2020 in Review

 Glazing over the fact that 2020 has disrupted the world, it is devastating that the business decisions by studios, especially towards streaming services, will have rippling effects for years to come. In a year that was meant to be supplying new films from Denis Villeneuve, Wes Anderson, Edgar Wright and the Bond franchise, we instead got some streaming releases that, whilst some were good, feel underwhelming on the small screen. It is the first year I can't do a Top 10; only six or so of the films I have seen this year are worth talking about, and padding out the rest of the list with Da 5 Bloods, Borat 2 or Sonic the Hedgehog implies they are much better than they are. Praise has to be given to the UK release dates though, meaning our 2020 contained last year's awards films and meant it was not a total failure of the year. Here are my favourites.

6. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Aaron Sorkin)

Seemingly under-seen, this riveting court room drama from acclaimed writer-director Aaron Sorkin packs all of the snappy dialogues, monologues and smooth editing one now expects. Boasting a great performance from Sacha Baron Cohen, as well as able assistance from Mark Rylance, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Michael Keaton, the film depicts the true life trial of seven anti-Vietnam protest leaders which puts them against the odds as the legal system hopes to find them guilty of inciting violence. The events are brilliantly unfolded in the court room. 

5. Mank (David Fincher)

Using his late father's script, David Fincher's ode to the pioneering spirit of Golden Age Hollywood is visually stunning thanks to its polished monochrome photography. Gary Oldman gives yet another career best performance as Herman 'Mank' Mankiewicz, the screenwriter of Citizen Kane who repeatedly clashed with Orson Welles on the story. A strong cast, superb attention to period detail and an auto-biographical quality make this a compellling watch. 

4. Jojo Rabbit (Taika Waititi)

Only Taika Waititi could make a film about Nazi youth and play an imaginary version of the Fuhrer. Jojo Rabbit contains some of the best child performances I have seen, but for all its laughs (and there are many) there is true heart to this story. Captured in the performances of Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell, Taika does know how to move the soul as much as he can the belly. "Fuck off Hitler" indeed. 

3. 1917 (Sam Mendes)

Sam Mendes directing a story loosely based on his grandfather's WW1 experience. Roger Deakins shooting the film to look like a continuous shot. Lee Smith editing. Thomas Newman on score duties. A cast including Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Richard Madden and Andrew Scott. Was anyone doubting this film would be brilliant? A technical masterpiece, Mendes knocked it out of the park with a gripping, grueling experience that brought emotion, tension and ethereal beauty with it. There are films, and there is cinema. This is cinema.

 

2. Parasite (Bong Joon-ho)

Bong Joon-ho won four Oscars in a single night for this record breaking South Korean film. And with good measure. Whilst having only seen the black and white version of the film, the effect is still the same: this is thrilling yet funny, scary yet endearing. It is so thematically dense that dissertations will be citing it for years to come, whilst it is has enough detail in the production design to beg repeat viewings. Containing outstanding moments such as the first dive into the basement, the sudden switch in tone when the family comes home and the finale, it lingers long after having seen it. 

1. Tenet (Christopher Nolan)

If Parasite is the better all round film, Tenet takes the win because it reaffirmed my love for filmmaking. This is an awe-inspiring, towering work of ambition from Christopher Nolan. The master of introducing concepts and tinkering and evolving them, here he takes that skill to a whole new level. When ideas are this head-spinning, you do not need rich three-dimensional characters to keep your interest. Luckily still the characters are memorable enough, but it is the technical bravura of the film that is astonishing: a 'how did they do that / who thought of that' film. With blistering action scenes scored by an almighty Ludwig Goransson accompaniment, Tenet reverberates for hours after. The temporal pincer strategy is one of the coolest, smartest things going. And the building explosion / restoration? Beyond awesome.  

Here's hoping No Time to Die, Dune, Top Gun: Maverick and Mission Impossible 7 make it to the big screen next year. 

Here are also the best films I saw for the first time this year outside of the cinematic release:

The Third Man, The Mission, Brief Encounter, Heaven's Gate, Dazed and Confused, Carlito's Way, McCabe & Mrs Miller, Das Boot, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, To Kill a Mockingbird, American History X, Keoma, Sleuth. 

Sean Connery 1930-2020

 The lighting of a cigarette. The famous John Barry theme music. “Bond, James Bond”. The camera finally reveals Ian Fleming’s legendary spy to the world, in the face of the Scottish Sean Connery, who has passed away at the grand age of 90. In terms of cinematic introductions, it is one of the most iconic, kickstarting one of the longest running and most successful film franchises of all time. In terms of actors, he is one of the most distinct, winning and infallible presences in motion picture history.

Connery won the Bond role through pure charm, allegedly wearing scruffy clothes to his meeting with the producers yet displaying enough rugged masculinity to seal his place in the hall of fame. His performance as the globe-trotting British agent is one that has stuck to the core of my childhood. My first experience with Connery’s Bond was with Goldfinger (1964) wherein he emerged from the water in a tight black wetsuit, only to whip it off and reveal an immaculate white tuxedo underneath, adorned with a red flower. The same sequence closes with him throwing an electrical appliance at an opponent in the bath. “Shocking” he quips. As far as my seven-year-old brain went, it was the coolest thing I had ever seen.

Bond has been played six times in the mainstream franchise, but it is always, always Connery we compare to. He is the only the Bond actor to come back to the role after previously handing it off (twice, if you include the offbeat 1983 film Never Say Never Again) and is the only of the Bond actors to claim that he influenced Fleming’s writings: the author revealed that Bond’s father was in fact Scottish. It is easy to say that we will always compare to Connery because he was the first; the first to order the martini, the first to drive the Aston Martin and the first to remark “I think he got the point” after harpooning an assailant to a tree. But that is only part of the reason. Connery’s earthy charm, quick wit, just-about-threatening physicality and wry smile are quintessential components for the character.

The first five Bond films alone would be a great legacy, but Connery has left a remarkable body of work outside of his franchise, arguably the only Bond actor to do so. Keen to detach himself from that image, he took on a range of roles for a variety of directors: there is  Marnie, A Bridge Too Far, The Untouchables (for which he won his Oscar), cult classic Highlander, a scene stealing role in The Last Crusade, The Hunt for Red October and the ultimate Friday night with beers film, The Rock. Connery’s very presence in these elevates them to the top levels of big screen entertainment, deploying his thick accent with gusto. His line of work is filled with memorable, funny quotations, making it easy to forget the emotional guns he fired in The Last Crusade or The Untouchables.

If there is one film of special mention it is The Man Who Would Be King, in which Connery was paired with Michael Caine as two British soldiers who journey into 19^th century Kafiristan, only for Connery’s character to become a doomed, god-like king. Connery’s favourite film to do, the picture sees his character (Daniel) wanting to do away with his past job in search of something greater. It more than draws comparisons to Connery’s own adventure away from the Bond franchise, but whilst Daniel fails, Connery succeeded- massively. The Man Who Would Be King? The Man Who Was a King.

 

100 Greatest Films of All Time

 I have not seen every film. Nor would I have the assumption that I have the ability to define what is great, or what greatness is. When reading the lists of Sight & Sound, Roger Ebert or the AFI / BFI, it becomes clear that greatness in film is measured by general popularity combined with meticulous craftsmanship and how groundbreaking and influential a film is. This is a logical place to start: combing through audience lists like Empire Magazine or IMDb determines what the general public like, but then this omits films from cinema's early years that are lost in the mainstream. There is a third aspect I feel has to be measured when it comes to 'greatness': what the film art-form actually does. When I drew up around 200 'nominated' films for this list, what guided me was to what extent did each film's story serve the medium the most; if the film could be as well told in another artistic mediums, does that diminish its position? The films I ended up choosing are the ones that best exemplify what makes the filmmaking medium the most potent of the arts: when editing, photography and music form a symbiotic relationship. A further rule I set was that no director could be represented more than three times on this list in order to have some sense of diversity in filmmaking style. So whilst The Conversation, Ikiru and Great Expectations are all immensely worthy of the list, Coppola, Kurosawa and Lean all have three stronger entries to show their style. 

These are not my 100 favourite films, but these are 100 films that I deem vital to cinema's history and remind me what makes filmmaking so special, even if I don't overwhelmingly like some of them.  

*no order*

 Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)

Napoleon (Abel Gance, 1927)

City Lights (Charlie Chaplin, 1931)

M (Fritz Lang, 1931)

Scarface (Howard Hawks, 1932)

Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 1933)

The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)

The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940)

Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)

A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell, Eric Pressburger, 1946)

The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, Eric Pressburger, 1948)

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948)

The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)

The Hustler (Robert Rossen, 1961)

Harakiri (Masaka Kobayashi, 1962)

The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967)

The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)

McCabe & Mrs Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)

Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)

Body Heat (Lawrence Kasdan, 1981)

Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)

Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)

My Neighbour Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki, 1988)

JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991)

 Carlito's Way (Brian De Palma, 1993)

The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, 1994)

Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron, 2006)

No Country for Old Men (Coen Brothers, 2007)

Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)

The Revenant (Alejandro Inarritu, 2015)

Blade Runner 2049 (Dennis Villeneuve, 2017)

Parasite (Bong Joon-ho, 2019)

70. Harakiri (Masaka Kobayashi, 1962)

69. Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)

68. Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004)

67. L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson, 1997)

66. Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010)

65. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)

64. The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)

63. Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg, 1993)

62. Mr Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939)

61. North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)

60. Wall-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008)

59. Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater, 1995)

58. Silence of the Lambs (Jonathon Demme, 1991)

57. The Lion King (Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff, 1994)

56. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)

55. La La Land (Damien Chazelle, 2016)

54. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008)

53. All the President's Men (Alan J Pakula, 1976)

52. The Raid (Gareth Evans, 2011)

51. To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962)

50. The Thin Red Line (Terence Malick, 1998)

49. Inside Out (Pete Doctor, 2015)

48. Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985)

47. M (Fritz Lang, 1931)

46. Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)

45. Se7en (David Fincher, 1995)

44. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)

43. Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)

42. It's A Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)

41. Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)

40. The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980)

39. In the Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison, 1967)

38. The French Connection (William Friedkin, 1971)

37. 12 Angry Men (Sydney Lumet, 1957)

36. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)

35. 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)

34. Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)

33. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)

32. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman, 1975)

31. Dog Day Afternoon (Sydney Lumet, 1975)

30. Heat (Michael Mann, 1995)

29. Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000)

28. The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 1978)

27. Spirited Away (Hiyao Miyazaki, 2001)

26. Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro, 2006)

25. Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1976)

24. Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995)

23. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)

22. The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola. 1974)

21. The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957)

20. The Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson, 2001-2003)

19. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)

18. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)

17. Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945)

16. A Clockwork Orange (Staley Kubrick, 1971)

15. Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)

14. Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donan, Gene Kelly, 1952)

13. The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973)

12. Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)

11. Das Boot (Wolfgang Peterson, 1984)

10. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)

9. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1943)

8. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

7. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

6. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

5. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

4. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)

3. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)

2. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

Film Quotations of the 2010s

 I recently read the American Film Institute's '100 Years... 100 Quotes' list and found myself struggling to think of lines of dialogue from the 2010s that were as iconic and memorable as "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!" or "Go ahead. Make my day". After trawling through the last decade, I realised there are some iconic belters. Here are my 40 picks for the most quoted, memorable and best lines of the 2010s. 

40. "I fucked up my whole life because of the way you sing" - Ethan Hawke, Before Midnight 

39. "A man becomes a critic when he cannot be an artist, the same way a man becomes an informer when he cannot be a soldier" - Michael Keaton, Birdman  

38. "Manners maketh man" - Colin Firth, Kingsman: The Secret Service

37. "Let them fight" - Ken Watanabe, Godzilla 

36. "Hi Georgie!" - Bill Skarsgaard, IT 

35. "Is that a monkey?" - Toby Kebbell, Kong: Skull Island 

34. "I am fire... I am death" - Benedict Cumberbatch, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

33. "I'm kinda thinking it's the other way around. You know, like the moment seizes us" - Jesse Mechler, Boyhood 

32. "Nah it was dumber than that" - Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood

31. "I ain't afraid to die anymore. I done it already" - Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant 

30. "Mightn't happen to have a piece of cheese about you, now?" - Harrison Ford, Blade Runner 2049

29. "A man without balls is a Munich" - Ryan Gosling, The Nice Guys 

28. "Just one more" - Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge 

27. "Which would be worse, to live as a monster or die as a good man?" - Leonardo DiCaprio, Shutter Island

26. "Docking" - Matthew McConaughey, Interstellar 

25. "What do I have in my pocket?" - Martin Freeman, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 

24. "Not everything. Not yet" - Christian Bale, The Dark Knight Rises

23. "The show goes on!" - Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street

22. "Apes together strong" - Andy Serkis, War for the Planet of the Apes  

21. "My name is... Jeff" - Channing Tatum, 22 Jump Street

20. "Oh fuck off you big lamp" - Simon Pegg, The World's End

19. "Wakanda Forever" - Chadwick Boseman, Black Panther 

18. "Never be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling" - Tom Hardy, Inception

17. "He's a friend from work" - Chris Hemsworth, Thor Ragnarok

16. "Get the sheriff and then the Marshall" - Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained 

15. "People love what other people are passionate about" - Emma Stone, La La Land

14. "A doughnut hole in the doughnut's hole" - Daniel Craig, Knives Out

13. "We are what they grow beyond" - Frank Oz, Star Wars: The Last Jedi

12. "Time takes everyone out; time's undefeated" - Sylvester Stallone, Creed 

11. "Chewie, we're home" - Harrison Ford, Star Wars: The Force Awakens

10. "So this is what it feels like" - Hugh Jackman, Logan

9. "You should have gone for the head" - Josh Brolin, Avengers: Infinity War

8. "Always" - Alan Rickman, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

7. "Look at me- I am the captain now" - Barkhad Abi, Captain Phillips

6. "You're awful Murray" - Joaquin Phoenix, Joker

5. "Get me a Hammerhead Corvette. I have an idea" - Paul Kasey, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

4. "Avengers Assemble" - Chris Evans, Avengers: Endgame

3. "Not quite my tempo" - J.K Simmons, Whiplash

2. "No!" - Andy Serkis, Rise of the Planet of the Apes

1. "What a day! What a lovely day!" - Nicholas Hoult, Mad Max: Fury Road

Tenet Review

Poised to be the event film to ‘save cinema’ in a post-pandemic world, Christopher Nolan’s Tenet has been anxiously waiting in the wings till its release. Hotly anticipated for being both the new film from the industry’s most revered blockbuster filmmaker and for being the first big release for the re-opening of cinemas, there hasn’t been a motion picture like this to have your fingers crossed for since The Force Awakens. Fortunately, those fingers can relax.

Time (and the manipulation of it) has fascinated Nolan right from his backwards thriller Memento twenty years ago all the way through to Interstellar, Dunkirk and Inception. With Tenet, the director has culminated two decades of barnstorming temporal storytelling into a 150-minute spy thriller that makes Inception’s narrative complexity look as basic as a Cars film. The less said about the plot the better, but it boils down to The Protagonist (John David Washington, sporting an immaculate beard and enough tailored suits to make the folks in Kingsman blush) dashing about the world investigating ‘inverted’ objects that means actions and entire scenes can play out in reverse. It is an idea to be seen rather than told.

Those that have discovered the limitless creative possibilities of Snapchat’s reverse filter will thrill at seeing the same effect supported by a nine-figure budget. Bullets are inhaled back into their gun’s barrel (a pre-established trick from the opening of Memento) and cars are ‘un-crashed’. It is a unique, head-spinning piece of technical wizardry that is a cinematic delight. Nolan tinkers about with the concept; pushing it to the very extreme but never to self-indulgence. Tenet does maintain the muted colour palette that all of Nolan’s film have but there is a notable usage of red and blue, with each colour corresponding to the state of time. It is a simple idea, set up in the film’s opening logos, but it works wonders to remind the audience what on earth is happening.

Washington anchors the film with just enough to wit to sustain the labyrinthine narrative, asking enough questions for the audience’s benefit but also packing some serious muscular presence in the film’s exceptional action scenes. One such set piece is a high-concept hallway fight that might just out-do its counterpart from Inception. But Nolan, whose eye for action has exponentially increased with each blockbuster, also helms road heists, sophisticated shootouts, spectacular vehicular crashes and an adrenaline pumping opening of such bravura to rival The Dark Knight Rises’ plane ambush. If there is CGI in this film, it is impossible to see. All of this is intensely scored by Ludwig Göransson who channels all the synths and drums he can find and unleashes them to near deafening effect.

Another notable change is that this is the first Nolan film since 2002’s Insomnia to not have the legendary Lee Smith as editor. The difference is practically invisible, as Jennifer Lame picks up the mantle and, in what must have been a herculean effort, deftly uses her shears to cut and stitch the sequences into an accessible order whilst also reversing a great deal. It is blistering filmmaking.

Despite this, there are lines and occasionally entire scenes where the dialogue is drowned out by the sound effects and score. A soon to be infamous sailing conversation is in desperate need of subtitles. Whether this is due to post-production occurring in lockdown and away from the studios or whether it is Nolan forcing his audience to concentrate as hard as possible is unclear. Furthermore, Nolan’s character-based dialogue can’t keep up with the intriguingly dense exposition. Of course, going to see a Nolan film means ideas, story and technical genius over characters, but it is only Elizabeth Debicki’s character who gets the emotional heavy lifting and her dialogue doesn’t fully sell it. The cast are still uniformly strong: Robert Pattison drips charm as a fellow spy and Kenneth Branagh is a scene-chewing Russian villain who could easily inhabit a Timothy Dalton era-Bond film.

The filmography of Nolan can be defined by being fiercely apolitical and completely uninterested with being products of their time. Brands, dates, years and ideology are discarded for the sake of achieving immortal filmmaking; meaning new audiences can watch Tenet decades on and still find it fresh. Yet despite Tenet aiming for being timeless rather than timely, it is bizarre watching characters wearing masks in order to inhabit a backwards world.

Filled with invigorating filmmaking, Tenet respects its audience’s capacity to think and follow. Feeling Tenet is incredible, but understanding it is like achieving Enlightenment. Whilst perhaps edging closer to the later films of David Lean with its pictorial focus and desire to be ‘true cinema’ at the cost of character, Tenet is a refreshing head-scratcher.

Inception- 10th Anniversary

A whole decade has passed since Christopher Nolan, hot off the juggernaut success of The Dark Knight, blitzed the world with Inception. With $820 million in worldwide grosses, the bitingly original film was, thanks to its complex ideas and brilliant special effects, a must-see experience. Since that July in 2010, Nolan has concluded his Batman trilogy, made a hugely ambitious space film, an art-house

 war film and a (slightly delayed) mysterious spy thriller film. But it is Inception that remains Nolan’s most ‘Nolan’ film and perhaps his greatest accomplishment.

Leonardo DiCaprio spearheads an international ensemble as Dom Cobb, a thief who commits his robberies deep in the dreams of his targets. It’s a thrillingly unique concept, one that is entirely dependent on vast swathes of exposition. Thankfully, Ellen Page’s Ariadne (the aptly named maze architect) is on hand as the audience surrogate, asking her peers the questions bouncing around the audiences’ brains. No other film gets away with this much constant explanation, but the premise is so ridiculously fascinating that there is an addictive quality to consuming more dream related knowledge.

Cobb is hired by Saito (Ken Watanabe) to undergo a new job: rather than extract information, Cobb must plant an idea in his target’s (Cillian Murphy) dreams, a notion considered impossible. Nolan frames this science-fiction thriller under the structure of a heist film, taking his time mapping out the intricate details of the operation to keep his audience on the right side of understanding.

In a cinema the emotional response to Inception is enhanced to something akin to an epiphany. The film’s legendary and ground-shaking set pieces inspire a whole new sense of awe: the Mombasa chase, the folding city and the seriously impressive rotating hallway fight just become the apotheosis of big screen filmmaking. It takes one thing to imagine physics-bending sequences but something else entirely to create them with minimal CGI.

Nolan rightfully receives the most acclaim for this colossal convergence of blockbuster-meets-auteur but there are two other worthy heroes of the film’s success: editor Lee Smith and music composer Hans Zimmer. The juggernaut final hour intertwines the numerous dream layers, ensuring the audience gets both a grasp of the different time ‘zones’ and the effects that trickle down through each dream. The cutting between the ensemble is simply masterful, and Zimmer’s Oscar-snubbed score is one of his greatest accomplishments.

To see Inception as merely a high concept piece of technical filmmaking is to the detriment of the character work on display. In Cobb, DiCaprio’s conflicted widower supplies both the emotional beats as a father who wants to see his children again and the high stakes as the projection of his dead wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) becomes an invasive presence in the dream world: a pure femme fatale. By paralleling Cobb’s emotional arc with the increased threat, Nolan keeps the action and scope grounded in character. It is an underrated DiCaprio performance; the final look he gives Saito in particular is fantastic. The vital relationship between Cillian Murphy’s character and his father is also one that hits the feels; reaching its zenith in a moment of indescribable catharsis.

A highly overlooked aspect of the film is the relationship between Tom Hardy’s creative forger Eames and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s narrow-minded Arthur. Their exchanges are delightful; with Eames being critical of Arthur’s lack of imagination (Arthur uses pre-existing dream techniques such as the Penrose stairs as opposed to anything inventive). However, when things go inevitably off-plan in the climax, Arthur does think independently to stage a ‘kick’, overcoming his fear of spontaneity.

Some time prior to this, Eames comments to Arthur “never be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling” before exploding a gunman with a grenade launcher. The line demonstrates the icy relationship between the two but overtime it has come to manifest itself as something more: a challenge. It isn’t too far-fetched to imagine it as Nolan’s way of telling his fellow filmmakers and other studios to embrace originality, and that trusting an audience to keep up intellectually and narratively guarantees the lasting popularity that Inception has a decade on.

A behemoth picture that still looks and sounds incredible, Inception is the red wine of the 21^st century blockbuster bar.

Ennio Morricone: 1928-2020

There is a scene in the 1986 film The Mission where Jeremy Irons’ Jesuit priest, deep in hostile territory and near surrounded by enemies, sits on a rock and plays his oboe. The soothing music echoes around the luscious clearing, arousing his would-be assailants’ curiosities in a beautiful declaration of the transcultural power of music over aggression. The track, ‘Gabriel’s Oboe’, is one of the most revered in the late Ennio Morricone’s legendary career, one that saw him score over 400 films in a span of over six decades and saw 70 million records sold worldwide.

Before I watched The Mission, the first time I heard that track was four years ago at my school’s commemoration service in Canterbury Cathedral. Usually the kind of service that lasts a lifetime and is a struggle to get through, this one was different. Rather than another hymn, a fellow pupil sat alone before a thousand people with naught but an oboe and the song book from which he played that Morricone piece. Among the gargantuan pillars and distant ceiling of the cathedral, the oboe’s tune was magnified and the feeling was simply euphoric; a similar experience to what the natives of South America felt in The Mission. One can’t fathom what his performances for the Pope in Vatican City must feel like. After the service there was a unanimous verdict among my friends: it was the best commemoration service we had been to. Why? Because of Ennio Morricone’s soul-touching music. It’s one thing to be a great film score composer, but it is something else to create a single, two-minute track that can be removed from the context of its film and still touch and transport a cathedral full of teenage boys.

But The Mission is but one of Morricone’s masterworks. The most prolific person in Hollywood to not speak English, the Italian Morricone (or the ‘Maestro’) scored for such distinguished classics as The Untouchables, The Thing (1982), Casualties of War, Cinema Paradiso and The Hateful Eight, for which he won his only Oscar for. Whilst overdue, the simple fact is that Morricone transcended the need for trophies and awards; his genius was already well known.

His unrivalled partnership with Italian director Sergio Leone rightfully gets the most attention in his filmography, however. In Leone’s creation of the Spaghetti-Western sub-genre, Morricone’s input was pivotal. The smaller budgets of these Italian films denied the classical orchestral instruments that Hollywood was employing, and so Morricone looked for new musical sources.

The most titanic of these films is The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and its instantly recognisable theme song contains unorthodox whistling, yodelling and an iconic coyote wail. It is synonymous with the Western genre, and when an Italian reinvents the entire sound of the American Old West, it must be impressive. And it is. The final 25 minutes of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly contains arguably some of the best film composing of all time. But here is where Morricone really shines: the music for the film was largely composed before photography had even begun. Connotations of the word ‘filmmaker’ are generally ‘director’ and sometimes ‘producer’, but rarely is the term used to describe a composer. Sergio Leone allowed the music to tell as much of the story as the script; often refusing to cut scenes because he did not want to cut the music and writing more scenes around the score. Such is the influence of Ennio Morricone, perhaps the only musician who deserves to be labelled as a filmmaker.

His influence has inevitably permeated the mainstream: Quentin Tarantino often recycles existing Morricone compositions for his films; Metallica, KFC and Nike have all used the ‘Ecstasy of Gold’ track in some format and it is unavoidable to listen to Hans Zimmer’s track ‘Parlay’ (from Pirates of the Caribbean) without thinking of the Maestro’s work on Once Upon a Time in the West. Indeed, Zimmer is renowned for utilising electric instruments in film composing, but it was Morricone who first brought the electric guitar to the Western genre, something that influenced Zimmer to become a composer himself.

But it ultimately comes back to Jeremy Irons and his oboe, communicating his peaceful intent to those of another language. With high sales in Italy, France, USA and South Korea, Morricone’s music achieves what could be considered the greatest desire for an artist: an instant accessibility, no matter the culture, race or religion. It is music made to touch and enthral, but ultimately to endure. Without him a lot of cinema’s highest highs would never have been reached, and a school commemoration service would never have been remembered so fondly.

Directors shoot, Morricone scores.

Ranking Star Wars Films

The eleven live-action Star Wars films assessed by both a Star Wars fan and a filmmaker fan to see where (and if) those two viewpoints fuse together at any point. Having re-watched them all over a few days, they are all fresh and my thoughts have never been so singularly focused on this. 

I will also drop my three favourite scenes from each film. 1-11. 

1. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Yoda lifting the X-wing, Luke vs Vader, Lando's betrayal 

A flawless unity of fanbase and critics's support, this iconic sequel crafted the narrative and tonal boldness that all subsequent sequels aspired to. The strongest screenplay of the bunch, Luke's training on Dagobah gives the story its wisdom and spiritual magic whilst Leia and Han's blossoming romance during a staggered space chase gives it the emotional and action beats until Luke faces Vader. Great photography, John Williams at his peak and unforgettable lines. 

2. Star Wars (1977)

The trench run, Obi-wan's house, Binary Sunset

Watching this it is impossible to think of it as an original film back in '77. Its imagination far surpasses the limitations of its occasionally hammy dialogue, and the striking designs and bombastic score all collide for a fantastical, near spiritual awakening (especially if a young boy). Its dated feel comes off as magnetically charming and it is totally wholesome too, able to seen and enjoyed independent of the others. 

3. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Vader's hallway massacre, destruction of Jedha, X-wings arrive at Scarif 

The greatest accomplishment of the Disney era, Rogue One's brilliance stems from its unique gritty tone and visual magnificence. Perhaps the best shot installment of the franchise, director Gareth Edwards fills the story with ground-shaking action scenes, an engaging batch of original characters and the instantly beloved Battle of Scarif. With inventiveness to spare, the mesmerising third act is pure blockbuster, and the Vader lightsaber ignition is just... 

4. Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Anakin vs Obi-wan, Order 66, the opening sky battle 

This is when Star Wars fan overpowers filmmaking fan. It is far from the best made (extensive CGI backdrops are fatigue inducing and the script and acting is lackluster) but this always feels like the film George Lucas always wanted to make. With masterful editing paralleling numerous sequences, Lucas' Shakespearean tragedy is one of the most imaginative blockbusters: from Clone Turbo Tanks to flying Wookies, Mustafa to Utapau, Grievous to a lizard chasing a unicycle, this is a childhood defining film. From a LEGO perspective this is objectively the best film. Order 66 is heartbreaking and the highly anticipated lightsaber clash between Kenobi and Skywalker is as fierce as poignant as necessitated. 

5. Return of the Jedi (1983)

Luke vs Vader, space battle of Endor, Vader's cremation
One of the more up-and-down films, ROTJ has its fierce defenders and it has its 'it's good, but weaker than the other two originals' naysayers. If Episode III is a darker and bolder trilogy capper, this third installment is safer, bringing more optimism and greenery to the proceedings. If the Jabba's Palace rescue plan makes very little sense, and the third act planning starts far, far too early, it is boosted by the final half an hour that is quintessential Star Wars. Luke's clash with his father and his subsequent declaration that he is a Jedi to the Emperor is the saga's greatest, purest moment. If it was Wookies instead of Ewoks, no CGI singing and dancing scene and Boba Fett wasn't so mistreated, then this would be higher up the list battling it out with Rogue One. 

6. The Force Awakens (2015)
Millenium Falcon's flight, Resistance vs First Order on Takodana, Finn and Rey vs Kylo Ren
The safest Skywalker film by a considerable margin, of course TFA belongs slap bang in the middle of the list. It has a few inspired moments: a stormtrooper with a conscience, a desert scavenger sliding down a sand dune on a sled, Kylo stopping a laser bolt, Han using Chewie's bowcaster etc. But they are small moments rather than outright scenes. There is a lot left unsaid such as Anakin's lightsaber, why Max von Sydow had a piece of the map to Luke Skywalker and how the First Order grew such strength in the shadows of the New Republic. But its enjoyable enough, even if it does feel frustrating watching the familiar story and knowing where things lead (or don't) in its sequels. Too vanilla.

7. Solo (2018)
Kessel Run, Maul revealed, Han vs Beckett
If TFA was safe, then Solo makes it look positively original. Massively under-marketed and with box office takings, Solo is the definitive three star film. More interested in ticking off back story boxes than propelling a unique narrative, it nevertheless contains 'fine' effects, camera work, acting and characters. It is quite a dark film lighting wise, but the third act shenanigans are entertaining enough to keep this spinoff afloat. I would sooner watch one of the prequels of sequels than this again, but the filmmaking is objectively more cohesive and able so it hovers above its cohorts by the skin of its mundane teeth.

8. The Phantom Menace (1999)
The podrace, Duel of the Fates, Qui-Gon wins Anakin's freedom
As this list veers into openly bad territory, TPM is, bizarrely, the strongest of these final four notorious additions to the franchise. Jar Jar and Annie's annoyance has waned over repeat viewings whilst meme value has exponentially increased. If you can stomach some awfully dated effects, skin crawling dialogue and (unintentional?) racism, then it is easy to switch off and enjoy the exhilarating podrace with its immersive sound design, the masterful final lightsaber battle and its long term ramifications (watch Dave Filoni's breakdown of its importance) and Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon, a Jedi Master inhabiting a more impassioned, fatherly role model for Anakin. The Ned Stark of the saga, Qui-Gon's role casts a long shadow over the prequels.

9. The Last Jedi (2017)
Luke and Yoda's conversation, the Holdo maneuver, Snoke's death / Praetorian Guard fight
Enough has been said on Finn's wasted character in this film, the uselessness of his subplot with Rose, the blandness of Canto Bight, the laughable Rose 'rescue' at the end and the really awkward, irregular humour. But where my issues with this film is Luke. Rian Johnson makes Luke out to be a new Yoda or Obi-wan: a wizened master with a fallen apprentice who gives up hope in bringing them back. But unlike Yoda or Obi-wan, Luke proved that Darth Vader could return to the light, even after all his dark deeds. Luke has empirical evidence that people can be redeemed, Obi-wan did not. And Kylo Ren was only feeling the dark side, he had not been wiping out and torturing rebels and younglings alike. This grumpy Luke is non-canon as far as I am concerned. TLJ does have its moments: the cinematography, especially in the final hour, is breathtaking, the action scenes are equally shot well and the sound design is on point. There is also a wisdom here, "we are what they grow beyond, that is the burden of all masters" states Yoda. As a film, it is actually good. Luke does have a great arc and ending and there is a narrative boldness to its decisions. But as a Star Wars film, it really does not work. Subversion is great for genre, not for a franchise. This is not the OT Luke Skywalker and the best scenes like Holdo's lightspeed ram and Yoda's lightning bolt raise many, many questions about previous Star Wars moments. Too bold.

10. Attack of the Clones (2002)
Asteroid belt chase, Jedi enter the arena, Yoda vs Dooku
If Anakin was posted on a more unique mission with Padme instead of rollicking about in a green screen spewing a series of diabolical words that do not belong together, this could have been a great film. Obi-wan's detective story, slowly unraveling pieces of Darth Sidious' masterplan that leads to the Clone Wars, is awesome. Naboo and Tatooine however... The worst dialogue of the saga is supported by acting so wooden the extras got splinters. Geonosis is where the film peaks, delivering a vast battle sequence that recalls the videogames and toy sets of my youth. It is at least a cohesive story, something that does put it above Episodes VIII and IX from that viewpoint, but its full blown CGI and romance scenes drags it back down.

11. The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Rey giving Ben the lightsaber, Chewie getting his medal, ... I am struggling here... that shot of the Y-wing attacking a Star Destroyer?
This is non-canon. Painfully told with a story line so tediously long winded that even the actors do not want to be there. Finn had so much potential to lead a stormtrooper uprising here, considering how big a deal is made out of the troopers being children forced into it. Palpatine's return undoes everything from Vader's prophecy and the joyful ending of Episode VI to Darth Maul's final line in Rebels. After three films I still do not know the main characters well; Rey is far too overpowered for someone who has never lost, been incorrect or emotionally vulnerable prior to this. The fact that choosing three favourite scenes was hard is proof that this is the weakest of the bunch. Caught between continuing what JJ Abrams planned with TFA and undoing what Johnson did in TLJ, the film ended a beloved franchise with whatever is smaller than a whimper. Too desperate.

Star Wars Marathon: An Exhausting Breakdown

"If you go to your [uni house] for a few weeks you better do something worthwhile down there" my mum's advice echoed as I completed all five Jurassic Park films and, using my six month free trial with Disney+ (thank you O2 Priority, very cool), started combing my way through the eleven live action Star Wars films. This is where the fun begins. 

Day 1: The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones

I revisited the prequels in November last year in anticipation of the final Skywalker film and greatly enjoyed them in a post-meme environment. This time it was a struggle. Alcohol was extensively required to wade through TPM's tiresome tax talks and politics which, whilst opening up the socio-economic world of Star Wars, detracts from one could have been a relatively streamlined film. Jar Jar has bizarrely become less of an irritant over time but is still a pain, as is Jake Lloyd's Anakin. The film is rescued by Qui-Gon Jinn, the ferocious sound effects of the podracing and the Darth Maul fight. Watching Dave Filoni's analysis of that vital fight scene strengthens it tenfold too. 

AotC's is equally a slog and I do find it inferior to its predecessor simply because it lacks scenes as spectacular as the previously mentioned set pieces. The Anakin-Padme 'wooing' is horrific, both in its visual effects and dialogue. Obi-wan's detective story is at least intriguing and the asteroid belt chase with Jango Fett is a go to scene for demonstrating the franchise's unparalleled sound design. Upon reaching the end of the film, one can only exhale in relief: the worst is now behind and things start to look up. I retired to bed, where even my dreams had green-screen. 

Day 2: Revenge of the Sith, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, A New Hope

At a relaxed 11:00am Revenge of the Sith was whacked on. Not just one of my franchise favourites, RotS is also one of my most re-watched films, period. The defining Star Wars film of my childhood, I have seen it an embarrassingly amount of times. It reminds me of Shrek 2: a pretty good film that has become a pop culture landmark in the age of memes and social media, ensuring that it has aged (accidentally) very, very well. Drinking every time a meme is said is fatal but even without alcohol this is a blast. By far the most imaginative of the saga (excluding the original), this feels like the story George Lucas always wanted to make: its editing and use of parallels gives it a 'planned for years' vibe. Crackling with invention in the planet, vehicles, action and music departments, it is a definitive blockbuster. 

The darkness of RotS instantly subsided after switching on the spin-off Solo, which is a dark film visually but in tone and spirit a largely childish film. My first time re-watching this 2018 'flop', I had genuinely forgotten I had seen this by the end of the night. My definitive three star film, Solo is a plain Jane. Acting, characters, action, score, effects and story are simply fine. They do the job. The third-act shenanigans boost the film's appeal but it is one of the least daring blockbusters committed to the silver screen. 

After a much needed break of sitting in the garden (it was a scorcher of a day), dinner was consumed and Rogue One commenced. By far the strongest of the Disney era, Rogue One is alive with originality due to its unique, gritty tone, ground-shaking set pieces and astonishing camera work and visuals: perhaps the best Star Wars film from a cinematography perspective. I love this film, and the Scarif ending always makes me feel like a child again, and for that it receives a double thumbs up. 

The ending of Rogue One mellifluously flows into the evening's final picture, A New Hope. It is brain numbing to imagine audiences in 1977 watching this and just being blown away (or weirded out) by George Lucas' insane vision and creativity. A beautifully wholesome film that is satisfactory even without sequels and prequels, you can't help but relish in its charm.

Day 3: The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi 
Now we are sailing. TESB is the best Star Wars film cinematically. The characters get extensive arcs and developments, the action lands and visually it is stunning: the freezing chamber for Han's carbonite session and later Luke's confrontation with Vader is worthy of recognition in the archives. John Williams also goes full legend mode: the Imperial March, the Asteroid Field, Yoda's Theme... without Williams this franchise just would not work. This is also my favourite Han Solo film.
ROTJ is the weakest of the originals, hindered by lazier storytelling (another Death Star), a third act that starts about fifty minutes in and ewoks downing the Empire's finest legion of stormtroopers. But this concluding epic also houses some of the greatest sequences in the saga: Luke's defeat of Vader, followed by his declaration that he is "a Jedi, like my father before me" is the absolute high point of the entire franchise. The Emperor is a superb villain with his baiting of the Rebel Alliance working twofold: first it removes his enemies, but by staging it outside the window of a captive Luke, he pushes the young Jedi's principles to their limit as Luke is caught between the Jedi code and needing to save his friends. The ultimate good overcoming evil narrative, ROTJ is super satisfying. Tying everything off perfectly and conclusively, it is a joyous ending. For me, the Star Wars franchise stopped here.

Day 4: The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker 
This is where the fun stops. I last saw TFA in December and found it to be just 'fine'. It is annoying to see the potential that this film set up the sequels to have, only for it to be unfulfilled. Perhaps the safest blockbuster ever made, it does undo the peaceful end of Episode VI by having the First Order essentially being stronger than the Empire. But after six viewings I still find this relatively enjoyable with fun moments.
TLJ is the opposite. My fourth full viewing, this has not aged a fraction as well as what Rian Johnson hoped it would. Johnson stated that Episode V was originally decisive, implying his artistic vision will be re-evaluated. But Episode V still had people extremely excited for Episode VI, TLJ derailed the saga so much that people slogged to see TROS. The film's coolest moments (Yoda summoning lightning, lightspeed ram, Praetorian Guard fight) are undermined by logical issues (what is the extent of Force-ghost interference, why can't the lightspeed ram be constantly used, why do so many of the guards stand about doing nothing / mysteriously use weapons). The two things I can say I like conclusively is Yoda's dialogue with Luke and the cinematography, which drips with reds and whites. Visually and aurally it is majestic. But Finn's character is thrown under a truck, Rose is cringe-inducing, the action rarely makes sense, the Leia Force scene is iffy and the comedy is not Star Wars (have sat through nine of them back-to-back and this humour is a curveball).
Then there is the conclusion to the Skywalker saga. If TFA was too safe and TLJ too bold, then TROS is just too desperate. Suffering from a ludicrously hamstrung story (find a thing to get a thing but we need to go somewhere to get something to read a thing in order to find a thing that is ultimately not needed) and a waste of characters, even the visuals and sound are flat and uninteresting. John Williams has nothing to work with either and this is the weakest score of the bunch: you will be hard pressed to find an original theme in this installment as instead Binary Sunset and Leia's Theme are rammed into every Force based moment. Even Yoda's Theme for Luke raising his X-wing is more a callback than meaning. Rey is seriously overpowered and never experiences any form of loss or pain for me to empathise with her. Ben Solo's redemption is nice but becoming a Force-ghost after one good deed after all the murderous things he has done is not satisfactory. There is a total lack of states too: a perfect opportunity to give Threepio an emotional sendoff is re-routed, Chewbacca is used for a lame death fake-out, Kylo is stabbed and healed and Rey is brought back. The less we say about Palpatine returning the better. This is pure non-canon.

A Star Wars Marathon can be great fun: drink for the prequels, enjoy the originals, get wasted for the sequels. The marathon will peak far too early (Episodes III-VI) but you can stop at VI and not miss anything. I will not be doing this again for many years. 

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Most Under-appreciated Blockbusters

There is a moment in the second Pirates of the Caribbean film (Dead Man's Chest) where three characters, Jack Sparrow, Will Turner and James Norrington, engage in a three-way sword fight aboard a large, moving wheel that crashes through the tropical terrain. All three are after a key and the key opens the titular chest that contains Davy Jones' heart. Jack wants it to settle a debt with Jones, Will wants it to free his father who serves Jones, and Norrington wants it to redeem his career in the British navy. It is a thunderous set piece fueled by the character's self interest and it had me thinking: are there any other blockbusters as original, imaginative and entertaining as the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films?

I watched 2006's Dead Man's Chest and its sequel, At World's End (2007) over two nights and was astonished by the dizzying plots and adventurous filmmaking on display. Widely regarded as inferior to the original, The Curse of the Black Pearl, the two films have far weaker ratings on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes but were gigantic box office successes: Dead Man's Chest became the third film ever to cross the once fabled $1 billion mark, and its sequel came agonisingly close to becoming the fourth. These are films made purely with the audience in mind, and, in watching this two-parter (they were shot back to back) the only blockbuster films that I could think of that had any connection to this series were the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Indiana Jones films. 

Pirates of the Caribbean is to the 2000s what Indiana Jones was to the 1980s: a set of three films that revolve around an instantly, almost casually iconic lead character and his adventurous deeds. Whilst Pirates uses the 18th century and the rise of the British navy as its historical backdrop, Indiana Jones uses Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Both trilogies feature exhilarating action, inspired chase sequences with careful choreography, MacGuffins and a sense of mysticism and magic that is connected to the MacGuffins. They both have instantly recognisable scores too. 

Dead Man's Chest and At World's End also feel like the Avengers Infinity War and Endgame of their decade too. These two pairs of film were shot back to back, feature extensive and innovative visual effects and were colossal hits. Narratively, the first in each pair is a lean, 2.5 hour action packed extravaganza that interweaves numerous characters and stories all in the search of a mystical object (the chest vs infinity stones). The second film in each pair is longer, but less action packed until their blistering third acts. Part of the story concerns undoing the events that happened previously (Jack's death, the Snap) before tying everything else in a neat bow at the end. Other similarities include a CG villain who is seen crying at one point (Davy Jones and Thanos) and the reveal of a 'captain' at the end of the second film (Barbossa and Captain Marvel). And yet despite the vast narrative structure of Pirates 2-3, they are never given the attention and praise they deserve. Yes, they are similar to the Indiana Jones films, but they are also far more unique: the visual details of the crew of The Flying Dutchman, the more roguish and ambiguous leading three characters, the quirky comedy, the glimpses of surrealism in Davy Jones' locker and the naval mythology that is intuitively brought to life on-screen. The point is, nothing comes close to these films in terms of setting, action, style, humour and narrative ambition. Just examine some of the set-pieces: pirates suspended in a gorge inside a spherical cage made of bones end up rolling it down through the jungle whist their captain pole vaults with a bamboo stick stuck to his back; a gigantic sea monster tries to engulf a ship whilst the others load gunpowder and rum into barrels to be used as an explosive; two ships engage in a broadside battle as they swirl around a maelstrom and their crews swing across to either ship; in order to escape the naval underworld the crew have to capsize their own boat. Is there anything out there close to this wackiness? 

There is also a beautiful poetry to these films that I discovered on this re-watch. Jack finishes the trilogy alone in a small dingy, just as how he is introduced. Will is stabbed by the same sword he makes for Norrington in the first film. Barbossa marries Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner after calling her 'Miss Turner' a bunch in the first film. Davy Jones is all octopus except his crab claw, which shows the hold Calypso (crab goddess) still has on him. It is payoffs such as these that lend the films a more intellectual drive then you might initially credit them credit for. 

There are also two references to Sergio Leone Westerns in At World's End: Jones' pocket chimes start playing as Calypso's ends like in the final duel in For A Few Dollars More, and the parley sequence in the third act is shot and scored like a Western. Ideas like this just do not make it into the current Disney conveyor-belt of films. 

Part of the story sees Jack attempting to undermine / fulfill / escape his debt to Jones. We are told that Davy Jones raised The Black Pearl from the depths and gave Jack 13 years of captaincy in exchange for his soul and a hundred years of servitude aboard the Dutchman. Jones is consistently referred to as depicted as the devil of the seas, and Jack's deal with him is pure Faust, turning the family adventure film into a loose Christopher Marlowe adaptation. Furthermore, it is intriguing that Davy Jones is the only main character who keeps his word. He never lies, cheats or manipulates- he is the devil through sheer power. However, all the other 'non-devil' characters are all lying, cheating and manipulating people. The series totally nails the 'pirates' of the title. It turns criminals escaping the British Empire into freedom fighters that the audiences can rally behind. 

The long winded point I am trying to make here is that Dead Man's Chest and At World's End are not to be placed in the same category as the Transformers or Fast and Furious films as 'teenager blockbusters that score big bucks no matter the quality'. There is a genius to these pictures; an ambition to both enthrall and entertain. There are some great character moments (Elizabeth's descent into piracy is paralleled with Jack's rise to heroism) and a clear sense of direction, planting and payoff. And I haven't even spoken about the phenomenal music, still immaculate CGI and the pitch perfect performances from Johnny Depp, Bill Nighy, Geoffrey Rush and Tom Hollander. These are colourful, majestic and bold blockbusters that bring so much new to the field without looking like they are trying. 

The Quarantine Collection: Week 9

As restrictions have eased and I have been able to see a few friends this week, this will be the final lockdown log. I saw 57 films during this time, as well as numerous seasons / series of a range of TV shows. Great success. 

Fri. 15th May : War of the Worlds (2005)

DVD. 

Steven Spielberg directs this modern adaptation of the famous novel and radio show with some razor sharp tension and impressive effects. I was captivated throughout the runtime; and my resistance to naming Spielberg as a 'great' was severely tested. This is the only 21st century film of his that feels on par with his more acclaimed works. The basement scene, opening invasion and a taut crowd scene make for some heart pounding set pieces, all the while Spielberg keeps the camera at eye level. There is an annoying scene with the son character, and the ending feels sudden, but a lot of excitement in the first two acts ensures an enjoyable time. 

Also check out : Minority Report (2002)

Sat. 16th : Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

Netflix,

Crafted as an anti-Iraq War allegory, this Studio Ghibli film has all the classic hallmarks: an imaginative story (based off an English novel), entertaining characters, gorgeous animation and a stirring message. Again, its climax is not as exciting as the rest of it, but the characters and humour maintain interest. Christian Bale voices Howl. 

Also check out : Castle in the Sky (1986)

Sun. 17th : All About My Mother (1999)

Box of Broadcasts. 

This Spanish film comes from acclaimed director Pedro Almodovar, who uses his position to platform such pressing issues as AIDS, transgender identity and homosexuality. The result is a film totally bewildering in its sexual politics. Most of the cast are women, and the men in it want to be women. Its relatively entertaining, with a young Penelope Cruz. 

Also check out : All About Eve (1950)

Mon, 18th : In the Line of Fire (1993)

DVD. 

Wolfgang Peterson (one of the coolest director names) helms this political thriller, revolving around Clint Eastwood's Frank, a Secret Service agent who failed to prevent Kennedy's assassination in thr 1960s, so now feels it his duty to protect the president of the 1990s from a crazed and chameleonic John Malkovich. This is a straightforward film but it also has brains and wit to match its style and energetic tone. There is also a nice conversation about giving up your job for someone you love, which is a lovely sentiment. 

Also check out : Absolute Power (1997)

Tue. 19th : Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

Blu-ray. 

This re-watch sealed my verdict that this is my favourite Tarantino film. The golden photography, casual tone to the scenes and pacing, instantly iconic characters and period detail through lavish production design and radio stations form a bittersweet historical experience. It still makes me chuckle, its filled with nods to Westerns and there is some brilliant acting from DiCaprio and Pitt in this. I may not have had that knot in my stomach the second viewing, but the climax is still one of those scenes that elicits both a satisfying cheer and an 'oh fuck me' simultaneously. It is QT's most mature piece, with an effective final shot. 

Tarantino ranking : Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Hateful Eight, Inglorious Basterds, Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained, Jackie Brown, Reservoir Dogs, Deathproof.  

Also check out : Dazed and Confused (1993)

Wed. 20th : Finding Dory (2016)

DVD. 

A textbook definition of a harmless sequel, Finding Dory looks top notch, has some good belly laughs and has an emotional punch. But it also functions as a parable for the hardships, and the potential joy, that living with someone with disabilities can have. Director Andrew Stanton endeavours to steer the story away from repeating the same beats as Finding Nemo (2003) and it mostly works, though it is noticeable. And the truck driving is absurd. 

Also check out : Moana (2016)

Thu. 21st : How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

Netflix.

My second favourite Dreamworks film after Kung fu Panda (2008), this is also a key demonstration on a film being far greater than the book. Its message about acceptance and preconceptions is potent, but its John Powell's terrific music and the Hiccup / Toothless dynamic that really soars. The test drive scene, forbidden friendship scene and Astrid's ride above the clouds are standout scenes, but the final boss fight has some exciting amounts. And it is not afraid to maim its lead character. 

Also check out : How to Train Your Dragon 2! (2014)

The Concern for Mission Impossibles 7-8

After first watching the almighty Mission Impossible: Fallout in 2018 with my granddad, one of my first thoughts was that for the sequel to be bigger and better, 'they are going to have to head to space'. A few weeks ago there were articles circulating that star Tom Cruise was talking to NASA about making a film in actual space, but not Mission Impossible related. This could just be me writing a few hundred words on why I think Fallout is the absolute pinnacle of 12 rated action cinema, but I do have some expressed concerns for the next two sequels, installments 7 and 8 (which are being shot back to back). 

The Mission Impossible franchise started in in 1996 with a Brian De Palma picture that was very much in the vein of the old tv show. In 2000, Cruise returned but with Hong Kong action director John Woo behind the camera, delivering a crazy, blissfully unaware action film that made big bucks. After a hiatus, JJ Abrams directed the third film in 2006 before the franchise really found its footing in 2011 when Brad Bird helmed Ghost Protocol, more designed around riveting stunts and action set pieces. The famous Burj Khalifa scene is the series' magnum opus and epitomises what the franchise, and indeed Tom Cruise, stand for. Then in 2015, Christopher McQuarrie upped the spectacle even more with Rogue Nation, before returning to direct Fallout. You will have noticed the anomaly here: McQuarrie is the only director to return. The franchise was originally intended to have different creative voices for each film, but the Cruise / McQuarrie bromance was too much and they knew they could do better. Fallout is a sensational piece of escapism, containing one of the greatest vehicle chases, one of the greatest fist fights, one of the greatest foot-chases, the greatest skydive sequence and the greatest helicopter chase in cinematic history. It ticks nearly every action scene box and the editing, camera work and choreography just seem so perfect as to be unsurpassable. 

The recycling of McQuarrie was respectable in that he went out of his way to make the film different; his composer and cinematographer for Rogue Nation were replaced for Fallout, and the process of making the film was vastly different, with McQuarrie and Cruise finding locations for action scenes before a script was even in place. As such, the script does feel convoluted in trying to get to each action location, but it does work. But how are the two going to make these next two features not just look and feel different, but also to be better? 

There are a couple of ways in which they could start. Firstly, if there is one type of action sequence that the Mission Impossible films haven't left a stamp on is the shootout. There have been a couple and protagonist Ethan Hunt is more than happy to shoot to kill, but Fallout's shootout was shot in darkness. If McQuarrie and Cruise can pull off something to rival Heat or The Magnificent Seven then that would feel like a justified sequel. There is also a gap for snowmobile chases or other Arctic set action scenes, although that may feel like tapping into James Bond territory. Or take a note from the new Top Gun film and try and make an impressive dogfight with jets (not the most environmentally set piece however). The next option is to really investigate the characters. Cruise's Hunt did get some neat developments in Fallout, but Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames) and Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) could have some welcome arcs and backstory that could catch up with them. 

If McQuarrie and Cruise still feel they can one up their set pieces from Fallout then they must have some insanely inventive ideas because right now I struggle to imagine sequences as concisely edited and thrilling as the helicopter chase or skydive in their 2018 action class. But, even if it these sequels do not live up to Fallout, the chances are I would just be as riveted by a Rogue Nation level film on the action front. 

The Quarantine Collection: Week 8

Still praying for cinemas to be open in some format for Tenet in July. 

Fri. 8th May : Night Passage (1957)

DVD. 

The last in my James Stewart Western box set, the story of this by the books genre picture concerns money, trains, and bandits. It is standard issue, but the visuals are tidy and Joey from Shane (1953) is back playing a slightly older Joey. But other than that, its enjoyable enough to be passable, but not bold enough to be memorable. 

Also check out : Shane 

Sat. 9th : Flags of our Fathers (2006)

DVD. 

My post- VE Day WW2 film was this Clint Eastwood directed picture. The companion film to Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), this film instead looks at the Battle of Iwo Jima from the American perspective, whilst also investigating the intriguing story behind the iconic photo of the planting of the flag. The battle scenes zing but the film is told in a non linear frame narrative, criss crossing between three time lines at a quick rate. This does break up the action and tension somewhat, but if told in a linear way, you would have an action heavy first hour, and then a quieter, more character focused second half which perhaps would feel like two films. There is some inspiration to the direction; a dessert carved to resemble the soldiers raising the flag is covered in a blood red strawberry sauce. But the film would perhaps work best if it had the Native American soldier Ira in the exclusively in the crosshairs; his battle with heroism, drunkenness and discrimination gives the story an emotional beat. Also, ten years after this film it was revealed that the father of the book's writer (the son one of one of the three surviving soldiers of the flag raise) was not actually involved and therefore lied about it. But as an exercise in proto-fake news, this is a solid effort.  

Also check out : Letters from Iwo Jima 

Sun. 10th : Darkest Hour (2017)

DVD.

Another companion piece war film, Darkest Hour goes hand in hand with Dunkirk of the same year, offering the political backdrop to the latter's visceral front line intensity. Yes, Gary Oldman is terrific, with voice, movement and posture all ensuring his performance is not just make-up reliant. The speeches are rousing enough and it is funny in its own British way, but it does feel like *another* Churchill Oscar film designed to get an actor an Oscar. And the Tube scene is well intended, but far too fantastical and on the nose. Points for bringing up Churchill's involvement in Gallipoli though.

Also check out : Downfall (2004) 

Mon. 11th : Play Misty for Me (1971)

DVD. 

The directorial debut of a certain Clint Eastwood, Play Misty for Me is a psychological thriller that sees Eastwood's jazz DJ David encounter a fan of his radio show. They sleep together, but the fan soon starts displaying concerning, obsessive behaviour. Violence follows. It may not add anything new to the slasher genre, but this is a tight production, with Eastwood's direction citing the influence of Sergio Leone with its extreme close ups and rapid editing. It contains a hell of a satisfying death but could have done with David playing the policeman's song at the end. 

Also check out : High Plains Drifter (1973)

Tue. 12th : Breezy (1973)

DVD. 

The third Eastwood directed film of the week, and the last in my collection, sees Clint step back from acting as he directs William Holden and Kay Lenz as two strangers who fall in love. The catch? Holden's Frank is nearing 50 and Lenz's Breezy has barely finished high school. Murky with its sexual politics but unfortunately bland in the bedroom, the two actors do imbue their roles with complexity and, in the latter's case, a whole lot of fun. Largely set in Frank's house, where the two are not scrutinized by the public, it looks at image, perception and the boundaries of love. Bit tooooo Hollywood in its conclusion however. 

Also check out : The Graduate (1967)

Wed. 13th : The Big Short (2015)

Netflix. 

It took me a good hour before I clocked one of the characters was Brad Pitt with a beard and glasses, and my mind was blown as if it were a plot twist. Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale and Steve Carrel also star in this scathing look at the housing crisis and recession in the late 00s. Adam McKay brings wit and satire (best line: "so here's Margot Robbie in a bubble bath to explain") and fourth wall breaks, but it also packs a depressing thud at the end. 

Also check out : Vice (2018)

Thu. 14th : Le Mans 66 (2019)

DVD. 

I bought this for my dad's birthday and we all sat down and watched it and I was relieved they liked it. Not as much as I do though. This film is grade A filmmaking: the sound editing of the different engines, the lines of continuity in the racing scenes, the fantastic chemistry between Christian Bale and Matt Damon. The first 7000 RPM race and the entirety of the finale made me just as excited as I felt watching it in cinema. Sports movies can produce a lot of testosterone. 

Also check out : Rush (2013)

The 20 Greatest Westerns

The Western is the most endearing genre in film for me; its framing of people against vast, untouched wilderness, its stylised set of laws and the struggles and hardships of frontier life all amalgamate into a genre that is consistently evolving. Not to mention men on horseback against a sunset always look fantastic. I have seen an overwhelming volume of Westerns to the point where it feels like it is the only genre I can confidently make a 'greatest list' for.
I set a criteria for this: ten films felt too narrow a margin, so twenty was chosen as a more accommodating figure, one that could provide the range required to cover this immortal genre. Secondly, I limited my choices to one film per director. This was hard, but necessary in preventing messers Leone, Ford and Eastwood from dominating this list. The list therefore contains twenty different 'voices' or interpretations of the Old West that come from nearly every decade in the genre's history. And finally, there is no order to this list. My general thinking was combing through all my favourite Westerns, and eliminating them whenever a director reappeared again. As it happens, this culminated in a pretty solid list. 

The Classical Western: 

1. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948)

A towering picture, John Huston re-teams with Humphrey Bogart to tell a more unconventional tale of the Old West. Three men journey into the hills to earn their fortune during a gold rush, inevitably leading to suspicion, greed and violence. Bogart steals the show in a performance that deteriorates into madness, no doubt influencing the creation of Gollum. Gripping, dark and with a pretty perfect ending, this deconstructs the gold rush as a cause for the reduction of humanity and sanity.  

2. Shane (George Stevens, 1953)

"Come back Shane!" is not just one of the final lines in this quintessential Western; it is a perfect representation of the genre as a whole. Alan Ladd's title character leaves the town he has just assisted, and the young boy Joey he has educated, to take his gun toting abilities elsewhere, ensuring the town remains its purity. Shane has memorable performances, a menacing villain and sumptuous cinematography, but ultimately it is a solid story just told exceptionally well.

3. High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952)

In the early 1950s America was dominated by the Red Scare; a crippling fear of communism. The Hollywood blacklisting singled out numerous filmmakers for suspected sympathetic views towards communism, and Fred Zinnemann's real time Western acts as an attack on this Red Scare. Gary Cooper is left to fend for himself when he hears some notorious criminals are returning to town. Left alone by his people who reject his plea to help, it singles out the need for Americans to assist one another (and that doing so does not make you a communist). 

4. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)

Howard Hawks could also be represented on here with 1948's Red River, but Rio Bravo acts as a brilliant companion piece to High Noon, of which Hawks and star John Wayne were appalled by Gary Cooper's need for help in it. Rio Bravo was made out of spite, with Wayne as the tough sheriff who rejects help, believing Americans can handle problems alone. The politics does not exactly work out (Wayne is assisted by Dean Martin and Montgomery Cliff) but for rousing action, fun characters and some brilliant, claustrophobic photography that only once goes above head height, Rio Bravo is the 1950s in a bottle. 

The Revisionist Western:

5. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)

John Ford, the founding father of the genre, could have made the list with Stagecoach (1939) or The Searchers (1956) but for his most potent and vocal work, it is the The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance that endures. Moving away from Monument Valley, Ford set out to revise a genre that he helped create by choosing to shoot in black and white and entirely on sound stages. With John Wayne, James Stewart and Lee Marvin, this ode to a by-gone time sees law arrive to the frontier in the form of Stewart, who clashes with the gun-centric Wayne about how to deal with bandit Valance (Marvin). Most famous for its immortal line "when the legend becomes fact, print the legend", it is fully aware of the embellishment of the Western stories at the cost of reality. 

6. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)

Sam Peckinpah (Bloody Sam) is too oft overlooked as an important director. His shocking usage of violence and camerawork paved the way for John Woo, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino and this is the finest example of his skill. Book-ended by two vicious gun battles, The Wild Bunch does not shy away from showing civilians caught in the crossfire or the bloody aftermath of a body being riddled with bullets. Filled with fascinating imagery, the story sees an ageing group of outlaws attempt one last job as the frontier starts to shrink and time catches up with them. A film about the changing of the guard (the frequent shots of children, the look of confusion at seeing a car for the first time), it gives outlaws one last ride in the sun. 

7. The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 1976)

Yes, Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven is perhaps the more substantial and richer piece of film, but there are others like it. On the other hand, there is nothing quite like The Outlaw Josey Wales, a perfect picture in almost all aspects. Eastwood plays Josey, a Civil War soldier hunted by the Union but also undertaking his own personal quest for revenge. Allegedly a Vietnam War allegory, the action is rousing and the landscapes are lavish. But its the ensemble of characters that stick, showcasing the lives of other's on the frontier: Native American Lone Waite, some travelers, bounty hunters, and ex-soldiers like Josey himself: all looking for a place to set up and call home. Funny, with a balanced tone and great dialogue, this is supreme entertainment. 

The Western as Parable: 

8. The Ox-bow Incident (William A. Wellman, 1943)

Clocking at a refreshing 75 minutes, The Ox-bow Incident serves as a damning indictment of lynch mobs and vigilantes. For lead character introductions, few can match this as Henry Fonda enters a town, gets drunk, knocked out and then throws up. Before long he has joined the townsfolk as they ride into the hills without the sheriff, looking to hang some suspected killers. A very bleak picture, it is a vivid portrait about the flaws in taking the law into your own hands and somehow maintains a relevancy to the world today. There is a corker of a shot involving the obscuring of Fonda's eyes with someone else's hat, pointing towards the blindness of the townsfolk. 

The Spaghetti-Western:

9. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)

One of the most popular sub-genres of all time, the Spaghettii- Western refers to Italian made frontier films that are pretty liberal with violence and blood. Sergio Leone is of course the master, and choosing between TGTBATU and his richer Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) was near impossible. But this is the more famous and iconic, and also the more entertaining. Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach are the titular characters and their dash to find some buried money at a cemetery makes for some rousing set pieces and one of cinema's greatest musical scores from Ennio Morricone. If not enjoyed the first time, watch it again. Until you do. 

10. The Great Silence (Sergio Corbucci, 1968)

Sergio Corbucci is the other key figure when it comes to Spaghetti-Westerns. His 1966 film Django is great fun, but The Great Silence is a more accomplished and unique film. Set in a blizzard enveloped town, it deals with gunslingers and bounty hunters, in particular the mute hero Silence and the detestably evil Loco. It does have an absolute downer of an ending, but its rich context as an allegory for the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X steer this towards true greatness. And silence. 

The Animated: 

11. Rango (Gore Verbinski, 2011)

By default, Rango is the selected animated Western. Perhaps incredibly bold to place on this list (my granddad would be appaled), I nevertheless feel that it deserves to be on here, both for its medium and its comedy focus. Yes its not set in the Old West (cars at the beginning), but hey, neither is Blazing Saddles (1974). Roger Deakins fills the screen with stunning visuals and the script has a neo-noir mystery edge, but it is also a chance for a nobody to be a somebody, gaining skills rather than entering the town with all the gun play and match striking mastery audiences usually expect. And Bill Nighy's Rattlesnake Jake is a marvelous creation.

The Audience Favourites:

12. The Magnificent Seven (John Sturges, 1960)

A Christmas time and pub quiz favourite, The Magnificent Seven is good old fun. Everyone knows the story: seven men defend a settlement from thieving bandits, but the cast, iconic scenes and famous theme song make this is a true gem. No it does not have much to say, but it does not need to- its escapism. And for a pub quiz learn these names: Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter and Horst Buchholz.

13. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 1969)

"What do you mean you can't swim? The fall will probably kill ya." 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head.' That final freeze frame. These are what Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are my most known for, as well as the iconic pairing of Robert Redford and Paul Newman. It may be more buddy film than Western, but the winning lead duo elevate the material tenfold and the finale is one for the ages. 

Frontier and Survival Westerns: 

14. Jeremiah Johnson (Sydney Pollack, 1972)

Robert Redford is mountain men Jeremiah Johnson, who takes himself up into the hills to live off the land and start a new life. Encountering all manner of far-frontier characters, this is a very entertaining snow Western with some nifty action scenes and breathtaking photography of Utah's National Park. Johnson's journey and eventual foundation of a family acts as a microcosm for the whole westward expansion concept; taming the untamed landscape. 

15. The Revenant (Alejandro Innaritu, 2015)

More of a proto-Western, The Revenant was a big box office hit, lead in part for its famous Leonardo DiCaprio performance and the technical prowess of it all. Shot entirely on location with natural lighting only, the wilds of the northern frontier have never looked so beautiful, so dangerous and so god damn cold. Indeed, the camera work is some of the best committed to film. With a near spiritual atmosphere generated through a haunting score and the isolation DiCaprio's Hugh Glass faces, the film is not afraid of vicious violence and gore. The most technically spellbinding film on this list. 

21st Century Westerns: 

16. Open Range (Kevin Costner, 2003)

Kevin Costner revived the genre with 1990's Dances With Wolves, but this is perhaps the more 'Western' of the two that deals with another trope found in the genre: a man returning to a former life of violence. Eastwood's Unforgiven did it brilliantly, but here there is an added potency due to Costner's lead character still having people he cares about around him, not least Robert Duvall and Annette Benning. If it takes a long time for a gun to go off, the final shootout is worth it for its immersive sound design and to see Costner's troubled character finally unleashed. A reminder that the genre still has flair, just don't count the bullets. 

17. The Assassination of the Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007)

I nearly gave this space to a neowestern like No Country for Old Men (2007) but my love for this semi-biopic outlaw film prevailed. Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck are the respective title characters in this gorgeous looking work of art that examines the idea of celebrity, meeting a hero and being inspired by criminals. The metaphors are rife and it is a very slow burn of a story, but patience is rewarded thanks to the potency of the two leads' mesmerising performances. 

The Remake: 

18. 3:10 to Yuma (James Mangold, 2007)

The Western is a genre with many remakes, but unusually they are often very good. 2010's True Grit was a more faithful adaptation and The Magnificent Seven (2016) is unmitigated fun. But James Mangold's 3:10 to Yuma is my favourite. Christian Bale, Russell Crowe, Logan Lerman and Ben Foster are all at their best in this story which sees a simple farmer (Bale) escort a notorious outlaw (Crowe) to catch the train in the title. Along the way they develop a grudging respect for each other, which concludes in a spectacularly dramatic final shootout. The characters are engrossing and Mangold is a competent all-rounder of a director. 

Off-kilter Westerns:

19. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)

Despite its title, this is an extremely ahead of its time female dominated Western. Johnny Guitar is a stoic man who finds himself accompanying Joan Crawford's independently minded saloon owner as she evades a lynch mob led by an old rival Emma Small. The sets, cast and story feel fresh and it led to Francois Truffaut labelling it "the Beauty and the Beast of Westerns". 

20. McCabe and Mrs Miller (Robert Altmann, 1971)

The last one to watch on this list, McCabe and Mrs Miller's greatness is only apparent after becoming used to the narrative conventions of Westerns. Stunningly authentic in design and architecture, it breaks nearly every cliche going: our protagonist is a businessman, he wins his shootouts by killing his opponents from behind, he is cowardly, the landscape is snow drenched and the legend that McCabe brings to town with him is perhaps untrue. Ravishing, intelligent and sobering.