7 must-see movies at the Edinburgh International Film Festival

Those crazy Minions don’t have the monopoly on speaking gobbledygook this year, as this birthday-suited, gibberish-talking New Zealand comedy will prove when it crashlands into Auld Reekie with its la-las hanging out. Spoken entirely in a made-up language – think a combo of Swedish, elvish and something Will Ferrell might come up in a Netflix movie in which he plays an Icelandic bear trapper – its sex comedy blessed with Jemaine Clement (the Kiwi Ferrell) as a sex guru helping a middle-aged couple regain its mojo at a nudist-friendly new-age retreat. Definitely the most bonkers movie in town, and very possibly the funniest.

‘Normal People’ breakout Paul Mescal continues his unstoppable rise with an irresistible,  emotional father-and-daughter drama that will punch your heart right in the face. Mescal is a divorced dad who takes his daughter to Turkey for a holiday some time in the ’90s, only to struggle in ways that’ll be relatable to, well, just about everyone. The festival opener, it’s a homecoming of sorts for its New York-based Scottish director, Charlotte Wells – as well as the beginning of a possible ’90s casual wear revival in the city. Raved about at Cannes, it’s guaranteed to win hearts and minds in Edinburgh too.

The fact that it’s being billed as ‘West Side Story’ by way of John Waters might be all you need to know – but if you really need another reason to see it, ‘Please Baby Please’ boasts on an on-song Andrea Riseborough and one-time Dudley Dursley, Harry Melling, as a newlywed ’50s couple who get entangled with a Jets-like gang of New York toughs. Directed by Amanda Kramer, it should be a satisfyingly subversive dive into sexual desire, gender identity, repression and violence. Oh, and Demi Moore cameos. 

Rebecca Hall stars alongside Tim Roth in a psychological thriller that left Sundance viewers a wrung-out mess and seems set to repeat the trick in Scotland. Hall is a single mum whose life is upturned by a vicious ex (Roth), who begins to go very ‘single white male’ on her. The two leads are great in a movie that plums its New York setting for opportunities to have its audience shifting uncomfortably in its seats. See it, then go grab a calming pint in the nearest Grassmarket pub.

An apt pick for such a gastronomic city, Peter Strickland’s latest gem is a culinary odyssey that offers a winningly strange blend of the hilarious and the horrifying. It’s set at an unnamed art institute where musical collectives are awarded month-long residencies for the purposes of ‘culinary performance’ using kitchen equipment. Cue rivalries, abstract sounds (conjured by Strickland’s own one-time music collective, The Sonic Catering Band) and an imperious Gwendoline Christie as the institute’s formidable boss. It’s guaranteed to be unlike anything else at the fest.

Martin Scorsese put this classic concert doc together while simultaneously making ‘New York, New York’, because that’s the kind of baller move you make when you’re Martin Scorsese. Newly restored and 4K-ified, it’s an utter treat to soak up on the big screen and with The Band-enhancing surround sound. Honestly, you don’t even need to dig The Band or any of the small army of superstar musicians who cameo in it to get a massive kick out of this movie. Although it’d be hard not to by the time they’ve worked through the great American folk-rock songbook.

Head to the official EIFF site for all the programme info and ticket prices.