John Lasseter directs Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Annie Potts in this classic animated adventure about a pair of lost toys who have to team together to return home before moving day. 

As well as the obvious eye-poppingly colourful presentation and groundbreaking technical achievement, Toy Story boasts one of tightest ensemble comedy scripts ever committed to the big screen (it could easily be four great episodes of an Emmy winning sitcom at its midpoint peak) and some of the most intricately orchestrated set pieces outside of any traditional action blockbusters. But really it is the characters that make it fly (or at least fall with style). My favourite will always be Woody. Manufactured plastic body aside, he is human.  Insecure, grumpy, vain, the perfect critique of modern masculinity (the cowboy without a gun) and somehow Tom Hanks’ endearing voice just papers over all these gaping cracks. The star’s easy going vocal presence makes him an old friend by the end of the first scene. I also think Buzz Lightyear is a bit of a dick, but couldn’t justify the statement in court. Movie perfection and would be my Film of the Week any other week.

10

Gore Verbinski directs Dane DeHaan, Mia Goth and Jason Isaacs in this movie mystery puzzle about an executive trying to escape a Swiss spa that no one ever leaves. 

Mixed emotions on this one. At two and a half hours this is frustratingly baggy, but there’s a decent creepy 90 minute long film in here that evokes Fincher, Polanski, Kubrick, Hitchock and Bernard Rose…. but by the eighth time our unlikeable protagonist finds himself back at the spa, chasing his own tail, you want to eat the screen… And yet there are some sharply nasty spikes outside of the endless looping plot. A nerve wracking visit to the local town, a gloopily gruesome revelation long after you’ve given up on the plot and many extreme sexually suggestive moments have a squirming transgressive tension. At its strongest, the movie feel like your are watching a porno version of an old Boris Karloff movie. All those names, all those influences above, maybe A Cure For Wellness works best as a primer, a gateway drug for the better creatives’ work. If young people catch movies late night anymore (do they?), then this distracting failure might inspire kids to explore energetic hack Verbinski’s cribbed influences further. And that’s no real bad thing, he’s at least misappropriating from the very best.

5

Theodore Melfi directs Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Kevin Costner in this glossy true tale of black female mathematicians who helped NASA win the space race.

A satisfying crowd pleaser that pleasantly kills an afternoon. Imagine A League of Their Own with a more historically momentous outcome and an inoffensively button pushing racial angle. Despite its admirable cast and some captivating period recreation, the 1960s black experience aspect seems muddled to a honky cynic like me. The African American characters feel like amalgamations of modern concerns (they get their sassy moments, their triumphant moments, their oppressed moments fed to us as we the “right on” audience members require)  rather than flesh and bone citizens of their time. With the exception of the always exceptional Octavia Spencer, their opposing reactions to these wobbly arcs often feel schizophrenic from scene to scene. Taraji P. Henson can go from enraged to enfeebled to dominant to meek depending on what the easiest emotional reaction needed to be elicited happens to be. The character who efficiently flirts with a handsome church goer, furtively deals with a highway patrolman and screams at the head of NASA about a coffeepot feel like three very different people. I don’t put this shakiness down to either complexity (it’s not that kinda movie, it admirably wears its pure heart on its sleeve) or bad acting. There is no strong, sustainable throughline in the writing leaving two of these important yet regular people in history feeling like mere cyphers on the screen. It jars, leaving way too much room for old hand Costner and new star in the making Glen Powell to pretty much steal the film with broader but more consistently nailed down roles. And as fine a feelgood experience as Hidden Figures is, I’m pretty sure the end goal was not to have you leaving thinking just quite how good the white male co-stars were. Clunky manipulation aside, this is classy, fun and charmingly crafted.

6

Miloš Forman directs Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher and Brad Dourif in this ensemble drama looking at an opportunist but sane man trying to not conform to the regime of a head nurse in an oppressive mental ward. 

One the most intelligent and sensitive cinematic satires ever produced. Watching Randle P McMurphy’s individuality scrape and chafe against Nurse Ratched’s cruel regime creates laughter, tears and long lasting further thought. Each and every time Jack Nicholson’ lead aggressively battles against the mania, passivity or rules of the ward and its denizen you see him lose his grip on reality and shining bright sense of self a little bit more. It is an epic piece of acting, towering high within a fine ensemble of weirdos and freaks (early appearances from Christopher Lloyd, Danny DeVito, Vincent Schiavelli and, especially, Brad Dourif makes this feel like a flashpoint in modern movie character acting.) Louise Fletcher’s totalitarian head nurse proves more than a test of his mettle in a viciously cold performance. You can feel the ice forming on her constant steely suppression of anyone’s happiness in the ward, none more so than in her eternally painful group therapy sessions. Forman’s grip on this world where everything is a dirty, flavourless off-white and everyone is resigned to their role within it makes for a terrifying stage for a very funny tragedy. He expertly knows when to let everyone explode but then is also quite adept at slowing the pacing right down. Watch his pleasure in stretching awkward moments out with painful reaction shots from the cast at whatever madness is taking place, whether it be psychological or societal.

10

Fritz Kiersch directs Peter Horton, Linda Hamilton and John Franklin in this Stephen King adaptation about a farming community taken over by murderous children. 

A creepy kick off and some fun initial moments with Linda Hamilton disappear in the rear view mirror pretty early. For over an hour the movie finds longer and more elaborately yawn worthy ways to kill time, cutting its short story source to shit. The underground monster finale kicks things up a notch but with a random, guessed-at logic that could easily have been set-up with a bit of bullshit exposition while the protagonists are endlessly wandering around a deserted town.

4

 

Denzel Washington directs himself, Viola Davis and Stephen Henderson in this faithful adaptation of the August Wilson play following a black family in the 1950’s coming up against their own thwarted ambitions and emotional compromises.

A tough one this. There are at least a half a dozen sequences of dialogue and monologue so masterfully acted, painting emotions and unspoken truths so raw, that Fences should really be a five star classic. But more often than not the clumsy attempts to open the play out, plus some of the more lyrical and idiom heavy writing, remind you you are watching a fish be fowl. It does not help that a few characters are out and out walking metaphors rather than flesh and blood humans either. Watching something that works better, would be more involving and takes risks more forgivable in a live theatre environment than on the multiplex screen 8, Wednesday evening showing. (Walkouts galore at my screening… the plebs.) Something that needed to be adapted more to be a good movie rather than a play with a real sky instead of painted backdrop behind it. Still Denzel the actor brings it, when was the last time Denzel brought it? Man on Fire? Training Day? The Hurricane? Viola Davis, who always brings it, is more than a match for him. #OscarSoWon.

6

John Lee Hancock directs Michael Keaton, Laura Dern and John Carroll Lynch in this period biography of the man who franchised McDonalds from one busy takeaway into a global brand. 

Like last week’s Gold this latest colourful adventure in capitalism is an interesting story well told rather than anything special in terms of moviemaking craft or risk. And likewise it is elevated from solid to spectacular by a pitch perfect central performance by a well loved star. The irrepressible Micheal Keaton keeps his foot on the gas so you get caught in the whirlwind of a man who will stop at nothing to be a success. He inhabits the mania of someone who zealously knows what needs to happen to make the idea fly, the intense charm of a seasoned salesman and the cold calculation of a man who can’t share his success, as it needs to be solely his success. And after the strong but subdued comebacks in Birdman or Spotlight, suddenly we have the devil eyed, motormouth warrior that stood out in movies as diverse as Mr Mom, Beetlejuice, Pacific Heights or The Paper back, front and centre. The positive credit Keaton’s entire oeuvre cashes in on here means you cannot help to be conflicted by Ray Kroc’s distasteful blitzkrieg victory in business. You leave troubled about whether you have seen a success story or a tragedy even though Hancock essentially presents his all out war on anyone who may hold the brand back with a warm even-handed, matter of factness. Keaton brings the sweet to wash down all the hidden salt of the true tale. And as milkshake flavours go, a supersize Michael Keaton flavour shake is one you wish was available with every meal.

7

 

Mike Mills directs Annette Benning, Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning in this amusing drama about a single mother who wants to open up her son to strong feminist influences in 1979.

A pleasant surprise this. Though Mills’ Beginners was equally smart, affecting and full of subtle visual experiments so I don’t know how this sneakily snuck up on me quite so well. A humanist meditation that celebrates everything that influences us from the people who inhabit our lives, our choice of music, the movies, books and news we pay attention to… to even medical and social advances. All modernising factors are presented as part of a relaxed but all encompassing crosssection of the last century. All within the guise of an accessible, hip domestic dramedy à la The Squid and the Whale or The Ice Storm. The calmly ambitious movie somehow spins many plates at once. Scene by scene it acts as a people’s history of feminism, a soapy coming of age and a delivery system for a completely on-point punk soundtrack all at once (whether you are an Art Fag or into Black Flag.) Gerwig and Fanning continue to impress and charm, Benning belts out a brilliant lead turn and if only it wrapped up 20 minutes early then we might have a new literate, visually vibing classic on our hands. Sadly it gets a little stuck in the mud by the last act with little to do but repeat cool images and moments, robbing them of their earlier power. If you run out of things to say then there’s nothing wrong with an elliptical fade. Punk songs last two minutes for a reason. On the whole though, this feels like an important movie for young men to experience, something that might guide the more sensitive and intelligent teenaged male in how they approach and understand the opposite sex.

7

 

 

Steven de Jarnatt directs Melanie Griffith, David Andrews and Pamela Gidley in this sci-fi satire about a man who enters a futuristic wasteland to find a replacement robot girlfriend with a tough, sexy salvage tracker. 

Daft, cheap, inspired but also inconsistent, predictable and lacking much in the way of action or laughs. All the pieces are in place for a far better cult experience but instead this merely makes for a good painted VHS cover.

5

 

Zhang Yimou directs Matt Damon, Jing Tian and Andy Lau in this fantasy epic where the Great Wall of China faces a barrage of hungry mega lizards. 

An undemanding romp which owes as much to old westerns as it does to say Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings or Yimou’s own House of Flying Daggers. I’ll admit I dozed and napped in the early stretch but what I woke up to was visually exciting and pulse quickening. Large scale action sequences of increasing stakes where the objectives are well defined and accomplished. Proper old school, big screen, popcorn storytelling. So the character roster comes straight out a toy tub, Jing Tian still shines as the tough young General who has to marshall a cast of thousands and figure out what to do with Damon’s untrustworthy older warrior (think Glenn Ford in 3:10 to Yuma). There is some stunningly colourful imagery unlike anything you’ve seen throughout; from the battalion’s shimmering armour, to two valkyrie like soldiers pumping the bellow of a makeshift hot air balloon as Tian makes a graceful escape or even the closing chase through a stained glass pagoda that paints its survivors in ripples of day glow hues. The Great Wall won’t change your life but there are far worse ways to kill a Sunday afternoon.

6