Author: Rosalynn Try-Hane

Inside Out is the family film of the year. It’s funny, innovative and intelligent in bringing to life those voices in your head: joy, sadness, fear, anger and disgust in 93 glorious minutes.

Riley is a 11 year old girl whose family move from their midwest home to the bustling city of San Fransico and with the move comes getting to grips with a new house, friends and school. How will she cope? Well maybe if we could see what was going on in her head we might get a better idea. Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling) have their hands full in making sure they keep her core memories alive whilst leaving room for new ones to form.

Pete Docter is the man behind Up, Monsters, Inc and Toy Story. Here he really takes a leap of faith and rather than focus on the exterior delves into the psyche and poses the universal question: what makes you you? Whilst we are all different there are a number of similarities not least that we are all ruled by our emotions. In order to make it relatable and not to physiological – emotions in Riley’s head live at headquarters. The core memories are islands so there is: friendship island, honesty island etc. Why do we remember some memories and not others? Why there are forgetters of course who remove redundant memories to make space for new ones as follows:

(Forgetter Paula) U.S Presidents?
(Forgetter Bobby) Keep Washington, Lincoln and the fat one

As with previous Pixar films such as Up and Toy Story, this is a film that children will enjoy on one level and adults will enjoy the wordplay. The colours are vivid and it’s intelligent whilst remaining easy for children to engage and understand the concepts it doesn’t seek to “dumb them down”. As with any animation the whole cast do such a wonderful job in breathing life into their respective emotions. If I had to choose Anger would be my favourite emotion especially when he rejoices at seeing curse word but disgust comes in a very close second.

Inside Out opens in cinemas on Friday 24 July and is a must see even if you are child free. You will leave having gone through a whole roller coaster of emotions but mostly joy after seeing this wonderful film.

Beautiful, savage and beguiling describes both the island and the central protagonist (stunning performance by Ruth Negga) of this film by writer/director Scott Graham.

This is a tense story that starts off grey, but, then pockets of light appear only for low rumbling in the distance before a terribly thunderous end. The film starts by a kitchen sink in a nondescript council house with Iona and her lover when her teenage son Billy (impressively played by Ben Gallacher) returns with two bottles of milk. Her teenage son, Billy who prefers to be called Bull reacts just like the proverbial bull in a china shop. His reaction necessitates Iona to take them both on an odyssey to the island of her birth: a place where much is seen and little is said much like her.

Scott Graham follows up his award winning debut, Shell, with this the closing film of the 2015 Edinburgh International Film Festival and it is incredible. He deftly shows the difference between islanders and those of the mainland and the struggles they have of faith, religion, family dramas all carefully mixed in with Iona’s own struggle with the paradox of missing the island life but hating how claustrophobic it can make you feel.

The reason why the film is so enchanting, aside from the glorious cinematography, is down to the performance of Ruth Negga. It is often said that actors are luminous on screen but she truly is in this role and great things await her. The supporting cast act well and help move along this melodic film. I daren’t say it is slow but more reflective of how life is on an island with a small population that lacks its own doctor, hospital or even police force.

However, the final 20 minutes of the film descended into chaotic melodramatic and predictable mess which took away from the power and majesty of the rest of the film. Setting aside the final 20 minutes of the film I would say this is a must see.

Iona is a fitting end to the Edinburgh Film Festival showing a Scotland that most of us never see.

Love & Mercy is directed by Bill Pohland and stars Paul Dano and Jon Cusack playing two different versions of Brian Wilson. Paul Dano embodies the passion and love of the young Brian Wilson. The one who composed Pet Sounds and other classics such as Good Vibrations, Surfin USA but, also the one whose control on reality starts to slip out of reach and the yearning for parental validation. Cusack shows us Brian Wilson trapped in another “prison” with Landy, his therapist, (monstrously brought to life by Paul Giamatti) and looking for Mercy and he finds it in the form of a used car saleswoman – Melinda.

Written by Oren Moverman and Michael Alan Lerner – the former the co-writer of the 2007 classic I’m Not There telling the story of Bob Dylan in unconventional fashion. Here too it works well given how unconventional and radical Brian Wilson was in his compositions especially of Pet Sounds. Brian Wilson brought a dog into the recording studio to capture the bark.

For me, the standout performance of the film is that of Paul Dano. We are used to seeing him gaunt on screen and here he is carrying a significant amount of extra weight in order to convey the contrast of young Brian Wilson and his performance is nuanced without descending into melodrama. It is his performance that allows the audience to feel love and mercy for the older Wilson (Cusack) in the second half of the film.

Why weren’t the beach boys even more successful? Perhaps because “…even the happy songs are sad” Brian’s cousin tells him. The modern Wilson is as interesting as his younger self. A lot of it shot in the 1980S and early 1990s – Elizabeth Banks does a stirling job bringing Melinda Wilson, Brian’s current wife, to screen. Her role in the film is to show the contrast between Wilson’s claustrophobic gilded world with Landy and the world outside. The scene in which Landy yanks a burger out of Wilson’s hand by telling him he isn’t hungry is frightening and demonstrative of the control he wielded over Wilson. Personally after that scene I am not sure what the need was to show further Landy scenes, although they do show just what a breath of fresh air and means of escape Melinda was at the time for Wilson and how much their trusted housekeeper means to them as she hid some of the drugs stating: “the pills are too many, they make him even more loco/crazy”.

Ultimately, film’s power is in the extraordinary way in which the recording sessions are shown on screen. Bill Pohland really captures those well and in turn showing musical genius that is Brian Wilson. His singular vision and always wanting to push through barriers. When a meeting between the Beach Boys and Brian is convened at Brian’s house he talks of his vision and plans despite the flop of Pet Sounds and one of them says: “we’re too shallow for the deep end.” Not only is that a reference to where Brian is in the pool but also a description of the band wanting to stay safe peddling shallow but commercially successful songs whilst Brian wants to show the world the real him and all the sounds playing in his head. Stay until the very end to watch the real Brian Wilson singing Love & Mercy and you’ll understand why this was the final title used for the film rather than the original title of “Heroes and Villans” attached to the original script.

This biopic is well worth watching because it is unlike any you have ever scene. It is not formulaic and deftly manages to avoid the clichés that so many biopics embrace – rags to riches etc. Furthermore, I had heard one or two Beach Boys songs, knew little about Brian Wilson and had never heard Pet Sounds. I left the screening with a burgeoning respect for Wilson and promptly started to listening to Pet Sounds. This is a film for fans and non fans alike.

Love & Mercy is released in cinemas across the UK from Friday 10 July with a running time of 121 minutes.

Scottish Mussel is an old fashioned caper movie, reminiscent of the Carry On Films. Ritchie ( Martin Compston) a petty Glaswegian crook is looking to make a bit of fast money and he and his motley crew of misfits start illegally pearl fishing only for him to fall in love with the English conservationist Beth (Talulah Riley) in the process.

This is Talulah Riley’s first foray as writer, director and actress and she does a fine job making good use of the Scottish countryside.

There isn’ much more to say about this film either you like old fashioned comedies such as the Carry on Films or you don’t. If you fall into the latter group then you will not enjoy this film. For the most part I found it an enjoyable way to spend 93 minutes but be warned the script is pretty flimsy but the actors especially Martin Compston and his motley crew (Paul Brannigan and Joe Thomas) make it easy to watch and look out for Harry Enfield as a the fast food truck owner.

It was shown as part of the Best of British selection at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Ritchie is a Glaswegian chancer with low hopes and no prospects. Disillusioned with city life, he goes undercover at a Highland conservation centre to make his fortune as an illegal pearl fisher with the help of his two hapless and accident prone mates, Danny and Fraser. Here he meets Beth, a pretty English conservationist passionate about saving endangered mussels from the clutches of pearl thieves in the Scottish Highlands. Falling for her instantly, Ritchie must beat off competition in the form of Highland Ranger Ethan, a smooth talking American Adonis convinced that Beth can’t resist his charms forever. After the success of pearl fishing attracts the unwanted attentions of old school Glaswegian mobster Gavin and his work at the centre leads him to question his true motivations, Ritchie must risk life and limb to save the Highlands from ecological disaster and win Beth’s heart.

The Incident is first feature length film from writer/director Jane Linfoot and it tells of how one incident, a moment of madness, can turn your life upside down.

The film centres of Joe (Tom Hughes) and Annabel (Ruth Gedmintas) living an ordered, upper middle class life working ini architecture and fine art. One evening Joe goes off in search of takeaway and happens upon a pizzeria and there in a moment of madness and ultimately weakness he succumbs to the charms of the teenage prostitute Lily (an astounding Tasha Connor) and he tries as best he can to forget that incident but Lily has other plans.

Jane Linfoot provides an astute character study of a young couple not particularly well suited packaged within a taut psychological thriller. Ruth broods in their house in the woods mirroring the brooding Yorkshire landscape around her. All three actors are excellent although at times the film felt too slow and melodic. However, for me the final scene of The Incident made it all worth sitting through just to see that conversation between Annabel and Joe.

The Incident was shown as part of the Best of British selection at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival.