Film Critic

http://www.edgarreviews.co.uk/

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2017 RANKED (SO FAR)

We’re a quarter of the way through the year, so here’s my entire ranking of the films I’ve seen that have been released in the UK in 2017.

1. Manchester By The Sea 2. Personal Shopper 3. Toni Erdmann 4. La La Land 5. 20th Century Women 6. It’s Only The End of the World 7.  The Love Witch 8. The Handmaiden 9. The Fits 10. Moonlight 11. Lion 12. A Monster Calls 13. A Cure For Wellness 14. Get Out 15. LoveTrue 16. T2 Trainspotting 17. Jackie 18. The Lego Batman Movie 19. Cameraperson 20. Endless Poetry 21. I Don’t Feel At Home in This World Anymore 22. Split 23. Simon Amstell: Carnage 24. Christine 25. Silence 26. Una 27. Elle 28. Logan 29. Trespass Against Us 30. Fences 31. Hacksaw Ridge

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SILENCE

A film that’s been carefully designed and developed over a span of 25 years, Martin Scorsese has displayed great patience in creating a passion project that will ultimately test our own. Silence is a steely, brutal slog, an extreme departure from Scorsese’s recent filmography, deprived of Wolf of Wall Street’s manic energy and Hugo’s warmth and wonder. This abrupt change isn’t necessarily disappointing, and may indeed be welcoming, but the problem lies with the fact that Silence adopts the blunt manner of imparting its central message in a way that may be more suited to those films.

READ FULL REVIEW AT EDGARREVIEWS.CO.UK

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JANUARY 2017 RANKED

1. MANCHESTER BY THE SEA 2. LA LA LAND 3. A MONSTER CALLS 4. T2 TRAINSPOTTING 5. JACKIE 6. ENDLESS POETRY 7. SPLIT 8. SILENCE

Manchester By The Sea arrives as this year’s showstopper, and it’s only January. I saw this film first at the London film festival last year, and it’s been on my mind ever since. It’s extraordinary filmmaking, with a superbly understated performance from Casey Affleck. Kenneth Lonergan has constructed a quietly powerful, melancholic masterpiece.

La La Land and A Monster Calls are both very good films, La La Land in particular stirring up a mixture of emotions I hadn’t felt before and doubt I’ll feel again for quite some time. 

T2 Trainspotting, Jackie, Endless Poetry and Split each have their shortcomings, but are enjoyable or well-crafted enough for me to admire them. 

Silence is the only film in January that I actively disliked. It’s a long, arduous film that’s not interesting enough to hold attention, lacking support from the over-acting Andrew Garfield. I’m all for films that aren’t intended to be enjoyable, but it needs to create more than a singular emotion of something like a mum looking at her son’s grazed knee. The sound editing/mixing is also horrible, but at least it’s pretty to look at.

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It’s midway through January and I’ve already seen ten 2017 films. Four of them would probably make my Top 20 of 2016 list if they were released earlier. Something tells me this is going to be a great year for film.

(If you were wondering, those 10 films are The Handmaiden, Elle, Una, It’s Only the End of the World, Manchester by the Sea, Trespass Against Us, Silence, A Monster Calls, Endless Poetry and La La Land)

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EDGARREVIEWS’ TOP 10 FILMS OF 2016 (BASED ON UK RELEASE DATES)

Check out the list here!

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EdgarReviews’ Top 20 Films of 2016

15. VICTORIA

Victoria is a 140-minute thriller in which its central protagonist, played wonderfully by Laia Costa, inadvertently involves herself in a robbery after a harmless night of clubbing, drinking, and smoking. The snag? It’s a single take. This obstacle doesn’t prevent Victoria from managing high ambitions, however. We follow the titular character as she joins a group of four men, talks philosophy, plays the piano, takes part in a robbery and outruns the police, all in one take. The method of filming doesn’t mask the grittiness of the situation, and provides realism and panic to stakes that we as an audience are engaged by. The film is deeply emotional, impressively action-packed, daring, unpredictable you name it. Its cinematography leads us to believe that these are real people, stuck in a real situation, and their plight is one we should be interested in, and, inevitably, devastated by.

To see the full list (20-11), click here.

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EdgarReviews’ Top 20 Films of 2016

16. SPOTLIGHT

Last year’s Best Picture winner, Spotlight, crept up on us. With The Revenant expected to be awarded the prize, Spotlight began picking up awards at an increasing pace, until it was thrust into the, er, spotlight (sorry), and received the attention that it deserves. Likewise, the film itself is an unassuming investigative piece that creeps up on you, shedding light on paedophilia in the church and how knowledge of it was hushed and swept under the rug rather than condemned. Unlike this year’s The Club, Spotlight takes a less personal approach and a more objective viewpoint, allowing the audience to develop their own sentiments of rage and indignation. Aside from fumbling a fleeting moment of outburst from Mark Ruffalo’s journalist, the film isn’t showy or heavy-handed. While its nearest competitor, The Revenant, was praised for sweeping camera movements and sumptuous visual effects, there’s nothing of the sort on display here. Rather, Spotlight adopts a minimalist approach, the camera held steady and the score barely noticeable. In that sense, it’s technically perfect: it allows a potent script and believable acting to flourish, leaving the audience with a devastating ending without drawing attention to itself.

To see the full list (20-11), click here.

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EdgarReviews’ Top 20 Films of 2016

17. PATERSON

Paterson is a story about a man called Paterson who lives in Paterson, who’s a bus driver played by Adam Driver. This is fitting – the film takes on a subtly surreal tone where everything Paterson does seems to fit in place with a prior event: A painting of a waterfall, the name of a poet. A more appropriate way of describing Paterson would be that it’s less of a story and more an ordinary segment of his life, following Driver’s character for a week, fixating on his routine. He’s an aspiring poet, an affectionate boyfriend, an inquisitive bus-driver. There’s nothing much more to the film; much like Boyhood, the film revels in its delightful simplicity, rather than opting to manufacture drama. The film’s not heart-pulsing or action-packed, nor does it have to be – the camera lingering on a matchbox or eavesdropping on a conversation between two passengers is riveting enough. The film is simply a lovely two hours of cinema that functions as an ode to the creative mind.

To see the full list (20-11) click here.

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EdgarReviews’ Top 20 Films of 2016

18. KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS

Animation company Laika have found a niche in making grotesque and unsettling flicks palatable for a younger audience. Each of their films – from Coraline to Paranorman deal with mature themes in a careful and inspiring manner, often integrating creepy set-production and character design that would give even an older audience the jitters, and Kubo and the Two Strings is no different. Kubo focuses on loss and how it provokes the titular character to fulfil a quest very similar to a story he tells the village-folk as a way of busking. It’s a sweet, sentimental story that’s involving enough. But in truth, the story only serves as a vehicle for the film’s greatest strength: it’s wonderful animation. Astonishingly hand-crafted rather than digital, there hasn’t been a more beautiful stop-motion animation in the history of cinema (though a film appearing higher up on this list does run it close). As Kubo and his oddball sidekicks journey through caves and deep in the ocean, we are introduced to a wide variety of eye-popping visuals. Elevated by an impressive, suitably-strumming score, Kubo is an absolute joy to watch.

Check out the full list (20-11) here.

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EdgarReviews’ Top 20 Films of 2016

19. THE NEON DEMON

Nicolas Winding Refn’s previous two films, Drive and Only God Forgives, are two of my favourite films of this decade. The Neon Demon may not reach those heights, but it certainly maintains Refn’s penchant for bloody violence and stylish set-pieces. Following model-in-training Jesse as she rises up the ranks of the fashion industry, the film explores beauty standards, vanity and jealousy, the shelf-life of models and their bloodthirsty pursuit of obtaining youth, and, er, occults. It’s a hodgepodge of venomous and surreal ideas gloriously realised by Natasha Braier’s glitzy cinematography and Cliff Martinez’s electrifying score. The film glides along with an underlying sense of dread before veering off in a totally unexpected manner that ramps up the shock factor – unexpected even when considering Refn’s track record. And the shock factor has a place rather than used just for the sake of it, propelling and fleshing out Refn’s deranged method of symbolism and meaning. The Neon Demon makes it very clear, in gloriously polished fashion, that beauty is ugly.

Check out the full list (20-11) here.

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EdgarReviews’ Top 20 Films of 2016

20. POPSTAR: NEVER STOP NEVER STOPPING

2016 has been a fantastic year for comedy. Sure, we’ve had the odd Bad Santa 2, but we also had Neighbours 2, and despite being savaged by critics, I thought both Grimsby and Zoolander 2 were hilarious. And another reason for this brilliant comedic year comes in the form of Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, detailing the rise and inevitable fall of ‘Conner4Real’ (Andy Samberg) following his break-up from a previous boyband. It’s a satirical riff on celebrity culture and egotism, acted and directed by The Lonely Island, a trio of comedy-musicians that became internet sensations with such nuanced work as Jizz in My Pants. So the humour is vulgar and immature, right? Well, yes, while also being both clever and hilarious. Popstar‘s true feat is that, in the face of dick jokes and Seal getting attacked by a pack of wolves, it manages to craft an emotionally rewarding and satisfying tale of friendship. No, seriously.  Despite the laugh-a-minute approach of the film, there’s genuine heart to be found, the film finding an impressive balance between the crude, the cutting, and the charming.

Check out the full list (20-11) here.

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ARRIVAL

There seems to have been something of a sci-fi Renaissance recently, with each year supplying a groundbreaking hallmark of the genre. 2013 was Gravity, a film with unrivalled effects, visually astounding and constantly breathtaking. 2014 was Interstellar, offering intense cinematic and emotional spectacle. And 2015 wasThe Martian, giving us an inspiring appraisal of the good of humanity. 2016, then, can only belong to Arrival, a film that serves as a cry for intelligent, thought-provoking sci-fi, not needing to rely on bucketloads of CGI or showy futuristic lingo.

Amy Adams plays Dr. Louise Banks, a linguist with the weight of the world thrust upon her when twelve egg-shaped UFOs carrying aliens appear, dotted seemingly at random across the planet: she must translate their dialect in order to discover the purpose of their arrival before the threat of military retaliation is fulfilled. Assisting her is Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), a theoretical physicist who’s devoted to Banks as much as he is to his job. Her unorthodox approach to the task at hand is garnering results, but growing distrust and paranoia spread across the research camp and various governing bodies altogether threaten to derail the mission entirely.

READ REST OF REVIEW AT EDGARREVIEWS.CO.UK

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THE ACCOUNTANT

Ignore the uninspired title – The Accountant is a film heavy on gun-toting action and comparatively light on office space mundanity. Our number-cracking hero, Christian Wolff, is played with straight-faced indifference by Ben Affleck – he’s a bulky genius of a man, on the spectrum to some degree (though it is never definitively disclosed to what extent), and throughout the film we observe the makings of his confused characterisation via various flashbacks. He was a troubled child, with a stern father that enforced rigorous and vigorous martial arts training on both him and his brother, tidily explaining away Wolff’s effective brawling and focus on fatherhood.

This ‘high-functioning’ accountant in question is tasked with investigating a company’s mis-managing of money, by the company itself.. uncovering their dodgy dealing…before it’s erased by the company…wait what? And J.K. Simmons gets involved as Ray King, a financial crimes director, I think, that attempts to track Wolff down…or does he? Then Anna Kendrick also appears as the company’s in-house accountant, and faux-love interest..or does she even have a particular point to the story? It’s all rather difficult to follow, or doesn’t make any sense, or both.

READ REST OF REVIEW AT EDGARREVIEWS.CO.UK

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NOCTURNAL ANIMALS

Susan Morrow’s (Amy Adams) thoughts towards Nocturnal Animals hits it right on the nose: “It’s violent and it’s sad”. ‘Nocturnal Animals’ in this context is a typescript of Morrow’s ex-husband’s (Jake Gyllenhaal) first effort at a novel, and bears more than a few similarities to the way in which the couple broke up to be merely coincidental…

Morrow herself is an art gallery owner, specialising in an oddball raunch that dominates the screen during the film’s opening credits. She’s stranded in a loveless marriage to a hunky husband (Armie Hammer) who’s more occupied with work (and other women) than anything regarding his wife. Cue the ex-husband’s typescript, sent to Morrow at a time when she’s in desperate want of connection. A way to contact her ex again – just what she needs, right? Not quite.

READ REST OF REVIEW AT EDGARREVIEWS.CO.UK

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DOCTOR STRANGE

Benedict Cumberbatch is an arrogant, lovable genius who solves problems against seemingly insurmountable odds. No, he’s not Sherlock, but Doctor Stephen Strange, one of the more barmy entries in Marvel Studios’ roster of superheroes. After suffering an accident due to his own arrogance, his job as a renowned neurosurgeon is put out of action. To return to work, Strange strives to restore the use of his hands, finally stumbling across a mysterious ‘cult’ based in Nepal…

There, with the aid of Tilda Swinton’s ‘The Ancient One’, an enigmatic figure with dark secrets, he trains his mind, in a rushed but intriguing 20-minute sequence. He’s arrogant and foolish, but his mentors, including Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Mordo and Benedict Wong’s, er, Wong, see his potential. Will he overcome his own hubris to achieve greatness? Do I really even need to ask that question?

READ REST OF REVIEW AT EDGARREVIEWS.CO.UK

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Send me a movie and I'll rate it

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never seen it | need to see it | I hated it | didn’t like it | it was okay | liked it | LOVED IT | aMEEZing

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quick update

hi guys, i’m aware i haven’t posted/updated in a while - I’m blaming exams, Uni stress, sorting out accommodation and my own general lack of being proactive.

I’m planning on posting once more as soon as I move to Uni, once every week (which isn’t /that/ regular but it is manageable, which is what I need rn). Furthermore I’ve got all the ammo I need since I’ve booked tickets to see seven films at the LFF (London Film Festival). Those films are:

1. The Handmaiden 2. Elle 3. Manchester by the Sea 4. Una 5. It’s Only the End of the World 6. Nocturnal Animals 7. Trespass Against Us

Sorry for the lack of activity, will get up to posting reviews / top 10s etc asap!