Film Shapes

Here we go with the dregs. Actually, that's a bit harsh. Some of these aren't as rubs as recent years. 1. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) A boring, muddled mess with too much going on and a typically over-egged, twitchy performance from Jesse Eisenberg. What a cock he is. 2. Grimsby (2016) One giggle and lots of eye rolls. More expected from Sacha Baron Cohen. He can do, and has done, better. 3. Suicide Squad (2016) Like many of the films in this list, it could have been better. Star power in Will Smith, sauce in Margot Robbie, interesting (though dated) concept. But it fell on its arse. 4. Dragon Blade (2015) Bollocks nonsense from Jackie Chan, attempting to be earnest again. In its favour, it has Adrien Brody heavy-hamming through his make-up. To its detriment, it has John Cusack playing straight through his. 5. Man of Steel (2013) Back of the net! That's a hat-trick for DC films. A hat-trick of shite. Admittedly, for me, this is slightly bette...

Once again, time for the ten best films I saw, for the first time, in 2016. Not the best selection, to be fair, but I'm sure I missed some belters. 1. Slow West (2015) As the title says, slow. But somehow, immensely watchable with some great images and memorable characters. 2. A Bigger Splash (2015) Ralph Fiennes and Tilda Swinton are near-perfect in this. I haven't seen Fiennes give a better performance. This is an odd film that kept popping back into my mind months after I'd seen it. 3. Suburra (2015) Glistening, strobing, throbbing. And that's only one scene. Italian mafia tale with added gloss and raunch. 4. High-Rise (2015) Bonkers stab at social strata with Hiddleston in a role suited to his talents. 5. The Revenant (2015) Gruelling and old-fashioned revenge western. Di Caprio earned his biscuits here. 6. Marshland (2014) Spanish murder mystery set in the swamps of Andalucia. A tense and well-paced little gem. 7. Arrival (2016) Smart, th...

SPOILER ALERT!!! Jan 1st 2017.  Rogue One . First film of the new year. This was great fun but very morbid. Shakespeare would have been happy with the litany of corpses thrown up here. It made me think of this from Hamlet: O proud death, What feast is toward in thine eternal cell, That thou so many princes at a shot So bloodily hast, struck? Yeah, OK, fair enough - I looked it up on t'internet but I think it applies.  The new band of 'misfits' was excellent casting, especially Riz Ahmed and Donnie Yen (below, channeling Zatoichi). Forest Whitaker had a slight whiff of ham about him, though. The oddest 'performances' were from the CGI characters, Moff Tarkin and Princess Leia. The VFX tech isn't quite out of the Uncanny Valley yet. The droid, K-2S0, had all the best lines, many apparently ad-libbed by the man under the suit, Alan Tudyk (him outa  Firefly ). The writers nicely sidestepped most links to the main Star Wars series, even going s...

A nice little day out a couple of weeks back. Belmont's Reading cinemas followed by lunch at Jamie's Italian in the city. The film was Arrival, helmed by a fella who is fast becoming one of my favourite directors, Denis Villeneuve. This is a film that can be seen through a few different prisms. The socio-political angle of multi-lateralism and rapprochement is summed up nicely by this exchange: "If I only gave you a hammer...." "...Everything's a nail." Contrast this with the personal angle of love, memory and loss, especially relating to motherhood (or even parenthood). Mix with a little non-linear time and squirt a thick layer of language as communication and meaning. That's a tasty cake you've got there. Though on the face of it, this film is about the need for calm communication to solve worldly problems (a soft kick in the nuts to the Trumpacide about to occur), I think it's actually more about the character of Louise and the import...

A weekend trip to Busselton enabled me and the wife to pop over to Orana Cinema to see Doctor Strange . This is apparently Marvel's 14th film and I reckon I'd place it mid-table - Everton or Liverpool. Pretty good but not great. It began with a nice surprise. Mads Mikkelsen pulling a mean glower. Didn't know he was going to be in it, innit? From there, the film sets up Cumberbatch as a proper twat, a personality level that he doesn't quite shake by the end of proceedings. He's quite good here, though his accent took some time to grow on me. I think I just prefer his English one. Parts of this film are like Inception on crack. The VFX teams (I counted more than 10 companies in the credits) have done a fine job stretching the city-scape folding stuff. And the scene where the Ancient One sends Strange on a magical mushroom tour is nice and trippy. Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One is top notch, flirting with winking panto one moment and almost eliciting...

Across the channel now. I'd planned to do a top ten but so many belters would miss out if that were the format. So here are my favourite twenty French films. Again, ordering was extremely tough. 20. Buffet froid  (Bertrand Blier - 1979) Proper bonkers this is. Depardieu when he was a powerhouse, compared to just a house. I remember watching this with my face all screwed up, thinking "Can they even make films like this?" but loving it all the same. 19. Baxter (Jerome Boivin - 1989) Another odd'un. Narrated by Baxter himself, a malevolent or maybe just dog-like bull terrier, this film follows his efforts to find a suitable home. Co-written by Jacques Audiard, who will appear later in this list. 18. Entre les murs [The Class] (Laurent Cantet - 2008) A great slice of Parisian life, almost a documentary as it's based on the experiences of Francois Begaudeau, who wrote the novel, co-wrote the film AND bloody well starred in it and al...

I started this post a few years ago and left it mouldering away until Empire Magazine's 100 Best British films turned up recently, which triggered my memory. I'm not about to claim 'best' but these are certainly my 20 favourite British films, and if any of you haven't seen them, I suggest you give yourself a quick rub down and do something about it. So here they are from 20 to 1 (and except for the top 2, the order was mecha-difficult).... 20. Welcome to Sarajevo (Michael Winterbottom - 1997) A real no-frills, even miserable, look at the war in the Balkans and the international journos who covered it. Typically earthy treatment from Winterbottom and Stannis Baratheon himself, Dillane. 19. Oliver! (Carol Reed - 1968) Not massively into musicals but this is up with the best of them, with great performances from Ron Moody (left) as Fagin and Oliver Reed as Sykes. Top notch sing-alongs too - "In this life, one thing counts. In the bank, large am...