June 2015 – The kids? This will give the parents nightmares

And just like that it’s June: festival season.

First, though, I had a few films to catch up with on general release, including A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Spy and Jurassic World, the last of which came the closest of any blockbuster this summer to making me feel like a kid again. I later ended the month with Slow West, one of the few Westerns I have actually enjoyed.

At home I became obsessed with Sense8, binge-watching the entire series over the course of a couple of days. I of course loved the similarities it shared with Cloud Atlas, my film of 2013, but was also impressed by the new territory it explored, too. I wrote a list of eight reasons why everybody should be watching the Wachowskis latest for HeyUGuys.

Come June 16th, however, it was off to Edinburgh to review, interview and have a few — as I made my way through as much of the 69th Edinburgh International Film Festival programme as I could in the five days I had available. These included Amy, 13 Minutes, Therapy for a Vampire, 600 Miles, The Road Within, Maggie, Cop Car, Manson Family Vacation, The Circle, The Hallow, The Messenger, The Stanford Prison Experiment, Iona, Inside Out, How to Win at Checkers (Every Time), Last Days In The Desert and Dead Rising: Watchtower.

Of the films I saw this year The Stanford Prison Experiment was the one that really stood out, not just as a great festival film but one of the best movies I’ve seen so far this year. In fact, it was an incredibly strong line-up, resulting in no less than five four star reviews for HeyUGuys and this blog. I also had the opportunity to speak to director Corin Hardy and actor Robert Sheehan about their respective films.

This month was also notable for other reasons. Having applied for a travel writing scholarship with World Nomads and Lonely Planet that would have seen me set off on an expenses-paid trip to San Francisco I was delighted to discover that I had been shortlisted for the competition. While I ultimately didn’t win, it was still nice to have my work recognised by such respected talents in the travel writing industry. In the submission I recounted a teenage trip to Scarisoara Cave in Transylvania.

I also had my first article published by The Blazing Nomad, a list of the best gelaterias in the French Riviera following my April visit to the area. This was in addition to a visit to the Isle of May, my first experience of AirBnB and semi-regular glimpses of the Dundee dolphins swimming in the Tay.

Film of the month: The Stanford Prison Experiment