It’s that time of the year again. The third annual Stuie Awards, the
awards that you really don’t care about, but clicked on the link anyway, purely
out of a sense of obligation and maybe a tiny smidge of curiosity to see just
how wrong I got it.
This year I wasn’t as interested in films that came out around awards
season as I have been in previous years. One too many bio-pics for me I’m
afraid. Plus, having a newborn definitely cut down the amount of trips to the
cinema we were able to fit in.
The Stuies are still in their infancy, so this year I’ve made a quick
change. The list this year has been changed from a top five to a top seven. The
eligibility requirements for inclusion in the Stuies are that the films must
have been released between April 2014 to April 2015.
7. The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson's dream-like, patisserie-esque caper set in a half real
Europe before a coming war was one of the most unique films I have ever seen. I
do have to admit to having not seen much of Anderson's work. Shame on me. So,
maybe his style wouldn't have been so bracing if I were more familiar with his
previous films.
Ralph Fiennes' Gustav H was the character/part of the film that kept
coming back to me days after I had seen it. Many other actors would have played
it up a little campy, or more eccentric, but the brilliance in the performance
was how straight and seriously he took Anderson's character and made him real,
cleverly avoiding descending into caricature. It may not all to be to your
taste, but it will certainly be unlike anything you have seen.
6. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
The sequel to the remake that nobody really cared about quickly became
one of the most anticipated films of the summer. Rise of the Planet of the
Apes (2011) was one of the most intelligent summer films of recent years. In
Dawn, the central dilemma for Caesar
is balancing his duty to his “people” with his affection for humanity.
Eight years on from where Rise left
off, and the world is a very different place. Simian flu has killed off the majority of the world’s human
population and now there is no sustainable power. The film focuses on a group
of humans outside San Francisco who have to go into the wild to repair a power
station, which unknowingly is right in the middle of “ape town”. Negotiations
take place between the humans and the ape. Fragile bonds are created and old wounds are opened as a
powder keg of resentment, specism (is that a word?!) and fear bubble to the
surface.
Andy Serkis has once again showed just how much can be achieved with motion capture, giving us a character that less than a decade ago would have been nearly impossible. Caesar has now become the star of this series, because he is what every film (or series) needs, interesting, likeable and complex. And all of this was done in nothing more than a skin tight suit with bobbles on.
5. Calvary
Why do good men pay for the mistakes of bad men? This is the central
idea of Calvary, although it puts it forward and goes about trying to
understand this far more intelligently than I have just bluntly summarized it.
In the first scene of the film (one
of the best of year, in my opinion) an unknown man tells Brendan Gleeson's
small town priest that in one week he is going to kill him, because he has been
molested by a priest when he was younger.
Gleeson's Father James is a man who almost immediately accepts his fate
with a subtle and almost expectant attitude. While it could never have been
something he could have ever imagined, he doesn't seem shocked by the reason
and spends the last week calmly going about his work. In a town where he seems
to be simultaneously hated and needed by everyone, James' fundamental belief may
not be in Christianity, but in the power of forgiveness, something he asks for
himself from his daughter, but also from the man determined to kill him, in the
hope that he won't suffer for what others have done.
4. The Lego Movie
A film about toys that doesn’t star Woody or Buzz Lightyear appearing on
an end of year list was something that would be truly unthinkable given the dross
that is often put out in this genre.
The Lego Movie changed all
that in such an interesting and original way.
Using the Lego’s eternal question of how you build their sets as one of
the underlying themes of the film was a masterstroke from the writing and
directing team, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Telling anyone who watches it
to embrace creativity and think outside of the box and build something new that
is individually yours.
3. Interstellar
Christopher Nolan’s ninth film is arguably his most ambitious so far,
but also his smallest. This may sound an odd thing to say when you consider
it’s epic, galaxy spanning scale. Interstellar has at its core the
relationship between a father and daughter and how it is affected by a grand
sacrifice and the toll it takes on both them.
It’s a jaw-dropping adventure that simultaneously entertains and also
asks questions of how we would have dealt with, or what decisions we would have
made in those situations.
Ignore the critics and people who say it’s too long. It isn’t. There’s
too much exposition. There isn’t. If you still have the chance to see this film
on the screen and it should be the biggest screen you can find (IMAX really),
go and experience one of the best example of just how magnificent a cinema can
be.
2. Whiplash
Unlike Interstellar, Whiplash wasn’t even on my radar till
I saw the trailer in early 2015 and began hearing about the hype around J.K
Simmons’ performance, which, along with the editing of the film (the film
received an Oscar for it) are the two show stopping parts of the film. This is
a sharp and pacey dual character study of someone trying to achieve greatness
and another trying to find greatness.
How accurate the film is to music schools is something I can’t comment
on, but writer/director Damian Chazelle has created a world that feels real and
where the pressure to be the best you can is all encompassing and never-ending.
It’s an environment and mindset that can be translated to any profession or
form of artistic endeavor. How much are you willing to suffer for your passion?
This is a question that Whiplash asks you in every scene.
1. Nightcrawler
"If it bleeds it leads", never have five words perfectly
summed up the film they are a part of. Dan Gilroy’s directorial debut is one of
the best neo-noir's ever made, giving us a great central character in Jake
Gyllenhaal's Lou Bloom, who is essentially the film’s antagonist and
protagonist, something that Gilroy has said was key to the film.
As Bloom enters the world of night crawling and he becomes more and more
willing to do questionable things, the blame never landing solely at his feet. It's
all equally ours, the newstation and anyone who rewards a man like Lou for what
he does.
Nightcrawler is by far the best film of the year, it has one of the best central
characters and one of the leading performances which hasn't received anywhere
near the attention it should have. A lot of this is down to Gilroy's work,
especially the script which really gives each character a unique voice and
outlook on the world that only adds to the films intriguing complexity.
A future classic that should be held in the highest regard.
