REVIEWS NO-ONE ASKED FOR
by Ashton Brown
THE YEAR IN REVIEW
Ah the final day of 2016. It's been a pretty crazy year with celebrity deaths, American Presidency and most importantly - film and television. I was going to do a 'top 10' of films from the year but instead I am going to recap some memorable films from a few genres that I recommend you see if you haven't already and also reveal my film of the year. A couple of these film came out last year - but this is more of a reflection of recent films I happened to have watched this year. Please note a lot of these films have full length reviews and I have posted these links at the bottom of this post.
ROM-COM
I'm a sucker for a funny romance film. I like the feels and I like the romance. Bridget Jones's Baby turned out to be suprisingly more watchable than I expected. Despite not featuring classic douchebag Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) in a starring role it still managed to not be the steaming pile of crap I predicted. I also thoroughly enjoyed Man Up with Simon Pegg and Lake Bell and honourable mention has to go to People Places Things with New Zealands own Jemaine Clement - a beautifully elegant story about a struggling single dad raising two daughters and arguing with his ex wife. My biggest suprise this year was the terribly named Mr Right with Anna Kendrick and the extremely underrated Sam Rockwell - don't let the awful title fool you it is a brilliant and hilarious black comedy, action romance. However my rom-com of the year has to go to Sleeping With Other People staring Jason Sudeikis and the perfect Alison Brie. Despite the typical set up it had a grounded approach to storytelling and the chemistry between the leads was my pick for on screen chemistry for the year. Highly recommend.
DOCUMENTARY
I watched a HUGE amount of documentaries this year. Not strictly 2016 releases but I binged watched an amazing variety of documentaries. The first one that stood out for me this year was For The Bible Tells Me So, a doco that deals with the issues that arise between Christianity and Homosexuality. The thing that really made this stand out is the fact that rather than it being about Christians saying how the bible condemns homosexuality -it was Christians who believed that the bible doesn't necessarily condemn homosexuality and that love and acceptance is the bigger message that so many Christians are missing in order to condemn the love between two same sex partners. It was thoroughly fascinating to hear priests and deacons talk about having homosexual children and how they have changed their opinions and teachings to be more accepting. For those looking to fulfill their Making A Murderer desires then I highly recommend Murder On A Sunday Morning. Similar to the essential and captivating Making A Murderer, MOASM follows the defense lawyers of a 15 year old African American boy who is accused of shooting a white tourist in the face. What follows is a thoroughly intriguing story of bad police work, fascinating footage of the court case and a heart stopping ending. Special mention also has to go to The Jinx - a mini series that follows accused and acquitted murder Robert Durst - more twists and turns than you can shake a stick and but not for the faint hearted. My runner up for the year of docos has to be the excellent Tickled by Kiwis David Farrier and Dylan Reeve. In true Kiwi style, Farrier delves into the awkwardly dark and sexual world of online tickling videos. Well worth the watch.
My pick for documentary of the year has to go to the light hearted but darkly sinister My Scientology Movie by the always exceptional Louis Theroux. When he sets out to make a documentary on Scientology - Louis soon learns that no-one is going to speak to him from the religion. So he goes about to recreate a Scientology film of his own, hiring actors to play the members of the church, recreating accounts told by ex members. With his perfect mix of deadpan humour and ballsy face to face confrontations - this is my pick for documentary of the year.
OSCAR BAIT
I was going to call this category drama - but some of them are as comedic as they are dramatic so this is my category for the more mainstream, celebrity soaked films. I have three strong picks that I watched this year. Firstly I suprisingly loved War Dogs. It's not one of my picks nor am I going to go on about it - but it's good. It's typical but Jonah Hill continues to show us that he is an A Grade actor.
My first pick for this category is Demolition with Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts. A beautifully told and performed story about tragedy, grief and the unlikely ways in which we find the relationships that end up helping us put our lives back together. Only in the past few years I have fully appreciated Gyllenhalls ability. His performance in Demolition is nuanced and provides the audience with just the right amount of pathos. Well worth checking out.
Secondly I have to recommend (a bit slow on this one I know) the film Room. Based on the novel by the same name by Emma Donoghue, Room is a small cast film that follows a mother (played with pitch perfect accuracy by Brie Larson) and her son who are captives in a room and have been for as long as the child has been alive. A gorgeously told and heartbreaking story about the bond between a mother and child and the desire to always fight to make things better for the ones you love.
And my pick for this category has to go to the The Big Short. This comes as little suprise due to it's many Oscar Nominations earlier in the year. A superb ensemble cast, a hilarious and intriguing script and an edgy and unique directing style left The Big Short as one of my films of the year. I think the reason that this suprised me so much is because I usually can't stand films about financial related things let alone American financial things. But the way Adam McKay (Anchorman, Talladega Nights - wtf?!) bought this exceptional cast together to tell the story made it a thoroughly entertaining to watch and explained financial terms in a way that were both fathomable and entertaining. Steve Carell continues to amaze - Christian Bale continues to be perfect. Highly, highly recommend.
HORROR/THRILLER
I am reluctant to lump these two categories together. Thrillers are usually higher budget, better written and less based on jump scares. However this year my top picks sort of transcends both genres and it's my blog so you can't tell me what to do mum. I watched so much horror this year that all the crap ones sort of blend together in one b grade mess of bad downloads. There are a couple of honourable mentions however that stood out to me in particular. After being highly disappointed by the failed potential in Blair Witch and then slightly underwhelmed by the good but not great Don't Breath I was delighted to have at least seen 10 Cloverfield Lane - a film that excels in it's genre. A sort of sequel (but not really) to Cloverfield, it follows a intimate cast of three actors through an intense and claustrophobic tale where you never really quite figure it all out until it spells it out to you at the end. Fantastic, haunting and edge of your seat - with John Goodman absolutely smashing his role in the face with skill and terror.
Lights Out was also up on my list -although jump scare based I though it was chilling enough in it's material and having been such a fan of the original short that it is based on I was delighted to see the first time feature director given the opportunity to turn his brilliant short into a full length himself.
Hush proved to be a fantastic watch - a story of a deaf woman being hunted by a killer in her house in the woods. A usually formulaic setting turned into something much more terrifying due to the protagonist lacking one of her most important senses. A thrill ride from start to finish.
The Conjuring 2 was certainly enjoyable - the ghosts were fantastic but I think it's hype and excellent marketing paved way for a film that couldn't live up to the expectations laid before it. The Nun is an excellent ghoul and I am looking forward to her stand alone horror excursion in the coming years. I found the addition of the Crooked Man into the story forced and irrelevant and it lead to the film ultimately been spreading slightly too thin.
Insidious 3 did suprise me however. I thought it was terrifying. I admittedly wasn't a huge fan of the first film - finding Sinister a much more enjoyable alternative. However Insidious 2 provided a much better side to the story and Insidious 3 was so gloriously filled with effective jump scares it was hard not to enjoy it.
Overall it wasn't the year of horror I had hoped it would be. With the excellent It Follows and the likes of As Above So Below from previous years, 2016 had a lot to live up to and I don't feel it quite met the mark - despite the hype. Next year though!
MOVIE OF THE YEAR - RUNNER UP
My runner up for movie of the year (meaning movie I watched this year - I know it was released last year but I don't care.) is The Invitation. An absolutely stunning thrilling drama about grief, friendship, love, loss and the things we do to deal with said grief. You wouldn't expect the director of Jennifer's Body to have such a masterful grasp over the excellent subject material. What follows is over 90 minutes of absolutely edge of your seat storytelling with a twist and an ending that still sits with me today. If you haven't seen it then do it. A good film with relatively unknown actors like this is few and far between and this one stands out even among the higher budget films.
MOVIE OF THE YEAR
Finally my pick for film of the year that absolutely no-one asked for. Swiss Army Man. That's right. My film pick of 2016 is the film where Harry Potter plays a multi-purpose farting corpse. I know - I was reluctant as you were before I watched it. Hell I even delayed watching it for a few months rolling my eyes at the thought. However when I finally sat down to watch it what I was presented with was nothing short of a masterpiece. Swiss Army Man is a wonderfully bizarre and surreal story that can seem to pose more questions than it does offer answers. On the surface it's all a bit silly. But then again it's not. Its a fantastically deep, moving, and thought provoking film about depression, friendship and life in general. With absolutely sensational performances from the always exceptional Paul Dano and the man who continues to suprise me with his ever increasing ability - Daniel Radcliffe, Swiss Army Man is a fascinating look into the mind of a lonely individual and the worlds we create in order to cope with the struggles we face in life. With a genius soundtrack performed largely by the actors themselves - Swiss Army Man is my movie of the year.
Well thanks everyone if you have read this and for following my film blog for it's first year. Feel free to subscribe, comment or whatever.
I will be doing my picks for tv shows one day soon - but in the mean time just do yourself a favour and watch Bojack Horseman - it's the absolute bees knees.
Full review for Tickled here:
http://reviewsbybrown.blogspot.co.nz/2016/04/tickled.html
Full review for The Invitation here:
http://reviewsbybrown.blogspot.co.nz/2016/04/the-invitation.html
Full review for Blair Witch here:
http://reviewsbybrown.blogspot.co.nz/2016/09/blair-witch.html
Full review for Don't Breathe here:
http://reviewsbybrown.blogspot.co.nz/2016/09/reviews-no-one-asked-for-by-ashton.html
Full review for 10 Cloverfield Lane here:
http://reviewsbybrown.blogspot.co.nz/2016/03/10-cloverfield-lane.html
Don't forget to subscribe if you like what you read here. Or publicly argue with me if you don't. Seriously tell me what you think. I'm so lonely.
