My Top Ten Movies of 2015

10: Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Truth be told, this may only be in my top ten due to affection and nostalgia. I'm still waiting for J.J. Abrams to direct a film that is truly brilliant in its own right rather than efficiently riffing on his adoration for the movie adventures of his, and my, childhood. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a perfectly decent caper but one which feels so much more because of the weight of cultural significance that we have invested into this world... and the sense of sheer relief that it's NOT another Phantom Menace. I've always maintained a sneaking admiration for what George was trying to achieve with those prequels: Something operatic, politically rich and mythically grandiose, an ambition mostly undone by his tin ear for dialog, leadenly delivered by poorly directed actors at a loss to find their feet in his CGI imaginarium. This new Star Wars has, so far, less of that epic sweep and scope, and many of its delights are recycled from the originals. But crucially what is does have, in spades, is FUN. Sprightly, seemingly effortless wit and action, delivered by real people, often in real locations, actually interacting with a real environment around them. It's hard to overstate just what a welcome feeling that is. A tribute act compared to the original it may be, but those are still some fine tunes.

9: Sicario.

A phenomenally tense thriller centring around a shady US drug enforcement task force attempting to take out a Mexican cartel, Sicario tackles familiar and often clichéd narrative territory with fresh verve and complex amorality. Featuring a clutch of superb, understated performances (with the marvellous Emily Blunt front and centre) from a principle cast essaying assorted FBI, CIA, special forces and other individuals with even murkier pasts. Many with shifting, hard-to-read agendas. Features possibly the finest stationary car chase in cinema.

8: The Tale Of Princess Kaguya.

With the future of Studio Ghibli in doubt, it's been a particularly painful two year wait for this, possibly their last masterpiece, to make it to these shores. But if it is to be the end, what an end. The very definition of a true fairy tale, this is a slight and gentle story, animated with the most delicate of brush strokes. Pastel watercolour beauty bleeding to white at the edges of the screen as if lifted straight from some museum preserved manuscript of a forgotten time and place. The running time and gentle pace may try the patience of some. But tune out the world and you can lose yourself in its beauty and wish never to return.

7: Bridge Of Spies.

Spielberg, Hanks, The Coen Brothers, a true story (mostly). You know you are in safe hands. Bridge Of Spies is no great revelation, rather it's exactly as expertly crafted as you would expect. It is however, rather wittier than you might imagine. And the brilliantly authored inertness of Mark Rylance's potential agent playing against Hanks' fast-talking, yet noble lawyer (remember those?) is an absolute joy to behold.

6: The Martian.

Ridley Scott's best film in some years. Exciting, funny, and shot through with old-fashioned heroic stoicism as Matt Damon's astronaut is marooned alone on Mars and has to survive on his smarts and his wisecracking soliloquisms. Shot through with a rare uncynical "Yay For Science!" motif. It's as if Castaway had been directed by Carl Sagan. Which is a good thing.

5: The Diary Of A Teenage Girl.

This bravura coming of age tale follows the travails a fifteen year old girl in 1970s San Francisco as she embarks on a sexual relationship with her mother's boyfriend and a heap of other complex, broken family and growing up issues. Bold and honest filmmaking that is nothing like as harsh to watch as you might imagine because it is also empowering, delightful and laugh-out-loud funny, and is visually as full of brio and invention as its creatively imaginative lead character. A refreshing delight.

4: Song Of The Sea.

Tomm Moore's second animated feature (following The Secret Of The Kells) is a beautiful, sweet and heartbreaking piece of Irish folklore fantasy that manages to dig deep into rich and whimsical mythology, while absolutely grounding its emotions in the story of a young girl dealing with real and tragic family drama (rather like Pan's Labyrinth... but with less torture). On top of this, the animation is a gobsmacking mixed-media masterpiece, as if Michel Ocelot, Hayao Miyazaki and Sylvain Chomet had all collaborated on the one movie.

3: Mad Max: Fury Road.

The most full-on, knock you flat, non-stop, crunching, brutal, old-school action movie of the year. Mad Max's first outing in three decades retains all the strange, colourful, insane elements that made the originals so iconic, and (unlike Star Wars) it doesn't feel like it's trying to simply live up to past glories. This one kicks the previous movies (not to mention the whole Fast and Furious franchise) in the face and drags them kicking and screaming though the post-apocalyptic waste in its dust storm wake. Director and creator George Miller is now 70. No, really. No-one else can quite believe it either.

2: Ex Machina.

Alex Garland, long-time writer / collaborator on many of Danny Boyle's movies, graduates magnificently with his directorial debut. A chilling, twisting sci-fi chamber piece set in clinical Kubrickian isolation. Four actors. One house. Humans and machines testing and deceiving each other. Morally murky, powerfully intense and superbly performed.

1: Whiplash.

It may be no more an accurate depiction of life in a prestigious music college than Black Swan was an honest tale of studying in an elite dance academy. What Whiplash is, is a fun, triumphant, indie-spirited maniacal howl of a movie. A study of artistic obsession, abuse of power and the drive to succeed against all odds. It boasts a riotously funny script, genuine heart, freewheeling performances (actorly and musical), and in J. K. Simmons' band leader, a thermonuclear full-leather-jacket onslaught of verbal abuse that is hilarious and terrifying in equal measure(s). Quite my tempo.

47 Ronin (2013)

A dopey but passably diverting fantasy take on a genuine event in Japanese feudal history. The story of the 47 Ronin who avenge the honour-induced suicide of their former lord is widely acknowledged as one of the pre-eminent examples of Bushido (the samurai code of chivalric values) in Japanese history and has passed, somewhat embellished, into a wide range of literature and arts, having been filmed at least six times before. But I'll wager none of those versions included a shape-shifting witch-dragon lady.

In this first (and probably last) Hollywood stab at the tale, Keanu Reeves comes billed as the star of the piece playing an outcast half-breed which is one of the many inventions added to this version of the tale and most likely intended as a familiarisation waypoint for western audiences. Stoic and ultra-serious he's not actually too bad, but neither the role as written, nor the screen time really allow him to make much of an impact. Thank goodness then for Hiroyuki Sanada as the ronin leader Oishi. One of the just about every well-known English-speaking Japanese actors that have been harvested for this production, he shoulders the bulk of the drama with capable authority, and along with Rinko Kikuchi's deliriously absurd wicked witch, ensures that at least a few engaging characters emerge from the CGI hailstorm.

Relatively unknown director Carl Rinsch struggles to marry the serious tone of the human drama to the Tolkien-esque fantasy romping, and as such the film lurches around, uncertain of what it wants to be. That said, some individual scenes are impressive, he and his DP have clearly spent a productive afternoon watching late-period Kurosawa and the courtly and battlefield scenes have a beautiful, symmetrical formality to them.

Not the disaster that the initial critical drubbing might suggest, this is no worse than most of the Narnia movies, or second-tier Wuxia fantasy such as Reign of Assassins, but then outside of Japan it doesn't have the franchise brand selling power of the former, and the latter sure didn't cost 175 million dollars to make. Ouch.

Rating: 3/5

The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug (2013)

This year's biggest (literally) pleasant surprise. After the long, slow start to chapter one had dampened the ardour of many a Middle Earth fan, I had more modest hopes for what could be achieved eking out yet another three hour behemoth from the middle chapters of Tolkien's modest children's tale and Peter Jackson has exceeded every one magnificently. Bold, energetic, funny, frightening, tense, and immensely spectacular. The clear aim now is to take The Hobbit as a skeleton structure that will be fleshed with all the immense back-story, parallel tales and grim foreshadowing of what is to come that it can withstand. It's a brave, and somewhat indulgent move, but it's coming together here with a bravura confidence that was sometimes lacking from part one. This is now just a dwarf's whisker from Lord Of The Rings greatness.

Rating: 5/5

All Is Lost (2013)

A lot like Gravity, but wetter, cheaper, and pretty much dialogue free. Robert Redford battles the ocean and delivers one of the great performances of his long and fascinating career. Simple and stunning.

Rating: 4/5

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

Picking up some months after the events of the first movie; Catching Fire finds our heroine, Katniss Everdeen, back in her home district and re-kindling, perhaps, her nascent romance with Gale (who was somewhat pushed to the sidelines of the first instalment) while struggling to walk a fine line of conformity and performance in her new, dangerously high-profile existence.

Incoming helmer Francis Lawrence, with relatively little big-budget movie experience, directs with a steady hand, keeping the look and tone consistent with the first movie. The opening act here is particularly strong, laced with political manoeuvring, surreptitiously tightening the screws and gently deepening even some of the more seemingly garish characters (the delirious Effie Trinket is particularly well-served this time round). This slow-burning first-half also allows Jennifer Lawrence, once again, to remind us all why she is one of the finest upcoming young actors of her generation, delivering duct-troubling eulogies from even the most threadbare material.

Things do however take a minor turn for the ho-hum once the new games get underway. Co-champion Peeta gets less to do this time and mostly just follows in Katniss's footsteps, which is a shame after his stronger showing the first time around and further undermines the love-triangle backdrop theoretically still being toyed with. More problematic though is the amount of repetition and familiarity, with many of the same beats being played as we experienced in the previous competition. For a near two-and-a-half hour movie, Catching Fire rather struggles to do what it says on the tin, taking rather too long to find its way out of the pitfalls of having to play out another set of games with a more-or-less matching dramatic arc to the first. Until, when finally the first really startling new development hits.... the credits role.

Reputation has it that the third and final book (being adapted, a-la Harry Potter, into two upcoming movies) is the weakest of the three, and so, while this central episode is a mostly solid outing that doesn't significantly squander the good work done by the first, it is nonetheless something of a concern then that it does have a touch of a holding pattern about it, teasing us that all the real fireworks are being held back till next year.

Rating: 3/5

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Well, one saw Thor. Or rather one saw Thor Two. I don't mean one saw Thor too, as one was one for Thor Two, not two. But one once saw Thor One, so one sure saw Thor Two too... Phew.

Rating: 3/5

The Wolverine (2013)

Hugh Jackman and Walk The Line director James Mangold make a modest... ahem... stab at rescuing The Wolverine from bloated too-many-mutants boredom with this stand-alone adventure that owes more to Clint Eastwood's man with no name than it does to the Stan Lee back-catalogue.

Logan, once again alone and wandering the wilderness, is summoned to Japan by a man from his distant past and becomes caught up in a power struggle between the dynastic family of a powerful corporation, Yakuza gangsters, and some shadowy ninjas (are there any other type?).

On the plus side, for at least two thirds of the movie this keeps The Wolverine grounded amongst real people; vulnerable, disorientated, and in grimly emotional turmoil. Hugh Jackman doesn't have to work very hard to pull this off, his powerful presence and comfortable familiarity with the role playing to the strengths of a tale that commendably cuts free of mutant hi-jinks for most of its running time, and indulges in some fairly obvious, but pleasingly underplayed culture-clash elements inherent in this setting.

It's kind of a shame then that the film takes a jarring turn into the third act, feeling duty bound to deliver some big FX silliness. The tonal wrench feels deeply uncomfortable and also leaves great gaping holes in the arcs of previously intriguing characters.

Not the disaster of his previous solo outing. There is good work in the brooding western-influenced tale and for the most part things coast along nicely on Jackman's effortless charisma. If only they could have held their storytelling nerve through to the end.

Rating: 3/5

13 Assassins (Jûsan-nin no shikaku) (2010)

The prolific and protean Takashi Miike, having already amassed a vast and varied back-catalogue of contemporary thrillers, romance, comedy, gore, action, drama and musicals in less than two decades, sucks it up and takes on Kurosawa with this period samurai epic.

Japan, 1840s. It is an era of peace. A time of waning power and relevance of the samurai order, and the decaying final years of the ancient feudal Shogunate regime.

Lord Naritsugu, the preening and sadistic younger brother of the current shogun, carves out a swathe of terror and suffering, seemingly out of mere listless petulance. But with higher political office likely to come his way soon, and following the protest of ritual seppuku committed by a wronged clan leader; Sir Doi, a senior official in the current political order, covertly seeks out an experienced samurai to help rid the land of this cruel and dangerous presence.

From this set up, you can probably guess the rough structure of what follows. Our de-facto master samurai must assemble a small group of warriors to ensnare and take down the evil overlord, protected as he is by a small army of his own. This will involve the recruitment of some grizzled old fighters who have seen better days, some over-idealistic young students who have yet to fight a real battle, and of course, an unruly, somewhat comedic outsider who will be grudgingly admitted into the ranks against better judgement to make some unlikely but crucial contribution.

Whether it's Seven Samurai, The Dirty Dozen, or Ocean's Eleven, this is a movie in that grand tradition of the numbered, but outnumbered team of good guys taking on a big bad against the odds. What matters here is not that we can't see what's coming, but that this is a movie that takes such care and pleasure in the unfolding of the story.

Naritsugu is a truly appalling creation, grotesque in the casual disinterest he shows in the terrible violence he inflicts, like a child half-heartedly pulling wings of insects in boredom. He's a man out of time, no longer of use to a Japan at peace and soon to join the modern world. He only seems to engage with anything when the heat of battle is up, but even then, not to care over the win or loss that he and his men might achieve or suffer, but merely to have, briefly, any consequence at all.

The samurai , we gradually comprehend, are in a similar situation. The long unfolding of the first act explores the archaic ritual and routine of their antiquated order, the rich and complex intertwining of codes of honour, and conflicting loyalties, but also of nostalgic wistfulness for glory days long passed. It's a powerful and telling moment when the leader Shimada is shown (in an effort to sway his heart in horror and pity to the mission being proposed), a woman tortured to a gut-wrenching, nightmarish vision of Dantean hell, and rather than displaying anger or grief, his mouth twitches into a wry smile. He's just been shown a reason and purpose for his continued existence.

After that, it's men on a mission greatness. Plans, maps, subterfuge and misdirection, treks lost in the wilderness, and the "let's make our stand here" turn, with all the classic war movie / western / A-Team tension-ratcheting preparation that this entails. The third act battle is coming, and it's going to be something special.

A smartly constructed, character-rich adventure that segues into an object lesson in clear, dynamic battle staging that takes up at least a third of this lengthy movie and never bogs down or loses focus. Takeshi Miike, the enfant terrible of Japanese gore, and crazed seven-films-a-year auteur of chaotic zombie-musical-comedy spoofs has pooled all his considerable talents here to craft an altogether more mature work. And, if he hasn't quite equalled the perfection of Kurosawa's samurai masterpiece, he's come majestically close.

Rating: 5/5

Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind (Kaze no tani no Naushika) (1984)

Take one from anime legend Hayao Miyazaki in laying out his trademark spiritual fantasies and captivating ecological fables. Nausicaa has plenty of charm and a beautiful design to delight the senses. However it does feel somewhat a dry run for higher achievements to come. Thematically he covered the same ground again, with greater richness and depth in Princess Mononoke. The ideas are here, and, it must be commended, were somewhat ahead of the game, cropping up again and again in later western films such as Ferngully and Avatar, as well as much of Miyazaki's subsequent work. However the storytelling and character development is clunky. Heroes are po-faced and humourless, and even though the plot is simple, I frequently had to remind myself who was doing what to who and why, as motivations are not well defined. Worth seeking out, especially for fans of studio Ghibli. But not quite the early masterpiece sometimes claimed.

Rating: 3/5

Life Of Pi (2012)

Ang Lee is a capricious talent, capable of misfiring (Hulk), but when on top form there is almost no film-maker in the world today to touch him. His masterful adaptation of one of those supposedly unfilmable (pfft) novels has overcome the obvious technical challenges with possibly the best use of 3D and most realistic CGI animation yet put on screen. Such things will, in time, be surpassed; but what won't fade with the years is the virtuosic rendition in light and form of an apparently simple fable, but one shrouded in delicate layers of humanity and spirituality.

The central adventure and survival tale, ravishingly shot and stunningly acted by newcomer Suraj Sharma, is bookended by initially innocuous scene-setting and reminiscing sequences that gently, imperceptibly, shift the meaning from the story being told, to the meaning of the telling of the story. A sublime meditation on faith and the power of belief... with a stonking great tiger.

Rating: 5/5

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

Baggy, never-ending goings on, going on in Bag End, give way finally to a surprisingly spritely adventure for such a behemoth of a movie. The tone (teetering between light kiddlesome adventure and LOTR darkness) takes a while to find its feet; the excellent cast however, hit the ground running. It's pleasing to see just how much care Jackson and team have put into giving the dwarves a rounded and meaty set of personalities, there's nary a hint of Time Bandits silliness that could have derailed a less respectful adaptation (something that Gimli's overtly comedic turn in Return Of The King pointed worryingly to).

The Hobbit doesn't yet engage with the same depth of emotion that made the Fellowship such an astounding achievement from the off. With the shoehorning in of much peripheral material from the Tolkien archives there may be issues with getting the right balance of looming threat and moral imperative that LOTR had running through its heart; yet these are but early days, and it will undoubtedly take the telling of the entire saga to conclude if this trilogy can measure up to the extraordinary achievements of its predecessor.

I was deeply sceptical of the move to three lengthy films being wrought from such a slim source, and while I remain to be wholly convinced, this first episode has much to enjoy; and once the languorous opening act was dispensed with, felt far tighter and more event-filled than the running time would suggest.

A gentle tale, lovingly told, and with the grimmer and bad-assier stuff still to come, there is hope of greatness yet.

Rating: 4/5

Valhalla Rising (2009)

Many years ago, I stood on a cold windswept beach with three school friends. We stood in stillness and silence, slightly apart from one another, contemplating the grey desolate horizon, till one of them broke the spell with the pointedly deadpan observation. "I feel like we are a U2 album cover".

Watching Valhalla Rising is experiencing several grimy actors doing this for ninety minutes... with no punchline.

Rating: 2/5

The Hunger Games (2012)

Occupying the familiar milieu of one of science-fictions' most well worn conceits, the dystopian future society, in this case an impoverished set of states ruled over by a decadent totalitarian elite, teenager Katniss Everdeen hunts and scrapes to keep her family alive until fate forces her to volunteer as "tribute" for the annual Hunger Games, a form of brutal gladiatorial combat designed to keep the masses in their place. Twenty-four youngsters will enter but only one can come out alive.

With Harry Potter now done and dusted, and the finish line of Twilight just around the corner it's no surprise that studios have been hunting for the next big teen-lit franchise to bring to the screen, or that Suzanne Collins' mega-selling sci-fi adventure would be one of those in the frame. But in spite of the driving linear narrative, featuring plenty of set-piece thrills and a love-triangle backdrop, adapting The Hunger Games, with its sullen heroin, extensive internal monologue, bleak atmosphere and brutal violence, may not have been the safe bet one might assume, and director Gary Ross and colleagues have trodden a tricky balancing act to a surprisingly effective outcome.

Crucial to their success is Jennifer Lawrence; already a rising star after her Oscar-nominated performance in "Winter's Bone" and who, as Katniss, delivers just the right combination of introspection, steely determination and just a touch of vulnerability. But much credit too must be given to the support of Woody Harrelson and Elizabeth Banks as her drunken mentor and absurdly coiffured escort respectively, both of whom carry roles that could easily have tipped into parody with much restraint. Indeed restraint could be the watchword for the whole production. On the page, the description of Capitol City's preening, rococo fashionistas seemed worryingly likely to translate to the screen with Fifth Element style campery. But this is kept firmly in check by an atmosphere of quietly unsettling disconnect from reality, always underplayed, and always taken seriously, underscoring the juxtaposition of the hollow, vacuous lives led by these privileged bourgeoisie against the spartan hand-to-mouth existence that is the only way of life our protagonist has ever known. Indeed these act-one sequences contain some of the film's best moments, effectively pulling the audience into Katniss' isolation and dreadful predicament with minimal fuss.

Once the games themselves kick into action, the need to achieve a target-audience friendly 12A rating does start to assert itself somewhat. The Hunger Games does not need graphic violence to deliver the thrills, but it does need things to become truly desperate, and in this regard the film seems to pull a few too many punches, with some deaths passing perhaps a touch inconsequentially, and little visible signs of the physical stresses of exposure, hunger and injury showing on the always clean and presentable contestants (or even evidence of stubble on the male team members after several days in the game). It's here also that the film makes its greatest departure from the book. Rightly judging the difficulty of relating some events via the first-person internal narrative of our heroine, fresh scenes are introduced depicting the power-brokers and puppeteers behind the games. It's a logical departure from the source structure that just occasionally falters by delivering a few ham-fisted Basil Exposition moments, but, by way of compensation, adds to the implicit parallels with modern-day TV and the trend towards ever more ghastly and extreme "reality" entertainment.

Much has been made of the similarity of Hunger Games' concept to that of "Battle Royale", and clearly a debt is owed. But while that Japanese subversive cult favourite is very explicitly an adult piece of satire that happens to feature school-kids bludgeoning each other to death, this is by intent a much more straight-ahead adventure, and the setting owes at least as much to the classic dystopian visions of "1984", particularly the impressively monumental authoritarian architecture. But as the downtrodden citizens watch on helplessly and those in charge manipulate the results for their own ends, I began to recall another movie that is perhaps the most interesting and unexpected antecedent: "The Truman Show", and like that brilliant work, The Hunger Games ends a touch ambiguously, leaving you with a lingering and disturbing question "would you watch too?".

Rating: 4/5

War Horse (2011)

Spielberg. Animals. War. Lost Innocence. West Country Accents. Rescue. Reunion. Gob-Smacking Tracking Shot. God Light. God Light. God Light. God Light. HEARTWARMING. Hanky.

Rating: 4/5

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011)

As his first full animation, Tintin may appear to be something of a new departure for Spielberg, but in every other respect, what we have here is a familiar and vintage caper that demonstrates just how easily the Bergster can knock this stuff off in his sleep these days.

The unavoidable comparison that springs immediately to mind is with his Indiana Jones movies: The period setting (not exactly specified, but easily 30s / 40s in feel) bathed in a nostalgic glow,  a globetrotting adventure in search of some lost treasure, voyages by tramp steamer or bi-plane, even a chase through some north-African market streets. Just a quiff instead of a fedora, and the formula is all in place. Now it's fair enough to point out that Raiders and its sequels were hugely inspired by an older generation of serial comic book adventures from the 40s and 50s in which Tintin rightly holds an esteemed place, but seen from a modern filmic perspective, there is a strong sense that we've seen this done before, and in at least some respects, better.

First, the good stuff. Tintin is beautifully animated, in a manner which is rich and detailed, but also retains a touch of period comic-book style which never draws attention but feels just right for this world. There are many stunningly visualised edits between locations, or shifts in time from story to storyteller, that match the very best that Spielberg has ever delivered in his live action movies. There are also several bravura action sequences, all of which are executed with wit and perfect pacing and never feel forced or out of place, and usually come with some charming touches of humour. While some of the broader slapstick moments fall somewhat flat (no pun etc.), just keep watching that dog, often in the corner of the frame away from the main action for some of the most gentle moments of incidental pleasure that the movie has to offer.

However, for me, there's no getting away from the most glaring problem with Tintin, and that's Tintin, the personality vacuum at the centre of the whole enterprise. Utterly devoid of any notable or involving character traits, he functions purely as a nominal protagonist around whom a plot can revolve, but never to whom our empathy may adhere. And speaking of plot, therein lies the secondary failing of Tintin (which sounds like a title for a sequel if ever I heard one). Many adventure stories may rely heavily on a MacGuffin to drive them along, but in the best examples (and again, there's no getting away from the Dr. Jones comparisons here, and all of them unfavourable to the cherub-faced reporter), this is merely a plot device to lead our hero to some greater and more profound end (reconciliation, enlightenment, the saving of a life, or the world, or a little piece of home), but in Tintin the MacGuffin is the whole plot, and so, having been kept pleasantly charmed, if not totally thrilled along the way, I arrived rather unexpectedly at the end, with things much as they were at the beginning.

Beautiful to look at, charming to watch, easy to forget.

Rating: 3/5

Super 8 (2011)

Great fun, warm and nostalgic tribute to childhood adventures from a simpler time. Endearing performances, effective slow build of thrills. Not so engaging once the big mystery has been fully revealed, resulting in the final denouement being rather less emotionally impactful than the 80's kids adventure masterpiece it so clearly wants to be. But it delivers plenty of old school charm and thrills along the way.

Rating: 4/5