My Ten Favourite Films of 2016

1. Arrival

Over time I have discovered that Hollywood releases one great science-fiction film every year. Last year, it was Arrival, Dennis Villenueve's moving and contemplative meditation on the nature of time and love, framed by an alien "invasion" that turns out to be much more than it seems.

2. The VVitch

There is no film quite like The VVitch. A menacing, feminist parable, this self described "New England folktale" uses historically accurate costuming and speech to portray the challenges of faith and patriarchy experienced by a banished colonial family. Look out for the devil; he was there all along.

3. The Wave

As the first blockbuster-style disaster film to come out of Scandinavia, this Norwegian epic is as crowd-pleasing as any Roland Emmerich film, and will hopefully lead to increased funding and international recognition for Scandinavian films and filmmakers. See my August review for more.

4. Room

Abduction, isolation and childhood collide in Lenny Abrahamson's powerful drama. Room's modest success at last year's Oscars doesn't quite do justice to the film's wonderful performances and deep emotional core.

5. High-Rise

While Tom Hiddleston's role in The Night Manager has been deemed his most successful of the past year, it is High-Rise which stands as one the most inventive and unusual films of the year. Portraying the strange breakdown of order in a London apartment building, this allegorical vision has a host of famous faces, but will leave you wondering more about yourself.

6. The Lobster

A Divergent-style dystopian romance for adults, Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos's English-language debut sees a host of nameless characters navigate a blackly-comic landscape in which it is illegal to be single, saying volumes about our real world, in which sometimes being single seems just that.

7. Moonlight

Golden Globe winner and Oscar favourite Moonlight is a searing exploration of identity, family and masculinity among African-Americans. It's a deeply-felt story, and one which will likely come to have increasing importance with the beginning of the Trump presidency.

8. Train to Busan

Korean cinema is becoming more and more popular with western audiences, and deservedly so. Yeong Sang-ho's film draws inspiration from modern zombie classics, but manages to deliver something new and profound - a philosophy that, rather than fear our fellow man, we should look to each other for help and support.

9. The Birth of a Nation

This historical drama has arrived at a crucial juncture in American history, in which the racist narratives of pre-civil war USA are rearing their ugly heads once again. Nate Parker's much-hyped biopic of Nat Turner and the slave rebellion he led was considered too simplistic by some, but remains an essential film for this era.

10. The Neon Demon

A psychedelic fantasy parable about the perils and rewards of a cutthroat fashion industry, The Neon Demon is full of beauty, though sometimes gets too bogged down in its own philosophising. It is nonetheless a powerful work from Nicholas Winding Refn.

Will Hacksaw Ridge be Enough to Redeem Mel Gibson?

A complete list of the offensive and controversial remarks made by actor and director Mel Gibson would undoubtedly take up several posts, not to mention containing more censor stars than the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Racist, anti-Semitic and downright nasty comments have been captured on film and tape, creating an inescapable offensive against any apologies or reconciliations the star may try to make.

From a stable family life and successful career which included the Mad Max trilogy and Oscar-winning Braveheart, Gibson's downfall took several years of substance abuse and religious tirades to deteriorate both his personal life and film career. Disgraced, and with the abuse of his partner caught on tape, not even the success of The Passion of the Christ could redeem him. A four-year break and the lacklustre reception of thriller Edge of Darkness did little to raise his stature, despite journalist Alison Weiner calling for the end of his "blacklisting" by Hollywood execs.

However, a new film, directed by Gibson, has been quietly gaining strong reviews and plenty of interest, raising the question of whether Gibson can finally be redeemed. Hollywood second chances have been popular in the last few years, with the flagging reputations of Robert Downey Jr. and Ben Affleck both enjoying astronomical comebacks with the help of rehabilitation and superhero blockbusters. Hacksaw Ridge, as well as being tipped for an excellent awards season, is also predicted to do the same for its director. Grisly and harrowing, it tells the story of a World War II Pacifist who attempts to navigate the conflict without harming anyone. While perhaps not suggesting that Gibson is a reformed man apologetic for his past actions, it certainly proves that he is still a striking director or performance, capable of that difficult feat of making films which will please both audiences, critics and Hollywood bosses alike. That will certainly be enough for the money-driven, business minds of the film industry. But will it enough for disillusioned fans and cynical critics? Only time will tell.

The Origins of Conflict in Game of Thrones

For those who are familiar with Game of Thrones or its book series, it would appear that war, strife and conflict is the default setting for those unfortunate enough to live in Westeros. In fact, if you said it was part of their DNA, you might not be far off.

The past, and specifically one's personal and family history, is a constant preoccupation for the characters of Game of Thrones. Every person of note is preceded by their father's or grandfather's name and reputation, and immediately judged upon it. A single act earns a nickname or curse which remains for the individual's whole life, regardless of what happens for the rest of it. The people of Westeros have long memories. This creates a suffocating bubble of retrospective guilt, inescapable prejudice and mistakes handed down through the generations. This is exacerbated in the series by the lack of flashbacks - everyone is obsessed with the past, but we may never experience it in the present, so never achieve closure or a sense of what really happened. Subsequently, the many traumatic and hideous actions experienced by the characters constantly remain to haunt them, creating tensions and fear in the present.

These feelings of difference and alienation also stem from a far more ancient source; the evolutionary ancestors of the families. Though only mentioned occasionally within the series, there are distinct ancestral peoples from which the current inhabitants of Westeros are descended.

Families from the North of Westeros, such as the Starks, as well as wildlings, speak of themselves as having the blood of the First Men - the original human inhabitants of Westeros. Many Northerners and wildlings still retain the ancient traditions and religions of these people, and pride themselves thus on having a stronger connection to their roots and past. The Lannisters are known as descendants of the Andals, a race more advanced and Aryan-looking than the First Men, who they largely defeated. The Andals are credited with bringing medieval chivalry, iron tools and the present language to Westeros, and remain the dominant racial type on the continent. The third and final root civilisation are the Rhoynar, a small group of people from the south of Westeros, who give the Martells of Dorne their unique culture and typically more Mediterranean appearance. Finally the Targaryens, descended from the magical Valyrian people and the survivors of the mysterious Doom of Valyria. It is this ancestry which gives the Targaryens their unique appearance and ability to control magic and dragons.

It is in this way that, despite years of interbreeding, the people of Westeros still feel clear, deep boundaries between each other. Their ancestries, both familial and genetic, though hardly relevant, create inescapable cultural and religious differences which stand at the root of many of the conflicts within the story. Thus it would seem that rivalry and war is inevitable in Westeros, as long as the characters continue to live in the past and hold onto old grudges.

Film Review: Things to Come

From The Upcoming: http://www.theupcoming.co.uk/2016/09/01/things-to-come-movie-review/

In Mia Hansen-Løve’s thoughtful, detailed drama, Isabelle Huppert plays Nathalie, a philosophy professor whose comfortable home life is turned upside-down over the course of a summer, causing her to rethink both her own life and her longstanding philosophical convictions.

One day, Nathalie battles her way to her teaching post through a mob of angry students. The next, her pipe-smoking husband leaves her; the breakup scene is brief but realistic, made all the more powerful by Huppert’s performance. Nathalie admits she was prepared and does not seem upset, only tearing up when realising how much she will miss the family holiday home in Brittany. More tears are shed, however, as, one by one, things start to go wrong in her serene life.

Hansen-Løve perfectly captures Nathalie’s confusion as she drifts through a world in which everyone is younger, more adventurous and less cynical than she. Marketers want to give her classic textbook a trashy modern makeover; her students strike, riot and protest for a cause she cannot remember; her children begin having their own children. We only glimpse her husband’s new lover, but it goes unsaid that she is younger. Nathalie’s ageing mother exists as if to warn her daughter of what she may be in danger of becoming: a presumably unsuccessful actress suffering from frequent depressive episodes, she lives in the past and stays sequestered in her house in a state of faded glamour, like Edie Beale of Grey Gardens.

The film’s only misstep is involving the constant presence of a black cat, adopted by Nathalie from her mother. The subplot leads nowhere, and the clumsy symbolism belongs to a less-accomplished work. Nevertheless, Things to Come resonates with its simplicity and honesty, and Huppert creates a memorable character. Her sweeping remark, “after 40, women are fit for the trash,” is a bleak, cynical statement at odds with a practical and positive movie.

Film Review: The Wave

The majesty of Norway's unique fjords are a sight marvelled at by locals and travellers alike. However, these beautiful geographic formations hide a deadly secret: many are ticking time bombs. In 1934, a rockslide deposited almost two million cubic metres of rock into the Tafjorden, creating a local tsunami which, funnelled by the fjord's narrow cliffs, reached a height of 62 metres. The village of Tafjord was obliterated by the wave, killing 40 people in one of Norway's worst recent natural disasters. Last year, director Roar Uthaug imagined the event on a grander scale in the present day, creating The Wave, a blockbuster said to be "Scandinavia's first disaster movie."

With echoes of past great, if unsubtle disaster movies such as The Day After Tomorrow and 2012, Uthaug appears to be paving the way to becoming Norway's answer to Roland Emmerich, and has already signed his first Hollywood film deal. The film boasts a budget a fraction of its American counterparts, yet with special effects, performances and thrills to equal that of any veteran disaster director.

He nails the formula in the film's brisk 105-minute runtime: the slow buildup of tension, as the only man aware of the impending disaster is ignored, the event, a seat-rattling explosion of CGI water, and the climax, an intense slow-burn in which the scattered family must its way back together. Genre cliches, such as the child in peril and the last minutes dash before the disaster, are used cleverly so as to still seem original. A few subtle moments of wry self-awareness prevent the film from becoming too portentous. A clever pre-event scene involves an early-warning analyst watching a horror movie on his laptop. As the victim is unaware of the killer behind her, so too is he oblivious of the warning lights illuminating around him. The film's modest international success so far is a hopeful sign of an increasing interest in foreign, independent films by mainstream audiences. May it continue.

The Evolution of Tarzan's Female Gaze

1918: The first Tarzan of the Apes

The first and most faithful Tarzan adaptation, this silent film introduced cinema audiences to the vine-swinging hero, but was subject to the rigorous censorship of the era. Cut scenes included "woman standing over kettle showing breasts" and "first two scenes of maid on man's lap in closet." Little room for anything too risqué then, and out-of-shape Tarzan actor Elmo Lincoln was unlikely to inspire many erotic fantasies.

1932: Tarzan, the Ape Man

The most enduring and archetypal Tarzan incarnation came in 1932 with five-time Olympic medallist Johnny Weissmuller. The buff swimmer was extremely popular among female audiences, and paired with Maureen O'Sullivan for six films during the 30s and 40s, with the most memorable being the pre-code Tarzan and His Mate, which features a nude underwater dance. This controversial film marked the last Tarzan film aimed at an adult audience.

1938: Tarzan's Revenge

Two more Olympic athletes led the cast of the low-budget standalone Tarzan's Revenge, decathlete Glenn Morris and backstroker/party girl Eleanor Holm. While both were slammed for their lack of acting talent, they were praised for looking fabulous in their loincloths. Apparently with little respect for women, Morris fell in love with Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's famous propaganda film-maker, at the Berlin Olympics. After he was awarded his medal in the stadium he apparently grabbed her, tore open her blouse and kissed her breasts in front of the stadium spectators.

1984: Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes

A more inspired film than its predecessors, this clumsily titled reboot features over five minutes of full-frontal male nudity, but is largely aimed at the male action movie market. Nevertheless, the second half of the film, which tracks Tarzan as he attempts to adjust to his new civilised life, has little in the way of action, and its emotional core may appeal to women more than men.

1999: Walt Disney's Tarzan

This beloved animated film takes Tarzan's origin story and simplifies it to an uplifting tale about wilderness adventures and what it means to be different. However, beneath the Disney innocence some have recognised a lustful undercurrent that has caused the film to be labelled by Buzzfeed as the thirstiest Disney movie ever. It is true that the repressed Victorian Jane all but drools over the untamed Tarzan in several scenes. However, the film's U rating prevents anything too suggestive, and it is romance, rather than sex, that is the focus here.

2016: The Legend of Tarzan

The marketing campaign for the ape-man's latest screen outing has been dominated largely by high-res stills of star Alexander Skarsgård posing shirtless in the jungle, all the better to show off his chiselled abs. In a cinematic world in which exposure of women's bodies has become the norm, director David Yates has cleverly tapped into the movie industry's dearth of male nudity to the delight of many female cinema-goers. We as an audience join Margot Robbie's Jane in lusting after her husband, with Tarzan as the object of desire. Despite this obvious reversal of roles, however, their relationship is an equal one, with respect and power equal on both sides. Here, as it should be, female sexuality is celebrated, not condemned.

The Birth of a Nation - 1915 vs 2016

It's been the pride and shame of the film industry for over a hundred years - D. W. Griffith's epic, 3-hour long blockbuster detailing the end of the American Civil War, the death of Abraham Lincoln and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. It became legendary, not as a good film, but as a great film that was on the side of evil. Griffith's pioneering film techniques set the standard for every film since and created a powerful argument, unfortunately one that advocated white supremacy and presented African Americans, portrayed in blackface, as unclean, unintelligent and sexually aggressive. It is offered to film students as a challenge to separate style over content, and arguments remain to this day as to whether its filmic and technical importance should overshadow its racism.

This year, however, among the recurrence of whitewashed Hollywood blockbusters, most notably Alex Proyas's Gods of Egypt, has seen the emergence of a film which directly counters Griffith's unwatchably racist portrayal of freed slaves. Nate Parker helms and stars in the film of the same name which portrays the birth of a very different nation, in which a young slave preacher is taken on an inter-county preaching tour and, bearing witness to the full horror of slavery, is compelled to lead in a different way. The film is both spiritual and intellectual in its portrayal of the protagonist and his intense theological convictions.

While Griffith's film existed to inflame racial hatred and paint a comforting portrait of history for white people, Parker's answer exists to challenge our view of the past and debate the morality of violence and the ongoing struggle for justice and equality for black people in America. It has both historical and contemporary resonance, and, along with Steve McQueen's acclaimed 12 Years a Slave, signifies the continuation of an era in which we beginning to see, at last, truer representations of American slavery in all their horror.