That Sinking Feeling

On Sunday afternoon I went to see Righteous Kill. I had written a long post about how it’s an awful film, how director Jon Avnet should go get a job in a call-centre, how Pacino has fucking lost it (his ability to pick a decent script anyway) and how the filmmakers attempted to cheapen a great film like Heat by aping the climax. But I won’t post it. Instead I’ll focus on a much more positive cinematic experience on Sunday.

In the evening I went along to GFT’s Monorail Film Club screening of That Sinking Feeling. The 1980 film is the little seen forerunner to the much more popular Gregory’s Girl.

A comedy about unemployment and disillusionment in Glasgow it was much funnier than I remember it. There are a couple of scenes that displayed some misdirection worthy of The Simpsons at its best.

Sharp, witty and fun it shows Glasgow and its humour in a great light. It’s a film that they really don’t make anymore. Which is a great shame.

One of the film’s stars, Robert Buchanan, who was also in Gregory’s Girl, came along for a Q & A with Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch afterwards. There was a great moment, when asked if he still kept in touch with any of the rest of the cast, two of them shouted from the back of the cinema. Eight minutes of the discussion are below.