Oscars 2012 Digested

So Tuesday saw the revelation of who made it to the final hurdle and were nominated for an Academy Award there were a few surprises but most of it had been predicted as the fight between a silent movie star, a Parisian orphan, some African American maids, a British prime minister, a horse and a depressed father of two who looks a bit like George Clooney. In this blog I'll take you through all the runners and riders in the major categories

BEST PICTURE 

The Artist 

What it's about: A silent movie star goes into a downward spiral following the advent of sound cinema while at the same time a star is born in a young actress who started out in one of his films.
Why it's nominated: It harks back to old school cinema which would appeal to the older member of the academy but apart from that it's a charming film that more than deserves the awards it's been nominated for.
What its chances are: A favourite to sweep the board and pick up the Best Picture award and personally I do feel at this stage it can't be beaten. But a lot can change between now and the end of February.
Odds: 2/9

The Descendants

What it's about: A man living in Hawaii must bring his family together when his wife slips into a coma while at the same time trying to finalise a property deal for the land that his family have inherited.
Why it's nominated: It is the token offbeat film of the pack but one that has picked up a lot of steam thanks to star George Clooney who is good at picking up Oscar votes despite that his own film The Ides of March doesn't figure here.
What its chances are: It's basically the only film that can beat The Artist at this stage and even then it would be a massive upset, I do believe that it should be happy to have won the Best Drama award at The Golden Globes
Odds: 9/2

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

What it's about: A young boy tries to discover the meaning of a key that his father, who died during 9/11, left him before he died.
Why it's nominated: This was one of the surprise entries into the Best Picture category and one that got a rapturous applause when it was revealed to be in the mix. This is the only film I haven't seen but from the reviews I have read it isn't great and of all of these films it has the lowest IMDB rating by quite some margin. I'm guessing its here because it's good Oscar bait with its subject matter of 9/11 and its awards-friendly cast of Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock.
What its chances are: I honestly think it should just be happy with the nomination here as this will simply be the also-ran film and will be quickly forgotten about post-awards season.
Odds: 40/1

The Help

What it's about: A young writer decides she is going to create a story based on the life of the African American maids who serve the wealthy families in her hometown.
Why it's nominated: This was the film I didn't really want to see in the list but that was mainly because I had a bet that it wouldn't be nominated and now I owe a friend a coffee. This is the token message film about not judging people just because of the colour of their skin and does contain some great performances from its predominantly female cast three of whom have picked up nominations.
What its chances are: While it has picked up a nod throughout every awards season I feel The Help's best chances are in the acting categories.
Odds: 33/1

Hugo

What it's about: A young Parisian orphan who lives at a train station tries to discover the secret behind a mechanical man he and his father were building.
Why it's nominated: Mainly because it's directed by Martin Scorsese but more than that its success is similar to that of The Artist in that they both reference the early days of cinema. In the case of Hugo it goes right back to the dawn of cinema and its French roots it also helps that it looks fantastic and as you will see I feel it will pick up a few awards.
What its chances are: Despite being nominated for the most awards this year I feel that Hugo will most likely triumphant in the awards that honour artistic merit and not in the Best Picture category.
Odds: 12/1

Midnight in Paris

What it's about: An American writer, who has accompanied his girlfriend and her family to Paris, finds himself travelling back to the city in the 1920s where he meets some of his icons and falls in love.
Why it's nominated: Again mainly for nostalgic reasons as the scenes in twenties Paris must appeal to the old guard of the academy. This is also a return to form for Oscar favourite Woody Allen whose films have often been given acting or writing nominations however this is the first Allen film to be nominated for an Oscar since Hannah and Her Sisters in 1986.
What its chances are: Again this won is here due to a strong campaign being launched on its behalf and I think while the film isn't successful maybe Allen will be elsewhere.
Odds: 33/1

Moneyball

What it's about: The manager of a baseball team who became the first person to use computer statistics to put his team together rather than taking the advice of his scouts.
Why it's nominated: Possibly due to the script written by Aaron Sorkin or possibly due to Oscar favourite Brad Pitt taking the starring role but my theory is due to its message of triumph over adversity and never giving up on your beliefs. I'm also guessing that a large number of the Academy voters are baseball fans and remember this incident when it first occurred.
What its chances are: Again this is a film that is just filling a gap in the list and I wouldn't be surprised if it was one that just about made it in.
Odds:40/1

The Tree of Life

What it's about: If I'm honest I'm really not sure but it does tell the story of a 1950s family who are rocked by the death of one of its sons and it follows another of the sons coping with the effects of this in the present day.
Why it's nominated: I don't really know as The Tree of Life was a film that the critics went crazy over but I'm yet to meet a real person who actually liked because I thought it was very pretentious and it thought it was an important movie that had to be seen by everyone. I'm guessing the combined force of director Terrence Malick, who only makes one film per decade, with stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn was enough to get this one a nod.
What its chances are: No chance whatsoever this is the bookie's outside pick for a reason and out of all of the Best Picture nominations this is the one that is most likely to go away with absolutely nothing.
Odds: 50/1

War Horse

What it's about: A horse which is bought by a Devon farmer goes on to have a massive impact on many lives during World War I.
Why it's nominated: I feel the war setting must have something to do with it and I think members of the academy were probably charmed by it's tale of friendship and perseverance. It also helps that its director is academy favourite Steven Spielberg who is always on the campaign trail when he feels he has film that may appeal to the Oscar voters.
What its chances are: At one time this was the favourite to win Best Picture but that was before The Artist started getting honours around the festival circuits perhaps if this was released in another year it would triumph but I think it may just have to be content with some technical awards instead.
Odds:14/1


Best Actor 

Nominees: Demien Bicher (A Better Life), George Clooney (The Descendants), Jean Dujardin (The Artist), Gary Oldman (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) and Brad Pitt (Moneyball)
Thoughts: Of the four acting categories this is definitely the strongest and the one that still has some mystery behind it. George Clooney has to be the favourite here as he's been nominated almost every year and has previously won a Supporting Actor prize but this could be the year for his Leading Actor accolade. It is too early to say that Clooney has a lock on the award as The Artist's Jean Dujardin could still take this one and for me both performances were excellent. If I were a member of the academy I would cast my vote for Oldman's subtle performance in Tinker, Tailor as I felt it was utterly mesmerising but I think that he's lucky just to be nominated and despite losing the Oscar he may win the Bafta instead. A Better Life is the least familiar of the titles on this list but Bicher gives a great turn as a Mexican illegal immigrant who is trying to give his son the life he never had. It seems then that Brad Pitt is the weak link here while I didn't mind him in Moneyball it was never  a performance that I felt worthy of awards recognition.
Prediction: I wouldn't say George Clooney had it in the bag but I'm going to plump for him nonetheless.



Best Actress 

Nominees: Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs), Viola Davis (The Help), Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) and Michelle Williams (My Week with Marilyn)
Thoughts: Like with Clooney, Meryl Streep is an Oscar favourite who holds the record for the most nominations in the acting categories with a previous sixteen nods however she has only ever won best actress once and that was almost thirty years ago. Though The Iron Lady has had a mixed response, I am yet to see it myself, one thing nobody has any doubt on is that Streep's performance/impression is fantastic. Streep's closest rival has to be The Help's Viola Davis, who has picked up a couple of awards so far, who again gives a strong turn as the maid who finally decides she's had enough and reveals her stories for a book told from the point of view of the staff. If Streep wasn't present I would've said that Glenn Close would've had a good chance as she both drags up and puts on an accent in the Irish-set Albert Nobbs and Michelle Williams has also appealed to the Oscar voters by inhabiting the role of Marilyn Monroe. The outside choice, and also the surprise nomination, is Rooney Mara who for me was the best thing about the English Language version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo however I would've said that Tilda Swinton deserved the nomination more and would've been my pick to win.
Prediction: At this stage I can't see Streep being beaten.



Best Supporting Actor 

Nominees: Kenneth Branagh (My Week with Marilyn), Jonah Hill (Moneyball), Nick Nolte (Warrior), Christopher Plummer (Beginners) and Max Von Sydow (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close)
Thoughts: This is the battle of the British actors with Brangah's Laurence Olivier impression going up against Plummer's gay man who is dying of cancer. At 82 years of age it seems that Plummer would have to be the favourite playing against type as the man who has finally been allowed to come out of the closet after years of lying to his son in addition it would also be good to see Plummer awarded for his many years on the big screen so Branagh might have to wait a few more years for his award. Ironically another 82 year old, Max Von Sydow, is also nominated here but he was the surprise nominee in this category and I can't see him winning. Of the other two Frat Pack favourite Jonah Hill was, in my opinion, the best thing about Moneyball as I feel he excelled in his first drama role but won't manage to be the old guard here and as much as I liked Warrior I wasn't overly wowed by Nolte's mumbling turn as the recovering alcoholic father.
Prediction: Christopher Plummer to win.


Best Supporting Actress 

Nominees: Berenice Bejo (The Artist), Jessica Chastain (The Help), Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids), Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs) and Octavia Spencer (The Help)
Thoughts: This was the category that offered up no surprises when it was announced and I feel the eventual winner, Octavia Spencer, will be no surprise either. In The Help Spencer plays the feistier of the two central African American characters and dominates the screen against Viola Davis' more subtle performance. For me though I preferred Spencer's co-star, and fellow nominee, Jessica Chastain who provided the comic relief in The Help as a ditzy housewife who herself is ostracised from the town's group of society girls. I'm still not sure why Berenice Bejo is nominated in the supporting category as her performance was just as integral to The Artist as Jean Dujardin's was but maybe they thought she had better luck if she wasn't up against Meryl Streep. For me though the award should go to one of the other two nominees, I thought Janet McTeer was the best thing about Albert Nobbs as her impression of a man was more convincing than Glenn Close's while Melissa McCarthy gets the token comedy award for playing the role of Megan in Bridesmaids and proving that she was more than just the token fat girl.
Prediction: At this stage there's no beating Octavia Spencer.


Best Director 

Nominees: Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris), Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist), Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life), Alexander Payne (The Descendants) and Martin Scorsese (Hugo)
Thoughts: This one really feels like an old boys club with veteran directors Allen, Malick and Scorsese all featuring within the ranks. It seems that at this stage Scorsese is the favourite to win the award which will shockingly be only his second Oscar but that's mainly because he won the Golden Globe. To be fair Hugo is Scorsese's lovechild and one of his most personal films with it being a love letter to the days of early cinema it captures perfectly his love of the first French directors. Talking of French directors it is part-French Hazanavicius who is my pick to win the award as again The Artist is his creative vision and you can just see how much direction has gone into that film. An outside bet might be Malick who the Academy will give the award to for his great body of work prior to the awful Tree of Life but I don't see either Woody Allen or Alexander Payne having any chance of a win. It could well be a split decision with The Artist taking Best Picture and Scorsese triumphing here but I don't think so.
Prediction: This is probably my biggest punt of the lot but I'm going to predict that Michel Hazanvicius wins this one.


Original and Adapted Screenplay 

As I mentioned earlier Woody Allen's success might come elsewhere and I feel that he could get another Best Original Screenplay award for Midnight in Paris whose message of not dwelling in the past is a good one. Allen's biggest competition here has to be Michel Hazanvicius' script for The Artist as the film itself may sweep the board it might just get this award anyway. Original Screenplay is an interesting category as it also features the Iranian film A Separation and banking crisis drama Margin Call neither of which I would've predicted featuring here but if you're looking for an outside bet you could do a lot worse than Kristen Wiig and Paul Feig's script for the brilliantly hilarious Bridesmaids.

There are some big names in the adapted screenplay category also with George Clooney among the names that adapted The Ides of March for the big screen and last year's winner Aaron Sorkin for co-adapting Moneyball. It is also good to see Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy here as i felt the adaptation of John Le Carre's original source novel was one of the best things about the film while Hugo also had a great script even if it was outshone by the spectacular visuals. But my pick has to be former winner Alexander Payne who co-adapted Kaui Hart Hemmings' original book alongside Nat Faxon and Community's Jim Rash.
Predictions: Original Screenplay - Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris) and Adapted Screenplay - Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (The Descendants)

Animated Film 

Nominees: A Cat in Paris, Chico and Rita, Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots and Rango
Thoughts: This is the first time I can remember a Pixar film, in this case Cars 2, being eligible but not being nominated in the Animated Film category. After back-to-back wins for Ratatouille, Wall-E, Up and Toy Story 3 the animation studio fails to even make the grade falling to two films from rival studio Dreamworks. Those two films, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots, both opened to mix critical response but did tremendously well at the Box Office which I'm guessing is why they're here. However if a commercial success is going to win this award once again I feel it will be Rango as it has a broader appeal throughout the age ranges thanks to it's Western pastiche. But it is nice to see smaller films being given recognition while I'm not aware of French film A Cat in Paris it looks like a fairly interesting piece and I'll look forward to watching it whenever it's available over here. But by a country mile my favourite of the five is the sumptuous hand-drawn Latin American cartoon Chico and Rita which is the only nominee here to not be a film made for children and in the history of this award it is the only non-child-friendly animation to be nominated in this category..
Prediction: I am torn I feel that Chico and Rita may well win but the more logical choice is Rango which is what I feel I must plump for.

Foreign Language Film 

Nominees: Bullhead (Belgium), Footnote (Israel), In Darkness (Poland), Monsieur Lazahar (Canada) and A Separation (Iran)
Thoughts: I'm not a fan of how the Oscars pick their Best Foreign Language Feature nominees as each country is only allowed to submit one film despite many countries producing more than one superior film per year. I'm going to have a moan about snubs elsewhere in this article but where is The Skin I Live In or Poetry? Both brilliant pictures not nominated here as they should be. I have to say the majority of these films are yet to be released in the UK so I haven't had a chance to see them but thankfully one of my favourite films of last year has been nominated and that is A Separation. The film throws a spotlight on the mighty Iranian film industry and is an accessible film that deals with everyday issues but within the context of Iranian society. As it has previously won a Golden Globe and is one of the only foreign films ever to get a screenplay nomination I have to say it has to be the favourite by a large margin.
Prediction: A Separation to get the deserved win.


The Best of the Rest 

Don't worry I'm not going to bore you by going through all twenty four categories here, you've probably already had enough of me wittering on, but I'm just going to whizz through some of them. In a large number of the categories I can see it being a straight up duel between Hugo and The Artist with the dead certs being the former for Production Design and the latter for Original Score. I think the technical awards will be split between War Horse and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 with The Iron Lady picking up the award for make-up. In the Original Song category there are only two nominations and for me Flight of The Conchords' Bret McKenzie is a clear favourite for his song from The Muppets. Most of this year's Best Documentaries don't feature in the Best Documentary category so I'm going to say that Wim Wenders' 3D film about ballerina Pina Bausch will win the award. And don't ask me about the short film categories as I never ever am able to predict those so you'll have to sort that out on your own.

Snubs 

Well most people's favourite film of last year, including mine, was Drive which failed to get a look in apart from in the prestigious Sound Editing category and I'm sorry but that wasn't a knock to all you sound editors out there. I thought at least Albert Brooks would get a Supporting Actor nod but it seems he has lost out to Max Von Sydow. The fact it is nominated for Best Film at the BAFTAs proves that we Brits are always right.
The biggest surprise in the acting categories is that Tilda Swinton's portrayal of a distraught mother in We Need to Talk About Kevin hasn't been nominated after figuring in all of the other award lists up to now. I think that is mainly because former winner Swinton has trashed the Oscars in the past so they felt justified in their decision to give her nomination to Rooney Mara.
Other actresses who were denied a place on the list include Elizabeth Olsen and Olivia Coleman whose Tyrannosaur co-star Peter Mullan also deserves a mention.

However the biggest mistake seems to be leaving Senna out of the list for Best Documentary when it was the best documentary by some miles and for some it was there film of the year. We have known that it hadn't made it for quite some while as it wasn't even on the long-list but once again BAFTA gets it right and at least it will win one major award during the season.
And finally there's nothing once again this year for Kevin O'Connell the sound mixer who holds the record for the most Oscar nominations without ever winning anything to be fair though he'd only worked on The Muppets this year. 

Please leave your comments below about who you think will win the awards and who you think should've been nominated.

Top 25 Films of 2011: The Top Ten

For those of you who missed my first blog I will just reiterate that if a film was released in 2011 but nominated for this year's Best Picture Oscar . So without further ado here are the Top Ten which again will be in alphabetical order.

Animal Kingdom 

And after stating my rules for the list I sort of go and break them. Australian crime drama Animal Kingdom was indeed nominated for an Oscar but as it didn't feature in the Best Picture list I've decided to include it. Another reason it's in the list is that it is a brilliant piece of work and was rightfully awarded for the brilliant supporting performance from Jacki Weaver as the sinister grandmother Smurf. Animal Kingdom is told through the eyes of 17 year old J who is forced to live with his mother's estranged family after she dies of an overdose. It becomes clear that the Cody family are a notorious crime gang led by J's monstrous Uncle Pope. The story basically comes to a head with a shocking incident about halfway through in which J has to decide whether he's on the side of the police, headed by a moustached Guy Pearce, or if he is aligned with his family. I loved everything about Animal Kingdom from the way it was filmed to the performances - Weaver in particular creating a character who accepts her sons' behaviour as long as she gets to shower them with affection. As I said earlier with Snowtown this has been a great year as far as Australian cinema is concerned and I think in particular their gritty outback scenery is a great backdrop for gripping crime dramas as has been proved multiple times in 2011.

The Artist 

I think if any of us thought twelve months ago that an almost completely silent film in black and white was one of the favourites to win the Best Picture we'd have been utterly out of our minds. But that's before Michel Hazanavicius wrote and directed this fabulously charming piece of cinema which evokes memories of pre-sound cinema. Concentrating on the fictional movie star George Valentin it shows how the advent of the talkies prevented some of the stars of the silent age from advancing in their careers. As Valentin's career is on a downward spiral we see aspiring star Peppy Miller go from strength to strength after briefly meeting George in her first feature. While The Artist doesn't really have a gritty subtext it is a lovely film with stars Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo really clicking sharing fabulous chemistry and looking like real movie stars. Familiar faces like John Goodman and James Cromwell are great as the movie producer and loyal chauffeur respectively but the real star of the show is Uggy the Dog as Valentin's loyal companion and one that is around at the right time to save his life. Though there are touches of A Star is Born and Sunset Boulevard, The Artist is definitely its own film full of joy and humour and more importantly an arthouse film which could appeal to the masses. When modern life is so depressing its great to see a heart-warming film like this doing so well and I for one hope it gets the Best Picture award it so richly deserves.


Drive

2011 was definitely the year of Ryan Gosling from political intrigue in The Ides of March to romantic comedy in Crazy Stupid Love he seemed to conquer every genre but it was the LA-set crime film Drive that saw him give his best performance of the year. At the start of the film Gosling's unnamed driver is an emotionally detached character who simply offers five minutes of his time as a getaway driver to criminals who are after a professional. However his world is changed when he meets his neighbour Irene, played by Carey Mulligan, and her young son that things get complicated and he starts to reveal himself to have emotions even he didn't think he possessed. Drive is very reminiscent of the moody crime films of the 1960s and 1970s and has been in particular compared to Bullitt and The Driver. Gosling's getaway driver/stuntman is a great antihero character and the actor delivers an almost muted performance which develops into something great as the film goes on. Albert Brooks, an actor known for his comic work, was brilliant in the role of the crime lord who ends up becoming the driver's enemy. Drive is incredibly violent but it is never over-the-top and always within the context of the film in addition in possesses one of the year's best soundtracks which has new music which somehow feels that it is about 25 years old. A very new film with a foot in the past, Drive combines great camerawork and set pieces with a lead performance from 2011's most consistent performer.


Poetry

Now onto a great piece of cinema from South Korea with Lee Chang-Dong's story of an elderly woman who has to care for her increasingly unruly grandson while at the same time coping with the fact that she is suffering from dementia and will soon lose her memory. Yoon Jeong-hee gives a great lead performance as Yang Mija a 66 year old woman who discovers that her grandson is one of five boys who was responsible for the gang rape of a girl who later committed suicide. While the fathers of the other boys are able to pay a share of the compensation to the girl's mother, Yang Mija is not and is still torn over whether to put the matter in the hands of the authorities. To distract herself from the real world she enlists in a poetry class and struggles to write her own poem. Poetry survives thanks to the beautiful Korean scenery that Chang-Dong creates and balances it with the harsh reality of both the grandson's crime and  her deteriorating health. The central message is that we all have a poem in all of us whether it be a beautiful one or one that reminds us of the harsh reality of our situation and while the film is not always easy to watch it captures the audience from beginning to end thanks to a great script and an even greater central performance.


Senna 

As you can see in the first part 2011 has an excellent year for documentary films from Inside Job to Armadillo to Cave of Forgotten Dreams a number of great directors have bought films dealing with a number of subject matters. But it was Asif Kapadia's film about the life and untimely death of three time Formula One Champion Ayrton Senna. Obviously going into this film I knew how it was going to end but that's about all I knew as I'm not a big fan of motor racing, or sports in general, therefore I wasn't expecting to enjoy it very much. But Kapadia painted a picture of a complicated man, born in a deprived area of Brazil his skill at his sport meant that he could use his money to improve the area. As well as Senna's life story the film told of the inner-workings of the F1 world full of wealthy brand owners and sponsors willing to buy people's favour. Before the tragic finale the main story told was Senna's rivalry with fellow driver Alain Prost which was present on and off the track. Everything was put together perfectly from the race footage to the talking heads to the soundtrack and this was a film that wasn't just a documentary but a great story. As someone who doesn't know about Formula One I thought it explained the sport well and more than that I felt I'd got to know the man which is a testament to Kapdia's film as well as the captivating Senna himself.

A Separation 

As someone who has studied Iranian film in great depth it was great to see a film like Asghar Farhadi's A Separation which depicts modern day Tehran and the stigmas attached to Iranian society. It sees a couple wanting to end their marriage after fourteen years as the wife Simin wants to leave husband Nadir as he refuses to leave Iran and his father who suffers from Alzheimer's disease. The couple argue about who their eleven year old daughter should be with, with her initially wanting to stay with her father and grandfather but her mother slowly changing her mind as the film goes on. Nadir then hires a poor woman to be his father's carer but gets annoyed when his father his left on his own and is accused of pushing her by her angry father. A Separation deals with themes of how much one's social status defines how much people believe their story it also looks at the themes of divorce in a culture as strict as the one in Iran. While Leila Hatami and Peyman Moaadi are both great in the leads it is young Sarina Farhadi as the couple's daughter who is the star of the show as a character who starts to learn that her parents aren't as innocent as she first thought. More than anything else Iranian cinema is about realism and  A Separation almost feels like we are spying on a real family and the ambiguous ending lets the audience decide how the story ultimately ends and that's one of its best qualities.



The Skin I Live In 

Pedro Alomodvar took a break from working with Penelope Cruz this year and the result was this tense revenge thriller about sex and passion. Antonio Banderas starred as Robert Ledgard a plastic surgeon who was working on a new form of artificial skin but who let his personal life get in the way of his work and ends up using his skills as surgeon to a devastating effect. Saying any more than that would ruin the film for anyone who is yet to see this masterpiece which was full of twists and multi-layered characters. Anyone who has seen an Almodovar film knows that they aren't just about one thing but here the main theme seems to be how we define ourselves whether it be by our profession, our relationships or our gender. Banderas is absolutely great in the lead role and it's good to see him playing something outside voicing a computer animated cat it's a very hard role to play but he does exceptionally well. Any film that features a woman in a perfected skin suit fighting with a slightly thuggish man dressed as a tiger is Okay with me and The Skin I Live In combines bizarre plotlines with believable characters and realistic motives for the extraordinary things they do. For me this is possibly Almodovar's best film since All About My Mother which I completely adore. 

Super 8 

Another one people are seemingly split on some people thought it was only okay or detested it but for me Super 8 was another film, along with Hugo, that rejuvenated the flagging genre of the classic family film. JJ Abrams' 1970's set movie about a group of young friends making a zombie film was essentially a love letter to the film's producer Steven Spielberg. The kids against the authorities storyline seems to have been taken straight out of E.T. while the mysterious goings on in the small town of Lilian also draws comparisons to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Though the alien story is the film's central mystery what drew most of us to the film was the relationships between the kids namely Joel Courtney's Joe who has just lost his mother and Elle Fanning's Alice the lost fragile girl who is the object of all the boy's affections. The young actors in the film are just superb and make their film-making endeavours believable as the town members get more and more paranoid as dogs start to disappear and town members go missing. While the ending may be a bit of a letdown what comes before is so great that it doesn't really matter for me this was the best purely entertaining film that I saw at the cinema all year. 


Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy 

Tomas Alfredson's Let the Right One In was one of my favourite films a couple of years back and now he returns with an adaptation of John Le Carre's classic cold war thriller. Gary Oldman was seemingly made to play the lead of George Smiley a sort of distant character who goes into semi-retirement but is talked out when he asked to discover which member of the MI6 team is in fact working for the Soviets. During his investigation Smiley uncovers some secrets and our initial ideas about certain characters are changed throughout the piece. What I really liked about this film was its moodiness, something Alfredson had already demonstrated in Let the Right One In, with all the smoky meeting rooms and dank exterior scenes adding to the feel of the whole thing. Oldman is brilliant in the lead role in a cast of great British male actors and Kathy Burke stand-outs for me were Tom Hardy's slightly shifty Tarr and Mark Strong's illusive Jim. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was a film which let its characters speak volumes without actually saying anything a film about men who have been sworn to a life of much secrecy and in some cases are wondering why. A truly spectacular piece of work and another masterpiece to prove that Alfredson is one of the best directors working today. 

We Need to Talk About Kevin  

I wish we could end this blog on a high but instead it's a film about the lack of connection between a mother and a child that ultimately leads to a fatal incident, that ends the blog. Some thought Lionel Shraver's original book of the same name was unfilmable but then director Lynne Ramsay came along and proved everybody wrong. The film though is really Tilda Swinton's show as she plays Eva a woman who is being persecuted for something her son has done, again I don't want to give anything away, and is living in the shadow of tragedy. Most of the film is shot in flashback as we see Kevin's birth and Eva's struggle to get on with him as he goads her while constantly favouring his father played by John C Reilly. My favourite parts of the film were probably those set in the modern day with Eva working in a trashy travel agent where the ceiling fans are blowing posters off the wall and the Christmas party is a particularly cringe-worthy affair. But I feel Ramsay has done everything right here and I did empathise with Eva throughout the film and Ezra Miller was also electrifying as the teenage Kevin. There's too much to praise her from Ramsay's direction through to Johnny Greenwood's score everything was absolutely great and I'm just hoping someone gets some recognition come awards season.

Alright that's your lot, 2011 is finished but 2012 is now upon us and if you go to http://filmsof2012.blogspot.com/ you will discover what my next project is all about. See you on the other side people.

Top 25 Films of 2011: Numbers 25-11

OK so those who haven't got sick of me here we are again with my Top 25 films of 2011. Some notes before we get started I'm doing this in two segments (25-11 and the Top Ten) both of which will be in alphabetical order. If the film was released in 2011 but nominated for this year's Best Picture Oscar then it won't feature here so no Black Swan, 127 Hours, True Grit, The Fighter of The King's Speech on this list. So without further ado here are the films that did make the list:

13 Assassins 

We kick off this year's Top 25 with one of the year's most engaging action films released this year and  another engrossing Samurai film from director Takashi Miike. In this re-make of the 1963 film of the same name, Miike brings the action into full colour and assembles a great cast to take on the roles of the assassins tasked with bringing down the rule of the sadistic Lord Naritsugu whose dominant rule is oppressing the people of Japan. Although I found this incredibly talky in the early going it improved as it went on and the last hour which features the majority of the battle scenes are just spectacular. In the lead role Koji Yakusho was very good indeed but I also enjoyed Yusuke Iseya as the sort of comic relief of the piece. The film obviously draws comparisons with one of the greatest films of all time, The Seven Samurai, while its nowhere near as great as that it is still good to see films like 13 Assassins are still being made.

Arrietty 

It's fair to say that this hasn't been a great year for animated films with Pixar releasing a disappointing sequel to Cars and Dreamworks giving us an only alright second instalment of the Kung Fu Panda franchise. Thankfully Studio Ghibli are still producing beautifully animated pieces for the whole family this year adapting Mary Norton's timeless tale The Borrowers and retitling it after the name of its diminutive heroine. The story of the little people who live under the floorboards seems like a perfect fit for the studio behind such family favourites as Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. While Hiromasa Yonebayashi directed the piece, Hayao Miyazaki was still heavily involved co-adapting the source novel to make it fit for his style of film. The results were spectacular with the animation being predictably splendid and the story flowing nicely with a focus almost solely on Arrietty and her world as well as the obsessed Haru who is convinced of The Borrowers existence who is a great source of humour for the film. The themes of family and acceptance which run throughout a lot of Miyazaki's films are present in Arrietty and at the end of the day it is just a great hand-drawn animated film that is very uncomplicated but at the same time a great film.


Attack the Block 

As a big fan of Adam and Joe I think I went into Attack the Block, the debut feature from Joe Cornish, already wanting to like it and although it's a far from perfect film it still has plenty of qualities that lands it a place in my Top 25. Instead of making this a comedy in the mould of Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead this is a well-observed piece of social commentary about youths who live in council estates and their flippant nature to the world around them. When a gang of kids from the block of flats kill off an alien the rest of the race descends on the block and a war ensues between the humans and the aliens. Most of the humour within the film comes naturally as references to Fifa videogames and pay-as-you-go mobile phones make this a very British film. Though the aliens are furry creatures they are certainly still scary and Cornish isn't afraid of killing off some of his cast members. Talking of the cast there are assured performances from the majority of newcomers headed up by John Boyega as gang leader Moses while Jodie Whittaker is also great as nurse Sam someone who is mugged by the gang at the beginning of the film but is forced into helping them as the film goes on. It is rare to see a sci-fi film so intrinsically British which shows a real love and appreciation of the genre and this is certainly an assured debut for Cornish who is already making waves in Hollywood thanks to his writing on various projects.



Bridesmaids

I know this all-female comedy film divided audiences but I was in the camp who really enjoyed it and thought it was one of the funniest films of the year. Kristen Wiig, who I've always been a big fan of, wrote and takes the lead as Annie a failed baker who is asked to be maid of honour to her best friend Lilian when she announces her engagement. The film deals with themes of being stuck in a rut as Annie finds herself in a dead end job and sharing an apartment with an incestuous brother and sister pair. She also finds a rival in Lilian's new friend Helen who seemingly has the perfect life and is jealous that she may lose her old friend to a new life. What I really liked about Bridesmaids is that all of the six central characters all felt real even Melissa McCarthy who could've become the funny fat girl is afforded a scene in which she explains why she is so confident in her life. Even the love story between Annie and Chris O'Dowd's cop feels realistic and never slips into sickly sweet territory. More than anything though this is a very funny film with the scenes on the plane and at the wedding shower being my personal favourites. My only fear is that Bridesmaids will usher in a slew of new all women comedies which will be poor replicates of this brilliant original. 


The Guard 

For anyone who saw Martin McDonagh's In Bruges they know that probably the best thing about it was Brendan Gleeson's multi-layered performance that landed him a Golden Globe. So it seems that when McDonagh's brother John Michael was casting the lead for his second feature The Guard he had only one actor in mind to play the unorthodox policeman Boyle and once again it is Gleason's performance that is the jewel in the crown of this amiable comedy crime caper. When rumours of a drug-smuggling ring in Boyle's patch circulate Don Cheadle's FBI agent Everett comes over to lead the investigation. Boyle and Everett's double act is this year's funniest as the two clash but become friends throughout the film as they attempt to bring down the criminals who include Mark Strong's slightly psychopathic Clive Cornell. What I liked about The Guard more than anything was that it was a charming film with a protagonist who drunk, did drugs and used young prostitutes but was still completely likeable and relatable. To me Gleason was even better in The Guard than he was in In Bruges and deserves another award for playing one of 2011's most memorable characters.



Hugo 

I don't think any of us expected Martin Scorsese to follow-up such dark films as The Departed and Shutter Island with a 3D kids film but that's exactly what he did with the stunning Hugo. Centring around a Parisian train station Asa Butterfield stars as Hugo a boy who is secretly controlling the station's clock and is constantly trying to avoid being caught by the station guard who sends waifs and strays off to the orphanage. What I really like about Hugo is that Scorsese instantly transports you into Hugo's world of stealing croissants from cafes and going among the various stalls throughout the station. It also offers up a history lesson about early cinema from the Lumiere brothers to George Melies and how some of the early films were received by their audiences. Mixing both humour and warmth with some well-crafted scenery and a great cast which includes Sir Ben Kingsley, Helen McCrory, Christopher Lee and Sacha Baron Cohen dressed as the policeman from 'Allo 'Allo but doing a Peter Sellers impression. More than anything else Hugo is the type of film that you don't really see any more a proper film for the whole family that has engaging story and themes about family life and redemption. 


The Interrupters 

The first of three documentary films on the list, The Interrupters takes you on a ride through the gang culture in Chicago and focuses on the titular group of people who are trying to protect their streets from crime and violence. The interesting thing about The Interrupters is that many of them were part of the gang culture themselves when they were younger and they then are able to use this to relate to today's youngsters. For me I was taken with Ameena Matthews the daughter of legendary gang leader Jeff Fort who takes it upon herself to console the family and friends of murdered high school student Derrrion Albert whose death made news when it was captured on camera. Another startling scene involves another of The Interrupters convincing a young offender to go back to the barbershop which he and a group of friends previously robbed and heard from his victims their shock and fear at having guns pointed at their heads. It was the realistic nature of Steve James' film that really took me and he really made you support this group of people who were trying to rid their city of its crime element in the best way they knew how. 


Julia's Eyes 

In 2008, The Orphanage was one of my favourite films of that year a genuinely creepy Spanish horror film starring Belen Rueda and produced by Guillermo Del Toro. Producer and star reunited this year for the equally creepy if a little more predictable horror yarn Julia's Eyes. Rueda stars as Julia a woman who is inflicted with a degenerative disease which means she will go slowly blind and the beginning of the film sees the death of her sister Sara, who has already lost her sight, at the hands of a mystery assailant who then makes it look like suicide. As Julia starts to go blind she wants to investigate the death of her sister who she rightly believed was killed despite the instance of everyone that it was just suicide. Though I worked whodunnit straight away I still enjoyed the ride and there were still a few twists that caught me unawares. The best thing about it though was the concentration on sight and how vital it is to us as our heroine's vision is thwarted throughout the film the sense of peril is heightened. Director Guillem Morales makes the most of his brilliant leading lady who is by far the best thing about this film and like The Orphanage this film does not have a very happy ending but I won't spoil it for you because I would encourage everybody to go out and watch this superb chiller.



Kill List 

At the start of last year I watched Ben Wheatley's interesting debut film Down Terrace an odd family crime film which genuinely showed promise and then very recently I watched his brilliant second film Kill List which played with the genre of the crime film. Kill List is a film that can be split into three equal parts the first is very much a domestic drama about a couple with a young son trying to cope with the father's post-traumatic stress disorder following the war. The second sees the father, Neil Maskell's Jay, team up with Michael Smiley's intimidating Gal to finish off three individuals for a shadowy client. Their kill list is made up of three people who have done very wrong things usually to small children therefore the two contract killers can rightly justify their actions. The best thing about Kill List though was its final third because just as I thought I knew where it was going it turned into a horror film and evoked memories of both Rosemary's Baby and The Wicker Man. While Maskell was great playing the conflicted everyman for me Michael Smiley, best known to most people from Spaced, as the sort of big brother character who could both be charming and very sinister in equal measure. Kill List is by far not an easy watch but its combinations of three different genres and its small cast makes this a great British horror-thriller and one that I would greatly recommend. 


Life in a Day 

The second documentary on the list is Kevin MacDonald's very brave attempt to capture life around the planet on one day, July 24th 2010, by carefully editing together a numerous amount of the 80,000 clips posted on a YouTube channel by people from 192 nations across the globe. In the film we saw birth, marriage and coming-of-age tales we also saw the sad tale of the man who told his best friend how he really felt about her just to see her reject him. As anybody who saw Touching the Void knows, MacDonald is an assured documentary film-maker and the clever editing here perfectly captured the human spirit and all manner of emotions from different countries. Obviously MacDonald wanted to capture some big events, including the guy who was attempting to cycle the entire globe, but littered the film with smaller events such as people having breakfast, shaving, going to work and going to bed. One bit of the film that stuck with me was one of the final segments with a woman saying that nothing really major happened to her on that day and I think that's true of most of us because while some do experience big events on a regular basis most of us are just getting by. This was a film that really stuck with me and was a really massive project that definitely had a satisfying end result. 


Rise of the Planet of the Apes 

It has been an interesting year for blockbusters with the next chapters in the Pirates of the Caribbean and Transformers franchises being predictably crap it was the films that rebooted certain series that seemed to be better. While I did enjoy X-Men: First Class for me it was Rupert Wyatt's take on the Planet of the Apes saga that I found really engaging. Wyatt supposed that the original ape became super-intelligent due to James Franco's young scientist injecting him with a drug he was developing to combat Alzheimer's disease a condition which his father played by the brilliant John Lithgow was suffering from. Though Lithgow and Franco were both great the film was bought to life by Andy Serkis' motion-capture performance as Caesar the Ape who was really the central focus of the story. After the first half of the film explored the family unit, the second half was all about the mistreatment of apes from humans and the brilliant moment in which they finally rose up against Brian Cox and Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter. The final scenes with the battles between apes and humans were truly spectacular but this was a blockbuster that had both realistic characters and great action sequences and neither outshone the other. The only thing that ROTPOTA lacked was a decent female lead with Freida Pinto only existing to look pretty and smile occasionally but apart from that this was a great film and I'm excited to see what Wyatt does next with Caesar and the rest of his ape brethren. 


Snowtown

It is fair to say that it has been a good year for Australian cinema with the Western film Red Hill almost making the list and another Australian film making the top ten here we find the gripping and harrowing Snowtown in the bottom half of the 2011 list. Snowtown focuses on the story of how charismatic drifter John Bunting charmed his way into the hearts and homes of the people of the titular Australian town only to reveal himself to be a psychopath and a serial killer. The main focus on the film is the relationship between Bunting and young Jamie Vlassakis who was in search of a father figure and was taken under the wing of the man who began a relationship with his mother. The first half of the film showed how a mass-murderer could easily become a member of a small society while the second half concentrated on the brutal killings in which Bunting and his associates hid their victim's bodies in barrels. Overall a gripping drama with a tense lead performance from Daniel Henshall as the unremorseful Bunting the man who committed one of the most famous atrocities in Australian history.

Source Code 

Another interesting film which could be given the tag of blockbuster was the second film from Moon director and son of David Bowie, Duncan Jones. Source Code was a time-bending film starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a wounded soldier who is enlisted to try out a new military endeavour whose aim is to track down terrorists before they strike and arrest them before they are able to carry out any mass killings of civilians. In this case it was a bomb on a train and Gyllenhaal's Colter has to prevent the
bomb from going off something he isn't succesful with on multiple occassions meaning we see the same scene over and over again. What Jones' film is great at though is making this scene different every time as Colter falls for the attractive Christina the love interest of Sean Fentress the man who Colter has taken the body of. As well as the interesting story there are great performances from Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga, Michelle Monaghan and a slightly creepy Jeffrey Wright as the Source Code inventor. While it isn't as inventive as Moon it's good to see an intelligent blockbuster with plenty of excitement and twists as well as a cute little romantic edge and some interesting themes about what it means to exist and how we as humans can find redemption. I have to say though I'm still puzzled about that whole end scene. 


Submarine 

We end this half with two films from debut directors who are better known as actors firstly The IT Crowd's Richard Ayoade who helmed the likeable coming-of-age film Submarine. Set in the Welsh city of Swansea it follows Craig Roberts' teenage oddball seeking the love of kooky pretty classmate Jordana. For me the film perfectly captured the awkwardness of teenage affection and having to deal with both love and heartache in equal measure. Some found the character of Oliver quite annoying but personally I found him fairly endearing and his first person narrative was very well-handled. I think that Ayoade's direction perfectly suited this quirky little tale and the subplot involving Craig's mum, played by Sally Hawkins, being tempted by an ex-boyfriend was also fairly amusing. Submarine could be put into the same category as other films with strange adolescent males such as Rushmore or Harold and Maude and while it's not a patch on either of these I can definitely say that it is the best Welsh film of the year and Paddy Considine's arrogant psychic is a work of utter genius.



Tyrannosaur 

Talking of Considine his directorial debut is the final film on the list and again it isn't the easiest watch but it is a great study of the human condition. Peter Mullan puts in another assured performance as Joseph a drunk and a widower who is often getting into fights and alienates most of those around him. He forms an odd bond with charity shop worker Hannah played by the fantastic Olivia Colman who herself is the victim of abuse at the hands of her paranoid husband. With scenes of extreme violence, animal cruelty and rape, Tyrannosaur was never going to be hailed as the feel-good film of the year but what it is is the latest in a long line of great British realist films. I can't praise Colman's performance enough as the frightened and abused Hannah she owns most of the film but that's not taking anything away from the brilliant Mullan. Like with the other performers turned directors on this list it is clear that Considine is a student of the craft of film-making and displays his knowledge in full force in this gripping and compelling film.


Next time we'll get onto the Top Ten films of 2011.