#4: LICORICE PIZZA

 

Starring Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Bradley Cooper, Benny Safdie. Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Running time 134 minutes. Budget $40 mil. 

They say the course of true love never runs smooth, and that sure is the case with Liquorice Pizza, the 8th film from Paul Thomas Anderson, who also wrote and directed: Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, There Will be Blood, The Master, Inherent Vice, and Phantom Thread. Which, if you think about is a simply staggering body of work! 

The story sees Gary Valentine, a15 year-old, child actor, (Cooper Hoffman) meet Alana Kane, a 25 year-old photography assistant (Alana Haim). He asks her out for a date and they become friends, start a waterbed company together, before slightly falling out, open a pin-ball aracade (in his case) and dabble with politics (in her case) before finally... well that would spoil it. 

Set in LA in 1973, the summer of the fuel crisis and Live and Let Die, this 'coming-of-age comedy-drama', was an utter delight from beginning to end, with a sound track of sheer bliss, to the performances of Phillip Seymour Hoffman's son, Cooper and Alana Haim, to the likes of Sean Penn, Tom Waits and Bradley Cooper in fantastic supporting roles. 

I simply cannot fault this film, I adored it, I loved it! I laughed, giggled, and fell in love with the characters! The film felt so naturalistic, so fun and just so damn enjoyable it was impossible not to be whisked along by it. I realised about an hour in that there was no plot at all and it mattered not one iota, just like real life this film didn't need one, it just followed our leads as their lives rolled along and entwined with each others. Sure along the way the likes of Hollywood legends William Holden (Sean Penn) and Jon Peters (Bradly Cooper) and mayoral candidate Joel Wachs briefly intruded, but that's it for shocking third act plot reveals.

It's beautifully written, expertly directed and fantastically acted. Honestly, I doubt I'll see another film this year that delights me more, I even sat right through to the very, very end, not because I hoped there'd be some Marvel post credit sting, but because the music was so good and I was enjoying the graphics of the credits.

I still find myself thinking about it two days later and considering a return visit to watch it again.

Like liquorice itself this film might not be to everyone's taste, but for me, it was a cinematic manna.

10/10 

TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2021, AND THE WORST!

TOP TEN MOVIES OF 2021

In total I went to the cinema a grand total of 42 times and saw 35 movies. This list only includes films seen at the cinema and not via streaming and only films seen at my local 12 screen cinema, so not that many 'art-house' films for me.

Other people who post lists like these, make a point of declaring that the list is just their own opinion of the films they've seen. I make no such claim, or apology for my choices. As far as I'm concerned these are the BEST (and worst films of 2021).

But, before we get there, here is a list of all the films I saw at the cinema, or at a screening.

ALL FILMS SEEN IN 2021

1. Godzilla vs Kong

2. Nomadland

3. The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard

4. Black Widow

5. Fast and Furious 9

6. Monster Hunter

7. The Courier

8. The Suicide Squad (seen twice)

9. Free Guy (seen twice)

10. Nobody

11. Cruella

12. Cop Shop

13. Shang Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings

14. Reminiscence

15. Tomorrow War

16. Snake Eyes G.I. Joe Origins

17. Dune (reissue)

18. Wonder Woman 1984

19. Clockwork Orange

20. No Time To Die (seen three times)

21. Venom: Let There Be Carnage

22. Dune

23. The French Dispatch

24. Don't Look Now 

25. The Eternals

26. Last Night in Soho

27. Ghostbusters: Afterlife

28. Rocky IV: The Director's Cut

29. House of Gucci

30. Spider-Man: No Way Home

31. It's a Wonderful Life

32. Die Hard

33. Matrix: Resurrection

34. King's Man

TOP TEN

1. NO TIME TO DIE 9/10

2. THE FRENCH DISPATCH 9/10

3. THE COURIER 8/10

4. SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME 8/10

5. GODZILLA VS. KONG 8/10

6. DUNE 8/10

7. THE SUICIDE SQUAD 8/10

8. FREE GUY 8/10

9. NOBODY 8/10

10. LAST NIGHT IN SOHO 8/10

I loved No Time to Die, which I rewatched on Boxing Day on Blu Ray. Still loved it. On first viewing it was a 10/10 but subsequently the score was revised to a 9/10, it lost one mark because of a lack of back story for the villain, or explanation of his actual ambition.

The French Dispatch, although not Wes Anderson's best movie was still a delight and a visual triumph. It suffered from a saggy middle with the second of the three segments, but overall was a delightful change from the menu of big budget blockbusters my list is jammed full of, indeed my top-ten list two super-hero movies, three science-fiction films, one action, and one horror.

I would heartily recommend the third place movie, The Courier, starring Bendy Cumcumberpatch, was gripping, deeply engrossing and powerful, based on real life, it was dead good.

TOP FIVE (RE-ISSUED MOVIES)

These films speak for themselves. Only one of these failed to score a 10/10 score. Bet you can't guess which one got less than 10.

1. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

2. DIE HARD

3. CLOCKWORK ORANGE

4. DON'T LOOK NOW

5. DUNE (1985)

And now for the list you've all been waiting for!

BOTTOM FIVE WORST FILMS OF THE YEAR (IN REVERSE ORDER)

5. VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE 5/10

4. REMINISCENCE 5/10

3. SNAKE EYES: G.I. JOE ORIGINS 4/10

2. MONSTER HUNTER 3/10

And the single worst film of the year, a film that actually left me angry.

1. FAST AND FURIOUS 9 2/10

#3: THE ELECTRICAL LIFE OF LOUIS WAIN

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy, Andrea Risenborough, Toby Jones and narrated by Olivia Colman. Written by Simon Stephenson and Will Sharpe and directed by Will Sharpe. Running time 111 minutes.

I love a good bio-pic, particularly the old Hollywood ones, which always painted their subjects as salt-of-the-Earth saints with only the mildest of blemishes against their reputations. Those films offered a gentle toe-dip into the lives of their real-life characters, usually following their rise to the top, as they overcome a series of obstacles, meet their one true-loves, and become famous, before a sad demise or a resounding 'Happily Ever After' as the studios turned their ordinary people with extraordinary talents into the later-day equivalent of Saints.

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, or TELOLW if you will, is a comedy/drama biopic that does all of the above but with one exception. It all appears to be true! Louis Wain was a true artist, beset by a catalogue of dramas that would break the strongest of us. 

Wain was a Victorian artist who is credited for making the cat our favourite pet through a series of wonderful cat cartoons. He was a prolific artist with the ability, or so we are told, to draw simultaneously with both hands, he specialised in animals and worked for the London Illustrated News. At the age of 20, he was forced to provide for five sisters and one mother after the death of his father and the film follows his life from just after the funeral until his own demise some 59 years later. Along the way, he struggles with schizophrenia, meets and loses the one-true love of his life, rises to the top of his game, makes a fortune, loses a fortune and tumbles down into poverty, obscurity and madness.

Beautifully acted by ALL, from an electric Benedict Cumberbatch, deeply moving Claire Foy and Toby Jones, only Andrea Risenborough, as Wain's elder sister, mars the proceedings by acting on 11 while all around her are on 8. She's so insanely intense and comedically angry that she becomes the film's villainess. The true heart of this film is the relationship between Wain and his wife Emily (Claire Foy) and once she's gone from proceedings we, like Wain, are left bereft. 

This is a whimsical film that is rich in detail and design, it looks simply lovely and is deeply moving at times, although I also found it somewhat frustrating, elements are skipped across, that I would love to have lingered longer over and there is a sense that we're being increasingly pulled faster towards a terrible conclusion and you so want Wain to get a happily-ever-after.

Once again, this sort of film sings for me, loudly above the usual belch of the blockbuster and I find myself happily lost in its running time and dismissing the few bum notes. 

8/10

#2: THE 355

Starring Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyong'o Penélope Cruz, Sebastian Stan, Édgar Ramírez and  Fan Bingbing. Written by Theresa Rebeck and directed by Simon Kinberg. Budget $40 - 75 mill. Running time 123 minutes.

There's this computer thingie that can crack any code, break into any system and hack any computer and best of all it works off a mobile phone. So when it's stolen and turns up on the market, the whole world and its dog, well at least the whole world of intelligence services and their dogs literally fall over themselves to own it for themselves. Cut to an endless round of cross and double-cross and high-jinx shenanigans as five female members of a variety of intelligences agencies, lead by top C.I.A agent Jessica Chastain all team-up, overcome their differences, and travel from one exotic location to the next in order to save the world, and kick-ass and shoot the living shit out of a variety of bad men, lead by one very bad man at the top, who's finally killed by a man! (not a spoiler).

This is balls-out action movie (or should that be Vag-out action movie?), which despite all it's hi-tech doo-dahs, is rather old fashioned in its plot and story. Imagine Mission Impossible, but done much more cheaply and featuring an all-female gang of agents fighting an endless supply of bad men, because never forget all men are bad and you have The 355, a rather poe-faced action-packed slog that starts off very well and then just slowly pisses all that good will up a wall at the pace of a 60 year-old man with an enlarged prostate and you have the 355. 

Not terrible, just a bit too by the numbers and a little bit too earnest and a little too happy to let you play cliche bingo with all its plot points and contrivances for its own good. And don't start asking questions about the plot holes and you'll be told no lies. 

There comes a point, quite late in the proceedings, when a female Chinese spy enters the picture and gives a rather offensive speech about how good the Chinese secret service is in helping protect the world. Shame it won't do anything to protect its own people or democracy, but you know, that's what happens when you get funding for your film from China, you have to pay the fiddler.   

It's a film that keen to show the old adage that the female of the species is more deadly than the male is 100% true, girlfriend, while dressing its drop-dead gorgeous cast in killer heels and the fabulous haute couture imaginable, then getting them to play up their stereotypes to get what they need from gullible men.

5/10

#1: BELFAST

Starring Jude Hill, Caitríona Balfe, Jamie Dornan, Ciarán Hinds, Judi Dench, Colin Morgan. Written and directed by Kenneth Branagh. 97 minutes long.

Welcome to the first film of 2022, a 97 minute semi-autobiographical comedy-drama written and directed by Kenneth Branagh. 

Set in 1969, the plot follows the life of nine-year old Protestant, Buddy (Jude Hill) growing up on the streets of Belfast as the 'Troubles' begin to turn his idyllic world into something far more sinister and scary. 

Buddy's the son of a carpenter once dubbed the 'Golden Torso' by the New York Times, his 'Ma' used to be a fashion model, his 'Granny' was James Bond's controller, and his 'Pops' was the supervillain Steppenwolf. So, you know, he's just an ordinary kid.

He and his brother are mostly raised by his Ma, while his dad works abroad as a chippy, Buddy's life is filled with street games, passing his maths tests so he can sit closer to his first crush, visiting the cinema to watch 1,000,000 BC and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and coming to terms with the baffling Troubles as they begin to intrude into his world with confusing violence based on religion. Meanwhile, his parents have the odd argument about an unpaid tax debt, discuss leaving Belfast to escape the troubles and try to avoid the mildly bullying attentions of Protestant thug (Colin Morgan). Buddy gets sage advice from his Pops, and has the best frickin' Christmas of his life when he's given not only a Corgi James Bond Goldfinger DB5 (in a blister pack, which is incorrect), TWO Thunderbird toys, and an International Rescue play costume, basically every single fantastic toy I ever dreamed of having in my childhood dreams! 

Filmed in black and white this is a well-directed and pretty looking film, and while it's told entirely from the point of view-of-view of Buddy it also has a fantastic cast of secondary characters. The only trouble is, it's almost too overly sweet, and life-affirming that it runs the risk of becoming horribly sentimental. It's only the threat of sectarian violence, that slowly creeps into proceedings, and a moving funeral that keeps this the right side of mawkish, and you find yourself hoping the family survive the film before it's too late. 

I liked this, I enjoyed its gentle touch and the sweetness of the whole thing. I loved the fact it was a small story and filled with small incidents and not world-shattering, epoch making drama. Plus it's one of those rare things these days, a 90 odd minute movie! 

A gentle start to 2022. 

8/10