CATRIONA PAUL at the movies. WHAT DO Neve Campbell, star of the teen horror Scream trilogy, and Robert Altman, Oscar-winning director of critically acclaimed films such as The Player and Gosford Park, have in common? Answer – a film about ballet. The Company follows the lives and work of dancers at The Joffrey Ballet of […]

CATRIONA PAUL at the movies. THE FILM THAT opened Cannes, receiving many stunning reviews, is Bad Education by director Pedro Almodóvar. His previous films include All About My Mother and Talk to Her. His latest hit stars Gael García Bernal, star of Y tu Mama También and Amores Perros. Impeccable credentials, but does Almodóvar have […]

Catriona Paul at the Movies. WHO IS Scotland’s greatest actor? Sean Connery? Ewan MacGregor? For my money, Peter Mullen, actor and gifted director, is certainly the most interesting. Recently picking up Best Director and Best British Film at the London Film Critic Awards for The Magdalene Sisters, Blinded sees him back in front of the […]

CATRIONA PAUL at the movies. FEELING JADED? The grumbles of the day will fade away as you watch The Station Agent. Like a glass of ice-cool lemonade on a long, hot, dusty day, this film refreshes. You’ll leave the cinema feeling kinder, calmer, and just better. But let’s get it over with and mention the […]

CATRIONA PAUL gets over her brush with celebrity and considers the state of Celtic film and televison as manifest at the 25th Celtic Film and Television Festival in Dundee.

CATRIONA PAUL at the movies. ANOTHER WESTERN rides into view, but is it giddy up cowboy or whoa there cowpoke for Kevin Costner’s latest film, Open Range? With plenty of hits, (Dances with Wolves, Robin Hood (Prince of Thieves), and The Bodyguard to name just a few), yet almost as many misses, (notably Waterworld and […]

CATRIONA PAUL at the Movies. HOW FUNNY is a film about cancer, in French, with subtitles? The answer – surprisingly funny, and definitely worth a look. The Barbarian Invasions is an intelligent drama/comedy from Franco-Canadian director Denys Arcand, (best-known for Jesus of Montreal, 1988), which focuses on the last months of Rémy, bon viveur, womaniser […]

Catriona Paul at the movies. HOW MUCH does a life weigh? Apparently, at the exact moment of death, a person loses 21 grams. Alejandro González Inárritu’s latest film suggests death weighs much more heavily on those left behind. Naomi Watts and Benicio del Toro received Oscar nominations for their roles in this drama, and Sean […]

Catriona Paul at the movies. DIRECTOR Ron Howard’s first attempt at the Western was the lavish, light-hearted turkey, Far and Away (1992). 12 years on, we have The Missing – a gritty, frontier drama about a girl’s abduction, starring Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones. But has Howard, maker of hits including Parenthood, Apollo 13 […]

CATRIONA PAUL at the movies. A SCOTTISH comedy/drama set in an imaginary Highland town which tells the tale of a group of 20-something buddies offered a way out of dull lives by the discovery of gold. If only it was any good. One Last Chance stars some of the country’s brightest young stars; too bright […]