Top 5: 2013 Albums of the Year

Five great albums could easily have been ten. Some of my favourite new albums from 2013:

5. Heart Attack by Man Overboard

Possibly out of place on this otherwise indie-pop list, the third studio album from defenders of pop punk is more than an enjoyable walk down memory lane, their brand of pop-punk/emo is an energetic combination of everything and everyone I ever loved in my late teens but somehow fresh and new and exciting at the same time. Heart Attack demonstrates the sounds of a band who have toured non-stop and matured exponentially as they went.

4. Say Hi To The Band by Stagecoach

The first and, sadly, last album from the indie poppers. Their usual spiky, raucous sound toned down on several wonderful tracks imbued with real melancholy. The standout track for me has to be "A New Hand" and the kind chaps even outdid themselves by allowing me to use the song in my now aborted feature film directorial debut.

3. No Blues by Los Campesinos!

A rather lovely surprise, this fifth album from my favourite Welsh indie popsters is a triumphant return to form after the almost unlistenable self indulgent misery of Hello Sadness. I'd all but given up on them but No Blues is filled with fabulousness and more than its fair share of sporting metaphors. LC4LYF!

2. Love Makes Monsters by My First Tooth

Beautiful. Just beautiful. AND incredibly lovely people. AND have the distinction of playing one of the most memorable gigs of my life during 2013. The horny old goat dude on a Camden sound desk tried his hardest to ruin the sound for the five of us present but My First Tooth rode through it and made flying to England worthwhile.

1. Balancing by The October Game

The album I listened the most this year is an incredible collection of pop songs performed by some of the most talented musicians I've had the pleasure to spend time with. Drifting from pop to post-rock with catchy choruses, eccentric lyrics, heartfelt sentiment and atmospheric nods towards folklore this is an album of different ideas and styles, almost like a greatest hits compilation rather than an album led by one definite concept. Yes, I admit a little bias BUT that doesn't change the fact that I have happily listened to this on repeat for 14 hours.

2013 So Far (Sep - Dec) Top 5 2013 Releases

The final part of my assessment of the final four months of 2013 is the one most people care about I guess, the best movies released this year. Kind of irrelevant with the year end list coming up but I've seen a massive 65 of them and these are the best 5:

5. Rush - Dir. Ron Howard

4. Frances Ha - Dir. Noah Baumbach

3. August: Osage County - Dir. John Wells

2. Blue Caprice - Dir. Alexandre Moors

1. Gravity - Dir. Alfonso Cuarón

Full list of 2013 movies seen Sep - Dec: Kick-Ass 2, World War Z, Oxyana, Monster's University, The Bling Ring, Burton & Taylor, The Hangover Part III, This is the End, A Single Shot, Rewind This!, Privacy Setting, After Earth, Dead in Tombstone, An Accidental Soldier, The Internship, Ain't Them Bodies Saints, Ass Backwards, Paradise, Man of Steel, White House Down, All is Bright, Crystal Fairy, Some Girl(s), Violet & Daisy, Gravity, Despicable Me 2, Turbo, This is Martin Bonner, Riddick, Earthbound, Blue Caprice, The To-Do List, We're The Millers, McCanick, Mystery Road, The East, The World's End, 2 Guns, The Wolverine, How I Live Now, The Kings of Summer, Elysium, Frances Ha, Prisoners, Machete Kills, Big Sur, A Case of You, The Last Days on Mars, Kilimanjaro, Mood Indigo, Runner Runner, Out of the Furnace, Blue Jasmine, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2, The Spectacular Now, Don Jon, Fruitvale Station, Much Ado About Nothing, August: Osage County, Escape Plan, Rush, American Hustle, Computer Chess, Burma

2013 So Far (Sep - Dec) Bottom 5 2013 Releases

My roundup of the third segment of 2013 continues with a look at the worst the year has offered me so far.  Having seen a scandalous 65 releases from 2013 the field was quite competitive, here are the five films I've enjoyed the least:

5. How I Live Now - Dir. Kevin Macdonald

4. Runner Runner - Dir. Brad Furman

3. Turbo - Dir. David Soren

2. Ass Backwards - Dir. Chris Nelson

1. The Hangover Part III - Dir. Todd Phillips

Full list of 2013 movies seen Sep - Dec: Kick-Ass 2, World War Z, Oxyana, Monster's University, The Bling Ring, Burton & Taylor, The Hangover Part III, This is the End, A Single Shot, Rewind This!, Privacy Setting, After Earth, Dead in Tombstone, An Accidental Soldier, The Internship, Ain't Them Bodies Saints, Ass Backwards, Paradise, Man of Steel, White House Down, All is Bright, Crystal Fairy, Some Girl(s), Violet & Daisy, Gravity, Despicable Me 2, Turbo, This is Martin Bonner, Riddick, Earthbound, Blue Caprice, The To-Do List, We're The Millers, McCanick, Mystery Road, The East, The World's End, 2 Guns, The Wolverine, How I Live Now, The Kings of Summer, Elysium, Frances Ha, Prisoners, Machete Kills, Big Sur, A Case of You, The Last Days on Mars, Kilimanjaro, Mood Indigo, Runner Runner, Out of the Furnace, Blue Jasmine, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2, The Spectacular Now, Don Jon, Fruitvale Station, Much Ado About Nothing, August: Osage County, Escape Plan, Rush, American Hustle, Computer Chess, Burma

2013 So Far (Sep - Dec) Top 10 Pre-2013 Catchup

Today is marked by three quick recommendation posts, wrapping up the third segment of the year in cinema.

First up, of the 208 films released prior to 2013 seen for the first time during this four month period these are the 10 I enjoyed the most and all come very highly recommended. I've been a lucky boy.

10. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) Dir. Joseph Sargent

9. Electra Glide in Blue (1973) Dir. James William Guercio

8. Nashville (1975) Dir. Robert Altman

7. F for Fake (1973) Dir. Orson Welles

6. Monte Walsh (1970) Dir. William A. Fraker

5. A Matter of Life and Death (1946) Dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

4. For a Few Dollars More (1965) Dir. Sergio Leone

3. Black Narcissus (1947) Dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

2. Blow Out (1981) Dir. Brian De Palma

1. Army of Shadows (1969) Dir. Jean-Pierre Melville

Movie Diary #18: December 2013

Happy New Year! Here's to excellent 2014's for all. And good luck to American's who finally have something approaching a worthwhile medical system.

The last month of 2013, a relatively slow one in terms of movie watching, I had a burning urge to take part in the December Challenge, to plough through 100 hundred films without pausing for breath but resisted in favour of having a life. Rare around these parts I'm sure you'll have noticed.

Here's the last post before a full recap. I've got a Top 15 new releases as well as a Bottom 15 new releases. December saw my YTD total reach 150 thanks to viewing a 18 further films from 2013, target reached. A total worthy of assessing, a top fifteen is certainly more worthy if you've seen 150 films than if you've seen 30, therefore my list is the definitive one for the entire planet. Obviously.

72 movies seen in December also took me to 901 YTD, whilst I would have liked to (and it looked certainly possible at one point) reach 1000 films seen in the year it simply was not to be. Taking that number and deducting 2013 releases and the 98 rewatches (10 in December, the month of the happy revisit to childhood past) leaves me with 653 films to choose from for Top 15 pre-2013 discoveries list.

I have a total of 10 recommendations for you film lovers this month, 2 terrible pieces of shit, 5 excellently produced gems and 3 masterpieces. Dig in.

Dire

Runner Runner (2013) Dir. Brad Furman

Runner Runner is the kind of BAD film that would have gone straight to bargain basement DVD if not for the names Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake above the title. Brad Furman's direction is at best 'by the numbers' obvious and at worst the laziest and dullest "thriller" I've ever seen but what really sets Runner Runner apart from the rest is the shocking attempt at storytelling made by screenwriters Koppelman and Levein. None of it makes any sense, whole swathes of "plot" are painfully absurd and really stupid exposition happens at every opportunity. 

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013) Dir. Cody Cameron, Kris Pearn

John Frances Daly can ruin anything he puts his hand to. The first Cloudy was a blast of bizarre, an offbeat comic animation that took me by surprise and brought may a smile and many a catchphrase to my life. This unnecessary sequel is a mess of hack writing (not surprising with the sheer number of writers credits really) and by the numbers storytelling, unique and interesting characters have been butchered and Mr T was not invited back. I wish I could forget this even existed.

Excellent

A Matter of Life and Death (1946) Dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger

The opening of this work of genius by Mr Powell and Mr Pressburger had me gasping with cinephile pleasure such was the skill and imagination brought to my screen. David Niven and Kim Hunter falling in love over the radio as the pilot prepares to die is, quite incredibly given its content, one of the most joyous scenes I've ever witnessed. The pair of directors never cease finding new ways to amaze, whether it's the enormous stairway to heaven or Marius Goring's breaking of the fourth wall, the flitting between glorious technicolour and the beautiful tradition of black & white or even essentially pre-empting the death scene of T.E. Lawrence as photographed by David Lean.

White Reindeer (2013) Dir. Zach Clark

Anna Margaret Hollyman's performance as the damaged housewife is as impressive as Cate Blanchett's Blue Jasmine, although it's not glamorous or flashy; she spends an inordinate amount of time sitting on or bent over toilets looking very much worn out for example. Her portrait of a broken woman is fascinating, heartbreaking and extremely funny and much more subtle than most scenery chewing award nominees, that she won't get any attention from The Academy says much more about their failure as an organisation than her acting ability.

Terry Pratchett's Hogfather (2006) Dir. Vadim Jean

It's Christmas, so it's time to watch The Hogfather once more. So faithful to Terry Pratchett's delightfully funny novel, this 3+ hour adaptation is a modern Christmas classic that discusses the nature of belief and is full of wonderful performances. You don't need to be a fan of the books to enjoy this film so why haven't you seen it already?

Home Alone (1990) Dir. Chris Columbus

Our annual visit to the McCallister household took place at a sold out cinematic screening full of adults. Who knew that would happen when this slapstick kids movie came out in 1990? Most people have a few movies from their childhood that they remember fondly but Home Alone just has that special something that keeps the kids coming back for more twenty three years later. Pesci and Stern as the nefarious Wet Bandits are both sufficiently villainous and wonderfully silly, doing great work, especially as they essentially have to carry the drama of the entire film whilst the child actor that defined a generation ran around having a great time.

Supporting Characters (2013) Dir. Daniel Schechter

Alex Karpovsky and Tarik Lowe are fabulous as a couple of friends who work together editing a movie, there's a really honest friend vibe working between them that carries the entire film, making it the entertaining and pleasing piece that it is. On second watch it still holds together nicely, the humour remains and the denouement still affecting. It's no The Colour Wheel but it's a truly fine example of the current movement in low-fi American indie cinema. Will place high in my year end Top 15.

Masterpiece

Fantastic Mr Fox (2009) Dir. Wes Anderson

The most Wes Anderson of any Wes Anderson film, The Fantastic Mr Fox is the work of a quirky genius who has found the 100% right material for themselves. Charming, funny, with wicked dialogue combined with beautiful and sometimes breathtaking cinematography, this is everything I could want in contemporary American cinema. Has rewarded and will continue to reward repeat viewings.

Blade Runner (1982) Dir. Ridley Scott

Ridley Scott with more than a little help from his wonderfully talented and put upon production team achieved a visionary masterpiece that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Citizen Kane. In some ways it is the ultimate film noir with its existential narrative, expressionistic lighting, the neon and the smoke, a conflicted protagonist and a charismatic antagonist that you can't help but root for, it's funny and intelligent and even the mesmerising and crazy performance of Rutger Hauer seems to recall quite a lot of James Cagney.

The Wicker Man (1973) Dir. Robin Hardy

Christopher Lee plays his role to perfection, a learned man, joyous and open minded, yet still has a playful menace about him that  again pays off wonderfully come the end. Whilst Edward Woodward captures the straight laced lunacy of his character with remarkable skill and the very real sense of horror that you take away from The Wicker Man comes not from blood, gore, suspense or loud music but from a closeup of his face as you listen to his voice, truly acting at its finest.

That's it. Comment or tweet if you like. But save your powder for the lists that are about to come.

Top 10: 2013 Reads

I may as well give up pretending that this blog exists for any real writing purpose at the moment, so in the spirit of year end here's a list, lists are the easiest posts of all.

In 2013 I've read 122 books, not quite half of what I read last year but priorities change, so my Top 10 Reads of 2013 accounts for just under ten percent of the total. Noir has taken precedence over everything in my reading as well as my viewing but this list isn't all blacker than black. I promise.

10. Fierce Bitches by Jedidiah Ayres (2013)
Jedidiah Ayres' prose is sparse and his tale is bleak as fuck, mirroring the carefully constructed locale and the unforgiving sun baked desert that surrounds it. This appears to be his first novella but its written with the skill and voice of a much more experienced man to the point that I wouldn't be surprised if this was Jim Thompson still writing after faking his death back in '77. Most impressive is his use of the second person narration, a device that can horribly backfire in the wrong hands but in this case was so perfectly done that I hardly noticed it until the chapter was over.

9. London Under by Peter Ackroyd (2011)
Example chapter titles include Holy Water, Forgotten Streams, Buried Secrets and The Heart of Darkness and every page contains at least one moment of wonder to those uneducated yet enthusiastic readers (which is exactly the target audience for this work) like myself. For a chapter or two I thought it was going to take me weeks to read due the sheer quantity of google and wiki searches I was performing to acquire further knowledge of a proffered fact whilst reading before readjusting my mindset to just let the author entertain me with his seemingly endless supply of poetic historical tales.

8. The Pirates! In an Adventure With The Romantics by Gideon Defoe (2012)
If you were to take a poll of people reading you might find a lot of votes for great use of ham in a nautical setting, there may even be several readers who enjoy the excellent names created for the motley crew of pirates but guaranteed that majority will tell you that the best bit about reading a book about The Pirates! is all the running through that happens. Just ask Jeffrey Keeten about the time he ran a man through for daring not to wear a fencing cup in school colours if you are unsure of the unique pleasures a good running through can provide.

7. Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson (1964)
This tale of small town America is littered with pimps, whores, crooked lawmen, private detectives, women no better than they ought to be, incestuous men, wife beaters, murderers, corrupt politicians, vindictive women, peeping toms, mentally challenged cuckolds, religious zealots and plenty of sex. Of course on top of that there's Sheriff Nick Corey, a noir protagonist the likes of which you may never have seen.

6. Eight Million Ways To Die by Lawrence Block (1982)
The fifth Matt Scudder takes a further dark turn in to a city plagued by demons and lawlessness, taking a pessimistic cue from the classic movie/TV show The Naked City this is the story of a dead call girl, of 2000 murders per year, of a private investigator, of an alcoholic on a path of self-destruction. During his investigation Scudder comes in to contact with all kinds of filth and degenerates, he makes acquaintances with a good cop, a good pimp, five hookers and a black albino informant. There's violence and paranoia, sobriety and alcohol related blackouts, it's a rocky ride and I shan't spoil it for you. Soon to be a Liam Neeson movie it could easily have been directed by Harmony Korine.

5. Bit of a Blur: The Autobiography by Alex James (2007)
From the opening lines I was impressed with his ability to write, weaving together a series of interesting and entertaining anecdotes with an infectious enthusiasm, granted if you can't have enthusiasm for your subject when you're writing about yourself you may as well give up writing altogether, but James is erudite and witty and incredibly frank about his occasionally abhorrent behaviour. I was enamoured from the start and James (and obviously a great editor) didn't let me down, becoming, by quite some margin, my favourite autobiography/biography that I've ever picked up.

4. The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno (2006)
A deep melancholy permeates the pages of The Boy Detective Fails, a magical little book that asks questions about growing up and growing old, the death of innocence and imagination, loss and grief via the story of an adult boy detective. People reference something called Encyclopedia Brown plus the usual suspects of The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, popular characters from an American childhood that seemed too Other to me as a young man in small town England. I preferred the much more English series, The Mystery Kids, myself. But anyway take those kids who had magical crime busting adventures and crush their spirit and enthusiasm and send them out to solve the mystery of death and you've got the essence of The Boy Detective Fails. And in his straight-faced magical realist style of writing he crafted something of a Lemony Snicket for adults, something smart and haunting, laced with real pain and sorrow and wit and heart and situational humour. It's a truly surprising piece of work that deserves to be lauded and paid homage to with countless imitators who just don't have the skill to get past the original surface gimmick and imbue their novel with actual life.

3. Wake In Fright by Kenneth Cook (1961)
You know, from the opening paragraphs, that this book is going to stay with you as only the most powerful books do. Cook captures the essence of the vast emptiness of the desert, the punishing effect of constant heat from sun up to sun down and the isolation of man in a place he doesn't belong, and wraps it up in a tight little novel that suffocates the reader. I felt almost claustrophobic whilst reading, the pressure and closeness of the heat described transferring itself to me on my nice air conditioned bus. 

2. The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George Higgins (1972)
It's all fly on the way stuff with dialogue feeling so authentic you have to retune your brain to the sounds of criminal class Boston, the kind of stuff Elmore Leonard is widely praised for but better. When not in conversation TFOEC is narrated with the kind of matter of fact attention to detail you might find in a Martin Beck or 87th Precinct novel for example, it's dry in itself but the subject matter isn't. The action might largely appear to be happening in between these chapters of conversation but the combination of dialogue and narration create a portrait of the life of these people, their criminal actions, the lifestyle choice, that will certainly serve as an anthropological study and an entertaining crime read for future generations.

1. The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley (1978)
Crumley writes this stuff better than just about anyone I've experienced to date, the way he took hold of the genre, seemingly educated himself on Chandler, Hammett, Willeford, Thompson et al and crafted this masterpiece is a remarkable thing to have witnessed, it is a true shame that he isn't more widely known and respected. Having said that it is only through the praise lavished on his work from the fourth generation of hard-boiled and noir writers who claim to be in his debt that I stumbled across this work. People like George Pelecanos and Dennis Lehane have described this book as one of the best pieces of fiction written in the past fifty years. Very high praise indeed and in my experience fully justified.

How about you guys, any favourites from amongst these? How about your favourite discovery of the year? Tweet me, comment, send me a letter, whatever.

Movie Diary #17: November 2013

November has been and gone, another month of throwing myself in to the watching of copious amounts of movies as a way of coping or dealing with my failed attempts to make a movie. It's time to stop dwelling, time to stop wallowing, time to get up, get out and do something other than watch film after film after film.

November also brought about a discovery of the film criticism of Graham Greene, his collected writings from 1935-1940 were published as The Pleasure Dome and should be considered as essential reading for any wannabe critic such is the quality of the man's words and insights.

The tally reached a quite improbable 118 over the thirty days in the month of my thirty first birthday, beating my previous best of 116 in May and bringing me up to 829 year to date. I limited myself to 8 rewatches (88 YTD) but unless I can watch over a hundred films without rewatching too many in December I'm not going to make my 10% target. I plan on having a Whit Stillman day in the middle of Summer which certainly won't help matters and I've got an urge to have a weekend of only watching my favourite films too. A sacrifice worth making and not even much of one really.

I saw 17 new releases (132 YTD) with two in the highly recommended category below which features 12 films you really should see. Other recommendations include avoiding 9 films I wish I hadn't bothered watching, one of which will surely upset some people and for the first time since June I offer up 5 masterpieces which have blown me away in the past month.

Why Why Why Why Why Bother?

Qwerty (2012) Dir. Bill Sebastian

Nice idea but as with all nice but absurd ideas it really needed to be played straight otherwise, as in the case of Qwerty, you come off like a bunch of amateur arseholes TRYING to be funny.

Superman (1978) Dir. Richard Donner

They wanted Sam Peckinpah to direct this movie but Peckinpah took a gun to the meeting and waved it about. I'd much rather watch that in slow motion for nearly three hours than this merchandise shilling garbage about a concept that doesn't exist anymore. The American way of truth and justice is a sugar coated myth they sell the idiots, they actually knew that in the 70s and yet this still got made.

The Kings of Summer (2013) Dir. Jordan Vogt-Roberts

A truly irritating little teenage shit of a movie that takes the very worst characters from American teen comedies and puts them in a hut in the woods where they can indulge in being "real men," adds a half assed attempt at surreal farce and romantic imagery and plays itself off as a coming of age drama. 

How I Live Now (2013) Dir.  Kevin Macdonald

You can't annoy the shit out of your audience with an awful American teenage girl and a noisy as fuck soundtrack from the very beginning and expect them to give a shit when World War 3 breaks out. Granted I didn't realise Meg Rosoff wrote exclusively for little girls before watching.

End of Days (1999) Dir. Peter Hyams

The general premise is laughable and borderline offensive and I do wonder why this film couldn't have been made without the Arnie storyline. Also the resolution is one of the worst I've witnessed.

Timecop (1994) Dir. Peter Hyams

An all round bad movie, with no redeeming features except for the initial idea. Has anybody read the comics this was based on? Are they as badly written?

The Delta Force (1986) Dir. Menahem Golan

Considering the premise of Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin joining forces to fight terrorism 80s style this is a giant sack of shit that can't get past the fact that it's a Menahem Golan movie. Robert Forster as an Arab terrorist and Hanna Schygulla as a German air hostess who seems sexually aroused whenever she looks at him are other notable casting choices.

The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) Dir. Renny Harlin

What the hell has everyone been smoking? The Long Kiss Goodnight is a dumb movie of interminable length, directed with all of the skill of a blind sloth. There are a few jokes to raise a half smile and Jackson does what Jackson does but beyond that the best part by far was the brief clip of Elliot Gould in The Long Goodbye.

The Island (1980) Dir. Michael Ritchie

Absolute garbage. Michael Caine had no quality control on what he said yes to and puts in one of his worst performances. Michael Ritchie was a mediocre director at best but the complete lack of tension, thrills, drama, cohesive structure and well delivered dialogue combined with bizarre editing and horrific exposition must rank this as one of his very worst pictures.

Not Quite Some of the Best Movies Ever Made

Blue Caprice (2013) Dir. Alexandre Moors

Director Alexandre Moors takes a slow, thoughtful approach to his material, somewhat akin to Van Sant's Elephant but with much more substance, to what could easily be a sensationalist piece of cinema in the wrong hands. A fascinating and terrifying character study of two killers, Isaiah Washington in the perfect role for his intense brand of performance and youngster Tequan Richmond brooding his way through his first real movie gig, of the grooming of one by the other and the driving on of each other as their incomprehensibly evil plan comes to fruition.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1973) Dir. Joseph Sargent

It never really feels like a safe decision was made throughout. The characters, hostages aside, are wonderfully interesting people with their own personalities and the interactions between them dance from comic to tense and back again and it is this that is sorely lacking in modern cinema. Nobody is there to score focus group points and as such none of them are really a cliche or stereotype. If you haven't seen this version yet you really should, it's one of the best crime films of the 70s, which was by far the best decade for American crime cinema.

The East (2013) Dir. Zal Batmanglij

This is an incredibly solid little film (albeit with the assistance of Ridley and Tony Scott so not that little really) that deserves to be seen and should be highly praised, not necessarily for the things that it isn't either. I've seen how Hollywood would make this movie and time and time again I've not been impressed but Batmanglij sets a really unobtrusive tone with a slow pace from the beginning and has the luxury of Brit Marling's intense lead performance to lean on when required. Yet he is able to incorporate some really tense moments as the anti-corporation group carries out their "terrorist" plans.

F For Fake (1973) Dir. Orson Welles

In film school we took an entire year to look at the documentary, the way the borders of fiction and non-fiction can be and are blurred. We discussed many different films, including Nanook, Blair Witch and Night & Fog but at no point in any lecture or any article or any textbook was this almost definitive statement on the veracity of the documentary by Orson Welles. How can I trust any of the three years of by university education when such a travesty of an oversight occurred? Did they not know anything? And does that make my degree even more worthless? It's quite the brilliant piece of cinema, yet another one from the mind of one of the greatest men to ever work in the medium.

Nashvile (1975) Dir. Robert Altman

The pinnacle of Robert Altman's unique brand of cinema. If I'd seen this as a younger man I wouldn't have hesitated to get lost in rewatching this countless times as I did his earlier Elliot Gould-fests (Gould makes a wonderful cameo as himself here) but as it stands I don't feel like giving up days of my life to a movie about Nashville. Once is enough, to understand the grand scale of the great directors vision, to grasp the intricacies of the intertwined lives of the participants, to marvel at the audacity of it all.

Monte Walsh (1970) Dir. William A. Fraker

The late 60s really marked the death of an era for the western movie and William Fraker's adaptation of Jack Shaefer's (Shane) novel is a movie that takes a stark look at the end of the traditional cowboy era of American history. Within that framework is another traditional narrative, that of the old man struggling to come to terms with his advancing years in a world changing faster than he can possibly keep up. And Lee Marvin excels in that role better than almost any other actor in the history of American cinema.

Busting (1974) Dir. Peter Hyams

The script by Hyams is wonderfully cynical, a true classic of crime screenwriting from the 70s, that amazing period of grimey creativity that brought us 98% of all the very best crime cinema that was ever made. It is filled with wit, delivered perfectly (naturally) by Gould and another really good performance from Blake who really underplays his character, becoming almost a straight man for Gould's typical bafoonery. But Gould has an edge to him that you tend not to see in his more famous roles, a serious, determined existential edge that turns him much more in to the "sad clown" than even his bumbling private eye in Long Goodbye could achieve. He has a pretty brilliant 'tache too.

Straight Time (1978) Dir. Ulu Grosbard

Dustin Hoffman is at his subtle and intense best as a career criminal who makes his choices and is prepared to live with them. With support from Harry Dean Stanton, M. Emmet Walsh and a remarkably reined in Gary Busey this is a quality film with a quality cast that doesn't quite scale the heights it might have.

The Bothersome Man (2006) Dir. Jens Lien

The Bothersome Man is a Norwegian satire of modern consumerism and obsession with appearances, a surreal comedy and utopia gone wrong, a fable about daring to be different, an original tale of what may even be the afterlife yet still manages to recall Jeunet et Caro, Gilliam, Andersson and Wenders, even more specifically at times I was thinking of The Truman Show, The Matrix and Wristcutters. Beautifully framed using an unassuming palette of greys and blues and filled with wonderfully strange moments that more often than not will have you laughing out loud.

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) Dir. Sergio Leone

At nearly three hours Once Upon a Time in the West is most definitely not long enough to do all of it's many storylines and complex characters justice. It's a majestic western, visually astounding with a score to die for but suffers in the storytelling department, as have the three previous Leone films.

Crossroads (1986) Dir. Walter Hill

Colour me surprised to find that Crossroads is without doubt one of the highlights in the career of Walter Hill, this take on the legend of Robert Johnson is essentially The Karate Kid with blues guitar instead of kung fu but with real soul and no contrived fist pumping moments. Ry Cooder's soundtrack is perfectly matched to the mood of one of the best films about music I've seen.

Autumn Sonata (1978) Dir. Ingmar Bergman

Wow. Ullman and Bergman are sensational as the repressed emotions boil up and two women set out seemingly to destroy each other. Everything about this feels completely authentic. At least from watching mothers and daughters interact over in my family over the years anyway.

Masterpiece

Blow Out (1981) Dir. Brian De Palma

Visually it is an incredible experience from start to finish; littered with incredible single shots, amazing set pieces, stunning ideas pulled off with seeming nonchalance and even the dated effects are impressive. As you would expect from a film about the work of a sound engineer the audio design is top quality too, layer upon layer of noise and silence enhancing the sumptuous visuals and the career best work from John Travolta.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World (2010) Dir. Edgar Wright

I'm honestly conflicted over giving this film the full marks. After tonight's screening at the Rooftop Cinema in Perth I reckon I must have seen it an even dozen times and it just keeps getting funnier. But it's a teen comedy comic book adaptation. Conflicted!
Edgar Wright has done such a great job in adapting the visuals, mood and attitude of the excellent graphic novels, the soundtrack is phenomenally well chosen and the cast all excel in their roles however small plus it seems like Michael Cera was born to be Scott Pilgrim.
I heart Scott Pilgrim so much. Full stars!

Tokyo Story (1953) Dir. Yasujiro Ozu

A devastatingly effective piece of cinema, carefully crafted with great pathos. I'd not noticed previously that it shares many similarities with another of my all time favourites, Secrets & Lies, especially in terms of structure, tone and the power held over the viewer, which has sort of blown my mind. Ozu directed what is probably the pinnacle of this little social realist drama sub-genre 43 years before Mike Leigh came close to matching him.

Spring Breakers (2013) Dir. Harmony Korine

It seems I just can't get enough of Spring Breakers. I can't believe that this film is tying with Gravity for my best film of 2013. In my head I'm doing something ridiculous, I'm including it on a list with Citizen Kane; the kind of incredible films that both entertain and leave you marvelling at the skill of the director, films with many layers that you feel like you will never come close to comprehending no matter how many times you watch them. I feel like that is wrong.

Army of Shadows (1969) Dir. Jean-Pierre Melville

Pick a WWII movie, pick your favourite WWII movie, I guarantee you it's not as good as Army of Shadows. There's a very real chance that you could pick ANY other movie in the entire history of cinema and it wouldn't be as good as Army of Shadows.
For 145 tension filled minutes Jean-Pierre Melville keeps the viewer in the palm of his hand, a director at the height of his almost magical powers, every moment exquisitely crafted in tones of blue-grey and quite aptly shadow and light.

I'm ready for the fallout, Superman fans sharpen your claws and do your worst. Any other opinions also welcome, recommendations via twitter are invited.

Movie Diary #16: October 2013

Right, now we're pretty much up to date with this stuff. October saw me return from the disaster that was my attempt to make a movie and hit the play button with abandon, really indulging myself with whatever I felt like watching and very rarely leaving the house.

After September October managed to supply 21 recommendations out of the 74 (711 year to date) films seen during the month. With my rewatch count kept to a paltry 2 (80 YTD) October was a month of comfort from quantity not guaranteed quality of "comfort" films.

I saw 16 new releases (114 YTD,) but only one is worthy of recommending but boy was it a good one. So that's 3 new masterpiece recommendations, seriously folks add them to the top of your watchlist, 8 more that are definitely worth investigating if you haven't already and 11 (an incredible 5 of which are 2013 releases) that you should never watch even if bored and it's a choice between that and staring at the wall for several hours.

Why Why Why Why Why Why Bother?

Ass Backwards (2013) Dir. Chris Nelson

Holy shit, what the fuck were they thinking? As unfunny and as excruciating as I expected The Internship to be and then some. Truly, remarkably bad cinema.

Simpatico (1999) Dir. Matthew Warchus

I might not always agree with the praise heaped upon movies by Roger Ebert but when it comes to movies that sucked he was almost always on the money. Sometimes a movie that isn't very good can be forgiven thanks to a fun idea that appeals to a small part of your non critical mind or great performances elevating a movie out of suckiness and in to mediocrity but with Simpatico there's a convoluted noir-esque plot AND good performances from great actors and still I found myself in agreement with Mr Ebert. Simpatico is a great big bore from start to finish. 

Mike's Murder (1984) Dir. James Bridges

Pretty slow and pretty dull neo-noir. Nothing happens for 45 minutes and then there's an hour of sloppy, badly written dialogue as Debra Winger "investigates" the titular event in a series of improbable moments.

Man of Steel (2013) Dir. Zack "Sucker Punch" Snyder

An incredibly boring movie that's about 2.5 hours too long. Like all of the problems with the Batman Begins origin story dragged out and expanded upon with a much less interesting character in a much uglier way, exactly as you would expect from Zack "300" Snyder. Not the worst blockbuster of the year but one of them. After watching this who would care that Affleck was Batman in the pointless sequel to a DOA original?

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) Dir. Robert Wise

How boring did they want to make this?! I can fully get behind the "escape the smallness of the TV" approach also known as "celebrate the massive nature of cinema" but the seemingly never ending attempt to explore the vastness of space by using sloooooooow moving shots of the Enterprise in spacedock or the ominous cloud destroying things slowly get incredibly tedious very, very quickly.

Violet & Daisy (2013) Dir. Geoffrey Fletcher

No surprise that it took several years from it's festival appearances to get a VOD release as Violet & Daisy is a mess of attempted shiny visuals and stilted dialogue delivered by two female leads who were clearly directed to be awful. Not the worst movie of the year but it's right down there. 

The Ultimate Warrior (1975) Dir. Robert Clouse

The Ultimate Warrior promises to be a fighting movie but the fight scenes are amongst the worst I've ever seen and the actual dialogue and plot are amongst some of the most offensively stupid and naive I've ever witnessed.

Turbo (2013) Dir. David Soren

Awful CGI animation from Hollywood for kids in 2013 has a new benchmark in garbage; Turbo easily surpasses Epic as the years worst, a feat I never expected to be attained this year or any other such was the abhorrent nature of said film. But somehow Turbo manages to be both derivative and offensive, it's incredibly ugly and its message is all over the place and they clearly spent about 3 seconds (if that) on thinking about the world building aspect of garden snails working in a factory and how talking nitrous oxide powered snails would interact with the human world.

Thin Ice (2011) Dir. Jill Sprecher

There's a reason you haven't heard of Thin Ice, a caper movie starring two incredibly likeable actors, one an Oscar winner and the other an Oscar nominee, the reason is that this film is one of the very worst instances of the matchstick man conceit.

10 (1979) Dir. Blake Edwards

I'd heard tale of this being a comedy but it turns out that's more of an urban legend as 10 starts off dull and proceeds to fail at causing even a titter for two hours. Perhaps it is unfair to expect something as wonderfully joyful as Dudley Moore in Arthur but I went in with low expectations and had them pulverised by the sheer tedium of it all, not to mention the offensive nature of the concept that felt just a little too long in the tooth for 1979. 1 star for Dudley Moore.

Earthbound (2013) Dir. Alan Brennan

I can't resist a Rafe Spall movie, and so I bring crap like this upon myself every single time. It's just not funny, at all, despite trying every type of humour imaginable at every opportunity. Rafe Spall is, as usual, great and despite being an awful cliche of a manic pixie dream girl Jenn Murray has a real quality and presence about her, beyond that there's nothing to recommend. In 2013 you can trust the Irish to release a terrible superhero movie about religious beliefs without the subtle metaphors of a Zack "Sucker Punch" Snyder joint.

 

Not Quite Some of the Best Movies Ever Made

Bug (2006) Dir. William Friedkin

The second half of this movie was like a train wreck that somehow blows up a nuclear reactor. Horrible, shocking, mesmerising, the kind of cinema that is so far removed from the staid comfortable lifestyle most of us live that your jaw will drop repeatedly (if you manage to raise it to begin with,) you will want to vomit several times, if you think on it too hard you may find tears have sprung to your eyes and the whole time your brain is screaming, fighting to unscramble what you're seeing, to put a label on it and quantify it as a metaphor or several metaphors even, a statement about something, anything, just so long as you can classify it and deal with the fall out in a more comfortable manner.

A Fistful of Dollars (1964) Dir. Sergio Leone

Seen hot on the heels of watching Yojmbo and Last Man Standing and reading Red Harvest, it was always going to take something special in the telling of this story yet again to impress me and boy was I impressed. The combination of Leone's vision and Eastwood's performance elevate this version of Hammett's tale of corruption and a protagonist who exists in that grey area between black hat and white hat, playing two opposing gangs off against each other for the good of humanity and his pocket, above all other versions in terms of entertainment and enjoyment.

The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) Dir. William A. Wellman

A fine example of the early western-noir genre crossover that provides an awfully large amount of inspiration for the later award winning movie about mob justice 12 Angry Men; with an expected ending that still manages to pack an almighty punch thanks to some fine acting from all involved, a tight play-like script and strong directing from William Wellman. This film will place high on my list of favourite westerns.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) Dir. Robert Wiene

Another one of those films I thought I'd seen in film school but had actually only seen clips of, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is incredible piece of early cinema and as important as any film ever made. The set design and the painting of shadows is wonderful all on its own but the storytelling is a step beyond anything previously seen in the medium, the combination of which makes this film still highly entertaining and an enjoyable watch at almost one hundred years old.

Paths of Glory (1957) Dir. Stanley Kubrick

Kubrick's anti-war movie is incredibly effective despite how overtly cold he painted his villains in their lambs to the slaughter attitudes. Known as an innovator of style in genre pictures I was most impressed by how he almost never allowed the camera to rest, keeping everything moving back and forth or on a constant dolly, and not in a shakeycam Paul Greengrass way either, it's something that I don't recall seeing in previous war movies and to a certain extent even the films that came after.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) Dir. Sergio Leone

TGTBATU is a great acronym, and an enjoyable enough three hour movie but it certainly didn't live up to its predecessor, primarily it is a bit too deliberately slapsticky in its humour for my liking. There's a large part of the plot that revolves around the American Civil War which felt incredibly unnecessary and only served to dilute the hipster badass on a horse plot that had served them so well in two previous outings. I can see how by the time you get to the incredible (and it really does deserved to be lauded as marquee moment in cinematic history) Mexican Standoff denouement you might be exhausted and delighted by the ending helping you to forget about the faults that came before but really this is not as purely entertaining as a standalone movie as For A Few Dollars More. Sergio Leone still does wonderful things with his camera and with the genre and never has a Quentin Tarantino influence been more obvious than here. Then there's Ennio Morricone, his work on this film has stood the test of time and there's a very good reason why, he demonstrates an awareness of his art form and the way it will be interpreted that goes beyond 99.9% of composers throughout history, IT IS TRULY MASTERFUL.

Days of Heaven (1978) Dir. Terrence Malick

There's an obvious story as far as the plot in this movie goes, large swathes of dialogue, especially the narration, is unintelligible and I find a babyfaced Richrd Gere quite unbelievable for this role, much in the same way I could never take DiCaprio seriously as the world wise drifter in Titanic BUT still there's a poetic beauty to this film that raises it above such petty concerns as dialogue and story and pretty faces to the point where you deserve to indulge yourself in repeat viewings.

Electra Glide In Blue (1973) Dir.  James William Guercio

The combination of rookie director/producer James Guerico, master cinematographer Conrad Hall and the intense Robert Blake in the lead role create a stunning mix of incredible visuals and existential angst, within a meandering plot filled with bizarre scenes that would never find a place within a more traditional movie or anything made in Hollywood after 1978 I would imagine. Yet it's these bizarre scenes and out of place rants by the characters that make the film the fascinating journey that it is.

Masterpiece

For A Few Dollars More (1965) Dir. Sergio Leone

If Fistful was the first great film I'd seen in months then the followup is the first masterpiece; For a Few Dollars More takes all that was great about the Yojimbo clone and elevates all of it to the next level thanks to a much more interesting (perhaps not original) script and a score from Morricone that has deservedly become part of pop culture legend. Eastwood is wonderful but it is the relationship with Van Cleef that takes the acting to new heights, the importance of having more than one great actor AND character in a movie. Volonte is once more the bad guy and his memorable performance as the deranged and effeminate El Indio is almost comparable to the two Americans in terms of entertainment and quality.

Gravity (2013) Dir. Alfonso Cuarón

How nice is it to see an intelligent movie for adults that isn't deliberate Oscar bait come out of Hollywood. After 109 new releases in 2013 I've finally found one that I absolutely loved from start to finish. It's going to take something very special to knock this from the top spot. Visually impressive, Gravity has the best use of 3D I've seen and I can't imagine such a useless technology as that being utilised any better in its current guise. But it is the heart pounding tension that Cuaron brings to the table that left us jittery as we walked around the supermarket afterwards, the kind of reaction usually reserved for far too much coffee, that is Gravity's gift to cinema. In an artistic medium that relies heavily on cheap jump scares and loud sound effects to artificially create tension it is an absolute pleasure to feel like it is organically grown from a tight script, wonderful performances and a director on top of his game.

Black Narcissus (1947) Dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger

I seem to be on a run of watching movies I thought I'd seen in film school but actually had only seen brief clips of, Black Narcissus was taught in a subject called "genres" take note of the plural, what we were actually taught by the angry old lady was "melodrama" which as you may know isn't a genre in itself. I, and several other students, resented this incredibly narrow approach to what could have been a fascinating three months of study and Powell & Pressburger seem to have taken the brunt of things. Until now I thought that it was a well made women's colonial picture but I readily admit that my younger self was a fool. Here's the truth of Black Narcissus, as far as I know there is no finer, more complete narrative film produced in the second half of the 40s. Compared to this everything else sort of looks and feels like early silent cinema. How it didn't even get a best picture Oscar nomination let alone the win it so rightfully deserved is beyond my comprehension. At least Jack Cardiff's stellar work as cinematographer was acknowledged.

Pretty great stuff there I must say, a really good month for movies, any favourites amongst them? Don't forget to tweet your comments at me if you'd prefer.

Movie Diary #15: September 2013

Moving on to my very short September diary. This was the month I was supposed to be filming Good Times and the intense nature of attempting to salvage a floundering film is reflected in the very small number of films seen. Naturally it is considerably higher than if I had actually been in production!

31 films seen during September left me with a year to date of 637, with only 2 rewatches keeping my YTD total down to 78, perhaps that 10% target I was aiming for is still within reach? Of the 31 seen during the thirty days 14 were new release movies, bringing a year to date total of 98. And yet none of them were particularly good.

The most disappointing, and surprising, statistic from September is the 7 recommendations I have to offer you. All 7 are firmly in the giant waste of time category with nothing even close to being a masterpiece, so please continue to avoid them if you have managed to so far.

Dire

Love Crimes (1992) Dir. Lizzie Borden

Every negative thing said and written about this movie is accurate.

The Pleasure of Being Robbed (2008) Dir. Joshua Safdie

It's movies like this that give American indie cinema a bad name, these people are awful and nothing feels authentic, why don't we all just watch Silver Linings Playbook instead?

Kick-Ass 2 (2013) Dir.  Jeff Wadlow

So there's pretty much nothing good going for this movie, I can't imagine there's anyone who might take pleasure in such inane stupidity.

The Hangover Part III (2013) Dir. Todd Phillips

Potentially even worse than Die Hard 5. There isn't one single laugh in this supposed comedy.

After Earth (2013) Dir. M. Night Shyamalan

By far the worst Will Smith movie in existence at the time of writing. I'm quite saddened by this as that oeuvre includes Bad Boys 2. I'm a confessed fan of Smith and tried to avoid knowing anything about this film before watching it but the second Shyamalamalam's name got mentioned I knew to expect the worst. This however goes beyond the worst and for the most part the only blame that can be thrown at the directors feet was taking the paycheck proffered by Smith to put his name on it when apparently to all intents and purposes it was Smith in charge of this vanity project to make his son a star. I have no problem with that idea, I just have a problem that it's a deadly boring and unimaginative as this. That Jaiden is a pretty mediocre actor at best doesn't help matters either.

Diary of a Hitman (1991) Dir. Roy London

Whatever circumstances were behind the acting coach Roy London being left in charge of directing a multi-million dollar film are I'm sure the story might be one of the more interesting of relatively recent Hollywood history; there's bound to be hidden cameras and blackmail involved at some point. The fact that he was an acting coach is pretty ironic as every single actor involved in the production of this film puts in a horrifyingly awful performance.

Dead in Tombstone (2013) Dir. Roel Reiné

On their own the names Rourke, Trejo, Hall and Meyer are not enough to make me consider watching a straight to bargain bin movie but there's something about the combination of the four that made me think it might be worth while. Sadly that is not the case, the script is hopelessly bad, in particular the dialogue, and the direction is ham fisted at best. Don't be fooled in to thinking it's just a bit of fun, it's not, it's a waste of time. 

If I had to pick one film seen during Septemebr to recommend it would be the drug related social documentary Oxyana but it certainly wouldn't be for all.

Sorry I don't have anything positive to report from September but it was bad all round for me. Come discuss it with me on twitter why don't you?

2013 So Far (May - Aug) Top 5 2013 Releases

The final part of my assessment of the second four months of 2013 is the one most people care about I guess, the best movies released this year. I've seen a massive 64 of them and these are the best 5:


5. Spring Breakers - Dir. Harmony Korine

4. White Reindeer - Dir. Zach Clark

3. Behind The Candelabra - Dir. Steven Soderbergh

2. Before Midnight - Dir. Richard Linklater

1. The Fifth Season - Dir. Peter Brosens, Jessica Hope Woodworth

As you might expect from such a large quantity of films to choose from this was much harder than picking five films seen in the first third of the year. Honourable mentions could go to another seven(!) over the past four months and they are highlighted below in the full list.

Full list of 2013 releases seen May - Aug: I Give It a Year, A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, Parker, Star Trek Into Darkness, Broken City, A Good Day to Die Hard, The Place Beyond the Pines, Snitch, Bullet to the Head, Broken, Gimme the Loot, Behind the Candelabra, The Call, Stoker, Burt Wonderstone, Rapture-Palooza, Phantom, Mud, Odd Thomas, Penthouse North, Spring Breakers, Olympus Has Fallen, Redemption, The Croods, Off World, Pictures of Superheroes, A Field in England, The Fifth Season, GI Joe 2, Fast 6, Trance, Trash and Progress, Supporting Characters, White Reindeer, Europa Report, Pawn Shop Chronicles, Lunarcy!, Pacific Rim, Night Train to Lisbon, Only God Forgives, Rock Jocks, Oblivion, Klip, The Act of Killing, Before Midnight, More Than Honey, Drinking Buddies, The Lifeguard, Magic Magic, The Canyons, Byzantium, Touchy Feely, Epic, Laurence Anyways, The Heat, The Iceman, Pain & Gain, Clear History, A Teacher, The Look of Love, Empire State, Now You See Me, Prince Avalanche

What have you seen? What are your favourites from the year? Join the conversation in the comments or tweet @BBBGToby with #2013best.