The Babadook

This Australian scary movie was written up like the  reviewer was terrified to sleep at night and had to check under his bed  at night.  I guess if I had seen it late at night by myself I may have been a little freaked out, but when I was distracted by the young hipster next to me farting, I didn't really jump as I might have expected to.  Samuel is a slightly disturbed child who becomes more agitated when he finds a book about the Babadook to read with his mum.

Let me just say this is a great movie for those folk who don't want to have children.  Makes me glad to have a cat.

3/5

Violette

Oh little French film, you were so serious and slightly depressing.  The old people in the audience, of which there were many, were complaining that the first third was so dark, as in filmed at night and outdoors, that they couldn't see what was happening.  We get that Violette had a sad life and felt unloved, but there must have been some joy - not just misery.  Best not to go and see it if you are depressed - a comedy it isn't.

Still it was a nice chance to catch up with a besties, eat a lovely salad and have some time out, but I have to say only a 2/5 for the movie.

The Visitors - Rebecca Mascull

With echoes of Helen Kellers story, we meet Liza, a young girl who due to sickness has become both blind and deaf.  Frustrated at being unable to communicate, her world changes when a young girl Lottie visits the family Hop farm, and teaches her to be able to talk with her fingers.  This then opens up a new world to Liza and for the first time is able to leave the farm and venture to new places, to the seaside and to busy London.

Liza though has her own secret that she is then careful to share, she sees Visitors, the ghosts who haunt the places that they lived in or died near, and it is their voices alone that she is able to hear.

I did so enjoy this little book, the Victorian setting was so vividly described and the characters seemed real and bright, with a little bit of ghosty business tossed in - perfect.  5/5

Under the Skin

So Under the Skin has to be one of the weirdest alien films I have ever seen I think, both in story and visual concept it is not what we are used to after seeing Hollywood overblown CGI movies of recent years.  Instead this one is simple in its retelling of a story.  We meet our unnamed protagonist, who has been removed from a ditch somewhere, and has her clothes removed by another unknown.  Then we meet her as she trawls the streets of Glasgow in her transit van, scoping out men by themselves.  That bit I found interesting, maybe it gives men an idea of what if feels like to be a woman out on the streets by herself.

Anyways I don't want to give it all away, Wikipedia tells the whole plot.  I might just suggest that this is not a movie for the kids, it is definitely an adult show, and a serious one at that.  No cuddly cute aliens here.  It will be on of those movies that will stick with me for a while with some memorable moments,  4/5

Winter Sleep

OMG that is three hours of my life that I won't get back again.   Still the warmth of the movie theatre did make me nod off a bit, and I was tempted about four times to walk out and leave, which several patrons did.  A Turkish movie that won awards at Cannes, the appeal of the movie was lost on me.   A boorish self important ex actor sits in his cave home in the Turkish countryside.  He has to deal with some of his tenants who are down on their luck and having trouble finding money to pay the bills and a young wife, bored with her life and marriage.

Way too long and with long long periods of boring dialogue, I have to give it a 1/5 for the scenery of an area in Turkey that I visited twenty years ago.

Particle Fever

So all the physics teachers in the region and me snuck into the movie theatre early on a grey winters day today to watch this little documentary about the Large Hadron Collider.  Luckily for me, there was enough in the way of explanations in the movie for it all to make a little bit of sense and so I didn't feel like a dummy in the audience.

You have to applaud a movie that can make advanced theoretical physics look kind of interesting!!!  And more applause for an hour and a half of viewing that makes you smarter on the way out then you were on the way in to your seat.  4/5

The Noble Family

For me, often the best part of the Film Festival is not over reading about the movies, but just going to one and being pleasantly surprised.  It is also a pleasure to see so many films from around the world, after being force fed a diet of Hollywood blockbuster rubbish at most cinemas.  I am truly over super hero movies, Manboy movies (ones with Adam Sandler/Will Farrell), Monkey movies, Movies that have toys in them, and movies with 20/30 models playing teenage angst.    This movie, I knew little to nothing about, and like most of the people in the audience smiled and laughed throughout.

The Noble Family is the story of a rich Mexican family, where the father has earned millions, and his three spoiled children take everything for granted.  When a health scare forces the father to re-evaluate his priorities, he decides to teach his kids a lesson.  Telling them that all the money is gone, they are forced to live in an abandoned family home and all get jobs to earn money for food and doing up the home.

Like all good moral tales, it is not only the children that learn the value of earning their own money and about what is important in life, but if forces dad to see them differently too.  I sense a Hollywood remake coming on.  A heart warming 4/5.

Dark Aemilia - Sally O'Reilly

Dark Aemilia is an imagined story of Aemilia Bassano, who was Englands first female poet.  An illegitimate daughter of a court musician, she found herself becoming involved with an older nobleman and becomes a farourite of the Queen.  When she becomes pregnant, she gets married off to her cousin a lowly recorder player at court, and is left a large home filled with treasures which her husband slowly gambles away.

It is suggested that she may have been the mistress of William Shakespeare, and her own writings may have influenced him in his plays and sonnets.  I liked a lot of the novel, but it did feel a bit jumpy for me, and I had a hard time keeping the story in my head, as it swung from one idea to the next.  3/5

Music Monday - Sam Smith- Stay With Me

I guess one of the advantages of walking lots of places is that I listen to a lot on my ipod.  Mainly podcasts, but I do like a bit of music, and this one from Sam Smith is one of my favourites a the moment.  Wrapped up warm, I sing along in my head while strolling the streets.

The Lunchbox

Hello International Film Festival - very nice to see you again in our city.  It is a sign of the middle to end of winter, and is usually heralded in by my annual winter flu (tick) and crappy weather.  Today you surprised us by being very sunny and warm, as long as you weren't standing in the shade.

This was a sweet little movie.  An about to retire office worker begins receiving tasty meals in his hot delivered lunch, and at first sends an initial note to the maker commenting on the first lunch being overly salty.  Our lovely neglected housewife, at first thinks she is making her lovely lunches for her husband, but realises that they are going to a stranger and so begins their friendship, with them communicating by notes put between the Indian meals.

4/5 and it is probably a good idea to combine it with a night out of Indian food for dinner.