Category: Festival

5 Highlights from Edinburgh International Film Festival 2016 Programme

Festival

Damn, the Edinburgh International Film Festival is now in its 70th year! We always attempt to make a large impact at the festival – articles, spew out as much reviews as possible etc. Last year, we managed several – but due to the loss of our website, only one remains.

Onwards and upwards right? I’ve feverishly read through the festival programme and here’s a list of my personal “MUST SEE MOVIES” aka a top five list! Happy reading and thank you for visiting filmsandswearing.com – we have a podcast!

The Library Suicides (Y Llyfrgell)

library

A playful murder mystery set in a Welsh library? I know, it sounds like an M.C. Beaton novel, but The Library Suicides is in the capable hands of the team behind Doctor Who and Broadchurch.  This Welsh language thriller is about twin sisters/librarians (Catrin Stewart) who are led to believe that their author mothers suicide is murder. The mothers last words points the finger her biographer! It’s being described as stylish, playful and enjoyable? Sign me up! You’ve borrowed my attention (sorry).

Where, When and What time? Click Here

 

The Lovers and the Despot

lovers

This is a Documentary that focusses on a famous classic film duo, Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee – director and leading lady combo, their relationship is highlighted by interviews with Choi Eun-hee and a archive of past footage. Sounds pretty straight forward, sweet actually. The hook comes from the last sentence though. Keyword? Imprisonment.

The documentary teases topics such as spies, kidnapped movie stars and the bizarre leading role for the late North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il.

Where, When and What time? Click Here

 

Slash

eiffslash

Slash Fiction the movie! Sort of, or is it /Fiction? I am out of touch. Anyway, in /Slash/ we follow the lives of two youths and their affection for writing about their chosen fandom. And, where you can push the limits of your fandom and when your thoughts about fictional characters go a little too far. There’s an outlet for those wanting to read those tales. It may seem bright, but I can imagine this is being a dark cautionary tale.

Where, When and What time? Click Here

 

The Rezort

eiffrezort

Zombies! The trend will never tire, The Rezort follows the world following after the Zombie outbreak. Where most of the Zombies have been eradicated and the remaining numbers have been pushed into hunting resorts. Thus allowing the wealthy to hunt and kill ‘walkers for a high price!

But like all Zombie/Resort movies – things go wrong and when things go wrong – you need Dougray Scott!

Where, When and What time? Click Here

 

Yoga Hosers

yoga

This was an obvious one right? We all know that myself and Andy are big Kevin Smith fans (examples 1, 2 & 3). The chance of seeing his latest film in cinemas is a must – why? Smiths film making is very niche, he’s realistically making movies for his own amusement – the True North Trilogy is ideas spun from Smodcast – filled with in-jokes and references for him and his fans should/would savour. It make not get a wide cinema release in the United Kingdom, Tusk never made it further than its UK Premier in Leeds! So if there is your motivation to catch those ‘hosers on the big screen!

Where, When and What time? Click Here

And with any luck, we will attempt to view, review and podcast about a couple of these titles! Especially with Kevin Smith being in person in Edinburgh the week Yoga Hoser screens.

Tickets are on sale to the public from Friday, grab yours by visiting; http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/

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EIFF Review – Infini (2015)

Festival, Reviews

Set in far into the future, where we’ve reached the point in technology where the military now have the ability to teleport teams from A to B through a technology called Slipstreaming. Whit Carmichael is the lone survivor of a group that were teleported to a remote mining colony when a vicious outbreak turns his men into raging maniacs.

Cut to a new group of Search and Rescue team being briefed on a mission to retrieve Carmichael from the colony. This form of interstellar travel by slipstream creates a time dilation between them and the colony, Carmichael may have only been away for days, but on the colony it’s been weeks.

When the crew slipstream to the colony, as you can imagine things don’t go swimmingly.

Infini is a proper Sci-Fi horror – It’s like 28 Days Later took a chunk out of Prometheus! Hell it even reminded me of some of the great Sci-Fi video games, it’s like the team behind Mass Effect find themselves to stuck in Dead Space. Catch me drift?

The film does consist of a large ensemble cast starring the likes of Grace Huang, Luke Hemsworth, Bren Ford and half a dozen others! It’s almost too difficult to keep a count of all the players.  Thankfully the groups all get broken down into pairs when it gets pretty chaotic.

We get a little carried away with pregnancy storylines, okay Whit has a baby on the way and that’s a great device for him to get his ass back home. Yet, in the last half of the film we’re given another couple with a pregnancy, it’s pretty much announced and then denounced in the same scene. Is it a reason for the rage to kick off? Why do you need motivation, it’s a virus!

Towards the end of the film when we get to see this outbreak in a more physical form, it’s a little strange – we can’t get too in-depth, because if you want to see it, I want you to witness that; What the hell moment as well! Actually there’s two or three ‘What the fu’ moments.

Overall – horror/sci-fi buffs dig in! You’ll probably get a kick out of it. Anyone else? Just give it a miss.

2/5

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