So here we are, top 3 time.
3. Star Wars: The
Force Awakens
I can’t review this film objectively. I grew up re-watching
VHS copies of the original trilogy over and over again. I got the toys and
video games as birthday and Christmas presents throughout my childhood. I dealt
with the disappointment of the prequels in the same way I’ve dealt with being
raised as a Forest fan long after the glory days have passed; cherish the past,
pretend the present is just a temporary blip.
The Star Wars franchise holds a special place in my heart, the
kind that can possibly only be created by childish enthusiasm. When I first
heard they were going to reboot the franchise I was cynical (fool me once etc.)
and even as the cast and crew came together promisingly told myself not to get
excited.
Then the first trailer showed up online and as the John
Williams score kicked in and the Millennium Falcon took to the skies, I was 8
years old again. The hairs on my arms stood on end and I had the stupidest grin
plastered over my face.
There hasn’t been a film this year I’ve been more excited to
see, or more scared to be disappointed by. The fact that it comes in at number
3 on this list makes it pretty clear that it didn’t disappoint. In fact that
idiotic grin returned again and again as I watched.
The Force Awakens
is in some ways similar to Skyfall;
it’s a film that embraces the history of the franchise by packing the film with
references and themes familiar to the fans while finding a fresh and modern
approach. I’ll concede that it is possibly too referential at times to the
original trilogy, with a number of plot points feeling a little too familiar,
but I suspect that was a deliberate choice as a way to return the fan’s
confidence in the series.
This is a film determined to make it clear to audiences that
the magic of the original trilogy is back and to encourage us to trust in where
they plan to take the franchise. The actors that return from the original
trilogy all seem to love getting the chance to rediscover these roles, Harrison
Ford’s Solo in particular, but the film never feels like it is trapped in a
prison of nostalgia because the 3 key new additions are so damn good.
Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Adam Driver are all excellent,
packing their characters with complexity and potential. Who knows they may one
day be as iconic as Luke, Leia and Han are for most Star Wars fans. Ridley
takes a little while to warm to the role, hampered by some classically stilted
Star Wars scripting, but does brilliantly to combine the confusion and
excitement that Rey feels as she is dragged into a world so far beyond her
fringe planet, scavenging to survive existence. Driver is superb as Kylo Ren,
creating a distinctive villain, inspired by but not a copy of Vader or any of
the other villains in the series. Anyone who has seen Attack the Block won’t be surprised to hear that Boyega sells the
action and the comedy of his role with aplomb.
Some characters feel a little underused with Oscar Isaac’s
Poe Dameron sadly failing to be developed beyond being the perfect Resistance
pilot. Given the quality of the actor I suspect he signed on with a view to
greater involvement in the next films, but he feels a little one dimensional
here.
If I was trying to make an objective list of the best films
of the year I honestly don’t know if I could justify The Force Awakens making top 3. I’ve seen a number of good
critiques of the film, especially this from VOX, that make the fair accusation that it spends too much time
rehashing elements of the original trilogy. I would defend it by saying that it
is establishing the world for a new trilogy and I expect the next two to be
much more original, but can I honestly say I’d consider that a sound defence
for the majority of films I see? Probably not.
But this is a list of my favourite films of the year
precisely because I don’t want to pretend to be objective. I want to write
about the films I loved and I undoubtedly loved this. I’ve wanted to talk about
it constantly (not that me talking constantly is a huge shift from the norm)
and I’ve caught myself humming various bits of Star Wars score more times than
I can count since leaving the screening (John Williams nails the score yet
again but given that he was probably the best thing about the prequels I never
really doubted that he would).
The magic is back. Star Wars is back. Adult me and child me
are both ecstatic about that.
2. Mad Max: Fury
Road
I’m not going to spend too long on this one as I’ve reviewed
it more fully already here, but it’s
worth noting that several months and two re-watchings later I’m even more
certain of my love for the film.
I listen to Junkie XX’s score on a regular basis, adoring
the range he manages to achieve while making it all feel consistent to the
world of the film. Brothers in Arms and Many Mothers stand out in particular
for the emotion they evoke, but it’s great throughout and without a doubt my
score of the year (sorry John Williams).
The sand storm sequence is also probably my scene of the
year and it’s a credit to the composition of the scene that arguably the
biggest, most CGI reliant set piece in the film works so damn well on an
average sized TV. That had actually been one of my biggest concerns about the
film’s staying power: I saw it twice in IMAX and I wasn’t sure home viewing
would be able to capture the same scale and intensity.
And perhaps it didn’t fully. But stripping away a three
storey tall screen and a sound system that shakes the seat on the deep bass
notes, I was able to see just how tightly executed an action movie Mad Max really
was. It is a film of glorious spectacle but the momentum of the story telling
and the framing of the action mean that it works on the small screen just as
well.
It’s refreshing to see Mad
Max in the early conversations about the Best Picture Oscar, because it is
one of the best made films of the year but it doesn’t fall in a genre the
Academy usually pays attention to.
It was a pretty arbitrary decision that found Mad Max coming second this year. Part of
me still wants to make it number one, but in the end it just fell slightly
short. I didn’t quite end up flipping a coin but it wasn’t far off being that
close. So it comes second but it wouldn’t be inaccurate to call it my joint top
film of the year.
1. Inside Out
As I suspect is clear now, it took a pretty special film to
pip Mad Max to my Film of the Year
title. Inside Out is beyond special,
it’s magnificent. It’s not just my film of the year, it’s possibly my favourite
Pixar film ever.
It’s certainly up there with the best the studio has
produced, previously my top 3 for them was Toy
Story 3, Wall-E and Monsters Inc., but Inside
Out probably tops Monsters Inc.
for me and is close to the others if not better than them.
A stunningly realised exploration of a pre-teen girls emotions, Inside Out is
fantastically ambitious, ridiculously clever and most importantly phenomenally
fun. I was intrigued from the first press release, if anyone could deliver on
the idea of physical manifestations of emotions and the way they interact to
make us the people we are, it is Pixar.
It’s delivered with such skill, visual ingenuity and
emotional intelligence that children and adults alike will find much to love
about the film. It’s something Pixar have repeatedly proved themselves
brilliant at, providing entertainment regardless of the audience’s age.
We’re introduced to the five key emotions in a sleek and
futuristic control room as Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust guide Riley
through daily life. Practiced stability for Riley and her emotions is thrown
into disarray by her family’s move from Minnesota to San Francisco. In the
ensuing chaos Joy (Amy Poehler bringing plenty of Leslie Knope to the role) and
Sadness are ejected from the control room and are forced to travel through
various areas of Riley’s mind to try and find their way back.
It’s from this point that the film becomes utterly genius
with some incredible manifestations of the way our brains work. Endlessly
inventive and gloriously realized, this is Pixar at their best. Some of it will
be lost on younger viewers but there are so many ideas on display here that the
momentum never drops enough for attention to wane.
Pixar films carrying an emotional punch is nothing new but
this one got me as powerfully as Toy Story 3
and that’s saying something. I’d grown up with the Toy Story films so to see the representation of growing up, letting
go and life-long friendships is still powerful no matter how many times I see
it. I have markedly less experience of being a pre-pubescent teenage girl but
the way the film explores how your emotions being out of balance can leave you
feeling lost is something I’ve spent a lot of time considering.
Inside Out is my
film of the year because it, rather fittingly, inspired some of the most
intense emotional responses of anything released in 2015. I laughed more,
marvelled more and cried more than any other film managed to trigger in me and
that’s surely why I go to the cinema. To be engaged for a couple of hours and
lose myself in a world and a story that makes me feel something real and
important.
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