Best Sci-fi - I think We’re Alone Now. Thought-provoking, post-apocalyptic
tale. Peter Dinklage plays a man who
thinks he’s alone, then meets a woman and her weird ‘parents’... (Netflix)
Best Drama - The Red Violin.
Film 4 production from 1999 following a unique violin through time
across the world. Weird but good. (Prime)
Best Cinematography - Roma. Worth watching for the arty black and
white even though not much happens. The
first ever Netflix film to be up for an Oscar. (Netflix)
Best Fantasy - King Arthur, legend of the sword. Enjoyable, funny and superb giant animals.
The best Guy Ritchie effort for a long time albeit with inevitable echoes of
Snatch and Robin Hood (DVD)
Best Arty - p(Pi). Quirky low-budget film in grainy black &
white. (DVD)
Best Foreign Noir - Skin of the Wolf. Spanish tale of wolf hunter in the Pyrenees
and his unfortunate wives. Very grim.
(Netflix)
Best Pirates - Pirates of the Caribbean, Salazar’s Revenge. A real hoot!
Hardly stopped laughing.
(Netflix)
Best Animation - Space Pirate.
Very convincing artwork especially the hair. (Prime)
Best New Christmas film - The Knight Before Christmas. Light-hearted
but funny romance (Netflix).
Best Bible-inspired - Paul, Apostle of Christ. Sort of follow-up to Quo Vadis. Shame about
the cheesy, holy ending. (Netflix)
Best Sequel - El Camino, A Breaking Bad Movie. Following the exploits of Jesse Pinkman after
the series end. Entertaining and funny
in places with hilarious dialogue: “I already apexted!” (Netflix)
Close second - Creed II.
Better than the previous Creed. Littered
with meta-refs to old Rocky. (Netflix)
Best Re-telling of History - Black Death. Grim but watchable tale of the plague in 1349.
Sean Bean managed to not die straight away which made a bit of a change. (DVD)
Close second - The King. Reworking of Henry V. Variable performances but improved as it went along, ( Netflix)
Best Musical Collaboration - Vox Lux. Tale of a young popstar’s rise to fame. Interesting musical collab between Scott
Walker and Sia. (Netflix)
Best Biopic and charity shop find - Before Night Falls. Interesting
tale of a writer exiled from Cuba. Featuring
an early starring role for Javier Bardem and two bit-parts from a pre-pirate Johnny
Depp. (DVD)
Best of the Rest
Big Films
Best Oscar winner - Green Book.
Italian hardnut drives poncy black pianist from NY to deep south. Good if a bit schmaltzy in places. (Prime)
Best Scorsese - The Irishman.
Much-anticipated and lauded epic at an astonishing 3.5 hours. DeNiro back to his best as aging gangster
with a lot of humorous touches such as the pensioner jail when they’re all
wearing beige and shopping for his own coffin. (Netflix)
Best single take - Baby Driver. Entertaining, some funny bits and
clever filming of scenes in one take, to the soundtrack. (Netflix)
Thriller
Best political - Miss Sloane.
About machinations of lobbying in Washington. Interesting plot, good cast and unexpected
twist at the end. (Netflix)
Best British – Remainder. Started weird and
became even weirder as it went along. (DVD)
Oddest - London Fields. An odd
do. Trying to do a Jim Thompson but
trying too hard. An uncredited Johnny
Depp provides a superb example of his character acting as cockney geezer. (Netflix)
Silliest - American Assassin. Watchable but some ridiculous scenes,
especially the boat fight at the end. (Netflix)
Sci-fi
Best British - The White Chamber.
Imaginative Brit horror sci-fi in a post-Brexit world!
Best American - The Frame. Mind-bending sci-fi. The two main characters think the other is
off the telly. (Prime)
Best Asian - The Wandering Earth. Imaginative Chinese film wherein
earth goes on a 25,000 voyage to another solar system. (Netflix)
Best Romantic - Upside Down.
An homage to the French tradition.
Nice and gentle. (Prime)
Most unfathomable - In the Shadow of the Moon. Complicated
time-traveling effort. I literally lost the plot. (Netflix)
War
Best WWII – Hurricane. Tale of Polish pilots fighting with RAF in
WW2. Pretty good and very funny in
places. (Netflix)
Most overrated – Dunkirk. Mainly
boring but contains good actors and details such as the spitfire flying without
fuel. (Prime)
Best WWI - The Ottoman Lieutenant.
Girly as expected but very nice scenery and a good portrayal of an interesting
time in history at start of WWI.
(Netflix).
Most educational - The Photographer of Mauthausen. Very interesting and educational. About mainly Spanish communist and anarchist
prisoners in a German concentration camp.
Stayed largely true to the real story with faithful reproductions of the
actual photos. (Netflix).
Foreign
Best locations - Salt & Fire.
Odd but sometimes funny Werner Herzog do, filmed in Bolivian salt flats.
(DVD)
Close second - Tracker. Well-told tale of Boer who goes to NZ after
the war, tracks a Maori for money, ends up bonding. (Prime)
Most prophetic - A Fortunate Man. Interesting if over-long Danish
tale of an engineering genius who ends up a loser. From a series of books written at turn of
century so the idea of harnessing natural power quite prophetic. (Netflix)
Comedy
Best - Goodbye Stalin.
Amusing East German tale of a woman who goes into a coma and doesn’t
know the Berlin wall has fallen. (DVD)
Darkest - A Perfect Day. Wryly
comic tale set in war-torn Bosnia. (Netflix)
Daftest – Mordecai. Johnny Depp capers about as posh English art
collector conscripted to help find a stolen painting. Ludicrous but a fun bit of escapism.
Hilarious slapstick scene at the start was disappointingly not repeated.
(Prime)
Fantasy
Best foreign language – Iceman.
Imaginative tale based on the remains of a stone age man found in the
Alps. Dialogue in ancient language
descended from Etruscan. (DVD)
Best low-budget - Viking Destiny.
Cheap NI production with Terence Stamp as excellent Odin. (Netflix)
Best film based on a video game - Assassin’s Creed. Surprisingly
good. Great cast and fun
location-spotting. (Netflix)
Most gruesome - Valhalla Rising. Grim tale of pagans and
Christians; One Eye escapes slavery and travels to the holy land which turns
out to be the new world . Wise kid a bit like Jesus. (Prime)
Best dragons – Warbirds. Madcap story of women pilots fighting
dragons at end of WW2. (DVD.
Daftest Jackie Chan - Bleeding Steel. Very silly but shiny, colourful, entertaining
and good ideas about what to do with a cheap smartwatch and the USB port on a
phone! (Netflix)
Graphic Novels
Best Marvel - Captain Marvel.
Iffy start but improves. Lovely homage to Stan Lee. (DVD)
Best DC - Wonder Woman. Entertaining
telling of the backstory of Diana as an Amazonian princess getting involved in
WWI. (Prime)
Close second - Justice League.
Enjoyable romp featuring Batman and Wonder Woman and invention of The Flash.
(Prime)
Weirdest – Snowpiercer. Last
remaining people on earth trapped on a train that perpetually circles a globe covered in ice. Based on a French graphic novel which
explained a lot. (Netflix)
Crime
Best acting - The Launderette.
Big Short-type film about insurance scams. Excellent double act from
Banderas and Oldman and superb turn from Meryl Streep. (Netflix)
Best gangsters - Once Upon a Time in London. Educational and entertaining story of gangs
in 1930’s London. (Netflix)
Most authentic – Highwaymen.
Old rangers catch Bonnie & Clyde. Inevitable age jokes and authentic
details about the demise of the psycho duo. (Netflix)
Most stylish – Blackhat.
Classy effort by Michael Man about dastardly hackers (Netflix)
Best British - Dead in a Week., Young man asks a hitman to do him
in. Very British wry humour. (Netflix)
True Life and Biopic
Best British - Kinky Boots. Northants shoe factory saved by making
boots for drag queens. (telly box)
Most macho - The 12th Man. Incredible story of possibly
the manliest man in history escaping Nazis in ‘Fortress Norway’ with help from
Magic reindeer (Netflix)
Close second - Only The Brave; true tragic tale of wildfire
fighters, good but very macho. (Netflix)
Most ridiculous - Pain & Gain. Bodybuilders turn criminal. Initially sceptical that it was a true story,
subsequent research revealed actual events were even more ludicrous. You just can’t make this stuff up! (TV)
Close second - American Made. Tom Cruise as a pilot cum drugs
runner for Escobar then the CIA and White House. Crazy stuff! (Netflix)
Most intelligent – Changeling.
Excellent offering from Clint Eastwood about a boy who goes missing,
police corruption etc. (DVD)
Most inspirational - The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. Chiwetel Ejiofor writes, directs and stars in
this lovely film about a Malawian boy who saves his village by working out how
to use wind power. (Netflix)
Best cinematography - At Eternity’s Gate. Decent biopic about Van Gogh with Willem
Defoe. (Netflix)
Funniest - The Happy Prince.
Rupert Everett piles on the pounds to play Oscar Wilde in his latter
years. (Netflix)
Most underrated - The Red Sea Diving Resort. Israeli/US operatives
get Jews out of Ethiopia. Unfairly bad
reviews. (Netflix)
Best Kevin Spacey replacement - All the Money in the World. Decent
telling of the Getty story focusing on kidnapping of Paul 3. Spot the one scene they couldn’t re-shoot!
(Netflix)
