Spider-Man: Brand New Day

31/07/26

Cineworld, Edinburgh

The Odyssey may have stopped a lot of cinematic vessels from making it safely to shore, but Ol’ Webhead is back in town and nothing is big enough to halt the new Spider-Man from having his er… Brand New Day – even if, instead of IMAX, he’s had to settle for Screen X and 4D Real 3D. Me, I’m happy to watch it on a standard screen. There are a whole lot of Marvel products that I have enjoyed in the cinema, but Spidey is the only one I keep coming back for – and I’m really not alone. At the showing I attend there’s a veritable crowd of cinema-goers eagerly awaiting their next fix.

As a teenager in the 1960s, I adored the comics of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko – and, in 2002, I went along to Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man at my local multiplex and fell in love with the character (as portrayed by Tobey Maguire) all over again. And through all the following iterations, I’ve returned for another helping, always finding new things to enjoy. Andrew Garfield? Yeah, okay, his two films were darker than what had gone before, but still perfectly watchable. And then, in 2016’s Homecoming, Tom Holland stepped confidently into the role, shepherding the series fully into the MCU and I was hooked once more. Lest we forget, somewhere in the midst of all this, there were two Spiderverse animations that were nothing short of masterpieces, but which existed alongside Holland’s films without causing a ripple. We were told that Holland’s contributions would be limited to a trilogy – but No Way Home left the story on such a cliffhanger it was clear there would have to be more.

Brand New Day finds Spidey in uncertain territory. Yes, he’s now been accepted as New York City’s friendly neighbourhood superhero and, between him and Detective Jean De Wolff (Liza Colón-Zayas), the city streets are being systematically scoured of criminals. But, as chronicled in No Way Home, a pesky mind-wipe by Dr Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has added a new complication. Both Peter’s girlfriend, MJ (Zendaya), and his best buddy, Ned (Jacob Lees), have completely forgotten he even exists. He feels totally alone – and to make things worse, he’s also going through a major change in his DNA, the arachnid side of his personality growing in power and threatening to completely overcome him. And that web fluid he used to shoot from specially designed gadgets? It’s now squirting directly from his wrists – sometimes at very inopportune moments!

What’s more, a new threat is beginning to assert its influence on New York City – an invisible being that is able to leap from one unsuspecting victim to another in order to achieve its mysterious goals…

There is so much packed into this film that, even with a running time of 2 hours and 25 minutes, it seems to positively race by. (Some may argue that it could be cut back to two hours, but I would not want to be the one to decide which scenes should be considered expendable.) The characterisations of the key players have never been so astutely drawn. Nor has there been such emotional depth: there’s a real tone of sadness and regret in the early scenes, as Peter observes his former friends from a distance, as he suffers in silence.

Though several key MCU characters are afforded obligatory guest appearances – Florence Pugh’s Black Widow, Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner – none of them is allowed to overstay their welcome. Indeed, John Bernthal’s Frank Castle makes a particularly welcome addition to the story, forming an unlikely alliance with Peter, as the two former adversaries join forces to take on the aforementioned mysterious presence (I won’t reveal who or what this is, but it’s well worth the wait to find out).

Of course, there must also be action set-pieces in a film like this. New director Destin Daniel Cretton and cinematographer Brett Pawlak do not disappoint, amping up the visual flourishes with absolute control and ensuring that every single shot looks ravishing. The way the journey of the invisible ‘presence’ is shown is breathtaking, achieved simply with perfectly-timed choreography (you’ll need to see it for that line to make sense). Furthermore, an extended battle between Spidey and a whole team of red-garbed, sword-wielding martial artists is frankly jaw-dropping, one of the most accomplished special effects sequences I’ve ever seen.

What else can I tell you? Brand New Day somehow manages to locate the teenage kid lurking deep within me and offer him things that he still – after all these years – finds genuinely enthralling. Those who insist on stubbornly remaining in their seats for the inevitable post-credit sequence should be warned that this time out it simply amounts to a brief video game image and a promise that ‘Spider-Man will return.’

Don’t know about you, but I’m already looking forward to it.

4.7 stars

Philip Caveney

On the Sea

30/07/26

Filmhouse, Edinburgh

In the immediate wake of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, new cinema releases have been in somewhat short supply. Most studios have chosen to give the screens a hard pass for a couple of weeks while the general population battles to secure themselves any empty seats in an IMAX screening.

As the title suggests, On the Sea shares one important component with the story of Odysseus – it does feature a sea voyage at one point – but, in terms of scale, writer/director Helen Walsh’s sombre tale, set in present day Ynys Môn (Anglesey) really couldn’t be any less epic. This is an intensely-focused story of love, desire and – ultimately – tragedy.

It’s the tale of Jack (Barry Ward), a mussel harvester who has been plying his back-breaking trade for many years. Working alongside his bullish brother, Dyfan (Celyn Jones), he’s managed to carve out a decent living for himself, his wife, Maggie (Liz White), and his teenage son, Tom (Henry Lawfull), selling on his harvests to high-end restaurants.

But not everything is running to plan. Jack is currently in remission from cancer and knows all-too well that it could return at any point. Meanwhile, Tom really isn’t keen on the thought of a life spent scrabbling in the mud for crustaceans and is clearly more interested in running around with a rough crowd of trouble makers. He’s also spending a lot of time with his girlfriend, Lois (Leisa Gwenllian, star of recent Welsh language hit, Effi O Blaenau – though it must be said that she is given far less to do here).

After an incident when the elderly owner of a trawler is injured by Tom’s new friends, Jack steps in to look after the old man and is afforded the opportunity to (quite literally) venture out into new waters. He also strikes up a friendship with young hired hand, Daniel (Lorne MacFadyen), one that quickly and unexpectedly ignites into a full-blown love affair…

This simple but powerful film captures the look and feel of a small Welsh fishing community in intricate detail. Every frame of Sam Goldie’s cinematography amplifies the bleak, unforgiving nature of the landscape, while Felix Rösch’s ethereal soundtrack appears to find its inspiration in the excesses of the weather. Watching Jack and his team work through the hours dredging mussels from the shallows makes me feel like I’m working alongside them.

The performances are terrific, particularly from Ward and MacFadyen as the central duo, both of them bound by the power of their mutual passion. White is impressive too, as Maggie reacts with understandable shock to the implosion of her marriage, yet manages somehow to remain steadfast and gracious.

Those who’ve had had their fill of bombastic special effects and are looking for something more subtle will find much to enjoy in this deceptively simple story. And, as a North Walian myself, I’m delighted to see my fellow Gogs beginning to make their mark on the big screen.

4 stars

Philip Caveney

The Odyssey

18/07/26

Cineworld, Edinburgh

‘See it on the biggest screen possible.’

Advice we’ve often given and something we had every intention of following ourselves in the case of Sir Christopher Nolan’s latest release. But, for the first time ever, finding an empty seat in an IMAX screening in Edinburgh proves impossible – unless we’re prepared to sit in the very front row. (Done that once, never again.) This development is simultaneously annoying and wonderfully heartening. Perhaps that much-rumoured resurgence in cinema attendance, fuelled by the likes of Obsession and Backrooms, is actually gathering momentum. Or is it just Nolan’s astute handling of the movie’s advertising, coupled with the Oscar success of Oppenheimer that has led to this stampede for tickets?

Whatever the reason, we decide to book in for a standard screening. We’ll revisit in IMAX sometime in the near future. Providing it’s any good, of course. Despite widespread critical acclaim, the online vitriol poured on the film by people who haven’t actually seen it yet means that this one has much to prove. And happily, it passes every test with flying colours.

We all know The Odyssey, of course. Homer’s epic poem is still the bane of many young students’ lives as they are obliged to read their way through its meandering stanzas, which focus on the twenty year ordeal of its central character, Odysseus (played here rather wonderfully by Matt Damon). Our hero, forced for the first decade to play a key role in the siege of Troy, then has to spend the next ten trying to find his way back to Ithaca, where his faithful wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and his loyal son, Telemachus (Tom Holland), still await his return.

But to get to them, Odysseus and his crew must take on all manner of obstacles: the giant cyclops, Polythemus (Bill Irwin); the powerful witch, Circe (Samantha Morton); the Lotus-dispensing Calypso (Charlize Theron); and, most egregious of all, the Ocean – which, because Odysseus has annoyed Poseidon, is determined to send them all to a watery grave.

With a running time just short of three hours, this could be a ponderous affair but Nolan (who also adapted the screenplay from the original poem) employs an ingenious non-sequential approach, cutting effortlessly back and forth across the passing years to ensure that no particular sequence overstays its welcome. What’s more, even though most of the situations are familiar from earlier versions of the story (the 1954 Ulysses starring Kirk Douglas springs to mind, as do several of the films featuring the work of stop-motion genius Ray Harryhausen), Nolan always manages to put a different spin on proceedings.

Of course, a tale as packed as this one is sure to have its more memorable sections. The scene where Odysseus and his men are locked in a cave with the aforementioned Polythemus is a particular standout, as is Circe’s transformation of Odysseus’s crew into swine. She uses a hands-on approach like a potter moulding clay, the sequence employing old-school practical effects that recall the work of the legendary Rick Baker.

And if you’re a fan of an enormous climactic dust-up, well, I don’t think you’ll be left feeling short-changed.

The cast is stellar with many big names popping up in minor roles. Robert Pattinson proves once again that he is a terrific actor as the oily, scheming Antinous and all hail to John Leguizamo as the ever-faithful Eumaeous. Much has been made of the casting of Elliot Page as Sinon and Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, with incensed commentators complaining about ‘authenticity’ as though this is a historical piece rather than a slice of weird fantasy, but both actors give strong performances that more than justify their casting. Oh, and by the way, those American accents serve as a commentary on the current world order, which – when you think about it – makes a lot of sense.

Perhaps the most original addition here is the clarification of just how much two decades of havoc have taken their toll on the central character. In the film’s final section, as Odysseus recalls the cruelty and bloodshed visited upon the people of Troy, this feels increasingly like the recollections of a man suffering from PTSD, finally emerging from a lotus-induced fog and forced to confront the pain his decisions have inflicted on those who followed him.

Make no mistake, this is a superb film: assured, inventive and directed by a man at the very top of his game. I haven’t always loved Nolan’s films but this may just be his masterpiece. Buckle in and get those IMAX seats booked… if you can find them.

5 stars

Philip Caveney

The Last Viking

15/07/26

Filmhouse, Edinburgh

The Last Viking begins with the opening pages of a dark storybook for younger readers – though shortly thereafter it becomes the kind of thing that really wouldn’t be deemed suitable for anyone under the age of 15. It’s essentially a (very) black comedy that occasionally makes me feel guilty for laughing at the frenetic action that ensues the moment we’re out of the pages of that book – largely because the ‘comic’ elements stem from the erratic behaviour of people with various kinds of mental illness.

Anker (Nikolas Lie Kaas) is one of the few ‘sane’ characters in the story, though when we join the action, he has done something very bad. He’s been involved in a violent bank heist where somebody was killed and he’s currently toting a bag containing a lot of stolen money. As the police begin to home in on him, he heads to the flat where his sister Freja (Bodil Jørgensen) and his younger brother Manfred (Mads Mikkelsen) both live. Anker instructs Manfred to take the bag and bury it in the woods near their old family home – but back in his youth, Manfred suffered abuse from his disciplinarian father and as a result has become fixated on Vikings and Nordic runes, so it isn’t always clear if he’s actually got the message.

Shortly thereafter, the police arrive and Anker goes to prison for fifteen years. On release, he heads back to the flat, eager to get his hands on that stolen money, but in Anker’s long absence, Manfred has taken several turns for the worse and is now suffering from dissociative identity disorder. He thinks he’s John Lennon and any mention of his real name causes him to throw himself out of a moving vehicle or through the nearest open window. What’s more, when Ankers asks him about the buried money he seems to have no recollection of it.

At the hospital where Manfred is recovering from his latest tumble, Ankers encounters psychiatrist Lothar (Lars Brygmann) who mentions that there are other patients who believe themselves to be members of the Beatles. Why not put them together with Manfred, he suggests, to see if working as a member of a group might help him recover his memory? (I know. As unlikely premises go, this one is up there. But stick around, there’s more.)

Ankers and Manfred head for the family home, which is now an Air B&B owned by failed author, Werner (Søren Malliing) and failed model, Margrethe (Sofie Gråbøl of Nordic crime milestone, The Killing). The two brothers check in and Ankor starts searching the woods… but shortly thereafter Lothar shows up. He has taken it upon himself to enlist the services of a guy who thinks he’s Ringo and a man who is both Paul and George (and occasionally Bjorn from Abba). As if this isn’t complicated enough, they are soon joined by Flemming (Nicholas Bro), a member of Ankor’s former gang, who has somehow managed to avoid jail and over the intervening years has spent his share of the stolen money. He now wants what’s left and is prepared to go to any lengths of cruelty to get his hands on that bag of cash…

Okay, so for the first half hour or so, I’m entertained enough to laugh out loud at some of the furious antics depicted here, though I can’t help feeling that Ankor isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, because it takes three suicide attempts before it dawns on him that maybe he should stop calling his brother Manfred and try ‘John’ instead. Mind you, most of what happens here beggars credulity and it doesn’t help that the arrival of Flemming adds a whole new layer of gratuitous violence to the mix. It’s around this point that I really don’t feel like laughing any more – and the treatment meted out to Gråbøl is little short of heinous. Am I supposed to laugh about what happens to her? I sincerely hope not. There are also several plot holes which I won’t go into.

On the plus side, Mikkelsen does a heroic job of capturing Manfred/John’s conflicted nature, though even his considerable acting chops can’t convince me that this was ever a good idea. Writer/director Anders Thomas Jensen – a former member of Dogme 95 – at least makes it all sort of hang together and a later scene, with the band bashing out a spirited rendition of a Beatles classic does briefly help to lift the mood – but for me, this is a case of too little, too late.

3 stars

Philip Caveney

The Invite

06/07/26

Cineworld, Edinburgh

Married couple Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Olivia Wilde) are locked in a beautifully-gilded cage of an apartment, inherited from his parents. They’re both desperately miserable, but they don’t know how to break free, trapped by social convention and their own inertia. The couple who’ve moved in upstairs, Pina (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton), are their polar opposites: lively, curious, fresh and uninhibited. So when Angela invites their new neighbours down for drinks, the scene is set for a perfect storm.

Directed by Wilde, with a snappy screenplay by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, The Invite is a tragicomedy of manners, at times laugh-out-loud funny but also moving and profound. Joe and Angela’s unhappiness is so horribly ordinary; exhausted by disappointment, they blame each other for their broken dreams, unable to break free from the prison they’ve created. Pina is a sex therapist and that’s the function her character performs: Pina and Hawk’s vibrant, overtly sexual relationship shining an unforgiving light on Joe and Angela’s marriage, prompting the joyless couple to examine their feelings and acknowledge that they cannot carry on. The laughs come in the form of toe-curling awkwardness and physical ineptitude, the clash between fantasy and reality. But we’re never allowed to forget that these are real people, their humiliations causing real pain.

A remake of the Cesc Gay’s 2020 Spanish film, The People Upstairs, this is something of a triumph, Wilde perfectly encapsulating the claustrophobic atmosphere of a failing marriage. Although Joe and Angela’s apartment is twice the size of Hawk and Pina’s, their world is so much smaller, the four walls constraining them. We can feel this in the direction, the actors seemingly too big for the space, unable to move without knocking things over and breaking them.

The four actors work well together. None of the characters is especially likeable, but they’re all sympathetically drawn and we want a happy ending for them. Rogen is effortlessly funny, eliciting most of the laughs with his gloomy defeatism and misplaced anger, while Norton somehow manages to imbue the world’s smuggest, most annoying man with enough humanity to save him. Cruz is so charming that Pina’s sharpness becomes an attribute, while Wilde’s quiet desperation is genuinely painful.

This is Wilde’s third feature as a director. I loved her 2019 debut, Booksmart, and also found a lot to admire in 2022’s Don’t Worry, Darling, although the latter was perhaps a little muddled. The Invite is her most sophisticated to date, and I’m already keen to see where she goes next.

4.7 stars

Susan Singfield

The Burns’ Project

27/06/26

Henry Irving Room, Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

As someone who has lived in Edinburgh for more than a decade, I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that I know very little about Scotland’s National poet Robert Burns – or rather, I knew very little before attending this delightful piece of immersive theatre, staged in The Royal Lyceum’s Henry Irving Room. Actually, the lesson begins while I’m still waiting to go in to the event. I fall into conversation with a woman from Moscow, who tells me that Burns is huge in Russia, where people will even study Scots dialect, the better to appreciate his work. Who knew?

Feeling suitably humbled, I take my seat at a long, serpentine dining table, where various white-sprayed props are set out to accompany what amounts to a kind of potted biography of Mr B. He is played by James Clement, who originated the role for last year’s Fringe. He delivers a selection of poems, recollections and encounters from the writer’s life, while musician Lisa Rigby punctuates the proceedings with some of Burns’ songs, her ethereal voice soaring around the room, accompanied by guitar and shruti box.

I do indeed learn much about the man: his humble origins on the family farm in Alloway (which I recently visited); his schooling under the tutelage of John Murdoch; his plans to work on a sugar plantation in Jamaica; and, after the publication of his collected poems, his time spent in Edinburgh, where he quickly established a reputation as a Lothario. It’s sobering to note that Burns managed to sire a total of twelve children in his relatively short lifetime, nine of them with his wife, Jean, and the others with various lovers and servants. In 2019, it was established that he had 900 living descendants…

Clement inhabits the role of Burns with great relish, taking every opportunity for playful exchanges with members of the audience. The various props on the table are cleverly integrated, and Jenny Booth’s clever set allows for some genuinely surprising moments – especially the bit where Robbie is presented as ‘dish of the day.’ Cora Bisset’s assured direction means that this piece succeeds both as a valuable history lesson and as a smooth and entertaining piece of theatre.

I leave humming the tune to A Man’s a Man for a’ That and eager to find out even more about Robert Burns.

Job done.

4 stars

Philip Caveney

NT Live: Les Liaisons Dangereuses

25/06/26

Dominion Cinema, Edinburgh

The latest offering from NT Live has arrived in cinemas and there’s only one venue in Edinburgh swish enough to do it justice. We book a reclining sofa at The Dominion and settle down, prepared to be blown away – and we most certainly are. This stunning adaptation of Christopher Hampton’s 1985 play (based upon the 1782 novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos) incorporates Hampton’s wonderfully witty and unflinchingly brutal dialogue punctuated by stirring dance sequences where everyone – including the leads – hoofs up a storm. Marianne Elliott directs the huge cast with consummate skill, while choreographer Tom Jackson Greaves has the lavishly costumed performers prowling, spinning and leaping around Rosanna Vize’s extraordinary set, where scores of mirrored doorways reflect the action like a kaleidoscope of intrigue.

The Marquise de Merteuil  (Lesley Manville) and the Vicomte de Valmont (Aidan Turner) are old acquaintances. Once lovers, they are now notorious philanderers, who spend their time seducing, exploiting and humiliating virtually everyone they encounter, taking delight in the chaos they create. It’s clear that Valmont still carries a torch for Merteuil so, when she makes a wager with him, he quickly accepts the challenge. She will spend one more night with him, but only if he can manage to seduce two women: the virtuous wife, Madame de Tourval (Monica Barbaro), and Cécile de Volanges (Hannah van der Westhuysen), an innocent young girl, currently infatuated with her music tutor.

Valmont sets to work, mercilessly exploiting both women without a thought for the destruction he is wreaking – and little realising that Merteuil has elaborate plans of her own…

All the leads play their roles with absolute conviction, Turner relishing his characterisation of a brutish, swaggering hedonist without a single qualm about the cruelty he inflicts on his targets. Manville matches his arrogance with a sly, smiling assurance that tells us she has his measure and knows exactly how to handle him. (It’s fascinating to note that back in 1985, Manville played Cécile de Volanges on Broadway.)

Barbaro, meanwhile, is utterly compelling as a God-fearing woman, struggling to resist her inner demons and utterly destroyed when they finally overcome her. Van der Westhuysen also excels as an ingénue, blissfully unaware that she is destined to inherit all the guiles of those who have used her so cruelly.

But the ensemble are much more than bit-players: every performer on the stage gives the show their all. If the first half is sensational, the second – as all the carefully-layered plot threads come hurtling to their inescapable conclusion – is utterly thrilling.

A seat for this show in London’s West End, would cost you hundreds of pounds, but here’s your opportunity to make your own dangerous liaison closer to home at a more affordable price.

5 stars

Philip Caveney

Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day

22/06/26

Cineworld, Edinburgh

Despite the prominence of the famous name in the title, Justine Waddell’s movie adaptation of Night & Day bears only a passing resemblance to Virginia Woolf’s 1919 novel, stripping away a lot of the author’s thorny political nuance in favour of a lighter, more straightforward feminism.

Kit Hilbery (Haley Bennett) rails against the confines of her class and gender. Her parents (Jennifer Saunders and Timothy Spall) want her to marry her childhood friend, the affable William Rodney (Jack Whitehall), but Kit – an aspiring astronomer – has other plans. She wants to go to Cambridge. Okay, so women aren’t actually allowed to study at the men’s college she’s applied to, nor permitted to join the Royal Astronomical Society, but Kit’s nothing if not determined. Someone has to be the first, right?

Kit isn’t alone in her fight against the old order. Her gay cousin, Cy (Misia Butler), has his own battles to face, and her new pal, Mary Datchet (Lily Allen), is an active member of the Suffragette Society, working full-time to change the world.

And, of course, there’s always a bit of romance to complicate things. Kit doesn’t fancy her fiancé, William, but there’s more than a spark between her and Ralph Denham (Elyas M’Barek), the lower-class radical hired to edit her mother’s sprawling book. But why shouldn’t Kit strive for emotional fulfilment as well as intellectual? After all, she’s used to reaching for the stars…

Directed by Tina Ghavari, the setting is vividly realised, and Bennett gives a spirited performance in the central role, imbuing Kit with an earnest vulnerability that ensures we’re on her side. Whitehall also acquits himself well (I guess ‘congenial toff’ isn’t much of a stretch for him), but it’s Butler’s brittle façade that gives the film its emotional depth.

I’m less keen on the (presumably deliberate) anachronism in Datchet’s presentation: Allen’s costume and hair are in line with current fashion, in contrast to the Edwardian garb worn by the other characters. What’s more, we never get to know anything about her or her politics, beyond the fact that she thinks women should have the vote and prints pamphlets saying so. Still, Datchet is positively well-developed compared to Kit’s Aunt Celia (Elizabeth Edmonds) and Cousin Joan (Sally Phillips), two fine actors whose talent is entirely wasted in these pointless roles.

Despite it’s style and elegance, Night & Day is something of a mixed bag: not funny enough for a comedy, not political enough for a polemic and not romantic enough for a love story. It’s an entertaining watch that doesn’t quite cohere.

3.4 stars

Susan Singfield

Effi o Blaenau

21/06/26

Cameo Cinema, Edinburgh

Back in April 2020, we saw a production on Digital Theatre, a monologue written by Gary Owen and starring Sophie Melville. The piece rejoiced under the unusual title Iphigenia in Splott, and was loosely based around the Greek myth of Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon, sacrificed to ensure the success of the men who governed her. Set in Splott in South Wales, it was a unflinching reinterpretation of the original tale and one that we both enjoyed.

So when the release of Effi o Blenau is announced, we quickly make the connection. Owen has teamed up with Branwen Kennard to adapt the piece for the big screen and the setting has shifted North to Blaenau Ffestiniog. The central role of Effi is played by Leisa Gwenllian and, while it still follows the same central premise, the story (now in Welsh language) has been opened up to include other characters, some of whom were mentioned in the original piece.

Effi is a young woman living a debauched existence in a town stricken by unemployment. She regularly seeks solace at the bottom of a vodka bottle, partying with her best friend, Gemma (Nel Rhys Lewis), and with her ‘sort-of’ boyfriend, Kev (Owen Alun), who can always be relied upon to get his mitts on some drugs. But on a night out in Llandudno, Effi encounters Lee (Tom Rhys Harries), an ex-soldier and she falls in love at first sight. She accompanies him back to his friend’s flat, where she discovers that Lee has lost a limb on active service. A night of passion ensues and she tells herself that this is the real thing.

She settles down to wait for him to get in touch with her…

This is a perfect example of how a simple theatrical piece can be turned into a winning slice of cinema. Though it’s a bleak and hard-hitting story, an excoriating condemnation of contemporary politics, this is thrilling stuff. Gwenllian’s performance in the lead role is fabulous, as her character begins the long and punishing slide into desperation. I also love Alun’s depiction of Kev, a man constantly trying to do the right thing by the woman he loves, even though she simply doesn’t love him back. The drab, run down locations are evocatively captured by cinematographer Eira Wyn Jones, and there’s a long, harrowing sequence in an ambulance hurtling through a snow storm in the dead of night that really cranks up the suspense. There’s also a touch of redemption, when Effi is given support by a very forgiving neighbour.

Clearly, a Welsh language polemic isn’t going to compete with the likes of Toy Story 5 or The World Cup for the public’s attention, but for those who like gritty, hard-hitting drama, this is well worth consideration.

4.4 stars

Philip Caveney

Heron

20/06/26

Henderson Street, Leith

Regular readers of B&B will know that it has, for some years now, been our regular custom to celebrate Susan’s birthday with a trip to a high-end restaurant. This practice has recently become more complicated after she was diagnosed with a gluten intolerance. We were surprised to discover that some of the venues we approached this year were adamant that they could not – would not – make any alterations to their hallowed menus.

Happily, Heron assured us that they could easily accommodate such a dietary requirement: they only use limited amounts of gluten anyway, and can always substitute a tasty alternative in those recipes that do feature it. So on a beautiful summer’s evening we make the trip out to Leith Shore to the relaxed, convivial venue that is already one of our favourite places to eat.

We start off with a selection of amuse bouches – complex little creations that virtually explode with a variety of intense flavours. For me, there’s an Isle of White tomato burrata, sea trout with rhubarb, chilli and beetroot and lobster with gooseberry and dill. Instead of burrata, Susan has something made of chickpeas, which is far more elaborate than it sounds. All of the flavour combinations are vibrant and exciting and get our taste buds ready for the dishes to come. 

Bread is not usually something to shout about, but Heron’s seeded loaf served with salted butter and house charcuterie is one of their celebrated standards – and they’ve even made a gluten-free version so Susan doesn’t have to miss out. The trick here is not to devour the whole thing in one go but to eke it out through the following courses so you have something on hand to mop up the variety of sauces that ensue.

Next up there’s a hand-dived Orkney scallop, served with chive, hazelnut and oscietra caviar, salty and crunchy and every bit as tasty as you would expect – and this is followed by what might be the high point of the meal, North Sea squid served with asparagus spears, blackcurrant leaf and walnuts. It’s not just that the mingling flavours in the dish are truly out of this world, there’s also the ingenious way the squid has somehow been made to impersonate tagliatelle. And lest you think that’s it for the fish courses, how about a tender hunk of crisp-skinned sea bream, wallowing in a broth of mussel, whey, lovage, pea and spruce tip? Here it is – and it’s spectacular!

On to the meat courses, starting with a veal sweetbread on a bed of corn, girolle and black truffle. Some diners are put off by the thought of what a sweetbread actually is but set that thought aside and this is very good indeed. Even better is the tender slice of Harthstane’s sika deer, liberally ladled with a sauce comprising beetroot, rose harissa and dukkah (a traditional Egyptian condiment made from toasted nuts, seeds and spices).

At this point, we are offered the possibility of a cheese course, but we’re flagging a bit and want to ensure that we have room for the pudding, so we politely decline and move straight on to ‘buttermilk’ – a description that hardly does justice to a beautifully crafted palate cleanser, comprising lemon, bay and macadamias. It is utterly delicious and, just as I’m thinking that they’ll never top that, ‘strawberry’ arrives: another understated title that cannot begin to describe an exquisite concoction of – well, guess what? – on a bed of pistachio and black cardamom, served with a scoop of sorbet.

We ask for the bill and this arrives in a little wooden box accompanied by three handmade petit fours nestled on a bed of coffee beans, each mouthful more delicious than the last. A sweet, sugary jelly flavoured with sea buckthorn is perhaps the most memorable, but they are all wonderful examples of the confectioner’s art.

Heron is a unique dining establishment that produces some of the finest cuisine I’ve ever tasted. Those who don’t want to go the full tasting menu route, can opt for a simpler three-course affair (let’s face it, no one could eat like this every day) but, for a special occasion, the team here can provide a dining experience that will linger in memory long after the last mouthful has been swallowed. And for those who can no longer enjoy gluten, this is the place to come.

5 stars

Philip Caveney