Cineworld: Ricki and the Flash; American Ultra; The Visit

Been watching a few films since the last review update came out, so there are three today and another two coming along soon – both YA adaptations. Firstly, though, three completely bonkers films, with mild spoilers lurking beyond the cut…

Cine world: Diary of a Teenage Girl, Trainwreck, Mistress America

Yesterday we looked at recent films telling the stories of men and today I’m following up with three films about the stories of women. I have to say, women are faring much better than their male counterparts at the moment. I don’t know whether this is just because there are still so few films with female leads that they have to be more interesting than those with male leads, if it’s a case of production companies, genres, or whether it’s simply my personal preferences coming into play.

Cine world: Pixels, Paper Towns, The Gift

It’s been a little while since I last did a film review, in which time I’ve seen quite a few films, so I’m going to break them down handily into two categories: those that concentrate on the problems of men and those that concentrate on the problems of women – and we’ll begin with the guys and catch up with the women tomorrow.

Now (that’s what I call) TV: Annabelle and Life Partners

When I was still signed off work sick I tried out the free trial of Now TV movies and when I bought my TV box, I got a movie’s subscription pack with it as well. However, I’ve not actually watched that many films on the movies pack, so I’m trying to get some value for money out of it before I unsubscribe. The problem is, I’ve seen most of the films that are on there, or I can get them on other services like Netflix or Amazon. I’m trying therefore to watch ones that I haven’t seen or at least don’t have on DVD or any of the other catch-up services. I had a little bit of a mini movie marathon a few days ago in which I watched a horror (Annabelle) and a comedy (Life Partners).

Cine world: Inside Out and Magic Mike XXL

Inside Out is being hailed as a return to form for Pixar, following a series of sequels. I have to say, I really enjoyed it, but I do wonder if it’s a film that is aimed at adults more than children in some respects. As you probably know, the film takes place inside the head of 11-year-old Riley and its leading characters are the five emotions that control her: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger. So far, so Numskulls. However, what makes this film really stand out is that it’s not simply about the interactions between the different emotions and the way they battle for control of Riley, it has a lot more to say about how our minds and emotions work in terms of other aspects, such as memories, personality formation, nostalgia and forgetting.

At the ‘flix: Life After Beth

Life after Beth is one of those films that I always thought I’d get round to see when it was at the pictures but never did because there were other things after my attention – and this is part of its problem – it’s never going to stand out.

Cine world: Ant Man and True Story

It seems as though the world and her husband have weighed in with their opinions on Ant Man, but hey, the internet always needs yet more opinions, right? I also saw the latest Jonah Hill/James Franco film, True Story.

Cine world: Amy and Minions reviews

One of the things I’ve missed about blogging is writing my thoughts about films. Although I don’t necessarily want to get into the long monthly posts that I used to do, I would like to reinstitute a bit of film discussion on here as and when the mood takes!

Normally, when I’m away from work or it so we can, I like to get a decent amount of films in. However, one of the drawbacks of being off sick with arm problems is that driving has been very difficult, and therefore get into the cinema much harder than it usually is. This means I’m really behind on the latest films and haven’t seen very many recent releases-but last weekend I did manage to get to see a couple of films: Minions and Amy.

That was 2013 then…

Another year over etc – here are my favourite Film, Music and TV of the year.

Film

I saw 95 films this year – although one was a Doctor Who episode so possibly doesn’t count, and one was on a plane, but that probably does count. That’s a decent return on my unlimited card, no? I’ve reviewed each film so won’t revisit that here, but here are my top and bottom 10 of the year. So I really like singing in a film. Who’da thunk?

Bottom 10
10. The Place Beyond the Pines
9. Planes
8. The Iceman
7. Welcome to the Punch
6. Admission
5. White House Down
4. The Counsellor
3. Diana
2. Austenland
1. Man of Steel

Top 10
10. Sunshine on Leith / Kill Your Darlings / Frances Ha
9. Philomena
8. The Way, Way Back
7. Pitch Perfect
6. Frozen
5. Wreck-it-Ralph
4. Warm Bodies
3. The Sessions
2. Behind the Candelabra
1. Les Miserables

Music

I’m not sure I really have the love of music I once did (except in films, perhaps) – in a world with no good music TV or music magazines I end up relying pretty much just on Radio 1 and 6 Music to tell me what’s out there. But there were tracks and albums I really enjoyed, so here’s a top 10 of stuff…

10. David Bowie – The Next Day

Bowie, Beyonce. They were all at this sneaking out albums malarkey. And the Thin White Duke snuck out a great single and video to go with it all.

9. Justin Timberlake – Mirrors

Justin Timberlake’s making music again? But I thought he was a serious actor these days, dahling? Oh well, if he makes songs like this, he can do whatever he wants, frankly.

8. Vampire Weekend – Diane Young

Their most recent album didn’t quite have the urgency of their earlier stuff, but the lead single was still a bouncy pop cracker.

7. Kurt Vile – Air Bud

Where did this come from? It doesn’t even have a video. Stil, it was all over 6 music and I liked it a lot.

6. London Grammar – Wasting My Young Years

Best new act of the year? No question.

5. Naughty Boy feat Sam Smith – La La La

This tune was a genuine grower. Even if the video creeps me out.

4. Lana Del Ray vs Cedric Gervais – Summertime Sadness

OK so the tune isn’t a 2013 one, but the mix was, and I had a rubbish summer that involved a very long process of not buying a house, so it’s kind of fitting.

3. Lorde – Royals

So pretty much the single of the year, and definitely the catchiest tune and beat. And it came from a 16 year-old. Makes you sick, no?

2. Haim – Falling

This and my top spot are fighting for album of the year – this is probably the better overall collection, but the next one possibly has more standout tracks. Close run thing, though. Love Haim.

1. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Sacrilige

Fantastic album and super-fantastic single. Loved this so much.

TV

Telly had a decent year, all told. Maybe there weren’t as many huge stand out new shows as in some years, but returning series had a strong showing and Netflix began to prove its worth…

20. Waterloo Road – OK, so the Scotland move was random and silly, and the current batch of pupils is a bit rubbish, but the staff roster is great and has delivered some excellent moments: Audrey, Christine, Nikki, Maggie, Grantly – it’s been totes emosh.
19. Hollyoaks – What? Rubbish gangsters aside, it’s good again. Honest.
18. The Great British Sewing Bee – I can’t sew and don’t give two figs about it – and yet, this fair warmed the cockles. Awww.
17. Top of the Lake – It went a bit skew-whiff by the end but it was still pretty good for the most part and lovely to see lots of ex-Neighbours getting work.
16. Being Human – it went out with a much better series than the one that preceded it – with the new trio working well – almost a shame we didn’t get a bit longer with them.
15. Educating Yorkshire – Awwww. Lovely.
14. The Fall – Yeah, so bits were… icky. But Gillian Anderson… just so awesome.
13. Strictly Come Dancing – A great series all in all, mainly because Tess/Claudia proved to be a delight as a presenting team and there were lots of nice surprises in the cast, such as Mark Benton and Deborah Meaden.
12. My Mad Fat Diary – Best new teen drama in years, and I’m quite happy to enjoy the random 90s nostalgia.
11. The Returned – Slight let-down of an ending aside, one of the most engrossing and intriguing shows in ages. And a fantastic soundtrack, too.
10. In the Flesh – Wonderful new take on zombies (see also The Returned) in a year that had a very good showing for the undead in TV and cinema.
9. Last Tango In Halifax – Love all these characters. So much.
8. Doctor Who – Well, a patchy year for the 50th. Series 7B was very hit and miss, the 50th was a great episode though it did miss something not getting all the doctors back. The Christmas special was a proper mess with some great stuff from Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman in the mix and some lovely lines/moments. Matt needed another year though, damn his nascent career. The show spoiled us with a ton of merchandise, radio and TV specials, minisodes, books and the Five(ish) Doctors though, so despite a few duff episodes it had a good anniversary celebration.
7. Neighbours – Not a perfect year, particularly given the vaguely racist axings of key cast – but when it was on form, it was really, really on form.
6. Orange is the New Black – One of the best new shows of the year, and it wasn’t even on TV. Welcome to the future, I guess.
5. Great British Bake-Off – Lovely Bake-Off. Horrible people on the internet hating the women in it. Scared BBC One might change it. Don’t change, GBBO!
4. Broadchurch – Last episode was a bit duff but otherwise this was fantastic stuff – from Chris Chibnall of all people. Sometimes life surprises you.
3. Game of Thrones – Again, not on TV. Well, kind of, but like many people I didn’t access it that way. So much drama! So good! For series 4 I’ll be going in no longer fresh though, having read all the books in the summer – I don’t know whether that will enhance or spoil my viewing.
2. An Adventure in Space and Time – Oh Mark Gatiss. Who knew you had this in you? But I’m so glad you did. Touching, beautiful, just wonderful. David Bradley has had a stonking good year (he’s in 2-4 of this countdown – all of which have made many people’s lists of the year. What a man.)
1. Breaking Bad – It really was a show that just got better and better. And another triumph for Netflix.

If I could melt your heart

Well, I managed to make it to August before flaking out on the films thing – but it’s the end of year and I want to do an end-of-year post, so the completist in me is just going to have to cover the films I saw September-December very briefly before I can justify an end-of-year review to myself.

I have friends who really hated Elysium. To me it wasn’t that bad – it was a decent set-up, with some nice special effects, but the resolution was pretty bad… a very average 5/10 sort of film, all in all. I teach a celebrity module, so I made myself watch One Direction: This is Us and Diana. The former went on FOREVER but I liked the band more afterwards, I even liked their music more, so as a promo job, job done. Resentful wasn’t being resentful enough though (but when he was, it was great). The latter was a cheesy Hallmark-TV slice of ridiculous, but it wasn’t *quite* as bad as I’d expected from the reviews. Bad, but just not quite bad enough to be a classic of schlock.

About Time is cheesy as all hell but it’s a nice, sweet twist on the romcom and on the father/son story. But the thing that happens at the end doesn’t make sense within the rules established early on in the film and thus undoes some of the good work – nice premise, decent middle, stupid ending. On the young men coming of age thing, I adored The Way, Way Back, however. Sweet, funny, heartfelt and worth a watch.

There’s been a lot made of the Bechdel test this year, and obviously I’ve been interested in the role of women in films as I’ve gone through this year of reviewing, so I was interested to watch In a World, about a female voice-over artist trying to make it in the world of film trailers. It’s quite fun, but very slight, and although our lead is a woman, many of the supporting cast are men. It does all become somewhat formulaic too, which is a bit of a shame. Rush is no good whatsoever when it comes to representing women. However, it’s a great piece of film otherwise, with Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl putting in excellent performances. The racing scenes are really good and the real-life story interesting enough to sustain the running time. It’s a bit cheesy in places, especially at the end, but a good watch nonetheless. I didn’t choose to see White House Down at the pictures, but caught it on a flight. It was everything you would expect, except possibly a bit more rubbish. Speaking of rubbish, Austenland is the only film I didn’t make it to the end of this year. I wanted to like it because it starred Kerri Russell and Jane Seymour, but I just couldn’t click with it. I guess it’s the kind of film you have to be in an exceptionally silly mood to enjoy. Maybe one day I’ll try and stomach the ending when I’m drunk and flicking about on Netflix or something, but I doubt it somehow.

I really loved a lot of things about Blue Jasmine, but I found it curious that Woody Allen has allegedly said it’s not meant to be a contemporary Streetcar Named Desire, because it is exactly that – well, aside from a few key details (I spent the whole time waiting for THAT scene from the play to be in the film, but it wasn’t) – Jasmine IS Blanche, the flat is even laid out like Stanley and Stella’s in the play. The performances are great and I love me a bit of misery porn. But something doesn’t *quite* hit it, I’m not sure why – maybe it just lacks an extra twist. Filth is in some ways a similar film in that it features a very unreliable protagonist who is completely screwed up and has substance abuse issues and who can’t respond properly to the people around them. I haven’t read the book but I know the more gross aspects are missing from the film – which has some nasty bits but nothing to rival the toilet or baby scenes in Trainspotting. James MacAvoy is brilliant but the film is somewhat lacking in having a ‘centre’ – a key hook. It’s OK, not something I’d watch again though.

It’s been a good year for films involving singing – and Sunshine on Leith is one of three in this recap alone. I know the plot is shonky, I know the idea of a Proclaimers-based musical is niche, but I loved it, mainly because it is so joyous and revels in its cheese. Well done Dexter Fletcher – who’d have thought that would be the kind of thing you’d direct? In other films involving music news, One Chance is something that sounds even weirder on paper – the life story of Paul Potts? Really? I went to watch it because it was one of those ‘hmmm, I’ve seen everything else’ kind of cinema trips. In actuality, it’s a very standard B-list Britromcom – plucky underdog sings his way to fame, gets the girl, etc. It’s not as bad as you’d expect, but it’s very formulaic. The weird thing about it is that they go to a lot of trouble in some places to emphasise the period detail – Potts worked in Carphone Warehouse (which it’s a bit of an ad for in places) and so you see older handsets… and then in the background there’s a GREAT BIG BLOODY EE SIGN, even though EE is pretty brand spanking new. You can’t change where you film, but you could try a bit harder not to get such anachronisms in shot. Honestly.

Next up, three book adaptations. I’ve read both How I Live Now and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire although the latter more recently, so remember it slightly better. Both were decent adaptations, I thought, both at the ‘adult’ end of the YA spectrum – very dark (one scene in How I Live Now is incredibly harrowing – more so than in the book – although I think Catching Fire is a bit more sanitised than its source material, as was the first film in the series) with some excellent bits. I’d watch both again – but the same isn’t true of Ender’s Game – which I haven’t read. I’ve heard good things about the book (and not good things about Orson Scott Card, the homophobic dolt) but the film was the very definition of meh – it couldn’t be more average if it tried.

In the realm of big-screen action, I liked Thor: The Dark World better than the original – didn’t love it but I did like it, went on a bit long, had some nice bits in it. Captain Phillips had some trailers that bothered me because it looked pretty racially dodgy – plucky white guy vs some bad Somalis – in practice, it’s more nuanced than that for a lot of the time – but then the ending is just… odd. It felt as if the director wanted to make some statement along the lines of ‘the pirates were human too and the white Mercans are baddies too’ – but then sort of bottles it at the end, with the result being a slightly odd taste in the mouth. Tom Hanks is much better than in Cloud Atlas though. As fighting against the elements films go, Gravity is better – a real visual spectacle, with a great performance from Sandra Bullock (hooray for a female-driven film), and George Clooney relishing his fun part. I didn’t find it quite the masterpiece some critics did, and the emotional journey of Bullock’s character wasn’t especially to my taste, but it’s a good space film that’s almost as interesting as Moon in its exploration of being lost in space – in fact, whilst Star Trek makes space look a lot of fun, both this and Moon make it seem hella boring. Sometimes Earth has enough to commend it.

Philomena was the ‘surprise hit’ of the year – that film that does way better and stays on screens for way longer than anyone imagined. Rightly so – it’s a good story, well-acted and made all the more gut punching knowing that whilst some of the real life details weren’t quite true, all the horrible ones were. A good year in cinema for Steve Coogan, then. The ‘surprise turkey’ of the year, on the other hand, was The Counsellor. So many good names attached to it, but so rubbish. I quite fancy some of Cameron Diaz’s mirrored nail polish though.

Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor is kind of a film, I guess? We saw it in 3D at the cinema anyway, and it was really great to see it there with the pre-credits skits and trailers that were a lot of fun, the audience cheering at key points, and some nice 3D. Whilst it wasn’t a perfect episode it was almost certainly the best episode this year and a good way – in conjunction with all the other specials – of marking the 50th. But more on that in my TV review.

Saving Mr Banks and Kill Your Darlings are both two interesting takes on true stories – each with a selective grasp of what really happened, as is always the case with such things. Both very enjoyable though and both sent me running to find out more of the real story whilst wanting to re-watch Mary Poppins and re-read some of the Beat Generation’s works. Emma Thompson and Daniel Radcliffe are excellent, too, whilst Dane DeHaan is creating himself quite the career in playing messed up misfits and looking like a little Leonardo DiCaprio. All in all, 2013’s been a good year for biopics.

And so to the final two films of the year. Disney has had a pretty good run this year – whilst Planes was a bit of a misfire, Monsters University was decent enough, and the likes of Wreck-It-Ralph and Saving Mr Banks have been welcome additions to its roster. On first glance, Frozen seems like more traditional mouse house fare – Princesses, romance, a cute snowman, animals, songs, a loose fairy story adaptation – and it’s true that it has all these things – but it also has a lovely story at its heart, a neat ending and the welcome gimmick of it being about two sisters – something rare in Disney films. The songs are great too and the frozen visuals stunning – even if Elsa’s castle is a direct rip-off of the Crystal Castle from She-Ra. Anchorman 2, much like its predecessor is part annoying, part inspired, part satire, part farce, part hilarious, part excruciatingly awful. It raises plenty of laughs but also has plenty of terrible bits. A decent enough satire of rolling news, though.