Celluloid 2016
So, 2017 is here in all its resplendent glory.
Goals are set, energy is restored and the future is yet to be written.
So, let's get on with it.
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A week later than promised, here's a list of movies I enjoyed in 2016 (a lot of these I caught over the Christmas break, my annual 'mopping up' period)
These are in no specific order btw.
The Lobster
I'm fairly certain this one was released in 2015 over here in Europe but didn't see the U.S cinemas until this year. So I'm including it here anyway. Strange, romantic and darkly humorous. Great turns from Rachel Weisz, Colin Farrell, Ben Whishaw, John C. Reilly and Lea Seydoux. The film presents a strange dystopia where people without partners are sent to a hotel and have 45 days to find a romantic partner otherwise they will be turned into an animal. It twists and turns until an ending that leaves you wincing and hoping in equal measure.
The Nice Guys
This one grew on me. Initially, I was expecting something along the lines of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 2.0 but this one is a different beast, although that's not apparent straight away. Shane Black is always fantastic and Crowe is pretty solid in everything he does. But the real gem here is Gosling, giving a great comedic performance that veers into slapstick territory.
Black is at the point now where he's so comfortable with the buddy-action genre he can just do these movies that kind of mess with that formula in new and interesting ways. Nice Guys is the latest iteration of that.
10 Cloverfield Lane
This is basically a single location movie, a Twilight Zone premise played out over the course of a movie. John Goodman is suitably creepy and Winstead needs a meaty action role now, please. This one is tightly written with no fat on the narrative bones (see the intro to Winstead's character to see what I mean) all spinning towards a climax that some found silly, but one I thought was just the right note to end on.
Green Room
If I had to pick, then I think this was my favorite movie of the year. You all know the premise by now -
a punk band become trapped in a backwoods rock venue by skinhead neo-nazis when they're witness to a crime. Jeremy Saulnier's previous work, Blue Ruin, is still a favorite of mine and Green Work only builds on that initial promise. It is sparse, savage and crackles with energy thanks to its young cast, including an awesome Anton Yelcin (sadly no longer with us) and Imogen Poot. It's up on UK Netflix now. You've got no excuses to not dig into this one.
Midnight Special
This year was an especially dark one. Everyone knows why. Jeff Nichols' first take on science fiction was about a group of people coming together in service of something larger than themselves, something that offered some tiny ray of hope in a dark, scared, paranoid world. Full of emotion and strong performances across the board, the film has something of a Spielbergian touch.
The Shallows
I'm a sucker for movies with simple set-ups and locations. This one is skeletal. Blake Lively's surfer arrives in Mexico with the aim of finding a beach her recently deceased mother found. Whilst there, she witnesses two surfers being attacked by a shark and becomes trapped on a nearby rock. With the tide threatening to rise again come the morning she has hours to try and get back to safety and survive.
The simple premise is carried through by Lively's performance and the visual choices director Serra makes. It isn't reinventing the wheel, but it does what it does well.
Nerve
This was better than it had any right to be. I went in with low expectations, a light teen-centric film about the dangers of social media maybe. Instead, what you get is a female-lead thriller about the *pressures* of social media as well as the aspects of voyeurism in this technologically pervasive age. Equally silly and shocking this is still pretty solid, kinetic film-making.
Goals are set, energy is restored and the future is yet to be written.
So, let's get on with it.
###
A week later than promised, here's a list of movies I enjoyed in 2016 (a lot of these I caught over the Christmas break, my annual 'mopping up' period)
These are in no specific order btw.
The Lobster
I'm fairly certain this one was released in 2015 over here in Europe but didn't see the U.S cinemas until this year. So I'm including it here anyway. Strange, romantic and darkly humorous. Great turns from Rachel Weisz, Colin Farrell, Ben Whishaw, John C. Reilly and Lea Seydoux. The film presents a strange dystopia where people without partners are sent to a hotel and have 45 days to find a romantic partner otherwise they will be turned into an animal. It twists and turns until an ending that leaves you wincing and hoping in equal measure.
The Nice Guys
This one grew on me. Initially, I was expecting something along the lines of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 2.0 but this one is a different beast, although that's not apparent straight away. Shane Black is always fantastic and Crowe is pretty solid in everything he does. But the real gem here is Gosling, giving a great comedic performance that veers into slapstick territory.
Black is at the point now where he's so comfortable with the buddy-action genre he can just do these movies that kind of mess with that formula in new and interesting ways. Nice Guys is the latest iteration of that.
10 Cloverfield Lane
This is basically a single location movie, a Twilight Zone premise played out over the course of a movie. John Goodman is suitably creepy and Winstead needs a meaty action role now, please. This one is tightly written with no fat on the narrative bones (see the intro to Winstead's character to see what I mean) all spinning towards a climax that some found silly, but one I thought was just the right note to end on.
Green Room
If I had to pick, then I think this was my favorite movie of the year. You all know the premise by now -
a punk band become trapped in a backwoods rock venue by skinhead neo-nazis when they're witness to a crime. Jeremy Saulnier's previous work, Blue Ruin, is still a favorite of mine and Green Work only builds on that initial promise. It is sparse, savage and crackles with energy thanks to its young cast, including an awesome Anton Yelcin (sadly no longer with us) and Imogen Poot. It's up on UK Netflix now. You've got no excuses to not dig into this one.
Midnight Special
This year was an especially dark one. Everyone knows why. Jeff Nichols' first take on science fiction was about a group of people coming together in service of something larger than themselves, something that offered some tiny ray of hope in a dark, scared, paranoid world. Full of emotion and strong performances across the board, the film has something of a Spielbergian touch.
The Shallows
I'm a sucker for movies with simple set-ups and locations. This one is skeletal. Blake Lively's surfer arrives in Mexico with the aim of finding a beach her recently deceased mother found. Whilst there, she witnesses two surfers being attacked by a shark and becomes trapped on a nearby rock. With the tide threatening to rise again come the morning she has hours to try and get back to safety and survive.
The simple premise is carried through by Lively's performance and the visual choices director Serra makes. It isn't reinventing the wheel, but it does what it does well.
Nerve
This was better than it had any right to be. I went in with low expectations, a light teen-centric film about the dangers of social media maybe. Instead, what you get is a female-lead thriller about the *pressures* of social media as well as the aspects of voyeurism in this technologically pervasive age. Equally silly and shocking this is still pretty solid, kinetic film-making.
HushThis one is up on Netflix. A home invasion thriller with a twist. The heroine is deaf. The villain unmasks himself pretty early on. With that out of the way, the film becomes a psychological game of cat and mouse between the hunter and the hunted. I'm eager to see what the director, Mike Flanagan, does next.
Tickled
What begins as a documentary on competitive tickling (yeah...) soon descends into a Kafka-esque journey into the seedier depths of the internet. Darkly comic and quietly unnerving.
Don't Breathe
There's a lot of horror on this list this year, huh? Another home invasion movie with a twist. This time our protagonists are the ones breaking in, attempting to steal the fortune of a blind combat veteran in the deserted shell of a neighborhood in Detroit. Once in, they quickly find out the veteran is not as helpless as he first seems. The film quickly ramps up the tension and doesn't sit still again until the closing shot.
SPL 2: A Time for Consequences
You can keep your Civil War airport sequences. This right here is the action film of the year. The final shootout/fight scene of this film takes place in a pristine white clinic for the rich. It's a blank canvas for the blood about to be shed.
The Invitation
More horror. One location. A man is invited to a dinner party thrown by his ex and her new partner. The situation already presents itself as one rife with tension and drama. But director Kusama ratchets this up even more with lingering glances from its protagonist (Logan Marshall-Green of Quarry fame) as his suspicions mount that something is amiss at the party. The film seems to be a meditation on guilt and grief with Kusama leaves us guessing as to what is really going on, slowly building a sense of unease before showing her hand in the movie's final third.
Disorder
This one was released in Europe in 2015, but only made it to the U.S in 2016, so I'm including it here. This film follows Vincent, a French soldier returning to civilian life from Afghanistan. Director Winocur uses sound design and editing to convey Vincent's PTSD, usually coming in the form of white noise and paranoia. Vincent soon picks up work as a bodyguard of sorts and is hired to protect the wife and child of a businessman who may not be on the up and up.
The film turns into standard home invasion (that genre again) during the final third, but receives added weight because of the time we've spent with Vincent and how well we identify with him and his condition. It'll be interesting to see what Taylor Sheridan does with the pending American remake.
###
A return to normal service next week!
Until then...
Tickled
What begins as a documentary on competitive tickling (yeah...) soon descends into a Kafka-esque journey into the seedier depths of the internet. Darkly comic and quietly unnerving.
Don't Breathe
There's a lot of horror on this list this year, huh? Another home invasion movie with a twist. This time our protagonists are the ones breaking in, attempting to steal the fortune of a blind combat veteran in the deserted shell of a neighborhood in Detroit. Once in, they quickly find out the veteran is not as helpless as he first seems. The film quickly ramps up the tension and doesn't sit still again until the closing shot.
SPL 2: A Time for Consequences
You can keep your Civil War airport sequences. This right here is the action film of the year. The final shootout/fight scene of this film takes place in a pristine white clinic for the rich. It's a blank canvas for the blood about to be shed.
The Invitation
More horror. One location. A man is invited to a dinner party thrown by his ex and her new partner. The situation already presents itself as one rife with tension and drama. But director Kusama ratchets this up even more with lingering glances from its protagonist (Logan Marshall-Green of Quarry fame) as his suspicions mount that something is amiss at the party. The film seems to be a meditation on guilt and grief with Kusama leaves us guessing as to what is really going on, slowly building a sense of unease before showing her hand in the movie's final third.
Disorder
This one was released in Europe in 2015, but only made it to the U.S in 2016, so I'm including it here. This film follows Vincent, a French soldier returning to civilian life from Afghanistan. Director Winocur uses sound design and editing to convey Vincent's PTSD, usually coming in the form of white noise and paranoia. Vincent soon picks up work as a bodyguard of sorts and is hired to protect the wife and child of a businessman who may not be on the up and up.
The film turns into standard home invasion (that genre again) during the final third, but receives added weight because of the time we've spent with Vincent and how well we identify with him and his condition. It'll be interesting to see what Taylor Sheridan does with the pending American remake.
###
A return to normal service next week!
Until then...
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