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:

• 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

One day Roger Deakins might do a bad job, but he didn't on Sicario: his ability to create beautiful landscape shots and get in the action with hand-helds is unparalleled. Edward Lachman's work on Carol was beautiful (although I thought there were a handful of scenes that were a little pedestrian). John Seale rose to the occasion on Mad Max (although how much of the film's look is down to George Miller and Brendan McCarthy's storyboards?). While I failed to 'get' The Assassin, there's no denying the power of Mark Lee Ping Bin's compositions. The approach to Birdman meant significant challenges for Alejandro Inarritu, his cast and Emmanuel Lubezki to overcome in order to create the trick one-shot movie, but their mission was achieved with aplomb.

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

August perfectly channels the ghost of Hitchcock in Remember. Inarritu and co concocted something of a one-off that pecked at so many targets: it laid into actors, critics, managers, the Hollywood movie-making machine, etc with humorous venom, it provided psychological analysis of an actor, and gave plenty for all the cast to sink their teeth into. Filippou and Lanthimos conceived a perfectly formed alternative reality just one step removed from our own. But the award goes to Pete Docter and co for their funny and at times desperately moving insight into the human condition.

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.

This is the shortlist for Best Actor:

• 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.

Here's the shortlist for Best Actress:

• 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.

The shortlist for Best Director is:

• 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.