MARY CONWAY revels in a powerful reminder that human lives are not defined by physical perfection
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Comic cuts in Caledonia
ALAN FRANK enjoys a comic chiller about an oddball Glasgow barber and the hunt for a serial slasher
PAUL DONOVAN recommends the fine performances in this account of the pre-war meeting between the US president and the British king
TECLYN AROD relishes an intimate celebration of jazz improvisation that mixes local and national musicians
The missing sister, the vengeful WAG, cruise ship claustrophobia, and reanimated Avengers
Three great releases of lost concerts by Duke Ellington Orchestra, John Taylor & Stan Sulzman, and Joe Henderson
To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE
The Legend of Barney Thomson (15)
Directed by Robert Carlyle
4/5
THE MOST entertaining Thomson in this deeply dark black comedy is not the eponymous Barney but rather Emma Thompson. Memorably funny, she’s unrecognisable in a barmy red wig and ageing make-up as his mother.
Barney Thomson is played by Robert Carlyle who doubles — and rather well too — as director in this, his debut behind the camera.
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RUTH AYLETT reviews two collections of outright political poetry
ANN HENDERSON looks at the trailblazers of the Women’s Trade Union League and their successful fight for female factory inspectors — a battle that echoes in today’s workplace campaigns
TOM STONE checks the political coordinates of a festival where the pleasures of nostalgia were (sometimes) harnessed to a new message