Cheerfully lo-fi Z-movie, by another woman director, Rona Mark, whose credits also include the delightfully titled The Final Days of the Ministry of Tea. It’s a nifty concept, two girls who refuse to communicate except to each other, and who are more than ordinarily determined to stop anyone who thwarts them.
Moderately gory, there’s some slightly stodgy writing and some atrocious acting. But it’s saved by the central performances, sympathetically portraying the evil twins (evil ginger twins: I’m pretty sure there are organisations that protest about that sort of thing :), and some nifty visual touches (heightened colour in the girl’s fantasies).
Posted on 22nd June, 2008 in media and tagged with eiff, evil ginger twins, evil twins, nifty little low-budget horror film, Rona Mark, Strange Girls, woman director.
The Edinburgh International Film Festival opened it’s box office today, so I spent my lunch booking my summer holiday. 22 films, fairly miscellaneous - I’m now going to spend the next month paranoid that I’ve made the wrong choices.
That’s partly a consequence of always trying to book at the earliest possible moment, in order to get tickets for the films I know I want to see (after the trauma of failing to see Serenity at the EIFF in 2005) - this year, the latest Pixar, WALL-E (Yay!). And unlike the last few years, booking online wasn’t even slightly traumatic (their server didn’t crash, and I got all the tickets I aimed for)
So, the 22 - actually 18 films, two of their animated short film collections and two real-live people events:
- 19/06/08, 17:15: McLaren Animation 1
- 19/06/08, 20:15: The Song of Sparrows
- 21/06/08, 15:00: Tiramisu
- 21/06/08, 18:45: Stone of Destiny
- 22/06/08, 14:00: Roger Deakins & Seamus McGarvey: In Conversation
- 22/06/08, 17:30: Standard Operating Procedure
- 22/06/08, 20:00: Strange Girls
- 23/06/08, 14:00: International Animation 1
- 23/06/08, 17:15: Bananaz
- 23/06/08, 19:15: Warsaw Dark
- 24/06/08, 19:00: The Surprise Movie
- 25/06/08, 17:30: Ray Harryhausen: In Person
- 25/06/08, 19:40: Dreams with Sharp Teeth
- 26/06/08, 15:00: Milky Way Liberation Front
- 26/06/08, 17:15: Sleep Dealer
- 26/06/08, 20:00: Idiots and Angels
- 27/06/08, 14:30: The Bride Wore Black
- 27/06/08, 17:15: Fear(s) of the Dark
- 27/06/08, 19:05: Encounters at the End of the World
- 28/06/08, 14:15: WALL-E
- 28/06/08, 16:45: The Fall
- 28/06/08, 21:30: Faintheart
Fewer than last year (there’s even a day I’m missing completely - but I’ve realised that I really can’t watch four films in one day). And the move from August to June means that, with my daily commute to the festival, I can’t see any of the later films, as the last train out is at 11.30pm. The only film that risks leaving me stranded in Edinburgh at midnight if the closing film, Faintheart, but it’s about battle re-enactors, so how could I resist?
I’ll go through my rationale for my choices nearer the time (or, not now), but did I mention WALL-E? Yay! (Pixar-induced glee…)
Posted on 9th May, 2008 in media and tagged with Bananaz, Dreams with Sharp Teeth, eiff, Encounters at the End of the World, Faintheart, Fear(s) of the Dark, gratuitous Joss Whedon reference, Idiots and Angels, International Animation, McLaren Animation, Milky Way Liberation Front, Pixar rocks, Ray Harryhausen, Roger Deakins, Seamus McGarvey, Sleep Dealer, Standard Operating Procedure, Stone of Destiny, Strange Girls, The Bride Wore Black, The Fall, The Song of Sparrows, The Surprise Movie, Tiramisu, WALL-E, Warsaw Dark, yay!.
