With the clocks now having officially fallen back an hour, we can all look forward to embracing 4pm sunsets and the long, cold darkness of winter at which Scotland so clearly excels. The bright side? More cinema time, of course! Here’s a look ahead to some of the highlights from the upcoming programmes at the Edinburgh Filmhouse and the Glasgow Film Theatre, respectively.
Mike Leigh / UK / 2018 / 155 mins
A pivotal moment in Britain’s history, Peterloo was the site of an 1819 massacre when armed forces opened fire on a crowd of 60,000 peaceful protesters seeking electoral reform and greater democracy. With 18 dead and hundreds more injured, the incident remains a black stain on the country’s domestic track record and became one of the contributing factors to the foundation of The Guardian, one of Britain’s first leftist broadsheets.
Matteo Garrone / Italy / 2018 / 102 mins
This tale of small-town revenge and redemption saw lead actor Marcello Fonte waltz off with the top prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. In it, he plays an assuming suburban dog groomer who has his pride slighted and his masculinity questioned by the local loose cannon, an ex-boxer with a short fuse and a penchant for bullying his fellow townspeople. The hackles are well and truly up.
Steve McQueen / UK, USA / 2018 / 128 mins
Set in a turbulent Chicago, Widows tells the tale of four women who have nothing in common other than the title of the film itself – and the debts their dead husbands owed to the criminal underworld. With no option but to pony up the dough and no recourse but to pilfer it, the four women come together to pull off the heist their husbands were scheduled to undertake.
David Mackenzie / UK, USA / 2018 / 122 mins
Bloody typical – you wait 700 years for a Robert the Bruce biopic, then two come along at once. The first of these sees Chris Pine step into the shoes of Scotland’s liberator as he looks to throw off the yoke of English oppression. Filmed on location against the bonny backdrop of the Highlands, Outlaw King makes for a dramatic and involving interpretation of the Wars of Independence, with more than a thing or two that remains relevant to say about power struggles today.
Michael Moore / USA / 2018 / 128 mins
Given the state of world (and especially American) politics right now, it seems appropriate that we’re due another documentary from Michael Moore probing into the wrongs and wrongs of the land he calls home. Among other targets, expect plenty of sideswipes and broadsides at the 2016 Presidential Election, the winner of said election, the gun controls in the country and the haplessness of the Democratic party.
Felipe Bustos Sierra / UK / 2017 / 94 mins
What does a now defunct Rolls Royce factory in East Kilbride have to do with the brutal dictatorship of Chilean general Augusto Pinochet? Well, nowadays, very little… but in 1974, everything. This access-all-areas documentary looks at how the workers at the factory boycotted repairing Chilean aircraft for four years in protest at the events unfolding there – and the incredible impact they never knew that they had.
Hirokazu Koreeda / Japan / 2018 / 121 mins
An impoverished family has been forced to turn to a life of petty crime in order to make ends meet and put food on the table. However, their way of life is promptly turned on its head when they come across a desperately needy homeless child on one of their shoplifting expeditions. Despite the unlikelihood of the arrangement, the girl assimilates into the unit in relative harmony – until a chance revelation threatens to destroy the family from the inside out.
Laurent Cantet / France / 2016 / 113 mins
Dangerous Minds meets Dead Poets Society meets American History X, anyone? And all that in a downtrodden French town on the outskirts of Marseille, to boot. Famous novelist Olivia Dejazet attempts to connect with disadvantaged youths through a creative writing workshop, but one of the hotter-headed students alarms and attracts with his visceral prose and provocative views in almost equal measure. A multicultural melting pot of a movie, which has garnered serious critical acclaim since its release last year.