4 – Marriage Story
If there’s one word to describe this movie it’s ‘emotional’. Noah Baumbach’s pulls at every heart string I had, as we follow a break down of what looked to be a strong marriage at first turns into a toxic, cruel and back stabbing divorce. We follow the lives of Charlie (Adam Driver), Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and their son Henry (Azhy Robertson) living their normal life in New York, Charlie as a playwright and Nicole as an actress.
However everything isn’t as it seems with Nicole having a desire to move to LA where she is from, to pursue her career in acting and to live closer to her family. With Charlie wanting to do the very opposite and stay in New York. The film then progresses in a tug of war over Henry and who he stays with as well as adultery from Charlie.
Where this movie Really shines for me is the acting and screenplay by Noah Baumbach. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson deserve all the credit they get and even more in my opinion, they really do make a believable couple in complete disarray is they scramble and put the pieces back together in their marriage. This film becomes and all out war by the end as they both have a legal court case against each other to get custody of there child Henry. The reason this is so hard hitting by the end is because we have seen how much they do care for each other in the beginning of the film and we feel that strong, relatable connection that we see in our own parents or relationships in real life.
The screenplay by Noah Baumbach is nothing short of remarkable, he has such a grounded feel to this film, we have such realistic writing that a lot of these types of movies get wrong, it’s, so heart wrenching and it gets you rooting for both Charlie and Nicole as they have both wronged each other, but despite this there’s nothing more you’d like to see is for them to get back together, but you know as the Audience that will never happen.
I’m summary this film is just well… ‘emotional’ and really shouldn’t be missed with outstanding performances, a heart throbbing, tear jerking story and grounded, unbelievable writing, you just need to see this film.
3 – Once Upon A Time in… Hollywood
We all know how much I love Quinton Tarentino and this film is well and truly up there for me, not his best work I must admit but provides us with a story, cinematography, characters and a alternative version of the Manson murders I’m so happy exist in the Tarentinoverse.
In this flick we follow the life of Rick Dalton (Leonardo Di Caprio) a declining Hollywood actor living off his glory days of his highly successful Cowboy show ‘Bounty Law’ as he looks to reignite his career. We also follow Rick’s stunt man Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) who has also fallen on hard times as he looks to find work as a stunt man once more while being Rick’s Personal Assistant.
And finally we follow the story of Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) a highly successful movie star in the 1960s who was killed in the Manson Murders in 1969, but in this film things happen a little different.
This film has a star studded cast even in the small roles with Kurt Russell, Damien Lewis, Al Pacino and Maya Hawke all making cameo appearances and with a cast like this it’s impossible for the movie not to be good.
This movie is nothing short of excellent and shows Tarentino has still got it. The cinematography, and music are big highlights of mine. Nothing better than a tracking shot following Cliff speeding the streets of LA while Los Brovo’s Bring a little lovin’ blares out of his car window to really immerse the audience in this time period and setting.
When I say this film is diverse I mean it’s diverse it has all kinds of genre stuffed in here, it goes from western, to drama, to comedy and then to action flawlessly with out being too jarring for the audience and without loosing the tone of the film like some of Tarentino’s work like ‘From Dust til Dawn’.
This film however does have some pacing and slowness to it as we reach the 2nd and start of 3rd act but the final scene as the Manson followers storm Rick’s home with weapons in hand is so worth getting through the slow parts for, the violence is classic Tarentino, so over the top, so escalated and unneeded but is just hilarious and works so well it’s amazing and very reminiscent of ‘Kill Bill: Vol 1’
2 – 1917
I’m a sucker for a good old war movie and this is up there for me with ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and ‘Hacksaw Ridge’, but not for its story or action necessarily but the cinematography, music and sound design. This film does something all film markers wish they could achieve, I’ve never been so immersed, captivated and invested in a film so much due to the artist and creative style it has been shot in before.
Yes the film isn’t all in one shot but to make it so flawless and seamless as it is, is very impressive. Sam Mendes, Mark Taylor, Stuart Wilson and Roger Deakins deserved each and every Oscar they received for this film. Does the film have it’s probably, yes. The story telling is a little weak in places but the strong parts of the story more than make up for it so I’m willing to forgive it, there are also a few tropes and plot conveniences in there but again because the movie’s strengths are so strong it really doesn’t bother me.
The film Follows Lance Corporal Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay) as they are tasked to deliver a message to stop an attack on the German front line before major casualties take place. The film takes us through various locations from the muddy and rat infested Trenches to the the bright and vibrant french countryside providing the audience a fresh colour pallet with each scene and always giving the audience something fresh.
The main cast of Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay have excellent chemistry throughout the film as they have a real brother in arms feel.
This film is just an absolute pleasure to watch and shows the horrific horrors of war in a fresh take, with its excellent cinematography, music and sound design and is comfortably sitting at number 2 on my list.
1 – Joker
Watching this film I couldn’t believe my eyes, the bottle DC comics and Todd Phillips have making this film, never mind making its as good as it is, is nothing short of magnificent.
If you’d told me in 2016 after Batman vs Superman that DC are going to be hitting home run after home run in the movie making department I wouldn’t have believed you. Following the success of ‘Wonder Woman’, ‘Aqua-man’ and ‘Shazam!’. Dc do a complete 180 degrees on what they pulled with the Joker in ‘Suicide Squad’.
The Movies takes place in a dystopian, disgusting and corrupt Gotham City in 1981, where the rich are only interested in looking after the rich and the poor are expected to scrape through life on the bare minimum.
We Follow a citizen of Gotham Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) a for hire clown with a serious mental illness and a condition that causes him to laugh uncontrollably when in distress or nervous. We follow Arthur and his decent into madness as he discovers the his true past and is let down by the society the that ultimately leads him down the path to becoming the Joker.
There are several things I love about this movie. One being some aspects of the story, not all but some. I do love the way Arthur goes from bad to worse and he begins to almost make up and fabricate his own reality. Sophie Dumond (Zazie Beetz) a neighbour of Arthur who is seen as a love interest for Arthur throughout out the film is revealed to never have known Arthur towards the end of the movie.
Other and more controversial fabrication in Arthur’s mind is wether the movie is all in Arthur’s head or not as it is revealed Arthur was in Arkham State Hospital and then towards the end of the movie is again in the hospital despite never been seen taken back there, all of this is up to the viewers interpretation of course.
But this is what I love about this film, it takes risks, copies from other movies like ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘King Of Comedy’ granted and changes the Joker we know and makes it something completely different but it all just works and that’s why I respect the hell of out this film. Yes Marvel do make very good super hero Movies but no Marvel film has this grounded, stylised and independent feel to it since at least the first Iron Man film.
Another aspect I love about this film is just Joaquin Phoenix what I would do to get this guy in the New Matt Reeves’ The Batman movie and come up against Robert Pattinson’s take on The Dark Knight. His performance is the best this year in any movie and all the awards, Oscar, BAFTA and others are all well and truly deserved. He provides us with a chilling performance of a guy down on his luck, ridiculed for being different and a man who has had enough. Every painful laugh, every punch he takes all leads to a perfect character arc for him as he fuels the fire to the protests of the rich within Gotham.
Lastly about this film is Todd Phillips himself. What he has created is for me one of the most rememberable comic book movies of all time, now is say this with gritted teeth as it isn’t really a comic book movie but it was advertised as one. The scenes are so iconic, shot perfectly and the music by Hildir Guonadóttir is so well matched. This movie is just exactly what DC needed right now, proving that character studies on comic book characters work and you don’t have to copy Marvel and rush into a cinematic universe to be successful but be unique and do your own thing. And that is why it is number 1 on my list.
I hope you enjoyed my top 10 movie list. Spent a while writing this so I hope you enjoyed. Thank you for reading.
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