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February 2025

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As usual, a rundown of the new films I saw this year – from least liked to most liked.

Ghost Dance – this was a short that I saw alongside The Deathless Woman and like… I just don’t get it. It’s not something I would have chosen to watch (I was there to see the main film) so I guess that’s why it’s at the least liked spot on the list.
Color Out of Space – I guess I was expecting something more horror? I’m not that keen on horror but I thought I’d give weird-horror a try and like this wasn’t even that weird.
Little Joe – This was ok and did the “a bit unsettling” thing well but also it was a bit boring.
Guest of Honour – This was ok also.
Faustina: Love and Mercy – My Mum wanted to see this so I got tickets for us both. It’s kind of billed as a docudrama and I guess I was expecting more of a narrative of the life of St Faustina. It’s more maybe a quarter about St Faustina, a third about Blessed Fr Michael Sopocko trying to get the cause of Divine Mercy really going and then the rest is about Divine Mercy and works that current sisters do.
The Deathless Woman – So the director of this film was talking about it when I saw it and she mentioned how it’s kind of like how you might present a documentary as a theatrical production, which was an interesting approach. I was aware that there is had been a lot of persecution of the Roma during the Second World War and that now there is a lot of anti-Roma (and Traveller) sentiment and action, but I hadn’t really realised that the violence they experience was at this level.
The King – I mean, I don’t know that this needed to be made? It’s a fairly standard King of England goes to war with France kind of thing. The funniest part was how one of the filmmakers at the screening I saw talked about how they’d really boosted the parts for women and haha they really have not.
To Live To Sing – So Chinese opera is not everyone’s cup of tea but I like that sort of thing and this was a really touching story about the head of an opera troop’s struggle to keep the group together and their art alive.
Abominable – I am saw this and really wanted to eat buns but I had to dash off to see another film and didn’t have time.
Tell Me Who I Am – I didn’t know anything about this going in other than one brother had totally lost his memory and his twin brother knew everything and I think if you are going to see it, maybe find out what happened to the two brothers in advance.
Judy & Punch – All of the things that happen in a Punch & Judy show are in like the first half and there is a thing that happens and everyone laughed and then realised, wait, these are not puppets.
Mr Jones – I guess we know Stalin was terrible, but the news hadn’t quite gotten out in 1933.
Western Stars – This is just Springsteen playing the music from his album and then doing some talky-musing bits in between. It was ok and the msuic was nice.
Jojo Rabbit – As much as imaginary friend Hitler was amusing for a while, I don’t know that he was necessary for the whole film but I guess he was in the book?
Le Mans ’66 – Everywhere else (everywhere North American maybe) this film is called Ford Vs Ferrari like no one knows anything about what happens at Le Mans or…who knows really. I guess this is better for people who aren’t big racing fans, but I did enjoy it.
Synchronic – This was my 10th most liked film of the year which I wasn’t expecting. I feel like perhaps a lot of people may have found this to be better than they thought it was going to be. It handles the time travel in a new, interesting way and Anthony Mackie is really great in this.
The Red Sea Diving Resort – I knew a little about the stuff that happens in this film, but not really the extent of what went on. It’s also nice to see Chris Evans in a not-Captain-America role.
The Two Popes – I saw this at LFF where I sat between a priest and an old dude who shushed the priest for eating crisps towards the beginning of the film. Is The Two Popes entirely factual? No. Does it give an accurate portrayal of the personalities of Popes Benedict and Francis? Hard to say. Is it enjoyable anyway? Yes. The main thing is that it really reminds us that these two men are human, like the rest of us.
Spider-Man: Far from Home – What even happened in this film? Oh yeah, Peter Parker travelled around Europe and stuff. There have been a lot of Spider-Man films over the years. This was fun.
Avengers: Endgame – Pretty much 6th most liked film on the list because of my extreme fondness for Captain America and the Winter Soldier. Not sure that it really ended this era of Marvel films in a way that totally made sense (although yeah, it did cement my opinion that Tony Stark is terrible – which considering that everyone who makes these films seems to adore him, probably says something). Interested to see where things go next. Kind of not into having to get Disney plus to do so. Maybe if I wait long enough it’ll all just be on regular freeview tv.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – JJ Abrams did an extremely JJ Abrams thing in this film and that was kind of rubbish. I still think that he used Star Trek as a stepping stone to get to Star Wars, which ok, fair enough if you’re a big fan of Star Wars. At the same time, I think he’s stuck on his nostalgia for the original trilogy and maybe that leads to some weird decisions (plus, while I get that Carrie Fisher passing away did make plotting this tricky, it’s not well written). Despite all of this, I still love Star Wars and the performances from all the actors. Would have liked MORE droid stuff.
Pokemon Detective Pikachu – For a really long time, I didn’t think this was a real film and then it showed up at the cinema and it was great. Really great.
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum – So I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a Keanu Reeves film that I did not enjoy. Sure there are a few that I’m not going to see because of the premise of the films, but I’ve watched nearly everything else probably and there is not a single dud. John Wick is great. The universe that has been created is fascinating and I’m excited to see the next film to see what happens next.
Knives Out – There are more films with Chris Evans than I was expecting tbh. This was everything I love about watching Miss Marple and Poirot over and over and over but new and hilarious.
Captain Marvel – I think where maybe Endgame and Infinity War falter is that they are straight up superhero films. They’re not like, a particular type of film that happens to have superheroes in. Captain Marvel is one of those late 80s/early 90s action movie films where Tom Cruise or Harrison Ford might have played the hero and won the day, except way better because it has Carol Danvers and is in SPACE and like I saw this waaaay back in the first quarter of 2019 and it’s still at the top of my list. This is the film that, having considered and compared all the other new films I saw in 2019, still came out in front.

Anyway my ratings etc are all over here on Letterboxd and starting my yearly rating list at the beginning of the year and just adding to it throughout, rearranging as I go, continues to be one of the best ideas I have ever had.

I know this is titled 2019 Films and stuff but it’s 2020 now and I don’t remember what the “and stuff” was going to be, so I’ll just leave it at that.

Happy New Year!

Mirrored from half girl, half robot.

It’s not quite the end of the year just yet¹, but I have decided that it is highly unlikely I am going to leave the house and make the five minute journey to my local multiplex. My film logging widget tells me that I saw fewer films in total this year than I did last year and from looking at last year’s films in review blog and my letterboxd list of 2018 films, I also saw fewer new films. Was it just that there were fewer films that took my fancy released? Could I just not be bothered to go out and see them? I know there were a few that I thought “well, I’ll just wait for them to be on TV” that I can’t even remember the titles of now.

I nearly said that there wasn’t a Star Wars film out in 2018 but I guess Solo counts as one of those, so it’s not even that. I could really do with a new Star Trek film – although Discovery is coming back in the new year and I am p excited for that.

Anyway, onward – from least liked to most liked. Once again, “least liked” doesn’t necessarily mean it was bad but I think I did watch more films I felt kind of indifferent about this year:

Long Day’s Journey Into Night – This film was really long and didn’t seem to go anywhere. Sure the 3D 50 minute long single shot take is a technical achievement but like… what was the point. I guess the first section was just too vague and I didn’t care about the main character.
In Fabric – Parts of this film were entertaining but then other bits induced too much second-hand embarrassment.
The Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned from a Mythical Man – I don’t know that I’m really that interested in Bill Murray’s hijinks, but it was nice to hear from people who had such good experiences and to its credit, this film is only 70 minutes long and doesn’t try to pad itself out with pointless filler.
Aquarela – Ok so this film is about water and only that. Glaciers, frozen lakes, waterfalls, oceans, hurricanes etc. all to an industrial classical soundtrack. The director said that it was supposed to showcase the immensity of water on our planet but it had been a long day and the water noises along with metal-cello accompaniment were really relaxing and I might have drifted off once or twice².
The Quake – I didn’t see The Wave, to which this is a sequel to, but I don’t think I really needed to. Most disaster movies that I’ve seen tend to be all action, which is fine. This film has action, sure, but most of the drama comes from within the characters’ regular lives and their reactions to the disaster of the previous film. Which is a nice change.
Ash Is Purest White – I spent 20 minutes trying to remember which of the films on the list had the ballroom dancers in and it was this one. Anyway, Ash Is Purest White kind of starts off as a gangster film, but then actually follows the life of the “gangster’s moll” character who is far more interesting than anyone else.
Arctic – I actually had this one just above Aquarela but then I started thinking about it and had to move it up the list a bit. Mads Mikkelsen is exceptional in this.
Solo: A Star Wars Story – This was OK. I kind of want to rate it lower but maybe that’s because I kind of expected more from a film about Han Solo and on the whole it was fine. Unnecessary maybe, but fine. I would probably have preferred a Chewie film.
A Family Tour – There’s a lot here that I recognise in my own family, although of course, none of us currently live in exile from China or have suffered the kind of injustices that the main character here has. Although saying that, thinking about the race riots in Malaysia in the late 60s, I do wonder if I am wrong about that one.
Duplicate – This film is called “Jonathan” in a bunch of places but I guess it must have got renamed to Duplicate. Did not go in the direction I had thought it would at all, mostly because I had no clue where the story would go from the start (but in a good way).
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote – This is the only Adam Driver film I saw this year, although in a sense it was like 3 Adam Driver films in one, so I guess I’ve probably equalled last years Adam Driver film total.
Happy as Lazzaro – I didn’t really know what to expect from this film and it turned out to be kind of a meditation on sainthood. Also, did not expect the direction the second half took at all, which was great.
Outlaw King – I enjoy historical films with loads of violence, what can I say?
Deadpool 2 – Also contemporary films with loads of violence. I feel like this wasn’t as enjoyable as the first one.
Out of Blue – I guess I would compare this one to last year’s Small Town Crime, only the main character in that was a mess and Patricia Clarkson’s detective is not really.
The Hummingbird Project – This was way more heart-warming than I thought a film about putting in a fibre optic cable across America would be and I am glad of it. And SALMA HAYEK plays a great villain.
Assassination Nation – I really enjoyed this although I think it was trying to position itself as something more controversial than it was. Also another film with loads of violence. Basically, 80% of films I watch have violence in them I guess.
Widows – This was so so good and deeply satisfying. Also, there is a cute dog.
A Wrinkle in Time – I saw this so long ago, but I guess it says something that a film from right near the beginning of the year stuck in my memory and maintained its position in my chart – I often find that more recent films chart a bit higher sometimes because I remember them more. I’ve not read the book but I don’t think that’s a problem. This is a really beautiful film but wow Charles Wallace is annoying.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? – I picked this film because I really enjoyed seeing Melissa McCarthy in Spy and the title sounded interesting. It turned out to be one of the best films I’ve seen this year – both funny and unexpectedly touching.
The Favourite – Rachel Weisz is awesome. Her name is Rachel, so of course. Olivia Coleman and Emma Stone are also excellent, though they are not Rachels. Their performances made the characters seem real – even though they are real people that existed, the distance of time renders them as “just” characters in a story. Anyway, this was great and funny and moving and I really enjoyed it.
I Used to Be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story – I was never a boyband fangirl myself. I just didn’t get the appeal, but I have been a fan of other things and it was a DELIGHT to watch this and feel those feels and see other people feeling those feels. Not only does this documentary tell the stories of a range of different fangirls, but it also follows the changes in their fandom and what their love of their particular boyband has enabled them to achieve. And it takes all of their fangirling and love and out-there antics and takes it all seriously. Everyone should see this.
Little Forest – This is a film where a young woman spends a lot of time cooking for herself and for her friends, eating the nice food she has cooked and hanging out with a puppy and I think this is the gentle film that the world needs right now.
Pacific Rim: Uprising – In contrast, I don’t think the world needed this particular Pacific Rim film (perhaps del Toro’s version would have been different) and yeah, there is one element of the story that is CLEARLY RIDICULOUS and UNCALLED FOR. That said, I enjoyed the story and the robots and John Boyega is a national treasure.
Avengers: Infinity War – I am here for Captain America 5eva. And most of the rest of them too.
Ocean’s Eight – This is literally the only Ocean’s film I have seen in a cinema rather than just waiting for it to be on the telly and that was an excellent decision. Sandra Bullock is my perennial fave and she and her team are just so good at all of it. Richard Armitage is there being awful in the best way. The only thing that could have been better would be if they had just put someone else in as the insurance fraud investigator.
Black Panther – It feels like Black Panther came out a million years ago but it was literally only like eleven months. Everything about this film was just right and I loved T’Challa and Shuri and her being the genius little sister.

And that’s it for the new films I saw in 2018. I feel like I would have liked to go to more gigs, but sometimes I’m just not interested in the people who are touring here. I visited Norfolk on holiday and that was great. I ate a great many delicious things. 2018 was okay.

^1. Well, I started writing this 3 days ago.
^2. It had been a long day.

Mirrored from half girl, half robot.

I figure it's time for my annual round up of the new films I saw this year as it's getting towards the end of the year and, having taken a look at what's on offer for the next couple of weeks at my local cinema, I don't think I'll be adding to the list. You never know though, so maybe I'll reserve the right to revise this review closer to the end of the year.

I'm going to start with the "and stuff" of the title - my favourite band, AFI, released a new album this year (and once again did not tour in the UK) and, of course, it is awesome. Davey Havok released an album with his sideproject, Dreamcar, and that was pretty good too. The stand-out albums for me aren't either of these albums (as much as I love them). No, the two albums that have been on repeat in my car all year (pretty much) are Dave Hause's "Bury Me in Philly" and Maxïmo Park's "Risk to Exist" - and Maxïmo Park's album sat in its shrink-wrap for like two weeks before I even opened it (I opened it AS SOON AS I GOT HOME from seeing them live and hearing all the really great new songs).

Watch on YouTube

As usual, the films are listed with the “worst” one first. I was thinking about this the other day and I saw a lot of really, really enjoyable films this year so “worst” doesn’t necessarily mean bad. Just the other films were better. And there were some really great films.

Silence – Saying that, Silence was kind of dire. I unexpectedly saw a lot of films with Adam Driver in and this was the worst. I would not have chosen to see this film and technically, I didn’t I guess – it was my Mum’s choice for our New Year’s Day film. Catholics in Asia seems like it would have been exactly my kind of niche topic but no. I guess I’ve just read too much about Catholic martyrs for this to have any kind of impact? Also, like it was really long. Whatever Scorsese.
Manifesto – This was an interesting film to experience and Cate Blanchett is totes amazeface in this. I just don’t really know enough about art from the last two hundred years to really appreciate this. Most of the funny bits are still funny with a total lack of context though? So that’s something.
Assassin’s Creed – Maybe this should be rated lower than Manifesto? It’s an action film based on a computer game. It’s what you’d expect really. There was killing and fighting. My Mum enjoyed it.
6 Days – Mark Strong totally nails his role. I don’t know how similar he was to the actualfax real life guy he was playing, but he conveyed the conflict of being a negotiator so so well. Otherwise, it was fine.
La La Land – The music is lovely. The dancing is fine. The story and characters are fine, though I didn’t really care what happened to them. As it is with most musicals I suppose?
Loveless – I ended up lining up a lot of films at LFF about missing children (although I had to skip one, Little Crusader, because I didn’t think I’d manage to race to the film after quickly enough on my dodgy ankle). This was probably the bleakest, saddest and most hopeless of them, with main characters that exhibited such a striking lack of compassion that it’s a wonder that they had any relationships with other people at all (though maybe they’re just repeating the same relationship with different partners). Tough to watch, but worthwhile.
The Death of Stalin – Jason Isaacs MAKES this film. My Mum laughed at the corpsey bits. So did I.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets – I feel like Laureline was was more of an interesting character than Valerian so I don’t understand why her name isn’t in the title. Really delightful to look at.
Justice League – Justice League was a lot better than I was expecting although I don’t get why Batman had a go at Wonder Woman. Ezra Miller and Ray Fisher’s exuberant enthusiasm during the press tour was the highlight, pretty much. Those two REALLY love their characters.
Walk With Me – Sort of a meditative journey alongside the monks in the documentary that really reminded me that people who commit to this kind of a religious life are regular humans too.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle – So like, I don’t understand why Charlie’s girlfriend had the Golden Circle tramp stamp and like… how do you even do that without potentially causing paralysis? Mark Strong, as always, was great. Needed more Halle Berry.
Grain – I do like dystopic films. Kind of scifi with some religious themes.
Spider-Man: Homecoming – SO. I am a bit meh about Spider-Man. I liked that Peter Parker has friends. It was fine that Tony Stark was in this because it made a bit of sense. Glad that they skipped most of the usual the origin story stuff because it’s not like the five billion Spider-Man films already in existence haven’t explained that part.
Promise Land – I feel like maybe I should see more documentaries. This is a road trip in Elvis Presley’s car across the USA during the 2016 election that tells the story of Elvis and somehow also how we got to the US being how it is.
Loving Vincent – This was the only film of LFF that my Mum saw with me – mostly because my auntie was here from Portugal and partly because she’s not that keen on trudging all the way into central London to see a film when there is a perfectly decent cinema 5 minutes from our house. Loving Vincent was shown at my local cinema as part of LFF so my Mum (and auntie!) came with me to see it. It’s a really beautifully painted and animated film that fills in some of the details of the people around Van Gogh at the time of his death, who I’d never really considered.
Gemini – Unexpected but not unwelcome John Cho. I don’t know what else to say about this film.
Life Guidance – The trouble I have with films in a second language I only really understand enough of to be a tourist is that it’s a bit like attempting to talk on the phone to someone where there is an echo and you can hear your own voice repeated back to you a second later. That said, this has a really good dystopian future where everyone has to be high-achieving and making progress in all areas of their lives which is kind of nightmarish to me.
Small Town Crime – By the time LFF rolls round, I have usually forgotten what the films I have tickets for are about. Usually the name on ticket might prompt me to have a vague idea of the subject of the film but not this one – I went in, sat down and had no clue of what to expect. John Hawkes plays a disaster of an ex-cop who ends up attempting to investigate the death of a woman he finds dying at the side of the road. Clifton Collins Jr is fantastic in this.
How to Talk to Girls at Parties – Based on the Neil Gaiman story and directed by John Cameron Mitchell, this film was a lot less odd than that combination of sources could have made it and yet everyone around me as I left the cinema seemed to be baffled by the weirdness of it all.
Wrath of Silence – Another of the missing child films, this time about a mute miner looking for his son. Kind of a crime thriller, but ultimately very sad with it.
Atomic Blonde – I did not expect Atomic Blonde to be outside my top ten films of 2017 and yet here we are – there were just so many films I enjoyed this year that there were enough really great ones to push the merely really good ones down a few pegs. This is like someone saw John Wick and thought “what if we did that, but with Charlize Theron and more cold-hearted and 80s?”
Becoming Who I Was – A documentary that follows a young boy who is also the reincarnation of a Tibetan Buddhist Lama and his godfather/teacher. Very touching.
Blade of the Immortal – It’s kind of a toss-up between whether Blade of the Immortal or Becoming Who I Was is more touching and maybe Blade of the Immortal only loses because it’s fiction. This is the heart-warming story of how an immortal warrior helps a young girl avenge her parents murder by killing a LOT of people.
Downsizing – Now all I knew is that this was a film about Matt Damon being made tiny small and that it was a comedy. And yeah, that’s true for the most part. However, it also addresses environmental issues and how we treat the vulnerable members of our communities (if we even “allow” them to really be in our communities). Might have been better as a mini-series though. LOL.

I think I need a break before going into the top ten. I saw a lot of films. I think I saw more live music this year than last, but maybe not as much as I would have liked. Ok, so. That top ten.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi – I saw Last Jedi 3 days ago and I love it and yet here it is at number 10 on my list (I realise that this list has no numbers but the one I am following on Letterboxd does, so whatever). It’s probably too soon to really get into what happens in this film but I left the cinema with my heart full from watching it.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – I only vaguely knew what this was about going into the film and I’m kind of glad that this was the case. Three Billboards… has both horrifying and humorous moments, with more tragedy than I had been expecting. Definitely see this if you can.
Thor: Ragnarok – I love that this has an entirely different tone to literally every other MCU film. I love that it’s funny and has great action and makes the logical point about Asgard being built on the ruin of other worlds – and then goes for the most worthwhile solution to that. Also Korg.
Wonderstruck – This is a really beautiful film, shot in styles that really emphasise the two time periods in which it is set. Really delightful and satisfying.
Columbus – Basically I added this to my LFF line-up because yay John Cho. That was it. This is so so so great. The whole film is lovely to watch. It really concerns, I think, the characters’ places in the world – how they relate to physical place, to each other, to the people in their lives and the cultures that they belong to. Also John Cho should be the leading man in more films.
Logan Lucky – Ok yes. The whole Ocean’s 7-11 thing is true. This is fun and heartwarming and sweet and hilarious.
Wonder Woman – Diana is a literal wonder and a delight which, of course, makes sense because she is Wonder Woman. I had so many feelings watching this and most of them were love.
The Shape of Water – This year had a lot of really beautiful films and The Shape of Water is one of them. It’s a love story about a woman and a fish-creature. I need to see this again and again.
John Wick: Chapter 2 – It feels like this came out a million years ago and I suppose it did in a way – the beginning of 2017 seems like a whole other planet. Again, another beautiful film but in a different way to the others. I would watch a million John Wick films so long as Keanu Reeves did them and there were dogs in them. The action and stunts are astounding.
Logan – So, Logan is my favourite film of 2017 – a year that had a Star Wars and a Thor and The Shape of Water and Keanu Reeves being a badass and like, so many really great films. This was the perfect final chapter for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. This film made my heart burst.

And that’s it. Logan was the best though, like I said, there was so many great films this year. Watch them all. Though go ahead and skip out on Silence.

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Maximo Park - What Did We Do To You To Deserve This?

New films I saw this year, in reverse order of how much I enjoyed them (basically, the last film in this list was amazeface) as kept track of throughout the year on Letterboxd.

Dad’s Army – This was terrible. The only good part was Mrs Mainwaring.
Anthropoid – I can barely remember this film. I imagine it must have much like any other film based on events from WW2. I think there…was a romance? I wasn’t very interested in it if there was.
The Girl on the Train – I’d not read the book before I saw this ( and I’ve still not seen it) but it was entertaining enough, if fairly predictable.
Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey – It was nice. I had a terrible cold during LFF so it was quite handy that I didn’t have to think too much when watching this.
Interchange – I didn’t entirely know what I expected when I decided that I would see a film that involved vampirism in Malaysia – certainly not anything to do with indigenous Malay tribal people. I did like that the characters switched between languages – which of course is common in Malaysia, but I don’t usually get to see it on-screen.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – I enjoyed it. Unsure about Lex Luthor, but I’m quite interested in seeing the next film.
Dancer – When this film was being made, no one involved in the film had any idea how it would turn out – as they were just following the life of Sergei Polunin. I’m glad I wasn’t making the film or, for that matter, pursued ballet beyond the age of five.
Jason Bourne – My Mum really loves Jason Bourne and Matt Damon to the extent that we joke that he is her new boyfriend.
Chi-raq – I will watch nearly anything based on ancient Greek plays so of course I was going to see this.
White Colour Black – Interesting look at being part of two distinct cultures, although I’m not sure thaat I could relate much to the main character Leke even though I’m mixed-race too but that’s mostly because I’m not a hedonistic, sought-after photographer.
Ghostbusters – Fun and very much in the same spirit as the previous Ghostbuster films. lol.
The Secret Scripture – Mum and I went to see this and Dancer on the same day as this year she was interested in going to see some LFF films (although she still thinks going to see as many as I do is a bit out there) and this was the film she was most interested in. As we got towards the end of the film, you could kind of see what was coming but that was more a nice rounding off rather than being boringly predictable.
Star Trek Beyond – I love Star Trek with all my heart and this film was a relief after the film that we do not talk about. Fun, lots of exciting action and Karl Urban is the greatest of us.
Deadpool – I also love Deadpool, but not as much as I love Star Trek and this film was still slightly more enjoyable than Star Trek Beyond though probably because of the incredible amounts of violence.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – I have too many feelings about this film. It’s a solid war movie.
Captain America: Civil War – Probably not as good as Winter Soldier, but still super enjoyable. I still don’t like spending time with Tony Stark but RDJ continues to play him well. I will never understand how Chris Evans fit in that tiny car. Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson are forever a delight together.
Arrival – This film was astounding when I saw it back in October, was still astounding when I saw it again in November and remains so as I think about it now. I think this year really needed this film. V satisfying.

Mirrored from half girl, half robot.

Current Mood: chipper

As for… probably the last 7 years, I remain largely not much of a blogger anymore. Every year that I’ve attended the London Film Festival, I mean to write about what I saw and…. never get round to it.

Well. Here goes – a few words about all the new films I saw last year. At least I got into the practice of keeping a list of all the new films I saw over on Letterboxd and every time I added to it, took a look to re-arrange everything in order of how much I liked the films.

In reverse order then, starting with the film I enjoyed the least.

Avengers: Age of Ultron – Ugggh. This film was mostly just disappointing. What was going on with the Natasha Romanov/Bruce Banner thing? It came from nowhere and the relationship seemed out of character for both Romanov and Banner. Probably more because there was no lead up for us to see how it could have developed. Maybe…Nick Fury and Maria Hill were consistent with the rest of what we’ve seen in MCU? Everyone else? Not so much. 🙁
I Am Belfast – A kind of wandering essay film about Belfast. It was nice to look at and the people in it were great to hear from. That’s all I’ve got.
Blood Of My Blood – Half the film is set in 17th Italy and the other half in the same village in the modern-day. Amusing but felt kind of like there were 2 different films that didn’t have quiet enough story on their own kind of smushed half and half together.
Exotica, Erotica, Etc. – So I saw this film and then a few days later I saw Jay Malinowski at the Lexington (ditching one of the films I had planned to see at LFF because live music will probably always trump a thing I can see on DVD later) AND it felt like both things kind of mixed together – Jay Malinowski’s set was largely stuff from Martel, an album with a sort of nautical journey theme woven through.
Elstree 1976 – A documentary about some of the actors who appeared in the original Star Wars trilogy and how the films has affected their lives. I
Office – I can’t say that I ever thought I would see a Chinese musical in 3D entirely set in the corporate world but there it was. I only wish I understood the language to better enjoy it because I am CERTAIN there was clever wordplay that could not be contained in the translation.
Truth – Even though I was about 20 in 2004 I had no idea that the events in this film were even happening so it was fascinating to watch.
Youth – All I remember is that while I enjoyed this film, it felt like nothing really happened for a really long time which may have been the point. Also, Rachel Weisz was awesome in it.
Suffragette – Enjoyable enough but the main character Maud was a bit empty and obviously it was implausible for a newly minted suffragette to be at all the big moments of the suffragette movement at the time BUT I guess they had to somehow have a self-insert character for the audience to move through the story with? Maybe. Perhaps a film that followed the story of a real woman who was fighting for the vote would have been better.
Twinsters – SO I heard about these two sisters who had been adopted as babies by parents in different countries and who had found each other on Facebook a while back BUT THEN I guess they made a film and people I follow on twitter mentioned watching it and THERE IT WAS on Mum’s Netflix so I watched it and it was delightful and moving and heart-warming and all the things.
Magic Mike XXL – A DELIGHT from start to finish. I don’t think I have ever watched a film where every single person in the cinema with me had such a good time.
A Perfect Day – I don’t think I expected to watch anything so funny when I bought the ticket for this film, thinking “Oh yes, a film about aid workers in a war zone will be interesting,” but it was and I recommend it to everyone.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. – All I knew about the series that this film was based on was that it had Robert Vaughan and Ducky from NCIS. Lots of fun to watch and obviously features Henry Cavill eating a sandwich as a key point in the film.
High-Rise – The thing about the London Film Festival is that I buy all my tickets in one go based on what the BFI website says the film is about and then I forget ENTIRELY what I have signed myself up to see. And it’s not like I know much about JG Ballard or Ben Wheatley anyway. I knew that this was about a futuristic apparently utopian 70s tower block with its social hierarchy arranged on the various levels and everything then degenerating into a dystopic horror show and at some point Tom Hiddleston got his kit off. It turned out to be GREAT and a DELIGHT and HILARIOUS.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens – I feel like I have only just seen this film (and kind of yeah, that’s true) and that I want to see it again in the cinema really soon BUT it is still my sixth favourite film of the year. Finn and Rey are ENCHANTING and I wouldn’t mind just watching a film where they go on an space-road-trip and discover the galaxy and everything they’ve never imagined.
Mad Max: Fury Road – While it feels like I only saw The Force Awakens five minutes ago, it feels like I watched Fury Road at least a year ago – even though this was my birthday film and that was only in May. I liked that this was basically the story of Furiosa and the Wives rather than Max.
John Wick – The violence and killing and everything was great and my Mum and I both enjoy violent action films but the REAL HIGHLIGHT was Keanu Reeves hanging out with a puppy.
Spy – So I guess a lot of my top ten includes film that were pretty funny but Spy is probably the funniest film I saw all year.
The Martian – I don’t like watching bad things happening to astronauts SO the idea of an astronaut being stranded on Mars was a bit daunting but this film is great and heart-warming and well-paced.
Jupiter Ascending – OF COURSE Jupiter Ascending was going to be my favourite films this year. It was ridiculous and awesome and Jupiter is a great heroine. It totally filled 2015’s Pacific Rim shaped space in last years cinema-going.

And that’s it. Who would have thought that Jupiter Ascending would have been so much better than Avengers: Age of Ultron at the beginning of the year?

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