Best of 2017

Here are some of my fave things in 2017:

 

Anime

• Yuri on Ice to start the year
• My Hero Academia to end the year (pictured)

Games

• Finishing Final Fantasy XV and playing Final Fantasy XII for the first time
• Finally playing Suikoden

Comics

• • Catching up with stuff from a few years ago: Harbinger Wars; Batman & Robin (N52)
  • Wayward keeping up with my 2017 anime aesthetic
  • Gwenpool being so much fun

Music

• You’re Not You Anymore, the new album by Counterparts
• Linkin Park, Live at Brixton Academy
• Madeon & Porter Robinson, Live at the Forum

Movies

• Seeing Interstellar in 70mm
• Call Me By Your Name, Lady Bird, and Saturday Church at LFF
• Thor Ragnarok being awesome
• Silence and The Beguiled being underrated

The Birth of a Nation (London Film Festival)

The Birth of a Nation is pretty much as complete as a film can be, and I was mightily impressed with it at the London Film Festival Gala screening.

The use of that title – referencing DW Griffith’s 1915 epic, which is widely credited with inventing modern filmmaking techniques but is also vastly racist – is very bold.

But The Birth of a Nation (2016) is a bold, epic, film throughout.

Telling the story of Nat Turner’s slave rebellion in 1831 Virginia, The Birth of a Nation tackles slavery in a way that feels even more brutal, and certainly more honest, than 12 Years A Slave.

The film is the uncompromising vision of one man, Nate Parker, who directs, writes, stars in, and produced the film.

Parker’s take on Turner is a charismatic and intelligent enslaved African American preacher who witnesses the injustice enacted by slavers throughout Southampton County, Virginia first hand, and sees it as his responsibility as a prophet of the Lord to stand up and fight.

The timing of the film is obviously significant, and it really does have the feel of a Black Lives Matter film with historical context.

The film got me enthusiastically behind Turner’s plight, and enraged by the parallels between 1831 slavery and the ongoing racial struggles of 2016. It’s one of those rare films I left feeling emotionally spent.

Everything about it, from acting, to cinematography, to production design and sound is perfect.  I can’t recommend it enough.

 

Personal Shopper (London Film Festival)

My first film of this year’s London Film Festival was Personal Shopper, which very much enjoyed.

Personal Shopper is directed by Olivier Assayas who is responsible for two of my favourite films of recent years: Something In The Air and Clouds of Sils Maria. The film has the same kind-of-detached, kind-of-dreamlike qualities as those previous works, but mixes it into something different: A ghost story set in the Paris fashion industry.

While the ghost story does have scary elements (which I wasn’t expecting), horror is never really the aim, and instead gives way to an intense character study of Stewart’s titular personal shopper, who is grieving the loss of her brother. Stewart is excellent, with lots of nuance and depth to her performance

PS. I learned this week that the way to gain lots of RTs and faves on twitter is to compliment an actress with a huge amount of fangirls. who knew?

The Best of 2015

A little late this year, but here are my favourite media things of 2015.

UK Cinema Releases

Foxcatcher & Selma

These were the two Oscar contenders that stood out for me. Foxcatcher was tense, creepy, and excellently performed. Selma was a flawlessly directed, stirring epic of inequality and minor triumph.

The Boy Next Door

Bizzare Jenifer Lopez erotic thriller. How this film got made in 2015 I don’t know. It’s completely insane (at one point the romantic interest buys JLo a ‘first edition’ of the Illiad. What?). I was just pleased with its existence really, and pleased to indulge its trashy sensibilities.

Mommy

I’m a sucker for Xavier Dolan’s knitwear and existentialism. Mommy is one of his best to date, taking characters who in most realities should be unlikeable and turning them into a loveable leads with a believable dysfunctional family dynamic.

Mad Max: Fury Road & John Wick

Action cinema was back in 2015. And in both of these examples it was flawlessly taught and expertly executed. Mad Max gets extra points for new cinema icon Furiosa, but both films are a joy of simple storytelling and adrenaline.

The Last Five Years

My first experience with a Jason Robert Brown musical, and oh my god I loved it. Full of both optimism and melancholy, it deals with the highs and lows of a relationship as melodramatic opera.

Listen Up Philip

While I very much also enjoyed Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young and Mistress America, Alex Ross Perry took Baumbach-style cynical hipster snark to a whole new levels with Listen Up Philip.

Clouds of Sils Maria

The kind of film that sweeps you up and surrounds you with all kinds of feelings. At once both subtle and extravagent. Juliette Binoche is an ageing actress and Kristen Stewart her youthful, contemplative assistant, both actresses at the top of their game.

 Magic Mike XXL

A love letter to the joys of escapism. Sustained brilliance and constantly surprising. My film of the year. I have written more about MMXXL elsewhere on this blog.

 We Are Your Friends & Paper Towns

I saw these back to back. The first is pure romance – arguably flawed, but full of the joys of youthful love, music, and friendship. The second is throwaway young adult fiction, but its characters and scenarios stuck with me more than it’s critically acclaimed YA competitors (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, and The Diary of a Teenage Girl)

Carol

Gorgeous 16mm photography. Perfect 1950s production design. A deep relationship portrayed elegantly by two of the finest leading actresses around. Superb.

 

Home Viewing

TV

On TV, Netflix have been knocking it out of the park with Daredevil and Jessica Jones – both are wonderfully realised comicbook adaptations. Also on TV,  the constantly brilliant, subsersive sitcom, Broad City has become my favourite comedy show in a long time,

Masters of Cinema

I’ve really engaged with the Masters of Cinema blu-ray line this year, who put out fantastic transfers of fantastic films. I was mightily impressed by Man of the West (1958), Faust (1926), Ruggles of Red Gap (1935), and Lifeboat (1944).

The Epic of Everest

Perhaps the finest film I watched all year though was seen on iPlayer. The Epic of Everest (1924) offers a beautifully haunting look into the lost world of early 20th century adventure and exploration.

 

Music

I haven’t attended much live music this year. The most notable though would be The Decemberists at Brixton Academy, who put on a fantastic evening of wistful-hipster-folk-rock.

In terms of music releases, Being as an Ocean, August Burns Red, and While She Sleeps all put out top tier metal/hardcore albums, As It Is brought back emo, and I’ve been listening to a fair amount of alt-electro-pop (much of which is 80s influenced) – ODESZA, CHVRCHES, Dive In, Paperwhite, and Madeon stand out.

Convenient playlist of my fave songs of 2015.

 

Comics and Books

This year I once again read a load of Marvel and Image comics.

Special mention for Image goes to Greg Rucka and Michael Lark for introducing a great new female lead and detailed universe in Lazarus, the gorgeous painted art and tense sci-fi storytelling of Descender by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen, and the the ongoing brilliance that is Saga.

As for Marvel, my favourites of the year go to Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey’s superb collab on Moon Knight, the pure joy of Ryan North and Erica Henderson’s Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, and the first three flawless issues of Cyclops, written by Greg Rucka with stunning artwork by Russel Daugterman.

Outside of comics, My Lunches with Orson by Henry Jaglom / Peter Biskind and Silver Screen Fiend by Patton Oswalt scratched my movie itch, while Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey introduced me to an exciting new sci-fi universe via a perfectly paced action romp.

BFI London Film Festival 2015: Part 1

The 59th BFI London Film Festival is underway. Here are a couple of reviews covering the films I’ve seen so far.

11 Minutes

11 Minutes follows the lives of several people within close proximity to one another over the course of 11 minutes (which, due to simultaneous action takes about 80 mins to get through), cutting back and forth between them in the build up to a big finale where everyone is caught up in the same event. In other words, it’s very late-90s. Formally similarly films like Magnolia (ensemble cross-cutting) or Run Lola Run (innovative use of time) work by engaging the viewer with interesting characters and dynamic editing. Meanwhile, 11 Minutes feels flat, featuring blandly functional digital photography and lacklustre performances. The conceit of 11 Minutes is in the climax – a high concept farce of car crashes and explosions – which would have worked perfectly appended to a short film, but as it is 11 Minutes features 77 minutes of un-engaging soap-opera, plus 3 minutes of well constructed action-comedy.

Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story)

Bang Gang deals in the well explored convections of the teen-coming age genre, but it’s approach feels fresh and existing. In the film, a group of middle-class French teens engage in a series of ever more extravagant parties and, as you may suspect form the title, one thing leads to another (‘another’ being syphilis). Everything from the soundtrack to the camerawork, the stellar performances (from a cast of mostly newcomers), the integration of social media, and the film’s approach to sexual discovery is contemporary and relevant – but not so overtly that it dates the film specifically to 2015. French director Eva Husson (who was also interesting and engaging at the Q&A afterward the screening) honed her craft in American music videos, and it’s that integration of American style with French artistic grounding that really works. She’s certainly one to watch for the future.

The Assassin

The Assassin is respected Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s first foray into the wu xia (swordplay) genre. It’s slow, subtle, and absolutely gorgeous to look art. The outbursts of violence are rare, but when they occur, they are briefly, breathtakingly, spectacular. The Assassin is shot in Academy Ratio, on 35mm, and makes use of expansive natural landscapes and extravagant period sets. Every shot is framed so well it could be hung in a gallery. In terms of plot and characterisation though, the film is a little too subtle at times on first viewing. Ostensibly the film is about Tang Dynasty-period politics and attempted assassinations, but in reality it’s a character study of a female assassin who is stoic on the outside, yet emotionally complex in a very subtle way internally (it took me til the end of the film to realise this). But overall, The Assassin is wonderfully constructed, beautifully shot, features pitch perfect performances, has an outstanding score, and includes wonderful action choreography.

Magic Mike XXL

Magic Mike XXL does not only achieve the unlikely feat of being a great sequel, it somehow manages to be one of the best films of the year.

Magic Mike follows the conventions of the ‘putting on a show’ musical, whereby the old band are brought back together (sans previous cast members who were presumably too expensive) to put on one final show.

But despite following a format that allows for extravagant musical numbers, Magic Mike XXL is perhaps the most honest, believable, and realistic film to come out of Hollywood this year.

Magic Mike XXL is a film about doing something you love with people you love, and the heart of the film is the intercharacter relationships. Outside of the tightly choreographed dancing scenes, the film appears largely ad-libbed, which results in believable dialogue and characterisation. Dialogue overlaps and and feels genuine, with Channing Tatum in particular showing off a naturalistic acting style that endears the audience to him as both a character and actor.

At times scenes can be slow and awkward, but only as slow and awkward as real human conversation. Like great art often is, Magic Mike XXL is constantly on the precipice of collapse but never oversteps the mark, consistently holding together in a masterful display.

In juxtaposition to it’s realism, Magic Mike XXL is peppered with strip-dance scenes which stray into the realms of fantasy. But these are pulled back into reality via diegetic (in scene) music, whether it’s a gas station playing Backstreet Boys in one of the films most pleasing scenes, or Channing Tatum finding his groove to a Spotify playlist of classic hip hop.

Magic Mike XXL is ultimately a film that provides escapism. But it wonderfully does it on three (yes, three!) different levels: Escapism for the characters, who pause their mundane or failed personal lives in favour of a wild road trip and extravagant fantasy performance; escapism for the women who attend the strip shows – the main goal of our heroic ‘male entertainers’ is to make undervalued women smile; and escapism for the cinema audience, who witness believably flawed men putting on an elaborate show and dance in the scale of the great Hollywood musicals.

Magic Mike XXL says that even if your life seems crap, there’s always something out there that will bring you joy.

Jurassic World

I’ve never seen Jurassic Park III, and it’s quite likely that I won’t see number 6 either. The inevitability of the contemporary big blockbuster franchise and the laws of diminishing returns set up history to repeat itself. Of course though, the whole intent of Jurassic World is to profit by reproducing earlier success.

And that sums up the setup of the movie. Both park and film exist 20 years after the first; the poor sequel and unloved third film now erased from canonical existence. A new park lives, full of more spectacular genetically enhanced dinosaur simulacra.

I’m generally fine with repetition – after all most superhero movies end up in city-wide destruction and most westerns are resolved in a shoot-out – but there’s something so niche about Jurassic World’s setting that it makes the plot feel even more of a predictable churn than, say, the latest X-Men or Spider-Man movie. I mean, what can you really do with a theme park full of dinosaurs other than have them escape and terrorise the patrons?

Despite that, Jurassic World is an enjoyable event movie, with all the thrills and spectacle in the right place. It has forward momentum, it has relatively memorable characters, and the action sequences are coherently shot and edited.

Chris Pratt makes up for any potential tedium. He has a rare leading-man screen presence that makes him eminently watchable regardless of script. When you consider the bland Sam Worthington types who were leading “this kind of thing” a few years ago, the current success and bright future of Pratt is a huge relief.

This review might sound relatively negative, but it’s not. I left the screen satisfied, and I can see why it’s been such a box office success. I’m just saying I’m not looking forward to the inevitable ‘dinosaurs in the city’ sequel. And that I’ll probably ignore the film after that all together.

June to December 2013 in review

I had recently been feeling like this year has been a lacklustre one for movies and that there hadn’t been much that truly grabbed me. Then, as I did back in June, I looked back at the list of films I had watched over the last 6 months. To my surprise, I’d actually seen a ton of good and great films. So what’s a sporadic film blogger to do other than categorize them?

Tier 1 (the great stuff)

• Much Ado About Nothing – Shakespeare gets the Joss Whedon treatment. I laughed out loud. Lots.
• Something In The Air – wonderful French coming of age drama.
• A Field In England – bleak and intelligent, I’m itching for another viewing.
• Wadjda – a touching film about a young girl just wanting to ride a bicycle and the impact of institutionalised sexism.
• Frances Ha – Greta Gerwig is great as a lost 20-something.
• The Way Way Back – ‘the feel good comedy of the summer’.
• Blue Jasmine – Woody Allen at his finest.
• Drinking Buddies – mumblecore goodness set in a brewery. Awkward romance ensues.

Tier 2 (good or very good)

• Gravity – I’ve never felt as tense during a film or as elated afterwards. Slips into Tier 2 simply because I can’t stomach a re-watch.
• The World’s End & Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa – grouped together for filling my summer with brit-com excellence.
• The Grandmaster – Great martial arts film, sub-par Wong Kar-wai film. I’ll take it.
• Ender’s Game – surprisingly my favourite blockbuster of the year.
• Computer Chess – mumblecore goodness set at a computer chess tournament in the 80s. Awkward ensues.
• Metallica Through the Never – refreshing concert film which works brilliantly by adding in narrative elements. Dane DeHaan ❤

Excellent stuff I’ve watched at home

• Harakiri – masterful samurai drama.
• The Others Guys & This is the End – two comedies I really enjoyed whilst consuming alcohol on a Friday night.
• Fast and the Furious 1-4 – this series is just so full of fun. The cast feel like a family. RIP Paul Walker.

Fuck my life

• The Counselor – just one entry here. Ridley Scott and the entire cast of top actors completely mishandle Cormac McCarthy’s screenplay.

 

Something In The Air

Something In The Air is the kind of film I love. A subtle slow character study, delving into the lives of its ensemble over the course of a summer.

Student unrest in early ‘70s France places our high school cast amongst the backdrop of a ramshackle communist movement dictated by teenage angst, a desire to belong, and a moderate feeling that something is wrong with the world. As graduation comes, the former friends go their own ways – travel across Europe and India, mundane jobs, and artistic pretensions are all included. It’s a time for growing, and I bloody love a film about growing.

The crux of the film is Gilles, played beautifully by Clément Métayer. His relationships with girls, his father, a friend, art, and communism all come under slow burning scrutiny. It’s a triumph of the actor that you barely notice his character development until the end of the film, when it becomes clear that those around him who seemed to have such defined lives and clear development have in fact learned very little, while Gilles has had time to wrestle with his feelings and convictions, growing into an almost-adult.

The backdrop of post May 1968 France is a fascinating one, and director Olivier Assayas (perhaps best known in the UK for Carlos the Jackal) imbues a real sense of time and place. Something In The Air never really addresses the reasons for the movement or its ultimate lack of results, but by exploring the characters caught up in it, Assayas has produced a wonderful film.

Viewed at: Renoir

Review roundup – Spring Breakers, Oblivion, Trance and more…

Here are a few things I’ve seen in the cinema recently:

Spring Breakers [pictured] – a really exciting commentary on 21^st century entitlement, vulgarity and hedonism, wrapped up in an entirely watchable film that’s actually a whole load of fun. James Franco turns up as a ‘Pitbull’ style rapper underlining the aggression behind much modern pop music and demonstrating the modern American dream of making it by faking it. Harmony Korine directs with an abundance of style.

Oblivion – ultimately shallow, but relatively enjoyable, Oblivion at least does its own thing amongst a sea of sequels and remakes – even if its own thing involves heavily borrowing from the best sci fi of the last 60 years. Nice soundtrack by French electro band M83.

Trance – Danny Boyle’s film looks stylish, but it stops there. It’s neither an effective heist movie nor a coherent mind-fuck. A good thriller should reward the viewer with new developments, different perspectives or plot twists throughout, but Trance it holds all its cards too close and plays them too late. Gratuitous shots of Rosario Dawson’s vagina don’t help, only serving to underline the misogyny of filmmaking’s male gaze.

Compliance – a detestable film, but that’s the point. There were walkouts but I squirmed and writhed my way through this indie flick about fast food workers manipulated  into sexual acts of humiliation by an imitation authority figure. A more effective horror film that the majority of explicitly ‘horror’ films.

Ghost In The Shell 1 & 2 – a Ghost In The Shell double bill at the Prince Charles Cinema you say? God, I forgot how heavy these films can be. The first one contains an overload of plot developments and fine details, the second an overdose of the absurd and faux philosophy. Still they look pretty, and – if you can keep up – provide an enjoyable slice of neo-noir.