I don't feel the need to write too much about why I chose the films that for me define 2010, instead (where possible) I have linked to my review. Each one of these films has been important to my year, and I would recommend catching up with all of them if you haven't done so already.
I don't however pretend to be anything more than a casual film watcher with my own set of biases and as open to media influence as the next man. Indeed it could be argued that I'm just following a trend with my top pick. If you disagree with any of these choices, please feel free to tell me in the comments and if you think I've missed anything particularly special then tell me and I'll look into it.
The Film of the Year:
1. The Social Network Directed by David Fincher. Read my review here.
And the rest:
2. Up in the Air Directed by Jason Reitman. Read my review here.
3. Precious: Basd on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire Directed by Lee Daniels. An extraordinary telling of a bleak novel which in spite of it's Dickensian journey of the protagonists maintains haelthy optimism for her future. No review.
4. Shutter Island Directed by Martin Scorsese. Read my review here.
5. Tetro Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Read my review here.
6. The Way Back Directed by Peter Weir. Read my review here.
7. Inception Directed by Christopher Nolan. Read my review here.
8. Brothers Directed by Jim Sheridan. Read my review here.
9. The Ghost Directed by Roman Polanski. Read my review here.
10. The Last Station Directed by Michael Hoffman. A delightful period film with solid performances and easily digestible morals. A lot better than it's reputation would have you think. No review.
Friday, 7 January 2011
2010 in Review: Best Film
Thursday, 6 January 2011
2010 in Review: Best Actor
The Leading actor choice this year was easy, whilst I remain ambivalent about the film few could deny the power and commitment in the lead performance, indeed it should have won the Oscar last year (and yes I did see Jeff's work). Maybe they'll make up for it this year.
1. Colin Firth as George Falconer in A Single Man. I expect you guessed it from the intro. Colin gives one of the most convincing portrayals of grief in screen history, using the British stiff upper lip and the homophobic worldview as excuses to hide his emotions they are there and leak out in poignant and realistic ways throughout the movie. 
2. Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerman in The Social Network. In the race to heap laurels on The Social Network by American critics it's surprising that more kudos hasn't been given to Eisenberg's central role. Taking on such a infamous character must have been a daunting task for the 27 year old but he manages to capture the essence of a man who needed to create Facebook.
3. Leonardo DiCaprio as Teddy Daniels in Shutter Island. Leo had two opportunities this year to present characters obsessed with their ex-wives in movies that aren't all they first appear to be. It's the sweaty claustrophobia of his role in Shutter Island that works the best for me, and the final line delivered to Mark Ruffalo on the steps of the Asylum is delivered perfectly.
4. George Clooney as Ryan Bingham in Up in the Air. I think many people wrote off this performance as George Clooney playing himself. But ask yourself this: could any other actor carry off this blend of self assurance and disguised contempt for his life over this sort of character arc?
5. Alden Ehrenreich as Bennie in Tetro. From the moment Ehrenreich appears in his ill-fitting naval uniform you know that here is a star in the making. He carries the film rising above the petty squabbling of his family and slowly realising the truth about his brother.
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
The Social Network
2010. Dir: David Fincher. Starring: Jessie Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Rooney Mara and Armie Hammer. ●●●●●
One of reasons I love film is that as a medium it is as constantly surprising as it is beautiful, for every film you plan to see that comes up short there's another that blows you away unexpectedly. At the beginning of the year in my countdown for most anticipated movies for 2010 I included Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Robin Hood and Knight and Day, I did not include The Social Network. Shame on me.
Ostensibly David Finchers 8th feature is about the creation of The (a preposition later dropped) Facebook by Harvard computer programmer (or "nerd" if you will) Mark Zuckenberg, and the subsequent lawsuits concerning the intellectual property and market share of the site. Indeed plotwise that is just about it, we see in the film extremely well put together moments of coding which remain interesting to all audience members and we flash between the events involved in the creation of the website and the depositions from the two main lawsuits.
This is window dressing though to the themes of the picture, Aaron Sorkin's script does a fine job of highlighting the cut throat nature of all business ventures, including the playground mentality that pervades into these young men's minds (and they are almost exclusively men) and the loneliness that must come with power and entrepreneurial success. Zuckenberg, in actions that reflect the tragic inevitability of Shakespearean plotting, must cut off all his friends and acquaintances for the good of the company. It is the flaws in his character that make this a necessity, and these flaws speak out as a metaphor for our time.
Praise be then to Jesse Eisenberg who never misses a note as Zuckenberg. He outwardly projects a neurotic blank, a man who's unlimited data processing is only matched by the dearth of emotional intelligence. The quips and comments he makes flow effortlessly from him whilst damaging those around who expect more. Eisenberg has immediately jumped into my radar and I very much hope the Academy recognise his Sterling work.
The supporting cast are excellent throughout, not one performance seems out of place, but most notable - purely in terms of screen time - are Andrew Garfield's Eduardo Saverin (the money behind the original project) all puppy dog eyes and enthusiasm, Justin Timberlake as Napster founder Sean Parker who's experience, hustling and savvy bring in the audience as well as Eisenberg naif and Armie Hamer as the both Winklevoss twins (of Winklevi if you will), mad possible through Fincher's habit of creating small but resonant visual effects, representing the American elite, athletic, monied and bright enough to have a future without Facebook. Each of these characters, like Caesar's conspirators, will provide different challenges to Zuckenberg's ultimate goal and like Caesar he must betray them or find himself betrayed.
Fincher and Sorkin make a fascinating director and writing pair, as unlikely to succeed as you could imagine and yet here create one of cinema's modern masterpieces here on the celluloid. By turns comic (I laughed out loud several times), breathtaking and pompously serious the shots, and James Cronnweth's murky cinematography with it, always underlines the action and theme. Trent Reznor also surprises with a original and pulsing score.
I hope I have conveyed my personal feelings about this film, but in case I haven't, in no uncertain terms, it is a must see. Definitely the best film I've seen in cinemas in a long time.
Saturday, 16 October 2010
So many friends, so few movies (Out this week - 15/10/10)
It is both an unusually quiet week this week with just five new films opening in the UK, that's the lowest since Robin Hood opened against 4 acclaimed foreign language pics in May. This time we're don't have such an interesting back up to the main event, with two half-arsed Bollywood entries, a ho-hum looking animation and a rotting pile of garbage - more on that later. Film of the week, with no reservations at all though, is The Social Network.
Aakrosh
Solid looking Bollywood police procedural which has clearly learnt from the techniques of the Bourne trilogy whilst developing a cast based investigation wich is truly Indian.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Despicable Me
The minions are clearly the one to watch in this feature length animation from Universal. A Supervillian, played with gusto by Steve Carell, with his army of artificial assistants must recruit three young kids to help with the plan to steal the moon. Looks like silly saccharine stuff, but Julie Andrews plays his mother so I'm giving it a bit of a pass.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Knock Out
It's the Bollywoodversion of Phone Booth, although the trailer promises a little more action outide of the titular location and the hit man get a face (Sanjay Dutt's face no less) to go with the overcooked dialogue.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Social Network
Proving you should never judge a book by it's cover back at the beginning of the year I wasn't anticipating David Fincher's Facebook movie, now the critical reception from the US is deafening all my doubts. Virtually on to the cinema now.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●○○○
Vampires Suck
I'm not sure how writer directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Setzer keep getting the bugets to make these riseable spoofs of modern pop culture, this time focussing on the Twilight series. You really have to wonder what sort of justice is there in the world where this drivel can take $36m in the US box office (16% more than Scott Pilgrim).
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●○○○○○○○○○
And missing from last weeks release roundup is:
Freight
Cheap and nasty looking British crime film, led by two ex-Eastenders, with a smattering of cage fighting, strip clubs and badly accented Russian mafia types. Too bad for direct to video if you ask me.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Tuesday, 21 September 2010
Tuesday Trailers - Social Network
I fully confess that David Fincher's Facebook movie has snuck up on me. At the beginning of the year whilst I was curious to see it there was no way it was high on my agenda - it stars Justin Timberlake for goodness sake - so much that it failed to hit my top twenty anticiapted films. Saying that the pre-release buzz is now deafening and the trailers so far have easily been the most interesting of the year.
Social Network is released on 15 October 2010.
Saturday, 27 June 2009
Film News (27/06/09)
Slow week for news, unless you count the annoucement that there will be 10 best picture nominees next year. Yes 10. Will the quality of films overall get better as a result? Probably not. Maybe we'll see some smaller releases get into the big picture race or maybe it'll be a triumph for the MOR pictures, but let's just wait and see.
Dark Shadows
Dark shadows was a pulpy camp horror TV series from the 60's with a soap opera type family beset by demons, zombies and parallel universes. I don't know about you, but this seems a perfect fit for film duo Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, and would you believe it Depp been spilling the gossip to the press during the Public Enemies junkets.
Based on the picture above do you think they had a costume designer, or did they just grab whatever was lying around in the studio?
Fahrenheit 451
Frank Darabont is still trying to remake Truffant's anti-facist film about book burning. In interviews this week he's been saying he's close to signing on a big name in the Oskar Werner role. Can't wait to see how Darabont builds his dystopian futurescape.
Social Network
Yes, I'm interested in a facebook movie. Its' been that slow a week. Of course the reason it's here is the somewhat bizarre news that David Fincher will be directing the Mark Zuckenburg story. For thse of you not in the know Zuckenburg was the founder of Facebook, who has built up this massive world changing empire, whilst battling off a score of legal actions over the rights to the site.
Kevin Spacey is producing, so could that mean a return to exciting roles for him? Could be interesting if he does go for it.
Box Office News
Release Date News
Antichrist - Lars Von Trier incendiary horror film, which we saw the trailer for on Tuesday, is due to be released fully uncut in the UK in less than a month. Better get the letters to the Daily Mail ready to send. It opens on 24 July 2009.
The Informant - I had the trailer for this multi-strand US imigration tome a few weeks ago, only to hear the release date has shunted back a couple of weeks, nothing serious though. Now out on 31 July 2009.
Creek - Horror starring the one that isn't Dominic Purcell from "Prison Break". It's all about Nazi experiments and underground cults, blah blah. Coming on 18 September 2009.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - Heath Ledger's final film, with alternative versions of himself played by Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. Sure to be fascinating, if abstract Gilliam piece. See it from 09 October 2009.
Bright Star - Jane Campion's Keats biopic, focusing on the chaste love affair with next door neighbour Fanny Brawne have a prime autumn release date. Described as a return to form, I'm not sure when Campions films haven't been on top form. Opens on 06 November 2009.
Girlfriend Experience - You can stream it from the internet now, but to truly experience watching Soderbergh's latest with someone you f**k why not visit a cinema on 20 November 2009.
The Informant - Bizarrely moved to the same release date is Soderbergh's other 2009 film about a pharmaceuticals whistle blower. Should make an interesting double at some arty-cinemas. Now out on 20 November 2009.
Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader - I've said it before and I'l say it again, Dawn Treader is by far the best of the Narnia novels, hence my vague excitement at the film. Dragons, sea serpents, hurricane winds, it has it all on 10 December 2010.
Box Office Report
In May the blockbuster season started with relish, and predictably two of the top 5 releases were advertised to within an inch of their lives and the other three are all aimed at the kids and families market. Star Trek is confidently leading the frame with an extra £2m more than the Night at the Museum sequel. I have at least seen one of these this month, but none were recommended as film of the week.
1. Star Trek
2. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
3. Angels & Demons
4. Hannah Montana: The Movie
5. Coraline
