The Best Films of 2015: Sicario

Denis Villeneuve’s thriller follows FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) as she is drafted into a task force set up to tackle the Mexican drug cartels. There she meets the uncompromising Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) and the mysterious but very knowledgeable Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro).

As Kate is drawn into a shadowy world where the lines between friend and foe are difficult to see, she finds her ideals challenged by the actions of those around her.

Sicario – which means ‘hitman’ in Spanish – is a tense and well-constructed thriller with a message. Its commentary on the drug war in Mexico is well thought out and not merely a bolted on extra serving to justify gunfights and action sequences, as can often be seen in thrillers that appropriate real-world situations in order to give themselves a ‘serious’ edge.

The film’s cast also give their very best with Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro being particularly noteworthy.

For a more comprehensive review check out the write up I did for the film during its initial release:

Or you can just go and watch the film. Your time will not be wasted if you do.

The Best Films of 2015: It Follows

Nineteen-year-old Jay (Maika Monroe) is a relatively ordinary teenager who lives in the suburbs of Detroit. Her whole life is changed one night, however, when after a sexual encounter with a man she finds herself the victim of basically the world’s worst STD: a shape-shifting creature that will follow her until it eventually catches and kills her. The only way to get rid of this ‘it’ is by sleeping with someone else and passing it on.

As Jay is relentlessly pursued by this creature, she enlists her friends to help rid herself of it once and for all.

David Robert Mitchell’s second feature film It Follows is everything a horror film should be: it’s atmospheric, has a genuinely scary premise, and is made with a true sense of craftsmanship. Think less Paranormal Activity and more John Carpenter’s work on Halloween and The Thing. Like those Carpenter films, It Follows also has a great original soundtrack – from electronic artist Disasterpiece - that beautifully complements the tension inducing cinematography and editing.

Destined for cult status in future years, It Follows promises big things for both its director and its young cast.

The Best Films of 2015: Birdman

Just making this rundown of the year’s best films – it was released on January 1^st, 2015 in the UK - is the Academy award winning Birdman.

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s fifth feature film follows washed-up actor Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton), the star of a film franchise revolving around the eponymous superhero Birdman. After leaving Hollywood, Riggan is now attempting to jump start his career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway play based on the work of Raymond Carver.

As well as the numerous challenges that arise from putting on a Broadway play, Riggan must also contend with an embittered daughter (Emma Stone), an all too serious method actor (Edward Norton), and hallucinations in which he has superpowers.

Birdman is a film with both style and substance: shot and edited so as to appear as one continuous shot, the film seamlessly pulls the viewer down winding theatre corridors into claustrophobic dressing rooms and then out onto the dark streets of New York. It’s an entrancing experience for anyone used to watching films shot and edited in a more conventional manner.

In regards to substance, the film has themes many of us can relate to: wanting to be recognised for our achievements, wanting to feel like we’ve done something worthwhile with our lives, these are things many of us experience every day.

If this isn’t enough to convince you of the merits of Birdman then, please be assured, the film is also tremendously funny. A scene where Edward Norton’s character gets a little too ‘excited’ after an intimate scene during a preview of Riggan’s play is a highlight.

In its examination of the world of theatre and the egos of actors, Birdman stands as a unique film. It also makes for a witty, visually fascinating, and wonderfully engaging introduction to the work of its director, whose next film The Revenant – out in January – is already generating a fair amount of critical praise. 

The Best Films of 2015: Whiplash

With the New Year fast approaching, a rundown of the year's best films (in the humble opinion of this critic) seems appropriate. First up: Whiplash.

Young and talented drummer Andrew harbours dreams of greatness but doesn’t seem challenged at the music school he attends. That is until he meets Fletcher, the conductor of the school’s leading jazz band. As a result of Fletcher’s brutal, unorthodox methods and his perfectionist attitude, Andrew finds himself pushed to the very limits of his musical ability and sanity. 

Whiplash was nominated for five Academy awards and it’s not hard to see why. Everything about it from its screenplay, cinematography, and acting – J. K. Simmons won Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars for his portrayal of Fletcher – is superb.

It’s also relentlessly exciting. The scenes in the jazz band’s practice room where Fletcher pushes Andrew and the other students for even better and better performances feel like something from a thriller, with Fletcher taking on the role of the role of the supercriminal whose job consists of throwing obstacle after obstacle in front of the film’s hero. Sedate drama this is not.

Director Damien Chazelle’s next film is a musical starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling and is set for a release in the summer. If it is crafted with any of the passion and care of Whiplash then it is surely worth the price of a cinema ticket. 

Krampus review

Michael Dougherty’s first feature film was the Halloween-themed anthology Trick r Treat. Despite being well received by critics and festival audiences, it was practically shelved by Warner Bros and released straight to DVD.

Dougherty’s second film Krampus is based around that most famous holiday of all, Christmas, and unlike his first it has been given a full theatrical release. 

Krampus is also more family orientated than Trick r Treat and as such hearkens back to films of the 80’s like Gremlins and The Lost Boys, films that were just dark enough to satisfy teenagers and adults yet were not so overwhelmingly scary as to be off limits to younger children.

As previously mentioned, Krampus is a Christmas movie and as such it begins with that quintessentially modern Christmas scene: the Black Friday supermarket riot. Images of shop clerks being bowled over by the rush of people, adults beating each other with skateboards, and security guards gleefully tasering errant shoppers, are set to Bing Crosby’s version of ‘It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.’

In this opening sequence, we are also introduced to Max, one of the film’s key characters, as he fights another participant in a nativity play – a fight which the adults in the audience film on their mobiles.

The rest of the film follows Max as his immediate and extended family – his aunt, uncle, and cousins - celebrate Christmas together. Of course when so many different people with different personalities are forced into close proximity there is bound to be clashes, and the most heated of these occurs over dinner. This leads to a frustrated Max tearing up the letter he’d planned to send to Santa.

The next morning, Max and his family wake up to find that a blizzard has struck the town, pretty much cutting it off from the rest of the outside world. They soon discover that this blizzard is only the beginning of a terrifying series of events marking the arrival of Krampus, the shadow of Saint Nicholas who comes to punish rather than reward and take rather than give.

The balance between horror, comedy, and family drama is appropriately judged and none gets in the way of the other. The relationships between the characters are also well defined although there are some elements, such as the relationship between Max’s parents, which perhaps could have been better explored.

Krampus himself is a suitably menacing antagonist, and the designs of both him and his multiform minions have a satisfying nightmarish yet playful quality to them.

There is also a nice nod to Krampus’s Germanic origins with the addition of the family’s German grandmother Omi. Her backstory is particularly pertinent to the film and is depicted in a wonderfully stylised animated sequence.

Buried within all this, is a thoroughly Christmasy message about the importance of giving and some quite mature themes about how nostalgia affects our view of the world.

Although it’s difficult to say whether Krampus will attain the cult status of the films it tries to ape – Gremlins has already been mentioned – it does make for some fun and creepy Christmas fare.

Star Rating: 3/5