FILM: American Sniper (dir: Clint Eastwood, 20015)

"You can only circle the flame so long."

This immensely powerful true story is not only one of Eastwood's best 'war' films as director, but American Sniper will also go down as one of the best contemporary films of the genre.  The journey from directionless hick to crack Navy SEAL sniper to the bitter aftermath of service has been charted many times before, but here the character arc is well mapped-out and digs deep for a hugely invested performance by Bradley Cooper, with equal success and sweeping character arc from Sienna Miller as his wife.  The plucked-from-the-headlines recognisable scenarios and the very unsensational presentational style give the film a real grounding and immediacy, there are a couple of very tense scenes indeed, and the conclusion has an unavoidable and fully-merited poignancy.  This long film really does take the viewer on a significant journey with characters, and it is an undeniable triumph of acting and directing.

FILM: Whiplash (dir: Damien Chazelle, 2015)

 "It's just life."

...and it makes the story of a drummer interesting!  Whiplash is a stunning film, and writer/director Chazelle creates an utterly compelling and intimately-shot work that is mesmerising from start to finish.  Miles Teller, as the ambitious 19-year-old who wants to be 'the best drummer in the world', gives perhaps his first truly complete and very sympathetic performance, and J.K. Simmons strides magnetically through the film as the magnificently acerbic and fiercely committed band leader.  This is a true union of the mediums of music and film, which immensely entertaining, engaging and admirable in its achievement.

FILM: Taken 3 D-BOX (dir: Olivier Megaton, 2015)

"I hate going through the motions."

Like the Die Hard franchise, at we have the original film to look back at fondly.  Taken 3 is a slight improvement on the silly first sequel, and the twist on the idea of 'taken' appeals, but it is delivered in an utterly generic and completely narratively unsurprising way.  In its favour, Neeson is as dependable as ever but actually gets little to do until the latter stages, Maggie Grace does her best and most watchable work of the trilogy, L.A. is used well and looks great, and there is one good car/chase/smash-up sequence in the middle.  The meagre action shown is so flash-cut even Michael Bay would think twice, the frequently melodramatic score is overbearing, and the resolution is somewhat underwhelming.  The tagline says, "It ends here," and that is how it should be.

FILM: Foxcatcher (dir: Bennett Miller, 2015)

"You, winning.  Me, winning."

Foxcatcher is so far from what you would expect from ' a film about wrestling': it is a beautifully-wrought, subdued and elegiac film, which makes the sad true-life ending even more powerful and shocking.  Metaphors are simple but expertly placed (the opening practice wrestle silently laying out the entire ensuing story, or releasing the horses, for example), the juxtaposition of intimate body-contact sport with the lack of emotional communication plays strongly throughout, together with the use of detached extra-long shots all add up to create a thoughtful and sombre tone.  Carell is deservedly getting plaudits for a thorough and transformative characterisation, but equally deserving of praise is Channing Tatum's wonderful scalpel-fine and deeply sympathetic character work.  There is interesting ambiguity to some events and motivations, and the big themes of patriotism and the death of the American Dream are handled well.  Foxcatcher is a considered and very well-made dramatization of an extraordinary real story.

FILM: The Woman In Black 2 - Angel Of Death (dir: Tom Harper, 2015)

"It's derelict is what it is."

Strong source material, a post-Potter Radcliffe and a creeping sense of dread: all of these made the original film a success, and all of these are lacking in this very lacklustre sequel.  Idiot Plot abounds, early scenes dissipate into nothing and although the film tries to position The Woman as a child-serial-killer with associated tropes, it does not really deliver well on either count, apart from a nice bit of foreshadowing with the first death. Too many doors creak open and shut on their own which become irritating rather than scary, and even the shoehorned-in jump-scares fail.  The first two-thirds are lethargic in the extreme - Phoebe Fox wanders around well saying "Hello?" a lot, and Jeremy Irvine looks way too young for the role but acquits himself acceptably as a pilot - but what is unforgivable is the spectacularly bizarre nonsensical third act and a 'shock' ending that simply does not.  The first film was efficient but reasonably effective; this sequel disappoints.

FILM: Exodus - Gods And Kings 3D D-BOX (dir: Ridley Scott, 2014)

"There is more here than goats and sheep."

Exodus plays like The Ten Commandments via Middle Earth: this is good old-fashioned Biblical epic with modern film tech and a strong committed central performance by Christian Bale as Moses which conveys an effective arc for Moses from atheist general to a leader of faith.  As expected, Ridley Scott tells the story very well, wonderfully economic with narrative when required but occasionally somewhat languorous when given the opportunity, and CGI creates a wonderful sense of scale and realises the plagues brilliantly on-screen.  There is a surprising lack of emotion that particularly makes the finale have less impact than expected, but overall this is a very confident and well-mounted staging of another familiar story.

VOD: A Haunted House 2 (dir: Michael Tiddes, 2014)

"I've had enough of this whole haunted house craziness!"

It is impossible to fault Marlon Wayans for his enthusiasm and (desperate) energy, but even that fails to bring this unmerited sequel to life.  The pot-shots at relatively insignificant recent horrors are reasonably accurate, but there are vast swathes of semi-improvised, over-extended and simply unfunny nonsense to sit through.  The film threatens briefly to perk up about half-way through, but that glimmer does not last long.  There are some moments that work - the cartoon-esque Thankskilling sequence with a sacrificial chicken is funny, and the through-linking Sinister skits are well-observed - but when even the usually wonderful Jamie Pressly looks lost, there is little to recommend overall.

FILM: Birdman (dir: Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2015)

"These people don't know what you're capable of."

About fifteen minutes in, it suddenly hits you just how brilliant this film is.  The prowling camera, the invisible edits, the relentless firecracker dialogue, the literally percussive soundtrack, the skewering of theatre/film/celebrity - all wrapped up in a bizarre and immensely entertaining sweary-Frasier-style farce of a former superhero-franchise actor staking everything on a Broadway play as actor-adaptor-director.   The pace and imagination never lets up, the actors must still be thanking the heavens for such wonderful material, and the direction gives the material a depth and invention that makes it a thorough joy to watch.  Everyone steps up, from a breathtaking career-best from Michael Keaton to a wonderfully restrained Zach Galifianakis as his bewildered agent, a staggeringly confident actor-deflating turn from Ed Norton, a subtle world-weary Emma Stone as his credibly life-damaged daughter, Lindsay Duncan as the acid critic...the list goes on.  The desperate realities are seamlessly stitched with the imaginative flights of fancy, creating a truly wonderful movie.

FILM: The Theory Of Everything (dir: James Marsh, 2015)

 "Oh, no - scientists!"

This Stephen Hawking biopic has a lot in common with the recent The Imitation Game: classy, opulently shot, impeccably acted....and yet a little too genteel for its own good in its treatment of the people and the subject matter.  Life events flash by, but the film does a remarkably good job of charting Hawking's physical decline through an exemplary performance by Eddie Redmayne, matched by an immensely sympathetic turn by Felicity Jones as his first wife and her resulting emotional challenges.  There are some lovely visual metaphors in play - a single shot of a wheelchair-bound Hawking Canute-like on the seashore is a gem - and the film exudes massive heart, but the overwhelming result seems to be a film about a sad circumstance that affected two nice intelligent people that glossily side-steps what must have been the harsher realities.

DVD: found. (dir: Scott Schirmer, 2012)

"I'm going to get into trouble for this."

Following notorious censorship tussles (especially in Australia), found. finally gets a slightly trimmed UK release.  Telling the tale of a young boy who discovers that his protective older brother is a serial killer, the film goes to some very dark and unpleasant places, conveyed in a disconcertingly calm, controlled and matter-of-fact style.  A number of themes are raised, including breakdown of nuclear family and the influence of (horror) media, in such a way as to make this film both challenging and effectively uncompromising.  In spite of its limited budget it does not stint on gore effects, and whilst there is some unevenness in acting, there are plenty of powerful scenes and ideas on display to make found. more than just another micro-budget horror.