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This the nest review contains spoilers.

The book world already has a term for Scotland-set detective novels – Tartan Noir. There’s an increasing need for similar to describe the emerging genre of glossy BBC domestic thrillers set north of the border. Trust Me, The Replacement, The Victim, The Cry and now The Nest… all miniseries, all stories about women, all set against the dramatic backdrop of the highlands and the steel-glass shine of regenerated city centres and architect-designed residences.

Visit Scotland Noir, maybe? Minted-Lassie Thrillers?

The Nest’s minted lassie is Emily (Sophie Rundle), a Glasgow music teacher married to local-boy-done-good Dan (Martin Compston). They live in a dream loch-side house and appear to have it all. Love, money, a devoted marriage and quite definitely, a place in the world. What they don’t – and can’t – have, is a child.

We meet Emily and Dan having exhausted their IVF...

Gentleman Jack’s Sophie Rundle and Line of Duty’s Martin Compston lead the line for BBC One’s forthcoming thriller The Nest.

The pair front the five-part drama, from Nicole Taylor, the writer of hit British drama Three Girls, alongside newcomer Mirren Mack.

Dan (Compston) and Emily (Rundle) are crazy about each other. They live in a huge house in a beautiful location just outside Glasgow and want for nothing. All that’s missing is a baby – and they’ve been trying for years. Through a chance encounter they meet Kaya (Mack), an 18-year-old from the other side of the city, whose life is as precarious at theirs is comfortable. When Kaya agrees to carry their baby, it feels like they were meant to meet, but was it really by chance? Who is Kaya and what has brought her to this couple? Can the dreams of Kaya, Emily and...

Edie Music Box Films Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Simon Hunter Screenwriter: Simon Hunter, Edward Lyden-Bell, Elizabeth O’Halloran Cast: Sheila Hancock, Kevin Guthrie, Paul Brannigan, Amy Manson, Wendy Morgan Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 8/10/19 Opens: September 6, 2019 The Pennsylvania Dutch have an expression, “Ve get […]

The post Edie Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

"I've wasted so much time doing nothing..." Music Box Films has debuted the official trailer for an indie adventure drama titled Edie, from director Simon Hunter. The film originally premiered at the Edinburgh and Raindance Film Festivals in the UK in 2017, and is finally getting a theatrical release in the Us coming up next month. The film stars Sheila Hancock (from Take a Girl Like You and Carry On Cleo) as Edie, an 83-year-old woman who "believes that it is never too late". So she packs up an old camping bag, leaving her life behind, embarking upon an adventure she never got to have - climbing the imposing Mount Suilven in Scotland (here on Google Maps). The cast also includes Kevin Guthrie, Paul Brannigan, Amy Manson, Wendy Morgan, Rachael Keiller, and Donald Pelmear. This looks exactly like the uplifting, inspiring "you can do anything you want" story that it sounds like,...

After premiering at the 2017 Edinburgh International Film Festival, where it was also nominated for the prestigious Michael Powell Award, we have a first look at the trailer and poster for Edie.

Also in trailers – Game of Thrones, Art Parkinson battles authorities in a bid to save an Elephant in trailer for Zoo

Featuring a moving performance from Sheila Hancock (Cabaret, Entertaining Mr Sloane) in an inspiring tale, the story is a tale of triumph over adversity as Edie embarks on the adventure of a lifetime, set against the stunning backdrop of the Scottish Highlands.

The film is directed by Simon Hunter and stars Sheila Hancock, Kevin Guthrie, Paul Brannigan, Amy Manson and Wendy Morgan.

Edie, out in UK cinemas from 25th May

Edie Official Synopsis

Meet Edith Moore (Sheila Hancock) an elderly woman, who in the aftermath of the death of her controlling husband, decides to fulfil a life-long dream...

Against her daughters wishes, an 83-year old heads to Scotland to climb a mountain.

Edith Moore (Sheila Hancock) is an elderly woman who, in the aftermath of the death of her controlling husband, decides to fulfil a life-long dream and overcome a lifetime of bitterness and resentment. At the age of eighty-three, Edie sets out to try and capture a little of the magic she had as a young girl by climbing a Scottish mountain. Against her daughters wishes, she heads to Scotland and employs Jonny (Kevin Guthrie) to help her prepare for the gruelling climb ahead – which sparks an unusual friendship.

Edie is directed by Simon Hunter and stars Sheila Hancock, Kevin Guthrie, Paul Brannigan, Amy Manson and Wendy Morgan.

Mutant Chronicles and Lighthouse director Simon Hunter is back after a long hiatus with a new film, this time not a genre piece, but a poignant drama about aging and redemption called Edie. Based on an original idea by Hunter, Edie tells the story of an 83-year-old woman who, when faced with the prospect of life in an old folks home, sets off to rekindle her fond memories of childhood by heading to Scotland to climb a mountain. Filmed on location at Suilven Mountain in Sutherland, Scotland, the film is quite gorgeous to look at. Hunter is know for his flair for visuals and Edie looks like no exception. Edie stars Bafta nominated actress Sheila Hancock, Paul Brannigan and Kevin Guthrie. The film will premiere at...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Author: Andy Furlong

This week HeyUGuys caught up with talented screenwriter Paul Laverty, the man who gave life to so many memorable characters and stories. In an extremely fascinating interview Paul talks about the latest film he wrote, The Olive Tree, directed by Icíar Bollaín. He also talks in depth about his creative process, what it is like working with Ken Loach, and Irish History.

One of things I have always appreciated about your writing is that it often has undertones of very socially relevant themes, such as the environment, poverty and recession – as indeed we see in The Olive Tree – but your characters never feel like just mouth pieces for these issues but rather fully fleshed out, real people that, through the audiences observation, become a window into these problems. How do you strike a balance between the themes you want to talk about in an overarching sense, without...

★☆☆☆☆ Talulah Riley plays three roles in rom-com Scottish Mussel, acting as star, writer and director. Sadly, her feature debut is as vacuous as they come, without so much as a morsel of skill on display and lacking both drama and humour. Ritchie (Martin Compston) is a chancer who spends his days hanging around at the pub with best mates Danny (Joe Thomas) and Fraser (Paul Brannigan). Disillusioned with their poor lifestyle, Ritchie sees money in mussel farming and volunteers at a wildlife centre in the Highlands. As he schemes to sell mussel pearls he falls in love with conservationist Beth (Riley).

CBS Studios International and Sky have inked a deal for the exclusive U.K. broadcast rights to the new drama series Madam Secretary, which will premiere in the coming months on Sky Living. Téa Leoni stars as Elizabeth McCord, the shrewd, determined, newly appointed U.S. Secretary of State who drives international diplomacy, battles office politics and circumvents protocol as she negotiates global and domestic issues, both at the White House and at home. Bebe Neuwirth, Geoffrey Arend, Patina Miller, Erich Bergen, Željko Ivanek and Tim Daly co-star. “I knew as soon as I saw Madam Secretary at this year’s L.A. Screenings it was perfect for Sky Living,” said Channel Director Antonia Hurford-Jones. “It’s a smart, pacy quality drama which has you hooked from the start. I feel confident our customers are going to love it.”

NBCUniversal International Television Production and TV3 Group Ireland are partnering to...

Martin Compston, Joe Thomas star with the St Trinians star in rom-com.

Shooting is underway in Glasgow on ‘eco-rom com’ Scottish Mussel, the debut writer-director project from Talulah Riley (St Trinians), with Martin Compston (Sweet Sixteen) in the lead role alongside The Inbetweeners’ Joe Thomas.

The cast also includes Harry Enfield (Kevin & Perry Go Large), Emun Elliott (Filth), Paul Brannigan (The Angel’s Share) James Dreyfus (Notting Hill), Rachael Sterling (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen) and comedians Russell Kane and Rufus Hound.

In Scottish Mussel, Compston plays a Glaswegian chancer who meets a pretty English conservationist while trying to make his fortune as an illegal pearl fisher.

Jason Maza, Noel Clarke and Phil Dore are producing for Unstoppable Entertainment (Storage 24).

Cassian Elwes (Dallas Buyers Club) is executive producer alongside Wayne Marc Godfrey, David Gilbery and Robert Jones for The Fyzz Facility Limited.

The film will shoot on location in and around Glasgow for four weeks from October...

Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Paul Brannigan, Jessica Mance, Joe Szula, Lynsey Taylor Mackay | Written by Walter Campbell | Directed by Jonathan Glazer

When Jonathan Glazer last directed almost ten years ago he polarized audiences with his controversial film Birth. His latest effort will no doubt have a similar effect. Under the Skin is a Kubrikian-esque Science Fiction thriller that will fully transfix some with its eerie imagery and bore others with its cold demeanor and methodical pace. Those who argue the format of movies has become stale will find that Glazer pushes cinema forward by being willing to leave some behind.

Ambiguity may not be a strong enough word to describe the films premise. Scarlet Johansson plays an alien dressed in the skin of a woman who prowls around Glasgow seducing young hitchhikers. Her purpose is unstated, but she traps these men in this static state for the benefit of her kind.

To mark the release of Under The Skin on 14th July, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on Blu-ray.

Adapted from Michael Faber’s novel of the same name, Under The Skin has undergone a decade-long transition from page to screen, with performances heightened in the finished film by Glazer’s singular decision to shoot many of Johansson’s scenes as unscripted conversations with non-actors, using hidden cameras. Johansson’s revealing performance excitingly displays a further willingness to not only bare her own skin, but to deviate from convention as her character battles with burgeoning emotions in a world filled with feeling. Unsure as to why she acts the way she does, the conflicted emotion she gradually feels for her victims endangers her own existence.

Joining Johansson and the numerous unknowns are rising stars Paul Brannigan (The Angel’s Share) and Michael Moreland (Filth).

Please note: This competition...

Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Paul Brannigan, Jessica Mance, Joe Szula, Lynsey Taylor Mackay | Written by Walter Campbell | Directed by Jonathan Glazer

When Jonathan Glazer last directed almost ten years ago he polarized audiences with his controversial film Birth. His latest effort will no doubt have a similar effect. Under the Skin is a Kubrikian-esque Science Fiction thriller that will fully transfix some with its eerie imagery and bore others with its cold demeanor and methodical pace. Those who argue the format of movies has become stale will find that Glazer pushes cinema forward by being willing to leave some behind.

Ambiguity may not be a strong enough word to describe the films premise. Scarlet Johansson plays an alien dressed in the skin of a woman who prowls around Edinburgh Glasgow, Scotland seducing young hitchhikers. Her purpose is unstated, but she traps these men in this static state for the benefit of her kind.

Directed by: Jonathan Glazer Written by: Walter Campbell and Jonathan Glazer, based on the novel by Michael Faber Main Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Paul Brannigan, Lynsey Taylor Mackay, and others Past Oscar relations: None, though Scarlett Johansson has received four Golden Globe nominations and twice came very close to Academy Award nominations Here now is the newest article in this series on 2014 contenders hoping to compete for Oscar attention. Next up today is Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin, which hopes to be the sort of heady indie contender that voters every so often can fall under the spell of. Glazer’s acclaimed Sexy Beast wasn’t able to attract enough votes, but can this one do better? Armed with an amazing performance by Scarlett Johansson and some incredible visuals/sound design, Glazer has a magnificent movie, though one that could prove to be a hard sell. What this flick really...

Female Perversion: Glazer’s Latest a Strange, Hypnotic Exploration of the Body Feminine

It’s been over a decade now since Jonathan Glazer’s exciting and strange sophomore film Birth (2004), an eerie and unsettling exploration of reincarnation tainted with the specter of pedophilia. While greeted with divisive reactions, his long awaited next feature, Under the Skin seems destined for an equally baffling reaction as he once again employs an A-list star in a nightmarish and disorienting universe of perplexing intention. Have no doubt, however, that Glazer has crafted a cinematic masterpiece that’s surreal, scintillating, and unforgettably strange. While reminiscent of several classic sci-fi titles in its obfuscated execution, it’s most notable ancestor would perhaps be Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth, but only in a rudimentary comparison of narrative. Glazer’s is a menacing look at the construction and consumption of female sexuality.

On the...

The Rocket | Under The Skin | The Zero Theorem | Suzanne | Veronica Mars | Need For Speed | Plot For Peace

The Rocket (12A)

(Kim Mordaunt, 2013, Aus/Thai/Laos) Sitthiphon Disamoe, Loungnam Kaosainam, Thep Phongam, Bunsri Yindi. 96 mins

Children are often the best ambassadors for world cinema and so it proves here, in a Laos-set tale that's sympathetic but never condescending. The story centres on a displaced boy burdened by a perceived "curse". But it's told with documentary-like conviction and distinctly local details, from James Brown-worshipping war vets to the unexploded ordnance littering the landscape.

Under The Skin (15)

(Jonathan Glazer, 2013, UK) Scarlett Johansson, Paul Brannigan. Krystof Hádek. 108 mins

Glazer's delectably mystifying sci-fi makes Glasgow look like another planet – as seen through the eyes of Johansson's alien seductress, on the prowl for unsuspecting males. It sounds like a highbrow Species, but the imagery and sustained strangeness put it in a realm of its own.

The Zero Theorem (15)

(Terry Gilliam,...

Director: Jonathan Glazer; Screenwriter Walter Campbell, Jonathan Glazer; Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Paul Brannigan, Jessica Mance Running time: 108 mins; Certificate: 15

When people look back on 2014 as the year in which Scarlett Johansson became an interesting actress again, it will be because of a pair of radically different roles that nonetheless play like two halves of a whole. In both Spike Jonze's Her and Jonathan Glazer's haunting, singular sci-fi Under the Skin, Johansson plays a non-human entity who develops empathy and self-awareness and, for want of a better word, a soul.

Based loosely on Michel Faber's blackly comic novel, Under the Skin follows a predatory alien who inhabits the body of a young woman (Johansson) and uses her charms to prey on unsuspecting male hitchhikers along the motorways of Glasgow.

Faber's novel had the men drugged, mutilated and processed into meat in a sly metaphor for factory farming.

StudioCanal will be unleashing Jonathan Glazer's sci-fi thriller 'Under the Skin' into UK theatres later this month after making its Scottish premiere as the Closing Gala at this years recent Glasgow Film Festival. Based on the novel by Michel Faber the movie revolves around Isserley, an alien on earth, who uses her voracious sexuality to lure and feed on unsupecting dudes. Much of which is touched upon is this new clip from the feature. The movie stars Scarlett Johansson ('The Avengers'), Antonia Campbell-Hughes ('Storage 24') and Paul Brannigan. Head below for the new clip....

March 7, 2014

300: Rise of an Empire

Director: Noam Munro

Starring: Sullivan Stapleton, Rodrigo Santoro, Eva Green

Running time: 102 mins

Certificate 15

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Director: Wes Anderson

Starring: Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Edward Norton

Running time: 99 mins

Certificate 15

Paranoia

Director: Robert Luketic

Starring: Liam Hemsworth, Gary Oldman, Harrison Ford

Running time: 106 mins

Certificate 12

The Stag

Director: John Butler

Starring: Andrew Scott, Hugh O'Conor, Peter McDonald

Running time: 94 mins

Certificate 15

March 14, 2014

Need for Speed

Director: Scott Waugh

Starring: Aaron Paul, Dominic Cooper, Scott Mescudi

Running time: 130 mins

Certificate 12A

Under the Skin

Director: Jonathan Glazer

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Paul Brannigan

Running time: 108 mins

Certificate 15

Veronica Mars

Director: Rob Thomas

Starring: Kristen Bell, Jason Dohring, Enrico Colantoni

Running time: 110 mins

Certificate Tbc

The Zero Theorem

Director: Terry Gilliam

Starring: Christoph Waltz, Mélanie Thierry, David Thewlis

Running time: 107 mins

Certificate 15

March 21, 2014

About Last Night

Director: Steve Pink

Starring: Kevin Hart,...

Under the Skin Trailer. Jonathan Glazer‘s Under the Skin (2013) movie trailer 2 stars Scarlett Johansson, Scott Dymond, Jessica Mance, Paul Brannigan, and Krystof Hádek. Under the Skin‘s plot synopsis: “In search of loners, Laura (Scarlett Johansson) drives around the exquisitely moody landscapes of the Scottish highlands. She’s [...]

Continue reading: Under The Skin (2013) Movie Trailer 2: Kubrick Infuences, Scarlett Seduces...

In search of loners, Laura (Scarlett Johansson) drives around the exquisitely moody landscapes of the Scottish highlands. She’s an alien, sent from afar and equipped with enough human language and awesome seductive power to capture, destroy and presumably send home human males. And then, her curiosity about her human body and an accidental act of pity disrupt her mission. Comes out March 14th! Directed by Jonathan Glazer. Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Paul Brannigan & Krystof Hádek...

The new official one-sheet for the Jonathan Glazer helmed sci-fi thriller 'Under the Skin' has landed. The poster features the welcoming face of lead Scarlett Johansson ('The Avengers') amongst the stars. It's simplistic style resonates a rather 80's sci-fi feel and what with Glazer behind the camera we're sure to be in for a visual feast when it hits theatres in the UK next month. Johansson stars as a 'Species'-like alien who preys on humans using her 'voracious sexuality'. 'Under the Skin' also stars Antonia Campbell-Hughes ('Storage 24') and Paul Brannigan. Head below to check out the new poster....

We’ve just been sent this beautiful new poster for Under the Skin Jonathan Glazer’s which comes a day ahead of the trailer tomorrow afternoon. Under the Skin stars Scarlett Johansson, Paul Brannigan, Jessica Mance, Michael Moreland, Scott Dymond, Joe Szula and is set for release in UK on 14th March.

If you missed our review of the movie from Venice, you can view it by clicking this handy link. Don’t forget to return tomorrow for the new trailer and if you’ve missed the previous one, scroll down below the poster.

Under The Skin is the story of an alien in human form. Part road movie, part science fiction, part real, it’s a film about seeing our world through alien eyes.

Click to enlarge.

The post Beautiful UK Poster for Under the Skin starring Scarlett Johansson appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Tenth edition of Glasgow Film Festival, running Feb 20-March 2 announces guest lineup.

Award-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss and film-maker Terry Gilliam are among the guests set to attend the upcoming Glasgow Film Festival.

Dreyfuss will be attending the UK premiere of Cas & Dylan on Feb 22, where he will also be accompanied by the film’s director, Beverly Hills 90210’s Jason Priestley.

Gilliam will be in attendance at the screening of The Zero Theorem on Feb 27.

Other guests confirmed include Under the Skin director Jonathan Glazer and star Paul Brannigan for the festival’s closing gala on March 2; director David Mackenzie for Starred Up; magician Rickey Jay for the UK premiere of new documentary Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay; Mary Queen of Scots director Thomas Imbach; and Brontis Jodorowsky to talk about his father’s latest film The Dance of Reality.

Guests previously announced for this year’s tenth edition include The Double director [link=nm...

Acclaimed director Terry Gilliam will attend the première of his new film, The Zero Theorem, in Glasgow later this month, it was announced today. The Glasgow Film Festival has announced several big name guests who will be present at this year's events, including Richard Dreyfuss and Jason Priestley for Cas & Dylan and Thomas Imbach for Mary, Queen Of Scots. Japanese director Sang-il Lee will introduce Unforgiven, his adaptation of the Clint Eastwood classic, and Jean-Paul Salomé will discuss Playing Dead.

Alongside this international line-up will be Scottish talent including Paul Brannigan, star of The Angels' Share, and David Mackenzie, who directed Perfect Sense and will be introducing his new film Starred Up. There will also be a chance to meet Ricky Jay, the celebrated stage magician whose work has appeared in everything from Boogie Nights to The Prestige.

You can read our full coverage of the festival <a...

Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Paul Brannigan, Jessica Mance, Joe Szula, Lynsey Taylor Mackay | Written by Walter Campbell | Directed by Jonathan Glazer

Review by Scott Clark of The People’s Movies

Directed by Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast) and filmed entirely on location across Scotland Under the Skin is a film flaunting incredible cinematography strung together by a predominantly performance-orientated narrative. Based on the Novel by Michael Faber, Under the Skin follows Laura (Scarlett Johansson), an alien from another world, as she travels across Scotland kidnapping young men.

Glazer’s latest is a sci-fi film akin to 2001: A Space Odyssey in that one of the film’s main components is its striking tone and total control over the presented image. Daniel Landin’s exquisite palette of subdued tones creates a grim atmospheric back-drop for the film’s often macabre visual style. The same gorgeous control over image translates the Scottish landscape into a strange muggy alien territory,...

Paul Brannigan, Chloe Pirrie, Rowan Athale, Ed Barratt, Nisha Parti among selected.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced its first crop of BAFTA Breakthrough Brits.

The BAFTA Breakthrough Brits – chosen by a jury of industry experts – were named today as: actors Paul Brannigan, James Floyd, Tom Holland, Ade Oyefeso, Chloe Pirrie, and Sharon Rooney; writers/directors Rowan Athale and Zam Salim; writer Dominic Mitchell; game developers Oliver Clarke, Mitu Khandaker and Dan Pearce; game designers Rex Crowle and Sophia George; broadcaster Arthur Williams; and producers Ed Barratt and Nisha Parti.

The candidates will be invited to a day of networking sessions and talks at BAFTA’s London headquarters.

A number of the candidates have previously been selected as Screen Stars of Tomorrow, ,including Brannigan, Floyd, Holland, Pirrie, Oyefeso, Athale and Salim.

Putting a whole new spin on the sci-fi film genre, Scarlett Johansson plays the hottest alien of all time in the forthcoming flick “Under the Skin.”

The “We Bought a Zoo” babe is featured in a new teaser trailer for the movie, also starring Paul Brannigan, Jessica Mance, Joe Szula, and Krystof Hadek.

Directed by Jonathan Glazer, “Under The Skin” has received killer reviews at all the film festivals, including Toronto, Telluride, and Venice.

Per the synopsis, “An alien seductress preys on hitchhikers in Scotland.” And according to the studio, portions of the film were shot without the prior knowledge of the men being approached.

Under the Skin Trailer 2. Jonathan Glazer‘s Under the Skin (2013) movie trailer stars Scarlett Johansson, Scott Dymond, Jessica Mance, Paul Brannigan, and Krystof Hádek. Under the Skin‘s plot synopsis: “In search of loners, Laura (Scarlett Johansson) drives around the exquisitely moody landscapes of the Scottish highlands. She’s an [...]

Continue reading: Under The Skin (2013) Movie Trailer: Scarlett Johansson Targets Men...

Men are so easy. Just ask Scarlett Johansson’s out-of-this-world character in Jonathan Glazer’s “Under the Skin”, based on the book by Michael Faber. Frankly, advance word of the film’s rather episodic, wandering ways just means the movie is a too-faithful adaptation of the Faber book, which was pretty episodic and wandering. Or at least, it was for the first 60-70 or so pages I managed to get through. Here’s an extended trailer for “Under The Skin”, in which ScarJo plays an alien seductress who prowls the streets, alleyways, and highways of Scotland looking for willing victims. (And yes, they are apparently very willing. Suckers!) She then, we presume, has her way with them. Or does something to them that involves them never being seen again. Frankly, I’m not sure. Hopefully they all went with a smile. “Under the Skin” also stars Krystof Hádek, Paul Brannigan,...

Brace yourself for Peter Mullan as you've never heard him before in Dexter Fletcher's rousing musical romance set in Edinburgh

Only whales can hear Peter Mullan sing. Or, at least, truly appreciate it. To be sitting in front of the Scot as he rasps out 'Oh Jean' to his conveniently-named missus on their 25th wedding anniversary, is to feel your bones shake, the cinema quiver and your eardrums desperately scramble to adjust. Mullan makes a noise almost off the register, a rich, sonic product of years of grizzly living and fearless acting that'd make Johnny Cash feel a little reedy.

In fact, knowing Peter Mullan was in this had thrown me off track. Not being a Proclaimers nut, I'd assumed that title of Dexter Fletcher's second film should be read with grim irony, probably superimposed over a shot of a bloated corpse surfacing downstream at day-break. Mullan is...

If anyone has ever commented on Scarlett Johansson’s out-of-this-world beauty, we now know why: she is from outer space.

Johansson stars in Jonathan Glazer’s adaptation of Michel Faber’s eponymous novel, it is the story of an alien coming to earth in search of prey. Her victims are single men and her preferred weapon is that of seduction. Why the aliens need these men is unclear though there is a hint it could be for fuel or food.

There are visually stunning opening scenes of stars, orbs, eyes and we hear the voice of Johansson apparently learning to speak (“film, filmed, film”) in readiness for her earth landing. We then see a motorcyclist pulling up on a roadside, retrieving the body of a young woman and putting her into the back of a parked white van. Within awaits Johansson’s character, naked, ready to strip the girl and dress in her clothes.

The full lineup for the 57th BFI London Film Festival was unveiled this morning, and is being widely heralded as the fest's strongest slate in years.

As ever, several highlights from Toronto, Cannes and Venice are in the mix, with highlights including Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity, Steve McQueen's 12 Years A Slave and Palme d'Or winner Blue is the Warmest Colour.

There's also a slew of offerings from first-time filmmakers – among them the Daniel Radcliffe-starring Kill Your Darlings and Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Don Jon, and a strong documentary slate led by Alex Gibney's The Armstrong Lie.

Digital Spy counts down the top ten films to catch at this year's festival.

10) Locke

Who's involved: Tom Hardy, Steven Knight, Olivia Colman, Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott

When you can see it: October 18 - 21:20 / October 19 – 21:00 / October 20 – 21:00

Why it matters: Tom Hardy, alone in a car, for 85 minutes. This intriguingly...

Fanboys and cult movie buffs alike will delight in the teaser trailer for Jonathan Glazer's upcoming movie Under the Skin, starring Scarlett Johansson as an alien seductress. The teaser trailer surfaced online on Tuesday and features a series of images and footage from Glazer's movie, including a dark and brooding shot of Johansson in underwear walking away from the camera. The movie also stars Paul Brannigan and Krystof Hadek and was written by Glazer, Walter Campbell and Michel Faber from Faber's novel of the same name. Story: 'Under the Skin,' Starring Scarlett Johansson, Fails to Impress at Telluride In

read more...

The first footage from Jonathan Glazer’s upcoming sci-fi drama Under the Skin has gone online. Loosely adapted from Michael Faber’s acclaimed novel of the same name, the polarizing sci-fi thriller premiered at Colorado’s Telluride Film Festival this week. Get your first look at Scarlett Johansson as a sexy alien who is sent to the Scottish highlands to prey on human males using her ‘voracious sexuality’. Under the Skin co-stars Paul Brannigan, Joe Szula, Krystof Hádek and Scott Dymond. Glazer’s long-awaited followup to 2004′s Birth is currently playing the festival circuit. The movie doesn’t have U.S. distribution yet. Check out the Nsfw video which features a...

Click to read original and full article: First Teaser Trailer For Under The Skin on http://www.filmofilia.com...

Under the Skin Trailer. Jonathan Glazer‘s Under the Skin (2013) teaser trailer stars Scarlett Johansson, Paul Brannigan, Krystof Hádek, Jessica Mance, and Scott Dymond. Under the Skin‘s plot synopsis: “In search of loners, Laura (Scarlett Johansson) drives around the exquisitely moody landscapes of the Scottish highlands. She’s an [...]

Continue reading: Under The Skin (2013) Teaser Trailer: Scarlett Johansson’s Alien Film...

Having initially shot nearly two years ago in Scotland, the first footage of Jonathan Glazer’s new effort Under the Skin has finally been released. His follow-up to 2004′s Birth, the film is based on Michel Faber’s novel of the same name, and focuses on an alien (Scarlett Johansson) sent to Earth to seduce and prey on unwary souls in the highlands. Glazer’s filmography also includes 2000′s Sexy Beast and some of the most acclaimed music videos and commercials of the 1990s. The Film4 production co-stars Paul Brannigan (The Angels’ Share) and will play the Toronto International Film Festival in the coming weeks.

Early press screening responses from Telluride have suggested Under the Skin bears stylistic similarities to Nicolas Roeg’s adaptation of The Man Who Fell to Earth and Claire Denis’ Trouble Every Day; the DNA of both directors can definitely be felt in the moody assortment...

The Toronto International Film Festival® has announced the addition of 3 Galas and 19 Special Presentations to the 2013 Festival programme, including a further 12 World Premieres. Representing countries from around the world, the Gala and Special Presentations programmes offer a lineup of diverse titles and genres.

Toronto audiences will be among the first to screen films by directors Fred Schepisi, Alberto Arvelo, Reha Erdem, Dexter Fletcher, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, Megan Griffiths, Arnaud Larrieu and Jean-Marie Larrieu, Kevin Macdonald, Arie Posin, Charlie Stratton, Nils Tavernier and John Turturro.

The 38th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 5 to 15, 2013.

Galas Blood Ties

Guillaume Canet, France/USA North American Premiere

New York, 1974. 50-year-old Chris has just been released on good behavior after spending several years in prison. Waiting for him reluctantly outside the prison gates is his younger brother, Frank, a cop with a bright future. Chris and Frank have always been different, yet blood...

Exclusive: Focus International nabs Toronto-bound Proclaimers musical with Jane Horrocks, Peter Mullan.

Focus Features International has taken international sales rights to musical Sunshine on Leith, which will receive its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The second feature from British actor-turned-director Dexter Fletcher (Wild Bill) stars Peter Mullan (Tyrannosaur) and Jane Horrocks (Little Voice) in an adaptation of the acclaimed stage musical, inspired by Scottish band The Proclaimers.

The film was financed by Entertainment Film Distributors, the BFI Film Fund and Creative Scotland, with Entertainment distributing in the UK.

Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich produce from DNA with Arabella Page Croft and Kieran Parker from Black Camel Pictures (Outpost). Stephen Greenhorn wrote the script.

Identical twin brothers Charlie and Craig Reid of The Proclaimers have released nine albums since 1987 and are probably best known for hits I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), I’m On My Way and Letter from America. The title of...

Exclusive: Focus International nabs Toronto-bound Proclaimers musical with Jane Horrocks, Peter Mullan.

Focus Features International has taken international sales rights to musical Sunshine on Leith, which will receive its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The second feature from British actor-turned-director Dexter Fletcher (Wild Bill) stars Peter Mullan (Tyrannosaur) and Jane Horrocks (Little Voice) in an adaptation of the acclaimed stage musical, inspired by Scottish band The Proclaimers.

The film was financed by Entertainment Film Distributors, the BFI Film Fund and Creative Scotland, with Entertainment distributing in the UK.

Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich produce from DNA with Arabella Page Croft and Kieran Parker from Black Camel Pictures (Outpost). Stephen Greenhorn wrote the script.

Identical twin brothers Charlie and Craig Reid of The Proclaimers have released nine albums since 1987 and are probably best known for hits I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), I’m On My Way and Letter from America. The title of...

Review by Barbara Snitzer

The Angel’s Share is an unexpectedly delightful movie from English director Ken Loach whose previous films have been characterized as “social-realist” reflecting his left-wing views. This movie deservedly won the Audience Award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.

The movie takes place in Glasgow, Scotland, and some smart studio suit wisely made sure the film was released stateside with subtitles. Yes, they speak English in Scotland, and no, you shouldn’t be offended. Their presence alleviates the strain that comes with trying to understand the thick Glaswegian accent in which the word “kilt” sounds like “cult” to an American ear. They also, perhaps unintentionally, make up for the poor performance of the sound engineers that result in only one side of phone conversations being at all audible. Most importantly, they keep us from questioning our own intelligence as seeing a word spelled out confirms our ignorance of it,...

Rating: 2.5/5.0

Chicago – “Once you’re involved in the shit, you can’t get out.” Ken Loach, filmmaker of the working class and longtime supporter of people who are just trying to better their lives knows this kind of statement isn’t true. We can all climb out of the shit. And his latest, “The Angels’ Share,” is yet another tale of a young man who has made some mistakes in his life beginning that climb to adulthood and responsibility. While it has some likable characters, particularly its charismatic lead, it’s impossible to shake the feeling that we’ve seen this movie before. To be blunt, I never had a reason to care, which is not something that can be said about most of Loach’s films. This one is just bland.

Loach’s film opens with a montage of Glasgow residents getting their sentences of community service. Clearly, these...

The Angels’ Share

Directed by Ken Loach

Written by Paul Laverty

United Kingdom, France, Belgium, and Italy, 2012

Every so often, you can almost physically feel the shift a film makes as it attempts to lift the rug from under your feet. Most times, though not all, such shifts being so cognitively visible are a burden, and that’s the case with The Angels’ Share, Ken Loach’s most recent film, the Jury Prize winner at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Loach and writer Paul Laverty, in the first hour, weave a pleasant, homespun tale of a young Glaswegian man trying to do right after years of being ensconced in bad behavior. And then, randomly, it takes a turn that only modestly pays off.

At its best, The Angels’ Share is nearly absent of ambitions, simply presenting a group of ne’er-do-wells in Glasgow struggling against their inherent nature to be scoundrels,...

The Angels’ Share is a rare upbeat Ken Loach comedy — and a wee dram of bliss. Set in Scotland, it has a blessedly funny overture. A simpleminded drunk tips onto the railroad tracks and is accosted over the Pa system — “This is God calling. Get off the fucking track!” — as a train barrels in. Then he and other Glaswegian miscreants stand before a judge and listen to recitations of their crimes, petty and serious. Loach, working from a deft script by Paul Laverty, doesn’t short on serious. One man, Robbie (Paul Brannigan, a magnetic newbie with a prison record), kicked the living hell out of a guy for no reason. But his girlfriend has a baby on the way, and he vows never to hurt anyone again. Mates of the guy he maimed aren’t so peaceable.The title comes from the phrase for the diminution of whiskey as...

Ken Loach, the 76-year old, British filmmaker best known for his bleak political dramas such as "The Wind that Shakes the Barley," "Bread and Roses" and "Ladybird Ladybird," has with "The Angels' Share" made a wee, entertaining comedy about the theft of high-priced scotch in Scotland. Like most Loach films, it starts out focused on those barely clinging to the bottom rung of the social ladder, this time in Glasgow. Robbie (newcomer Paul Brannigan), a skinny runt of a young man, is up before a judge who'll decide whether he goes...

Ken Loach, the 76-year old, British filmmaker best known for his bleak political dramas such as "The Wind that Shakes the Barley," "Bread and Roses" and "Ladybird Ladybird," has with "The Angels' Share" made a wee, entertaining comedy about the theft of high-priced scotch in Scotland. Like most Loach films, it starts out focused on those barely clinging to the bottom rung of the social ladder, this time in Glasgow. Robbie (newcomer Paul Brannigan), a skinny runt of a young man, is up before a judge who'll decide whether he goes...

From the old reliable master Ken Loach, arrives the quaint little gem The Angels’ Share, a nearly seamless blend between drole humour, sometimes violent, edgy drama, the heist film and finally, the pastime of whisky tasting. More than any other facet, the latter adds a dynamic which is (fundamentally at least) completely at odds with most other themes explored in the film. Yet somehow it all works immensely well, adding a somewhat elitist, pompous kick to the adventure that I just loved.

It doesn’t hurt at all that I adore that particular spirit and hearing discussions about the subtleties and unique flavours of the drink made my tongue thirsty for a sip. In many ways those sequences do for whisky what Sideways did for wine admirers. The Angels’ Share, if you were wondering, is a colloquialism referring to the small percentage of whisky which evaporates during the casking process...

Over the course of its first 60 minutes, Ken Loach's The Angels' Share proves a testament to its director's enduring reputation as a master of British cinema and the social realist form, articulating the frustrations of Glasgow's working class with clarity and sophistication. Robbie (non-actor Paul Brannigan) is a brash ne'er-do-well and recent father endeavoring, quite in earnest, to abandon a life of crime in favor of much-needed stability. His quest for redemption through community service and a newfound interest in the world of whiskey—a matter of smelling and tasting rather than simply imbibing, of course—forms the heart of this story, which is told with humor and empathy. Loach, always attuned to the nuances of social problems both personal and systemic, negoti...

Ken Loach's The Angels' Share gets underway as a hard-hitting squint at the unemployed of Glasgow before rather perversely turning into an uplifting crime caper with a Disneyesque finale. But maybe, just maybe, a little Walt is what the have-nots are crying out for right now.

Loach, who has been zeroing in on the working class for over 45 years (Poor Cow (1967); Riff-Raff (1991)), and his longtime screenwriter Paul Laverty (The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006)) have concocted a group of societal misfits who've all wound up in court and sentenced to community service.

One, Albert (Gary Maitland), is a dull-witted hard drinker who's been arrested for plummeting onto some train tracks; another, kleptomaniac Mo (Jasmine Riggins), has filched a macaw; and a third, Rhino (William Ruane), has continuously affronted public statuary, sometimes with urine. But our main Cinderella/hero here is Robbie (Paul Brannigan).

With a scar down one cheek...