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
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
2010 in Review: Best Supporting Actor
Supporting actors were difficult to assess this year, on the one hand you have a very recent film that I could have easily put three of the men into here, on the other there were huge swathes of the year where nothing was standing out. Here are my final picks:
1. Bill Camp as Glen McCreavy in 'Tamara Drewe'. The film didn't really hold together but Camp's performance as a Hardy obsessed writer slowly falling for his hostess was a priceless mix of observatory comedy and nervous affection. A missed gem of a performance.
2. Pierce Brosnan as Adam Lang in The Ghost. How do you perform a character clearly based on a real person, whilst evoking that person but not doing an impression? Just look at Pierce not doing Tony Blair and you'll know what I mean. Utterly convincing as a man proud but haunted by his place in history.
3. Colin Farrel as Valka in The Way Back. Any one of the supporting cast of The Way Back could have taken this spot but it's thoroughly deserved by Colin as a Russian criminal you can't take your eyes off. The film literally diminishes in energy when he leaves.
4. Christopher Plummer as Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station. You could argue this is a lead performance, in that the whole story is about other peoples relationship to the venerable author and philosopher, but given most of the film involves him being swept along by stronger characters I'm going for supporting. And few actors are able to support a story in the way Plummer does here.
5. Jeremy Renner as James Coughlin in The Town. Renner continues to prove he's a superb versatile actor with this on edge performance in Ben Affleck's latest crime movie. You really can believe Renner may explode at any moment with a palpable sense of menace.
Monday, 3 January 2011
2010 in Review - Best Supporting Actress
Of the categories this will, I expect, bring the most comments. Last year when I excluded a particular performance (because it hadn't come out yet) I got a number of comments asking me why. This year I have seen that performance and she wasn't my favourite - can't wait to hear what you have to say.
1. Vera Farmiga as Alex Goran in Up in the Air. Vera walks a tightrope in Jason Reitman's corporate satire, projecting an yearning behind the held together exterior and her final scene on the telephone shows an awareness of the characters strengths and weaknesses few others have matched.
2. Olivia Williams as Ruth Lang in The Ghost. There's a cat-like intensity to the role as portrayed by Olivia Williams, alternately preening over her husband an purring to induce sympathy from Ewan MacGregor's hapless ghost writer. When the final act reveal comes about you can see the tension in every movement. 
3. Mo'Nique as Mary in Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire. She's the villain of the year, certainly, a performance that over powers the film with dread and menace as well as a knock out monologue explaining her own private fears at the end. 
4. Julianne Moore as Charley in A Single Man. It's wildly over the top, but I think that's what makes Moore's Charley so likeable, a prototype fag-hag unable to break away from her reliance on Colin Firth's George and gripped by an unbreakable desire to win him back.
5. Marion Cotillard as Mal in Inception. It's hard to imagine a year when Marion fails to achieve a nod from me for her performances. Given she's purely a construct of Leonardo DiCaprio's fevered mind she manages to give the most consistent performance in the film, always deadly. I really want to see her as a proper femme fatale.
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
The Ghost
2010. Dir: Roman Polanski. Starring: Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Kim Cattrall, Olivia Williams and Tom Wilkinson. ●●●●○
One of the curses of a well rounded education and a small exposure to the works of Sigmund Freud is that I tend to over analyse myself. To that end, whilst on one hand I have the perfectly practical reasoning that weekly reviews have been reinstated because the backlog has been dealt with, I think we can all see the subconscious in action as I review Roman Polanski's The Ghost, a critique on the failures of New Labour, especially in relation to foreign policy and anti-terrorism measures, in the week of a general election.
I mention this not only as an insult into the workings of my own mind, but also as a parallel example of how events in he real world can affect artistic decisions. Much too has been made of Polanski's house arrest and how his current situation may have affected the editing of his latest film.
Indeed there are several occasions in the narrative that may be Roman crying out about the mess of the situation. In venom in Kim Cattrall's aide to the former Prime Minister as she spits out "The pack are on the move" in relation to the press. Or Peirce Brosnan's Adam Lang and Ewan McGregor's unnamed ghost writer enforced imprisonment in the Martha's Vineyard mansion that holds most of the action. Of course both of these incident's are lifted directly from Richard Harris' superb source novel but the style and emphasis of these moments - rather then the content - is pure Polanski.
The story is a typical conspiracy thriller. McGregor's anonymous antagonist is surprisingly selected to re-write the ex-British Prime Minster's memoirs following the untimely death of his previous Ghost Writer. He flies to America, entrenching himself with Adam Lang and his wife (Brosnan and Williams) just in time for the European courts to begin proceedings against him for war crimes relating to having knowledge of, and allowing, rendition of terror suspects in order to face torture - it's lucky that America doesn't recognise the International War Crimes Commission, isn't it? Whilst there, with the aid of a couple of university photos, a party membership card and a couple of trips around the island McGregor begins to suspect that Lang may have some very dark secrets and that perhaps his predecessor's death wasn't so accidental.
There is a strange inconsistency in the format of the thriller aspects of the plot. Some clues are given undue attention - the casting of Eli Wallach as a lonely islander seems very odd until you realise he has something very important to say. On the other hand the set-up for the clue in the BMW (product placement aplenty in this film) is superb. The conspiracy itself is also massively flawed, as Robert Pugh former Foreign Minister states in the trailer "Name one decision Lang made in ten years as Prime Minister that wasn't in the interests of the U.S.A." which implicitly indicates it was deliberate not because Lang was weak or misguided.
The two stand-outs in the cast were Brosnan and Williams, both of whom gave fully engaging and dimensional performances. Brosnan in particular should be congratulated for not taking the easy option and impersonating Blair (even though Harris has admitted the character is based on him). The rest of the cast are pretty forgettable, McGregor and Cattrall can't seem to decide what accent their going for and Tom Wilkinson and Timothy Hutton are utterly wasted as Lang's former University colleague and lawyer respectively.
Talking about Harris' novel there are a couple of tweaks towards the end which are diffent. I'm not too keen about the airport scene which in the book has much more to say about Lang's desire to go down in history (there's a moment when he appears to know...). The coda, where the final twist is announced, is far more satisfying dramatically - if a little cheesy - and few could argue that the last shot is the most effective we've seen this year.
Polanski directs the action well, with a palpable tension in the air, aided by the coldness and greyness of the landscape. As with many of his films architecture is vital in sustaining mood, and the presence of the main location is as foreboding and clinical as any prison. So we return to his current lodgings, and the question of whether his art is affected.
Undoutably it is. As undoutably as my review has been timed by my super-ego. Yesterday in British courts six former Guantanamo Bay detainees overturned a ruling that allowed government use of secret evidence to defend itself against a damages claim. Their argument that their illegal detention and torture at Guantanamo was sanctioned, or at least acknowledged, by senior Government Ministers. That's a New Labour Government, a party steeped in socialist values that has eroded civil liberties faster than at any time since the English Civil War, that has widened the gap betwen the rich and the poor and made it harder to bridge that divide, that has created the largest budget deficit in UK history, that has failed to regulate the financial services sector some 2 years after it took us into a recession, that took us into an illegal war and may even have been complicit in toturing innocent men. New Labour has failed. It is indeed time for a change.
Friday, 16 April 2010
Out this week (16/04/2010)
It's not a classic week of releases, but it's safe to say that a number of the films coming out are generally looking good. There's also a "twin" theme which I'm very pleased to see. I'm personally going to be checking out the thinly veiled Blair film (only 3 weeks until the election) and Channing Tatum's abs, but I think the top film of the week, and this is based purely on the very high standard of reviews, will be Cemetery Junction.
Beeswax
Our first twin film, from the mumblecore movement, has identical sisters Jeannie and Lauren face major decisions in the way they go forward in their lives. It's low-key approach and lack of plot direction may turn off some viewers.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Boogie Woogie
A satire of the London Art circle, that neither appears to be funny nor terribly satirical. Probably best to go back to the Banksy doc from a few weeks ago.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Cemetery Junction
Slice of life comedrama from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, follows three friends in Reading as they face the transition into the patterns that may will set the rest of their life. Christian Cooke is the lead character (getting a job selling insurance) but it's Ralph Fiennes as his boss and Emily Watson that are the draws for me.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
City of Life and Death
The siege of Nanjing is in vogue these days, with John Rabe coming out a couple of weeks ago. This Chinese film is certainly getting the better notices and would certainly be a great choice for anyone interested in that period of the 20th century.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Crying with Laughter
It's the dark side of Facebook as stand-up Stephen McCole falls in with a sinister ex-classmate in Edinburgh. This is a drama, not a comedy mind, as the plot revolves heavily around sexual abuse.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Dear John
Amanda Seyfried falls in love with Channing Tatum's abs in this weepie from Nicolas Sparks (The Notebook). Did well in the States, should do well here, but won't be box office champ.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
The Ghost
Pierce Brosnan plays ex-Prime Minister Adam Lang (not Tony Blair) and Ewan MacGregor his unnamed ghost writer in this thriller adapted from the Richard Harris novel and directed by Roman Polanski. Should be right up his street.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Give me your Hand
Our second film about twins, this time boys, has a very different tone as the 18 year olds hitchhike to their mothers funeral and have romantic and sexual encounters on the way (note gay interest here...)
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
The Heavy
Good timing for this British thriller about a Prime Ministerial candidate whose brother has shady links with the underworld. Oddball cast include Vinnie Jones, Stephen Rea and Christopher Lee.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Paathshala
This weeks obiligatory Bollywood entry. The not-so-promising tagline: "Teaching is a noble profession".
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Repo Men
Forest Whitaker and Jude Law play repossion men in the future, only they're not here to take your TV, they're here to take your kidney. I don't like the future.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Veda AtatUrk Farewell
Turkish biopic of the soldier and master politician who unified the Ottoman Empire. Probably no a hatchet job.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
Tuesday Trailers - The Ghost
Premiering at the Berlinale in February of this year, The Ghost is the latest film from master director Roman Polanski. Based on the novel by Richard Harris early word says it's timely not only in it's dissection of the war in Iraq, but also for it's pointed parallels to the way the press haunt Polanski. Only a few weeks before we can judge for ourselves.
The Ghost is released on 19 March 2010
Friday, 8 January 2010
20 for 2010 - The Ghost
Straight in at number 10 (appropriately for a movie about the British Prime Minister) is The Ghost.
Richard Harris' pageturner about the former PM's memoirs, and the naive ghost writer he hires to write them was an immediate best seller on both sides of the Atlantic, mainly because the politician in question so closely mimics Tony Blair in his behaviour and manner that it's hard to believe Blair didn't sue.
The film though has had some even more bizarre press, with director Roman Polanski finishing post production whilst under house arrest for the child sex allegation dating back to the 70's.
Whether the film will survive the stink of the case will remain to be seen, it premiers at the Berlin Film Festival in February and the reviews will be hotly anticipated in only so that can be trashed by everyone else. A good review will be seen as sticking up for the man during these testing times, a bad one will be punishment for the crime. The only way we'll be ale to judge this one is to see it for ourselves.
Pierce Brosnan plays the PM, Olivia Williams his cryptic Cherie-alike wife and Ewan MacGregor will be investigating Brosnan's lifestory in more ways than one.
PS. I've read the novel, and therefore know what happens in it's final shocking chapter, so I'm not putting in any more plot lest I give away the ending.
Saturday, 12 December 2009
Tom Wilkinson
Happy Birthday to
Tom Wilkinson
61 today
He certainly isn't the biggest star I will namecheck on the birthdays, however Tom is the most prolific. Currently he has 5 projects on the go for 2010 which I want to see. First up will be The Debt about 3 former Mossad spies finding their past returning to haunt them. If Roman Polanski isn't spending the next couple of years in goal then The Ghost may get a release. We'll also be looking out for The Green Hornet, The Conspirator and the English language remake of After the Wedding.
Sunday, 16 August 2009
Timothy Hutton
Happy Birthday to
Timothy Hutton
49 today
Amazingly it's been 30 years since Tim stole our hearts and made us all want to give him a big hug in Ordinary People. Whilst his career hasn't been as sparkling as that early start there have always been interesting projects on the go. Up next is an unspecified role in Roman Polanski's The Ghost, which is well timed as the official website, with a tiny teaser, opened this week. Take a look here.
Sunday, 25 January 2009
Film News (24/01/09)
Techinically I'm past deadline this week so apologies for that, but it's not yet one hour into the 25th so I'm not very sorry. I'm also a little "tired and confused" so please forgive any atrocious spelling errors and the lack of pictures. Outside the Oscar nominations it's been a pretty slow week - casting, writers and rights only - no major projects falling away or just getting started.
The Ghost
The cast for Roman Polanski's adaptation of the Robert Harris novel is shaping up to be very interesting with Tom Wilkinson and Jim Belushi joining Pierce Brosnan, Ewan MacGregor and Olivia Williams. I've read the book and I really cannot guess who any of these people are playing, so that could make the film fun.
Ness
Apparently the rights for David Fincher's next film, about Al Capone catcher Elliott Ness's quest to capture the Torso killer, slipped through the fingers of Paramount this week. They are currently negotiating getting them back.
Preacher
John August (Big Fish, The Corpse Bride) has been brought in to draft a script for Preacher, based on the massively popular graphic novel about a preacher turned bounty hunter looking for God. Sounds like an interesting prospect.
Rango
Joining Johnny Depp in the Gore Verbinski directed animation will be Abigail Breslin. Really I should be in bed rather than writing this. Good night.
Friday, 27 June 2008
Coming Soon (maybe)
Another round up of what's been tickling me over the last couple of days. Imagine, if you will, Chris O'Donnell and Leonardo Dicaprio visiting their elderly grandfathers, Pacino (terse and shouty) and De Niro (telling bad jokes and trying to still be with it), in a home for geriatric actors. As they recount stories of their glorious past Chris and Leo learn a lot about life and what it means to be an actor. Chris moves to the country to grow peanuts and Leo resolves to never make the same mistakes as his elders. In the flashback scenes we could use footage of actual films involving Pacino and De Niro, a la Whatever happened to Baby Jane.
The Ghost
Pierce Brosnan has let slip to MTV that he's prepping for a new thriller from Roman Polanski, concerning dark secrets from a former UK Prime Minister (Brosnan) being uncovered by his ghost writer (Nic Cage - yes really). It sounds like a good mix to me - Polanski is always good at building tension and Cage's wig has an almost legitimate reason to be wild.
39 Clues 
I don't really get this. Apparantly 39 Clues is some interactive, multi-media Kids thing with prizes and stuff. 10 books, and potentially 3 films are planned. Anyway Steven Spielberg has just brought the rights. I hope he doesn't direct as I'm still a fan of the 'berg and I'd rather see Tintin, Lincoln or the Chicago Seven than what to me sounds like gibberish. I mean how could I keep my head up high wandering into Smiths and buying a pack of trading cards?
Righteous Kill
Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are back. In a film from Jon Avnet, acclaimed director of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.
This is old news, I know, but it's new poster so I thought I'd show that.
To be honest I think I'd be more keen on this project if the film was going to be closer to Fried Green Tomatoes in tone and content.
To all Hollywood producers out there I'm waiting for your call. Anyone else feel free to leave a message about what you'd like to see De Niro and Pacino doing.
