Notes from the Glasgow Film Festival...
And not a single franchise in sight...
If you’re online enough (and who isn’t these days?) you’ll likely come across the narrative about cinema/film that it is dying; that no one is taking chances on film any more, and that all we’re stuck with is Marvel/DC slugfests and franchises ripping the last joys of nostalgia from generation X and millennial audiences.
And, sure, if you pay attention to the big advertising campaigns and the actors* who are allowed to grace the Graham Norton sofa (or whatever the US equivalent is) you’d probably believe that.** But, as film festivals like the Glasgow Film Festival remind us, movies are still producing challenging/interesting/out there narratives that don’t just exist to squeeze more money out of IP and are instead telling fascinating stories.
I was at the Glasgow Film Festival (GFF for short) earlier this month, and honestly, it’s always one of my favourite events of the year. There are two strands to the festival. The first is the screenings, and we’ll get to those in a minute, but the second is the industry element, which I have been attending the last few years. What I like is that it caters to people at all levels. While I have had some adventures in the screen trade*** I’m still kind of new to it all and getting to understand it, and so there were workshops where agents talked about what they were looking for and how their methods differ from literary agents, as well as pitching panels and extremely welcoming mixers where even a beardy-weirdy like me was able to talk to and meet some fascinating people and create connections that may one day pay off.
But I really wanted to talk about the fact that there were movies at this festival I never would have seen without the fantastic programmers and how, if you can find them – and that’s the issue, these days, I think, being able to discover the lower tier movies or the ones that aren’t hitting the “four quadrants” – you’ll realise that there are still incredible talents out there and stories you wouldn’t expect being told.
Of course, my passion is for genre, so most of my choices fell into crime/horror/thriller, but even in there I was taken aback by some unexpected movies with unexpected choices.
The Stephen Graham starring GOOD BOY (not to be confused with the horror about the dog) was my opening viewing for the festival, and I was instantly hooked. It’s a story about a wee thug from inner city London whose life is all about getting wasted and doing messed up things for likes on social media, who then gets kidnapped by a social worker and chained up in his basement. Soon, it seems that the social worker and his family are trying to “socialise” the lad, but the question becomes whether their intentions are as pure as they claim, and whether their extreme approach can ever be justified. It’s a creepy, weird, funny, sad kind of movie with Andrea Rise (almost unrecognisable as always) playing the wife, whose wide, blank eyes could be hiding tragedy or psychopathy. And it takes some big swings, too. Not all of them work, but my God, the electricity of the story and the cast is incredible, and you think you want more of these kinds of movies to be coming from independent UK cinema. Forget the Thursday Murder Clubs or even the Hamnets, give us the weird underbelly of this country in all it’s unsettling and bizarre brilliance…
Another one that took me by surprise this year was THE DUTCHMAN. If it sounds familiar, its because the source of this one was a 1964 play by Amiri Baraka that was adapted into a film in 1966. The essence of the story is that of a black man on a subway train who is taunted by a white woman, but this update takes the essence of the story and adds a metaphysical layer to the story, running with the idea of stories and relationships that run in cycles we’re unaware of and how we’re still playing the same parts we would have done when the play was first released. It adds a depth to the character of Clay and questions the idea of how he sees himself as a black man in the modern world, while casting the white woman, Lula in a more obviously mythic role than she had in the original. It’s another film aiming for something unusual, and most of the time it hits its mark with true power and originality, especially in adapting a story that could easily have simply echoed what came before even all these years later.
I love Mark Jenkins’ BAIT when it was released a few years ago; a drama about a Cornish fishing village that had been blighted by austerity and incoming gentrification, shot on 16mm black and white like an artefact that had been dug up after decades. His latest, ROSE OF NEVADA returns to that setting, but in a more experimental way as it wraps in time travel when an old fishing boat believed lost at sea turns up and is refitted and given a new crew. When they return they find they have travelled back in time to when the boat first went missing and everyone believes they are the original crew. A hauntingly strange story that doesn’t provide any of the reveals you expect, it’s a true original and will stay you with for a long time after the credits roll.
On less experimental ground, DEAD MAN’S WIRE took me by surprise as an homage to seventies thrillers (especially DOG DAY AFTERNOON) played straight by Gus Van Sant and his stacked cast giving it their all to tell the story of a man who takes the CEO of his loan company hostage. This true story – with a truly out-there supporting role for Al Pacino doing his weirdest Southern accent – is stylish and gripping, especially if you don’t know the full story behind events, and a special shout out has to go to Colman Domingo as a radio DJ caught up in the whole affair (if they release a soundtrack, they need him to do linking segments in character!)
Meanwhile, Egyptian thriller, EAGLES OF THE REPUBLIC finds Egypt’s biggest box office drawn being forced to make a propaganda film about how great their leader is while trying to retain artistic integrity. There’s a sense of the absurd to the film that recalls WAG THE DOG, but the final third of the movie is genuinely tense and terrifying.
Horror movies are always well represented at GFF, especially as they team with Fright Fest for the last two days. I have never been able to get into the full fright fest program, but always manage to sneak a couple of screenings, and this year was delighted to catch the ambitious one-shot horror, BURY THE DEVIL, where a nurse is hired to look after an old woman in her beachside house only for her to realise that there the woman may be hiding secrets, especially when her ex-husband arrives on the scene warning that the woman may not be everything she appears… Although there are a couple of cheats in the “one shot” premise, it works really well for the most part, and is most effective when the horror occurs in another part of the house from the camera; sound is of vital importance to this movie.
But dementia and aging seems to be part of the horror genre these days. Part of the main festival, rather than the Fright Fest strand was THE HOME, a Scandinavian horror where a man must move his mother to a care home after she “dies” for seven minutes following an accident. But has she brought back something with her? Or is this is all part of the horror of dementia? It’s a film that works on several levels, and has some seriously unnerving vibes, but it really does cut too close to the bone if you’ve ever cared for someone or had to move them to a facility like this to the point where, due to personal reasons, I can’t say I enjoyed it so much as I appreciated what it was doing and even the level of care that went into its portrayal of aging, dementia and the question of care and whether or not you’re doing the right thing.
If there was one film that left me conflicted, though, it was the survival movie, MY FATHER’S ISLAND, based on real events where an estranged father arranges to take his son out to an isolated island for a year so they can build a holiday home together. Things go wrong very quickly between the pair as we see the father may not be as prepared or stable as he believes, and soon enough it’s a true fight for survival leading to a shocking climax… except that’s not where the story ends, and a final ten minute or so epilogue undoes so much of the good work that went into the film beforehand to the point where I wished it had ended much earlier rather than leave that weird taste in my mouth. It’s a brilliantly made film, but it speaks to what we expect from stories that this ending will definitely prove divisive.
Back on track and cheering me up no end, my next screening at the festival was the superb Korean zom-com MY DAUGHTER IS A ZOMBIE (don’t worry, she doesn’t bite!) which suffers a little from Lord-of-the-Rings-itis in the last reel, but you don’t really care because, frankly, the build up is such fun. After a zombie outbreak is contained by the Korean authorities, all citizens are required to turn in those who have been turned to prevent the outbreak from happening again. But one father has managed to train his zombie daughter not to bite him or his eccentric mother, and decides to try and rehabilitate her back into society by finding memories he is sure are still locked away in her brain. It’s daft, violent, funny, heartstring-tugging and massively entertaining for the most part, and has one of the best zombie sight-gags I’ve seen in a while when an OAP zombie jumps in for the kill…
The final screening at the festival this year was the superb CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN’, a film that admittedly I was predisposed to love, given it was inspired by two lads from Dundee, my adopted home city (I was raised in the country near Dundee, but lived in the city for over a decade and have, of course, now written several novels set there). This audaciously true story charts the brief dominance of rap duo, Sylibil ‘n’ Brains, who came from California and were set to light up the world of rap after signing to a major London record label.
Except…
They weren’t from California. They were from Dundee. And they were pretending to be American because no one took them seriously when they rapped in Scots (at one point, an exec refers to them as “the rapping Proclaimers” while trying to stifle laughter). Their plan was to reveal the truth during a major TV appearance, but then the perks of their status became too tempting and they kept going, with the partnership undergoing real strain as they kept up the pretence of being from California (one great moment sees them meeting a major American rapper they claimed to have supported once in the US and having to blag through the fact he doesn’t seem to remember them…). This one’s Scottish actor, James McAvoy’s directorial debut (and he even gets to make a brief appearance as a record exec) and it’s a brilliant movie that will resonate with audiences far beyond Dundee and far beyond Scotland. (But I will say, the bits filmed in Dundee look absolutely bloody brilliant, and one bit that recreated a long-closed pub where I used to drink even fooled me as I wondered if it was somehow still around and I just hadn’t realised!)
GFF (and the Glasgow Film Theatre, where many of these screenings took place) is the perfect antidote to the complaint that movies are all “the same” now – its program is massively diverse, with international films, classic screenings (I was sad to miss seeing ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN on the big screen), experimental movies, local films and so much more. I know we like to think movies are homogenized and studio-ised these days, but the truth is that while we have to work harder to track them down, films are still being made that pick up the standard and quality of what we think of as the good old days. And it’s our job to make sure that keeps happening by doing our best to seek them out, watch them, and make sure that others do the same.
The Glasgow Film Festival is a yearly event organised by the independent cinema, The Glasgow Film Theatre, in association with other venues across the city. The Film Theatre itself shows movies all year round, from big blockbusters to small-budget gems to retrospective screenings, and is one of my favourite places in Glasgow, quite frankly.
*As a side note, Mr Norton, if you’re out there, can you squeeze in an actual writer every once in a while? Some of us (not meaning me) can be quite amusing and it would signal to folks that books are stories, just like movies are. This applies to all chatshows, but honestly, Norton’s always seem like the most fun.
** Although its always good when they go on to talk about an independent film they’ve just done as well as that blockbuster that’s the real reason they were booked, although the issue is often that these films are often only advertised at some showing in London rather than getting a bigger nationwide release.
*** One day I’ll talk about those in more details, but what I can say is that I did get a chance to sit and discuss a project with the late, great Robbie Coltrane once. It never came to anything, sadly, but at least I get to say that Robbie Coltrane once stole my chips!
This Month Russel read and loved (an incomplete list)
Mrs Shim is a Killer by Kang Jiyoung (due for release April 2026)
Solace House by Will MacLean (due for release May 2026)
The Exes by Leodora Darlington
Futility by Nuzoh Onoh
Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson
Holly by Stephen King
Games for Dead Girls by Jen Williams
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
This Month Russel watched and Loved (aside from those mentioned above!)
Last Man Standing Last Man Standing dir. Walter Hill, 1996
Hardboiled (restoration), dir. John Woo, 1992
Nope dir. Jordan Peele, 2022
The Fall Guy dir. David Leitch, 2024
16 Blocks, dir. Richard Donner, 2006
48 hrs dir. Walter Hill, 1982
The Running Man dir. Edgar Wright, 2025
Midsommar dir. Ari Aster, 2019
Zodiac dir. David Fincher, 2007
Patrick dir. Richard Franklin, 1978
The Appointment dir. Lindsey C Vickers, 1981
Prince of the City dir. Sidney Lumet, 1981