True stories which are lovingly made can produce positive or even inspirational films like this one. It felt a little too melodramatic at times but the beautiful cinematography and assured performances of the entire cast left a positive feeling overall. The world would be a better place with more kids like William.
As if on a tight suspension rope, this understated film reminds us that the smallest of margin of errors can often result to your destiny changing cataclysmically. The carefully interwoven story of two quietly powerful women, both having faced demons in their past and trying to start over but are facing significant challenges on their own journeys both metaphorically and literally, will get you thinking about moments when they have gone your way on the basis of trivial circumstances or gone against you in the blink of an eye on the slightest random detail.
This film leaves you feeling as if you've been kicked in the guts (similar effect had the 'We need to talk about Kevin') with truly stellar performances, a mature direction with striking images that carve into your mind, and a story that even though most of us have never faced feels very personal indeed. Highly recommended!
If I had a hammer, I'd hammer out of danger, I'd hammer out of warning, all over this land.
Atmospheric, brutal, amazing score, acting and photography. There is something that in the story that did not click for me 100% but I cant put my finger on it.
Subtle, understated but ultimately devastating, this is a quietly explosive film; a visceral study of the complexity of relationships and the fragility of love.
Comic book inspired films have been very popular during the last decade and there are some really good productions. Logan is obviously a film whose origins came from this genre but has travelled so much further. This is the elegy for our favourite mutan and a fitting goodbye. In this darkest and last installment the physical and mental torment brings new depth to the character and elevates the film to heights where possibly only Nolan's Batman has managed to reach in the past. Thank you Hugh.
Farhadi knows how to tell a story. With intensity in his patience and eye for detail, he builds thrilling plot out of ordinary circumstances, and enriches it with thought provoking ideas. Like always, he yet again manages to draw remarkable performances from his cast.
About Elly and A Seperation are two more films I would recommend from his filmography.
Poetry in motion (pictures).
There are lyrical moments all around us that simply require us to take the time to soak them in and be engulfed in their spellbinding beauty. This beauty can be found in everywhere and in everyone. Sometimes a blank page offers the most opportunity.
A truly intelligent, intimate and moving film that firmly confirms Villeneuve as one of our generation's greats. Amazing score, incredible cinematography, and a stellar performance by Amy Adams, makes this film firmly one of this years favourites.
Wow! What a score! Hans Zimmer is a genius and without trying to take anything away from the cinematic orgasm captured by Christopher Nolan in glorious 70mm film and told in his favourite non linear way. But the tick tock really is what grabbed me the most.
This year my love and I gathered a couple of dozen people on a warm summer night on the rooftop of a house in one of the beautiful Greek islands and projected the film onto a neighbour's wall we spent all afternoon painting bright white. Any film that makes you want to dance, sing and love out loud is a film worth many re-watches and this re-watch was my favourite one.
The romantic comedy of the year which is full of hilariously funny and genuinely touching moments (it is based on a true story after all) and on my list of those that I would happily sit to watch again if given the opportunity.
I did not expect to like this but I did. Barratt is really funny as Mindhorn in this frankly ridiculous extraordinary comedy which left me with a sense of discovering a little unpolished gem.
The Handmaiden is in essence an intelligent tale of freedom and transformation delivered via an evocative delightfully twisty thriller in a colourful, sexually tense and often perverse story told expertly by Chan-wook Park.
A very interesting storyline which fuses science and spiritualism in a very nuanced emotional and intellectual capacity, giving the audience a captivating, suspenseful and thought-provoking film.
This is not an easy film to watch. It torments viewers visually and mentally the notions of faith and doubt, the fear or love of ideas and icons, the reactions against physical and psychological violence when they are against themselves individually or when they are inflicted on others, the effects of support and betrayal and the chasm or bridge between being religious and being spiritual. Scorsese is a true master of his craft.
If films were always this fun, the movie theatres would always be full. Many laughing out loud moments, a lot of great action and some really great characters.
I really connected emotionally to this films and loved for its witty dialogues, quirky characters (with a number of really spot on performances), and dissection of what makes a family (with moments when it works and others where it doesn't).
It is one of those films that you may never get tired of watching time and time again. The heart of the film is its music around which the entire film was orchestrated, but this heart was also infused with large doses of adrenaline, romance, some really cool characters and loads of good humour.
Someone asked me how I would rank this installment in the Star Wars films (8 of them so far or 9 if you include Rogue One) and I said possibly this is my 5th favourite. And this is through no lack of amazing cinematography, score, or ever great battle scenes or individual duels but there were a few things that put me off and most of them are on the character development. Without going into spoiler mode I refrain from taking about then just yet. This does not make it a bad movie though, but just one that is not a brilliant as some others. I still think that certain fans and newcomers may still largely enjoy it.
I have been known to enjoy Tarantino stories (even True Romance is one of my favourites which he penned) and how he goes about telling them. Often these stories include witty and sharp dialogue which is instantly quotable and lingers in our minds vividly. Unfortunately this story has nothing memorable, dialogue is cheap and the characters are not intriguing enough to care what happens to them. The bloodshed should be cathartic and liberating rather than a gimmick to impress.
This is the movie I would not mind if it was not part of a Tarantino box set that I am gifted down the road.
Ethics 101: a subject studied through the empathetic eyes of the protagonist brilliantly portrait by Vincent Lindon who during the moments he says the least, speaks the loudest.
This kind of film making speaks form the heart, allowing the audience to be drawn in and feel all the nuanced emotions and discover all the delicate epiphanies that come along the way.
I really was not expecting much other than just another film to watch on a long haul transatlantic flight to alleviate my boredom. However, this was surprisingly very funny that I could not stop myself laughing out loud in moments and in the process drawing attention from my fellow passengers some of who proceeded to ask me what I was watching and when I told them and they ventured to watch it too, they as well ended up laughing out loud.
There is always a guilty pleasure film every year that creeps into my favourites and in 2016 it is no other than Deadpool which takes the comic hero genre to another level of funny where even the Guardians of the Galaxy did not reach. This one is not about the action scenes (which there were good doses of) or even gory ones (which there were plenty of), but moreso about the little details of an excellent score including Wham!, the amazing funny borderline rude one liners including a ton of in-movie jokes and the entire self-sarcastic nature of it. In fact it was so much fun that I had to watch it twice.
Admittedly I could hardly wait for the new collaboration between the director Yorgos Lanthimos and the screenwriter Efthimis Filippou in their first English speaking feature. And it was yet again a thoroughly stimulating absurd surrealistic dark comedy, unique to its core. Wrapped up with a violently emotive score unfolds a story about finding love against the clock in a concentration camp for loners or turned into a animal of choice. Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz are great leads and Olivia Colman is an excellent supporting act in a film you won't quickly forget.
This is one of those films where you come out of the cinema feeling elated and want to get everyone you know to watch it, yet you are lost for words on how to describe it and possibly wondering whether their take of this film will be as rewarding to them as it was to you. Because in reality this film is merely but an emotional journey and whether what happens on the screen makes sense or not is not really important. And you cannot really even pinpoint the genre: is it a film about parenthood, or about a getaway, or maybe perhaps about a religion and the need to believe, or even is it simply a science fiction thriller? Whatever it is Mike Nichols delivers once again a thoroughly enjoyable film with an amazing cast including Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Adam Driver, Sam Shepard and of course the young Jaeden Lieberher.
Genuinely fun, witty and at times laugh out funny in ways I did not think a Jane Austen's story could be imagine. Lady Vernon is devilishly charming and deceitfully charming played by Kate Beckinsale who even though has not impressed me before is delightful here, whilst Tom Bennet's preposterous upper class twit Sir James is the film's true scene-stealer. The script and dialogue are so tight and full of brilliant one-liners that the film screams for a second viewing which I will gladly oblige should the opportunity arise.
Silence is often the most deafening sound. A loss can trigger the strongest of emotions. And there is nothing louder in this film than the quiet performances of its leads and virtually say everything especially in moments when no words are exchanged. I watched this one as part of the London Film Festival 2016 and it blew me away for its equal measures of heart, houmor, love, despair and humanity. The casting is superb and deserve to scoop up the awards of the year in a story which even though one can guess from the start what is in its nucleus, we sit and admire the masterful director peel it off to gradually reveal an even richer and more layered core.
Like the digits of a hand, these sisters are one. Their love and bond for one another is pure and complete brought closer together by the tragic loss of their parents and the harsh new realities of a life under the rule of the patriarchal and traditionalist uncle who sets out to arrange marriages for all of them as he fears the local society's judgement on their supposed transgressions which are amplified in his censorious mind. An emotively charged story unfolds in a film with truly mesmerising acting by all girls alike under the direction of what one would expect to be a master filmmaker yet only her first full feature film.
Somehow this fictional nightmare scenario for this soldier left behind on the wrong side of the 'fence' and surrounded by those that personify him as the live target to exhume their frustration on, seems to capture the audience in this nail biting chase for survival. The director makes it all feel almost real and coupled with the consistently amazing performance of O'Connell (see him in Starred Up) this film is one that you will not quickly forget.
Ex Machina is the type of film that toys around with the audience about which version of the truth to believe in, as Caleb, the visitor to the super secret facilities of his company's brilliant and idolised reclusive CEO, Nathan, is asked to examine the level of realism in the artificial intelligence of his latest humanoid creation, Ava. The setting, the acting, the special effects and the stylistically and aesthetically brilliant Garland's debut feature, which he both craftily penned and directed, make up one of the best films of the year. And it seems that we simply can't get enough from Alicia Vikander as of late whose each and every performance seems to be better that the last one. It is no wonder she is nominated for two Golden Globes this year.
A visually stunning animation masterpiece that will take you on a magical colourful journey with mythical creatures, folklore and **** kind of fairy-tale I'd imagine Celtic grandmas would read as bed time stories to children on a cold winter's night in Ireland and for moments in that film I felt as if I was cast under it's spell.
Truly sinister. With an accomplished ensemble whose performances are career defining and possibly award winning and most notably that of Steve Carell who we have come to love as a comedian yet now takes on this really complex character and morphs him into a harrowing and desperately sad persona that du Pont seems to have been. Miller seems to be going from strength to strength and this is definitely his best work to date.
A film about passion within a relationship, within their love of their music, within the tragedy of the story that unfolds. The Broken Circle Breakdown may well be the movie find of the year that has had the most profound impact to me; for it is raw, real and connected and within its darkest colour hues there is such a bright light shining out. I cannot recommend it enough.
Oh, what a movie. What a lovely movie! ;-) Best viewed in the widest screen possible in the biggest bad ass speakers you can find at full blast, it will take you to an adrenaline filled journey orchestrated by a visionary conductor/director with strong doses of humour and poetry alike. Stunts, costumes and cinematography are out of this world. If there is one action story to watch this year, this is definitely it.
If WTF kind of black comedies it is you are after you will not go wrong with 'The Voices' which if it weren't for the slightly deflated ending it would have been a brilliant film. Reynolds and the cat are both absolutely amazing.
Who isn't a fan of Scott's early work and how many times have we gone back to that theater hoping that he would pull yet another rabbit out of his hat. Well after a string of near misses as well as pure disappointments he comes back with a film that has a soul. It is cool, funny and ingenious. Welcome back Ridley.
Aaron Sorkin is a genius and Danny Boyle is a master. No wonder that their collaboration results in a piece which I did not want to end. When the credits rolled up, I was crying to see another "episode", another product launch, another proof of why Steve who couldn't write code, was not an engineer nor a designer and couldn't put a hammer to a nail was called a genius a dozens of time a day...
I was 10 when I saw Star Wars for the first time in a special triple bill of Episodes IV, V and VI in cinema in Leicester Square. I still remember the feeling of being transported to a another world where the battle of good vs evil was raging on, in a fairytale where princesses, funny creatures, talking robots and awsome super powers existed. I was fortunate after all these years to watch the next episode of the saga in a church turned cinema in Winchester on a super comfy sofa for two with my 10 year old son and it was like being 10 years old again myself, like seeing it through his eyes. Everything that I came to love about the original trilogy was there and all the familiar characters were back. The special effects were made to look realistic, there was good doses of action and humour, the new protagonists introduced are all genuinely interesting (with the exception perhaps of the Supreme Leader) and at the end of it, both my son and I, are left counting the days to the next Episode...
For a subject as powerful as what the film Philomena tackles, the result stirs little emotion. And even though I cannot fathom why it made the list of the best 9 films this year according the US film academy, it is still good enough to be the type of film to watch on TV on a leisurely Sunday afternoon whilst digesting the roast I had for lunch.
Spoiler Alert: If only David would have bought his father the bloody truck and compressor to begin with, we could all have been spared 115 minutes of our lives watching nothing aimless going nowhere. Pity because I had grown fond of Alexander Payne's work as of late.
Director Lindholm, a graduate of the Dogma school, creates such immense tension without the use of time-watching techniques and other on-screen antics prominent in other hijacking films, in an absorbing and carefully woven thriller that focuses on emotion as seen from the eyes of one victim (the chef) and the CEO of the shipping company. It must also be noted that the very same guy, in the capacity of a screenwriter penned two of my favourite films of 2013, this one and ‘The Hunt’.
In his late seventies Redford reminds us that despite his plethoric and undeniably lustrous acting career he can still shine brighter than ever, in a movie where not only he is the only actor but he has hardly any lines. The director J.C. Chandor on the other hand proves that his noteworthy first feature film ‘Margin Call’ was no fluke and has deservedly gained a place in my list of directors whose next project I will definitely watch.
Falling in love with this film is made easy by the spectacular Shailene Woodley, a film so captivating that you're not quite ready to let these characters go when the credits start rolling in.
A near perfect experience from a director that has brought to us not merely a film but a true accomplishment. Visually stunning, an experience truly out of this world. My only quibble was that even though admittedly there was little to flaw Sandra Bullock's performance, I just did not feel she had the gravitas to carry it the weight of such a grand cinematic achievement on her shoulders.
