Matt's Alternate Oscars

It's Oscar Time again and obviously on Sunday night there will be much tweeting from me and then the Oscar Blog will follow soonafter but for the first time I'm presenting my films that should've been there and don't be surprised if a lot of names turn up in the same categories. Apart from in the Best Picture category I'll try and keep my comments about the nominees brief but you know what I'm like I do waffle on.

Best Picture: Drive

Not only should Drive be nominated for this year's Best Picture but there's no doubt in my mind that it should win the top prize. If you don't want to take my word for it then how about Denzel Washington's wife, who watches all the nominated films on DVD when her husband can't be bothered, she also believes this was the film of the year and should win. But why? Simply it's an exquisitely joyous piece of cinema evoking memories of times gone by while simultaneously keeping things modern. Great performances from Ryan Gosling as the mysterious Driver backed up Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks, Ron Perlman and Bryan Cranston all add to the film as does the great soundtrack. I think you just know when you're watching a great film and when I watched Drive I felt just that.

Nominees:

Bridesmaids - To be fair Oscar has at least acknowledged comedy with The Artist but this brilliant all-female affair should be nominated for me than its excellent screenplay. The fact that this proved that women could do the gags just as well as the men meant that this was a fairly landmark piece of work and it was bloody hilarious.

Poetry - This Korean film made very few end of year lists but was a beautifully shot piece with a masterful lead performance. A film about growing old and losing part of yourself while still trying to do the right thing is set against an old lady trying her hardest to write a poem. Completely heart-breaking but at the same time strangely uplifting this film deserved to be seen by more people.

Senna - A brilliantly shot film about a man taken to soon which was brilliantly shot and engaging so much so that you wouldn't think that this was a documentary. Asif Kapadia's film about the life of Ayrton Senna took me by surprise the first time I saw it as I wasn't an F1 fan but the great trick of this film is making you see the man behind the sport. On the way to the inevitable ending there was rivalry, greed and a man who wanted to give back to the town from which he came and I personally loved every minute of it. 

Shame- Steve McQueen's story of a sex addict trying to deal with his life and look after his emotionally unstable sister is a supremely artistic work by a man who has an eye for detail. Every shot is perfectly crafted giving you a look into this man's world and the way he thinks. I was totally taken aback with how much I admired this film, especially given the content, so McQueen and lead actor Michael Fassbender did a brilliant job making you see through the nudity to a study of a torn and complex individual.

The Skin I Live In - I think generally Pedro Almodovar's output has been great but this was a film that I found a lot darker than his usual Penelope Cruz starring comedy drama. This film was a thriller with both sex and violence and an intriguing lead performance from Antonio Banderas as a plastic surgeon wanting to create a new skin but being driven by revenge after an incident involving a family member. This was shocking but incredibly well put-together and written by Almodovar and his brother just a great watch that held my attention from beginning to end

Take Shelter - I watched this film very recently and am still intrigued why it wasn't nominated for any Oscars seeing as that it is an American production starring two Academy Award nominees. At its heart is a terrific performance by Michael Shannon, see below, as Curtis  a man who is convinced that a disaster is on its way and is desperate to try and protect them. The great thing about this film is how director Jeff Nichols takes us inside Curtis' head so we're never sure if we're seeing his own visions or what is actually happening. This is a well written film letting the actors say a lot with saying very little and even the young actress playing Curtis' deaf daughter is fantastic. This is what modern American film-making should look like it's just a shame Oscar focuses on saccharine melodrama instead.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - A couple of nods for Gary Oldman and the film's script means that this has at least been given some sort of recognition. However Tomas Alfredson's big screen adaptation of John Le Carre's classic work deserved to be given a great deal more nominations that it was. This is a moody and atmospheric piece full of great supporting performances and a real feeling that you are there with Smiley as he carries out his investigations on his spying colleagues. I think a lot has been said about Oldman's performance but if others like Tom Hardy, Mark Strong and Benedict Cumberbatch weren't there to back him up then he wouldn't seem half as good. This was much more than a film just about spies and the characters really resonated once the film had finished.

Tyrannosaur - Paddy Considine's debut feature showed that the actor had learnt well from the directors he had previously acted for. It's a shame that Oscar seems to skip over British realism films as this odd romance between a drunk and a battered woman was involving and deftly crafted by Considine who kept the story simple yet involving. Two great leads in Peter Mullan doing drunk and gruff and Olivia Colman doing timid yet strong and both excel in these roles as does Eddie Marsan as Colman's violent husband. While some of the material here could be seen as clichéd Considine and his cast create something beautiful out of the hatred on display and really make you think about other people's lives and their daily grind.

We Need to Talk About Kevin - Quite a lot has been said about this film which shows how a mother's love can get over even the worst atrocities that her son commits. Tilda Swinton's harassed Eva is the star here as we see her dealing with motherhood and then with a tragedy that Kevin has caused and in each instance director Lynne Ramsay gives us reason to care for her and even the outwardly evil Kevin. This film is about whether we are truly born evil or if we are a product of our environment and how our views can change about our own families. Ramsay has a great eye and keeps the dialogue brief but effective which ultimately produced one of my favourite films of the year.

Best Director: Nicholas Winding Refn (Drive)

As well as being brilliantly acted, Drive is definitely the best directed film of the year thanks to Nicholas Winding Refn's skill at bringing out the best in his characters like he did with Bronson a few years ago. I just love how he was able to put together this crime story and romance together and guide you through the streets of L.A. and Driver's world. Winding Refn will hopefully be noticed by Oscar soon, as he has already done by BAFTA, but when he does we can all say we got there first. 

Nominees:
Tomas Alfredson (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) - Like with Let The Right One in it was Alfredson's way of diverting this film away from the genre in which it should sit that made it so satisfying.
Pedro Almodovar (The Skin I Live In) - When Almodovar has a film out he should always be recognised as best director, even though he rarely is, The Skin I Live In was for me his best film in years but even in a film involving major plastic surgery you can still see all his directorial markings. 
Steve McQueen (Shame) - Not all former artists can make the transition to film director so seamlessly but after Hunger it seems that McQueen has a real eye for focusing in on characters and with his first fully fictional work he gives a film all about desire whether it is wanted or not.
Lynne Ramsay (We Need to Talk About Kevin)- After years away from the director's chair, Ramsay returned with a very hard job to make this film featuring mass murder and somewhat unlikeable characters a cinematic hit and she did this and more making We Need to Talk About Kevin one of the best reviewed films of the year.

Best Actor: Michael Shannon (Take Shelter)

Take Shelter - Bad dream by teasertrailer
Michael Shannon was nominated for an Oscar three years ago for being the best thing in Sam Mendes' now forgettable domestic period piece Revolutionary Road. In Take Shelter he brings his sort of nervy looks to the forefront to play Curtis a hard-working family man with a deaf daughter who starts getting visions of a possible disaster and decides to spend all of his time and money on putting together a strong enough shelter for his family. Shannon's skill is making us wonder whether Curtis is completely bonkers or there is something more to his visions and he also gives a man who clearly loves his family and is worried about the future. I'm completely shocked that Shannon wasn't nominated in a category which sees fairly ordinary turns from Brad Pitt and George Clooney but then they have the star power that Shannon unfortunately doesn't possess. 

Nominees: 
Michael Fassbender (Shame) - If you can get over seeing his member multiple times in the first five minutes then you'll totally be won over by Fassbender's performance as Brandon a man with a fragile past who gets by on the thrill of sex who has to deal with his unreliable sister for me his turn bought to mind Christian Bale in American Psycho, which surely isn't a bad thing.
Brendan Gleason (The Guard) - Building on his great turn in In Bruges, Gleason once again hit the right tone between comedic and dramatic as Sergeant Gerry Boyle a small town policeman who has to deal with a large scale drug deal and forms an odd couple relationship with Don Cheadle's US Cop.
Gleason had me laughing throughout although he also handled the moments of poignancy perfectly this was certainly a role that didn't get the credit it deserved.
Ryan Gosling (Drive) - A role that wasn't showy enough for Oscar, but then I suppose you could say the same about Gary Oldman, Gosling's central performance in Drive was what tied everything together and he let his face do the talking throughout as Driver was a character with few words but a lot of intensity. I thought definitely the law of averages would see one Gosling performance be nominated but sadly this wasn't the case.
Daniel Henshall (Snowtown) - With Animal Kingdom last year Australia had a strong showing however no love seems to have been given to Snowtown in which Daniel Henshall is completely captivating as a drifter who charms all the people in a small Australian suburb before going on a killing spree convincing some of the locals to join him in bumping off people he felt deserved to die. Henshall's ability to make John Bunting seem charismatic one minute and then the next completely terrifying surely deserves recognition but this sadly wasn't the case.

Best Actress: Catherine Deneuve (Potiche)

It is shocking to me that in her lengthy career the legendary Catherine Deneuve has only been nominated for one Oscar and that her role in the brilliant comedy Potiche has completely gone unnoticed. In the film Deneuve essentially plays a trophy wife who is called to run her husband's company once he is taken ill and changes things for the better. Deneuve makes Suzanne her own and makes the screen sparkle as her diminutive frame makes its away around this factory as she brings colour to this drab institution. Deneuve's chemistry with Gerard Depardieu was also great allowing these two legends to sparkle together including a very interesting dance sequence. A combination of both great comic timing and a sprinkling of pathos made this for me one of the best roles of the year but was left out of Oscar's list presumably because it was in a foreign language, from a comedy and saw an older woman who was comfortable in her own skin. 

Nominees: 
Olivia Colman (Tyrannosaur) - Probably best known for her comedic roles, Olivia Colman had a great year impressing in both Tyrannosaur and The Iron Lady and it is her performance in the former that I thought was fantastic. As Hannah she shows us a woman who is desperate to get on with her everyday life despite the fact that her husband treats her horribly and eventually finds solace in her relationship with a kindly drunk. Colman's everywoman persona fit well in but we also saw her flex her acting chops in some of the film's grittier scenes.
Jeong-Hi Jun (Poetry) - Like with Deneuve it's no surprise that another older foreign lady got left out of the running because what Jeong-Hi Jun demonstrated in Poetry deserves some sort of recognition. She was able to effortlessly portray a woman who has to deal with the fact that her grandson has been involved in a gang rape while at the same time finding out she is going senile. Her small frame and timid nature completely contrast with everything that is happening to her and Jun's expressions and body language perfectly portray what this woman must be going through.
Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) - I suppose Oscar couldn't include everybody in its list but I would've preferred to see Olsen's turn as the young girl taken in by a cult than Rooney Mara's impression of Noomi Rapace from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Olsen's talents are evident as she is able to give us the two sides of this character the one that is receptive to the cult's charms and the other who is trying to shake off her old life and readjust to normal society. I hate to use the word star-making turn but that's exactly what this was and for me Olsen should've been this year's Jennifer Lawrence in the Best Actress category.
Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin) - No surprise here either with Swinton's Eva being one of the most captivating characters of cinema in 2011 as a woman who has no desire to be a mother in the first place but sticks with her role despite the fact that her son does some disgusting things. Like with all the performances featured here it's not so much about the words given as the performance as a whole and that's especially true of Swinton as the scenes which focus on Eva in the present day are almost without dialogue and she is still able to give us a full-fleshed performance which is more that I can say for some of those that are nominated for an Oscar this year.


Best Supporting Actor: Andy Serkis (Rise of the Planet of the Apes)

Rise of the Planet of the Apes Clip 2 by teasertrailer
Well I think we all know that anybody donning a motion capture suit was never going to be nominated for an Oscar but I think it's about time they did because as Caesar, Serkis was definitely the heart of Rotpota. In fact I think putting him in the supporting category is almost doing him a disservice as he has to lead so much of the action he could almost feature in the lead category. It must be such a difficult job to convey so much emotion without saying a single word but Serkis manages this as he leads the ape uprising against Brian Cox and Draco Malfoy out of Harry Potter. He is able to combine ape mannerisms with the human ones that have been bestowed upon him by his master and most of all we are able to sympathise with his plight and understand why he did what he did in the first place. Serkis is a great actor with or without the motion capture, as we saw when he played Ian Dury, but in the apes film he proved that this new technology can still produce top notch performances. 

Nominees: 
John Hawkes (Martha Marcy May Marlene) - To me Hawkes was better here than in Winter's Bone last year as the charismatic cult leader who is able to charm the girls in his group only to abuse them later on.
Ezra Miller (We Need to Talk About Kevin) - As the older version of Kevin, Miller is both sinister and creepy but in the final scenes he still lets us sympathise with his character.
Michael Smiley (Kill List) - Hitmen don't come any more charming than Smiley's Gal in this British horror thriller as he convinces his old mate to do one more batch of killings.
Luis Tosar (Cell 211) - Almost a list of villains here, Tosar is brilliant as the prison top dog who takes the lead during a prison break unaware that one of the supposed inmates is the institute's newest guard.

Best Supporting Actress: Sarina Farhadi (A Separation)

A Separation has done surprisingly well during this awards season with a Best Foreign Film award definitely on the cards as well as a nod in the screenplay category. However with most Iranian films director Asghar Farhadi looked close to home when casting the daughter of the warring couple in the film as his own daughter Sarina ended up getting the part. For me her role was the pivotal one in this film and she played it with a wide-eyed innocence which gave way to a better understanding of the way the world works as the film goes on. Her Termeh has to decide which of her parents to live with and her decision is seemingly based on an incident that happens during the film which is something that makes her question her trusting nature. I thought Sarina was completely natural in front of the camera and easily one of the best things about the film but as I've said before performances in films not in the English language tend to be overlooked in the acting categories. 

Nominees: 
Jessica Chastain (Take Shelter) - She has been nominated for The Help but for me Chastain's best performance of the year was where she played Michael Shannon's worried wife who has to take control once she realises her husband's altered mental state.
Elle Fanning (Super 8) - After wowing in Somewhere the more talented of the Fanning sisters was once again a strong presence in Super 8 as Alice the young teen who all the boys love but has got a lot of family issues.
Carey Mulligan (Shame) - For so beautifully singing her own version of New York, New York Mulligan deserves a nomination for me she captured the fragility of her character perfectly.
Shailene Woodley (The Descendants) - As George Clooney's elder daughter, Woodley has garnered a few nods but Oscar seemingly bumped her possibly because of her age which is a shame as she perfectly handled the role of a troubled teen forced to be a role model to her young sister following her mother's accident.

Best Original Screenplay: Abi Morgan and Steve McQueen (Shame)

The beauty of Shame's screenplay is to give us a central character who is seemingly unlikeable yet is able to convey a sense of humanity to the audience. There is also a lot of scenes that don't feature any dialogue yet speak volumes and the relationship between Fassbender and Mulligan's brother and sister is never fully explored so Morgan and McQueen let us make our own mind up about what has happened in the past. It is a testament to both of them that we never really think about how great these characters are and how hard it must be to write a script that features few heavy dialogue led scenes.

Nominees: 
Drake Doremus and Ben York Jones (Like Crazy)- Doremus and Jones' bare bones script allowed the two lead actors to improvise to an extent but at the same time they understood how two people who start dating and then fall in love would interact with each other.
Michelangelo Frammartino (La Quattro Volte) - Though The Artist's screenplay will highlight the fact that a silent film still has a script but it is Frammartino's completely silent goat movie which still gives us a great character who is a man who interacts better with animals than he does with other people.
Ignazio Martinez De Pison and Fernanda Trueba (Chico and Rita)- The two men involved with writing this surprise animated film nominee perfectly capture the jazz scene in Cuba and give us one of the best cinematic romances of the past few years.
John Michael McDonaugh (The Guard) - Perfectly combining a cop story, a comedy and a character study McDonagh's screenplay is equally as great as his brother's work on In Bruges.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Lynne Ramsay and Rory Kinnear (We Need To Talk About Kevin)

Lionel Shriver's source novel is written as a series of letters from mother Eva to her son Kevin and through that the readers learn the backstory between the two and how Eva's life has changed since the incident that Kevin has caused. But obviously this couldn't work on the big screen so Ramsay and Kinnear had to turn this into a multi-layered screenplay and turn the content of the letters into a compelling story with equally real characters. Though the performances is what the critics have focused on I think the adaptation is equally as important for the filmic version of this popular yet hard to read novel. 

Nominees:
Augustin and Pedro Almodovar (The Skin I Live In) - The Almodovar brothers have created a screenplay that keeps you guessing to the character's motives and identities until the very last word.
Hossein Amini (Drive)- It's a testament to Amini that I didn't think Drive was based on a book and the dialogue that he uses seems completely original and the characters different from anything else that has been seen this year.
Richard Ayoade (Submarine) - A film that relies heavily on its dialogue and its lead character's first person narrative is lucky to have the brilliant Ayoade adapting the source material as well directing.
Shaun Grant (Snowtown) - Grant's screenplay is based on true events and the books written around it but he still has worked hard to recreate and imagine various conversations that happened before and during the atrocious murders that the film centres on.

Best Documentary: Senna

I do think enough has been said about this film apart from the fact that it is ridiculous that it hasn't even been nominated for an Oscar as it seems like the obvious choice to win the award.

Nominees:
Bobby Fischer against the World - A film not just about chess but about a tortured individual who was addicted to his game.
The Interrupters - A great documentary that I would've chosen as the winner had Senna been nominated for an Oscar this follows a group of former gang members who now try and stop the violence in their native Chicago
Life in a Day - Kevin McDonald's ambitious project where people sent in video diaries about what happened to them on a certain July day in 2010 and from there is able to create an interesting and thought provoking film.
Project Nim - A film about an ape who didn't form a planet but that was taught to sort of behave like a human only to end up in captivity and one that wasn't played in motion capture by Andy Serkis. 

Best Animated Film: Arietty

As happy as I am to see Chico and Rita nominated in this category I would love to see it sit alongside the latest Studio Ghibli outing as the team adapt The Borrowers to fit in with their own unique animated style. Here director Hiromasa Yonebayashi creates another fantasy world with brilliant characters and as you can imagine from a Ghibli film the animation is just completely beautiful. As both Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle got nominations I was surprised that this masterful film wasn't nominated in a category that includes Puss in Boots and Kung Fu Panda 2. 

Nominees: 
The Adventures of Tintin - Though this wasn't great it still is superior to some of the other nominated films and anything that features a script written by Joe Cornish and Edgar Wright deserves recognition somewhere.
My Dog Tulip - A film that's brilliant animation makes up for its uneven story this was another film that didn't make an impact on its release but if we're honouring animated films then this deserves to at least be nominated.

Best Film Not in the English Language: The Skin I Live In


I have said a lot about this already but the fact that this Spanish film hasn't even been recognised by Oscar shows a great discrepancy between the American awards and the BAFTAs in which it won this award.

Nominees: 
Cell 211- A gripping and engaging prison break thriller from Spain is a lot better than most of the thrillers currently being release in Hollywood.
How I Ended This Summer - A film that relies slightly on the cabin fever that occurs with two men on a desolate station in the Arctic Ocean, this Russian movie has two great performances and a simply yet affecting screenplay.
Poetry - I've already talked about the beauty and brilliant performances in this Korean masterpiece in my list of Best Films of the year so have a read of that.
La Quattro Volte - A film coming out of Italy looking at four seasons in a small village and the reliance on goat farming it sounds like it would be completely dull but on the contrary this is one of the most compelling films that I saw throughout last year.

Quick Picks: 
Cinematography: Newton Tomas Siegel (Drive)
Editing: Chris King and Greggers Sall (Senna)
Art Direction: Carlos Bodelon (The Skin I Live In)
Costume Design: Pascaline Chavanne (Potiche)
Make-Up: Victoria Down (Rise of the Planet of the Apes)
Visual Effects: Wayne Eaton (Super 8)
Sound: Mark Ulano (Super 8)
Sound Editing: Ben Burtt (Super 8)
Score: Cliff Martinez (Drive)
Original Song: Brett McKenzie - Life's a Happy Song (The Muppets)

That's my opinion so tell me what you think leave a comment below. 

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.