*I choose these dates wholly arbitrarily based upon my U.K residence and the fact that due to my constant following of U.S writers and Awards Season campaigns I feel that many films of the U.K January release feel all too of the previous year. Hence the above arbitrary field of a year has been stated. Now, the list.
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20. The French Dispatch (Dir. Wes Anderson)
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One of the most visually astounding films of the year, a fine 8/10 that perhaps serves us more beautiful visual art than it does consist narratives or the like. But the wonderful characters are abundant and the humour is prevalent. Anderson has made it know to all that this is love letter to The New Yorker, and where some filmic love-letters can seem over-indulgent or saccarhin, this film does exactly what the best should do – make you fall in love with the subject also, even if in this case it is through the fictional lens of The French Dispatch, of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun.
19.
Scream (Dir. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillet)
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Despite a rocky start following an exciting opening, this 8/10 Scream marks itself as by far and above one of the best fifth entries in a horror series and marks a very solid entry into this particular iconic franchise. Our legacy characters are back and brilliant as always, with Arquette giving his best performance in any of the movies. However this film succeeds in a way in which the fourth didn’t exactly (outside of Kirby), by introducing a new series of fresh characters that just like the first film we like all of and desperately don’t want to see die or be the killer. A film that eventually finds its footing as a very solid Scream sequel and fundamentally a very fun meta slasher whodunit, more than worthy of a place in Craven’s franchise, with some real fun, some real meta wit, some real scares and some real whodunit twists. A great entry and one that I will indeed return to over and over again.
18.
Many Saints of Newark (Dir. Alan Taylor)
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A very solid 8/10 outing back into the world of The Sopranos. For all the things that this film is, a great Sopranos story as we know it, it perhaps isn’t. But a great Sopranos-adjacent film, it certainly is. A fascinating character study into the world of a man who made Tony the man he was. Nivola, Liotta, De Rossi and Oddom Jr. steal the show and this really is their film. Every other returning character and the new people playing them all do fantastic work, blending imitation with genuine character – but one must realise early on that this is wallpaper and not exactly the main story being told. But when it comes to wallpaper, some of the finest creations in media aren’t too bad to go with.
17.
The Last Duel (Dir. Ridley Scott)
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A wonderfully dramatic 8/10 with an array of fantastic performances, each one building intriguingly upon the other. Much the same can be said for the films triptych of views as they contradict, mirror and often inform one another. Damon, Affleck and Holofcener have concocted a wonderfully dynamic and propellant script from Eric Jager’s non-fiction books and Scott has brought this script to the screen with a flare and precision that really does put this film way above intellectually and conceptually many of the other films in its ilk.
16.
House of Gucci (Dir. Ridley Scott)
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Gucci is a delightful 8/10 that relishes in its over-the-topness, whilst also surprisingly having a grounded quality to it as an overall tone. A film that will actually spend significantly less time on the more interesting scandals of the true story, and will instead use this stranger than fiction tale as a form of epilogue to the rest of the saga we have already seen. But you don’t want story, not here, not with this film. We want sensationalist performances and firecracker lines of dialogue bordering on the absurd. Well Gucci gives us all that, but not nessecerilly much more.
15.
The Courier (Dir. Dominick Cooke)
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A very well crafted taut 8/10 spy drama, with a surprisingly heavy emotional blow of a third act, that even brought a tear to one’s eye. Cumberbatch and Ninidze are both absolutely excellent and deserve all the praise that they have justly been receiving, however every other performance in this small stacked cast also serve a sturdy and intriguing script, punctuated by some sterling direction from Cooke leading for this to be hopefully a bit of a surprise commercial and critical hit. At least it was in this camp.
14.
Freaky (Dir. Christopher Landon)
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An excellent 8/10, giving its audience exactly what it wants at every turn, whilst still delivering a fresh and exciting horror spin on a classic body-switch formula whilst never losing grasp on the horror or indeed the humour of it all. Vaughn and Newton are truly sublime and Landon really can put a firm post in the ground of modern horror directors I will watch whatever they do next. I have a rule with new directors and the like, it’s a scientific principle. Two is a coincidence. Three is a pattern. With Freaky Landon has made and will hopefully maintain one of the great horror patterns of this decade thus far.
13.
Don’t Look Up (Dir. Adam McKay)
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An epic 8/10 comedy that spends its time screaming rather than calmly explaining, but that’s not the films job. Anybody can look up the facts that have been there since the late 80’s even. That is not this film, nor does it have to be. This is a furiously chaotic piece of passionate feature-length montage combining all sides and finding the horrific dark humour in all of them. It’s frequently hilarious and concludes with a touching and effective pathos. Don’t Look Up is about as subtle as a hurtling comet, but again! Why does it have to be anything but manic? This is a manic film for a manic time and who isn’t wanting to scream?
12.
The Tragedy of Macbeth (Dir. Joel Coen)
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An 8/10 top-class Shakespeare with a powerful bluntness and balance of expressionism and subtlety that makes it a haunting adaptation and although not entirely fresh, and not entirely with one specific ‘new’ angle for the tale, strives to tell this iconic ode directly and effectively. Coen succeeds in abundances and Washington gives us a Macbeth of immense charisma that feels new and fresh and whereas certain arcs feel forced due to a running time of under 2 hours, Washington manages to convey the epicness of Macbeth’s arc within this time flawlessly however and so makes this other woes very obvious.
11.
The Lost Daughter (Dir. Maggie Gyllenhall)
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Gyllenhal’s debut is a strong and stellar 8/10 with some of the absolute best performances of the year and some of the most compelling writing. Gyllenhall has a craft a tale of two women in two times, who are of course one in the same, with the craft and elegance of a filmmaker far beyond their debut (whatever that actually counts for). The film is stunningly dark and deeply compelling and although a focus on a few too many obvious metaphors and visual images may have hindered it slightly, one cannot deny that the film boasts one of our finest modern casts and delivers a trio of some of the finest performances of the year. And with Colman, perhaps even the best.
10.
The Card Counter (Dir. Paul Schrader)
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A top form 8/10 entry into the cannon of Schrader’s recent resurgence, returning to the dark and effective thrillers of his hey-day as a writer and director auteur. Bolstered by Oscar Isaac’s incredible lead performance, Schrader with this film balances a tale of incredible hardship and psychological turmoil with an intentionally deeply clinical tale of casino grifter’s. Yes, it’s another character study examining the deep darkness of a very specific, very stoic and very talented man’s life and soul – but when they are this consistently good and have been (with the rare miss) for the past forty years, who would complain?
9.
Shiva Baby (Dir. Emma Seligman)
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8.
Barb and Star go to Vista Del Mar (Dir. Josh Greenbaum)
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An absolutely delightful 8/10, with a certain amount of rough edges that pass by very quickly and are seriously sparring. For the core of Barb and Star is a genuinely hilarious romping adventure with two ingenious comedic creations at the heart of it. Wiig and Mumolo have made a script and offered performances that are so clearly in tune with a very specific style of comedy, that plays very well. Director Greenbaum has managed to key this specific style into a big screen comedy and has incredibly led to a whole ensemble keying into it also. All in all Barb and Star is a triumph if nothing else of an extremely specific comedy film that one quite frankly struggles to not find something to love in, and if not love, laugh frequently and often with.
7.
Nightmare Alley (Dir. Guillermo Del Toro)
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A horridly dark and wildly thrilling 9/10 epic. Del Toro is a director where the surface is simple enough to praise, despite its incredible fantastical complexities and juxtaposing beauties and perceived freakish ugliness’s. However one of Del Toro’s further strengths is garnering incredibly specific and often excellent performances from his cast, and weaving these performances through complex and often riveting tales filled with twists and turns. Alley is all these things and more. A dark epic in scale and the journey it takes the astounding Bradley Cooper upon. A thrilling marvel that really does bring to mind the oft spoken comment; “they really don’t make them like this anymore”.
6.
Another Round (Dir. Thomas Vinterberg)
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Vinterberg and Mikkelson give us another 9/10 drama which this time blends a lot more comedy than their previous outing. This time we are with a film more in line with Vinterberg’s earlier darkly comedic works, but here there is no dogme, it is an assured and masterful piece of work, balancing tones to perfection and conveying a deep human drama perhaps with more warmth than any other film of this past year. Funny, brilliant, dark, honest and pulled off without a fault. Raise a drink, dance, watch this film as soon as you can. And if you have watched it, put it on again!
5.
The Father (Dir. Florian Zeller)
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A truly beautiful 9/10 film, with both a startling level of creative talent and emotional intelligence within it. Zeller has conducted a piece of film that not only serves a complex and heartaching tale, but also a rich drama with a tragic mystery at the heart of it. The entire ensemble are stellar in their turns, however one can simply not ignore the simple masterful all time career high work of both Hopkins and Colman. A film of great performances, great writing, great direction and great power.
4.
Spencer (Dir. Pablo Lorrain)
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An astoundingly beautiful 9/10 tale told effortlessly with the cinematography of Claire Mathon, performances, writing and direction of a film for the ages. This deeply effecting psychological drama propels Stewart in one of the best turns of the year through a collection of set pieces, ranging from the darkly terrifying, to the unnervingly beautiful and sentimental, to ultimately the emotionally transcendent. Lorrain directs with a delicate and defined touch a ‘fable from a true tragedy’ with a deftness for tone and quality and elegance that couldn’t suit this woman and this film any better. A few moments of saying out loud exactly what the film is going for, does remove the viewer however and refrains from the full 10, however as you can read my opinion of the film is certainly a deeply positive one. And yes, for you pundits out there. For my money; t’s Stewart’s Oscar to lose at this very moment. And a very deserved win in my eyes if it occurs.
3. The Nest (Dir. Sean Durkin)
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A glorious slow-burning 9/10. Immediately one of my favourite films of the year and pretty distinctly one of my favourite performances of the year from Coon, with more stellar work for Law in his long cannon of charismatic con-men. Durkin has created an exquisitely taut and beautifully composed tale of imploding disintegration. A deeply haunting family saga built around a tale of a romance of true pain. A distinctly powerful and exceptionally told story that we have seen before, but never quite like this.
2. No Time to Die (Dir. Cary Fukunaja)
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A 9/10 that in so many ways is the best a Bond can be. Craig gives us the best Bond performance any of these films has ever contained and overall Fukanaga has brought something rather tremendous to the series for this closing entry for Craig; a sense of weight. No Time to Die really does manage to be sensationally well made in its action and its drama, whilst also somehow balancing the humour and corniness of previous Bonds. There is an invisible tightrope being walked perfectly in this film between modern and classic Bond, true drama and witty banter, impactful and brutal action and enjoyable over-the-top gadgets. I’ve said it twice in this review already, but I’ll say it once more; this really is the best a Bond can be. Although Casino Royale is a close second, striving in its simplicity, this is most likely the best Craig entry, and frankly in my opinion one of the best entries of all time.
1. Licorice Pizza (Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
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A 10//10 stone cold masterpiece. An elegy to a bygone era, a specific and complicated tale of undeniable romantic connection, a hilarious hangout comedy, but overall a stunning further exemplification of the skills and impeccable talents of one of one of our incest living directors. Pizza is by far the film of the year for my money. Brilliant? Certainly. Biased? Possibly. This is by far my longest review (postscripts naturally included) and although one could easily pass it off perhaps as a loose and funny little hang-out comedy, something that certainly it is and revels in being, it is also so much more, it really does contain many manic multitudes.
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Thomas Carruthers
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