My top films of the decade: 2010 – 2019

It seems to be the thing to do – as we enter a new decade, a list of favourite films from the one which is just ending appears to be de rigueur. So here we are. I’ve seen other lists where the writers have selected one film from each year of the decade to provide …

My favourite films of 2017

Compiling this list of 2017 films has been an interesting task. There are usually a couple of films which miss the previous year's deadline due to UK release dates, but it's not often that so many of them make my 'best of' list. This year, some of my favourite films on this list may seem …

Stronger (2017)

Cards on the table - I was anticipating this was going to be a 'trauma victim overcomes the odds to become a hero' story, and the only reason I chose to see it was because Jake Gyllenhaal, whose films I don't avoid. The fact that this is a very different survivor story is not only …

Podcast episode: Who am I, I am me?

If someone invites you to talk with them about film on their podcast, and says you can choose the movies which are discussed, then why pick just one Jake Gyllenhaal when you can have two?! In part one of a two-part series on identity crises, The B-Movie Podcast's Adam and I chat insecurity, infidelity and spiders …

Okja

Why is Bong Joon Ho so obsessed with Tilda's teeth? This first came to my attention in the director's previous film, Snowpiercer, which never received a cinema release in the UK but which I purchased on DVD when travelling in New Zealand in 2015. And as a commentary on how western capitalism is eating itself, I …

Life

Before I sat down to watch this, I shared a message on social media. Now, I realise 'scary' is all relative. As the aforementioned 'wuss', I'm put off watching lots of things because I don't need to be frightened. Michael Jackson's eyes at the end of that Thriller video gave me nightmares. (True, other things …

Nocturnal Animals

I'm still thinking about this film. Partly about the images, partly about the story, and partly about how much I liked it. I did like it, that's for sure, but I'm not quite sure how much. It looks beautiful. Every shot is framed to perfection, most obviously in the present day life of Amy Adams …

Demolition

Ho hum. I had assumed I was going to see a film about dealing with grief, with some hard edges and maybe (given recent Gyllenhaal turns in Enemy and Nightcrawler) something even darker. But the script didn't go in this direction at all. In fact, it didn't really go in any direction. Once I'd realised this …

My top films of 2015

I did try to do what everyone else does - list top 10 films of the year. Honest. But every time I tried to narrow it down to 10, I felt guilty for leaving others out. Then I realised it's my list, and I can do what I want. So I'm listing my top 15. …

Everest

I followed recommendations and made a special journey to see this on the biggest screen I could - which meant IMAX 3D.Technically amazing; I can't even begin to imagine how most of this was filmed. As a feat of film-making, it is beyond anything I've seen this year. And yet I failed to be drawn in …