Some films appeal to you more as a piece of entertainment than as a piece of art. Some films appeal to you on a personal level for reasons related entirely to your own life experiences. These are the sorts of films I consider my favourites; not necessarily better than the best, but the best combination of factors to maximise its appeal to me personally.
*These are in no particular order
*These are in no particular order
This new Planet of the Apes series have been some
of the best blockbuster filmmaking over the last decade, due in massive part to
the excellently written character of Caesar and Andy Serkis’ often awe-striking
performance as the ape. War for the
Planet of the Apes leaned in to this strength heavily, giving us a
surprisingly muted and personal tale that operates entirely on the actions of
Caesar. Serkis gives his strongest performance yet, showing us a Caesar coming
to grips with his own mortality and how much he values the burning ideology of
his younger self, dealing with the challenges of maintaining your identity and
purpose when you lose what matters most to you. It’s an absolutely sterling
work from Serkis, and from everyone involved in making Caesar the most real of
apes ever put to CGI.
Taking a set
of middling movies muddled by their inanely maudlin and melodramatic lore and
framing them with a certain self-awareness of how alien it all sounds to us was
a strange stroke of cleverness. Thor has never felt more accessible or human as
a character, despite being as far from humanity as he ever was, and it’s all in
the choice of tone taken by director Waititi. It’s not just the usual Marvel
sense of playfulness, it’s an almost altogether dismissal of seriousness in
favour of joke and spectacle first. For me, that meant a lot of simple,
effective and relatable New Zealand humour mixed with some gorgeous setpieces
and the best writing a Thor movie has
ever had (not that that last one is saying too much).
Considering
how much I love movies, it should be no surprise that I love movies about
making movies. The Disaster Artist is
James Franco’s best work, both as an actor and as a director. Just the concept
of him acting and directing both in and out of character is an impressive feat,
but seeing it pay off so well on screen is a sight to behold, as he immerses
himself in the mannerisms and speech patterns of Tommy Wiseau, and works with
the people around him re-create the story that lead to one of the most
infamously bad movies of all time.
It was a
tough choice between this, Get Out (2017),
and It (2017), as both of them are
some of the most effective horror from the last couple of years, but Raw ultimately won out for me because of
how utterly unique the experience with the film is, and despite the best
efforts of The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017),
Raw still holds the title of most
uncomfortably horrifying scene of the year. The movie is gross and engrossing;
you can’t look, but can’t look away, as the film grows steadily more horrifying
but continues to draw you in.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
For all its
flaws, this was one of my best cinema experiences of the year. The film space
opera at its finest, with story driven by melodramatic character action in an
incredible vision of colour and movement played out with a background of
powerful orchestra. The visuals and the music meld to create a magical symphony
of emotions and themes carried by the weight of all the films that came before
it. The performances vary, but hit their hardest where it counts the most, and
are enhanced by the lighting and framing of each and every shot, which also
help to reinforce the themes and arcs of the movie. The Last Jedi is challenging, in a way Star Wars movies rarely are, and the skill put in to how the movie
looks, sounds and feels simply dwarf any issues I had with the experience.
Published December 30th, 2017
Published December 30th, 2017
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