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The idea of Alfred Hitchcock as anything but a master of cinema is foreign to film lovers in 2016. And yet once upon a time, the Master of Suspense was looked down upon as a mere ‘entertainer’. A big moment in changing that perception was the publishing of Hitchcock/Truffaut, a book that saw François Truffaut chart his conversations with Hitchcock as they explored his filmography and has since become a guide to filmmakers the world over.
Bone Tomahawk is a strange meld of different ideas. On one hand, it’s a traditional Western, following a posse on their hunt to save those kidnapped from their village. On the other, it’s a horror film, when in the final act they discover those who have done the kidnapping are a group of cannibalistic troglodytes. And yet on a strange – slightly smaller – third hand, it is a comedy, stuffed with amusing conversations and witty observations.
A Bigger Splash is a film stuffed with narcissistic people that are really hard to like. While that doesn’t have to be a problem, it often can be, and it takes a talented director to turn a film about twats into something worth watching. Italian director Luca Guadagnino may just be that man and he is certainly helped by one hell of a cast.
Deadpool’s journey to the big screen has been a tough one. It went through the horror that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the destruction of everything that makes that character beloved. If one good thing came out of that, though, it brought one of its biggest fans into the fold, and Ryan Reynolds has fought tooth and nail to bring an adult version of that character to life. When test footage was leaked online in 2014, the fans response was huge, and Fox finally gave into demand and greenlit a relatively small budget version of the Merc with a Mouth.
Goosebumps has no right to be good. Based on the works of R.L. Stine, it should be a soulless cash grab. However, with the helpful hand of Rob Letterman in control and Jack Black playing the role of Mr Stine himself it has somehow come to be, as a Joe Dante-inspired family horror film, as likely to make you laugh as it is to make you jump.
Hollywood self-reflection is always a bit strange. When the vapidest of places turns the camera on itself, you never quite know what to expect. So a film detailing the period where they turned so anti-communist that they created the infamous blacklist (which prevented communists from working) and even had several prominent communists chucked in jail, is even stranger. But that is where Trumbo takes us. With, unsurprisingly, particular focus on Dalton Trumbo, the writer of films like Roman Holiday and Spartacus and one of the biggest critics of said list.
The Assassin has established itself as a bit of a critical darling. Sight & Sound went as far as naming it their film of 2015, which was a strange move for a British magazine since it had its commercial release this year in the UK. Yet that confidence boost obviously didn’t satisfy the marketing department as they made the decision to advertise it to UK audiences as a wuxia film while in reality it only bears slight resemblances to that genre. It is a combination that leaves you wondering whether this is going to be yet another example of a film beloved by critics, but not the general public.
Depicting journalism on screen is a tricky task. The truth is that it is rarely clandestine meetings with mysterious sources but is more often simple, long and boring fact-checking followed by bursts of excitement when a big story comes along. It’s this that Spotlight aims to capture. The tale of the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team’s investigation into the Catholic Church Abuse Scandal is lacking huge set pieces and dramatic gestures and instead features plain old journalism, but still manages to be gripping from start to finish.
Forty years ago Sly Stallone was nominated for an Oscar for playing the role of Rocky Balboa. At that point, you would have been insane if you’d chosen to bet on him getting a nomination for the same role in 2016. Here we are, though, and not only has Creed allowed Sly to rediscover his mojo, but it may have dragged the Rocky franchise back from the brink.
If someone was to sit you down and request you write a list of directors whom you believed would be likely to direct a film on the 2008 financial crash, how many would you get through before you got to Adam McKay? The man who created Ron Burgundy may have included a small lecture at the end of The Other Guys about said financial crash, but he would still have been far down most people’s lists. And yet, here we sit. The Big Short not only exists but has five Oscar nominations, including Best Director for McKay. So how did he pull it off?
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