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      • Action Cinema
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  • FILM-TV REVIEWS
    • 0 - 9 >
      • One Cut of the Dead
      • One Day
      • Two Days, One Night
      • 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy
      • 7 Days In Havana
      • Seven Psychopaths
      • Seven Swords
      • 009 Re: Cyborg
      • 11 Minutes
      • 12 Years A Slave
      • 13
      • 24 Weeks
      • 45 Years
      • 68 Kill
      • '71
      • 99 Homes
      • 300: Rise Of An Empire
      • 303
      • 20,000 Days On Earth
      • 8 Million Ways to Die
    • A >
      • A Bigger Splash
      • A Bronx Tale
      • A Cat In Paris
      • A Few Best Men
      • A Field In England
      • A Ghost Story
      • A Hard Day
      • A Lonely Place to Die
      • A Love Song
      • A Man's Flower Road
      • A Million Ways To Die In The West
      • A Monster Calls
      • A Prayer Before Dawn
      • A Second Chance
      • A Separation
      • A Single Shot
      • A Spanking in Paradise
      • A Thousand Times Good Night
      • A Walk Among The Tombstones
      • A White, White Day
      • Abduction
      • About Ray
      • Act of Valour
      • African Cats
      • Afro Samurai
      • After the Wedding
      • Alice Through the Looking Glass
      • All In Good Time
      • Alleluia
      • Allied
      • American Heist
      • American Pie: Reunion
      • Ana, Mon Amour
      • Anarchy
      • Anchor and Hope
      • Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
      • Angelica
      • Animal Kingdom
      • Animals
      • Anna Karenina
      • Anomalisa
      • Ant-Man
      • Arctic
      • Argo
      • Arrival
      • Asako I & II
      • Avengers: Age of Ultron
    • B >
      • Baby Driver
      • Babycall
      • Bacurau
      • Bad Neighbours
      • Bad Words
      • Bait
      • Banshee Chapter
      • Barbara
      • Barrage
      • Barry
      • Bastards
      • Bastille Day
      • Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
      • Beasts Of The Southern Wild
      • Beatriz at Dinner
      • Beauty And The Beast
      • Bee Movie
      • Before Midnight
      • Before We Go
      • Belle
      • Benny & Jolene
      • Berlin Syndrome
      • Big Eyes
      • Big Game
      • Big Hero 6
      • Bitch
      • Black 47
      • Black Coal, Thin Ice
      • Black Eagle (R2B: Return To Base)
      • Black Panther
      • Black Rain
      • Black Sea
      • Black Sheep
      • Blackfish
      • Blackhat
      • Blade of the Immortal
      • Bleed for This
      • Blue Is The Warmest Colour
      • Bobby Fischer Against the World
      • Boca
      • Bodies Bodies Bodies
      • Bones and All
      • Bonsai
      • Boomerang Family
      • Border
      • Borgia
      • Boyhood
      • Brave
      • Brawl in Cell Block 99
      • Breaking Bad
      • Breakup Buddies
      • Breathe In
      • Breathing
      • Brian and Charles
      • Bridesmaids
      • Bright Nights
      • Britain from Above
      • Broken City
      • Bullhead
      • Bunraku
      • Burning
      • Bushwick
    • C >
      • Caesar Must Die
      • Cafe De Flore
      • Cake
      • Calvary
      • Can A Song Save Your Life?
      • Candy
      • Captain America: Civil War
      • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
      • Captain Phillips
      • Carrie Pilby
      • Carnage
      • Casa De Mi Padre
      • Cashback
      • Castle in the Sky
      • Catfight
      • Central Intelligence
      • Chasuke's Journey
      • Chef
      • Chrysalis
      • Cinderella
      • Cleopatra
      • Climax
      • Close Encounters of the Third Kind
      • Clouds of Sils Maria
      • Coin Locker Girl
      • Cold Eyes
      • Cold In July
      • Cold War
      • Collective Invention
      • Colonia
      • Color Out of Space
      • Colossal
      • Comes A Bright Day
      • Compliance
      • Computer Chess
      • Conan the Barbarian
      • Confession Of A Child Of The Century
      • Contraband
      • Corporate Animals
      • Cowboys and Aliens
      • Crazy, Stupid, Love
      • Crown Heights
      • Crying Fist
      • Crystal Swan
      • Cuban Fury
      • Cuckoo
      • Cyber City Oedo 808
    • D >
      • Daddy's Home
      • Damsel
      • Dangerous Liaisons (2012)
      • Dark River
      • Darkest Hour
      • Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes
      • Days of Heaven
      • Day Watch
      • Dead Snow 2: Red Vs Dead
      • Dear Prudence
      • Death Proof
      • Death Watch
      • Deep End
      • Deerskin
      • Delicacy
      • Demolition
      • Dennis Rodman's Big Bang in Pyongyang
      • Deranged
      • Desierto
      • Despicable Me 2
      • Destroyer
      • Detachment
      • Devil's Knot
      • Dheepan
      • Dirty Grandpa
      • Disobedience
      • Disorder
      • Disturbia
      • Divines
      • Django
      • Django Unchained
      • Dogman
      • Don Jon
      • Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot
      • Dora or the Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents
      • Double Impact
      • Downsizing
      • Dreamgirls
      • Dreileben
      • Drive
    • E >
      • Eagle vs. Shark
      • Earth 2
      • Earth To Echo
      • Earthquake Bird
      • Elephant Song
      • Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
      • Elles
      • Elysium
      • Ema
      • Empire of the Sun
      • End Of Watch
      • End of Winter
      • Ender's Game
      • Entanglement
      • Epic
      • Equals
      • Escobar: Paradise Lost
      • Essential Killing
      • Europa Report
      • Euthanizer
      • Even The Rain
      • Every Thing Will Be Fine
      • Exodus: Gods and Kings
      • Eye in the Sky
    • F >
      • Fading Gigolo
      • Far From the Madding Crowd
      • Farewell To The King
      • Fast & Feel Love
      • Fast & Furious 6
      • Fast & Furious 7
      • Fast Girls
      • Fear And Desire
      • Felicite
      • Felony
      • Final Destination 5
      • Final Portrait
      • Fist of Legend
      • Flight
      • Flu
      • Flyboys
      • For Ellen
      • Forgetting Sarah Marshall
      • Frances Ha
      • Francine
      • Frank
      • Free Agents
      • Free Birds
      • Free Men
      • Fright Night
      • From Up On Poppy Hill
      • Frozen
      • Fuck For Forest
      • Fukushima, Mon Amour
      • Funny Cow
    • G >
      • Gang Story
      • Gemini Man
      • Genius
      • Gimme The Loot
      • Goat
      • God Bless America
      • Godzilla
      • Golden Exits
      • Good Kill
      • Grave of the Fireflies
      • Great Expectations
      • Gravity
      • Green Room
      • Grindhouse Trailer Classics 3
      • Guilty of Romance
      • Guns & Talk
    • H >
      • Hacksaw Ridge
      • Haemoo
      • Hammer Of The Gods
      • Happy Feet Two
      • Happy New Year, Colin Burstead
      • Happy People
      • Hardcore
      • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2
      • Headshot
      • Heavenly Creatures
      • Hell
      • Hellboy II: The Golden Army
      • Hemel
      • Her
      • Hereditary
      • Hide And Seek
      • Hill of Freedom
      • Hitchcock
      • Hollywoo
      • Holy Rollers
      • Homefront
      • Hope Springs
      • Horns
      • Horrible Bosses 2
      • Hostel: Part II
      • Hostiles
      • How I Spent My Summer Vacation
      • How to Re-Establish a Vodka Empire
      • How to Train Your Dragon
      • Hyena
      • Hysteria
    • I >
      • I Could Never be Your Woman
      • I Lost My Body
      • I Love You, Daddy
      • I Saw the Devil
      • I Saw the Light
      • I, Tonya
      • I'm So Excited
      • If Beale Street Could Talk
      • Immortals
      • In Darkness
      • In Fabric
      • In Order Of Disappearance
      • In Search of a Midnight Kiss
      • In the Aisles
      • In The Bedroom
      • In the Heart of the Sea
      • In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
      • Inside Llewyn Davis
      • Inside Out
      • Insyriated
      • Interstellar
      • Ip Man 3
      • Iron Man 3
      • Isle of Dogs
      • It Follows
    • J >
      • J. Edgar
      • Jack Goes Boating
      • Jack Reacher
      • Jackie
      • Jackpot
      • Jayne Mansfield's Car
      • Jersey Boys
      • Jin
      • Jiro Dreams Of Sushi
      • John Dies At The End
      • Joker
      • Jonathan
      • Journey's End
      • Journeyman
      • Juan Of The Dead
      • Jupiter's Moon
      • Just Do It
    • K >
      • Kaboom
      • Kenny
      • Khodorkovsky
      • Kick-Ass 2
      • Kill List
      • Kings
      • Klokkenluider
      • Klown
      • Knight of Cups
      • Knives Out
      • Kodachrome
      • Kosmos
      • Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter
      • Kundo: Age Of The Rampant
    • L >
      • La Belle Epoque
      • La La Land
      • La Piscine
      • Lady Bird
      • Lady Chatterley
      • Lara
      • Largo Winch: Deadly Revenge
      • Largo Winch: The Burma Conspiracy
      • Las Acacias
      • Last Flag Flying
      • Last Night
      • Last Vegas
      • Laurence Anyways
      • Le Havre
      • Le Mans '66 / Ford v Ferrari
      • Le Week-End
      • Learning to Drive
      • Leave No Trace
      • Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen
      • Les Affames
      • Les Miserables
      • Lethal Weapon
      • Liberal Arts
      • Life Of Crime
      • Life Of Pi
      • Like Father, Like Son
      • Limitless
      • Lincoln
      • Lion
      • Logan
      • Lone Survivor
      • Looper
      • Lore
      • Love & Mercy
      • Love Crime
      • Love Is All You Need
      • Love Punch
      • Loveless
      • Loving
      • Lucky Them
      • Lust, Caution
    • M >
      • Mad Max: Fury Road
      • Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
      • Madeline's Madeline
      • Maggie's Plan
      • Magic Trip
      • Maleficent
      • Man Of Steel
      • Man Up
      • Manchester by the Sea
      • Manhunt
      • Maps To The Stars
      • Marjorie Prime
      • Marrowbone
      • Mary Goes Round
      • May the Devil Take You
      • McCullin
      • Me and Orson Welles
      • Me And You
      • Medusa Deluxe
      • Mercy
      • Metallica Through The Never
      • Michael Clayton
      • Midnight Special
      • Miles Ahead
      • Minions
      • Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
      • Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
      • Mister John
      • Moana
      • Molly's Game
      • Monsieur Lazhar
      • Monsters University
      • More
      • Morris from America
      • Mother And Child
      • Mr. Brooks
      • Mr Holmes
      • Mr Long
      • Mr. Nobody
      • Much Ado About Nothing
      • Muppets Most Wanted
      • Museo
      • My Days of Mercy
      • My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea
      • My Friend Dahmer
      • My Great Night
      • My Neighbour Totoro
      • My Neighbours The Yamadas
      • My Soul to Take
      • My Voyage to Italy
      • My Way
      • Mystery Science Theatre 3000: The Movie
    • N >
      • Nasty Baby
      • Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
      • Need For Speed
      • Never Goin' Back
      • New World
      • News from Planet Mars
      • Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
      • Nightbirds
      • Nightcrawler
      • Nim's Island
      • Nina Forever
      • No
      • No Escape
      • No One Lives
      • Noah
      • Nocturnal Animals
      • Norman
      • Nostalgia For The Light
      • Nymphomaniac Volume 1
      • Nymphomaniac Volume 2
    • O >
      • Olympus Has Fallen
      • On Body and Soul
      • On Chesil Beach
      • Once
      • Only God Forgives
      • Oranges and Sunshine
      • Orion
      • Our Little Sister
      • Out Of The Furnace
      • Outrage Beyond
      • Outside In
    • P >
      • Pacific Rim
      • Papillon
      • Passport To Pimlico
      • Patti Cake$
      • Penguins of Madagascar
      • Perfect Sense
      • Pete's Dragon
      • Petra
      • Phoenix
      • Ping Pong
      • Piranha
      • Planes
      • Planet Terror
      • Pokemon Detective Pikachu
      • Polisse
      • Populaire
      • Porco Rosso
      • Possession
      • Potiche
      • Powder Room
      • Preggoland
      • Prince Avalanche
      • Princess Mononoke
      • Project Nim
      • Project X
      • Punishment Park
      • Pusher
    • Q >
      • Queen of Earth
      • Queen of the Desert
      • Quest For Fire
    • R >
      • R100
      • Racer and the Jailbird
      • Raid on Entebbe
      • Ran
      • Ratatouille
      • Ready Player One
      • Real Steel
      • [REC] 3 Genesis
      • Red 2
      • Red Dawn
      • Red White & Blue
      • Renoir
      • Requiem For A Killer
      • Requiem For A Village
      • Reservation Road
      • Resistance
      • Results
      • Return to Montauk
      • Revenge Of The Electric Car
      • Revivre
      • Revolution
      • Revolutionary Road
      • Riddick
      • Rise of the Planet of the Apes
      • Roman J. Israel, Esq.
      • Romantics Anonymous
      • Rurouni Kenshin 2: Kyoto Inferno
      • Rurouni Kenshin 3: The Legend Ends
      • Rush
      • Rust And Bone
    • S >
      • Safe
      • Safe House
      • Saint Amour
      • Salmon Fishing In The Yemen
      • Salt and Fire
      • Salt of Life
      • Samsara
      • Savages
      • Sawako Decides
      • Season of the Witch
      • See [seasons 1-2]
      • Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World
      • Selma
      • Shadow
      • She's Funny That Way
      • Shepherds and Butchers
      • Sherlock Holmes - A Game of Shadows
      • Short Term 12
      • Shotgun Stories
      • Sightseers
      • Simon Killer
      • Sing
      • Sister
      • Skate Kitchen
      • Sleeping with Other People
      • Sleuth
      • Small Apartments
      • Snitch
      • Snowpiercer
      • Snowtown
      • Sonatine
      • Son of a Gun
      • Son of Saul
      • Soul Surfer
      • Source Code
      • Southern Comfort
      • Soy Nero
      • Spartacus: Vengeance
      • Spartacus: War Of The Damned
      • Special Forces
      • SPL 2: A Time for Consequences
      • Spooks: The Greater Good
      • Spoor
      • Spotlight
      • Spring
      • Spy
      • Stake Land
      • Stalingrad
      • Stan & Ollie
      • Star Trek Beyond
      • Star Trek Into Darkness
      • Starbuck
      • Strange Weather
      • Submarine
      • Suite Francaise
      • Summer In February
      • Sunshine On Leith
      • Super
      • Superbad
      • Superman Returns
      • Sweet Country
      • Synchronic
    • T >
      • Taken 2
      • Taking Off
      • Tales from Earthsea
      • Tatsumi
      • Taxi
      • Taxi: Season 1
      • Ted
      • Terminator 2: Judgment Day
      • Terminator Genisys
      • Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
      • Testament of Youth
      • Tetsuo: The Iron Man
      • That Awkward Moment
      • Therese Desqueyroux
      • They Came Together
      • Things to Come
      • This Is The End
      • Thor: The Dark World
      • Thoroughbreds
      • Those Happy Years
      • Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
      • Three Christs
      • Throne of Blood
      • Tiger Girl
      • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
      • Tiny Furniture
      • Tokyo Ga
      • Tokyo Godfathers
      • Tokyo Tribe
      • Tomboy
      • Tomorrowland
      • Toni Erdmann
      • Total Recall
      • Tragedy Girls
      • Train to Busan
      • Trance
      • Transformers
      • Transformers: Age Of Extinction
      • Transit
      • Transit [2018]
      • Trespass Against Us
      • Triangle
      • Triangle of Sadness
      • Troll Hunter
      • Tron: Legacy
      • Truman
      • Tumbbad
      • Two Lovers and a Bear
    • THE >
      • The Amateurs
      • The Arbor
      • The Assault
      • The Autopsy of Jane Doe
      • The Avengers
      • The Awakening
      • The Baader-Meinhof Complex
      • The Bacchus Lady
      • The Bad Batch
      • The Ballad of Narayama
      • The Bar
      • The Bay
      • The Baytown Outlaws
      • The Be All And End All
      • The Beaver
      • The Belko Experiment
      • The Beloved
      • The Berlin File
      • The Big Sick
      • The Bookshop
      • The Boy and the Beast
      • The Brawler
      • The Breadwinner
      • The Breaker Upperers
      • The Cabin In The Woods
      • The Captain
      • The Castle of Cagliostro
      • The Cat Returns
      • The Chamber
      • The Children Act
      • The Climb
      • The Cobbler
      • The Commune
      • The Conjuring 2
      • The Counsellor
      • The Croods
      • The Current War
      • The Danish Girl
      • The Daughter
      • The Day After
      • The Dead
      • The Debt
      • The Devil's Double
      • The Dinner
      • The Dinosaur Project
      • The Doom Generation
      • The Drummond Will
      • The Dyatlov Pass Incident
      • The East
      • The Edge of Seventeen
      • The Evil in Us
      • The Expendables 3
      • The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec
      • The Fake
      • The Family Fang
      • The Farewell
      • The Favourite
      • The Fighter
      • The Five Year Engagement
      • The Front Runner
      • The Girl
      • The Girl in the Photographs
      • The Good Dinosaur
      • The Grand Heist
      • The Grandmaster
      • The Greasy Strangler
      • The Great Beauty
      • The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
      • The Guest
      • The Guilty
      • The Gunman
      • The Hateful Eight
      • The Heiresses
      • The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
      • The House That Jack Built
      • The Housemaid
      • The Hunger Games
      • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
      • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
      • The Hunter
      • The Huntsman: Winter's War
      • The Iceman
      • The Imitation Game
      • The Incredible Jessica James
      • The Informer
      • The Innkeepers
      • The Interrupters
      • The Intervention
      • The Judge
      • The Keeper Of Lost Causes
      • The Killer Inside Me
      • The King
      • The Last Stand
      • The Legend of Bruce Lee
      • The Lighthouse
      • The Little House
      • The Little Tailor
      • The Lives of Others
      • The Lone Ranger
      • The Look Of Love
      • The Lost Okoroshi
      • The Man from Nowhere
      • The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
      • The Mercy
      • The Mind's Eye
      • The Miseducation of Cameron Post
      • The Mist
      • The Molly Dineen Collection Volume Three
      • The Motive
      • The Mule
      • The Muppets
      • The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman
      • The Nice Guys
      • The Nightingale
      • The Northman
      • The Numbers Station
      • The Other Side of Hope
      • The Overnight
      • The Panic in Needle Park
      • The Party
      • The Patriarch
      • The Place Beyond The Pines
      • The Prey
      • The Proposition
      • The Purge: Anarchy
      • The Raid
      • The Raid 2
      • The Railway Man
      • The Reach
      • The Rebound
      • The Red Turtle
      • The Reef
      • The Resident
      • The Return Of The Living Dead
      • The Revenant
      • The Rig
      • The Sapphires
      • The Saragossa Manuscript
      • The Satellite Girl and the Milk Cow
      • The Secret in Their Eyes
      • The Selfish Giant
      • The Sentinel
      • The Shameless
      • The Shape of Water
      • The Shining
      • The Signal
      • The Skin I Live In
      • The Source
      • The Stag
      • The Strange Little Cat
      • The Summit
      • The Taste Of Money
      • The Thieves
      • The Thing
      • The Third Murder
      • The Tree
      • The Tribe
      • The Two Faces Of January
      • The Truth
      • The Upside
      • The Veteran
      • The Villainess
      • The Voices
      • The Walking Dead season two
      • The Watch
      • The Water Diviner
      • The Wave
      • The Way
      • The Way Way Back
      • The Whistlers
      • The Widow of Saint-Pierre
      • The Wind Rises
      • The Wolverine
      • The Woman in Black: Angel of Death
      • The Woman in the Fifth
      • The World of Kanako
      • The World's End
      • The Yellow Sea
      • The Young And Prodigious T.S. Spivet
    • U >
      • Unbeatable
      • Unbroken
      • Underground
      • Underwater Love
      • Unforgiven
      • Unicorn Store
      • Unicorn Wars
      • Unknown
      • Unmistaken Child
      • Unsane
      • Unstoppable
    • V >
      • Vehicle 19
      • V/H/S
      • V/H/S/2
      • Victoria
      • Vidal Sassoon The Movie
      • Villain
      • Vinyl season one
      • Visitors
      • Viva La Liberta
      • Vox Lux
    • W >
      • Waitress
      • Walking Out
      • War Dogs
      • War Horse
      • War of the Arrow
      • War on Everyone
      • Warrior
      • Watcher
      • We Are the Flesh
      • We Are The Night
      • We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
      • We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks
      • Weekend
      • Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
      • Weirdos
      • Welcome To New York
      • West is West
      • What If
      • What Maisie Knew
      • What We Do In The Shadows
      • While We're Young
      • White God
      • Who Killed The Electric Car?
      • Who We Are Now
      • Widows
      • Wiener-Dog
      • Wild Mouse
      • Wildlife
      • Willow Creek
      • Wish I Was Here
      • Woman at War
      • Wonderstruck
      • Woochi: The Demon Slayer
      • Woody Allen: A Documentary
      • Words And Pictures
      • World War Z
      • Wreck-It Ralph
      • Wuthering Heights
      • Wyrmwood
    • X >
      • X-Men: Apocalypse
      • X-Men: Days Of Future Past
      • X+Y
    • Y >
      • Yardie
      • Yatterman
      • Yojimbo
      • You Are Here
      • You Instead
      • You Were Never Really Here
      • You're Next
      • Young Adult
      • Your Sister's Sister
    • Z >
      • Zathura
  • THEATRE & ARTS
    • A Walk On Part: The Fall Of New Labour
    • Akram Khan: Homeland
    • All New People
    • Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn in Conversation
    • Battle Angel Alita: volume 1
    • Battle Angel Alita: volumes 2, 3 & 4
    • Battle Angel Alita: volumes 5, 6, 7, 8, & 9
    • Brian Wilson
    • Cantina
    • Derren Brown - Svengali
    • Fourth Dimensional Minds Eye Summoning
    • Gilbert & George
    • Jumpy
    • Let The Right One In
    • Lisa Appignanesi
    • Mary Queen Of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off
    • My Girlfriend's Boyfriend
    • Othello: The Remix
    • Philip Pullman
    • Posh
    • Rob Delaney
    • Ronin
    • Sunken Garden
    • Sutra
    • The Book Of Mormon
    • The Great Gatsby
    • The Master And Margarita
    • The Silver Linings Playbook
    • The Thinking Drinker's Guide To Alcohol
    • Thriller Live
    • Touched...Like A Virgin
    • Travelling Light
    • Wah! Wah! Girls - A British Bollywood Musical
    • Wild Swans
  • FEATURES-INTERVIEWS
    • 2008 Review and 2009 Preview
    • 2010 in Review
    • 2011 In Review
    • 2012 In Anticipation
    • 2012 In Review: Part One
    • 2012 In Review: Part Two
    • Alternate Summer 2011
    • Ang Lee: A Life In Pictures
    • Atmosphere of the Berlinale
    • Autumn at the Multiplexes
    • BBC 4 World Cinema Award 2006
    • Berlin Film Festival 2011: Part One
    • Berlin Film Festival 2011: Part Two
    • Berlin Film Festival 2011: Part Three
    • Berlin Film Festival 2012: Part One
    • Berlin Film Festival 2012: Part Two
    • Berlin Film Festival 2012: Part Three
    • Best Films of 2013
    • Best Films of 2014
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Picture
30 December 2011

This article is a review of the movies of 2011.

By Hemanth Kissoon
“But now I'm always in a new apartment or in another hotel somewhere,” Anna (Mélanie Laurent)
“How do you keep hold of friends? Or boyfriends?” Oliver (Ewan McGregor)
“Makes it very easy to end up alone. To leave people,” Anna
“You can stay in the same place and still find ways to leave people,” Oliver
(The Beginners)

The last 12 months have unearthed some real quality, especially compared to 2010. I saw 324 films at the cinema, slightly down on my personal record of 342, but I caught far more on DVD. This is my look at the wonderful world of movies in 2011…


WORST FILMS

Let’s get this over with first.

Those that nearly made it onto the list: Abduction, Cowboys and Aliens, Hall Pass, Horrible Bosses, Let the Bullets Fly, The Change-Up, The Dead, and Tomorrow When the War Began.

Here they are, the turkeys of 2011:

15. Priest

Properly crud, even by b-movie standards. A sci-fi horror action flick where Paul Bettany is some kind of ninja vampire hunter. Seriously poor.

14. Battle: Los Angeles

Alien invasion movies should be a no-brainer to entertain right? So ineptly directed and written.

13. The Thing

Both previous versions of The Thing are horror classics. This prequel, which morphs into a remake, never raises the pulse.
My full review is here: http://www.filmaluation.com/the-thing.html

12.You Instead

An excruciatingly cringey rom-com set at T in the Park music festival. There is anti-acting going on, where the worst acting is sucked into this movie.
My full review is here: http://www.filmaluation.com/you-instead.html

11. 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy

A sadistic softcore porno making it into the worst of the year list? Who would’ve guessed? This got a cinema release!
My full review is here: http://www.filmaluation.com/3d-sex-and-zen-extreme-ecstasy.html

10. Green Lantern

A mega budget comic movie from the director of Casino Royale, and the studio who brought us The Dark Knight, had so much potential. What we got was breathtakingly mediocre.

9. A Dangerous Method

A picture directed by David Cronenberg (The Fly, A History of Violence, eXistenZ), written by Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons, Atonement), and starring Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender and Vincent Cassel, would not have surprised me to be an awards contender. Instead we got a simplistic and banal look at the birth of psychotherapy, with, it pains me to write, the worst performance of the year from Keira Knightley.

8. War Horse

Undramatic, misguided and the second dud of the year from Steven Spielberg. It’s not on this this list, but Tintin is bad too.
My full review is here: http://www.filmaluation.com/war-horse.html

7. Hereafter

After his remarkable run of Mystic River-Million Dollar Baby-Flags of Our Fathers-Letters from Iwo Jima-Changeling-Gran Torino, I didn’t think Clint Eastwood could put a foot wrong. However, after the ropey Invictus, he delivers a true dud. Not his fault, apart from choosing this script, it really is down to Peter Morgan’s woeful writing. It strives for profundity and just comes across as mawkish. Even a sixth sense gifted Matt Damon couldn’t resuscitate.

6. 360

Writer Peter Morgan’s second entry in this list. A film about sex and relationships starring Rachel Weisz, Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins that is jaw-droppingly devoid of anything interesting to say about humanity and society. City of God helmer Fernando Meirelles is starting to look like a one hit wonder after a trio of misfires (see also The Constant Gardener and Blindness).

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Green Lantern
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A Dangerous Method
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360

5. W.E.

Madonna’s directorial debut was always going to be received with the knives out, but this might have just been just ho-hum had she not made some very odd creative choices, e.g. if you’re going to tell a story about Wallace Simpson, why create a dual narrative set in modern times that sheds no light on the main plot? Ambitious but a mess.

4. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Hollywood creative bankruptcy at its worst.

3. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1

Every inane moment dragged out to eternity, and every sentiment repeated and hammered home. If you think Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 was padded, wait till you get a load of this.

2. Real Steel

A film so dumb and illogical that it made Transformers seem like The Seventh Seal.
My full review is here: http://www.filmaluation.com/real-steel.html

1. Sucker Punch

The director of 300 and Watchman gives us an offensively sexist action spectacle masquerading as girl power. Did no-one re-read the script and scream what are you thinking?! Even the Imax couldn’t save this sh*t-sandwich.

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W.E.
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Sucker Punch

Ok that’s over with, now for something more celebratory!

THE FILMALUATION AWARDS

(In each category the following films are in alphabetical order.) I have limited the choices to a maximum of ten, which in virtually all cases was extremely difficult.

BEST FILM

A Separation
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai
Inside Job
Margaret
Miss Bala
Pina
Sing Your Song
Snowtown
The Tree of Life


BEST DIRECTOR

Asghar Farhadi – A Separation
Terrence Malick – The Tree of Life
Takashi Miike – Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai
Gerardo Naranjo - Miss Bala
David O. Russell – The Fighter
José Padilha - Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
Nicolas Winding Refn – Drive
Martin Scorsese - Hugo
Paolo Sorrentino - This Must Be the Place
Wim Wenders – Pina


BEST ACTING - MALE

Christian Bale – The Fighter
Jeff Bridges – True Grit
Dominic Cooper – The Devil’s Double
Jean-Pierre Darroussin – Early One Morning
Ralph Fiennes – Coriolanus
Daniel Henshall - Snowtown
Peyman Maadi – A Separation
Peter Mullan – Tyrannosaur
Sean Penn - This Must Be the Place
Michael Shannon – Take Shelter


BEST ACTING - FEMALE

Sareh Bayat – A Separation
MyAnna Buring – Kill List
Olivia Colman - Tyrannosaur
Greta Gerwig – Damsels in Distress
Rooney Mara – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Yasmin Paige – Submarine
Aggeliki Papoulia – Alps
Anna Paquin – Margaret
Naomi Watts – Mother and Child
Michelle Williams – My Week with Marilyn


SPECIAL ACTING AWARD FOR BEING TACITURN AND MESMERISING

Bérénice Bejo (The Artist)
Jean Dujardin (The Artist)
Kirsten Dunst (Melancholia)
Michael Fassbender (Shame)
John Goodman (The Artist)
Ryan Gosling (Drive)
Brit Marling (Another Earth)
Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)
Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene)
Brad Pitt (The Tree of Life)


BEST WRITING

A Separation - Asghar Farhadi
Beginners - Mike Mills
I Wish – Hirokazu Koreeda
Kill List - Ben Wheatley
Margaret – Kenneth Lonergan
Margin Call - J.C. Chandor
Midnight in Paris – Woody Allen
Submarine - Richard Ayoade
The Artist - Michel Hazanavicius
The Tree of Life - Terrence Malick


BEST ANIMATED FILM

Kung Fu Panda 2
Rango
Tangled


SPECIAL AWARDS

- Action-maestro status cemented: Brad Bird (for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, along with: The Incredibles, Ratatouille and The Iron Giant)

- Perfect date movies:
Romantics Anonymous
The Artist
The Fairy

- Adding emotional complexity to the revenge genre: Red White & Blue

- Scariest film of 2011: Julia’s Eyes

- Most stunning credit sequence: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

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A Separation
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Pina
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Kung Fu Panda 2

There is sometimes a difference between what I consider to be the best, and those that are my favourite.

MY FAVOURITE FILMS OF 2011

Those that nearly made it onto the list: Kung Fu Panda 2; Midnight in Paris; Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol; Oslo, August 31st; Super 8; The Adjustment Bureau; The Yellow Sea; and Your Highness.

15. Tyrannosaur

Directorial debut of actor Paddy Considine, delivering an emotionally devastating look at violence within the home. Exceptional performances from Olivia Colman and Peter Mullan.

14. Super

Hilarious low-fi superhero movie, with a really dark ending.
My full review is here: http://www.filmaluation.com/super.html

13. Sing Your Song

So much cinema aspires to be “inspirational”, though so few end up being so. This documentary about singer, actor and activist Harry Belafonte delights, enrages and offers some hope in the tidal wave of injustice that can affect society.

12. Hanna

The director of Atonement and Pride and Prejudice creates an exciting and bone-crunching Bourne Identity-style thriller, where a teenage assassin (Saoirse Ronan), trained by her father (Eric Bana), is sent out into the world to kill a corrupt government agent (Cate Blanchett).

11. The Green Hornet

“Look at me. I got a name people can say. My name's Danny Clear. I deal with crystal meth. People call me Crystal Clear. It's easy. Check out my kick-ass hangout here. I got sh*t loads of glass everywhere. I got a see-through piano. Look at my boys. They're pimped out. We got Gucci, Armani, another Gucci, tailor-made. This is what you need to get to the top today. Not hard work. Not looking like Disco Santa Claus. You need charisma. You look like my Uncle Greg. Very nice guy, but, he's a dentist. Now consider this your retirement letter. Boom. It's over. See your way out,” Danny “Crystal” Clear (James Franco) to Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz).

Another funny take on the superhero genre. Here Seth Rogen enlisted director Michel Gondry, making a hugely enjoyable and quirkily stylish kinetic romp.

10. Melancholia

Director Lars von Trier, though persona non grata, delivered a stunningly beautiful end of the world melodrama. The eclectic cast (Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgård, Charlotte Rampling) created a charisma vortex sucking you into proceedings.

9. Inside Job

A truly excellent documentary on the causes of the recent recession. Narrated by Matt Damon.

8. Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai

I’m not a fan of 3D, but wow wow wow! Along with Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, the cleverest and most fascinating use of the new tool. The composition of each shot is remarkable. The director of 13 Assassins has created a very different samurai pic. This is a timeless look at poverty. All drama until the climatic, and sole, action sequence leaves you speechless.

7. Animal Kingdom

A raw Australian family crime saga, both epic and intimate. Every character is distinctly etched, with menace and warmth deftly woven together.
My full review is here: http://www.filmaluation.com/animal-kingdom.html

6. Miss Bala

A brilliant year for the crime movie. There are four in my favourites, plus the gruellingly impressive Snowtown. Here, a masterclass in directing, with scene after scene unfolding a nightmarish analysis of the war on drugs from the perspective of a beauty queen contestant.

5. Beginners

Two for two from Mike Mills after Thumbsucker. Moving and very romantic, as Ewan McGregor’s Oliver responds to his father Hal (Christopher Plummer) coming out as gay, and a burgeoning romance with an actress Anna (Mélanie Laurent). Sensitive, waggish and at times melancholic. A film that makes you care about all the major players.

4. Nobody Else But You

This really has stayed with me since I caught it at the London Film Festival. It has an alluring mix of sexiness, humour, pathos and mystery. An author with writers’ block ends up in a small town on the Franco-Swiss border where the local beauty has died in unusual circumstances. The results of his investigation start to reveal an echo of Marilyn Monroe’s death.

3. Elite Squad: The Enemy Within

A symphony of rage at corruption within politics, the police and the media.
My full review is here: http://www.filmaluation.com/elite-squad-the-enemy-within.html

2. This Must Be the Place

Warmth permeates an uncommon story of a retired rock star, Cheyenne (Sean Penn), who goes on a road trip after his estranged father’s death. Incongruously with the affection on display, is that the purpose of the journey is to hunt a Nazi who wronged his parent. The plot may seem weird, and it is, but somehow all the disparate elements work. Ideas of identity, art, vengeance and atonement are explored on a soul-searching journey. Directed with rare panache by Paolo Sorrentino, the camerawork is some of the best of the year.

1. The Fighter

My full review: http://www.filmaluation.com/the-fighter.html

But also typed out here:

“I’m the one who’s fighting. Not you, not you, and not you.” Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg)

Opening in Lowell, Massachusetts 1993, Christian Bale’s Dicky is being interviewed by a documentary crew, and describes himself as a “squirrelly” fighter. Straight away I’m engaged. Bale is a brilliant actor, up there with Daniel Day-Lewis, and he’s decided to school us in his craft. Dicky is all ticks and bullet-train speed delivery of lines. The performance is squirrelly. A documentary within a feature based on a true story - loving the meta-levels already. Without giving away too much, there is a further level; and it’s just not clever-clever either (though it so is!), there’s a reason for a movie within a movie during parts of the film. Anyway, back to Bale, this is only the tip of the iceberg – he lets loose in a surge of energy that is maintained throughout. This is just as concentrated as you expect from him, but he channels it differently, hyped-up rather than brooding.

The camera crew and the audience follow Dicky and his brother Mickey (Wahlberg) during the credits. Dicky is a celebrity, “The pride of Lowell”. (The theme of pride permeates proceedings.) Dicky knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard in a fight in 1978. These brothers are boxers. Dicky talks of his comeback. Wahlberg plays Mickey as a more gentle soul, obviously having grown up in the shadow of his sibling. Wahlberg’s performance is a counter-weight to Bale’s. He can be impressive in the right hands: Boogie Nights (director P.T. Anderson), The Departed (Martin Scorsese) and I Heart Huckabees (David O. Russell).

This is Wahlberg’s third film with Russell. Remember how interestingly shot Three Kings was, an entertaining and intelligent heist-war film. The Fighter is expertly made, and feels different to other movies. The director has eschewed: the overtly metaphorical-ness(!!) of Raging Bull, the sentimentality of Rocky, the weighty history of Ali, the melodrama of Million Dollar Baby, and the grittiness of Girlfight. This is his beast. It is intimate and intense, getting right in there with the fights, whether they be of the family yelling variety or in the ring. There is a handheld feel to it but without the self-conscious jittery camera-work. Is this the best directed film of the last year? Probably. The actual boxing is wince inducing, even more than Rocky getting pummelled by Ivan Drago.

The Fighter is not just some testosterone-powered biopic. It‘s just as much about the women in Mickey’s life as it is about the fractious relationship with his brother. His mother, played with regal insidious bite by Melissa Leo, is a whirling dervish of defensiveness. Mickey’s sisters are like their mother’s pack, following her lead. They are hilarious and intimidating at the same time. She’s a great actress (Enchanted, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Doubt), and here Amy Adams knocks one out of the park. Her Charlene is spiky, sassy intelligence, with her b.s. detector set to max. There are so many fantastic scenes. One of the early standouts is our introduction to Charlene. It’s in a bar where she works. It starts with Mickey and his step father (Jack McGee), focus moves to Mickey-Charlene, Dicky steps in, and then back to Mickey-Charlene. The rat-a-rat nature is something like out of a 1930s screw-ball comedy. ‘His Girl Fight-Day’. Geddit? No. I’ll move on. The scene is not about boxing, more like the Olympics, a relay race where the baton is fluidly passed from hand to hand. Oh yeah, the dialogue is electrifying.

The picture is all about juxtaposition. The juxtaposition of two or more people. The juxtaposition of ambitions. The juxtaposition of imagery – there is superb editing where archive footage of Dicky fighting is contrasted with his own recreation in a crack den. We’re not just watching a by-the-numbers “based-on-a-true-story” movie; this is an articulate and intelligent dissection of loyalty, past-glory (think Wonder Boys) and family. The Fighter is a moving and charisma-soaked mix of Cassavetes, Hawks and Kazan baked together into something different.

The score above says it all right? I came out of The Fighter, and I wanted to go straightaway back in again to re-watch it.




That’s it for this year peeps, roll on 2012!

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Beginners
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Nobody Else But You
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Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
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This Must Be The Place
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The Fighter
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