The MCU films are the only franchise that can reliably draw me to the cinemas and Doctor Strange is only proving that my faith is well founded. Bringing this to the screen was always going to be problematic as this is a character that was difficult to portray even in the pages of comic books. As many writers have noted, magic in theory can do anything, so how you do define meaningful constraints on what Strange can do in a way that the audience can understand? This film chooses to solve this in an interesting way: magic is visually spectacular but in the end magicians seem to mostly fight in melee like the rest of the MCU characters.
Akira Kurosawa made this in 1980, at the age of 70. The legendary director would go on making films nearly until he died in 1998 but this together with Ran in 1985 are considered the last two films that are truly great. Apparently after a string of commercial failures, Kurosawa had such difficulty raising money to make new films that he attempted to commit suicide in the 1970s. Kagemusha was made possible only when Hollywood directors who are great fans of his work helped him raise funds for the film.
Brian De Palma is an American filmmaker of the same generation as such luminaries as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Cuppola but this is the first time a film of his has been featured here. His most respected film is probably the 1983 remake of Scarface. We probably should get around to watching it but I’ve always put it off because we’ve watched the 1932 original twice and liked it so much. This one seems to be only slightly less well known but I’ve found its quality to be all over the map.
There once was a time when I paid enough attention to Disney films that each of their releases was a major event on the calendar. The Hunchback of Notre Dame came at the tail end of this period for me, arriving as it did when I was busy in university. This meant that I never watched it and was barely aware that it existed. Apparently the same held true for my wife as she had never watched it as well, which was why she asked for it to be added to our list.
This one is another of those entries in the list of the most notable films of last year and won a whole bunch of awards as well. It was also at the center of some controversy due to a perceived snub at the Academy Awards due to its LGBT content and that its two leads are both women. The most surprising thing that I learned about it however is that it’s based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith, who is best known for her Tom Ripley novels and other thrillers.
Ten Years won the Best Film award at this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards ceremony. Due to this, the Chinese government banned the ceremony from being broadcast on television as the film is fiercely critical of China’s rule of the territory. That makes this a big deal even if it’s just a low budget project conceived by a recent university graduate, Ng Ka-Leung, with no track record and with volunteers doing most of the work. It consists of a series of five short films, each made by a different director and cast.
Both of us liked Uncle Boonmee quite a bit so when director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s latest film appeared on the lists of the most notable works of 2015, I made it a top priority. It shares the same lead actress, Jenjira Pongpas, as the previous film and even covers some of the same themes. Unfortunately despite trying hard to find something to like about it, I have to say that this one’s a dud.
