Best of 2020 - End of Year Report

Yes, it's been a pretty cruddy year. Many cinemas closed for a bit, and some still are at time of writing. We were luckier here in Perth. There was a gap of around three months between visits to the cinema but I still managed to get to 29 films in the remainder. With streaming sites and more free time than expected, it was possible to see around 140 films in total in 2020. Take out the repeat viewings and there were around 100 films to whittle down to the best 10. So here, in descending order, they are. Fill your sandals, human movie lovers.

10. Archive (2020)

One of the films of the Revelation Festival, this is a cracking little futuristic tale of loss and grief in the AI age. First time director Gavin Rothery, working from his own script, serves up a belter.

9. Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan (2020)

And here's another gem from Rev, this a doco on the life of the erstwhile Pogue's frontman. Director Julien Temple must have spent about a year in the edit suite - there's so much going on here. The frenetic pace doesn't allow any time to drift away and the format of 'boozy chats' works especially well with the subject. A craic-er.

8. Dheepan (2015)

This film by Jacques Audiard won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and though it's not one of his absolute best, it still manages to say something about the disenfranchised in an entertaining way. It's part social drama, part gang thriller and all class.

7. The Death of Stalin (2017)

Weird, very British look at said historical event, this comedy by Partridge alumni, Armando Ianucci keeps an odd grin on the mush for most of the duration. Aside from the murdery bits. Steve Buscemi as Nikita Krushchev? I'll have one of those, thanks.

6. Deerskin (2019)

This is one of the films that stayed with me most this year. It is fucking mental. Great turns from Jean Dujardin and Adèle Haenel, with a jacket as the third protagonist. Bags of fun.

5. Collective (2019)

A brilliant documentary from Romania about a nightclub fire and the corruption and misery that follows. Director Alexander Nanau tunes this up like a noir-ish thriller and gives us two heroes to get behind, a journo and a government minister. A fantastic film, a must watch.

4. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

I don't usually use the word sumptuous but there it is. This film, directed by Céline Sciamma and starring Noémi Merlant and Adèle Haenel, glides along at its own pace and manages to keep you enthralled as to how things will pan out, all with very little fuss. The two leads are mesmerising and Sciamma shows her sublime talent here.

3.Honeyland (2019)

A moving, almost hypnotic doco about a wild honey gatherer in North Macedonia. Sounds a bit dull but the 'characters' are intriguing, and tension is built when a wandering family move into her virtually deserted village and eventually try to muscle in on her gig. A quiet masterpiece.

2. Tenet (2020)

Christopher Nolan's attempt at saving the cinema industry was all it should have been - big, ballsy, loud and exciting. It was also intricately fiddled, with plot points coming and going and the reverso-confusion stuff almost twisting itself in knots....before it all lands perfectly soundly. The kind of film that leaves you needing a breath AND asking questions.

1. 1917 (2019)

I think I knew when I saw this in January that it would take an absolute peach to knock it off top spot. Forget all the talk of the 'one shot' gimmickry, this would stand up as a near-perfect piece of filmmaking, even without Roger Deakins' peerless cinematography. It has one of the best sequences I've seen in films, not just in 2020, but since my birth. Best thing Sam Mendes has done by a long straw.

MANY SPOILERS IN POD!!

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The Running Man

This is Edgar Wright's ninth feature, just a smidge over 20 years since his reputation-making second film, Shaun of the Dead . The older folk reading this might remember the Arnie original from 1987, directed by Starsky himself, Paul Michael Glaser. I vaguely recall that film being silly and comically violent, one of a slew of Schwarzenegger pulp films of the era. This remake aims for similar stylings, but with a more po-faced, less ludicrous feel. The premise goes that Ben Richards (Glen Powell) needs money to ensure his child gets the proper medicine for her unnamed illness. He's lost his job due to 'insubordination', but really he's just a top bloke looking out for his co-workers. After promising his wife Sheila (Jayme Lawson) that he won't try out for the near-suicidal game show The Running Man, he applies for other shows on the sinister Network, and gets selected anyway. Of course, or no movie. The scenes in this part of the film are probably the most succ...

Sicilian Letters

This Italian Film Festival offering is a post-mafia story from writer/director pair, Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza. Ex-school principal and local politician, Catello (Toni Servillo) is released from prison in the early 2000s, only to be co-opted by the Italian Secret Service to help apprehend the last Cosa Nostra boss still at large, Matteo Messina Denaro (Elio Germano). Catello is the perfect patsy. He was a good friend of Denaro's father, Don Gaetano, who made Catello the Godfather to young Matteo. I should mention this is based loosely on the life of Denaro, though it's at pains to acknowledge that much of this story is fabricated (a title card reads "Loosely inspired by real events, though the film's characters are the fruits of the authors' imagination.") In this chunk of Denaro's life on the run, Catello is tasked with writing letters to the fugitive, via a bespoke butcher-based post office. Initially, Denaro is moved by Catello's prose a...

One Battle After Another

Before this film, Paul Thomas Anderson had at least one certifiable classic on his CV in There Will Be Blood . Now, make that two. In saying this, most of his films range from good to brilliant. This is his second adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel (after the uneven but interesting Inherent Vice ) and it looks at the lives of modern American revolutionaries, notably members of French 75. The group are apparently named after a WWI weapon, and then a cocktail, both of which have something of a kick. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Bob, The Rocket Man, who makes the ordnance for the group and is in a relationship with fellow revolutionary, Perfidia (Teyana Taylor). A combination of a run-in with Sean Penn's Colonel Steven Lockjaw, and a rash killing of a security guard triggers more interest in the group, and so a roundup begins. Perfidia is caught, then forced to name names before doing a runner. But not before she has a daughter with Bob, whom he is left to raise on the run. After this f...

The Long Walk

I had a bit of time to spare while the car was getting a service so I decided to visit the Greater Union Morley cinemas one last time (it closed a few days after I saw this). I think this was the first cinema I went to when I came back from Japan in 2016 and sadly, it hadn't had a touch up since then, possibly not for a long time before either. Fingers crossed for a brand spanking new cinema complex one day. Anyway, the film I saw was The Long Walk , and it's a bit of an oddity. It's based on a Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman) book from 1979. King seems to have a thing for these dystopian 'last one standing' stories (see also The Running Man , an Arnie adaptation was made in 1987, and Edgar Wright has a new version up his sleeve, opening soon). Director Francis Lawrence returns to the theme of his Hunger Games films, riffing on Battle Royale , but also, many of these types of films where characters get picked off one by one, from Alien to Monty Python an...

The Quiet Girl

This is a great film, especially in the way that it manages to create something interesting out of a reasonably mundane synopsis. A young girl is sent away to a relative's house for the summer where she is treated better than at home. Sounds like it could have a bit of Rohmer-style youthful awakenings? Or maybe some gritty Loach-ian societal comment? Even perhaps a revenge tinged 'fear the youth' theme? Well, it's none of the above, and more power to its style. The Quiet Girl herself (Cáit) is a newcomer, Catherine Clinch, and she was apparently found via an Irish language school call out. She's incredible - meek, direct, no airs nor graces whatsoever, with a clear-eyed awkwardness. She's almost like a little female Bowie in The Quiet Girl Who Fell to Earth (no, not a film but I thought I'd italicise anyway). There are orbiting performances that complement her perfectly. Carrie Crowley and Andrew Bennet play Eibhlín and Seán Cinnsealach, the couple who tak...

Splitsville

This is the second film I've seen in a row where two blokes wrote the film and also starred in it ( see previous review ). This time round the two blokes are Michael Angelo Covino (also directing) and Kyle Marvin. The coup was signing Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona to play the wives, Julie and Ashley. On the face of it, it's hard to believe that these women would be with these two spuds, but the script allows for a suspension of disbelief. Marvin plays Carey, just over a year into marriage with Ashley (Arjona). On the way to a waterfront weekend with Paul and Julie (Covino and Johnson), Ashley explains that she wants a divorce. The trigger may have had something to do with them being part of a road accident death, a darkly amusing opening scene. Carey leaves the car in a panic and eventually finds his way to the beach house. Distraught, he decides to wallow with his friends until a discretion threatens to blow apart the relationship. To be clear, Julie and Paul's open rela...

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

A few years ago, we hit the S.S.P. (Superhero Saturation Point). And the best way for studios to arrest, or even maybe reverse, the law of diminishing returns is to JUST GIVE IT A FUCKING REST. There's enough residual goodwill in the fan base to guarantee profits....for now. But, as Malcolm Gladwell said, there must be a tipping point. So into this cinematic avalanche slips The Fantastic Four: First Steps , the first film of Phase Six and the thirty seventh overall! It's quite dull for the first 30 minutes, setting up the characters, ensuring the audience understands we're on a slightly different Earth (828), and a different time as well. It only gets going when the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) appears and promises everyone death by devouring. She's not going to eat them, she works for a massive space turd called Galactus, played by Finchy himself, Ralph Ineson. He'll do the devouring. Here's the thing - this film is a perfectly serviceable entry, not brilliant,...

The Ballad of Wallis Island

Tim Key adds value to every film or TV show he appears in but here he has found his perfect role. Of course, it helps if you write the thing yourself (with help from co-star, Tom Basden). Key plays Charles, a slightly buffoonish, slightly clever 'lord of the manor' type who has invited Basden's Herb to his lightly-populated island to play a gig. Herb was part of a reasonably successful folk duo in years past but is now solo, and experimenting with genres (As another character queries, "Is 'commercial' a genre?"). Charles has the means to pay handsomely for this intimate concert but Herb isn't aware just how intimate it promises to be. Nor is he aware that Charles has also invited the other half of McGwyer/Mortimer, Nell, to the island, in order to reunite after nearly 10 years. Nell is played by Carey Mulligan, another casting triumph. She's always great but is really natural and confident here, with a fine singing voice (also heard in Inside Llewy...

Mid-year report - 2013

So here are the ten best films I've seen so far this year (up to June 30). This time round, I'm only picking films I've seen for the first time. In order, they are: 1. Wish You Were Here 2. The Imposter 3. We Need to Talk About Kevin 4. Argo 5. Even the Rain 6. Iron Man 3 7. The Kid with a Bike 8. Django Unchained 9. 500 Days of Summer 10. The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists And here's the offal. Worst first. 1. Intouchables 2. The Tree of Life 3. You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger 4. Life of Pi 5. Mamma Mia! 6. Morning Glory 7. Ted 8. Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai 9. Amazing Grace 10. Haywire

The Naked Gun

This uncalled for remake of 1988's The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! is not a patch on the original, nor the TV show, Police Squad! that spawned them both. Director Akiva Schaffer has plenty of pedigree with stupid comedy, having directed oodles of Saturday Night Live episodes, as well as films like Hot Rod and The Watch . I haven't seen these films but I'm not about to now. The new Naked Gun has a fairly rapid rate of jokes - many successful - in the first 30 minutes or so, but once the film had to start servicing the plot, the laughs dried up. Throughout the film, the sight gags didn't work as well as the straight-faced wordplay, à la the 'awfully big mustache' classic from The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear . This might be due to the casting. Liam Neeson is fun and tries hard, but he doesn't get anywhere near Leslie Nielsen, though I thought Pamela Anderson was an improvement on Priscilla Presley (I guess being an actual actor helps). Ab...

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