Drama
Best overall: Ma
Rainey’s Black Bottom Entertaining story
of 1920’s jazz band recording session. Denzel directs Viola Davis and Chadwick
Boseman in his last movie (Netflix)
Close
second: Bruised Halle Berry directs
herself as loser MMA fighter making a comeback. Impressive action (Netflix)
Best
historic: Fire Over England 1939
restored classic courtesy of BFI. Fascinating backgrounds with excellent use of
trompe d’oeil (Prime)
Close
second: Coven of Sisters Young women
accused of witchcraft literally run rings round Spanish inquisition. Nobody
expects that! (Netflix)
Best
imagined historic: Ammonite Fanciful but
believable tale centred on Mary Anning (Prime)
Best
Christian: An Interview with God Journo
in crisis gets to interview the almighty. Witty and ecumenical (Prime)
Best
British: Surge Ben Wishaw in overdrive racing
round Tottenham (Netflix)
Most
jingoistic: Iron & Blood Extremely
jingoistic Russian film. Those Cossacks are bonkers! (DVD)
Action
Best Statham: Wrath
of Man The Statham in top action mode.
Best line: “You can do what the fuck you like.” (Prime)
Funniest:
Red Notice The Rock and co perform
ridiculous feats in globe-trotting mayhem (Netflix)
Christmas
Best: The Green
Knight Very trippy telling of the Sir
Gawain story (Prime)
Most slushy: Silver
Skates Posh woman falls for pickpocket
in a frozen St. Petersburg (Netflix)
Comedy
Best
Overall: Death to 2020 Very funny
spoof/mockumentary. Accurate characterisations especially the Karen and
republican aide (Netflix)
Best
low budget: All at Sea Old man in
retirement home plans to illegally bury his friend at sea (Netflix)
Thrillers
Best overall:
Remember Christopher Plummer fantastic
as geriatric Nazi hunter. Suspect the makers of the series Hunters nicked the
idea from this movie (Prime)
Weirdest: The Ninth
Configuration 1980 ‘cult classic’ based
on a book from 1968 (original title a spoiler). Great cast and funny in places.
A very odd do (Prime)
Best true spy: A
Call to Spy Eclectic female spies in
occupied France include an Indian princess and a woman with a wooden leg
(Netflix)
Close second: The
Catcher is a Spy Polyglot baseball
player goes after Heisenberg. Good but fizzles out at the end (Prime)
Best psycho:
Inheritance Woman discovers someone
hidden in a bunker, lets him out. Predictable but convincing and rare unfunny
turn by Simon Pegg (Netflix)
Most twisty end: The
Unforgivable Sandra Bullock comes out of
prison, tries to rebuild her life and connect to her baby sister. A Red
Production based on their TV series Unforgiven with Sally Wainwright as Exec
Producer; they’ve gone up in the world! (Netflix)
Best Political: And
Tomorrow the Entire World Posh German
student joins Anti-Fa. Increasing levels of violence ensue. Good use of ambient
sound (Netflix)
Westerns
Best overall: The
Power of the Dog Ben Cumberbatch comes a
cropper when he befriends gawky step-nephew (Netflix)
Best
modern: Concrete Cowboy Brilliant story
based on actual urban cowboys in Philadelphia. I had no idea this was a thing
(Netflix)
Best
for fun: The Harder They Fall Real
historical characters collide in imagined scenario. Great actors, great sets,
great soundtrack although The Harder They Come strangely absent (Netflix)
Best horror: Dead
Birds Confederates rob a bank, hole up,
strange monsters appear. Interestingly weird and well shot (Prime)
Music
Best music drama:
The Sound of Metal (spoiler) Heavy metal
drummer goes deaf, goes to live in a community, gets implants, gets chucked
out, goes back to girlfriend, realises she’s better without him, leaves, takes
implants out, the end (Prime)
Best musical bio:
Bohemian Rhapsody Rami Malek very
convincing as Freddie Mercury, loads of songs, sad bits and funny bits. Best
line ‘piss-flap’ (Prime)
Close second:
Judy Renee Zellweger rather good as Judy
Garland during her last days in London (BBC2)
Bio
Best
overall: Charlie Says Excellent telling
of Charles Manson from point of view of 3 brainwashed acolytes on death row.
Really good turn by an unrecognisable Matt Smith (Prime)
Best British: The
Keeper True tale of Bert Trautmann,
ex-Nazi interred after the war, became Man City goalie, broke neck in FA cup
final, carried on playing. Couldn’t believe I’d never heard of him before (BBC4)
Best action:
Papillon Great if long remake of the
escape from Devil’s Island with the wonderfully versatile Rami Malik (Prime)
Most
educational: The King’s Choice The story
of why we get a Christmas Tree from Norway (Prime)
Most frightening: A
Dark reflection Based on the exposé of
engine air poisoning airline passengers. Alarmingly still not fixed, apparently
only 787’s have a filtration system (Prime)
Best Civil rights:
The Blakkklansman A Spike Lee joint. Black
undercover cop infiltrates the KKK. Good apart from the depressing preachy
footage at the end. Why does he always have to do that? (Channel 4)
Close second: The
Best of Enemies Interesting story of
charette in deep south; the developing friendship between a black activist and
president of the KKK chapter who later toured to tell their story (Netflix)
Most worthy: The
Mauritanian Jody Foster as lawyer
working on behalf of suspected 9/11 terrorist in Guantanamo (Prime)
Best imaginary: One
Night in Miami Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, Jim
Browne and Mohammed Ali argue in motel room after Sonny Lister fight (Prime)
Most
post-modern: Synecdoche New York Odd
story of Caden Cotard creating a microcosm of real life in a warehouse with
blurred boundaries (DVD from freebie box)
Best
crime bio: Holy Rollers Orthodox Jewish
kid Jesse Eisenberg smuggles ‘special medicine for rich people’ (Prime)
Most
awful accents: Peterloo Shown on the
anniversary of the massacre. Too long and talk about laying it on thick. We
guffawed at the accents throughout. A good job we weren’t at the pictures (Film
4).
Best Doc: Basically,
Johnny Moped Entertaining and amusing
tale of early days of punk rock (Netflix)
Daftest
Alternative Bio: Grey Wolf: The Escape of Adolf Hitler Weird conspiracy bollocks wherein an aging
Hitler lives in Argentina (Prime)
Sci-fi,
Fantasy and Myth
Best
overall: In The Shadow of the Moon Cop
tries to stop woman coming from future during certain moon phases to kill
people. Unexpected ending (Netflix)
Best satirical: Don’t
Look Up Meteor about to hit earth,
politicians and Elon Musk/Bezos/Zuckerberg character conspire to profit. Blended
our comment on capitalists monetising climate action with conspiracy theories,
of which we’ve had many the last 2 years. Funny and clever (Netflix)
Most
over-hyped: Ad Astra So-so introspective
space opera with a broody Brad and some pretty bits (Prime)
Most
original idea: Alastair 1918 WW1 soldier
from Shibden comes through wormhole to land in LA (Prime)
Best
aliens: The Tomorrow War Chris Pratt
meets up with daughter of future to save world from fab man-eating aliens
(Prime)
Best arthouse: Ink Arty, stylish, and interestingly imaginative (Prime)
Best pandemic: Songbird In the near future of 2023, variant Covid-23
emerges and the world enters a 4th year of lockdown. At least
Michael Bay wasn’t whingeing about not being able to make blockbusters and
getting with the zeitgeist! (Prime)
Most
surreal: Jesus Shows You The Way to the Highway Based on a Philip K Dick story, featuring AR,
loony Ethiopian beliefs and magic sweets. Completely bonkers and a hoot from
start to finish (Prime)
Most
fun: Bloodshot Ex -soldier Vin Diesel
gets killed, re-animated and augmented with nano bots by evil genius. Good CGI
(Netflix)
Daftest
Sequel: Iron sky 2 Ridiculous fan-funded
effort. Journey to centre of the earth, Hitler on a dinosaur and a Laibach
soundtrack. What’s not to love! (Prime)
Worst
sequel: Skylin3s Mildly entertaining but
terrible script. Out-takes the best bit (Netflix)
Best classic: Things
to Come Coloured-in version of the
1930’s HG Wells classic. Going from endless war, through plague to a future
dominated by machines. Very weird in retrospect (Prime)
Best re-watch: Bladerunner
2049 A stunning movie with awesome sound
(DVD)
Close second: Doomsday They were wrong about how people would act during Brexit, a pandemic and lockdowns but the fictional plague is far more interesting than the real one (DVD)
Best
Comic character: Joker Stand-alone tale of the
Batman villain. Joaquin Phoenix
brilliant (Prime)
Most bonkers:
Aquaman Jason Momoa as half-blood king
of Atlanta. Enjoyable escapism (Prime)
Most
imaginative: Armageddon Gospels Old gods
wash up on shore of southern England to try and resurrect paganism (Prime)
Best Nordic:
Valhalla: The Legend of Thor Engaging
Danish telling of Thor and Loke going to earth and taking 2 kids back to
Valhalla(Prime)
Horror
Best
low budget: Ripper Untold Engaging take
on Jack the Ripper story with interesting twist (Prime)
Best
exorcism: The Seventh Day Young priest
tries to expel demons from young boy (Netflix)
Funniest:
Bingo Hell Gran seeks revenge on evil
bingo hall killer in fifth instalment of the Blumhouse anthology (Prime)
Best
NZ: Shadow in the Cloud Young woman
smuggles baby onto WW2 fighter plane (Prime)
Daftest disaster:
The Meg Basically Jaws with bigger fish.
Not The Statham’s best effort (Channel 5)
Best
demons: Bram Stoker’s Shadow Builder
Everyday tale of world-destroying demons. Absolute hoot (Prime)
Best
vampires: Night Teeth Everyday
tale of vampires in LA - a daft place to live with all that sunlight (Netflix)
Best
Zombies: Army of the Dead Enjoyable romp
with Dave Bautista, Tig Natura and associates fighting their way in and out of
a damned Las Vegas. Possibly made last year when the place was deserted
(Netflix)
Best
sequel: Zombieland Double Tap Fun
follow-up with meta ref to Bill Murray (Netflix)
Best
cameos: The Dead Don’t Die Funny bits
and good turns from Tilda Swinton and Iggy Pop but patchy with a fizzly end
(Netflix)
Crime
Best whodunit: The
Mystery of a Hansom Cab Classic mystery,
set in a very English-looking Melbourne. Ads not too annoying (IMDB via Prime)
Best
British: Once Upon A Time in London Second
viewing of this everyday tale of cheeky chappies from the East End of London. Still
good (Prime)
Most
violent: Sweet Girl Man vows revenge on pharma
boss for withdrawing cancer drug his wife was taking. Violent rampage ensues
(Netflix)
Most
tenuous prequel: Army of Robbers Prequel
to Army of the Dead. Only glimpses of zombies (Netflix)
Most frightening: I
Care A Lot Rosamund Pike’s heartless
‘carer’ strips elderly of their assets, comes up against gangster Peter
Dinklage. Lots of twists but suddenly moral end (Netflix)
Funniest:
Killing Gunther Incompetent assassins
collaborate to kill Arnie who unusually speaks German. Guessing from the
quasi-cameo, he did it for nothing (Prime)
Close
second: Queenpins Middle class women in
coupon scam (Prime)
Best Indian: The
White Tiger Boy becomes driver for rich
family. Good songs but no dancing! (Netflix)
Best
heist: The Vault Egghead college-boy
Freddie Highmore helps gang break into vault under Banco España. Made we want to
watch Money Heist again (Prime)
Most
un-PC: The Mule Clint Eastwood as
geriatric drugs runner. Typically dry humour with no filter (Prime)
Most
twisty: The Informer Joel Kinnaman goes
back to prison in double-dealing plot involving a Polish drug gang, the NYPD
and FBI (Prime)
Best
assassin: Kate Assassin gets poisoned,
seeks vengeance with no messing about (Netflix)
Close
second: The Rhythm Section Jude Law trains Blake Lively to be crap
assassin (Netflix)
Most
confusing: Capone Odd tale of last year
of the gangster’s life. Tom Hardy great as always (Netflix)
War
Best
overall: Persian Lessons Belgian Jew
convinces Nazi he’s Persian and teaches him ‘Farsi’. Clever, funny and with
Jonas Nay of ‘Deutschland’ fame; not sure why The Guardian didn’t like it
(Prime)
Best
Costume: Master and Commander Realistic
and moving. Best line: “the lesser of
two weevils’ (DVD)
Best WW1: The War
Below True tale of miners recruited to
put explosives in tunnel under the Germans. Very educational (Netflix)
Best Russian: Convoy
48–The War Train True story of young
women building railway and operating trains to Leningrad and beyond. Subtitles
a bit funny especially constant use of ‘fiddle sticks’, presumably to denote
swear words (Prime)
Best Korean:
Battleship Island Nasty Japs use Koreans
as slave labour on coalmine island which can now be visited for a fun holiday,
thanks to UNESCO! (Prime)
Best
Bogart: Sahara Humphrey and crew in
small tank outsmart Nazis in desert (DVD)
Best low budget: We
Go In At Dawn Daring rescue in occupied
France during runup to D-day (Prime)
Maddest: My Way Mad but true What a guy!(DVD)
Grimmest: Escape
from Sobribor True tale of escape from
notorious and depraved Nazi death camp, led by heroic Russian; as if there’s
any other kind!(Prime)
Best for kids: War
of the Buttons Kids from rival villages
in the Loire go to war, band together to protect a Jewish girl (prime)
Most perplexing: The
Forgotten Battle Dutch film set just
before allies arrived. Made out Nazis
were human too – as if!(Netflix)
