Jonathan Kaplan directs Jodie Foster, Kelly McGillis and Leo Rossi in this courtroom drama about a gang rape victim who feels marginalised by the legal process due to her less than saintly background. 

Let’s get all that is great about The Accused out of the way first: Jodie Foster, Jodie Foster and Jodie Foster. It is a blistering central turn; tough yet fragile, sexy yet damaged, sweet yet brittle. You expect nothing less from cinema’s finest actress and this particular project gives her a rollercoaster of emotional loop-de-loops to ride through with her arms up. It is brave and powerful stuff. Sadly the rest of the movie around her is quite trashy. There’s a sequence where one of the participants from the attack goads her in a car park that is so OTT it feels like a spoof scene from a Scary Movie sequel rather than a lurid moment of trauma in a believable drama. Equally the brisk and ever so Hollywood wrapping up might give us a happy ending to walk away with, but doesn’t ring true in a world where most rapes still go unreported, let alone prosecuted successfully. There’s a certain beady eyed thrill to saving the gang rape flashback to the final act, making it an illicit coup de grace for the voyeur in us. I will give Kaplan some credit here, not only is it an effective set piece in an inherently manipulative movie, it also proves to be one the few that has a complex veracity. When you wash away all the implied interview room and courtroom discussion of whether she “deserved” or “encouraged” the assault, the whole return to the night it happened is uninhibited and frank. We witness Foster’s Sarah flirting, dancing, teasing and being provocative then we also witness the line of consent being crossed and the brutality of her opppression during it. If The Accused  succeeds in anyway, away from being a showcase for Jodie, it is that it quite clearly lays out a scenario where the victim does not conform to what the system demands of an “innocent” yet we still as an audience we can see the violence, effect and indisputable transgression of the crime on the mens’ part.

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Robert Stevenson directs Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and David Tomlinson in this fantasy musical about a magical nanny who brightens up an Edwardian London’s family’s lives.

One of the true cinematic greats – wonderously catchy songs (the rousing “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” is my fave but they are all golden), wizardly special FX and enthusiastic performances. There’s not a sequence that doesn’t stoke the imagination and caress the heart. I’m not a massive fan of Julie Andrews outside of the enigmatic but practically perfect Poppins but she is iconic here. Yet the support work from “cock-err-nee” charmer Dick Van Dyke, put upon Dad Tomlinson and sweetly enthused suffragette mum Glynis Johns is equally captivating. Movie magic, with a spoonful of melancholy, that gets me every time. “I shall stay until the wind changes.”

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Empire have published their latest poll. So I have looked through and updated my own list. No major shifts except La La Land creeping in after 4 big screen viewings. No doubt it will move up again next time. Obviously these lists are an exercise in nostalgia with long cherished favourites from childhood dominating and movie released in my lifetime nearly overwhelming more worthy golden age “classics”. You are welcome to your own opinions but I’m quite proud that recent films like Moneyball, The Fighter and Kill List have continued to hold their high fascination for me rather than prove disposable flavours of the month a little further down the road.

 

1. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
2. Miller’s Crossing
3. Don’t Look Now
4. True Romance
5. Raiders of the Lost Ark
6. Alien
7. The Shining
8. When Harry Met Sally
9. Psycho
10. Get Carter
11. Leon
12. The Terminator
13. Moneyball
14. The Getaway
15. The 39 Steps
16. Dazed And Confused
17. 12 Angry Men
18. Se7en
19. Pulp Fiction
20. Casablanca
21. An American Werewolf In London
22. No Country For Old Men
23. Die Hard
24. The Warriors
25. Kill Bill Vol. 1
26. John Carpenter’s The Thing
27. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
28. Jaws
29. Say Anything…
30. Papillon
31. The Quiet Man
32. Shallow Grave
33. Grosse Point Blank
34. The Fighter
35. Dances With Wolves
36. Trainspotting
37. Zodiac
38. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
39. Ringu
40. The Spy Who Loved Me
41. Mad Max 2 : Road Warrior
42. Toy Story
43. Back To The Future
44. The Godfather
45. Manhunter
46. Good Will Hunting
47. Goodfellas
48. Sleepless In Seattle
49. The Silence of the Lambs
50. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
51. It Happened One Night
52. Once Upon A Time In The West
53. Rushmore
54. The Man Who Would Be King
55. Kill List
56. Network
57. 48 Hrs
58. The Dark Knight
59. Blade Runner
60. Trading Places
61. The Bourne Supremacy
62. Quick Change
63. Bicycle Thieves
64. Marathon Man
65. Festen
66. Ghostbusters
67. The Third Man
68. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
69. The Bourne Identity
70. Election
71. Speed
72. Aliens
73. Mystic River
74. Dog Day Afternoon
75. The Great Escape
76. Jules Et Jim
77. Red River
78. The Hudsucker Proxy
79. The Mist
80. Goldfinger
81. Out Of Sight
82. The Last Of The Mohicans
83. Singin’ In The Rain
84. Sweet Smell Of Success
85. Before Sunrise
86. Clerks
87. Groundhog Day
88. Mary Poppins
89. Lethal Weapon
90. The Royal Tenenbaums
91. Falling Down
92. Mad Max
93. The Abyss
94. The Taking of Pelham 123
95. La La Land
96. The Wicker Man
97. Memento
98. The Outlaw Josey Wales
99. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
100. The Usual Suspects

Mathieu Kassovitz directs Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé and Saïd Taghmaoui as three youths knocking around their outskirt estate, and later central Paris, the day after a violent riot in their community. 

A harder edged Parisian take on Do the Right Thing. There’s still the same poetical high valuation on the lives of the disenfranchised but here the key factor is not just race but also youth and poverty. In many ways it is an angrier but more inclusive movie because of it. Spike Lee’s colourful masterpiece essays that if you stepped past fear and injustice a dialogue might still be possible. Kassovitz’ almost exclusively shows a monochrome world where the relationship between the estate kids and everyone else has been so brutalised they may as well be speaking alien languages to each other. Only a magical realist timeout with a gulag surviving midget ignoring their aggression to tell them a fable from his own tragic past shows any sign of connecting with them. And this puzzling moment fittingly takes place in a restroom – a lovely break from an ever present, narrative disrupting ticking clock to inevitable tragedy. The black and white photography of the film is lush, full of meaningful framing and pointed camera movies. And Cassel and Taghmaoui absolutely burn indelible marks on the screen, powerful raw acting brilliance that made their deserved reputations internationally. La Haine is still, 22 years on, an accessible and energetic polemic that everyone should see. Perhaps most importantly, despite everyone involved probably being a lot more middle class than they let on at the time, the journey feels authentic and unforced.

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Patty Jenkins directs Gal Gadot, Chris Pine and David Thewlis in this superhero origin story that charts a mystical warrior woman’s journey from her feminist utopian island to the frontlines of World War One. 

I wanted to love Wonder Woman but ended up merely liking it. It is a good solid origin story, beautifully lensed and performed. There are real textures and believable heft to the beautiful settings, weathered costumes and period accurate extras. These quality elements are evidence of the prestigious magic of real moviemaking craft at work for four fifths of its relaxed running time. It is also satisfyingly stand alone, owing much more to Nolan’s auteur controlled “real world” Bats trilogy and pointedly less to franchise forcing WB execs. The villians are despicable which is fun… though the action is narrowly honed in on just being iconic imagery, as it rarely feels like any kinda threat or peril or challenge to Gal Gadot. Part of my issue with Wonder Woman  is it never really builds up to a whistling head of steam, except for a shoddy CGI finale that feels like it is footage dumped from 15 years ago. The wobbly FX work here almost drowns out what should be the most triumphant and intelligent peak of character development that we have clung to throughout. Also to justify my average scoring of what is a superhero flick with much to praise, I struggled with a recurring niggle that the movie never truly spells out Diana’s powers. Speed, almost flight, incalcuable strength, a lasso of truth, energy absorbing bangles, immunity to explosions and toxins – a jumble sale that covers whatever the screenwriters care to throw in to the pit at her as an action beat arises. You wouldn’t be shocked if she could spray sticky webbing from her wrist if needed come Justice League. And her only weakness is naivitey. Yet this is where the movie is the most successful. From Gadot’s amusing baffled fish out of water interactions with the ‘world of men’ (when she is clearly their superior in everyway), to her pleasingly underplayed but engaging romance with Chris Pine’s “above average” foil. They still never get around to baptising her Wonder Woman in this her second DCEU appearance but Gadot wins by taking in the chaotic WWI setting with believable wonder… and heartwrenching awe. Using one of the biggest massacres of written history as a playset for a fantasy with cackling baddies and impervious feminists might seem in bad taste on paper but the sheer optimism invested into this by both creatives and players means they actually deliver an admirable tribute. Not the second coming for the genre as hyped online, the flawed and choppy Wonder Woman Begins is still one of the most sincere and accessible comic book blockbusters since Raimi’s Spider-Man.

6

Frank Henenlotter directs James Lorinz, Patty Mullen and Louise Lasser in this trashy yet self aware horror comedy about a garage mad scientist who tries to reanimate his dead fiancée using street walkers’ body parts. 

Tons of sleazy, inspired japes this – not quite as icky and as manic as Henenlotter’s Basket Case, this still sits comfortably within movies like that and ReAnimator’s entertainingly gory transgressive parameters. Strong campy performances from Lorinz as the self lobotomising boy next door and Mullen as the reassembled prostitute monster supply the laughs. There’s a level of commitment here that betrays its low budget and knowingly exploitative concept. Frankenhooker was a video rental cover that always caught my eye as a kid and it has exceeded years of my own fermenting imagined contents now I have finally found access to it.

7

 

Aki Kaurismäki directs Sherwan Haji, Sakari Kuosmanen and Kati Outinen in this comedy drama about a Syrian refugee seeking asylum in Finland. 

A well made and well intentioned bone dry comedy using the absurdities of the asylum seeker’s experience to expose the shifts in Finland’s national identity. The spinal joke is “Why would anyone choose to live in Finland?” The answer: Civil war and happenstance. It is a narrative littered with beautiful losers and moments of static energy. But it all is a bit grim and lacks any real laughs or insights to make it worthy of the subject matter it exploits. There are some nice interludes with rockabilly buskers and a cute dog to keep you going.

5

Joe Lynch directs Salma Hayek, Akie Kotabe and Jennifer Blanc in this independent actioner as a middle-aged sex slave is laid under siege in her apartment full of weapons. 

Everly clearly aspires to be Kill Bill but on Reservoir Dogs’ budget. The one apartment setting evokes Repulsion, the opening gambit of sexual assault as a plot device really should belong to a far less glossy product and Hayek’s performance is strong despite a restrictive script. This kinda experience rises and falls on how it sustains its mania. We receive waves of gun toting hookers, deadly yakuza, sadistic supervillians and easily distracted attack dogs. And that should be enough to overwhelm us over 90 minutes. Sadly pretty much every episodes boils down to a visually stimulating nasty monologuing for just a little too long… while Hayek reaches desperately… for a weapon… if they just shut up and killed her it’d be a shorter film but a far more inspired experience.

4

 

Ray Austin directs Ann Michelle, Patricia Hines and Vicki Michelle in this sexploitation film about a psychic model who makes a powerplay in a coven of witches. 

Surprisingly sweet and wholesome for a quickie made for the dirty mack brigade… No doubt due to the BBC sitcom creatives anonymously slumming it on the other side of the camera. Colorfully shot and quirkily edited, giving loads of room for the girl actors to overpower their archetypical parts. Approach with an open mind and you might just be seduced too.

6

Stephen Sommers directs Hugh Jackman, Kate Beckinsale and Richard Roxburgh in this sloppy wannabe blockbuster using the iconography of the Universal Horror series. 

Fucking awful. The potent imagery of the 1930s classics, Jackman’s normally radiant charisma and a lot of money is drowned out by woefully amateurish CGI and unpleasant characters moaning endlessly during the choppy action. I cannot believe I gave this a second chance. Frankenstien’s Abortion would have been a more apt title.

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