A Good Day and the Prospect of More

Just a quick update this evening, because there’s been a few changes in the weeks since I started the blog up and again.

I got on the masters course I had applied for, so from September I will be a student again, this time studying American History at the University of Sheffield. I’m excited about the course itself and the feeling of having a direction I’m heading, but it’s dawned on me that after a year and a half of being reasonably well off I’m going to have to get used to being a broke student again. It’ll be a bit of an adjustment certainly but a worthwhile one.

My contract at work ended on Friday so I’m officially unemployed now, which is good practice for the financial constraints of being a student I guess, but I’m going to be trying to find some work to keep me going between now and the autumn. It’s definitely less scary not having a job knowing that I have the masters in just a few months. I’m taking a week to relax and come as close to gathering my thoughts as I’m ever able to, but from next week the job hunt begins.

Monday will also mark the start of me stepping up my training for the Round Sheffield Run that I mentioned in the first post. 24K is a lot further than I’ve ever run competitively, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.

For this week though I’m simply going to enjoy a bit of time to myself. Today was a good day, one where I watched a film (Liberal Arts, review possibly to follow), read some more of Howard Zinn’s ‘People’s History of America’ which is a great read even when I don’t fully agree with his conclusions, listened to Rachmaninov, Frank Ocean and The Low Anthem amongst others and went for a run, as well as writing two blog posts. All that accompanied by a pretty damn stunning spring day weather-wise.

Not all days will be like this and I have to concede that I might go a bit stir crazy if I’m without a job for long, but I’m trying hard to appreciate the days like this, where nothing dramatic happens and I can find happiness in a lot of simple acts.

That’s quite enough for today and I promise I’ll go back to over-analysing children’s films from now on. 

The Muppets Most Wanted (Bobin, 2014)

I have already seen a number of truly great films this year, and there are several I am really excited to see in the coming months (Godzilla, Interstellar, Hobbit part 3, Calvary, X-Men and Fury to name but a few). However I’m not convinced I will leave any film this year, happier than I felt at the end of The Muppets Most Wanted.

I’ve always loved The Muppets, their version of Treasure Island was one of my most watched videos growing up. Before my long hiatus from this blog, my final post was a review of the 2011 film, starring Jason Segel and Amy Adams, that brought The Muppets back into the public eye. I went into this sequel already braced to be disappointed, deliberately lowering my expectations.

I was in hindsight wise to do this, as the film doesn’t quite live up to the standards of the first, but is still a fantastically enjoyable 90 minutes, filled with exactly the kind of anarchic plot, genius cameos and lovable characters that you would hope for from a film involving Kermit and co.

In a masterstroke the film picks up right where the first one ended, with the muppets on the street outside the theatre and launches into probably the strongest musical number of the whole film, irreverent and self-deprecating. It sums up one of the things that I’ve always loved about the muppets; they were meta before it was cool, existing in some bizarre fourth wall-less reality where logic and physics can be abandoned at will if it furthers the plot.

The first film succeeded because it combined four factors to great effect; music by Brett McKenzie, entertaining cameos, a fairly straight-forward plot and shed-loads of heart. On the first two counts this film delivers, with a prison number delivered by Tina Fey, backed by a bizarre combination of familiar faces, standing out as a superbly surreal highlight of both elements.

Where it falls down is the story. I must concede that for almost any non-muppets film, I’d be implying a much stronger criticism with that comment. As it is I accept that plot has always been a secondary concern behind having fun with whatever concept they’ve chosen to shape the film. The film has a lot of fun with the genre of the police investigation, Ty Burrell (Modern Family’s Phil Dunphy, enjoying himself as a Clouseau-esque Interpol agent) and Sam the Eagle making for a great parody on the buddy cop format. However the heists that are central to the story are underwhelming, each feeling like a missed opportunity.

The plot revolves around a master criminal who looks almost identical to Kermit pulling off heists, using the Muppets as an alibi, but too many of the scenes progressing that central storyline fall flat, feeling like fillers between the scenes involving the real Kermit.

Even that though would be OK if the heart that drove the first film was there but it isn’t. It aims for a message about the importance of friendship but that’s something the first film explored more effectively. There’s another element that I will talk about below in the spoiler section (yes I treat The Muppets seriously enough to merit a spoiler section).

For the spoiler free section, I will end this review with the conclusion that while it is not quite as triumphant a success as the 2011 effort, it is a respectable entrant into the Muppet back-catalogue and filled me with a level of child-like enjoyment that is all too rare in the majority of my visits to the cinema. If you have kids take them to see it (lord knows it’s a better option than the awful looking Postman Pat film coming out soon).

However If you’re looking for a child friendly film from the first half of this year I have to recommend the  Lego Movie ahead of this, because it is at least as fun as Most Wanted but has a more compelling message, delivered with greater confidence and style.

Spoilers below this point.

One of my very slight issues with this film, and I fully acknowledge that it is perhaps an unrealistic criticism of a kids film, is that it suggests a more interesting moral message then fails to deliver.

As mentioned earlier, the film revolves around the idea of Kermit having an almost identical twin who is a master criminal named Constantine. While Kermit ends up thrown in a Siberian Gulag, Constantine (with the help of Ricky Gervais’ Dominic Badguy) uses the Muppets to stage a series of art heists designed to lead to stealing the British crown jewels. The rest of the Muppets blindly follow Constantine’s leadership, accepting he is Kermit despite the evidence to the contrary.

For a large chunk of the film we are presented with the dangers of unquestioningly following a charismatic leader.  Sadly the finale only suggests that as long as you’re following the “right” person, you’ll be fine. Kermit’s return and exposure of the imposter is entertainingly done, but instead of leading to some questioning of doing exactly what they’re told, the Muppets just pass the mistake off with a collective ‘oops’ and commit to following Kermit, even if that is to a Siberian gulag.

Themes of family and togetherness have always been central to The Muppets appeal and rightly so. However the first film conveyed that message so much more effectively, whereas ending with this seems a bit of a cop out here.

I can imagine many of my readers arguing that I’m reading far too much into a Muppets film, but I feel they failed to follow through on a plot they chose to set up. We live in a world where Pixar & Disney have changed what we can expect from a “kids” film, but this film in the end fails to commit to any particular message. There’s a vague affirmation of the values of friendship and loyalty, but by establishing how easily a look-alike can trigger loyalty, that value is called into question by the film itself and never really answered.

The 2011 Muppets film had a clear message about the value of belonging and identity, but this effort, while fun throughout, suffers for having a much vaguer sense of what message it hopes to convey.

Why I Watch

There are a lot of times I regret being a football fan. Note that I say football rather than Forest, the distinction is crucial. I’m not denying that supporting a big team would be easier, almost certainly more enjoyable, but I can’t imagine ever supporting anyone but Forest and would never want to, a feeling all football fans understand.

Growing up a Forest fan in Sheffield wasn’t the most comfortable experience always, I got used to being called a ‘scab’ by friends and strangers on a semi-regular basis despite the fact that my politics tended to be a long way to the left of theirs and wasn’t alive during the miner’s strike. The day after the play off semi-final against Sheffield United was probably the worst day of school ever, tormented not just by Blades, but by anyone who knew anything about football pretty much.

A defeat against either Sheffield team meant dreading going into school, now it means dreading work in the morning. More so than usual. I’m usually a fairly calm individual, not overly prone to outward displays of strong emotion, particularly not anger. Plenty of my friends have commented over the years that they’ve rarely seen me angry or that I don’t seem excited about events. They are able to maintain that opinion because they’ve probably never seen me during a Forest game.

This evening was perhaps the perfect example of the torture and ecstasy that football offers to me. Forest played Wednesday at the City Ground, a game between two teams I suspect are destined for mid-table finishes this year and not one any neutrals were going to get excited about. Those hoping to see good quality football were watching the much more significant Champions League semi-finals.

I’d got home after watching the new Muppets movie (review to come in the next couple of days), checking the score throughout the journey home. I’d nearly sworn at my friend in town when I saw Wednesday had gone 1-0 up from the penalty spot. Once home I interrupted a conversation with my dad to briefly celebrate us equalising just before half time. I didn’t even have time to get upstairs and switch on my laptop before that relief was replaced by anger, as I saw Wednesday had gone up the other end and scored almost immediately.

I spent the next 15 minutes sulking. I’d like to paint it as something grander, but that is the most accurate description. I was already picturing the faces of various work colleagues, grinning ear to ear about their victory.

If I was gloomy during half time, the opening 30 minutes of the second half saw me almost inconsolable. We were terrible, Wednesday sounded like they should have been 5 or 6-1 up and I had turned off the radio twice. I turned it back on within minutes each time, such is the masochistic element of being a football fan I guess. I’d spent a lot of time with my head in my hands, cursing the fates, forest and especially Darius Henderson for being so useless I am starting to think I would genuinely do a better job leading the Forest attack. I think I’d fall over less often when passed the ball at least.

I was glad I continued to listen, because the torment doesn’t end until 90 minutes whether I’m listening or not, and on 77 minutes we got a goal back. I shouted a little and punched the air more times than was perhaps necessary, but it’s difficult to celebrate effectively in an empty room.

Again such joy was short lived, within moments Forest’s captain had got himself sent off and the fledgling comeback seemed impossible again. I’m cursing Forest again, wondering why them seem to save their biggest cock-ups for the Sheffield teams (I suspect they don’t and it’s simply perspective making it seem so, but it hurts either way).

But oddly we finally start playing, it sounds like the players care. Then the Wednesday winger Jeremy Helan is lucky not to get sent off and I hear the Forest crowd respond to the perceived injustice and get behind the team. I’m still not optimistic, I’ve been a football fan too long for any of that naive nonsense.

Then on 87 minutes we win a free kick. Edge of the area. Jamie Paterson, one of the highlights in an otherwise depressing second half to the season, steps up and curls it in. This is why I’m a Forest fan, this is why I watch football. Because on a Tuesday night, after a long day at work and alone in my room, I shout so loud my throat still feels a little sore an hour later. I jump out my chair as the ball hits the net and I won’t sit down again until the final whistle.

It’s an insignificant goal. It doesn’t change our season, it doesn’t win us promotion, it doesn’t even win the game. But in the context, with the emotion that the game draws out of me, that equaliser is, for a few moments everything.

That is why I love the sport. Art can attempt to trigger emotions but they are always, to a degree contrived. Football can be cruel, often brutally so and almost always unforgiving of optimism. But it is also random and that unpredictability, the fact that even if you support a great team playing a lowly one, you are rarely 100% comfortable, is what makes it so addictive.

For the majority of fans, football is not a sport watched because they think they will win, it’s watched thinking they will lose but entertaining the hope that they might win, and therein lies the beauty. Nothing plays with my emotions like football. It might lack depth, but the immediacy and intensity of the feelings it triggers are second to none.

I spent the remaining 8 minutes of the game pacing my tiny room back and forth (it was more like spinning on the spot and by the end I was a little dizzy) because I couldn’t sit down. I actually, somewhat ridiculously but entirely unwittingly, fell to my knees when Paterson nearly won it for Forest with a run and shot.

There are great moments in the memories of all football fans, games that really mattered, goals that meant everything. But I think it is the mid-season games where very little is really at stake that define why we follow the sport. When a point gained from a poor match against a team that will probably finish only a place or two below you triggers such elation, you understand why you persevered through the 77 minutes of misery that preceded it.

Extended over several seasons that captures why we do what we do, why we care like we do. We put up with the anger, the depression, the ball of hot molten tension that sits in our gut on game day, for those moments of pure, unrestrained and unqualified moments of elation, regardless of whether they prove insignificant in the long term.

A Year of Film

Around Christmas I made a list of all the films released in 2013 that I managed to see. Then, as is the natural response of someone like me, I tried to rank those films (all 34 of them). Overall it was a strong year for film, though there were some major disappointments and duds along the way. For many of them the positions are a little arbitrary, the difference between 27^th and 28^th for example is marginal. Partly due to that I’m going to break the list into three parts in an effort to be more manageable, but be forewarned, this is a long post.

It is also not a list of the “best” films of 2013. It’s a list of my favourite films of the year and as such reflects my preferences, hopes and prejudices, sometimes above technical merit.

So I’ll start the countdown, beginning with numbers 34-20.

·         34 – Kick Ass 2

·         33 – Oz – The Great Powerful

·         32 – Monsters University 2

·         31 – Despicable Me 2

·         30 – Olympus has Fallen

·         29 – The Impossible

·         28 – Anchorman 2

·         27 – Oblivion

·         26 – Man of Steel

·         25 – World War Z

·         24 – Now You See Me

·         23 – Thor 2

·         22 – Cloud Atlas

·         21 – Star Trek: Into Darkness

·         20 – Les Miserables

Now you’ll notice a few sequels in amongst there and it definitely wasn’t a strong year for part 2’s. Only two made it into the top 20 and they were both based on pre-existing novels, rather than attempts to cash in on the success of an original (a harsh generalisation about sequels overall, but fairly accurate of this selection.)

World War Z was better than I expected, especially once I managed to get over the fact that it only shared its name with the far superior Max Brooks novel. It had some great moments, particularly the bold approach of choosing a lower key, subtler final act, but overall it never rose above average popcorn action fare. The same goes for Man of Steel, Olympus Has Fallen and Thor 2, all fun but largely forgettable.

Les Miserables and Cloud Atlas both impressed me with the ambition, even if the execution didn’t fully convince.

I’ve written about Star Trek: Into Darkness in the last blog post, so check that out for why it ranks so low despite its strengths.

So onto 19-11

·         19 – Side Effects

·         18 – Iron Man 3

·         17 – Trance

·         16 – Django Unchained

·         15 – Gravity

·         14 – Warm Bodies

·         13 – Before Midnight

·         12 – Much Ado About Nothing

·         11 – Pacific Rim

All these films have a lot going for them and I’d recommend you watch, but I’ll pick out a couple for further comment. Firstly Gravity ranks there because despite being indisputably spectacular as a visual and technical exercise, it never moved beyond that for me, the birth and death motifs not doing much that 2001 didn’t do better many years ago. Cuaron is a supremely talented director and he deserves all the plaudits he has got for the lengths he went to filming this, but it felt a slightly hollow achievement to me without a stronger plot.

If you are a Shakespeare or Joss Whedon fan I can’t recommend Much Ado strongly enough. It’s a modern master of dialogue working with the original’s words, low key and beautifully filmed. It could hardly be more in contrast to the pick that sits one above it in this list.

There is nothing subtle about Pacific Rim and that is deliberate. My affection has always been split between so called “worthy”, complex films and summer blockbusters. Pacific Rim satisfied the side of me that wants to see childhood fantasies writ across the largest screen available. I mean, a robot hits a monster with an oil freighter for god’s sake. It was like watching the greatest ever episode of Power Rangers and I loved every minute.

For the top 10 I’ll go into a little bit more detail on what made them achieve such heights.

10 – Catching Fire

The second Hunger Games book/film is a prime example of how a sequel should be done. It builds on characters and wider context while maintaining what captured the audience’s attention in the first film. Jennifer Lawrence continues to be superb as Katniss and it is largely down to her character that this film places so highly. It is impossible to view anything to do with the Hunger Games franchise in a Twilight-less vacuum. As a teen fiction phenomenon it is infinitely preferable.

Here is a female lead that fights for her own and her family’s survival. Who is intelligent, resourceful and challenges authority. She is not emotionless or detached, as is so often the case when writers make “strong female characters”, but doesn’t let emotions become her sole motive. She’s not perfect and the writing in the series at times leaves much to be desired, just as the direction did.

However this film ranks this highly for me because alongside being a damn good film full of enjoyable action and impressive world building, it shows that authors and film makers can aim higher when working for a teenage audience. That the message they send to young people is important and that a world of little Katniss’ is unquestionably superior to a world of budding Bella’s.

9 – Lore

This is definitely a contender for the most visually beautiful film I watched, with long sequences putting the best of the BBC’s nature output to shame with its celebration of the glory of spring and the rebirth of life.

It is the context that that beauty is set within and often against that sees this film end up 9^th. Lore, is the story of a teenage girl, daughter of an SS officer, in the immediate aftermath of WW2, trying to get herself and her siblings across post-war Germany.

It is a film about adolescence, indoctrination and desperation. Saskia Rosendahl, who plays Lore, is incredible for such a young actress, communicating in subtle facial expressions a young woman trying to make sense of a world she’s been sheltered from.

Lore is a harrowing journey, steadily staying the right side of preachy, letting the character’s journey tell the story in subtle beats rather than hammering you over the head with the morals. Films about WW2 are ten a penny, but films about German civilians in and around WW2 are rarer and this is a great addition to that limited genre.

8 – Wreck It Ralph

Monsters University represented a real disappointment for me. I have adored almost everything Pixar has done (I try to ignore the Cars series for this reason) and loved Monsters Inc, but the sequel fell flat.

However my faith in Pixar was only briefly shaken because an original project of theirs blew me away. I went in for a fun, video game referencing experience and left rating it as one of the studio’s best.

As with many Pixar films, themes of parenthood and children’s dreams are central, and as usual they’re superbly presented.  Visually it is as engaging as anything outside of the Toy Story series, every frame packed with background jokes. There are laughs for children and adults alike throughout.

When Pixar are on form there are few better film experiences for me. They offer ambition, creativity and optimism, consistently rejecting cynicism.

It is also preceded by one of the best Pixar shorts so far, a wordless tale of fate that shows just what the animators of the studio can achieve.

7 – Place Beyond The Pines

This was a slow burner for me. When the credits rolled I was mildly impressed but also somewhat underwhelmed. It took a couple of days of thinking about the film to realise just how much I’d truly enjoyed it.

The first realisation stemmed from the simple fact that I was still thinking about it days later, not the case for many of the films below it on this list. I found myself reflecting on visual elements, character moments and plot structure.

I think a lot of my initial issues with the film stemmed from me expecting a generic crime thriller and the bank robbery scenes shown in the trailers are much more visceral and engaging in full, eschewing Hollywood drama for a more gripping, gritty approach. However, without wanting to stray into spoiler territory, Place Beyond The Pines has much grander aspirations.

It is a film about fatherhood and responsibility, beautifully filmed and superbly acted. The more I considered the character’s decisions, the more I went back and forth over their motives, the more I realised just how strong this film was, and the more I appreciated its depth.

6 – The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty

This was the last film I saw of the 2013 releases and it was perhaps the most refreshingly optimistic. That outlook is a major factor in why it ranks so highly for me.

It is a film entirely about dreams; their power and their limitations. It encourages the audience to dream big but cautions them against failing to act on them. The majority of the events are low key compared to the excitement of most films you might see at the cinema, but they are imbued with importance by Ben Stiller’s journey as the eponymous Walter.

Now it is no surprise that I related to a film about a man who day dreams too much attempting to act on those fantasies. Walter Mitty as a character, first created in 1939 by James Thurber, is much closer to me than the reams of super heroes, geniuses, villains and fuck ups that populate most films.

It is spectacular to look at, several key scenes filmed in the cinematic wilderness of Iceland and ambitious in its story telling.

I left many films that year feeling entertained, several moved, some full of adrenaline, but I left Walter Mitty feeling inspired. I’d only attribute that particular feeling to one other film on this list and I think too few films aim for it.

5 – The Hobbit – The Desolation Of Smaug

I still remember my dad reading The Hobbit to me as a child. He was reading from a copy of the book given to my mum when she was a child. Tolkien’s world was a major influence on my childhood and so far Peter Jackson has done an incredible job of transferring that to the screen.

I still have issues with the attempt to stretch the story of The Hobbit into three films, but to Jackson’s credit the second instalment manages to pick up momentum rather than feeling dragged out. Part of that is due to being freed from the efforts of establishing the various dwarfs and their motives that occasionally stalled the first film.

Much of the rest of the success is down to, as Empire’s review of the film pointed out, the story now taking them into locations not yet shown in Jackson’s take on the world.

Some unrest from fans has been directed at Jackson’s changes to Tolkien’s story, but I don’t have a problem with any of the additions. I suspect most controversial will be Evangeline Lily’s Tauriel. I’m all for that particular addition. Another female character who can handle herself in a fight is a very welcome addition to a world that Tolkien had limited interest in populating with strong female characters.

Smaug himself when he appears on screen is yet another triumph for the men and women of WETA digital, as impressive as anything yet rendered in Middle Earth and unsurprisingly fantastically voiced by Benedict Cumberpatch.

By this point Martin Freeman is Bilbo, as perfectly cast as anyone in film history, capturing his reluctant and uncertain bravery.

I feared going into this film that it might puncture my enthusiasm for Jackson’s take on Middle Earth, but if anything I am now even more excited for the final chapter this winter. Six films in and Jackson still has me absolutely hooked in Tolkien’s world.

4 – Zero Dark Thirty

Outside of the top 2 I probably debated this one’s position more than any other.

On the one hand it is brilliantly executed thriller. On the other it strays close to glorifying the “War on Terror” and a number of the methods used. Celebrating an individuals death, no matter how horrible always leaves me a little uncomfortable.

However in the end I decided that because Kathryn Bigelow goes out of her way to make it clear that the crucial information comes from more traditional surveillance methods and never skirts around the ugly side of the search for Bin Laden, I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. I choose to believe that her intentions were to tell an entertaining spy thriller in the most responsible way.

Amidst all my uncertainty about the film, one thing is clear. This is the film that establishes Jessica Chastain as one of the most promising talents in Hollywood. Impressive in The Help, Lawless and, by other’s accounts, Tree of Life, this could be the role that launches her career. She is superb throughout, a nuanced portrayal of an individual obsessed with a cause.

Zero Dark Thirty has a strong supporting cast but it is her film from start to finish, she dominates every scene she is in and is surely destined for a whole host of awards nominations in her career.

Outside of her performance, the other element of the film that secured it 4^th spot is the raid on Bin Laden’s complex. It is up there with the bank heist in Heat as an example of a perfectly executed action sequence. It wrings impressive amounts of tension out of a scenario where the audience already knows the outcome and highlights how slow build tension and bursts of action can be much more effective than the excess of explosions and activity that characterises most action films.

A lot of how you respond to Zero Dark Thirty hinges on how you choose to read its intentions. For me it is an action movie that never pretends the “good guys” white hats aren’t coated in dirt and avoids many of the genres clichés, creating real tension along the way.

3 – The World’s End

The final offering of the Cornetto Trilogy was always likely to rank highly. The trio of Wright, Frost and Pegg is a potent one, already proven by two of the funniest comedies in my lifetime. Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz were two of the most quotable films of my teens and though the third instalment was a while in coming, The World’s End was worth the wait. This was a film which combined the incredibly sharp comedic writing and quotability of the first two films with a depth of emotion that exceeded what many would have expected.

Pegg’s Gary King is instantly up there in the higher echelon of truly flawed heroes. An individual so stubbornly in his own way that it has become a twisted point of pride. His character makes you laugh with his enthusiasm and idiocy, outrages you with some of his lines and then slowly breaks your heart with the revelation of the tears behind his clownish persona.

As always Pegg is at his best alongside Frost, their strained friendship utterly believable throughout. Frost is superb as Andy, trying desperately not to be dragged down by a friend he thought he’d seen the last of. This is certainly the darkest and most complex friendship in the trilogy, but is also the most heartfelt.

The first two thirds of the film are good, full of brilliant word play and inventive action sequences, but for me it is the final act that elevates this film to the point where it is perhaps my favourite Cornetto film. I intend to write a more in depth and spoiler heavy review where I’ll explore why I connected with the film so much, so keep an eye out for that in the next couple of weeks.

What I can say is that the final showdown is one of sheer verbal brilliance; defiant, idiotic and inspiring all in one.

The World’s End is a fitting send off for a trio of films, from a trio of comedic geniuses.

2 – Short Term 12

The decision between 1^st and 2^nd place was tough, perhaps tougher than any of the other choices on this list. Eventually I could only give Short Term 12 the silver medal spot, but it was damn close.

An American indie drama it garnered surprisingly little buzz over here despite having won the SXSW Film Awards grand jury prize and receiving strong reviews almost everywhere (Empire gave it 5 stars). I went because of that particular recommendation and my love of Brie Larson.

Set within a residential treatment facility where kids waiting to be fostered stay, this film blew me away. The heart and humour that runs throughout it were both refreshingly grounded and genuine.

It is a film with some heart-breakingly sad moments and as many uplifting ones, the impact coming from the fact they all felt genuine and earned to me. The characters are believable, complex and fragile, their actions understandable rather than forced. The strings never swell, the montages never roll, and the film hit me so much harder because I never felt I was being heavy handedly manipulated towards certain emotions.

It deals with dark, angry emotions and actions, never shrinking from them or trying to gloss over them like some more twee indie films might have. It is a film about responsibility and the people who abuse theirs. Points of this film made me as sad as anything I watched last year; one music based moment involving one of the oldest children in the facility should have been nominated for best original song at the Oscars without a shadow of a doubt for me.

However it’s also a film about hope and trust, and like Walter Mitty I left this film feeling inspired and uplifted, reminded that for all the bad in the world there are so many more people struggling to do good and that’s a message more films could do with showing.

In my opinion it was unfairly ignored come award season, because though it was unlikely to win, I believe nods for Brie Larson as Best Actress, the original screenplay and as I said above, original song, would all have been well deserved.

There are many major films on this list, big names with bigger casts and arguably more critical acclaim, but if you see one film based off this list, choose Short Term 12.

1. Lincoln

That being said, I did eventually side with Lincoln for the number one spot for several reasons.

As an American history nerd (and hopefully future student), a big budget drama about a crucial moment, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Daniel Day-Lewis was bookies favourite for my personal best film from the moment it was announced.

Telling the story of the political manoeuvrings in the build up to the House of Representatives vote on the 13^th amendment, abolishing slavery in the United States, it is a film of grand scale set largely in small rooms.

There are brief visits to the Civil War that was tearing the nation apart, but they are always simply to remind the audience of the stakes. This is not a war movie, closer to House of Cards than Saving Private Ryan.

Daniel Day-Lewis deserves every single plaudit he was given for his portrayal of perhaps the most famous president of all time, putting all his method actor madness to great use. He is supported by a superb cast, Sally Field especially stands out as his wife and Tommy Lee Jones has great fun as radical abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens (a man who would still have seemed progressive had he been born a century later).

The film also does well to avoid painting too black and white a picture of Lincoln’s motivations and methods around the 13^th amendment. There is, and most likely will always be, plenty of debate about the strength of Lincoln’s conviction against slavery. Whether it was a moral act or one of political necessity and expedience is contested to this day.

What is true, and what the film focuses on is that he was the right man at the right moment, someone with the vision, rhetoric and pragmatism to see America take a faltering step towards equality, a destination it would sadly take another century to truly begin to arrive at.

Spielberg shoots the intense arguments and subtle manipulations of the White House with all the skill one expects from such a master, Lincoln’s many monologues and anecdotes drawing us in just as they do the characters he is talking to.

I am strongly in favour of big budget films, starring top calibre casts, choosing to explore major historical moments not from a battlefield perspective but from a personal one, and if we do see more follow in its wake, I suspect Lincoln will long be held up as the level to aim for.

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So that was my 2013 in films and it was a great year. I've already seen some great films in 2014 and I suspect I'll spend just as much time geekily obsessing over which should be 16th and which should be 17th in around 10 months time. 

Star Trek: Into Darkness (Abrams, 2013)

For the first review of this revived blog, I’m going to talk about the film I watched tonight, “Star Trek: Into Darkness”.

The first two thirds of the review will be spoiler free and there will be a dividing line before I go into more detail, so as long as you exercise a bit of caution you’ll be fine to read this review even if you’ve not yet seen the film

It’s a film that benefits from the Blu-Ray treatment I granted it, just as it justified the IMAX spectacle I first saw it in. It is undoubtedly spectacular and J.J Abrams is undoubtedly a successor to Spielberg’s skill with large scale, imaginative set pieces. Whether he can rival the master’s ability to combine spectacle with character is less evident.

“Into Darkness” suffers from classic sequel syndrome. It wants to be bigger and more ambitious, while maintaining the sense of character and fun that made the first film a success. The end result is a film that certainly ramps the scale of the plot up yet relies on a number of set pieces that it’s hard not to compare to disappointingly similar moments in the first one. One is even preceded by a line from Kirk which is oddly self-aware for a film repeating one of its predecessor’s highlights.

That’s not to say that the film is anything less than enjoyable. It widens the Trek universe (Trekiverse???? I don’t know) and introduces one of the most intriguing races. It engages with moral dilemmas like all good sci-fi should.  The cast of the Enterprise are clearly developing a good relationship, selling the interactions of a group stuck in close proximity but dealing with life-threatening scenarios.

Star Trek, in all its iterations, has always relied on the relationship between its crew and what developments there are in characters feel earned after the first films exploits. However what progress there is is limited to a small number of central characters and several important roles get disappointingly little screen time. As someone who was never a huge Trek fan, certainly not of the original series, many of the characters are hamstrung by the limits of fan expectations and the fact that this film is in many ways a prequel to what fans already know and love. The first film may have deliberately given the franchise some wiggle room with talk of alternate timelines, but there are still limits on what can happen and where they can go before hardcore fans are alienated (more of that in the spoiler heavy section a few paragraphs below).

There are stunning visual moments, with the opening sequence showing what is now possible with vibrant colours and spectacular landscapes. The action is well directed if a little underwhelming given the context.

It deals with an iconic villain well and gives Benedict Cumberpatch enough to work with that he feels well cast. Little of the scenery comes away un-chewed, but there is enough justification in the plot to get away with it.

Pine and Quinto are both growing into their roles and, well cast initially they now threaten to eclipse their inspirations (higher praise for Quinto than Pine it must be said). Simon Pegg get’s some added moral depth as Scotty and Zoe Saldana’s Uhura portrays her relationship with Spock well, but it has to be said she is doing her best with a limited romantic sub plot when the actress is capable of so much more. Outside of her the named cast are never elevated beyond their most basic identifiers, a bit of a waste considering the strong cast.

It is a film that comfortably exceeds the minimum expectations from a summer blockbuster. The action is exciting, the back and forth between key characters witty and the stakes high. However it never truly eclipses the first film. Visually there is no particular moment that rivals the Romulan attack on Vulcan in the 2009 effort and the character development isn’t complex enough to pass that off as a move towards a more mature, subtle approach. Perhaps that is simply being damned by past successes, but it still ends up counting against the film.

The film is great fun and if you enjoyed the first film I have no doubt you will enjoy this, as I did, but I’d be hard pressed to argue it offered anything hugely new and in fact wastes a lot of potential in both characters and plot, something I will look at in more detail  below.

Overall I did genuinely enjoy this film, it was above average for summer blockbusters, but only slightly, and as long as you don’t go in with artificially raised expectations I reckon you will enjoy it too.

Beware – Spoilers Below

No Really – It’s all spoilers down here

I am faced with a bit of a dilemma when reviewing this film. My main issue with the film is one which it is perhaps unreasonable to attack Abrams over.

He is limited by the fact he is working with one of the most familiar sets of characters in modern fiction. You can’t kill off anyone important without risking the wrath of huge swathes of the internet and you don’t get the chance to reboot the Star Wars franchise if you’ve made yourself persona non grata online.

However he sets up a storyline in the final act which has a lot of dramatic and emotional potential, with Kirk learning the value of selflessness at the ultimate price and Spock being driven by a very human desire for vengeance. You could create a very interesting alternate Star Trek universe, where Kirk dies to save the Enterprise and creates a much more conflicted Spock.

The whole sequence is well delivered, with Kirk making the decision to sacrifice himself without any hand-wringing or grand speeches. He does what is needed in the moment to save his crew and I would have committed so much more to that moment if I wasn’t absolutely certain that his plot armour would guarantee a work around for a fatal dose of radiation.

Many would argue that it’s simply a reality of the action-fantasy genre that key characters survive impossible circumstances. You can’t kill Captain Kirk. To argue you should is to say Luke should die in “The Empire Strikes Back” and Frodo should fall in “The Fellowship of the Ring”. Without these characters the franchise is gutted.

Perhaps this is true, but I can’t pretend that I wouldn’t find the Star Trek franchise infinitely more exciting if you introduced the idea that characters who survived the entire of the TV show might die at any moment.

I’m reminded of a joke I saw on Reddit, I’m not sure of the original source but I know it’s been shared widely;

Joss Whedon, Steven Moffat and George R. R. Martin walk into a bar and everyone you’ve ever loved dies.

I’ve cursed every one of them for killing a beloved character at some point, but it is that same willingness to dispense of beloved characters that makes their work so interesting. Action sequences have so much more drama if you can’t guarantee any of the key character’s survival.

I acknowledge that what I’m arguing is probably unrealistic and unfair in the reality of studio budgets and expectations, but it doesn’t change my frustration with this film. It’s the frustration that stems from a film that tempts me with real drama, then chickens out at the end. The having your cake and eating it nature of “Into Darkness” annoys me and takes away from what is otherwise a strong effort.

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Please let me know whether this two tiered approach to film reviews works? I don’t want to post a separate spoiler review because people stumbling across my blog might find themselves staring straight away at a whole host of spoilers for a film they’re about to see. I think this is best, giving the reader a genuine choice. However if you have any suggestions on how to maintain a blog which offers spoiler –free and spoiler-heavy reviews at the same time I welcome them.

It's Been A While

I haven’t written a blog entry in a long time. I haven’t written anything in a long time.

In fact that’s not quite true. I’ve written plenty since finishing university nearly two years ago. Just very little has survived the dreaded delete button. Certainly I haven’t come close to sharing anything with an audience in months.

Writer’s block. Crisis of confidence. Being far too self-conscious. Call it what you will, all I know is I’ve struggled to write and hated the majority of what I have.

But I’m going to try and change that in the next few weeks. I worry that my difficulties have become somewhat self-fulfilling, that the block is now self-imposed. I hate what I write because I’ve convinced myself I can’t write anymore. It’s possibly often objectively no better or worse than what I used to be able to write (the quality of that is up to your own judgement) but my perspective shades what I do.

Now anyone who knows me at all will probably not be surprised at that possibility. I have never been someone blessed with easy confidence or certainty. The circle of self-doubt is brutal; I doubt the merit of what I do, so I do less and less and that failure to do anything becomes the proof that the original doubt was well placed.

What I know is that I really used to enjoy writing, that it used to be a great outlet for aspects of my hyper-active, self-deprecating and self-conscious internal monologue.

I’m not going to make any proclamations about how much I will write, I’ve gone down that route before and the words end up hollow promises. What I will say is that I intend to try my best to keep writing and to share what I can on here.

This first post will serve as a brief update on what’s going on in my life, to get it out the way before I go on to writing about films, politics and history.

I know I have retreated from posting online. I used to be much more active on this blog, on Facebook and Twitter. In itself a move away from sharing online would not necessarily be a bad thing. However I can’t pretend that that shift isn’t reflected to a degree by my offline life. For better or worse, for a whole host of reasons, I have become much more closed off and private than I used to be. I know that I can benefit from keeping some of that change, but I know I have done so largely in pursuit of some false concept of safety. 

I’ve always been very introspective, if not always classically introvert, but I feel I need to address this particular slide.

Getting back into writing is just part of the efforts I’m putting in at the moment, glacial minor changes that might, I hope, build to a marginally happier me.

Since university I have tried to get my life back under control, It was spiralling out a little by the end of third year. I was seriously unhappy and making a lot of bad decisions. I scraped through final year on the back of my ability to write; my ability to string sentences together saved my degree when through inaction and wilful self-sabotage I very nearly screwed it up. I’d gained a lot of weight, allowed friendships to peter out and was in a generally dark place. I wasn’t convinced I wanted a future and was, I now realise, taking steps to remove a lot of the things that might keep me going.

Now while it’s not easy for me to talk openly about that period, about my depression, I suspect it doesn’t come as a shock to many who’ve known me. I always had tendencies towards depression and probably always will. It’s a part of me that I’ve fought hard to bring under control. The reason I write about it at all is that I’m sure some of my friends are also struggling or have done and there is a tendency to suffer on alone when dealing with depression. It rarely helps anyone and that feeling of isolation often makes it much worse. I write because I have managed to pull myself back from a brink that looking back scares me, and if someone like me can do that it surely must give hope to others.

In the last two years I’ve begun to build a future I can enjoy again. I’ve held down a job for a year and a half, working in admin and retail. The latter was particularly important, a customer facing role was perfect, forcing me to engage with others rather than hide away. I’ve got back in shape, running 10k’s for myself and happily raising money for a number of good charities along the way. I’m now planning to run a 24k race this summer, a challenge that is daunting but exciting and will require me to put in hard work consistently for the next few months.

I have applied for a Masters in American History, a passion that developed during my time at De Montfort University. I can picture myself in a few years lecturing at a university and to simply have that picture is progress for me even If it doesn’t come to fruition. I can imagine myself enjoying work in that profession, though it isn’t one that occurred to me until the last two years. I’ve saved money to pay off the majority of my fees and that will allow me to, if I don’t get on the course, travel a bit this year, see a little of what the world has to offer, before saving up again and working harder to try and get accepted the next year.

So that’s where I am, where I’ve been and where I plan to go.

I promise the rest of the blog won’t be anywhere near this self-centred. I just wanted to get that out, wanted to start with a bit of a clear slate, and maybe update a few people who I’ve lost touch with over the years.

From now on the blog is going to be primarily film reviews; I have an unlimited Cineworld card this year so I’m seeing more films than ever before. I will also probably write about politics and history when a particularly interesting story catches my attention. In the meantime if you want to read about a range of political and historical topics you could do worse than check out one of my course mates from university, Jamie Smith’s blog - http://futiledemocracy.wordpress.com/ - his ability to write consistently impresses me.

So that’s all for now, but I will hopefully return soon. 

P.S Listen to the new Elbow album, it's stunning.

The Muppets (2011)

I've been intending to write a review of this film for a month or so, even before I actually started posting again, but after watching it for the third time overall (and second within five days), I decided I'd waited long enough.

The number of times I've watched the film gives some indication of my feelings towards it, but just in case there is any uncertainty, I absolutely adored 'The Muppets'. It's as close to a perfect feel good film as I can think of, so wonderfully and unashamedly joyous that I struggle to imagine how you could watch it and not smile for the majority of the 1hr 46m run time.

One of the films I remember most clearly from my childhood, distinct from all the animated Disney films I watched incessantly, is 'Muppet Treasure Island' (1996). The film was a fantastic and ridiculous take on the classic Robert Louis Stevenson novel, full of swash buckling, buried treasure and a whole host of bizarre comedy. Ever since seeing that, as well as the Muppet's take on 'A Christmas Carol' (1992), a few of the original episodes and lots of the other show featuring Jim Henson's creations, 'Sesame Street', I have held a special place in my heart for those brilliant little puppets and their crazy antics.

So when it was announced that Jason Segel, a man I was already fond of due to his role in the U.S sitcom 'How I Met Your Mother' and his brilliant performance in 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' (2008), was writing and starring in a new Muppets feature film, I had a suspicion I would enjoy the final product.

Somehow despite my almost impossibly high expectations and rose tinted nostalgia, the film managed to pleasantly surprise me.

The film tells the story of Walter, a Muppet, and his human brother, Gary (Segel) and his long time (and suffering) girl friend Mary (Amy Adams) who discover a plot by the so evil he sings about it, Tex Richman to destroy the Muppet theatre and drill for the oil beneath it. To fight back Walter decides to round up all the Muppets for one last show, a telethon with a target of $10,000,000. As the show unfolds and the cameos pile up, the film just gets better and better, adding genuine heart and emotion, both fuzzy and fleshy, to the comedy and musical numbers.

As for the musical numbers, they are such great tunes you catch yourself singing them for days afterwards, especially two written by Bret McKenzie, one half of Flight of the Conchords. There's the infectiously cheery 'Life's a Happy Song'  and possibly the best ballad from any film in recent history, 'Man or Muppet', which won an Oscar for best original song, while Kermit, Miss Piggy and Mary all get their own moments to shine on the soundtrack.

The human actors, both main characters and cameos, are pretty much without exception excellent, but it was always going to be the puppets that were the stars, just as it should be. It's amazing how engaging and expressive the Muppets are, to the point that you don't have to put much effort into suspending your disbelief at the interactions between human and Muppet. The film draws you into it's world and you quickly begin to believe in the relationship between Walter and Gary, but more than that you also start to invest in the purely felt based friendships and romances, especially the will they wont they drama of Kermit and Miss Piggy.

The film has real heart and a clear and intense belief that sometimes a film can aim simply to make the audience smile from ear to ear and in that regard, as in so many others, 'The Muppets' is a rousing success.

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Funny, entertaining, proudly nostalgic and determinedly happy; 'The Muppets' is a film that offers great tunes, laughs and more than a little heart, appealing to adults and children alike in a way you rarely see outside of Pixar movies.


10/10