David Yates directs John Kani, Robert Pugh and Charles Gray in this true tale of servant who brings back from Australia a dubious missing heir, only to have the family reject him while the British public embrace him. 

A grand little first film from the now blockbuster director of the State of Play TV show, the later Harry Potter entries and spin offs, and last year’s underrated Legend of Tarzan. A remarkable footnote in British history is brought to life in the detached, ironic and episodic style similar to Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon. Although slight, it is a handsome and wry jaunt through that period’s concerns and styles with a luvvie supporting cast who glow rather than grate – as more often than not they are here playing acidic establishment rotters rather than their standard kindly butlers and portly fairy godmothers. One of those magical realist successes that feel even more mythic and important when you realise the historical accuracy of the story. Fine lead performances from Kani and Pugh too.

7

John Crowley directs Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen and Domhnall Gleeson in this period romance where an intelligent young Irish girl has to choose between her new life in a land of opportunities and the unexpected chance of happiness in her homeland. 

Just magical. A rare beast these days – a movie love story that leaves you genuinely uncertain what the right choice is, both men and locations are so seductively filmed. The calm, almost ethereal centre of the dilemma is Saoirse Ronan… now, she has been fantastic in more demanding roles, but this part seems to fit her like a glove. You deeply care about with who and to where she ends up, egging her on to make that right choice even if she knows before you what that should be. A deceptively light film with hidden grit and one that frames its heart and salt with sheerly wonderful presentation… you just want to get wrapped up in it all over again as the final frame freezes.

9

Nicole Holofcener directs Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini and Catherine Keener in this comedy about a mature single mother who starts an uncertain relationship with a man, only to discover one of her new massage clients is his ex and has plenty to say on his ‘qualities’. 

An upper middle class comedy of errors, this at times feels a little insignificant, set in a world of no financial worries and where jobbing middle age women take umbrage that their paying customers don’t do more to help them take a light padded mat up a flight of stairs… Men, hey! The whole endeavour has the tanned look and expensive tastes of being sat in cafe unwillingly listening to the loud, moaning conversation of people who have never cleaned up after themselves. The dialogue is just slightly better written. Having griped about that, like a class warrior, the subtle chemistry between Louis-Dreyfus and Gandolfini is captivating – the sorely missed big man puts in a beautiful shift. His gruffly spoken, flawed but gracious romantic interest is very real and seductive. Throwaway then, if it wasn’t for the quality cast.

5

Sam Liu directs Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and Tara Strong in this achingly faithful animation of the controversial graphic novel where the Joker breaks Bat-Girl and Commissioner Gordon yet reaches a moment of clarity with the Caped Crusader himself.

Watching this transgressive tale be brought to life is a treat in the main – within there’s a keen exploration of the Joker / Bats dynamic, moment of harrowing nastiness and a surprisingly hot sex scene between two costumed freaks. You can see The Killing Joke’s far reaching influence on Nolan, Burton and Snyder for at times this could be storyboards for the universes’ live action stablemates. But… it’s a very bitty narrative – many of the first and second acts’ plotlines are just left ignored and unresolved at the credits. Part of that is due to fidelity to the source materials arch punchline but you really would like to see Barbara, Gordon and the initial goons journeys reach some kind of epilogue. As a standalone movie this abrupt dismissal of key players once they’ve served their unfortunate purposes leaves a casual viewer unsated.

6

 

Pablo Larraín directs Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard and Greta Gerwig in this fractured recreation of Jackie Kennedy’s reaction to her husband’s assassination.

I was a bit unwell when viewing this and dozed for a chunk in the middle (woken with a snap by the bullet tearing through JFK’s skull no less) so I am going to give it the benefit of the doubt. The sumptuous production design and Portman’s equally elegant central turn are winners but the mosaic style structure means this feels like a slightly hollow tribute to an icon rather than a propulsive narrative, a cold hard monument rather than a lyrical song you can get caught up in. Admitting there may be parts my nap overlooked, this did not feel the sum of them all at close.

6

Stephen Herek directs Christina Applegate, Joanna Cassidy and Josh Charles in this comedy about some obnoxiously useless siblings who have to fend for themselves over summer vacation when their elderly babysitter pegs it. 

Too much subplot and not enough jokes mean this essentially becomes a vehicle to dress the appealing but underdeveloped Applegate in a variety of neon coloured outfits. Only one point off the score I gave Silence below, due to the utter lack of laughs in both, I’d still probably watch this again over that if channel surfing late one night.

4

Martin Scorsese directs Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver and Yōsuke Kubozuka in this tale of Jesuit priests who travel to feudal Japan to spread the Catholic faith, at a time when the religion is being violently stamped out. 

A tough one this. Though mastefully made (there are blips of shock and awe that are wholly affecting) and containing committed performances (the Japanese cast members particularly stand out) throughout, Silence boils down to 150 minutes of increasingly grubby priests allowing people to suffer while they hide or cower in a variety of different wooden boxes. And if you take that as an examination of faith under arduous pressure, fair play to you, that’s Marty’s intention. But the agnostic in me would have much rather have seen him use all his enviable powers revisiting philosophically troubled mobsters, coked up penny share millionaire brokers or ageing pool hustlers rather than passive men in vintage dog collars crying as the people they led down the garden path suffer because of their obstinate delusions. I was unengaged, adrift by the last third as Garfield prayed directly at me to let the madness, he was a party to, end. It is still a strikingly beautiful movie and hard to fault on a technical level.

5

Jim Henson directs Jennifer Connelly, David Bowie and Brian Henson in this fantasy adventure about a teenage girl who has to complete a surreal maze to rescue her baby brother from a seductive villain. 

The kitsch pleasures of an underage Connelly and a rampant Bowie facing off against each other in a battle of sexual wills somewhat overshadows the keen practical effect work, moments of whipsmart craftmanship (the kidnapping of the babe and existential peril in the junkyard are as sharply effective as any pair of sequences in an adult horror of the same vintage) and the charming, jaunty finale. It is a camp, inappropriate meander first and foremost with daft songs and overly revealing costumes but there’s enough quality components embedded throughout that you can still appreciate Labyrinth without having to elbow the person next to you in the ribs every five minutes. Makes a fine triple bill with Return to Oz and Willow.

8

John McTiernan directs Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman and Bonnie Bedelia in this Christmas Eve action thriller about an off duty cop trapped in a skyscraper with some financially motivated hostage takers. 

I really don’t need to sing Die Hard’s praises, I’ve never met anyone of any stripe, age, creed or colour who does not love it. And I wouldn’t want to. We all know it is something special – the golden crown of modern Hollywood filmmaking studded with jewels of blisteringly involving action, whipsmart black comedy, a mature romance and a blanket of cynicism not in anyway managing to cover a whole mountain of ancillary festive cheer. I first watched it on pirate video, at one point concurrently owned the official widescreen VHS special edition and a taped version off TV with break for the News at Ten slapbang in the middle, have burnt through various DVD copies and presently have the Ultimate Die Hard collection boxset sitting proudly in my BluRay stack. I’m not going to rush now and pick it apart… no doubt I’ll do a big franchise overview at some point soon… but if I could just put my finger on why what should be just another orgy of mindless violence works quite so well… In my opinion, it is the unusually indepth attention to character. Not just in the cinematic icon that is John McClane (“He’s an easy guy to like, but a hard man to kill” as the gravelly trailer voice man sold him to us as… McClane is just ordinary guy right down to his maybe-has-been-in-a-few-drunken-bar-brawls fighting ‘technique’, we all know this bloke), but all the dramatis personae has been cast, named, lavished with a semblance of real humanity so that even Terrorist #12 has a quirky sweet tooth, the electricity worker his own shit he’s dealing with and we can read years of backstory between a hack journalist and an anchorman in one simple foul mouthed exchange. Die Hard is like a stick of rock in that care runs through it consistently from tip to toe, a Christmas pudding in that all manner of tasty stuff is crammed throughout it so it never gets dull or predictable. Typing this, I really want to just watch it again right now.

Marco: No more table! Where are you going to go now? Let me give you some advice: Next time you have the chance to kill someone, don’t hesitate!
John McClane: (Kills him) Thanks for the advice.

And I never even mentioned Rickman’s Hans Gruber…

10

 

Jonathan Lynn directs Joe Pesci, Marisa Tomei and Fred Gwynne in this fish out of water comedy about a wise guy from New York’s first case as a qualified lawyer being the trial of his cousin for a murder in Alabama.

I owned this on VHS as a teenager so watched it plenty… and then seemingly abandoned it for 20 years. Which is a shame as it still holds up remarkably well. Both the trial and the comedy are tightly plotted and well executed with Pesci, Gwynne and Austin Pendleton eking out extra chuckles wherever they can. Marisa Tomei, wins man of the match though, with all the best lines, outfits and a near-merciless rhythm in her argumentative patter with the eponymous lead. She deserved that Oscar she won (back when they gave awards to fun support performances in hits, rather than most prestigious piece of support casting in trophy bait productions) and it’s a shame she got relegated back to wife and girlfriend roles so quickly again after this brilliant breakout role.

7