The Seven Most Anticipated Films of 2015

2014 has enveloped us in a vast variety of cinema, producing one of the film's of the decade (Boyhood), yet another melee of Autobots and Decepticons (Transformers: Age of Extinction) and a genuinely frightening horror story (The Babadook). Two of the aforementioned are hard to come by. One is not. Let us not dwell on that though, as overall I feel the epilogue for this year in film should read: a commercially successful showing for critically acclaimed cinema... and Transformers. Now to look forward to 2015. Here are my Seven Most Anticipated Films for the coming year:

7: Blackhat. dr. Michael Mann. st. Chris Hemsworth and Viola Davis. wr. Morgan Davis Foehl and Michael Mann.

Perhaps a surprising entry into my list, but what with the Sony hacking scandal being the topic of the moment, and Michael Mann back in the directors chair of a feature film for the first time in five and a half years, my anticipation for Blackhat has rapidly increased. Blackhat captures the worrying zeitgeist that plagues modern society, cyber criminality, and it follows Nicholas Hathaway (Hemsworth), following a stint in prison, helping American and Chinese authorities pursue a computerized terrorist. Sounds familiar? Die Hard 4.0 attempted to engage us with similar themes. Blackhat might have a better faring though, with Michael Mann at the helm. His last great film was Collateral back in 2004, which came after his two masterpieces, Heat (1995) and The Insider (1999). If Mann manages to inflict us with hefty drama combined with explosive action, cross-examined with thrilling tension, then we're in for a treat.
UK Release Date: 20th February 2015 

6: Jurassic World. dr. Colin Trevorrow. st. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. wr. Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow.  

I'm going to level with you. I quite liked Jurassic Park 3. Yes, it was a perforated script through rushed writing, inducing uneven characters upon the story (can you believe Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor were two of the writers?). The Spielberg touch was vacant from Isla Sorna, I'll give you that. Having said that, it was exciting enough, and Joe Johnstone did a commendable job with what he had to work with! With Jurassic World, from the trailer, it looks the closest to Spielberg's original, both in style and (hopefully) calibre. Chris Pratt has earned his stripes as an action hero with comedy chops (see Guardians of the Galaxy); give him a line and he'll deliver it with wit as razer-sharp as the dinosaur's teeth that he is running after (or from). Talking of, the stars of the show will undoubtedly be the, formerly extinct, antagonists of the piece. The reveal in the trailer was that a hybrid dinosaur is on the loose (my guess is a velociraptor/tyrannosaurus rex), and this makes for a tantalising prospect. This blockbuster will be busting the box office all summer!
UK Release Date: 15th June 2015.

5: Foxcatcher. dr. Bennett Miller. st. Steve Carell and Channing Tatum. wr. E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman. 

Bennett Miller as a director is akin to a classical composer; his previous films exude sophistication, from the acting, to the aesthetics of the set design, the costume design, the sound, the writing. In Capote particularly, there was no false note. With Foxcatcher, he appears to have exelled himself, with his distinguished style emanating from the story of mentally ill billionaire John du Pont (Carell) and his time on Foxcatcher Farm with the wrestling brothers, Mark and Dave Schultz (Tatum, Mark Ruffalo). All three male actors are being tipped for Oscar nominations, though this year in the male categories, competition is fierce. Miller meanwhile won the Best Director award at Cannes, and he will not be oblivious to Academy nominations.
UK Release Date: 8th January 2015

4: Inside Out. dr. Pete Docter and Ronaldo Del Carmen. st. (voices of) Amy Poehler and Bill Hader. wr. Michael Arndt (from a Pete Docter story).

An original Pixar. Not a sequel. With the voice talent of some of Saturday Night Live's greatest former players (Poehler and Hader), and with their latest trailer knocking side-splitting gags out of the park, Inside Out has the potential to be a Pixar classic. The story is told from the perspective of the emotions inside a little girl; Joy (Poehler), Fear (Hader), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), Sadness (Phyllis Smith) and Anger (Lewis Black). The idea of animating disparate emotions into separate living entities inside a cranium didn't have me at hello, however the first full trailer quickly evaporated any sceptical thoughts I previously had.
UK Release Date: 24th July 2015

3: Midnight Special. dr. Jeff Nichols. st. Joel Edgerton and Kirsten Dunst. wr. Jeff Nichols.

Midnight Special will be Jeff Nichols' fourth feature. His filmography thus far reads very well indeed; Shotgun Stories was an assured debut, Take Shelter for me was the best film of 2011, and Mud motivated the McConaissance. Nichols has an undivided understanding to commensurate narrative with cinematography, rather than to capsize one for the importance of the other. There are certain periods in certain films where I find a director can lose himself or herself in presenting an image on screen that has no bearing on the story. Not Nichols. He is a meticulous auteur and a creator of complete cinema. Of what we know so far, Midnight Special lands in the Sci-Fi genre, and follows a father and son going on the run after the dad learns his child possesses special powers (synopsis courtesy of IMDB). Nichols knows how to write relationships, and on this account, I feel safe in recommending this coming film to all our readers.
UK Release Date: Late 2015

2: Spectre. dr. Sam Mendes. st. Daniel Craig and Christoph Waltz. wr. John Logan, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade.

The top two previews on this list are the latest contributions to two long running franchises. Number two is Bond. James Bond. After the success of Skyfall, the momentum and expectation for Spectre has accelerated. With the first draft of the script leaked online, many now understand what the story will involve, although massive changes have surely occurred since. A cryptic message from Bond's (Craig) past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organisation. While M (Ralph Fiennes) battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind Spectre (synopsis courtesy of IMDB). With Waltz winning an Oscar for one of the most despicable villains in recent memory (Hans Landa, Inglorious Basterds), I look forward to his nefarious bad guy portrayal with anticipation.
UK Release Date: 23rd October 2015

1: Star Wars The Force Awakens. dr. J.J. Abrams. st. Harrison Ford and Adam Driver. wr. J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan.

A foregone conclusion. Star Wars is the film that everyone anticipates the most for 2015. For me, the most intriguing prospect of Episode VII is Lawrence Kasdan, the man who wrote The Empire Strikes Back. Although the expectation is that no galaxy-shattering twist will be present is this particular helping, one would hope that Abrams and Kasdan have established the genesis of which a huge reveal ('I am Your Father' territory) will spawn from.
UK Release Date: 18th December 2015

A Lot of Other Films to watch out for...

- Birdman. dr. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. UK Release Date: 1st January 2015
- The Theory Of Everything. dr. James Marsh. UK Release Date: 1st January 2015
- American Sniper. dr. Clint Eastwood. UK Release Date: 16th January 2015
- Whiplash. dr. Damien Chazelle. UK Release Date: 16th January 2015
- Wild. dr. Jean-Marc Vallee. UK Release Date: 16th January 2015
- A Most Violent Year. dr. J.C. Chandor. UK Release Date: 23rd January 2015
- Inherent Vice. dr. Paul Thomas Anderson. UK Release Date: 30th January 2015
- Selma. dr. Ava DuVernay. UK Release Date: 6th February 2015
- Chappie. dr. Neill Blomkamp. UK Release Date: 6th March 2015
- In The Heart Of The Sea. dr. Ron Howard. UK Release Date: 13th March 2015
- Wild Tales (Relatos Salvajes). dr. Damian Szifron. UK Release Date: 27th March 2015
- Force Majeure. dr. Ruben Ostlund. UK Release Date: 10th April 2015
- Child 44. dr. Daniel Espinosa. UK Release Date: 17th April 2015
- Avengers Age of Ultron. dr. Joss Whedon. UK Release Date: 24th April 2015
- Mad Max: Fury Road. dr, George Miller. UK Release Date: 15th May 2015
- Tomorrowland. dr. Brad Bird. UK Release Date: 22nd May 2015
- Untitled Cameron Crowe Project. dr. Cameron Crowe. UK Release Date: 5th June 2015
- Terminator Genisys. dr. Alan Taylor. UK Release Date: 3rd July 2015
- Ted 2. dr. Seth McFarlane. UK Release Date: 10th July 2015
- Ant-Man. dr. Peyton Reed. UK Release Date: 17th July 2015
- The Fantastic Four. dr. Josh Trank. UK Release Date: 6th August 2015
- Everest. dr. Baltasar Kormakur. UK Release Date: 2nd October 2015
- Spielberg Cold War Project. dr. Stephen Spielberg. UK Release Date: 9th October 2015
- Crimson Peak. dr. Guillermo Del Toro. UK Release Date: 16th October 2015
- The Good Dinosaur. dr. Peter Sohn. UK Release Date. 27th November 2015
- The Martian. dr. Ridley Scott. UK Release Date. 27th November 2015
- Mission: Impossible 5. dr. Christopher McQuarrie. 26th December 2015
- Silence. dr. Martin Scorsese. UK Release Date: TBC, Late 2015
- The Hateful Eight. dr. Quentin Tarantino. UK Release Date: TBC, Late 2015/Early 2016

Mini Movie Memos (and then an afterthought...)

Hobbit's come in small sizes for a reason!

The problem with this harks back to the inception of the idea in extracting a trilogy out of what is a thin volume compared to The Lord of the Rings. Monetarily, Warner Bros. will be giddy beneficiaries of The Hobbit Trilogy's Box Office returns, though I do not believe Peter Jackson did this for financial gain. This finale is the shortest in duration of the Middle Earth saga, yet is the most exhausting, due to the elongated epic proportions Jackson is intent on serving us with. The Battle of Erebor is engaging, though sadly it is not durable to losing focus, and quite frankly it is not as audacious as the battles seen in The Two Towers and Return of the King. It was prolonged and arduous, one cannot command 45 minutes of a movie with one melee of dwarves, elves, men and Uruk-Hai. Maybe there was a reason why it occupied only a few lines of Tolkien's story. There is no doubt that Jackson is a creative dynamo of cgi wizardry and a skilled translator of wonderful story-telling (See Heavenly Creatures). The problem is he tries to tell his own story. It's not all doom and gloom though! The best moments in this film come with Richard Armitage as Thorin, who, walling himself and his party in to the Lonely Mountain to ward off unwelcome guests, shows off a burgeoning contamination to his Kingship. This in no way has dented Jackson's Middle Earth Saga, which as a whole is an outstanding achievement. The final page of the Hobbit trilogy though; a spectacle, but not spectacular. 

Never trust a mystic

To a certain extent, I found myself enjoying Magic in the Moonlight. In terms of quality, all of the Woody Allen films in the past fifteen years have either found it or floundered. And here is a film that floats in between. Emma Stone (potentially the director's new muse) is quite delightful as spiritualist and possible swindle, Sophie. Colin Firth provides us with a cynical Englishman, though his place here is jarring rather than charming. The film is a whispering, whimsical and light-hearted caper. It isn't as challenging, or as good as Blue Jasmine or Midnight in Paris, but it isn't necessarily trying to be. The screenplay isn't humourless, yet there is some idle dialogue that Allen probably transcended from some of his earlier work, and tinkered with only slightly. Like I said in my opening musing though, I found myself enjoying the film. I was content with the ridiculousness of it, and the glorious setting of Southern France, along with Emma Stone (a future Oscar winner, surely) meant that Magic in the Moonlight worked for me. Instead of wondering along with a limp, it whizzed by with a couple of blisters, and I for one was fine with that. Just don't take it too seriously.

The Seven Best Films of 2014

These films are UK releases from 1st January 2014 to the 31st December 2014

First of all, the nearly made its: American Hustle, Babadook, Chef, Dallas Buyers Club, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Ida, Life Itself, Pride, The Homesman, The Imitation Game, The Lego Movie, The Skeleton Twins, Two Days One Night.

The Seven Best

7: Interstellar. dr. Christopher Nolan. st. Matthew McConnaughey and Anne Hathaway.

Christopher Nolan might not have got all the science right. He might have forgotten to pour some cement into some plot holes. But there is no doubting that this space adventure is as epic as they come. See the full review in my Films in Discussion Post.

6: Gone Girl. dr. David Fincher. st. Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike.

This was my film of the week when it was first released and is in my top seven for the year. The twisted Amy Dunne is an Alex Forrest of our generation, though more subdued, more conniving and more psychotic. A villain worth remembering.

5: Guardians of the Galaxy. dr. James Gunn. st. Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana.

Guardians of the Galaxy came second in my Seven Best Marvel Films and is justly deserving of its place in this list. It is a Sci-Fi/Western extravaganza.

4: Nightcrawler. dr. Dan Gilroy. st. Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo.

Nightcrawler has edge; in its cinematography, lead performance and writing. A feature on my Films in Discussion Post, it is a sublimely sadistic satire that thrills and kills!

3: The Grand Budapest Hotel. dr. Wes Anderson. st. Ralph Fiennes and Tony Revolori.

I am a huge Wes Anderson fan; his quirky style is a mainstay of modern cinema. For me, like with Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes has never made a bad film, and with The Grand Budapest Hotel, he hits the heights of The Royal Tenenbaums and The Darjeeling Limited. Deliciously exuberant, with Fiennes delivering comically observed brilliance as M.Gustave, I would throroughly recommend checking in with The Grand Budapest Hotel.

2: The Wolf of Wall Street. dr. Martin Scorsese. st. Leonardo Di Caprio and Jonah Hill.

The greatest director of modern cinema produces his funniest film to date. The Wolf of Wall Street is a wild animal on quaaludes; it is rollicking, roaring, rowdy cinema, which is energised throughout its 172 minute running time. For me, it is closest in comparison to Casino, and it plays the tables just as good!

1: Boyhood. dr. Richard Linklater. st. Ellar Coltrane and Patricia Arquette.

This is one of the great achievements in twenty-first century cinema. There has been nothing like it before. Boyhood sets the bar not only for the year, but for the decade. It deserves every Oscar it gets. Linklater is the definitive backyard director, he should be the inspiration to every aspiring film maker out there. Impeccable.

Mini Movie Memos (and then an afterthought...)

Mustn't mention the conspiracy theories when I go see the re-release of 2001! 

2001: A Space Odyssey relaunched into cinematic orbit last week. Mostly restored in high definition by the BFI, Kubrick's enduring masterpiece is as striking and inspiring as it was in 1968. It was cultivated (as are all of his movies) for the biggest screen possible, and it was a truly magnetic experience to see it up there, as I was drawn to 2001 more than ever before. The classical soundtrack, in particular Gyorgy Ligeti's haunting 'Atmosphere's', will always stay with me. 2001 makes me proud of cinema. 

Must dance to Starship's 'Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now', as it will be the perfect remedy to my horrible day!

The Skeleton Twins is a dark yet comically observed tale of two sardonic siblings who re-establish a bond after ten years apart, due in large to a suicide attempt. This was an undertaking of Milo (Bill Hader), a gay aspiring actor, who suffers from bouts of depression. His twin Maggie (Kristen Wiig) is married, yet takes birth control, cheats on her husband with her scuba instructor, and also suffers from bouts of depression. Suicide attempts bookend the movie, in a well-woven narrative that rivals the best original screenplays of the year. At times Skeleton Twins has unnecessary Apatow esque moments, such as a selfish young boy sticking his middle finger up to his mother, and the mother replying in the exact same manner. This is punch-to-the-gut humour, which frankly does not work here, and is nowhere near as witty as the wry back-and-forth between brother and sister. I expect both Wiig and Hader to receive Golden Globe Nominations this week for Lead Actor and Actress in a Comedy/Musical. Skeleton Twins is funny and slightly twisted, though it is equally as affecting, and its cathartic ending absolutely translates from screen to viewer.

Must give British films a chance (even if they sometimes lack superheroes, ninja turtles and transformers)

The Imitation Game is the story of a code-breaking war hero, Alan Turing, who was later condemned for being gay, and chose chemical castration (oestrogen injections) over prison in 1952. In 1954, he would go on to take his own life. He was later pardoned in 2013. It is a shameful part of our history. A story that is so important, and it is a story that has been given light on screen with meticulous direction and touching performances. Benedict Cumberbatch is a cert for an Oscar Nomination, every tremulous vocal tone and quiver of the hand describes in great depth the personality of Turing. Not just his socially-awkward exterior, but his self-doubt of his inner-self and his determination, which are exemplified in finite detail. Keira Knightley must be mentioned too, she shows Joan Clarke's journey from an uncertain girl to a composed young woman with great care and precision. In every scene she has, there is a progression, a growth, and this comes from someone who I believe is one of our best younger actresses. This is the type of film that could sweep the board at the Academy Awards, though with such a diverse year in cinema, and the plethora of quality that has come out, The Imitation Game might not win all the awards. The espionage elements involving Russian spies might have come from a quill wired up to a membrane with some creative freedom, though this film is an elegiacal outpouring of human rights, underneath the surface of the failure and success at Bletchley Park in World War Two.  

The Seven Best Openings to a Motion Picture

7: Touch of Evil (1958) dr. Orson Welles. st. Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh and Orson Welles.

A splendid, uninterrupted tracking shot opens Orson Welles's taut thriller. Citizen Kane is widely considered the most accomplished film ever made, due in large to its revolutionary camera composition. This sequence from Touch of Evil rivals the very best of Welles's first feature. Distinctive in its diversity of crane shots and close-ups, though all encompassed in one three minute thirty-one second take, this scene forebodes the felonious milieu and evinces the film noir setting in a commanding fashion.

6: Up (2009) dr. Pete Docter, Bob Peterson. st. Ed Asner, Jordan Nagai and Christopher Plummer.


Up's affecting opening is so simply crafted narratively. In the space of four minutes we see Carl Fredrickson meet Ellie as a child, and then how their lives become intertwined in love, marriage and heartbreak. Its emotional pull goes up and up and up, with a culmination of Ellie succumbing to old age. The montage of key events in their life together consists of harrowing elements, which include a miscarriage. Though, this is an honest portrayal of a life-story. Traumatic, yet wonderfully enlightening.

5: 8 1/2 (1960) dr. Federico Fellini. st. Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimee and Claudia Cardinale.

Fellini's masterpiece begins with a dream sequence, which is ambiguous, though also very meaningful once you reach the film's end. The most outstanding aspect of it is that it feels like a dream; the jaggedness of it, the surreality, yet the array of senses being displayed making us wonder, is this actually happening? The symbolism and depth in metaphor, particularly Guido (the protagonist) being pulled back down to earth, after escaping the expectation being pressured upon  him by hanging up with the clouds, is a superb  technical feat. Above all else, this is a genuine  representation of the strain of being a director. Fellini got it right.

4: Goodfellas (1990) dr. Martin Scorsese. st. Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci.

This isn't the best scene in Goodfellas, but it is one of my favourite openings to a motion picture due to its tentative framing and editing, which intensifies the scene's content. These gangsters are going to dump a body, but when finding the body alive Joe Pesci's ruthless Tommy De Vito stabs him repeatedly in a bitter fury, and then stony-faced Jimmy Conway shoots him a few times. This in turn sways the camera to a more confident frame, introducing our triumvirate of gangsters in slick style. Then we see the figure of Henry Hill close the boot, remarking 'for as long as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangster', kicking in the rapid title Goodfellas.

3: Vertigo (1958) dr. Alfred Hitchcock. st. James Stewart, Kim Novak and Barbara Bel Geddes.

Although there is possibly Saul Bass's greatest title sequence acting as a prelude to this, the rooftop chase is seminal in its power of excitement and fear. It implies John 'Scottie' Ferguson's instability and vertigo, through the influential Dolly Zoom effect. This technique, later used in Marnie and Jaws, was so influential and perfectly represented the climax of Hitchcock's 'Veritgo', which was to reassess ones trust in a character. 

2: Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) dr. Sergio Leone. st. Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda and Claudia Cardinale. 

Once Upon a Time in the West would be one of the greatest films ever made, had it not have been for a couple of unexplained narrative jumps. Still though, the beginning is untouchable,
and the tension (my word of the day) is accelerated by the close-ups of three sweaty gun-slingers ready to take out the man getting off the soon-to-arrive train.

1: Inglorious Basterds (2009) dr. Quentin Tarantino. st. Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent and Christoph
Waltz.

https://vimeo.com/80494528

Yes. This is my favourite opening scene of all time, a vimeo link to it is below the poster. Influenced by his Westerns, Once Upon a Time in the West being a key example, Tarantino rips open Inglorious with an introduction to the Jew Hunter, Hans Landa, and his search for a particular family in a quaint little home in France. His bilingual conversation with the home-owner is shockingly menacing, amidst the pleasantries lies an undercurrent of malice. Waltz could have won the Oscar for this scene alone! The framing is not so difficult, this scene relies on the dialogue and acting to exacerbate the fearful tension and to compound the irrevocable fate of the Jews lying under the floorboards. This is my favourite opening to a motion picture, but it could also be my favourite scene in a Tarantino movie!

 

My Next Seven Best Article Will Be.... The Seven Best Films of 2014!