My Top 5 Films of 2014

The final hours of 2014 are looming ever nearer, whilst the shining future-world of 2015 is just around the corner. I’m sure many of you are already full to the brim with chocolate and alcohol and preparing your fireworks in order to celebrate the festivities. But, before we all set off our own personal barrages, I think it’s time for a moment of reflection. 2014 has been an eventful year or, at least, it has been for me. Not only have I completed my GCSE exams and made the jump to A Level, and of course I started this very blog, but I’ve also learnt that; Cuba isn’t a very relaxing holiday destination, some new music is fantastic (thank you, Royal Blood), and that a bookshelf can only hold so many DVDs. Which brings me nicely to my next point.

If it wasn’t implied by the title, or by the name of the blog, or anything else, allow me to spell it out. As is always the case, I find myself looking back at this time of the year and thinking about all the films that have graced both the big and small screen, and especially as Oscar season draws near, thinking about the best this year had to offer. So, here’s my two pence.

Sorry. Anyway, to see out the year, listed below are my Top 5 favourite films of 2014. Obviously, these are subject to my opinion, and there are quite a few films I didn’t see because I didn’t have time/couldn’t be arsed/ they looked shit (delete as appropriate), so if your beloved Sharknado 2: The Second One isn’t on here, then my ‘humble’ apologies...

5. The Wind Rises – Hayao Miyazaki

OK, so this was technically released in Japan in 2013, but I live in the UK, where it was a 2014 release (and an obscure one at that), so yeah. Talking of which, I saw the trailer playing at my local Vue, which is the only way I found out this film existed, and so decided, as a new found Ghibli fan, to see it. I had to go up to London just to find the one cinema which was playing it, and the audience consisted of a ground-breaking two people; me and my dad. Talk about a wide release. Although, I admit having an entire cinema to yourself is pretty cool. But I digress. The Wind Rises is Miyazaki’s twelfth and final feature film at the legendary animation studio, and follows the allegedly fictionalized story of Jiro Horikoshi, an engineer who designed Japanese fighter planes during WWII; showing us his first dreams of flying, inspired by Italian aeronautical designer Caproni, through to his joining of Mitsubishi Internal Combustion Engine Company and eventually the success of his fighter planes along with his marriage to Naoko Sotomi. The comparison to Ghibli’s other WWII film, Grave of the Fireflies is inevitable, and I think while both are great, they still pale in comparison to their more fantastical works, such as Princess Mononoke, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and Howl’s Moving Castle. I just think the studio seems to handle abstract, fictional worlds better than grim, realistic ones. Maybe one day I’ll dedicate a post or two to a more in depth discussion of this, but to bring this entry to some form of conclusion (I told you I tend to ramble), The Wind Rises is a beautifully animated and well paced biopic, with plenty of emotional moments. By any other studio, this would be an awesome achievement, but unfortunately doesn’t quite reach the dizzying heights of Ghibli’s usual output. 8/10, Medium Recommendation

4. Robocop – José Padhilaan

I thought it was great. No, I’m serious; I thought it was a really well done film. Keep in mind, whilst a copy of the original 1987 Sci-Fi classic does reside on my overburdened bookshelf, I have not yet gotten around to watching it, at time of writing, and with a fresh outlook untainted by nostalgia goggles, the remake is a great time. So what, it’s not Oscar territory, but then neither was the original. The story concerns police officer Alex Murphy, played this time around by Joel Kinnaman (nope, me neither), who whilst trying to take down crime lord Vallon, is horrifically injured by a bomb planted in his own car. With this being the future and all, the omnipotent corporation OmniCorp (could have been worse; could have called it The Corporation) decide to rebuild him, turning him into the titular cyborg cop, but Murphy’s pesky human emotions get in the way of efficiency, and they decide to make him more machine than man. Okay, it may be the tale of the human soul vs. cold robotics that we’ve all seen before, but in a rare change of pace for a Hollywood blockbuster, the moral messages are actually very nicely handled, showing both sides of the argument, and even the pacing is handled well; keeping the action at a modest level throughout, and building up to its explosive finale. How does it compare to the original? No idea, maybe I’ll do a post on that someday, but if you are a big fan of the original, or just a sci-fi fan in general, I’d say it’s worth a look. 8/10, Medium Recommendation

3. The Lego Movie – Chris Miller, Phil Lord

I’ll admit, I was sceptical about this film at first. It looked a bit too kiddy and too much like a two hour long advert for me to really get excited about it on release, even as a huge Lego fan. But after hearing universal praise from critics and friends alike, I eventually decided to check it out on my flight back from Cuba (if you’re wondering, I watched The Wolf of Wall Street and 12 Years a Slave on the way over), and I was very pleasantly surprised. While there were several parts which seemed to be made specifically to sell a line of sets, predictions that appear to be correct based on the merchandise, the film still has a genuinely enjoyable story and messages, and, contrary to my fears, actually has some decent humour. The story may not be ground-breaking; a Lego man is plucked out of his routine life and embarks on an adventure to overthrow a tyrannical leader, assembling a colourful cast of characters as he goes from location to location. But if you want a simple yet fun experience, this film will easily deliver, and might even stir up childhood memories of constructing crude models and making up your own haphazard stories, frankensteined together from all the plots of your favourite films (who didn’t try to make their own Star Wars VII when they were younger?). To conclude, The Lego Movie does what it says on the box; a simple yet creative childish romp which will leave even adults smiling. 8/10, Medium Recommendation

 2. Godzilla – Gareth Edwards

Back when I was about 12, I remember hearing word that another Godzilla film was in the works, and getting excited about seeing it. Then, I didn’t hear much more on the subject and got interested in other films, and so the excitement left my mind somewhat. But then the film was finally released this year, and I went to see it with friends, and I recall feeling some of that childish glee return as I saw the king of the monsters onscreen. This sounds a bit misleading, because I was never exactly a Godzilla fan as a child; the giant monster genre was something that always fascinated me, but I never really got into them, mainly because most were Japanese and therefore hard to get hold of over here in the UK. So it was great to finally see a big budget monster flick on the big screen down at my local cinema, but it was also great to see an American take on the franchise which wasn’t shit, unlike the Roland Emmerich disaster from 1998. There’s not really much to say in terms of story; there are some weird giant aliens destroying various parts of America, and Godzilla shows up to stop them. Ok, yes there’s more to it than that, but it’s a Godzilla flick; the story’s not important, what matters is the action and visuals. And on that front, Godzilla excels. The dark gritty visuals and excellent sound design, especially where the aliens are concerned, create a dark, brooding atmosphere which give the film an apocalyptic air, and combined with the higher focus on human characters, makes this feel more like a national disaster rather than a campy showdown between men in suits. The best way to describe this is probably ‘the Godzilla film for the Cloverfield age’, since they both feature this grittier tone and human-centric storylines. And if this is the way modern monster movies are heading, then you can expect my full endorsement. Godzilla may not be an award winning piece, but its unbeatable popcorn entertainment; blockbusters at their roaring best. 8/10, Medium Recommendation

1. The Imitation Game – Morten Tyldum

This film very nearly put me on the edge of possibly tearing up. And yes, that’s the best you can probably expect from me in terms of an emotional reaction to a film. The Imitation Game is a biopic charting the career of WWII mathematician Alan Turing, as he attempts to break the German enigma code by creating a machine, dubbed Christopher, which would eventually go on to be the first step into the world of computing. The film also shows Turing’s downright appalling treatment by the government for being a homosexual, despite the enormous contribution he made to winning the war (it is estimated that his work shortened the war by three years) as well as technology in general. Despite being a computing student myself, I’ll admit I didn’t know much about Turing prior to watching this film, although my parents have remarked, both of them being programmers, that there were a few liberties taken with the story of Turing. But liberties or not, the story still stands strong and, as previously said, even managed to make me emotional, which is a rare achievement for any film. The acting is superb, Benedict Cumberbatch does a great job of portraying Turing in an admittedly similar vein to his Sherlock performance, although that’s hardly a negative point, and Keira Knightley also shines as Joan Clarke, Turing’s friend and wife. Although it may lose out to the other giants such as Interstellar and Birdman come award season, I sincerely hope this gem gets at least some Oscars, because it truly deserves them. 9/10, High Recommendation

And there we have it. Now there were a large number of films I didn't see, so this list does seem a bit lackluster, but I'm sure I'll get around to them in the new year. Thank you all for reading, and I'll see you all in 2015, where hopefully I might post some more articles.

When I'm not out on my hover board wearing my self-lacing shoes....

M (1931) - Should Beckert Be Executed?

Looking forward to having a proper movie night after my brief Skyrim-related hiatus, I settled down on my sofa the other night with a big bowl of popcorn, switched the lights off and turned on the Blu-Ray player, ready to witness the cinematic gem that was M. Then, about a minute later, I had to get up again, turn the lights back on and get back on my computer. You see, it turns out there are (at least) 2 versions of this film; the original German version, and an English-dubbed version which happens to have some re-shot footage. See, this is the kind of thing that happens when I fail to do copious amounts of research on a film before I watch it for the first time. Anyway, after a few minutes of searching, I couldn't find any majority decision with which was better, so I eventually settled for the German version and got back to my scheduled vegetation.

At the moment, I am on a quest to try and conquer IMDb’s Top 250, a slightly questionable goal in hindsight, considering it is constantly updated, but one I am compelled to complete nonetheless. Currently sitting at #68 on said list (at time of writing) is M; Fritz Lang’s film-noir classic, released in 1931 with a title which clearly didn't have ease of Google searching in mind. M was Lang’s attempt to re-establish himself as a good director after the big-budget flop that was Metropolis, the 1927 silent science fiction classic. Luckily, unlike Metropolis, M has not suffered so much from bad film preservation or the cutting room floor and is still more or less intact at approximately 110 minutes. The plot concerns a child murderer (and possibly molester) played expertly by Peter Lorre, who is terrorizing a German town, leaving the citizens paranoid and the police force stretched to breaking point trying to follow the few leads they can find. Annoyed by the heightened police activity and disgusted at the monstrous behaviour of Lorre, a group of criminals decide to track down the murderer themselves, utilising a vast network of beggars as their eyes and ears to report any suspicious findings (Sherlock Holmes, anyone?).

Not to sound like a pretentious knob, but I have to say, I think M has the best possible opening it could have had. After the main title, we fade in to see a group of small children singing a made-up song about the fabled murderer, before being chastised for doing so by someone’s mother. Personally, I thought this opening set the tone for the film perfectly, creating a dark, foreboding atmosphere and establishing both the naivety/obliviousness of the children and the paranoia of the adults, in particular the mothers; two elements which are very prominent throughout the first act.

Warning! Spoilers Ahead!

Gushing aside, the main thing I really want to discuss is the mildly controversial ending. The murderer is identified as Hans Beckert, who also happens to have been a former patient at a near-by asylum. Once he is captured by the criminal underworld, he is held in a makeshift trial before the rest of the criminals, who want to execute him for his heinous crimes. Beckert’s defence is his mental illness, claiming in a rather powerful monologue that he is compelled to commit his crimes, even though he doesn't want to, often even having no memory of committing the murders themselves. So, of course, the question here is whether a man can be punished (or more to the point, executed) for a crime he committed under mental instability rather than freewill. My answer? Yes. Seems obvious really. A mentally ill criminal is much more dangerous than a sane killer; at least a sane killer might be able to be reasoned with, but a man continually committing crimes against his own free will (it would seem) cannot. So, the right thing to do would be to detain the perpetrator, and send them off to a mental hospital to be cured of their ailment, and then hopefully released back into society as a changed man, which, of course, is what happened to Beckert. But even after being released, he’s at it again, so, what can you do with him? If treatment didn't work, and leaving him to run amok in society murdering his way through every rosy-cheeked child is both monstrous and out of the question, then really your only options are to lock him up in a maximum security prison for life (which will devour tax payers money) or, cutting out the middle man, execution. And with crimes as serious as Beckert’s (child murder and paedophilia being two of the worst things a person could do, in my eyes), then the solution should be even clearer, not to mention more justified.

Obvious, right? But the weird thing is, the film seems to imply, or at least suggest, that the opposite is true; that a man who is mentally ill and committing crimes against his better judgment cannot be punished for his actions, as they are not technically his own. This is initially suggested by Beckert’s defence, but weirdly, the film appears to run with it, subsequently painting the vengeful criminals as blood-thirsty scum who just want to murder Beckert, rather than carry out that whole justice thing. To cap it all off, the last scene features three women sitting on a bench in the courthouse, supposedly just after Beckert’s death sentence (I would hope, although the film is quite ambiguous about it; I suppose leaving it up to the viewer to decide the most appropriate fate). One of these women says; “This won’t bring back our children. We, too, should keep a closer watch on our children.” This line then closes the film, fading out to black. This seems even more perplexing, as it now seems Lang is trying to deflect even more blame from Beckert and onto the mothers of the victims, suggesting that it’s the mothers fault the children were taken. This also seems completely ridiculous, as a mother certainly can’t keep a watchful eye on her children 24/7, and it certainly isn't their fault if some murderer picks them off. This trend of blaming other, non-deserving parties does seem slightly disturbing, and does pose the question of what the true message of Lang’s film is. That it’s fine to be a killer as long as you’re mentally ill? That everything that happens to a child should be blamed on the mother? But in the end, I guess the counter question to all this is “Who knows?” Or at least the slightly more (sickeningly) optimistic statement “It’s your own interpretation.”

End of Spoilers.

Dubious ending aside, there is a lot to like about M, and it is definitely worth a look from anyone interested in film-noir or crime thrillers. I would normally go into more detail on this, but a) this was intended as more of a summary of my primary thoughts on the film, rather than a full-blown review, and b) this post is long enough already. If you’re interested in this film, I should mention that it probably won’t be to everyone’s taste; it’s rather slow paced and I know not everyone likes subtitles/dubbing, so I’d recommend some preliminary research to see if this is the right film for you. I can’t really decide on a rating right now; either an 8 or 9 out of 10 for sure. So, on the theme of questionable closing statements, it seems fitting to leave the score ambiguous. But anyway, I've been rambling on for a while now, so I’ll leave it there for today. Auf Wiedersehen, Internet!

M – 1931 – Fritz Lang – German

Score:   8/9

Recommendation:          Medium

In the Beginning...

So, I finally started to write a blog.

Ever since my first introduction to the Internet, it’s always been a kind of fantasy of mine to have my own website. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought this growing up, but I eventually told myself, like most others probably did, that it probably wasn't going to happen (certainly not unless I get super famous or something). But recently, I've been struggling with one of my more surprising pastimes; writing. With both a script and at least 3 novels on the go, I'm currently finding it difficult to get very far with any of them, due to something I have named Transcription Block. No, not Writer’s Block, that suggests a lack of ideas or a subject to write about (I have plenty of those), while what I have is an inability to convert said ideas into text, at least, without it sounding stupid. Anyway, I've figured that the best way to get over this is just to write more regularly, and hopefully transcribing ideas will simply become easier with practice (not that I haven’t had practice). So, what I needed was an excuse to write regular, short articles, with some kind of motivation to keep me on task (like, to pick a completely random example, posting on the Internet). And so, childhood dream in mind, I finally cracked and started writing this blog.

And here you are, reading it.

So, there’s some back-story for you. “And what about you?” I here you not asking from behind your screens because you’re too busy reading this sentence. Well, I guess I should explain a little bit about myself, just so you’re all aware of who you’re dealing with. My name is Nick Prosser, I'm 16 years old and I'm quite interested in films (in case the blog title didn't already imply that). Other main interests include video games, listening to music, and being unproductive (bodes well, I know). In terms of personality, I generally appear cynical and sarcastic on the surface, but I'm actually nice if you get to know me (or, that’s what I've been told anyway). I also identify as being quite funny, although I know several many people who might beg to differ.

And, considering the main subject of this blog, it's probably useful to know that my preferred film genres are Action, Sci-Fi and mild Horror (I'm a bit cowardly), and I generally love any film that can successfully combine all 3 of those elements (Aliens and The Terminator are good examples). Outside of that, I quite like Dramas (City of God, Forrest Gump), Comedy (British or otherwise) and I have a soft spot for anime, the works of Studio Ghibli in particular. Despite that, I’ll always give any film the chance to impress me, especially if it’s got good reviews. Unless it’s a RomCom. Eugh.

So, what can you expect to see from this blog? Well, as the blog name would suggest, there will be a fair amount of long-winded cinema-related posts, but besides that, you can also most likely expect to find posts about gaming, music, technology, interesting current events (be warned, I couldn't give a toss about sports, and even that’s a severe understatement), my social life, and just anything I feel is worth talking about. I can’t promise that I’ll post on a regular schedule (because promising leads to disappointment when I inevitably don’t reach a deadline. Or two.), but I’ll wager that you can probably expect about one post per month (maybe more if you’re lucky or I'm bored).

So, will this blog be any good? Will it help me with my writing and productivity? Or will I give up after writing the first two posts and never speak of it again?

Only time will tell...