In spite of his criminal activities, there’s something imminently likeable about Howard Marks. He’s humble and self-deprecating, and unexpectedly blunt about the unpleasant realities of a life spent skirting the edges of the underworld. And while Mr Nice revels in the mythos Marks has built up around himself, it’s also a surprisingly human film, depicting both the highs and lows of an extraordinary life on the fringes of society.

Rhys Ifans pours his heart into the role of Howard Marks, from early years spent in Welsh coal-mining town to an unlikely scholarship at Oxford and his indoctrination into a world of drugs and debauchery. After a brief sojourn as a teacher, Marks soon abandons any pretence of cleaning up his act when circumstance leads to him trafficking a carload of cannabis from Germany to Britain in the early 1970s.

He soon encounters Jim McCann, a rogue member of the IRA, who helps Marks smuggle high grade hashish into the UK. McCann, played by David Thewlis, is intense and upredictable, a darkly comic contrast to the effortlessly cool Marks. Within a matter of months, the two men are the masterminds behind one of the world’s most prolific drug rings and begin to attract unwanted attention.

While Ifans as Marks and Thewlis as McCann are indisputably the star attractions, director Bernard Rose leaves his own stylistic fingerprints on the film. Rose uses film aspect and texture as shorthand for particular periods or decades and to mark the passage of time. The mid-1960s are denoted by black and white footage, shot in 4:3 aspect ratio, while the 1970s are characterised by strong, saturated colours and orange-tinged celluloid. It’s a refreshing alternative to the scores of title cards that would otherwise clutter the screen.

Howard Marks

It’s unfortunate that Rose doesn’t apply the same care and attention to the morality of Howard Mark’s involvement in the drugs trade. Though the Welshman claims never to have dealt in hard drugs or to have resorted to violence, it’s difficult not to believe that the audience is witnessing a sanitised and distorted version of reality.

While there are certainly human and personal costs to be paid when Marks runs afoul of the law, we see little of the real violence, poverty or exploitation that underscores the global cannabis trade. That Howard Marks himself views Mr Nice as a strong campaigning tool in the fight for the legalisation of marajuana is surely telling in itself and does little to detract from the sense that Rose is happy to perpetuate and enhance the Marks legend rather than tackle the questions his story raises.

Self-indulgent moral ambiguity aside however, at its best Mr Nice is thoroughly engrossing, a gripping drama liberally laced with visual and situational humour. Mr Nice won’t go on general release in British cinemas until October but there’s a strong chance it could emerge as a cult classic in years to come, alongside Withnail and I, Trainspotting, Human Traffic and other commentaries on drug culture in these islands.

Watch the trailer for Mr Nice on Youtube.

Images courtesy of EIFF.

Special events range from spectacular gala evenings for high-profile films, including The Illusionist and a 3D screening of Toy Story 3, to After the Wave, a retrospective look at the “lost and forgotten” years of British cinema from 1967 to 1979.

Meanwhile, Sir Patrick Stewart discusses his work as a Shakespearean actor, a Star Trek captain and more besides at a special BAFTA Scotland interview on Monday 21 June and The Dunwich Horror, based on the work of HP Lovecraft, promises a uniquely terrifying ‘No-D’ experience. In contrast to the 3D visual feasts of Avatar et al, The Dunwich Horror is an audio-only experience taking place in a darkened cinema and guaranteed to scare you out of your wits.

Elsewhere, Sir Sean Connery’s 80^th birthday is celebrated with a special screening of The Man Who Would Be King, from 1975, and various creative workshops and panel discussions dissect the art of film-making.

After feasting on the clips on show at this morning’s press launch and having perused the 2010 Edinburgh International Film Festival brochure, I’ve selected my top five movies to watch out for this year.

The Illusionist

An animated spectacle set in the Capital itself, The Illusionist is the perfect movie to kick-start the Edinburgh International Film Festival at the Opening Night Gala on Wednesday 16 June. Described as “a love letter to Scotland and Edinburgh in particular”, the film follows the titular illusionist as he moves from Paris to Scotland in search of work, trying to convince all around him of his magical abilities. Directed by Sylvain Chomet, of Belleville Rendez-vous fame, The Illusionist maintains its own distinctive visual style, while drawing on the beauty, life and elegance of the director’s previous work.

Jackboots on Whitehall

Billed as Britain’s answer to Team America: World Police, Jackboots on Whitehall is an irreverent, animated alternate history of World War II, that depicts the nightmare scenario of a German invasion of Britain in the 1940s. An entirely stop-motion endeavour, the film is also strongly reminiscent of  Wallace & Gromit and its associated spin-offs. Winston Churchill flees northwards to Scotland, where the lawless Highlands serve as the only refuge from the oncoming Nazi armies. With an all-star voice cast including Ewan McGregor, Richard E. Grant and Timothy Spall, Jackboots on Whitehall combines the best of British cinema talent with beautiful animation and a script so sharp it could cut itself.

Restrepo

Restrepo, Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger’s docu-drama set in the midst of the ongoing Afghan conflict, is perhaps one of the most intimate and unflinching accounts of how modern warfare is conducted ever committed to celluloid. Granted unprecedented access to US armed forces, the filmmakers spent 15 months embedded in the 173^rd Airborne Brigade, recording shockingly powerful images of the human cost of the war. Restrepo promises to be the definitive Afghan war movie and, in time, may even rank amongst the genre greats.

Mr Nice

Making its European premiere at the Film Festival, Mr Nice documents the rise and fall of the infamous international drug smuggler Howard Marks. Based on Marks’ own autobiography, this biopic stars Rhys Ifans and chronicles the heady days of the 1970s and 80s when Marks was rumoured to control over 10% of the global cannabis trade and was under constant threat from the law, fellow smugglers and the IRA.  Just as charming and mischievous as its titular anti-hero, Mr Nice is leading the charge of superb British films at this year’s EIFF.

My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?

My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done is the latest project by celebrated German director, Werner Herzog, combining drama, psychological horror and deadpan black comedy to make a gripping and unsettling film. Lead character Brad has locked himself inside his house after stabbing his mother to death. The narration jumps between the murder scene and the outside world, as police painstakingly uncover the chain of events that lead Brad to such a dark place. Willem Dafoe stars alongside Michael Shannon, Chloe Sevigny and Udo Kier.

This year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival runs from 16 – 27 June at various locations across Edinburgh, including the Festival Theatre and the Filmhouse, Cameo and Cineworld cinemas. For more details and to book tickets, see the EIFF’s website.

5. Inglourious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino returns in glorious, Nazi-smashing technicolour. Though hardly the most serious or subtle film of the year, Inglourious Basterds is never less than thoroughly entertaining. Brad Pitt stars as Lieutenant Aldo Raine, leader of a crack brigade of Jewish-American soldiers operating deep behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied France but is upstaged by stunning performances from German actors Christoph Waltz and Diane Kruger. Waltz’s Colonel Hans Landa, the SS’s infamous “Jew-Hunter”, is perhaps the year’s most memorable movie villain, a pantomime foil for Pitt’s rootin’ tootin’ redneck hero. Utterly tasteless but wickedly funny, Inglourious Basterds proves that Tarantino’s star burns as brightly as ever after a string of poor efforts in recent years.

4. District 9

Proving that megabucks are not a pre-requisite for success, District 9 was an altogether more satisfying watch than 2009′s other big sci-fi hitters, Avatar and Star Trek. Set in a near-future South Africa, District 9 centres on the plight of the ‘Prawns’, a sizeable alien civilisation stranded on Earth and interned by humans in segregated settlements. Social commentary is as much a feature of the film as action or humour and though the parallel between post-Prawn Johannesburg and Apartheid South Africa is dealt with somewhat heavy-handedly, this is still much more intellectual fare than the rest of this year’s sci-fi offerings. Sharlto Copley’s Wikus van de Merwe falls at the hapless end of the hero spectrum but the development of his character over the course of them film is one of District 9‘s highlights.

3. In The Loop

Malcolm Tucker finally reaches the big screen in the film adoption of Armando Iannucci’s The Thick Of It. Forsaking the Westminster bear pit for the more polite, if equally frantic, world of Anglo-American relations, the TV show’s breakneck pace and vicious humour make the transition to feature length production unscathed. Peter Capaldi is the undoubted star, reprising his role as bile-spitting government spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker, and is supported by returning cast members alongside one-off additions including James Gandolfini. A resolutely British comedy, some of In The Loop‘s humour may be lost on North American audiences not familiar with the rough and ready approach to everything from ad libs to filming but those who persevere will be rewarded with a film that is unrelentingly funny and endlessly quotable. Be warned, the video embedded above includes language that is most definitely Not Safe For Work.

2. A Serious Man

The best Coen Brothers film since The Big Lebowski? Perhaps (in a universe where Oh Brother, Where Art Though doesn’t exist, mind). One of the year’s darker releases, the film follows the Goptiks, a Jewish family living in Minneapolis during the sixties. Professor Larry Gopnik’s life is falling to pieces around him: his wife is having an affair with a family friend, his son is constantly stoned and his daughter is stealing money from him to fund a nose-job operation. At work, Larry is up for Tenure but his application is under threat from malicious anonymous letters and Clive, a failing student determined to pass his exams at any cost. A Serious Man joins the canon of quintessential Coen Brothers movies, though it’s unrelentingly bleak at times.

1. Moon

Equal parts 2001: A Space Odyssey and Silent Running, Moon is the great film-making triumph of 2009. Produced for a paltry five million dollars by British director Duncan Jones, it tells the story of Sam Bell, the lone crewman of a mining base on the surface of the Moon, nearing the end of his three-year stint away from Earth. Sam Rockwell shines as Bell but is supported by an excellent voice-only performance from Kevin Spacey as the installation’s computer, Gerty.  Moon takes a minimalist approach to sci-fi, throwing out many modern genre conventions in the process. CGI is, for the most part, replaced by model work while the sets are basic and have a distinctly retro feel. Themes of identity and loneliness are explored in depth here but there’s a stark beauty amidst all the bleakness. The plot is simple and elegant and though the main twists are easily spotted in advance, the film’s understated style means they always resonate. Perhaps the highlight though is the utterly beautiful soundtrack from Clint Mansell, simple and elegant yet powerfully evocative, much like Moon itself.

Honourable mentions

Zombieland: essentially Left 4 Dead – The Movie but no worse for that.

Drag Me to Hell: dark, disgusting but hilarious Sam Raimi horror flick.

The Hangover: charming neo road-trip movie set in Las Vegas.

Watchmen: convoluted and over-long but very impressive super hero film nonetheless.

Coraline: creepy kid’s 3D film based on the Neil Gaiman book.