Ben Dutton (sc027)

One of the joys of watching debut film efforts starring a young cast is working out who you think will go onto stardom. Example, watching 10 Things I Hate About You, it was easy to tell both Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles were destined for big things. But both of those had already done some major work by the time of that film. In The Myth of the American Sleepover, everybody is green.

So the standouts: writer/director David Robert Mitchell films with the eye and ear of a seasoned pro. The film is confident - moodily filmed, closer in style to Terrence Malik than John Hughes - and he gets surprising results from his young cast, particularly Claire Sloma who stood out for me as somebody to watch. Her dance routine at the beach - danced to win a bottle of vodka to impress the older boy she's crushing on - shows a sense of comic timing and effortless acting that disgraces many more profesional actors. I hope we see more of her on screen - but that she's done nothing in the years since this film was completed (I think I read in 2009), but has been studying at university instead, suggests acting might not be her main aim in life.

This is a teen film, but not a typical teen film. I can see why it has recieved such limited attention. But unlike other teen films that play everything for laughs (Easy A, 10 Things, Ferris Bueller), TMOTAS has a rare honesty and authenticity that revives memories of ones own heady youth, in which anything seemed possible - even obtaining the beautiful girl - but which never played out the way you expected. A film that deserved more than it got - I think in years to come it will be recognised as the exceptional debut that it is.

I had the luck to see this at an advanced screening recently. It is a small, low-budget British romance set against the backdrop of a Scottish island.

David Tennant's James, a writer, is marrying the most beautiful film star in the world, Lara (played by Alice Eve), but the press keep ruining their big day. So they decamp to the most rural place they know - the setting for James's novel, the island of Hegg. Of course things go wrong. The press turn up again - so to get rid of them, the agents who have orchestrated the wedding for the happy couple, decide to run a fake wedding with a decoy bride - played by Kelly MacDonald. Naturally, our writer is going go through some life-changing events, and the course of true love will be revealed.

This is a minor film, endearing in its own way, and pleasingly acted by Tennant and MacDonald. Directed by Sheree Folkson, the film has a postcard beautiful quality to it. Sadly, the film never rises above the commonest of cliches for this type of film, and the ending is never in doubt. It is, however, mercifully short, and as a date movie, there are certainly worse out there.