pm

6. THE HURT LOCKER

Kathryn Bigelow takes the "100 per cent pure adrenalin" ethos of her action classic Point Break and applies it to the war junkies who sign up for duty in Iraq in this stripped-down thriller about life in the bomb squad.

&#149 Cineworld, 19 June, 8:15pm, 25 June, 8:15pm

7. THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE

Another of Steven Soderbergh's low-budget digital experiments, this one, above, finds him exploring the pitfalls facing a high-class call girl in the credit crunch. Adult film star Sasha Grey acquits herself well in the lead role.

&#149 Cineworld, 24 June, 9:30pm and 27 June, 8:45pm

8. LE DONK

Continuing to conquer the world of low-budget filmmaking, the always-brilliant Shane Meadows reteams with frequent collaborator Paddy Considine for this shot-in-five-days faux rockumentary about a roadie (Considine) and an up-and-coming Nottingham hip-hop prodigy. Should be hilarious.

&#149 Filmhouse, 23 June, 6pm

9. SPREAD

Festival regular David Mackenzie (Hallam Foe) returns with his US debut: a fable about a Hollywood hustler (Ashton Kutcher, below) who seduces older women to keep him in designer clothes and nice homes. Expect a typically dark comic twist on the nature of sex.

&#149 Cineworld, 22 June, 8:30pm, and 24 June, 9pm

10. MARY AND MAX

Another sign that adult animation may be coming into its own, this debut stop-motion feature from Oscar-winning shorts-director Adam Elliot casts Toni Collette as the voice of Mary, a lonely Australian schoolgirl who becomes the penpal of an obese 44-year-old Asperger's sufferer called Max (Phillip Seymour Hoffman).

&#149 Cameo, 19 and 27 June, 8pm

11. MESRINE: KILLER INSTINCT & PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1

A big winner at the French Oscars earlier this year, this two-part crime epic traces the violent life of infamous criminal Jacque Mesrine, with Vincent Cassel reportedly on explosive form in the title role. The French Scarface? Here's hoping.

&149 Killer Instinct, Cineworld, 20 June, 6:45pm and 21 June, 6:20pm; Public Enemy No.1, Cineworld, 20 June, 9:05pm, and 22 June, 6:15pm

12. ADVENTURELAND

Superbad director Greg Mottola gets back to the indie roots of his debut The Day Trippers with this wry 1980s-set coming-of-age story about college students working a lazy summer in a dead-end theme park. Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale) and Twilight's Kristen Stewart star.

&#149 Cineworld, 21 June, 6:15pm and 26 June, 8:30pm

13. THE CRIMSON WING

Reviving the former Disney tradition of making nature documentaries for the cinema, The Crimson Wing marks the first in a planned series of gorgeous, big screen testaments to the wonders of the natural world by plunging us into the world of flamingos in Northern Tanzania. Should be great for families.

&#149 Cineworld, 25 June, 6:15pm and 26 June, 6:15pm

14. BILL FORSYTH: IN PERSON

With his influence evidence in the work of Wes Anderson and many others, there's been a revival of interest in Local Hero director Bill Forsyth in recent years, which makes this all-too-rare appearance from the man himself something that shouldn't be missed.

&#149 Cineworld, 23 June, 7:30pm

15. OUTRAGE

Probing US documentary maker Kirby Dick (This Film is Not Yet Rated) highlights the hypocrisy of the US political system and the media by examining the way closeted, mainly Republican politicians often vote against gay rights to cover up their sexuality. Revealing stuff.

&#149 Cineworld, 21 June, 9pm and 27 June, 6pm

16. BOOGIE WOOGIE

The art world gets a satirical skewering in this fictionalised take on the Young British Artists who shook up the establishment in the 1990s. Expect an Altman-esque narrative, insider insights and characters who – for legal reasons – bear "unintentional similarities" to the likes of Damian Hirst and Tracey Emin.

&#149 Cameo, 26 June, 7:30pm and 27 June, 3:45pm

17. EASIER WITH PRACTICE

Can phone sex lead to a meaningful relationship? That's one of the questions posed in this surprising and sophisticated US indie about an author on a book tour who receives a random phone call that catalyses what might be the most emotionally satisfying relationship of his life.

&#149 Cineworld, 18 June, 9:40pm and Filmhouse, 23 June, 8:45pm

18. ROGER CORMAN: IN PERSON

Watch any of this year's Roger Corman retrospective and you'll get a lesson in how trash can be elevated to the status of art. Listen to the man himself and you'll learn how singularly important he's been to American cinema over the last 50 years.

&#149 Cineworld, 24 June, 6pm

19. ROMEO & JULIET VS THE LIVING DEAD

Exploitation films rarely live up to their titles, so let's hope Ryan Denmark's retelling of Shakespeare's classic has wit and grit. With Pride and Prejudice and Zombies riding high in the book charts, this film (below) could be the start of a trend.

&#149 Filmhouse, 26 June, 11pm

20. THE PARADISE MOVIE HALL

Hopefully bringing some of the magic of his Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams festival to Edinburgh, Mark Cousins will transform St John's Church Hall into a Bengali-style picture house for a three-day celebration of Indian cinema, including films by Satyajit Ray and a special appearance by Bollywood legend Sharmila Tagore.

&#149 St John's Church Hall, 18-20 June, various times.