Best of 2016

This year’s Best Of is more like a bullet point list than a review, but here are the things I liked the most in 2016:

Films:

 Your Name

A young adult anime as outlandish as it is beautiful and moving. Clever uses of time travel and fantasy

Love and Friendship

So much wit and sass in this fantastic Jane Austin adaptation

Creed

There is something about boxing on film. But more than that, there is something about the lead performances and the journeys they take the characters on

High Rise

This seems uniquely suited to my tastes. An audacious dystopian JG Ballard adaptation as purveyed by Ben Wheatley and Tom Hiddleston

Julieta

At once epic and personal. As Almodovar as they come

TV:

Stranger Things

The 80s setting, the loveable bunch of kids. A nice combo of sci-fi, D&D, and Spielberg tropes

Albums:

FM-84, Atlas

Super cool retrowave. Listen to Running In The Night

Carly Rae Jepson, Emotion Side B

More 80s nostalgia. A pure homage that sounds like peak Madonna

Svalbard, One Day All This Will End

This was a 2015 album, but hit me in 2016. Fast and heavy, with impressive riffs

Casey, Love is Not Enough

Late 2016 find, Casey were the opening act on Being As An Ocean’s tour. Haunting melodic hardcore

Live Music:

Counterparts, Underworld

A tight, heavy, sweaty set in my favourite basement

Being As An Ocean, Tufnell Park Dome

There’s nothing quite like hanging out with this band and their excellent fans for an intense 50 minute celebration of love, understanding, and hardcore

Chvrches, Royal Albert Hall

Big time pop performance in a big time venue

Comics:

Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat! / The Unbelievable Gwenpool / Howard the Duck / The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl

Marvel’s oddball characters have really come into their own. Hellcat is the gayest thing Marvel currently puts out; all four are a lot of fun

Lumberjanes

Friendship and monsters at girls summer camp, with a loveable young adult cast

Vision

The critically acclaimed superhero thing of this year. It’s fantastic

Games:

 

Firewatch / Life is Strange

Two indie narrative experiences that really defined gaming in 2016 for me. Both beautiful in their own ways

Final Fantasy XV

I really ship Promptis. I’m about halfway through this game and it’s just the kind of epic JRPG I was looking for

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.

Why I’ll always love Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Film of the week: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (on Dave, Sat 16.30)

Crouching Tiger is a film that personally had a huge impact on me. When I watched it as a teenager in 2001 I had never seen anything quite like it. My knowledge of Asian cinema was sketchy, if not non-existent, and Crouching Tiger simply blew my mind. These people could fly without any justification of superpowers?! A young skinny girl like Zhang Ziyi can kick that much ass you say? And you could do a serious story at the same time? Awesome.

I was in awe of the technical mastery on show and loved the superb balance between a drama of repressed emotion and spectacular action. The big, choreographed outbursts recalled Singin’ in the Rain which I had only discovered was ace about a year earlier. Crouching Tiger instilled a deep love of both musicals and Asian action films which has remained with me to this day.

While later films like Hero and House of Flying Daggers were arguably better, and others like Seven Swords hold a more culty appeal, Crouching Tiger was my first, and I’ll always look fondly upon it.

 

Also on: The Wizard of Oz (Five Sat 16.50); Enemy of the State (BBC1 Wed 13.15); Gone Baby Gone (BBC1 Thur 23.20); Youth in Revolt (BBC1 Fri 23.05).

Some thoughts on Serenity & Firefly

Film of the week: Serenity (on ITV1, Mon 22.45)

It’s hard to believe that The Avengers is only Joss Whedon’s second feature film as director and that his first, Serenity, was a box office flop.

But Serenity is pretty good film, a space opera in the vein of Star Wars with a full cast of brilliant characters. Of course those characters were developed on Whedon’s cancelled TV series Firefly, a thoroughly brilliant show that is more western than sci-fi, about the crew of a Firefly-class ship called Serenity and their frontier adventures in space.

When I first saw Serenity in 2005 I hadn’t seen Firefly, but it still worked for me as a fun standalone film. Only recently have I caught up with the tv show which I now adore. Shortly after finishing Firefly’s 14^th and final episode I went back to Serenity, hoping to continue the story, and while it does just that, it does it in a different way to the tv show. Watching the two back to back really highlights the differences in writing and filming for television as opposed to the cinema. Where Firefly was slow burning and full of deep developing characters, Serenity gets straight to the point, exaggerating each of the crew’s characteristics to easily convey their personalities. The dialogue is noticeably faster, and the action more frequent too.

Neither approach is really better or worse than the other, although when you spend so long in the tv show mode, jumping into cinema-land can come with a bit of a jolt. Regardless, I’d encourage anyone who hasn’t seen Serenity to check it out this Monday night, and if you still haven’t seen Firefly you probably owe yourself the DVD boxset.

 

I also wanted to put in a quick word on Red River (ITV4 Mon 14.20), which I haven’t seen in a long time but it’s a Howard Hawks western so magnificent it deserves a look this bank holiday. Perfect mid-afternoon viewing.

 

Also on: Beauty and the Beast (Five Sun 18.20); Out of the Past (BBC2 Mon 12.40); Monsters (Film4 Wed 21.00); Total Recall (ITV2 Wed 22.00).

Films on TV: Rear Window

Film of the week: Rear Window (Film4, Mon 16.40 & Fri 16.35)

Sticking with a Hitchcock theme after last week’s selection of ‘greatest film of all time’ Vertigo, this week sees my favourite Hitchcock film, Rear Window make an appearance on Film4.

It’s simply a perfectly crafted thriller that explores many of Hitchcock’s themes and obsessions. James Stewart’s character is confined to his apartment after breaking his leg. He passes the time by watching the courtyard outside his window and soon comes to suspect a murder.

If you need any more convincing of it’s brilliance, just take a look at this amazing fan-made time-lapse of everything Stewart sees from his window:

Also the greatest and most beautiful actress of all time is in it: Grace Kelly. Enough said.

 

Also on this week: Heat (Film4 Sat 23.15); Psycho (ITV3 Sun 21.00 & Fri 23.00); Meet Me in St Louis (Channel 4 Thu 12.55).

Films on TV

Here are some films that are on freeview this week:

Kaboom (pictured) – Gregg Araki’s sexy and slightly crazy bisexual sci fi. Saturday 10.50pm, Film4

Ponyo – Studio Ghibli’s take on the Little Mermaid fairytale. It’s aimed quite young, but still full of the studio’s usual magic and beauty. Monday 1.05pm, Film4

Dr. Strangelove – Kubrick’s classic cold war satire/farce. Still funny and still relevant today. Tuesday 11.05pm, Film4

Star Trek: First Contact – Just because I was watching TNG with some friends the other day and revered how good it is. This is one of the best Star Trek movies. Wednesday 8pm, E4

Casablanca – Perfect. Simply perfect. Friday 3.05pm, Film4

Red Cliff – John Woo’s historical Chinese epic. The devoted fans will have you believe the original Chinese two parter works better, but it’s still pretty good edited into one film for its International release. Friday 9pm, Film4

 

Films on TV

This week’s Films on TV features a western classic and Charlie Kaufman’s most underrated film:

Red River (pictured) – An absolutely sublime western from Howard Hawks and John Wayne. Trust me, they don’t get much better than this. Saturday 4.20pm and Sunday 2.20pm, ITV4

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind – This seems to be regarded as a lesser effort in both the outputs of Charlie Kaufman as screenwriter and George Clooney as director, but I think it’s fantastic. Sam Rockwell plays a TV host with a double life as a secret agent. Saturday night / Sunday morning 1.55am, BBC3

A Clockwork Orange – You’ve all seen Kubrick’s ultra-violent classic right? Well it’s always good to know when films of the quality are on anyway. Monday 10pm, ITV4

The Ladykillers – This remake of the classic Ealing comedy is the only Coen brothers film I haven’t seen. Worth a watch? Well by all accounts it’s inferior to the original but it’s the Coens, so it can’t be that bad? Can it? Thursday night / Friday morning 2am, BBC3

Review Roundup / Films I probably should have seen by now

I watched a handful of films over the holiday period and thought a few of them were worth sharing my thoughts on.

Last time I did a little roundup it worked quite well so here we go. The first three films are also movies that I really should have seen by now, so I’ve linked this in with that often neglected feature I sometimes run.

Ratatouille – Other than Cars 2 (and that doesn’t count, right?) this was Pixar’s only feature film I hadn’t seen. And it’s every bit as charming, exciting, well animated and generally awesome as the rest of them. Incidentally it was my first film of 2012, and one of my last films of 2011 was Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Both, of course, are directed by Brad Bird.

Son of Rambow – Given my fondness last year for a film featuring kids making a movie (Super 8), as well a quirky British coming of age movie (Submarine) it’s surprising I hadn’t seen Son of Rambow. Well thanks to the BBC’s excellent Christmas scheduling I got a chance to, and it’s just as delightful, funny and touching as I had hoped.

It’s a Wonderful Life – Every Xmas I feel like I should watch this, and never get around it. But I made the effort this year to get to a cinema showing it (the lovely Arts Picturehouse Cambridge) and was very impressed. Of course I was expecting it to charm, but what I really wasn’t expecting was it to be so funny. It has some flaws (it’s too long and the final act is a little drawn out) but overall I enjoyed my first experience of this Christmas classic.

Scarlet Street – This is actually one of the best films I watched in 2011, a dark twisted Fritz Lang film about a middle aged man in an unhappy marriage who gets strung along by a scheming young woman and her controlling boyfriend. Part noir, part melodrama it goes in directions that are unexpectedly grim for a movie made in 1945.

Secret Beyond the Door – Two years after Scarlet Street, Fritz Lang made this curiosity. It’s not nearly as good but shares similarities. It starts with the tropes of a melodrama and delves into something much more sinister as it processes. It essentially becomes a psychological horror about a woman who marries a nice guy that turns out to be quite creepy and possibly evil. There’s a heavy emphasis on psychoanalysis which probably seemed inventive and hip at the time, but now looks a bit forced and quite dated.

 

Films on TV – Xmas Special!

Ok It’s Christmas, and that can only mean one thing: Loads of good films on the telebox. Here’s my (rather long) selection.

Hairspray – So I really need to explain how good this musical is? Very. Saturday (Xmas Eve), Channel 4 7.15pm

My Neighbour Totoro (pictured) – Totoro! Ending the Studio Ghibli Season in style. Saturday (Xmas Eve), Film4 5.15pm

Ashes of Time Redux – What better way to see in Xmas day than with a really confusing art-house kung fu film? (It’s one of my fave movies though). Saturday (Xmas Eve) night, Channel 4 2.10am

Rataouille – The only Pixar film I haven’t seen. Guess I don’t have an excuse now. Sunday (Xmas Day), BBC1 4.50pm

The Fountain – Darren Aranofsky’s bonkers arty trip through a relationship spanning history. Monday (Boxing Day) night, Film4 1.45am

In Burges – An Irish comedy so good, it’s like a fucking fairly tale. Tuesday, Film4 9pm

Son of Ranbow – Brit coming of age film that I probably should have seen by now. Wednesday, BBC3 8pm

Control – Anton Corbijn’s biopic of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis. Friday night/Saturday monring, Film4 1.40am

 

Films on TV (Studio Ghibli season edition)

It’s Studio Ghibli season on Film 4! And there’s still plenty of great non-Ghibli films on too.

Studio Ghibli Season – From this Saturday until Christmas Eve, Film 4 will be showing a classic Japanese animation every day. My picks for this week are the superb Ponyo (pictured, Saturday, 6.55pm) and the classic Princess Mononoke (Sunday, 4.40pm). Full listings for the season can be found here.

Some non-Ghibli highlights:

Vicky Cristina Barcelona – One of Woody Allen’s best films of recent years. Saturday, Channel 4 9pm

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut – It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, but I love this film. Five, Sunday 11.50pm

Heavenly Creatures – That Peter Jackson film with Kate Winslet that I probably should have seen by now. Tuesday, BBC1 11.40pm

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days – Palme d’Or winning Romanian abortion drama. Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, Film4 1.20am

Singin’ in the Rain – Not just a great musical, but one of the best films ever made. Friday, Film4 3pm