However, an honourable mention must go out to a film
actually released last year so it should not really count, but it did not reach
the UK until it was played on BBC Four back in May (not counting its possible
appearances prior to that on BT Sport) - O.J.: Made in America. Originally made
as part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series, director Ezra Edelman did not want to make
a rehash of the story of O.J. Simpson that everyone is so familiar with,
thinking that there was so much more that he could add. So ESPN gave him a
5-hour blank canvas to do as he will...The actual film clocks in at 467
minutes, just shy of eight hours; Edelman did break it down into five parts to
make for easier viewing. It not only looks at Simpson's rise (his emergence at
USC, winning the Heismann Trophy, breaking into the NFL with the Buffalo Bills
and becoming a household name during and after his playing career) and fall
(being accused of the murder of his ex-wife and her friend and his conviction
of another crime 13 years later), but it also provides one of the most
comprehensive looks at race and the struggles of African-Americans on film.
Naturally it won the Oscar for Best Documentary.
This is the final list as of Thursday 7th
December, so unfortunately you will not be seeing Star Wars: The Last Jedi on this
countdown, as it missed the cut-off by a week. Since then I have seen it and thoroughly enjoyed it. Another to just miss the cut,
but I wanted to see, is Stronger; Jake Gyllenhaal depicts the real-life story of
Jeff Bauman who lost both his legs following the 2013 Boston Marathon
bombing.
So here is part one, numbers 15 to 11...
So here is part one, numbers 15 to 11...
15. A Ghost Story
No, this is not a horror film, even though these lists
usually feature at least one. Far from it.
C (Casey Affleck) and M (Rooney Mara) are living together in
a small suburban house, when one night they hear a loud bang coming from their
piano but cannot find the cause of it. Soon afterwards, C is killed in a car
crash outside the house, but at the morgue he awakens as a ghost covered in a
white sheet with two eye holes. So he returns home to try to reconnect with M.
This is from director David Lowery, who last year directed the
remake of Pete's Dragon. Unlike that family-friendly piece, he said he was
“freaking out, having an existential crisis”. He did call the phantom from
Spirited Away as the reference point for his ghost; another was Uncle Boomee
Who Can Recall His Past Lives, the winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes back in
2010. Other films Lowery has mentioned as being an influence include Under the
Skin and Poltergeist; most of the others I have never heard of.
This is not the first time that Lowery has worked on a film
with Mara and Affleck. The two of them were in his 2013 film Ain't Them Bodies
Saints. Affleck likes the quirkiness and charm to the house, whereas Mara wants
to move to the city. Affleck has an attraction to it, particularly causing him
to work there as a songwriter. Their opposing thoughts on the house cause much
tension.
Like I may have said, this is a horror film only in its
name, yet there are a couple of eerie moments to it and some classic jump
scares, including a bulldozer driving into the house. Some of the shots linger
on characters for what feels like a very long time, almost reinforcing this
notion that there is this presence in the house too. And that continues after
C's death, as we are watching M grieve his passing, as is he. And we see that
in a seven-minute scene involving a pie (which was done in just one take).
This review may seem pithy and vague compared to the others,
but that is because it is hard to describe this film. There is very little I
have seen before like it. Others, those more professional and qualified than
me, have made comparisons to the slow-pace, spiritual themes and thought
provision of Terrence Malick. And they are entitled to. Me though, it is in a
world of its own…
14. Logan
The final venture from Hugh Jackman as the iconic
mutton-chopped anti-hero. Nine films in 17 years. This is the film that asks
the question of what does happen to superheroes in the winter years of their
lives.
Set in the near future (2029), following the disbandment of
the X-Men after mutants have been made illegal, Logan (Jackman) is working as a
limo driver on the US-Mexico border whilst also looking after an ailing
Professor X (Patrick Stewart). But then an encounter with a woman wanting him
to escort a young girl called Laura to the Canadian border makes him come out
of hiding. But her abilities, similar to those of Logan, have also attracted
the attention of a biotechnology company called Transigen (who are
experimenting on mutants), its surgical head Zander Rice (Richard E. Grant) and
its chief of security Pierce (Boyd Holbrook).
I had said previously that I had struggled to be invested in
the X-Men franchise. Believe me, I have tried. The only film I was particular
interested in was First Class and part of that were the performances from James
McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. Mind you, I did use to watch the cartoon series
when it was occasionally on (that had a cool intro music). My problem was I always thought they tried to shoehorn too many characters into a 2-hour long film and many of them felt sidelined to me. But finally there is an
X-Men I can sit down and enjoy, looking at its best character further. These
films have always been set in the not-so-distant future and this one is no different,
particularly with the idea there is a wall on the US-Mexico border and there is
refuge in Canada; supposedly this was written before the US election last year.
It is certainly with the times, but the original comics were written in light
of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.
Now granted there have been previous Wolverine stand-alone
films in the past; the first of which X-Men Origins: Wolverine was rubbish,
especially for its boring clichéd action and its misuse of Deadpool. It was so
badly received that there have been no other X-Men Origins films, despite there
being plans for a Magneto one. This was followed by The Wolverine, which was
more successful. Because of the nature of this film, it is more of a survivalist
film than a superhero one. There are numerous films which are an influence on
this one: The Gauntlet, Paper Moon, Little Miss Sunshine, The Wrestler,
Unforgiven and Shane, which Charles and Laura watch during a stay in a hotel.
This is certainly one final hurrah from Hugh Jackman. He
admitted that this is the hardest Wolverine film he ever had to train for,
eating a minimum of six meals a day and training from 4:00am. We are presented
with a weary and battle-scarred Logan, whose self-healing abilities have
dwindled. His claws are causing him pain and he has turned to alcohol to null it.
And now he has found this girl, played brilliantly by Dafne Keen, who is very
much like him, but he is reluctant to help. He tries to tell her that the X-Men
were a fantasy and that very little of what is in her cartoons actually
happened. It is the usual “grumpy-old-man-must-mentor-the-new-generation”
cliché, but it is heart-warming at the same time. Charles Xavier is struggling
with dementia and he can cause telekinetic earthquakes, so Logan must claim
medicine from the black market to ease him. He even has to help him use the
toilet. Patrick Stewart does well too, in what he has said will be his last
X-Men film. But we know nothing is impossible in films, don’t we?
Unlike all the other X-Men films, (with the obvious exception
of Deadpool) this one is certainly bloodier and more sweary, justifying its 15
certificate from the BBFC/R-rating in the United States. Is this the norm now for a superhero film that wants to be edgy? Who knows. It has an on-screen
body count of 35. Here is what director James Mangold had to say about the
rating:
- "For me, what was most interesting in getting the studio to okay an R-rating was something entirely different. They suddenly let go of the expectation that this film is going to play for children, and when they let go of that, you are free in a myriad of ways. The scenes can be longer. Ideas being explored in dialogue or otherwise can be more sophisticated. Storytelling pace can be more poetic, and less built like attention-span-deficit theatre."
This is a grim film, no doubt about it. However, it was
always going to be; the kind of send-off you would expect for Wolverine. One
last piece of trivia – in June, Logan surpassed The Dark Knight as the number
one superhero film on RottenTomatoes.
13. The LEGO Batman Movie
The spin-off to one of the best films of 2014, based on the character who only works in black...and sometimes very, very dark grey.
The newly appointed police commissioner Barbara Gordon
(voice of Rosario Dawson) has devised plans for the police to function without needing
help from Batman (Will Arnett). Meanwhile, Batman has recently hurt the
feelings of the Joker (Zach Galifianakis) by saying that he is not that he is
not that important to him and he has unwittingly adopted teenage orphan Dick
Grayson (Michael Cera), who wants to become his sidekick.
I remember when I first heard the idea of The LEGO Movie I
thought it was going to be either really great or really terrible. Turns out it
was the former. Everything was awesome. It was intelligent and humorous, but
also a visual feast with so much going on. Well done Phil Lord and Christopher
Miller. And it was wrongfully snubbed by the Oscars. So because we all found
Will Arnett’s version of Batman great we have this spin-off. Likewise there is
a lot happening in this film and I do stress “a lot”.
This is certainly the least serious Batman movie ever. It
makes itself seem important straightaway by commenting on its dark background,
narration/reading, the dramatic music; you will be laughing from the off. In
this film, Batman is a complete narcissist, thinking everything should revolve
around him. We have a long action sequence at the beginning with Batman
fighting a number of bad guys and yet he still has time for showboating
(playing a guitar). The film actually looks back at the previous live-action incarnations
referencing their existence almost mockingly (although by its logic Batman
should be in his 90s). There is also one piece of casting that is a reference
to those films – Billy Dee Williams as Two-Face. Batman also enjoys giving out
merchandise (he has a merchandise gun and “Bat Bucks”) and has a Bat-submarine,
rocket, jet-ski, etc. These are things that you previously could not get away. And
you have to think that unlike Batman & Robin this movie could possibly get
away with having a Bat credit card.
And at the same time, this film addresses Batman’s greatest
fear – being part of a family…although he would have us believe that it is
snake-clowns and goes into denial. As Alfred (Ralph Fiennes) puts it, he “lives
on an island, figuratively and literally”. He does not do relationships, yet he
likes watching relationship movies like Jerry Maguire. He does not want to
recognise his connection the Joker, which upsets him and leads him to the
Phantom Zone to recruit an army of super villains. Then there is this plan that
Barbara Gordon has for the police to work with Batman because in reality Batman
has never really stopped any of his enemies. This is actually true of all the
Batman films ever made when you come to think about it.
Even though this film is in my top 15, it is probably the
one I have the most criticism for. It does go over the top with all the
villains in the Phantom Zone, such as:
- Gremlins
- Voldemort
- Sauron
- Agents from The Matrix
- Daleks
- Jaws
- King Kong
- Raptors from Jurassic Park
- The witch and flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz
It is too random. There is not the same grounded attitude
that The LEGO Movie had in the mind of a child. Another is the decision to cast
Ralph Fiennes who played Voldemort in the Harry Potter films, but not have him
voice that character in this film. As much as I love Eddie Izzard, that was an opportunity lost. Maybe I am just
being my usual knit-picking self. Remember that we are not meant to take this
film seriously.
So, in short, it is like The LEGO Movie in terms of humour,
silliness and spectacle.
12. Free Fire
This is the fifth top films of the year post that I have done and the third to feature a film directed by Ben Wheatley (if I had started back in 2012, Sightseers would have probably been included on that list). He is certainly enjoying a rich vein of form as one of the most consistent director around and this is probably the best. After taking over Britain, he is now taking on the Americans at their own game with help from executive producer Martin Scorsese.
Set in the 1970s somewhere in America (we think maybe
Boston), two IRA arms buyers Chris (Cillian Murphy) and Frank (Michael Smiley)
are looking to purchase some firearms from Vernon (Sharlto Copley), a gun
runner from South Africa. The deal has been set up by business associates
Justine (Brie Larson) and Ord (Armie Hammer). However a chance encounter the
night before involving opposing hired goons - Harry (Jack Reynor) and Stevo
(Sam Riley) - leads to a shootout of epic proportions.
Wheatley has flirted with a variety of genres: crime, drama
in Down Terrace; horror in Kill List; comedy in Sightseers; history, drama in A
Field in England; sci-fi in the two episodes of Doctor Who that he worked on
and God-only-knows-what in High-Rise. This time around, action comedy. He is
such a versatile director that you never know what he is going to do next,
usually avoiding traditional formulae. Too many action films have characters
miraculously dodging bullets and then walking away afterwards without a scratch
(as I much as I love Die Hard and John McClane, he would need at least four lives to survive that film).
In this film, no one is safe and by the end everyone is crawling/hobbling
around in broken rocks, puddles of various liquids and shards of glass. And it
is the little things that do the most damage, rather than the barrage of
ammunition. The cinematography and editing mirror the struggles of the
characters, crawling and crouching alongside them. With this film's setting,
the shooting and the snappy quotable dialogue the immediate comparison is to
Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, but funnier. The dialogue is once again
thanks to the writing duo of Wheatley and his wife Amy Jump. Wheatley has
admitted that one of the inspirations was an actual shootout in Miami that was
reported by the FBI. It also feels like it takes place in real time, rather than randomly cutting away like most action films, which adds to the tension somewhat. Useless trivia - it is set in Boston but was actually shot in Brighton and supposedly one of
the disadvantages of that was the fact the police turned up after members of
the public reported hearing gunfire. Oops...
This film has entered into unique company along with the
likes of Hail, Caesar!, Sideways and The Descendants as to film that my parents
hate but I like. My dad compared it to an infamously depressing football match
we once saw between Alloa Athletic and Queen of the South back in 2002 (it was
so bad people were climbing the fences to get out of the ground)…Hey, I did not
force it upon them; they chose to watch it. Sure it is not everyone's cup of tea, but then again the same can be said of all of Ben Wheatley's films. He will probably always divide opinions.
11. Battle of the Sexes
A film with the times, particularly the gender pay-gap currently existing in Hollywood – “male chauvinist pig versus hairy-legged feminist”.
Battle of the Sexes concentrates on the 1973 tennis match between 29-year-old women’s number one Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) and 55-year-old former Wimbledon men’s champion Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell). This became the most watched televised sports event of all time – 90 million viewers around the world. King wants to prove that women are as good and popular as men; despite the fact their prize money is eight times less. Riggs is a sexist, cash-hungry playboy, wanting to get back in the spotlight.
Back in 2013, we had The Battle of the Sexes, a documentary
looking at the gender battlefield in tennis leading up to the King-Riggs match.
This film picks up the baton and carries on. As is said by Jack Kramer (Bill
Pullman), head of the LTA: “The men are simply more exciting to watch…Stronger,
faster, more competitive.” Sadly, tennis remains one of the most sexist sports
around today; the only tournament where men and women receive equal prize money
is Wimbledon. It is also a metaphor for the gender pay-gap in Hollywood today, an issue brought up by Patricia Arquette when she won her Oscar for Boyhood nearly three years ago. This
film is brought to us by directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton (Little
Miss Sunshine) and writer Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours).
All together, they add wry wit and humour:
- Bobby Riggs: I'm the ladies number one. I'm the champ. Why would I lose?
- Billie Jean King: Because dinosaurs can't play tennis.
It also has the look and feel of the 1970s – the fashion,
the hair, the amount of smoking (particularly from Sarah Silverman’s
character), the soundtrack (including Elton John’s Rocket Man), the 16mm film roll and the sun-dried look of it.
Both King’s and Riggs’ personas differ on and off the court.
King is very determined on the court and establishes the all-women Virginia
Slims tour. However, her game comes under threat from a relationship she has
developed with hairdresser Marilyn Barnett (Andrea Riseborough); it also has an
impact on her marriage. Stone does well highlighting this vulnerable side to
her character, as well as the determination to succeed on the court. Riggs is a
showman, but also a gambler and hustler. This allows Carell to add his comic
touch, particularly at a Gambler’s Anonymous meeting – “You folks are here
because you’re TERRIBLE at gambling.” Carell does give Riggs a human side too. His relationship with his wife Priscilla
(Elisabeth Shue) is a focus for part of the film, the fact she has to endure
his gambling addiction and can only put up with so much before she eventually
throws him out.
This was not the only tennis film released this year. We
also got Bjorg vs McEnroe, looking at perhaps tennis’ greatest rivalry and
culminating with the 1980 Wimbledon final – a tennis version of Rush. This
film, however, received more publicity and acclaim. Tennis is not the most
cinematic sport ever. For me the most memorable tennis moment in a film was in
Annie Hall, but Battle of the Sexes has served up a worthy contender. But at
its heart is the message about gender equality, how far it has come since the
70s, but also how far it still has to go.
Next time: numbers 10 to 6...
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