GFF: Day Four

After a great day yesterday, it was back to work today at my job as a graphic designer and therefore could only manage one film, Drew: The Man behind the Poster, played at the Centre for Contemporary Arts (with the worst seats for a movie!). As the day job and hobbies, that include painting and drawing, suggests I was most interested in this one...

GFF: Day Three

Time off the day job to spend most of the day in the cinema - good times! Three festival films crowded my afternoon including the debut feature of Mumbai's Ritesh Batra, The Lunchbox; Joanna Hogg's third feature Exhibition and Icelandic director Ragnar Bragason's Metalhead. And then for good measure I slipped in another regular release that I'll write up in my end of month reviews.

An interesting day really, which included my favourite and least favourite films of the festival so far.

GFF: Day Two

After a couple of days away, I can finally get back to the wonderful line-up of the Glasgow Film Festival. So even though this is actually Day 6 of the festival, this is only the second day I have managed to catch any films. So after a long day at work I caught The Congress on the big screen, having disappointingly missed out on the Tron showing at the Glue Factory due to technical difficulties when booking. Finished off the evening with another regular release which I'll review later.

A measly one festival film today however I mean to make up for my poor show with three more festival showings and an extra one on regular release today.

GFF: Day One

Although I couldn't make the Opening Gala, I was glad to be able to get my schedule started on the Friday. The three films for the day included Polish heartwarmer and debut feature for Bodo Kox, The Girl from the Wardrobe; followed up by Swedish indie sci-fi LFO and finishing the run with the biggest of the three films today based on the Nick Hornby novel of the same name, A Long Way Down.

A couple of days away means the next film I get to see is Tuesday. In the mean time, here's what I thought of these films.

Glasgow Film Festival is Nearly Here

With January reviews already up and February not due until the beginning of March, I'm going to make an exception for those films seen during the festival. With tickets already booked I hope to have reviews up as the films are seen day to day.

I've covered a varied selection of films including foreign language, documentary, horror, sci-fi and drama. Although less than I would have liked to, due to other plans already in place meaning there are a few days I won't be able to see any showings. Those that I can make though I am thoroughly looking forward to.

Roll on Friday!

January Goes Boom

Well, I may have missed out on my target last year but with a start this good for 2014, I think I'm going to blow that target of 150 films out of the water! With a grand total of 20 films in this one month alone, the pressure is off. My lack of extra spending money will no doubt help, as I won't be able to go anywhere else in case of the expense. So the films seen this past month include:

American Hustle
Walking with Dinosaurs 3D
All Is Lost
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Last Vegas
47 Ronin
Blue Jasmine
Gravity
Devil's Due
Delivery Man
12 Years a Slave
Crystal Fairy and the Magical Cactus
American Hustle
Philomena
The Railway Man
August: Osage County
The Wolf of Wall Street
Cuban Fury (preview)
Only Lovers Left Alive (preview)
Inside Llewyn Davis

Now a few of these were released before the New Year and some are second viewings but overall it was a great selection with a lot of awards contenders showing up in the mix. Big cheers go to ShowFilmFirst.com and Total Film with a couple of preview showings at the end of the month too.

Best Film of 2013

Finally we make it to the last category and arguably the most important one. With this list you have to take into consideration the films I’ve missed during the year and the fact that this is just my own opinion. No need to take it so seriously!

It has been great fun going back through all the films of 2013, working out which ones I've still to get on DVD/Blu Ray and which ones I should be telling anyone who will listen to avoid. So I'll shut up now and get on with it, here are my favourite films of 2013!

Best Actor of 2013

Here I take into consideration both leading and supporting roles of all the films these actors have featured in this past year. So it covers their range rather than one specific performance, sometimes you will find someone that will only have one credit but is too powerful in that part to pass by.

Click on the [OR] link next to particular films to find the original reviews I wrote at the time of their release. Not all will have them.