You Instead has a nice premise behind it, but fails to deliver in a way that makes it anything more than a fair film. The plot follows two feuding rock artists handcuffed together mere hours before they’re (separately) due to perform with their bands.

The film is set and was filmed at T in the Park in 5 days, this is an incredible feat – organised chaos is probably one of the hardest things to organise and not being able to go back for reshoots meant that they were under strict scheduling and everything needed to be completed over the weekend. While this is interesting and gives the film an edge, it stops the film becoming as good as it should be.

Luke Treadaway plays Adam, one half of a successful electric pop band who arrived in their tour bus ready to perform for all their fans. Natalia Tena plays Morello, part of a struggling all girl punk rock band excited about performing at T in the Park for their first time, hoping to perform well and be invited back next year. Being handcuffed together was something they definitely didn’t plan on, but when the two bands start feuding, a misguided security guard handcuffs the pair together and disappears without giving either of them the key.

The plot, while unoriginal, is interesting and fun and I was happy to go along with it, but while the concept was there the execution of it was lacking. I’m a fan of Natalia Tena and her performance was charming most of the time, but I didn’t understand her relationship with the banker boyfriend (not a euphemism), or how a six year relationship could fall apart in one evening without any indication beforehand.

The atmosphere was enjoyable but also incredible disjointed, jumping from a heartfelt discussion about relationships to raving crowds and drunken people falling over – although I did enjoy the Newton Faulkner cameo. The film had heart behind it, the script just needed more work and perhaps more rehearsing time as the chemistry didn’t feel quite there to me and some of the ad-libbing wasn’t particularly convincing.

There are however some great moment in the film – mud fights, shower scenes, four people trying to sleep in a bed, handcuffed trips to the portaloo, some wonderful Tena and Treadaway duets, and a look into the lifestyles of bands and festivals.

You Instead has a good soundtrack and decent cast, but it lacks strong enough performances and script to make it into the film is should be.

[Rating:2.5.5]

Director David Mackenzie (Young Adam, Spread) has two very different love story films coming out in the next month, the festival-set You Instead and the pandemic-apocalyptic Perfect Sense.

A brilliant new trailer for the latter has now arrived, courtesy of Empire, and it gives us a lovely look at the budding romance between Ewan McGregor’s Michael, a chef, and Eva Green’s Susan, a scientist.

“The story of two people who begin to fall in love as the world begins to fall apart.

Susan is a scientist. Michael is a chef. He takes a break from the kitchen heat in the alleyway below her apartment; she smokes a cigarette at the window above. He calls up for a light – the first spark in their passionate affair.

But the world is about to change dramatically. As love turns Susan and Michael’s lives upside down, people across the globe begin to experience
strange symptoms, which first affect the emotions then the senses, one by one.

Everything changes. But people laugh, they cry, they eat and drink, they go about their daily business. They adapt, they change, they cope, they live and they love – because life must go on. And so it does.”

Parts of the synopsis admittedly read a little like Steven Soderbergh’s next film, Contagion, and some of the scenes in this new trailer even feel quite like it. But when you have two films that have a globally-spreading virus at their centre, at least some of the scenes are bound to look similar, and we shouldn’t hold that against either of them. Both are set to be excellent projects, and both should be very much worth watching.

Perfect Sense unites McGregor and Mackenzie after working together on Young Adam back in 2003, and McGregor is also united with fellow Trainspotting co-star Ewen Bremner, seen alongside him in the kitchen in the trailer.

This new look at the film makes it seem like a very interesting project, and I’m really looking forward to its 7^th October release date. Contagion comes out two weeks later, on 21^st October, so we should be in for two great pandemic-apocalyptic movies in one month this year. Both should be very different though, so I can’t wait for either. Jamie got to see the film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival earlier in the year, and his review of it was glowing with praise, and the trailer really shows that this is a film to get excited about. Without further ado, here it is. Enjoy.

Icon Film Distribution have just sent over the first UK trailer, poster and images for their new movie, You Instead which was shot during T in the Part music festival in Scotland. You instead stars Luke Treadaway and Natalia Tena alongside Ruta Gedmintas (Lip Service), Sophie Wu (Kick Ass), Gavin Mitchell (Still Game) and Alastair Mackenzie (Perfect Sense). It’s set to hit UK cinemas 16th September.

It’s Directed by David Mackenzie (Perfect Sense, Hallam Foe, Young Adam), and produced by Gillian Berrie (Perfect Sense, Red Road, Hallam Foe, Dogville) for Sigma Films. The film is from a script by award winning painter and novelist (but first time screenwriter) Thomas Leveritt.

Synopsis: Luke Treadaway (Brothers of the Head, Clash of the Titans) stars as strutting indie star Adam, one half of globally successful duo The Make. Arriving at the T in the Park music festival for his latest gig Adam finds himself accidentally handcuffed to Morello, played by Natalia Tena (Mrs. Henderson Presents, Harry Potter), lead singer for all girl punk band The Dirty Pink’s . With no key in sight the feuding pair have to get through the weekend as best they can delivering not one but two performances whilst having to placate a jealous girlfriend, an angry boyfriend and a lunatic manager. This is one weekend they will never forget.

Check out the trailer below and let us know what you think.

To find out more about YOU INSTEAD visit the official Facebook page.

Essentially, Perfect Sense is a romantic love story set against an apocalyptic backdrop. It tells of how a chef, Michael (Ewan McGregor), and a scientist, Susan (Eva Green), fall in love as an epidemic begins to rob people of their sensory perceptions.

Kim Fupz Aakeson’s cunningly written screenplay imagines a world in which the inhabitants slowly lose their senses, one by one. The apocalypse is refreshingly personal and, to an extent, psychological. Whilst we are made aware – through cleverly placed and constructed newsreel-style footage – that the epidemic is happening globally, Perfect Sense chooses to focus on a handful of characters rather than the world at large. The most important of these are Michael and Susan, who are drawn together as their lives descend into chaos.

The storytelling style, though an enthralling rollercoaster of emotional highs and lows, is deliberately restrained, with Mackenzie cleverly approaching the material in a subdued, intimate and character-centric way – immediately setting Perfect Sense apart from other films of its nature. For the dark subject matter it’s also surprisingly optimistic: after each sensory loss, those affected look to find a way of coping by returning to some form of normality.

The film is also stunningly shot by Director of Photography Gilles Nuttgens, under the watchful eye of experienced filmmaker David Mackenzie. What’s truly breathtaking, though, is the way in which the editing superbly complements the separate stages of sensory loss – for the post-hearing scenes, for example, the sound is softened (if not muted entirely) to give viewers a real sense of what it would be like if this were to happen to them. It’s wonderfully achieved, and helps to include viewers in the characters’ struggle for survival.

Max Richter’s score adds to the mournful mood, building up tension and emotion when needed. The same, however, can’t be said for the narration which, after a while jars, and often detracts from the involvement in Michael and Susan’s story.

The cast works brilliantly together. McGregor and Green, in particular, play off each other’s emotions in a way that makes Michael and Susan’s unlikely relationship seem so believable and authentic. Their individual personalities, as well as their relationship with one another, evolve throughout the course of the film, almost as if they need one another’s love in order to cope with the death and destruction surrounding them. Connie Nielson, Ewen Bremner and Stephen Dillane make up the noteworthy supporting cast, delivering respectable performances in their subsequently diminished roles.

Perfect Sense – while not without faults – is a beautifully intricate and personal piece of cinema, bolstered by phenomenal direction, terrific performances and truly affecting, surprisingly original screenplay.

****~ (4/5)

The 65th Edinburgh International Film Festival has revealed the first titles from this year’s British section of the programme, including several world premieres.

Nine British and Irish films were announced in the press release ahead of the full programme launch later this month, and represent how the Edinburgh International Film Festival will continue to be a cutting-edge platform for UK film.

James Mullighan, director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, said of the films selected:

“The Edinburgh International Film Festival has long been regarded as the ideal launch pad for important new British cinema and the place at which UK emerging talent is nurtured. The films announced today confirm that those twin traditions continue into 2011. Of the nearly 3000 films submitted to EIFF, 58 were British feature fiction films and we’re delighted to be in a position to showcase some of them to Edinburgh audiences in June.”

The titles receiving world premieres include David Hare’s Page Eight, starring Bill Nighy, Michael Gambon and Rachel Weisz; Karl Golden’s Weekender, starring Jack O’Connell and Emily Barclay; Niall MacCormick’s Albatross, starring Felicity Jones, Peter Vaughn and Jessica Brown-Findlay; Matthew Parkhill’s The Caller, starring Stephen Moyer, Rachel Lefevre and Luis Guzmán.

Other films to be included are David Mackenzie’s Perfect Sense, starring Ewan McGregor and Eva Green; Gaby Dellal’s Angel’s Crest, starring Jeremy Piven and Elizabeth McGovern; and Dan Turner’s Stormhouse, starring Katherine Flynn and Martin Delaney.

In addition, two films from first-time Scottish filmmakers will also be shown. Fast Romance is a romantic-comedy directed by Carter Ferguson, and Charlie Casanova is a crime thriller from writer/director Terry McMahon.

The 65th Edinburgh Film Festival will run from June 15th – June 26th, and mix groundbreaking global film with cutting-edge documentaries and shorts. The full programme will be launched at an event on May 17th.

Sigma Films, via MTV, have released the first official trailer for Perfect Sense.

Directed by David Mackenzie, Perfect Sense stars Eva Green, Ewan McGregor, Connie Nielson, Ewan Bremner, Stephen Dillane, Dennis Lawson and Alastair Mackenzie.

Perfect Sense will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival later this month.

The story of two people who begin to fall in love as the world begins to fall apart.

Susan is a scientist. Michael is a chef. He takes a break from the kitchen heat in the alleyway below her apartment; she smokes a cigarette at the window above. He calls up for a light – the first spark in their passionate affair.

But the world is about to change dramatically. As love turns Susan and Michael’s lives upside down, people across the globe begin to experience
strange symptoms, which first affect the emotions then the senses, one by one.

Everything changes. But people laugh, they cry, they eat and drink, they go about their daily business. They adapt, they change, they cope, they live and they love – because life must go on. And so it does.

Watch the trailer below:

Moments after we posted the full synopsis and a brand new image for David MacKenzie’s forthcoming film, Perfect Sense, we are contacted by the excellent Sweet on Sigma Films who have just bagged the first look at the poster for the film.

Ewan McGregor and Eva Green lead the film, which is playing on the 24th of January at Sundance and will hopefully make its way to UK cinemas soon after. It’s an interesting premise and putting Green and McGregor together on screen should make MacKenzie’s film one to look out for in 2011.

Here’s the link the full synopsis and the images we posted earlier and the poster is below, and Sweet on Sigma Films have an impressive collection of articles on the film, tracking its progress through production when it was previously known as The Last Word, it’s well worth a look.

Premiering at Sundance on the 24th of January David Mackenzie’s Perfect Sense has flown a little under our radar here, but the release of a new image and complete synopsis has changed all that.

Reuniting Trainspotting alum Ewan McGregor and Ewen Bremner, Perfect Sense also stars Eva Green, Stephen Dillane, Denis Lawson and Connie Nielsen, and until now only a few details had emerged about the film’s narrative.

A newly released synopsis gives us a greater indication of what to expect and it reminded me a little of what we know of Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia – that of a world suddenly changed without any power to change its new, presumably disastrous, fate.

Here’s the full synopsis,

The story of two people who begin to fall in love as the world begins to fall apart.

Susan is a scientist. Michael is a chef. He takes a break from the kitchen heat in the alleyway below her apartment; she smokes a cigarette at the window above. He calls up for a light – the first spark in their passionate affair.

But the world is about to change dramatically. As love turns Susan and Michael’s lives upside down, people across the globe begin to experience
strange symptoms, which first affect the emotions then the senses, one by one.

Everything changes. But people laugh, they cry, they eat and drink, they go about their daily business. They adapt, they change, they cope, they live and they love – because life must go on. And so it does.

Here’s the new image, then a couple of previously published ones to complete the picture.

The Synopsis and new image came from BBC Films and the three other images came from Sweet on Sigma Films

Here’s the new poster (click to enlarge) and trailer for Ashton Kutcher’s latest movie, Spread. I’ve embedded the trailer below after the sysnopsis. Spread also stars Margarita Levieva, Anne Heche and is directed by David Mackenzie.

Synopsis: Set in modern day Los Angeles, Spread is a hard biting story about a high-end lethario, Nikki (Ashton Kutcher), who has slept his way into a life of privilege. He shares his secrets with us as he hosts parties and beds scores of women, all while living it up at the Hollywood Hills home of a middle-aged female attorney, Samantha (Anne Heche). Everything is going swimmingly until Nikki meets a gorgeous waitress named Heather (Margarita Levieva), who, unbeknownst to him, is playing the same game that he is. As the truth of their life unravels, they find themselves sexually charged by a game of one-upsmanship until the truth of their lives forces them to choose between love and money. Directed by David Mackenzie (HALLAM FOE, YOUNG ADAM), SPREAD is inspired by classics like SHAMPOO, BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S and AMERICAN GIGOLO and asks what karmic price for the Hollywood lifestyle, and whether it is a business doing pleasure.