Roger Michell directs Rachel Weisz, Sam Claflin and Holliday Grainger in this gothic romance about an immature inheritor of an estate who suspects his benefactor’s alluring widow of murder. 

Perhaps the most unexpected surprise of the year so far, this a gripping and beautiful drama that dances along a knife’s edge for its brisk running time. Quality wafts from every frame and artisanal moviemaking choice. It really is top notch stuff from the shifting focus of the cinematography emphasising the unresolved mystery hook, to the discordant score by Rael Jones, right down to the dusty lush soft furnishings and dog wrangling. The central performance by Weisz is enigmatic but enthralling – is she a teasing poisoning seductress or a confident woman trying to eke a little freedom of her own away from the ownership of men? This will be regarded as her key role in years to come, hopefully marking out a new stage in her career where she can join Jodie, Isabelle Huppert, Catherine Deneuve and Kate Winslet as one the indisputable great modern female movie stars. After years of confidentially improving average thrillers and blockbusters with her mere presence, Weisz’s time is now – let’s please let her run wild in many more well crafted and entertaining movies like this from now on.

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John Hough directs Peter Cushing, Mary Collinson and Madeleine Collinson in this Hammer Horror about a religious zealot who is burning young “witches” only to discover his twin nieces might be harbouring an even nastier malignancy. 

Bog standard period horror product. To modern eyes it is about as scary as a My Little Pony catalogue. Interesting only in that pretty much every character is corrupted by their extremism, there’s no obvious hero, certainly not Cushing. And the Playboy Playmates Collinson twins are very easy on the eye, a fact not lost on the costume designers nor the cinematographer, who eagerly dress them up and down like dolls in a risqué playset as often as they possibly can.

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Will Gluck directs Emma Stone, Amanda Bynes and Thomas Haden Church in this teen comedy about a straight A student who leans hard into the untrue gossip that she has been having sex. 

There’s a lot to like about Easy A. It is a primary coloured fizzpopper that marshalls a deep cast of talent efficiently. Imminently watchy. Yet it fails as a teen comedy by trying to be both a pastiche and a celebration of those well loved John Hughes movies AND the slightly less well appreciated 90s attempts to marry classic literature with lunchhall intrigue (see Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You, Get Over It). And the reason it fails is the jokes rarely land… and when they could, they are given no room to breathe. It is way too crammed a script, desperate to point out a good joke has happened with a tag line pointing out how good a joke we’ve just heard is, or insecurely moving onto the next shot before the final syllable of a gag has settled. Not that it matters as this is the movie that announced Emma Stone to the world. Easily the most likeable new movie star to emerge this decade she takes her first starring role and just dazzles. Sure, the maximum effort put in on her part shows but endears. She absolutely rocks here and seven years on, the charm offensive shows no sign of abating.

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Fritz Lang directs Lil Dagover, Walter Janssen and Bernhard Goetze in this portmanteau about the inevitability of death, featuring Death. 

An early special effects fest that blends its fantasy and fable really well. It is not going blow your socks off like Metropolis or M but equally it is still a very watchable grim selection of fairytales.

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Alex Kurtzman directs Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella and Russel Crowe in this horror actioner about a military trained grave robber who brings a cursed Egyptian ancient back with him to London. 

Nowhere near as bad as its almost immediate toxic reputation suggests, like the best of the Brendan Fraser series, this is merely a forgettably brash, energetic way to kill a couple of hours. Only with added Tom Cruise – always game and charming. It is an admittedly uneven film – aside from the most obvious source there’s a lot of the Uncharted games, the bantz of a Shane Black script, a little of the mythology of An American Werewolf in London, a swoosh of Terminator 2’s propulsive energy and the stunty sheen of a Mission: Impossible bunged in for good luck too. That’s a lot of quality influences though and even if they don’t all join up neatly it produces a one watcher with an abundance of deftly distracting bits. In fact, only the static half hour where we suddenly slow down and are introduced to the “Dark Universe” franchise stinks the room out and even that stink forgivably emanates from a knowingly hammy turn from Crowe… Guess what, motherfucker? Hammy Crowe is also throwaway fun too. Who care how much money it lost? Who cares if a Tom Cruise movie is just a Tom Cruise movie? Who cares if a summer dumber isn’t scary? Sofia Boutella shines in another heavily make-up plastered role. She is becoming the Boris Karloff of blockbuster sex symbols. She can curse my soul any day.

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Nacho Vigalondo directs Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis and Dan Stevens in this fantasy drama about an alcoholic burnout whose return to her small town home seemingly prompts the freak appearance of a gigantic monster on the other side of the globe. 

If you watched the trailer or even the first act of Colossal you’d be expecting an achingly quirky indie drama or romantic comedy with added mega FX. And this part of the narrative is effective if not quite as fun as it could be. At the midway point things completely switch up, going down a very dark route for something sold as being a light romp. This proves a risky yet potentially more rewarding thread, adding some real drama to the proceedings and giving the talented cast some pretty juicy chunks to chew on. Yet I bought a ticket for an adorable loser controls a Godzilla comedy and there’s no getting away from the fact, initial rope-a-dope aside, Colossal definitely is not that movie. I walked away impressed but unsatisfied. The salty drama about bullying and control we find ourselves in might be worthier but it isn’t anywhere near as entertaining as what is abandoned.

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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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