Category / Cinema

by hutchwp

Film review – T2: Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 2017)

Trainspotting was one of the quintessential moments of British film in the 1990s, helping to define a generation and giving them a voice on the silver screen. It catapulted director Danny Boyle and his cast to international fame, with lead Ewan McGregor reaping the lion’s share of the benefits as it launched his path to stardom.

I was probably just slightly too young to enjoy the original on its initial release, catching it on VHS in around 1999 at the age of 15. But the effects were still strong amongst people my age – the music soundtracked our lives as much as the likes of Morning Glory and Parklife did. The imagery in the advertising campaign was arresting and inescapable. Finally watching the film I was blown away that something so popular was set in a Britain far more familiar than every other British film that seemed readily available at the time, all of which seemed to star Hugh Grant. 

The boys are back in town

When the sequel was announced, there was a certain amount of trepidation from fans of the original. It seemed unlikely that the success of the original could ever be matched. It wouldn’t have the same effect on society. The soundtrack surely wouldn’t be as good. Plus there’s the twenty years of nostalgia to contend with. So how does it stand up?The answer is, thankfully, very well indeed.

The plot centres around Renton (McGregor) returning to Edinburgh for the first time in twenty years, catching up with his old friends Spud (Ewen Bremner), Rent Boy (Johnny Lee Miller) and Begbie (Robert Carlysle). Time has passed and this has inevitably changed the four men, but it has also drastically changed the world around them too. It also hasn’t been long enough for two of the group to forgive Renton for what happened at the end of the first film.

Reimagining their friendship so far down the line when there hasn’t really been a particular push recently for a sequel to be made proves that this film has been made for all the right reasons. Danny Boyle and his team knew there was a story to be told here and it is told brilliantly.

As in the original, music plays a crucial role. There are reimaginings of three of the biggest hits associated with the original: Lust for Life, Born Slippy and Perfect Day. Elsewhere, more modern artists offer more up-to-date contributions from the likes of Young Fathers and Wolf Alice.

It won’t have the same cultural impact as the original, and few films have. It is, however, extremely relevant for those who lived through the first instalment, having an uncanny ability to reflect what has happened to almost everyone in society in the past two decades.

It is undoubtedly one of the best cinematic sequels we’ll see this decade.

by hutchwp

Film review – I, Daniel Blake (Ken Loach, 2016)

Of the many great films released in 2016, few left their mark on my conscience quite as much as Ken Loach’s “I, Daniel Blake”. I held off from reviewing it at the time, but decided to revisit it recently for a second time to make an honest attempt at reviewing it.

The film follows Daniel Blake (Dave Johns), a 59-year-old joiner on the living in Newcastle. He finds himself out of work after an suffering a heart attack has forced him to take a break, with his doctor telling him he cannot return for fear of another attack. He is navigating Britain’s complex benefits system in search of Employment and Support Allowance, for which he needs a Work Capability Assessment (undertaken by government workers and is completely separate from his own doctor’s assessment). Whilst at the job centre, he notices single-mother-of-two Daisy (Hayley Squires) having an argument in the job centre. They soon strike up an unlikely friendship as they continue to come up against brick walls that force them to make increasingly tough decisions.

I, Daniel Blake is social commentary at its absolute best

Typical of Loach’s output, many of the actors involved in the film are amateurs. This might give the film a rough-around-the-edges quality but equally provides a realism as the story develops. Knowing this prior to watching the film allowed me to give it some leeway on the performances.

The plot developments as the two characters get embroiled in complication after complication are akin to a horror film. Our lead character is behind on his bills and struggles to use computers, meaning he can’t navigate the government websites to retrieve the correct forms to fill in to access the benefits he’s entitled to. It’s overwhelmingly frustrating and will be familiar to anyone who has ever found themselves in a similar situation.

Squires’s performance is absolutely striking. The most harrowing memory of the film for most viewers will inevitably be a highly memorable scene at the local food bank. Rightly so – it’s a performance something taken to an entirely different level by her delivery. It’s unsettling, which is obviously its intention. She’s a great find in her debut role and will undoubtedly go on to even greater roles.

But the film isn’t about the actors, or about delivery of certain lines. It is solely a commentary on the broken support systems provided for the many 1000s of people in Britain who they should be helping. There are a small few people who endeavour to exploit a system, but in doing so they provide an excuse for those in charge to make the processes overly complicated for everyone.

Far more disturbing than this, the small few that do successfully exploit the system are handing media outlets the ammunition to criticise the rest, tarring them all with the same brush. Shamefully, most of Britain believe what is written in the media and assume the worst of people who are in dire need of assistance.

For all its shortcomings, this film shines a light on some of the most pressing issues facing a country that is supposed to be in a fantastic state. Whether you like it or not, the message is one that simply can’t be ignored.

by hutchwp

La La Land DOES clean up at the Academy Award nominations

Well, I said it probably wouldn’t happen, but I couldn’t be happier that it did. La La Land has managed a whopping 14 nominations today in the Academy Award nominations, equalling the record held by All About Eve and Titanic.

It should be noted that since two are in the Best Song category, where it will effectively compete against itself, but that still leaves plenty of scope for it to miss out on a couple and still win big.

If you’ve not watched it yet, then make sure you do! Then, once you’ve done that, read my review here.

by hutchwp

Short film review – Donald in Mathmagic Land (Hamilton Luske, Wolfgang Reitherman, Les Clark, Joshua Meador)

As educational short films go, Disney’s animation about their ever-stressed duck taking a trip through a land filled with mathematical tales, quips and facts is pretty darn entertaining.

Released in 1959 alongside a poorly-remembered live action film called Darby O’Gill and the Little People, the film went on to receive a nomination in the Best Documentary – Short Subject category at the Academy Awards. [1] [2]

It charts Donald’s journey through Mathmagic Land, as guided by the voice of a spirit (Paul Frees). He learns about the origins of maths, starting with Pythagoras in Greece, then the pentogram and the golden section, the appearances of the golden section in nature, architecture and art, the application of maths in music and its relevance to games (especially chess, which features a nice reference to Alice Through The Looking Glass).

That the film covers a relatively thorough history of one of the most important and fundamental basic principals of life and remains interesting is somewhat of a miracle, so much so that the film went on to be used as an educational tool in schools across America. It’s easy to see why. Its relevance endures and it would still be useful in the modern education system.

Admittedly, the style is now somewhat dated but it has a classic feel of 1950s era Disney about it. This is hardly surprising. Two of Disney’s “Nine Old Men” worked as directors on the film. [3]

It is a great shame that so many of these old Disney shorts are hard to locate in a good quality transfer and few are held in high regard, largely due to the lack of knowledge of their existence. Anyone who enjoys watching the early Disney animation films is doing themselves a disservice if they are yet to discover the shorts being released around the same time. These are the same animators, story writers and directors, throwing together ideas and experimenting with animation, perhaps to try something out for a future release, or maybe just finishing ideas that were started with a plan for a full release before ending up as a short instead.

There are so many to choose from, many of which were released in the UK on the Disney Fables series of DVDs. Owning all six of them is a great start – you will have in your possession six hours of short animated films, covering 25 animated films, several of which were Academy Awards nominees and winners. It’s about time that Disney worked out a way to get these out there again so yet another generation can enjoy them.

[1] I can’t imagine people were overly-fond of the film at the cinema.Having paid to see a film that’s 93 minutes long, imagine the dismay when you sat down and realised it had a 26-minute short film about maths tagged at the beginning of it.

[2] Quite why this wasn’t nominated as an animated short is beyond me. I incorrectly assumed that the category didn’t exist at the time but this proved to be an incorrect assumption, having been around for over 25 years in 1959.

[3] Wolfgang Reitherman and Les Clark were two of Disney’s “Nine Old Men”, a group of nine original animators that worked at the Disney company. Many of them went on to direct feature films themselves and every Walt Disney Animation film featured at least one of the nine until 1985’s The Black Cauldron.

by hutchwp

Why La La Land probably won’t clean up at this year’s Academy Awards

The critical enthusiasm for La La Land has been matched, for good reason, by the audience’s outpouring of affection. The music is now firmly stuck in the heads of everyone who has seen it, with many of its devotees wondering what the odds are for it to clean up at the Oscars.

Here I’ll explain why this probably won’t be the case.

What’s the current record?

Three films have won 11 Oscars: Ben Hur, (1959), Titanic (1997) and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). Titanic managed these with 14 nominations, whilst the final Lord of the Rings film achieved a clean sweep, winning 11 out of 11 awards. Elsewhere, All About Eve (1950) received 14 nominations, though it only won 6 of these.

For La La Land to get close to this, it’s therefore going to need 11 or more nominations, and win almost all of them.

Which awards does it have a good chance of winning?

La La Land has a great chance at winning in many or all of the categories available to it: Best Picture; Best Director; Leading Actor and Actress; Original Song; Original Score; Best Writing (Original Screenplay) will certainly be places it will be nominated, so assuming the swell of enthusiasm continues it will probably do well in what are considered to be the major categories.

So where will it fall down?

There are 24 categories that the Academy awards prizes in, but that doesn’t mean that a film can win in 24 categories. There are two awards for animated films, two for documentary films, one for a film in a foreign language and one for a live action short film. So that’s six prizes that can’t be won.

There are two prizes for Best Writing: one is for an original screenplay and one is for an adapted screenplay. Since La La Land is an original script, it is excluded from the adapted screenplay category. That’s another one down.

Perhaps the most glaringly-obvious problem it faces is that there are only two characters in the film: Mia and Sebastian. So whilst they will probably get the nominations for leading actress and actor, there isn’t anyone of note in the film that could be classed as a supporting actor or actress. The closest would be John Legend’s portrayal of Keith, the frontman for the jazz band Seb joins halfway through the story, followed by Rosemarie DeWitt as Laura (Sebastian’s sister). It seems unlikely to pick up nods in these categories. Two more down.

Finally, a few categories have already been announced and La La Land doesn’t feature in any of them. The long-lists Best Makeup and Hairstyling and Best Visual Effects excluded La La Land from their lists. Two more down.

So where does that leave it?

It only has access to 13 awards and will need a nomination in each of the categories if it is going to break records. It’s not unrealistic for it to achieve this, but it will require nods in the likes of Best Production Design (awarded for interior design for the sets) and Best Costume Design to get there.

However, with a weak field to compete against, it is quite possible that it will do. this anyway! Here’s hoping!!

by hutchwp

Academy Award for Best Original Song – What could be nominated?

At 1:18pm on Tuesday 24th January, the nominations for the 89th Academy Awards will be announced. Whilst most of the categories are fairly open – albeit with a host of strong contenders likely to lead the field – some of the categories are long-listed ahead of the announcement.

One such category is for Best Original Song, which has a 91-strong long list out for all to see on the official Oscars website. Many of them simply won’t get a look in, even though it would have been great for Sausage Party’s “The Great Beyond” to have a giant spotlight shone on it.

Here I take a look at some of the likely contenders for the big prize. It’s worth noting that at the Academy Awards, only two songs from one motion picture can be nominated and only five can be nominated in total.

The Obvious Choices

There are a few songs that are almost certain to be included. It seems unlikely that La La Land won’t get at least one song in there, probably two. Those will most likely be Golden Globe winner “City of Stars” and the excellent “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)“. Sorry John Legend!

Elsewhere, it would be a bit of a shock if the best track from the wonderful Disney animation Moana, “How Far I’ll Go“, doesn’t get a nod. It would be fantastic if the 16-year-old breakout star Auli’i Cravalho was invited to perform too!

I can’t see a situation where Kim Burrell and Pharrell Williams miss out for “I See A Victory“. Great song, great performers and supposedly a very good film too. A no brainer.

Entertainment Value Choices

It’s not always the case, but most of the nominees will be performing on the night of the ceremony. As such, it’s likely there will be at least one choice that will boost the ratings by planting a big-named performer in the middle of the night. It would be great to see Justin Timberlake performing his summer smash “Can’t Stop The Feeling“from Trolls. Another good option would be “Faith“, the track from the animated film Sing as performed by Stevie Wonder and Ariana Grande. P!nk’s “Just Like Fire” from Alice Through The Looking Glass would fit this bill too.

Sia’s gorgeous song “Angel By The Wings“, from the critically-acclaimed documentary The Eagle Huntress, is a great excuse to put her in front of millions of people and blow them away, though “Never Give Up” from Lion (same artist, different film) might be more of a crowd-pleaser.

The Outside Bets

I’d love to see “A Minute To Breathe” get a nod. The song, from “Before The Flood” and performed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, would be an unusual but brilliant choice, the song blending some understated backing that leaves the focus squarely on the lyrics. As he sings “We’ll all be judged by what we leave behind,” the hairs will stand up on the back of your neck.

Gary Clark Jr.’s “Take Me Down” might not be an obvious choice, and Deepwater Horizon probably isn’t going to feature heavily in the other categories, but it would be great to have a song in there for no other reason than it’s a great song. 

Finally, we can only hope that they give in to the luscious electronic indie of Sing Street and grant “Drive It Like You Stole It” some space at the biggest cinematic awards event of the year.

by hutchwp

Film review – Lion (Garth Davis, 2017)

Garth Davis’s debut feature, Lion, tells the true story of Saroo Brierley (Sunny Pawar), a boy who is separated from his brother at a train station in central India at the age of five. Boarding a train he believes his brother is aboard, Saroo falls asleep and the train sets off. He travels for two days across unfamiliar territory, eventually arriving in Kolkata on the far Eastern side of India, 1600km from his home. Unable to read or write, and with everyone speaking the unfamiliar Bengali language, he finds it impossible to reconnect with his home and is sent to an orphanage. He is eventually adopted by an Australian couple (David Wenham and Nicole Kidman). Twenty years later, a grown-up Saroo (Dev Patel) starts a relationship with Lucy (Rooney Mara), before a chance encounter reignites his interest in his origins and he starts to try to reconnect with his real family.

Sunny Pawar is phenomenal as the young Saroo

Dev Patel is as brilliant as ever in the lead role as a grown-up Saroo, building on his celebrated performances in Slumdog Millionaire and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (and its sequel). It’s a role that needs to provide a reflection of the innocent and likeable younger Saroo we have watched for the first half of the film, whilst also covering the emotional turmoil of a man who has lost his past and lived a completely different life due to a small but very significant fork in his road.

But it is Sunny Pawar as the young Saroo that steals the show. He has a charisma that shines through even when he’s completely still, effortlessly shifting from anger to sadness to fear and to contemplation as the plot develops. Without this young star, the film may have fallen flat. [1]

There is a clear distinction between the feel of the film between India and Australia. The filmmakers achieved this difference by having an almost entirely different production team for the two countries, with natives of each being involved with every aspect of the process. It’s well worth staying around to see the end credits so you can witness the difference – they run the two side by side, giving each equal billing.

This is one of the most heart-warming stories of the year, if not the decade. It may be a bit of a predictable ending (suspend your inquisitive mind and stop yourself from contemplating whether or not the story would even be a story if it had an unhappy ending), but the beauty is in the performances and the characters’ journeys – be they figurative or literal. Do yourself a favour and make sure you catch this one.

[1] There’s a fantastic article on the casting process of Sunny Pawar on Vulture.com. Check it out here: http://www.vulture.com/2016/12/sunny-pawar-lion-casting.html

 

 

by hutchwp

Film review – Silence (Martin Scorsese, 2017)

For much of Silence, Martin Scorsese’s Japan-set epic about Christian missionaries in the 1600s, I was desperately trying to enjoy myself. Eventually I did, but that was only when I realised how much Andrew Garfield looked like a young Barry Gibb and I started to re-imagine the plot as a bizarre Bee Gees origin story.

Andrew Garfield stars as Barry Gibb

The film maps the journey of two young Portuguese Jesuit Christian missionaries: Father Sebastian Rodrigues (Garfield) and Father Francisco Garupe (Adam Driver). In 1640 they travel to Japan in the hope of finding Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson), their teacher and mentor that they have learned has apostatised and converted to the Japanese way of life and assumed a Japanese identity.

The first thing that will disappoint you when you watch the film is the ridiculous decision to have the actors speaking in English throughout. It makes no sense. Why get English-speaking actors in and have them speak with a decreasingly dedicated accent? Why not just get a Brazilian or Portuguese actor to take the role? What we end up with is a couple of  vaguely Spanish voices, that slowly drift in and out of authenticity.

It eventually comes to a head with a hilarious low point when Garfield shares a scene with translator Tadanobu Asano, who is of course speaking in English but with a Japanese accent. If you’ve got two characters deciding to speak in Portuguese but doing so in English before carrying on in English, then you’ve got a problem. It’s simply crazy. I’d much rather the filmmakers have some faith in their viewers and play to the story’s authenticity rather than this lacklustre compromise. At least Liam Neeson had the guts to “pull a Connery” and stick to his own accent.

The other letdown is the overall pacing, which felt like it was deliberately slow. I put this down to Scorsese’s closeness to the project (he originally acquired the rights to Endo Shusaku’s book in 1989 during the making of Goodfellas). At 161 minutes long, there must have been some scope to reduce the total running time. Arguably this is an expansive story that needs time to breathe and the slow pace as Rodrigues gets drawn away from his faith is perfect for the story. It’s just not all that enjoyable.

It is a film of juxtapositions. The beautiful cinematography captures the landscapes of rural Japan in a way that transports you straight backwards 400 years, but there are some suspicious CGI moments that felt out of place. The wonderful costumes aren’t matched by some of the hair and make-up efforts. The quality acting is lost amongst the tangled web of accent approximations.

It feels epic, but the reality is nothing but a disappointment.

by hutchwp

Golden Globes 2017 – Full list of winners

Here’s a complete list of all the winners and nominees at the Golden Globes last night.

FILM

Best motion picture – drama
Winner: Moonlight
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell or High Water
Lion
Manchester by the Sea

Best motion picture – comedy or musical
Winner: La La Land
20th Century Women
Deadpool
Florence Foster Jenkins
Sing Street

Best performance by an actor in a motion picture – drama
Winner: Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea
Joel Edgerton – Loving
Andrew Garfield – Hacksaw Ridge
Viggo Mortensen – Captain Fantastic
Denzel Washington – Fences

Best performance by an actress in a motion picture – drama
Winner: Isabelle Huppert – Elle
Amy Adams – Arrival
Jessica Chastain – Miss Sloane
Ruth Negga – Loving
Natalie Portman – Jackie

Best performance by an actor in a motion picture – comedy or musical
Winner: Ryan Gosling – La La Land
Colin Farrell – The Lobster
Hugh Grant – Florence Foster Jenkins
Jonah Hill – War Dogs
Ryan Reynolds – Deadpool

Best performance by an actress in a motion picture – comedy or musical
Winner: Emma Stone – La La Land
Annette Bening – 20th Century Women
Lily Collins – Rules Don’t Apply
Hailee Steinfeld – The Edge of Seventeen
Meryl Streep – Florence Foster Jenkins

Best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a motion picture
Winner: Aaron Taylor-Johnson – Nocturnal Animals
Mahershala Ali – Moonlight
Jeff Bridges – Hell or High Water
Simon Helberg – Florence Foster Jenkins
Dev Patel – Lion

Best performance by an actress in a supporting role in a motion picture
Winner: Viola Davis – Fences
Naomie Harris – Moonlight
Nicole Kidman – Lion
Octavia Spencer – Hidden Figures
Michelle Williams – Manchester by the Sea

Best director – motion picture
Winner: Damien Chazelle – La La Land
Tom Ford – Nocturnal Animals
Mel Gibson – Hacksaw Ridge
Barry Jenkins – Moonlight
Kenneth Lonergan – Manchester by the Sea

Best screenplay – motion picture
Winner: Damien Chazelle – La La Land
Tom Ford – Nocturnal Animals
Barry Jenkins – Moonlight
Kenneth Lonergan – Manchester by the Sea
Taylor Sheridan – Hell or High Water

Best animated feature film
Winner: Zootopia
Kubo and the Two Strings
Moana
My Life as a Zucchini
Sing

Best foreign language film
Winner: Elle
Divines
Neruda
The Salesman
Toni Erdmann

Best original score – motion picture
Winner: Justin Hurwitz – La La Land
Hans Zimmer, Pharrell Williams, Benjamin Wallfisch – Hidden Figures
Dustin O’Halloran, Hauschka – Lion
Johann Johannsson – Arrival
Nicholas Britell – Moonlight

Best original song – motion picture
Winner: City of Stars – La La Land
Can’t Stop the Feeling – Trolls
Faith – Sing
Gold – Gold
How Far I’ll Go – Moana

TELEVISION

Best television series – drama
Winner: The Crown
Game of Thrones
Stranger Things
This is Us
Westworld

Best television series – comedy or musical
Winner: Atlanta
Black-ish
Mozart in the Jungle
Transparent
Veep

Best mini-series or motion picture made for television
Winner: The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story
American Crime
The Dresser
The Night Manager
The Night Of

Best performance by an actor in a television series – drama
Winner: Billy Bob Thornton – Goliath
Rami Malek – Mr Robot
Bob Odenkirk – Better Call Saul
Matthew Rhys – The Americans
Liev Schreiber – Ray Donovan

Best performance by an actress in a television series – drama
Winner: Claire Foy – The Crown
Caitriona Balfe – Outlander
Keri Russell – The Americans
Winona Ryder – Stranger Things
Evan Rachel Wood – Westworld

Best performance by an actor in a television series – comedy or musical
Winner: Donald Glover – Atlanta
Anthony Anderson – Black-ish
Gael Garcia Bernal – Mozart in the Jungle
Nick Nolte – Graves
Jeffrey Tambor – Transparent

Best performance by an actress in a television series – comedy or musical
Winner: Tracee Ellis Ross – Black-ish
Rachel Bloom – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Julia Louis-Dreyfus – Veep
Sarah Jessica Parker – Divorce
Issa Rae – Insecure
Gina Rodriguez – Jane the Virgin

Best performance by an actor in a mini-series or motion picture made for television
Winner: Tom Hiddleston – The Night Manager
Riz Ahmed – The Night Of
Bryan Cranston – All the Way
John Turturro – The Night Of
Courtney B Vance – The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story

Best performance by an actress in a mini-series or motion picture made for television
Winner: Sarah Paulson – The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story
Felicity Huffman – American Crime
Riley Keough – The Girlfriend Experience
Charlotte Rampling – London Spy
Kerry Washington – Confirmation

Best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a series, mini-series or motion picture made for television
Winner: Hugh Laurie – The Night Manager
Sterling K Brown – The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story
John Lithgow – The Crown
Christian Slater – Mr Robot
John Travolta – The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story

Best performance by an actress in a supporting role in a series, mini-series or motion picture made for television
Winner: Olivia Colman – The Night Manager
Lena Headey – Game of Thrones
Chrissy Metz – This is Us
Mandy Moore – This is Us
Thandie Newton – Westworld

by hutchwp

Top films I’m most looking forward to in 2016-17

There are heaps of new films to get excited about over the next few months, as is always the case with awards season just around the corner. Here, in no particular order, are the films at the top of my “must see” list.

Let me know if you think I’ve missed anything!!

Guardians of the Galaxy 2

https://youtu.be/sMTntxvok1M

I’m really jaded with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. My interest piqued with The Avengers: Age of Ultron, which is the eleventh film in the franchise (depending on where you start counting). But then I started to stop caring, to the point of not even seeing Civil War or Doctor Strange at the cinemas. A sad turn of events but I just have no enthusiasm for them. Maybe it’s over-saturation, who knows?

When I clicked play on the trailer for the second Guardians film, I was equally lethargic. However, by the end of the 200-odd seconds I was completely hooked again and I truly cannot wait for May to get here so we can enjoy the next installment.

La La Land

https://youtu.be/cZAw8qxn0ZE

Yes, okay, this is a complete cheat because I’ve actually already seen this film. I isn’t going to be released until the middle of January in the UK but the film is so good it warrants me wanting to see it again as soon as possible. I’m convinced you’ll feel the same too.

You can read my review here.

Toni Erdmann

https://youtu.be/j0uwi5EPnpA

This film has been lighting up the festival circuit for almost a year now, and was warmly received on its European release earlier this year. It’s a German-Austrian release that was in competition at Cannes and has been selected as the German submission for Best Film in a Foreign Language at next year’s Academy Awards. Perhaps most tellingly, it topped Sight and Sound’s best films of 2016 list.

Fine recommendations indeed!

Manchester By The Sea

https://youtu.be/NxQmuJnrjxg

Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams star in this Manchester, Massachusetts-set film about a man returning to his hometown when his brother suffers a heart attack whilst at sea. It has been getting rave reviews and has already received a handful of Golden Globe nominations. It will be released in UK cinemas on 13th January.

Hacksaw Ridge

https://youtu.be/s2-1hz1juBI

This has been a surprise hit with the critics, despite being directed by Mel Gibson. Just when we all thought his career had gone completely down the pan (“What? I thought Beaver was great!?” I hear you say), he has revived his credentials with a pacifist combat medic in the US army. Even better, he rescued it from a 14-year development hell period. Hopefully people can watch it without thinking about Gibson’s personal life. He has undeniably had a stunning track record for directing excellent films.

Lego Batman

https://youtu.be/rGQUKzSDhrg

Clearly the best part of the excellent The Lego Movie, The Lego Batman Movie brings back Will Arnett for 90 minutes of pure purile fun in February 2017. I. Cannot. Wait.

Lion

https://youtu.be/-RNI9o06vqo

This one tells the true story of Saroo Brierley, who was separated from his family as a child and later adopted by an Australian couple and is attempting to find them again from broken memories. Dev Patel stars alongside Nicole Kidman and it could well be one of the most heartwarming films of the year.