Everyone else is making best of the decade lists, so I thought I'd get in on it too! First up is films - read on to find out what my favourite films for 2010-2019 were! So, time to kick off my own personal roundup of the decade. Impossible as it might seem to choose a favourite anything from an entire decade, there is a method to how I’ve gone about this - I simply looked at the books, games, albums and films that I had bothered spending actual money on, and made a list of my favourites out of those. Then I removed all the ones that actually came out fifteen years ago, which made me feel kind of old. Then, out of what was left, I thought about how long they had been in my life and how tempted I was to listen to, watch, read or play them again. The ones that gave me the strongest desire to experience them again are the ones that swiped the top spot in each category. But it’s worth mentioning the others because, well, I like to be enthusiastic about stuff and talk at people about it. For each category, I’ve come up with a shortlist and a number one, except for albums where it’s a list of ten. This is because I listen to albums more than I read books, watch films or play games, and also because I have had some practice writing about albums on the final project of my MA and don’t want to get out of touch with it. Films are up first, so let’s dive in!
5 Taking the number five spot is the beautifully ballistic, utterly bonkers Mad Max: Fury Road. Prior to seeing this in the cinema, I had seen the first film - which I wasn’t much of a fan of - and Beyond Thunderdome many years ago on TV, which was for some reason introduced by Zane Lowe. I had avoided watching The Road Warrior because I didn’t have fond memories of the other two, and because I am an idiot. The Road Warrior is amazing. However, I never would have watched The Road Warrior if it wasn’t for Fury Road. I remember seeing the trailers and thinking “That looks totally like my kind of film, but I am well aware that if I see it I might be wasting my money and only have myself to blame,” because I just had the weirdness of Thunderdome and the dullness of the original to compare it to. Also, the only other George Miller film I had seen was the frankly quite disturbing Happy Feet, so I was well aware that Fury Road could have gone either way for me. I needn’t have worried. Fury Road is the post-apocalyptic Western that I felt like the other films I’d seen at that point had tried to (unsuccessfully) be. It was as if someone had put the world of Fallout on the screen. The attention to detail to make the inhabitants of the wasteland distinct from one another and as if they actually lived in those conditions was faultless. Likewise, the vehicles, which are elevated to the importance of practically being co-stars, have a level of thought put into their design and functionality that is meticulous and evident enough that I found myself smiling and shaking my head at moments of ingenuity - whether it’s the practical - the vents that close to keep sand out - or the spectacular; in particular, the Doof Mobile, a huge rig covered in amps and ridden by a mutated nutcase playing a flamethrowing guitar. It’s thanks to George Miller and Production Designer Colin Gibson that I get to write that sentence. Thanks guys! For a film that’s set entirely in a desert environment populated with rusted, spike covered vehicles, Fury Road is also a heart-stoppingly beautiful film. The transitions between different set pieces and locations, with their accompanying oversaturated, bold colours really help to break up what could become an otherwise monotonous setting. Likewise, the mega storm that the War Rig leads its pursuers into as it makes a break for freedom is a swirling, vibrant maelstrom, as beautiful as it is deadly. Many comments I have seen in the wake of Fury Road coming out have said it should be called “Imperator Furiosa: Fury Road” or similar, but to me this speaks of people who need to watch more films. Max is almost a pawn here, yes, but that’s because the Mad Max films are really Aussie Westerns. Some of the greatest Westerns feature a hero who’s “Just passin’ through” who becomes embroiled with the troubles of the locals (even if it turns out they have their own motivations later), and it’s when Miller leans into this genre more that he gets the best results, with both the Road Warrior and Fury Road. Max is our reason to see this story unfold, not its hero, which is a rather refreshing take on the action genre, and the film is also blissfully free of a tacked on romantic sublot between the two leads. Whenever the next Mad Max comes out, I will be there for it. Witness! 4 Number four is an actual Western - Quentin Tarantino’s eighth film, Django Unchained. As I try to avoid reviews of films I definitely know I’ll be seeing at the cinema, I really didn’t know what to expect going into Django Unchained. I knew the cast, of course, and that made me worry slightly. As much as I liked Christoph Waltz, he was way too talky in Inglourious Basterds. I know that’s not down to him, that’s down to Tarantino’s script, but it was still some cause for concern. What if Tarantino did the same again, and just had him waffle on in every scene he was in? Luckily, this wasn’t the case at all. Waltz puts in a star turn as bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz, level headed but surprisingly big hearted, and although he does do plenty of talking, it’s nothing like as excessive as in Inglourious Basterds. This made me think it was an over indulgence Tarantino had got over, Death Proof also having been something of a blabby affair, but the extremely dull, overlong, fan-service-cameo stuffed and chatty Hateful Eight put paid to that notion. Django Unchained is both a homage to classic Spaghetti Westerns and a very different take on them. Tarantino stated that he wanted to make films about the darker sides of American history, but as genre films, and chose one of the darkest chapters of American history that he could have done for this attempt - slavery. Casting Jamie Foxx as the titular hero, Tarantino sets him and his emancipator Schultz on a quest for vengeance, both on a personal level and on a grand scale. Along the way, Django will learn the ways of the bounty hunter, equipping him with the tools he will need to exact his revenge on his former oppressors. One on one conflicts have all the hallmarks of the likes of Sergio Leone, ramping up the tension before a moment of explosive violence, while run-ins with the likes of the KKK take place on a grander stage, allowing for greater spectacle, as well as featuring surprising moments of levity. An understated performance from a softly spoken Jamie Foxx lends his character a quiet dignity, even when he’s undertaking the same kind of bloodthirsty acts of his captors, and that DiCaprio performance is rightly praised, his simmering menace and off-kilter gentility wonderfully scene stealing. Django Unchained is an epic, bloody take on the Spaghetti Western, which, although it falls some way short of the best examples of the genre, is nevertheless a wonderful exponent of it. 3 At number three, it’s the only Marvel film on this list - Captain America: The Winter Soldier. When I saw Captain America: The First Avenger, I was distinctly unimpressed. This was largely because my friend had insisted we watch all five of the first Marvel films back to back ready to see Avengers Assemble the next day, meaning the first film starring Cap was the last we got to. We didn’t start watching until two in the morning, after several beers, and I struggled to stay awake. I have since reappraised the film, and found it much more enjoyable. But at the time I saw Winter Soldier, my experience of Captain America-led films was not a happy one. Yet again though, this was another example of my expectations happily being far exceeded. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the Marvel film I would show to somebody who said they didn’t like Marvel films - not as some weird kind of hostage scenario you understand, just if they hypothetically challenged me to change their mind. In fact, I have shown it to people who said they didn’t like the Marvel films. It made no difference. But I stand by my claim that The Winter Soldier has more “breakout” appeal than any of the rest of the series. It leans far less on him being super, which is what most people who have a problem with the Marvel films seem to object to, and far more on his humanity and personal code. Steve Rogers, as a character, has always had the strongest moral compass of any member of the Avengers, and the Russo brothers smartly rely on this to get us to respect the character and empathise with the difficult decisions he wrestles with here. Personal relationships also play a huge part. Scarlett Johansson is more Romanoff than Widow - still an absolute badass that you wouldn’t dream of messing with, but a more grounded, human character than we’d seen previously. Steve is never really sure if he can trust an agent of Fury, but the two find they have to rely on each other as events unfold. Her fear when she realises it’s the Winter Soldier that they’re going up against is also not just humanising, it’s a subtle bit of storytelling. With everything we’ve seen Black Widow take on before, someone that she’s afraid of must really be something else. And is he ever. The fights between the Winter Soldier and the other characters are action packed, and see him stalking them mercilessly like some kind of Terminator before going in for the kill up close and personal, with hand to hand combat between him and Steve that’s almost too fast to see. The noise the Winter Soldier’s arm makes as he supercharges it to break a hold on him is burned forever in my brain - a kind of twisting, powered metal noise - which is surely a sign of excellent sound design. Much of the brawling reminded me of something you might see in a Bourne film, just with a slightly superpowered edge. And that can only be a good thing. 2 Number two on this list, and worthy of the spot for any number of reasons, is Ex Machina. This science fiction thriller was on my radar as soon as I read about it. It was both written and directed by Alex Garland, author of The Beach, The Tesseract and The Coma (all excellent - ignore the film of The Beach entirely) and writer of the scripts for 28 Days Later, Dredd (which only narrowly missed out on being included on this list - consider this an honourable mention!) and the hugely underrated Sunshine. This is the first example on this list of a film I was sure I would like before I saw it, and I was not disappointed. In fact, my expectations were exceeded. Domnhall Gleeson plays Caleb, a young programmer who wins an internal contest to be flown out to the private island owned by the boss of the tech company he works for (played by Oscar Isaac) and stay with him. It soon becomes clear to Caleb, however, that boss Nathan isn’t just after a bit of company, and soon shows off his latest work to him - Ava. Nathan has been experimenting with AI, and Ava is the result, an intelligent humanoid robot, which Caleb is expected to put through her paces. What unfolds is a slow burning, tension-filled masterpiece. Caleb, Nathan and Ava all have their reasons to either trust or doubt each other, and Garland as writer and director respects his audience’s intelligence enough to let us ask the questions that the film demands ourselves rather than having the characters state them for us. Ex Machina has plenty in common with the moodier episodes of Black Mirror, in particular the episode Be Right Back, which coincidentally also stars Gleeson. Watching Ex Machina, just as with many episodes of Black Mirror, feels like a deeply personal experience, one that should be reflected on after the credits have rolled. Like another science fiction masterpiece, Blade Runner, it forces us to ask big questions; a thought experiment in cinematic form. By the end of the film, I found myself asking what it meant to be human. Can humanity be learned? And if it can, does it mean that those who learn it are therefore just as deserving of existence as we are? Or does it instead mean that humanity is devalued if it could be taught to an artificial construct? And so on. I find myself coming back to these questions often, not just because they are recurrent in science fiction generally but because the way Ex Machina puts them to us is so memorable. I find I am unable to think of the debates around AI without also thinking of the issues that Ex Machina raises, which then conjures up remembered images from what is a very pretty film. The visual effects are outstanding, Ava’s internal workings on display being particularly jaw dropping. The overall aesthetic of Nathan’s home, where much of the film is set, is all clean lines and smooth surfaces, seeming to exist in opposition to the nature it’s surrounded by. Indeed, Caleb’s entry to the house is almost needlessly high tech, serving to highlight Nathan’s imposition on the natural order, and foreshadowing what Caleb is to discover inside. A truly special way to spend a couple of hours, that will stay with you for much longer. 1 So, finally onto the number one spot! My number one film of the decade is… drum roll… The Grand Budapest Hotel! The circumstances around me seeing this film are probably the most unusual of any on this list, as I saw it in a group of about twenty people at a festival, during a break between artists. Watching a film in wellies and a deckchair probably would have made it memorable anyway, but the fact that the film I was watching alternately made me laugh, shocked me, scared me and moved me made it stand out even more. It was as if Wes Anderson was in possession of a switch that controlled my emotional responses, and just threw it whenever he felt like it. Prior to seeing this film, my only experience of Wes Anderson was another of his ensemble pieces, The Royal Tenenbaums, which I had enjoyed but not to the extent where I felt compelled to watch out for his work in future. Trailers for The Grand Budapest Hotel piqued my interest in it though. It had a style all of its own, and seemed also to be the very definition of an all-star cast: Adrien Brody, Ralph Fiennes, Bill Murray, Harvey Keitel, Saoirse Ronan, Tilda Swinton… the list goes on. Trailers painted a picture of a madcap caper, and indeed this was exactly what the film turned out to be - Fiennes plays the character of Gustave H, concierge at the hotel of the film’s title and a favourite (to put it mildly) of the older, female clientele. His young apprentice, Zero Moustafa, is a lobby boy, played by future Flash Thompson Tony Revolori, who is hired at the beginning of the tale and quickly falling under Gustave’s charms. Together, they attempt to outsmart their pursuers, including the terrifying Jopling, played by Willem Dafoe channelling Anton Chigurh, Michael Myers and every other unstoppable killer (with a slightly comedic undercurrent). Adrien Brody makes the most of his limited screen time as Jopling’s employer Dmitri, dispatching the deadly assassin in an attempt to retrieve the priceless painting that Gustave and Zero have laid claim to. The chase itself is what the plot of the film mostly concerns itself with, pausing along the way for a hilarious prison break and managing to accommodate a very wholesome romantic sub-plot alongside everything else. The film reminded me of an old black and white comedy from fifty or so years ago at times, with its plot of dispossessed heirs, scheming villains and charming, witty brits. Ironic, really, given how intensely vibrant the film looks. The hotel itself is a richly appointed building, adorned with gilt and filled with glowing golden light, and is a real visual treat. Even in its bleaker moments or settings, such as the prison, the film is never anything less than stunning to look at, actors framed against gorgeous backdrops - both interiors and landscapes - in such a way that you are never in any doubt that you are gazing upon art. Whilst the film doesn’t necessarily have any deep, profound message, it’s a charming and pure example of its medium, and for that reason is my number one film of the decade. Well, that turned out much longer than expected! Next up will be my top games of the last decade, the content of which will probably be no great surprise to anybody who knows me. I promise it does contain at least one game from this generation though. Currently reading: The Outsider, Albert Camus Currently listening: Wake the Sleeping Dragon!, Sick of It All
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AuthorOllie - BA English and Creative Writing, MA Publishing. Archives
April 2020
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