Which movies in 2016 will be worth spending your hard-earned on? Let's get away from the obvious Oscar contenders launching in January and February, and the big super hero and events pix, and stray off the beaten track a little.
Pride + Predjudice + Zombies: 12 February
The picture on p63 of the February edition of Empire of Lena Headey as Lady Catherine de Bourgh standing triumphantly upon a pile of zombie corpses says it all. You had me at 'Lena'!
Triple 9: 19 February
Crime thriller in which John Hillcoat directs a juicy cast: Winslet, Ejiofor, Harrelson, C Affleck, Aaron Paul, Anthony Mackie and Norman Reedus. Unlikely to have a happy ending.
Hail Caesar!: 26 February
The new Coen brothers: 'nuff said.
Crouching Tiger sequel: February tbc
The original remains a fantastic film, so naturally I'm curious about the sequel, which focuses on Michelle Yeoh's character. Check the reviews before buying your tickets…
The Witch: 11 March
2016's best horror movie? "Deeply unsettling" seems to be the most popular description from festival goers who saw it last year. This focuses on a family in 17th century New England facing the horrors of witchcraft. May be best to watch this in daylight.
Midnight Special: 15 April
Top indie Americana director Jeff Nichols follows up Take Shelter and Mud with this 'sci-fi chase movie', which may in some way pay homage to the likes of Star Man. The cast includes Michael Shannon (of course!), Adam Driver and Kirsten Dunst.
Green Room: 13 May
Writer/director Jeremy Saulnier follows up his acclaimed Blue Ruin with this thriller in which a punk band are holed up in a venue's 'green room', assailed by white supremacist skinheads, afar bearing witness to the skinheads' crime. Patrick Stewart leads the skinheads. Be prepared for great characters in great peril, and, yes, quite possibly some stomach-churning violence. Excellent!
La La Land: July tbc
Damien Chazelle follows up Whiplash with a musical comedy charting the LA-set romance between Ryan Gosling's jazz pianist and Emma Stone's actress. JK Simmons co-stars.
Bourne: 28 July
No apologies for including this event film on this list. Can Greengrass, Ackroyd and Damon pull this off? Vincent Cassel, Tommy Lee Jones and Alicia Vikander join the supporting cast. Simply, this demands to be seen.
Julieta: 26 August
The new Almodovar.
Passengers: 23 December
It remains to be seen whether Sony has the balls to put out a 'grown up' sic-fi movie just one week after Star Wars: Rogue One is unleashed. Morten 'Imitation Game' Tyldum directs Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt.
And films without release dates anywhere near confirmation…
War On Everyone
The latest from John Michael McDonagh sees two New Mexico-based corrupt cops out to get one over every criminal they come across.
The Bad Batch
Following up A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, Ana Lily Amirpour brings together an eclectic cast (Keanu Reeves, Jason Mamoa, Jim Carrey and Giovani Ribisi for "dystopian love story" in a Texan wasteland.
Free Fire
Ben Wheatley follows up High-Rise with a 70s-set Boston crime thriller in which two gangs end up in a fight to the death in a warehouse.
The Sense of An Ending
Ritesh Batra, director of The Lunchbox, pulls together Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling, Michelle Dockery and Emily Mortimer for this drama about a man given cause to reflect on his legacy.
A Storm In The Stars
Female Saudi director Haifaa Al-Mansoor directs this Mary Shelley/Frankenstein biopic of sorts. Might not hit screens until 2017.
News From Planet Mars
The latest from Dominik Moll (A Friend Like Harry, Monk, Lemming) is a black comedy in which "a recently divorced man struggles to cope with a larger-than-life family, demanding boss and occasionally psychotic colleague who decides to move in, sending his life into a further tailspin" (according to Screendaily).
The Neon Demon
The new Winidng Refn. Here's the IMDB synopsis: "When aspiring model Jesse moves to Los Angeles, her youth and vitality are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will take any means necessary to get what she has."
Little Men
Ira Sachs follows up the beautiful Love Is Strange with this tale of two friends (presumably Greg Kinnear and Alfred Molina judging by the cast list) falling out. It debuts this month at Sundance, so a general release in 2016 is possible.
Russ & Roger Go Beyond
The UK's most versatile director, Michael Winterbottom, brings us the dramatised making of Russ Meyer's Beyond The Valley of the Dolls, with Will Ferrell as the breast-obsessed director.
Elvis & Nixon
The King (Michael Shannon) and Tricky Dicky (Kevin Spacey) meet at the White House… Yes please!
Wednesday, 6 January 2016
2015 box office review
Jurassic World was expected to be a big hit, but I'm not sure anyone expected it to be that big: more than $1.6bn worldwide is incredible, including $652.3m in the US and $228.7m in China. Thus, it emerged at the top of the pile, just ahead of Furious 7.
At $1.5bn, the car movie nearly doubled the take of its predecessor, and in so doing was the best performer outside the US, raking in $1.1bn, including $390.9m from China (its single largest territory). It spent four weeks at number one in the US and five weeks at the top in China.
The Avengers sequel came up significantly short of its predecessor in the US ($459m vs $623.4m), and also drifted behind in other key territories, however $240.1m from China ($86.3m for the original) helped Iron Man & Co to post a slight increase in their international haul to $946m ($896.2m for the original). What impact will this have on Captain America: Civil War and the next two Avengers films?
Minions was the fourth movie of the year to cross the $1bn barrier, with $821.3m internationally and $336m in the States. For reference, Despicable Me 2 delivered $368m in the US and $602.7m in 2013.
Star performer
With just a fortnight in play in 2015, Star Wars set about destroying box office records left, right and centre. It finished the year just $300,000 or so away from being the most successful film in the US in 2015! At the time of writing, it's just a few days away from beating Avatar's US record of $760.5m. Similarly, in the UK, it finished just a weekend's takings behind Spectre as 2015 ended, and then swiftly jumped passed the Bond film, and is set to catch and pass Skyfall's all-time record of £102.9m by 10 January.
Once the dust has settled, it will be intriguing to compare Force Awakens' international performance with the other big hits of 2015: many traditional territories it performed well in, but in some new major markets it did not succeed like its rivals (South Korea, for example, where its has taken just $22.7m against Ultron's $78.3m). Its chance of beating Avatar's worldwide record of $2.8bn seems limited; Force Awakens will need to get close to $900m in the US alone to get close plus an unexpected over-performance in China as well as long, robust legs in its current key markets of the UK, Germany and France (nearly $130m, $73.9m and $61.4m respectively).
Having closed 2015 at $1.3bn, Force Awakens enjoyed a massive New Year weekend, jumping to $1.5bn, so a $2bn-plus total is on the cards if it can pull in $200m-plus in China.
As Boxofficeguru tweeted over the Xmas break, Force Awakens has not yet been seen by as many Americans as Phantom Menace, such has been the inflation of ticket prices since 1999. Using another source, Boxoffice Mojo's inflation-adjusted chart, Force Awakens is only the 21st most popular film of all-time in the US. Indeed, that chart puts Force Awakens at less than 50% as popular as the original Star Wars. Clearly that pattern repeats across all traditional film markets.
As the year closed, Spectre inched ahead of Inside Out to $864.1m, but with no hope of matching Skyfall's $1.1bn haul. Indeed, Spectre fell one third short of its predecessor in the US (only just edging out Ethan Hunt in M:I 5), and 15% behind in the UK (where nevertheless it was the number one film of the year, beating Jurassic World by nearly 50%). Inside Out, the best film among the major BO successes of 2015, pulled in $851.6m, including $356.5m from the US.
The fourth instalment of the Hunger Games ended up being the least successful of the franchise: it inched across $600m worldwide in late December, more than $150m behind the third film, $265m behind the second, and $90m behind the original. However, because of release patterns, it managed four weeks at number one in both the US and the UK. Given the relatively poor performances of the Divergent and Maze Runner franchises, is the YA adaptation trend now dead in the water?
Just inside the worldwide top 10 was the year's happiest film: The Martian, with $595.7m, a record for Ridley Scott. It showed tremendous legs, especially in the US where it had two separate stints of two weeks at number one. Will The Martian begat a new era of positive/happy movies?
Mr Grey took a caning from the critics and finished prematurely in the US, but that didn't stop him from relieving many women of their hard-earned money as he tied up more than $400m internationally, including nearly £35m in the UK.
American Sniper performed in almost the opposite fashion geographically to 50 Shades: opening wide in the US at the start of the year, it performed like a summer event movie and pulled in $348.8m, spending three weeks at number one; however, perhaps misunderstood internationally, it couldn't pass the $200m mark.
Disney's Cinderella, hoping to ape Maleficent's performance in 2014, didn't quite grasp the slipper, coming in at $542.7m worldwide, one third behind the Angelina Jolie-starrer. If Cinders was a disappointment, then Marvel (and ergo Disney) will have been very happy with Ant-Man's $518.6m, including $180m in the US and $105m in China.
San Andreas pulled in less than $500m, making it one of the worst performing disaster flicks for many years, presumably because it did not feature a worldwide disaster.
The top 20 is rounded out by Transylvania 2, Terminator: Genisys ($350m internationally almost saved face as the film flopped in the US), Kingsman (one of the true surprises of the year, taking nearly $300m internationally, and proving effective counter-programming to Mr Grey in the US), the final instalment of The Hobbit (its $393.3m worldwide total in 2015 came almost entirely from international holdovers and a delayed release in China), and Home.
There were some significant variances in the UK, first and foremostly The Theory of Everything, which pulled in more than £20m as it rode the wave of excellent reviews and awards glory. Another shock performer was Legend, generating more than £18m.
Also worthy of note is that the UK top 20 is the only list below on which Mad Max: Fury Road makes an appearance. It fell just shy of the cut in the US, international and worldwide: its financial stumbling block was the fact that it failed to secure a release in China, which would surely have brought another $80m at least and spurred it on to $450m worldwide.
Among notable performers in the UK that don't make the list are Paddington taking £9.7m in addition to the £28m it took in 2014, Kingsman and Ant-Man taking more than £16m each, and Shaun The Sheep with £13.7m. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel couldn't match its predecessor, its final haul reaching £15.6m, some £5m short.
What about the flops?
There were some major flops in 2015: most obviously Jupiter Ascending and Fantastic Four. The Wachowski brothers' latest slice of sic-fi nonsense cost nearly $180m and pulled in just $183.9m worldwide. Perhaps they should go back to lesbian noir? The failure of the FF proved even super hero movies can flop, pulling in just $168m but with a cost of $120m. Fox might have done better to hand back the rights to Marvel's first family than make the film.
Michael Mann has long since lost BO lustre, and his Blackhat cost $70m but only hacked its way to $19.5m. Lucky for star Chris Hemsworth that he has Thor, otherwise his 2015 would have been known only for flops (see the In The Heart of the Sea below!).
Also two major sequels failed to perform as expected: Ted 2 and Magic Mike XXL. The originals of each generated $549.4m and $167.2m respectively, but the sequels pulled in just $215.9m and $122.5m respectively. At least XXL cost less than $16m to make.
Failing to be the new Harry Potter, Pan generated just $126.5m, but cost $150m. Perhaps a musical version might have done better?
And proving that not every theme park ride can be a hit movie, Disney's Tomorrowland generated just $209m set against a cost of $190m.
The final flop of the year looked like being Ron Howard's In The Heart of the Sea, which sunk in the US one week before Star Wars was unleashed. Even the presence of Thor in the lead couldn't save it.
But if Hemsworth has got the jitters, then Johnny Depp is really BO poison outside of the Pirates franchise (last seen in summer 2011). Mortdecai cost $60m and got away with just $47.3m.
Oh, and the senior management of Warner Bros must be running scared: their biggest film in 2015 was San Andreas as the studio presided over Jupiter Ascending, Pan, In The Heart of the Sea, and Christmas week-opener Point Break.
Worldwide
Jurassic World $1,668m
Furious 7 $1,515m
Avengers: Age of Ultron $1,405m
The Force Awakens $1,331m
Minions $1,157m
Spectre $864.1m
Inside Out $851.6m
Mission: Impossible 5 $682.3m
Hunger Games 4 $631.3m
The Martian $595.7m
50 Shades of Grey $570.5m
American Sniper $546.1m
Cinderella $542.7m
Ant-Man $518.6m
San Andreas $473.8m
Hotel Transylvania 2 $461.6m
Terminator: Genisys $440.6m
Kingsman $414.4m
The Hobbit 3 $393.3m
Home $386m
International
Furious 7 $1,162m
Jurassic World $1,016m
Avengers: Age of Ultron $946m
Minions $821.3m
The Force Awakens $679.2m
Spectre $667m
Inside Out $495.2m
Mission: Impossible 5 $487.3m
50 Shades of Grey $404.3m
The Martian $370.4m
Hunger Games 4 $361.7m
Terminator: Genisys $350.8m
Cinderella $341.5m
Ant-Man $338.4m
The Hobbit 3 $327.2m
San Andreas $318.6m
Big Hero 6 $314.4m
Kingsman $286.1m
Hotel Transylvania 2 $294m
Taken 3 $237.2m
UK
Spectre £94m
The Force Awakens £87.1m
Jurassic World £64m
Avengers: Age of Ultron £48.3m
Minions £47.1m
Inside Out £39.1m
Furious 7 £38.4m
50 Shades of Grey £34.7m
Hunger Games 4 £28.1m
Home £25.1m
The Martian £23.5m
Cinderella £21.3m
Mission: Impossible 5 £21.1m
The Theory of Everything £20.6m (£802,598 was taken in 2014)
Big Hero 6 £20.1m
Transylvania 2 £19.7m
Legend £18.4m
Taken 3 £17.5m
Mad Max: Fury Road £17.2m
Pitch Perfect 2 £17m
US
Jurassic World $652.3m
The Force Awakens $651.9m
Avengers: Age of Ultron $459m
Inside Out $356.5m
Furious 7 $353m
American Sniper $348.8m
Minions $336m
Hunger Games 4 $269.6m
The Martian $225.3m
Cinderella $201.1m
Spectre $197.1m
Mission: Impossible 5 $195m
Pitch Perfect 2 $184.3m
Ant-Man $180.2m
Home $177.4m
Hotel Transylvania 2 $168.5m
50 Shades of Grey $166.2m
Spongebob Out of Water $163m
Straight Outta Compton $161.2m
San Andreas $155.2m
China
Furious 7 $390.9m
Avengers: Age of Ultron $240.1m
Jurassic World $228.7m
Mission: Impossible 5 $136.8m
The Hobbit 3 $121.7m
Terminator: Genisys $112.8m
Ant-Man $105.4m
San Andreas $103.2m
The Martian $94.9m
Big Hero 6 $83.5m
Sources: Screendaily, Box Office Guru, BFI, Box Office Mojo
Monday, 4 January 2016
Golden Stans 2015
Forget the Golden Globes, Oscars and Baftas: all you really need in awards season is the Golden Stans. In 2015, I saw 77 films in theatrical release; allowing for repeat screenings and seeing old favourites, I saw 65 new films.
And the last film of the year that I saw was also the worst: Fantastic Four. The casting looked good on paper, and the sci-fi movie approach sounded a good way of handling yet another super hero story. However, the final product makes Green Lantern look like high art. FF is flat, devoid of tension, the actors don't get under the skins of their characters, the effects are so-so, and some of the dialogue is ham-fisted and desperately in need of a Whedon or Fisher makeover. The film should have been X-Men First Class crossed with Amadeus (Reed Richards being Mozart to Victor Von Doom's Salieri). Instead, it falls between so many stools. And in so doing, it picks up the first Golden Stan for 2015: the Cone of Shame.
It's traditional for me to award a gong for Best Score, but nothing really grabbed me this year. Junkie XL's work on Black Mass had its moments, as did Carter Burwell's on Carol. My two most vivid music memories of 2015 are Coma-Doof Warrior riffing like mad on his flame-throwing double-neck guitar in Mad Max:Fury Road, and the hilarious counterpoint of disco hits in The Martian.
Best Cinematography this year features quite a miss-mash:
This is the shortlist for Best Actor:
Here's the shortlist for Best Actress:
The shortlist for Best Director is:
And the last film of the year that I saw was also the worst: Fantastic Four. The casting looked good on paper, and the sci-fi movie approach sounded a good way of handling yet another super hero story. However, the final product makes Green Lantern look like high art. FF is flat, devoid of tension, the actors don't get under the skins of their characters, the effects are so-so, and some of the dialogue is ham-fisted and desperately in need of a Whedon or Fisher makeover. The film should have been X-Men First Class crossed with Amadeus (Reed Richards being Mozart to Victor Von Doom's Salieri). Instead, it falls between so many stools. And in so doing, it picks up the first Golden Stan for 2015: the Cone of Shame.
It's traditional for me to award a gong for Best Score, but nothing really grabbed me this year. Junkie XL's work on Black Mass had its moments, as did Carter Burwell's on Carol. My two most vivid music memories of 2015 are Coma-Doof Warrior riffing like mad on his flame-throwing double-neck guitar in Mad Max:Fury Road, and the hilarious counterpoint of disco hits in The Martian.
Best Cinematography this year features quite a miss-mash:
- Roger Deakins for Sicario
- Sturla Brandth Grovlen for Victoria
- Edward Lachman for Carol
- Emmanuel Lubezki for Birdman
- Mark Lee Ping Bin for The Assassin
- John Seale for Mad Max: Fury Road
However, Sturla Brandth Grovlen went one better in Sebastien Schipper's Victoria, his camera filming non-stop for more than two hours as a bank heist is planned, executed and its penalty applied. This truly is immersive cinema, Grovlen and his camera always in the thick of the action. The outcome is not necessarily beautiful like Carol, but it is an heroic performance from Grovlen, and thus he gets the award.
Best Adapted Screenplay needs no shortlist as there was one script that stood head and shoulders over everything else: Paddington. So step forward Paul King and Hamish McColl.
Best Original Screenplay has just four contenders:
- Benjamin August for Remember
- Efthimis Filippou and Yorgos Lanthimos for The Lobster
- Alejandro Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jnr and Armando Bo for Birdman
- Pete Docter, Meg LaFauve, Josh Cooley and Ronnie Del Carmen for Inside Out
Moving on to the acting categories, first there is Best Ensemble and it goes to Birdman: simply everyone in it is on top form - nobody drops the ball, everyone gets their moment, and it seems like the perfect cast.
The next award, Best On-screen Couple, honours the ridiculously realistic on-screen chemistry between Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara in Carol. For all its outstanding technical credits, Carol would be half the movie it is were it not for the fact that Blanchett and Mara just 'click'.
Here are the nominations for Best Supporting Actor:
- Tom Courtenay for 45 Years
- Idris Elba for Beats Of No Nation
- Ed Norton for Birdman
- Ryan Reynolds for Mississippi Grind
- Mark Ruffalo for Foxcatcher, and Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Benecio del Toro for Sicario
This was an easy list to compile. Del Toro effectively updated his character from Traffic for Sicario: he's completely crossed the line, with no qualms about the actions he chooses to take. Mark Ruffalo was compelling in his two key scenes with Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, balancing humour and tragedy, while he was the calm centre of the Carrell/Tatum storm in Foxcatcher. Both Ryan Reynolds and Idris Elba reminded viewers that they really can act, while Ed Norton clearly relished the chance to lampoon actors with high-maintenance reputations.
But the winner is a most deserving Tom Courtenay. His role in 45 Years is challenging: he's the unwitting villain of the piece, apparently innocently visiting horrors upon his wife, and a lot of the time he's either not in focus or not in the scene, simply heard in the background as Charlotte Rampling reacts. Courtenay's particular success here is that we're never truly sure that he is behaving innocently.
The six-strong shortlist for Best Supporting Actress is:
- Judy Davis for The Dressmaker
- Maria Kraakman for Schneider vs Bax
- Sienna Miller for American Sniper, Foxcatcher, High-Rise, and Mississippi Grind
- Emma Stone for Birdman
- Karin Viard for 21 Nights With Pattie
- Rachel Weisz for The Lobster, and Youth
The Dressmaker is a curious hybrid: an offbeat haute couture revenge Western set in the Australian outback. Its tonal shifts from farce to drama to tragedy and back again are at times awkward, but Judy Davis plays her role as Kate Winslet's mother (half Norman Bates's mum, half Nora Batty) with realistic gusto. Similarly, Karin Viard laps up her role as the eponymous local saucepot in 21 Nights: the overlong film drags whenever she's not in focus. Maria Kraakman stood out among an excellent ensemble cast in Dutch assassins thriller Schneider vs Bax, running the full gamut of emotions. Rachel Weisz excelled in her roles, bringing some heart to The Lobster and some-needed empathy to Youth. Sienna Miller simply disappeared into character in her supporting roles in four films: there's not necessarily a huge range here, but she is almost unrecognisable from film to film.
However, there has to be a winner: Emma Stone. Her portrayal of a daughter knowing where her father has gone wrong was riveting and compelling. The scene in which she picks her father apart and belittles all he's ever done in one long rant is stunning, topped off with her reaction, as her anger and distaste morph to sadness and regret as she realises what she's said, and how much pain she's just inflicted.
- Steve Carrell for Foxcatcher
- Bradley Cooper for American Sniper
- Bryan Cranston for Trumbo
- Michael Fassbender for Macbeth, and Steve Jobs
- Michael Keaton for Birdman
- Ben Mendelsohn for Mississippi Grind
- Roland Moller for Land Of Mine
- Christopher Plummer for Remember
- Ben Whishaw in Paddington
Carrell succeeded when cast viciously against type as John 'The Eagle' Du Pont: a stranger man I can't recall seeing on screen - you just don't know how he's going to react or what he's going to say from scene to scene. Bradley Cooper gave probably his best performance yet as the all-too American, all-too male American Sniper. Bryan Cranston sank his teeth into Trumbo, Dalton's bon mots rolling off his tongue with silken ease. Fassbender brought the blood and thunder to Macbeth, and managed to enliven an exceptionally dialogue-heavy (even for a Sorkin script) Steve Jobs. Keaton reminded us all of what a class act he can be in the right role, his Birdman performance hitting all points of the compass.
Ben Mendelsohn's 'one more for the road' serial gambler and loser is one of the great American characters, his performance allowing you to sympathise, empathise and despise him. Roland Moller's yo-yoing from would-be Amon Goeth and Oskar Schindler in Land of Mine - one minute wanting to beat the teenage POWs in his charge into shape, the next wanting to care for and protect them like a doting father - is a masterclass and utterly believable. Christopher Plummer has a peach of a role in Remember. As much as I enjoy the film's Hitchcockian approach, it would mean nothing without Christopher Plummer's humanity at the centre of the storm. Finally, Ben Whishaw was the cherry on the top in Paddington, adding to the film's already considerable charm.
There has to be a winner though, and he's difficult to pick because these are all great performances, some showier than others. In the end, it's a pitched battle between Moller and Carrell, and the latter just shades it for (re)creating on screen one of the most monstrous characters ever seen.
- Cate Blanchett for Carol
- Emily Blunt for Sicario
- Sidse Babett Knudsen for The Duke Of Burgundy
- Rooney Mara for Carol
- Charlotte Rampling for 45 Years
- Maggie Smith for The Lady In The Van
- Charlize Theron for Mad Max: Fury Road
- Lily Tomlin for Grandma
- Naomi Watts for While We're Young
- Kate Winslet for The Dressmaker
Followers of my Twitter feed will already be able to guess who's going to win this, but I'll run through the contenders anyway. Tomlin and Smith both hugely enjoy their turns as ill-mannered older women, still raging in their own ways against the dying of the light. Watts and most notably Winslet walk the fine line between comedy, drama and tragedy with deft assurance. Theron utterly owns Mad Max, her Furiosa clearly the protagonist of the piece and making mincemeat of Tom Hardy in the titular role. Similarly, Blunt more than holds her own against all the machismo surrounding her in Sicario, her humanity is definitely not a 'womanly weakness'.
Carol boasts two very fine lead performances, but it's Mara who just outscores Blanchett (the latter's character is just a little too close to her comfort zone), excelling in the more challenging role. The same can be said of Knudsen, who has the tougher role in The Duke Of Burgundy. To discuss her performance in greater depth is almost impossible without giving away key plot points, but whether dominating or submitting, her unease is clear and elicits great sympathy.
However, the winner by a considerable margin is Charlotte Rampling in 45 Years. The film hinges on her performance; even when Tom Courtenay is talking, the focus is on her and her reactions. Her low-key performance is a perfect match for the film's approach. And that final reaction shot is a heart-breaker. I can envision Oscar snubbing Rampling, but Bafta should simply engrave her name on the trophy now and be done with it.
- Pete Docter for Inside Out
- Clint Eastwood for American Sniper
- Atom Egoyan for Remember
- Todd Haynes for Carol
- Alejandro G Inarritu for Birdman
- Paul King for Paddington
- George Miller for Mad Max: Fury Road
- Ridley Scott for The Martian
- Denis Villeneuve for Sicario
- Martin Zanvliet for Land Of Mine
Pete Docter's run rate with Pixar is incredible: Monsters Inc, Up and now Inside Out. He's improved with each film. He got to push the envelope visually on Inside Out, but always kept a firm focus on the story and the characters.
Clint delivered his best performance behind the camera for many years: the in-country sequences are well-staged and tense, but he allows the space and time for the cumulative effect of that killing to hit the hero.
Egoyan conjured his inner Hitchcock. It may be a little slavish, but that ending packed a huge wallop.
Todd Haynes delivered on every level with Carol. It may a little too slowly paced, but that just immerses the audience all the more in the central relationship. The detail Haynes went to is also crucial to the film's success.
Inarritu seemed to shake off his own increasingly career-threatening shackles and delivered his best film to date.
Paul King, as writer and director of Paddington, is hugely responsible for the film's charm, proving that sometimes taking a risk can pay off (£37.9m taken at the UK box office, with the film still playing theatrically more than a year after it was released).
In Mad Max, George Miller delivered the first art house action movie. Every single shot is fantastic. It will be intriguing to see what impact Miller's approach will have on other action movie directors.
Ridley Scott got his own head round staging a happy ending, but maintained his focus on 'proper' sci-fi.
Denis Villeneuve didn't put a foot wrong with Sicario, handling all the different moods with confidence.
Martin Zanvliet's winning approach to building tension in Land Of Mine is in hindsight all too obviously the only way to make the film succeed.
But for giving us something we have never seen before, for not compromising in executing his vision, the award goes to George Miller.
There isn't a shortlist as such for Best Film, just a list of the films I enjoyed the most in 2015 in the order in which I saw them:
- Paddington: on the surface, as pleasing a family film as one could hope for; its 'inclusive' subtext is the icing on the cake. One of the few films where the peril of the hero is genuinely worrying.
- Birdman: Inarritu and Keaton have their cake and eat it over and over again. Alejandro, more like this please!
- Foxcatcher: its icy feel and snail-like pacing add to the creeping unease; Carrell's detached malevolence entirely unexpected.
- American Sniper: Clint's best in years; don't be fooled by the 'American' in the title - this is a film with a universal theme.
- The Duke Of Burgundy: hypnotic, strange, other-worldly and yet utterly grounded and believable.
- The Avengers: Age of Ultron: not as satisfying as the original, but Whedon still found time to give his enormous cast room to breathe and maintained his tradition of killing main characters off. The Russo brothers have high boots to fill when they take on Infinity War I and II after they've completed Civil War.
- Mad Max: Fury Road: as I've already, the world's first art house action movie. The story is nonsense, but the commitment to action via real stunts is commendable and very effective.
- Inside Out: one of Pixar's greatest; a constant delight; possibly the most harrowing on-screen death in 2015.
- Shaun The Sheep: Aardman doing what it does best; charm by the bucket-load. If only live action mainstream movies could be this good.
- 45 Years: towering performances from Rampling and Courtenay; the film is incredibly icy and uncomfortable, but the final scene in which we and Rampling question Courtenay's honesty is stunning.
- Sicario: Villeneuve combined action, drama and tragedy very well - and you never knew what was coming next; all the cast are on form.
- Trumbo: a monstrous crowd-pleaser, revealing much of Hollywood's dark history. Trumbo's takedown of the Duke might just be my scene of the year.
- Land Of Mine: one of the tensest films I've ever seen; which of the boys will die next and when? Will Moller's Danish soldier be nasty or nice? Some will contest the validity of the ending, but I think it was absolutely necessary.
- My Nazi Legacy: best documentary of the year. Intelligent, thought-provoking, worrying and emotional.
- The Walk (in full IMAX presentation): there's not much going on here (the fourth wall breaking is fun initially but can get a little tiresome as the film goes on), but the walk sequences are truly vertigo-inducing. My palms were soaked in sweat at the end.
- The Lobster: offbeat, but well-thought out parody of modern manners and romance. Funniest on-screen 'death' of the year.
- The Lady In The Van: I didn't expect to love this, but I did. Nothing challenging here, but it's perfectly executed.
- Carol: beautiful and immersive; great production design, cinematography, direction, performances and 'that' chemistry. Never have I wanted a happy ending for an on-screen couple so much.
- Desierto: lean and mean, this chase thriller through the Tex-Mex border goes for the jugular. Much of the film is just the hero and his pursuers (one man and his attack dog), but it's incredibly tense. Features 2015's most righteous killing.
- Victoria: the pure immersion of the two-and-a-quarter-hour single take more than makes up for a largely inconsequential story; when this film flies, it's absolutely gripping.
- Remember: pure Hitchcock complete with the 'I didn't see that coming' finale; buoyed by Plummer's performance and the strong cameos by the actors playing those on his kill list.
- Mississippi Grind: pleasing indie Americana, with great performances at its heart. Additional benefit: it introduced me to Woodford bourbon!
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens: JJ only went and did it! All fears of another Phantom Menace were wiped away within the first few minutes: real sets and real actors! New characters to care about! Two beautiful shots: the TIE fighters at dawn, and the X-Wing attack from the sea. Rampant heroism! Easily the third best Star Wars movie yet.
But what was my favourite film of 2015? It's a battle between Carol, My Nazi Legacy, Inside Out, Birdman and Paddington. They each have strong claims to the title. All five were absolute knock-outs, four of them delivering knock-out emotional punches. Thus, Birdman falls by the wayside. Next, despite its pro-immigration subtext and off-beat style, Paddington is just a little too light in comparison with Inside Out.
So, the brilliant Carol v the surprising My Nazi Legacy v the inventive Inside Out. Documentaries rarely reward repeated viewings, so that takes me to Carol against Inside Out. In so much that Inside Out has an original script, filled with brilliant ideas and thoughtful production design, with a painfully universal tale of self-discovery, it must be awarded the Golden Stan for Best Film.
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