A Private War (15)***
Dir: Matthew Heineman
With: Rosamund Pike, Jamie Dornan, Tom Hollander
Runtime: 110 minutes
IT has been seven years since Sunday Times foreign correspondent Marie Colvin and photographer Remi Ochlik were targeted and killed by Bashar al-Assad’s forces besieging the Syrian city of Homs. Following last year’s documentary, Under the Wire, comes this dramatic account of Colvin’s life and times, with Rosamund Pike (An Education, Beirut) playing the reporter who was famously first in and last to leave the world’s trouble spots. Pike certainly looks and acts the part, even if the depiction of the journalist’s trade tends towards the cliched. In showing the effect the harrowing work had on Colvin, director Matthew Heineman has made a fine companion piece to the documentary, though one wonders if the emphasis on the personal would have been quite so much if Colvin had been male.
Jellyfish (15)***
Dir: James Gardner
With: Liv Hill, Angus Barnett, Tomos Eames
Runtime: 101 minutes
ANYONE who saw Three Girls, the BBC drama about the child abuse scandal in Rochdale, will remember the young actor Liv Hill. In director James Gardner’s debut, she plays Sarah, a 15-year-old caring for her mentally ill mother and two younger siblings in rundown Margate. At school, the drama teacher is encouraging Sarah to turn her savage humour into a stand up routine, a la Frankie Boyle, but some things just cannot be laughed at any longer. This could have been a more depressing I, Daniel Blake, and it is grim viewing at times, but Gardner shows remarkable restraint. As for Hill, she has genuinely funny bones and her outstanding talent once again shines through. The new Maxine Peake, that one.
Glasgow Film Theatre, February 15-17
RBG (PG)****
Dirs: Julie Cohen, Betsy West
Runtime: 98 minutes
JULIE Cohen and Betsy West’s documentary profile of US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is in the running for two Oscars at the end of the month. In case you missed it when it was released just after Christmas, it is out on DVD and Blu Ray on Monday and well worth seeking out. As this elegantly assembled film shows, the “Notorious RBG” as young Americans affectionately call the 85-year-old, has changed millions of women’s lives for the better through her hard work and brilliant legal mind. If this is not enough RBG for you, Felicity Jones plays the judge in On the Basis of Sex, out next week.
Dogwoof, DVD and Blu Ray, from February 18
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here