A lovely film I edited in 2016, And Violet, has won the Best Dramatic Feature award at the 2017 Arizona International Film Festival in Tucson - it's world premiere. Additionally, the lead actor, Hana Mackenzie, won the Special Jury Award for Best Performance. I suppose I'm biased, but that's well deserved as she gives a remarkable performance.

There's a good interview with the director Paul Gray here

Follow And Violet here for more information and future screenings.



Rob Burnett made his first break interning for David Letterman in 1985. Working his way up to head writer of Late Show with David Letterman in 1992, he eventually became executive producer. After more than twenty years in television comedy and multiple Emmys, he's on his way to the same success in film, writing and directing the charming and funny Sundance closing-night hit - and now Netflix Original film - The Fundamentals of Caring.


Based on the novel by Johnathan Evison, The Fundamentals of Caring stars Paul Rudd as Ben, a father grieving his tragically lost son, who, in desperation, dives into caregiving for Trevor, played by Craig Roberts, a teenager with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
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I sat down with Rob Burnett at the 70th Edinburgh International Film Festival, where the film had its European premiere, to ask him about working with Rudd and Roberts, making death and disability funny, and why he chose Netflix to distribute the film.




Read more at The 405 here

Name: John Lake. Profession: Doctor of Medicine. Destination: Some Laotian prison, maybe. Film: Jamie M Dagg's frantic thriller River | Arthouse head-trip History's Future tells the story of one man's brain-damage and capitalism's moral-damage
 
Morally complex mumble-chase and an enigmatic experimental trip inside a damaged mind in two films from my seventh day at EIFF 2016 [read more at The 405]

Bloody revenge becomes as difficult as spelling Aberystwyth in great Welsh-language thriller The Library Suicides

Hollywood tragedy Kevin Smith insults Canadians, critics and his own child with horror-comedy that is neither scary nor funny in Yoga Hosers 

Didn't think I'd see a film worse than Macbeth Unhinged at EIFF. So, congratulations to Kevin Smith, I guess. Quite the achievement.

Read more at The 405 here

Two films reviewed from the Best of British strand of EIFF 2016

A break-up shake-up comedy that makes you think about every bad relationship you ever had in Brakes

A Welshman, a Scotsman, and an Irish Manic Pixie Dream Girl take a trip to find the punchline to that joke, in the endearing but clumsy drama Moon Dogs

Read more here at The 405

Barmy Bard-baiting in Macbeth Unhinged | Tokyo Godfathers but with zombies in Seoul Station | It only takes a camera to crack her mind in The Model

Reviews from the second day of EIFF 2016

Read more at The 405 here

First daily report from the Edinburgh International Film Festival, with a review of the opening film Tommy's Honour. Not a great start.

Read more at The 405 here