FILM: Carol (dir: Todd Haynes, 2015)

"I love Christmas."

Carol is another carefully-wrought slice of superior melodrama from Todd Haynes, which is also one of the director's most successful and accomplished films.  Haynes knows exactly how to excavate the painful voids in the souls of his characters, and in Carol his use of visual placement, gesture and framing is exquisite.  Blanchett's brilliantly poised, experienced older woman contrasts beautifully with Mara's ingénue shopgirl as their lives collide and feelings deepen, and Sarah Paulson as Blanchette's best friend gets more out of a couple of scenes than most actresses manage in an entire movie.  Apart from the joy of watching exemplary performances, this is a stunningly-wrought movie that revels in its recreation of the early 50s in every respect, from Carter Burwell's score to Sandy Powell's costume design to Phyllis Nagy's gorgeously precise script from the Patricia Highsmith story.  Todd Haynes should enjoy major mainstream recognition for this fine piece of film-making.

FILM: The Good Dinosaur 3D (dir: Peter Sohn, 2015)

"Don't overthink it."

Whist not in the top flight of the studio's output, The Good Dinosaur is still another utterly charming winner from Pixar.  This one is a very simple tale indeed and is aimed firmly at the youngest end of the audience.   Typical themes of family and friendship are played out sincerely and effectively, with a lot of familiar and unsurprising story beats, and be warned: the typical end-of-first-act emotional gut-punch is here notably sharp and brutal in its impact.  In spite of the simplistic renderings of the lead characters to make them kid-friendly, there is a lot of technical ambition to be admired here, from successful 3D cross-fades to the stunningly-detailed settings and vistas. Overall, The Good Dinosaur is a cut above most other studios' animated output, but its simplicity means that it does not match UP! or Inside Out.  The accompanying near-dialogue-free short, Sanjay's Super Team, is a real cultural fusion that pays off beautifully. 

FILM: The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2 3D (dir: Francis Lawrence, 2015)

"No more games."

This franchise finale is hardly the action-packed treat that we were promised following the book-splitting power-play-filled Part 1.  Instead, Part 2 is a curious product, as The Hunger Games does Full Metal Jacket in a very sombre, melancholy and often lethargic manner.  Occasionally, there are flashes of excitement, such as the Aliens-inspired sewer sequence, but the film is more concerned with being an earnest treatise on the effects of war and being a salutary lesson in truth being its first casualty, which it does quite strongly in the third act.  Once again, an unusually high-calibre cast delivers heavyweight performances from an adequate script, the effects work is very well realised, and 3D is unshowy and natural-looking.  Like The Return Of The King, it delivers a number of end-points, and whilst the emotional climaxes are a little muted, it can only be hoped that the franchise is allowed to rest at this satisfactory conclusion.

FILM: Steve Jobs (dir: Danny Boyle, 2015)

"That was cool."

Whereas 127 Hours was a true-life technical showcase, this biopic sees Danny Boyle in a much more restrained mode, here relying much more on interplay of characters and performances but still imbuing the film with his trademark energy and style.  Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay shows wonderful structure and economy, using the story of Apple as a mere backdrop to the people stories, and also provides dialogue that is whip-smart, precise and crackling with wit in noticeably extended on-screen scenes.  Fassbender yet again delivers an extraordinarily thorough, magnetic and convincing character portrayal, with terrific support throughout, notably from Kate Winslet and Jeff Daniels - indeed, one face-off between Fassbender and Daniels is probably the most thrillingly-played sequence of this year, and even Daniel Pemberton's Vangelis-styled score works very effectively.   Universal may have misjudged its American release by going too wide too soon - Steve Jobs is not general Friday-night-multiplex fodder - but this film is an absolute treat to be savoured by people who enjoy superbly-crafted film.

FILM: The Lady In The Van (dir: Nicholas Hytner, 2015)

"The Virgin Mary - I spoke to her yesterday.  She was outside the Post Office...."

Even allowing for the fact that this film is 'mostly' based on the true story, The Lady In The Van turns out to be one of the movies where the idea is better than the treatment here.  It is, nevertheless, quite enjoyable, largely owing to Maggie Smith's immensely sympathetic and sharp portrayal of the curmudgeonly elderly lady who inveigles her way into the lives of the inhabitants of a Camden street and of Alan Bennett the playwright in particular.  However, the dual-persona-on-screen device in order to explore the writer/life-liver duality of the playwright is quite irritating and in the first half in particular detracts from the focal relationship, and the revelations about the Van Lady's life are rolled out a little unevenly.  This will play well to its largely faux-liberal-valued middle-class older-middle-aged target audience, who indeed packed out this screening and had probably not ventured into a cinema since The Best Exotic Marigold... films, but the general moviegoing audience is unlikely to fall for its inherent parochial tweeness.

FILM: Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse (dir: Christopher Landon, 2015)

"Nailed it!"

Although this film comes late to the ".... vs. Zombies" oeuvre, sometimes it is possible to put low expectations aside and simply enjoy a film for what it is: a simple-minded, good-natured fun romp.  Where Scouts Guide.... scores over many of its undead competitors is that it has a well-written and well-structured script, a likeable and very enjoyable lead 'teen' trio (one stereotype short of an Inbetweeners cast), a strong and reasonably well-written female lead in Sarah Dumont (in spite of being written as a stripper, sorry, "cocktail waitress"), and most important of all, the comedy (mostly) works and the horror aspect is equally well-staged and very well-executed.  Indeed, there are many great gore gags, including at least three bizarre 'firsts' for the genre, as well as the amazing Cloris Leachman as a horrible cat-loving neighbour and a classic Britney Spears homage.  There is a good finale that shows polish, and a sweet mid-credits gag that sums up the movie: disengage brain, revel in the film's silliness and energy, and just enjoy.

VOD: The Tribe (dir: Miroslav Slaboshpitsky, 2014)

"..................."

The Tribe is a challenging and perhaps unique film to experience, an unsubtitled Ukranian film played by deaf/mute actors entirely in sign language, with a succession of extra-long shots held on screen for a very long time which forces the viewer to concentrate on the non-verbal cues and language.  This is a relentlessly bleak and cold film, set in a brutal boarding school and which traces the experiences of a new student and how he deals with this harsh existence.  The inescapable repetitiveness and lack of relief from the dehumanising situation is starkly handled by writer/director Slaboshpitsky, with some harrowingly emotional scenes, ranging from the brutalisation of the new arrival to a grim back-street abortion and the truly distressing final scene.  This could never be described as an enjoyable film to watch, but it is a remarkable and very different viewing experience.