2022 In Review: Lisa Marie’s Top 30 Films of 2022

Posted on February 9, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Without further ado, here are my top 30 films of 2022!

(Why 30? Because Lisa doesn’t do odd numbers! Also, be sure to check out my picks for 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021! Wow, I’ve been doing this for a while!)

30. Marcel The Shell With Shoes On (dir by Dean Fleischer Camp)

An animated film with heart, Marcel The Shell With Shoes On would probably be ranked higher if Marcel’s favorite news show had been something other than 60 Minutes. Still, questionable viewing habits aside, Marcel and Nana Connie and all the other shells were amazing characters and the end of the movie brought tears to my mismatched eyes. With this film and I Want You Back, Jenny Slate had quite a year.

29. Ted K (dir by Tony Stone)

Released in February of this year, this film about Ted Kaczyski and his descent into madness was unfairly overlooked. Sharlto Copley was perfectly cast as Ted K. This is a film that probably won’t make Ted’s supporters happy but, at the same time, it also avoids painting him as just being a straight-out madman. It’s refusal to simplify makes the film far more than just another true crime biopic.

28. Dashcam (dir by Rob Savage)

Starring Annie Hardy as herself, this low-budget horror film is a scathing satire of life during the age of COVID and performative “wokeness.” After the past few years, there’s something rather cathartic about Hardy’s refusal to obey.

27. The Batman (dir by Matt Reeves)

At this point, I’m fairly cynical about comic book movies in general and Batman films in specific. I mean, how many Batmen have we had over the past ten years? (Actually, I think only four but it feels like a lot more!) That said, I enjoyed The Batman, for both its noirish atmosphere and it’s willingness to embrace the melodrama. You have to love the fact that the villain was basically a nerdy podcaster.

26. Operation Mincemeat (dir by John Madden)

Based on a true story, this film was a throwback to the earnest World War II films of the past. Colin Firth, Kelly MacDonald, Matthew McFayden, and Johnny Flynn were all well-cast and did their part to bring this moment of WWII history to life.

25. Father Stu (dir by Rosalind Ross)

You don’t have to be from a Catholic background to appreciate Father Stu but it probably helps. This was one of those roles that only Mark Wahlberg could have pulled off.

24. See How They Run (dir by Tom George)

This stylized murder mystery was terrifically entertaining and witty. Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan are both treasures.

23. I Want You Back (dir by Jason Orley)

Two friends conspire to win back their respective romantic partners and end up falling in love with each other instead. This was an enjoyable comedy, one that was blessed with an outstanding cast that included Jenny Slate, Charlie Day, Scott Eastwood, and Gina Rodriguez. The scene in which Jenny Slate sings Suddenly Seymour is a classic.

22. Ambulance (dir by Michael Bay)

This was the film that Michael Bay was born to direct. For once, Bay’s hyperkinetic style was perfectly matched by the story being told. It also helped that the ambulance was a real ambulance and not a robot pretending to be an ambulance.

21.Send Me (dir by Nick Palmisciano)

This is a heart-breaking documentary about the efforts of 12 veterans to evacuate as many allies as they could during the disastrous withdraw from Afghanistan. This film deserved more attention than it got.

20. The Bombardment (dir by Ole Bornedal)

Based on a true story, this Danish film deals with the accidental bombing of a school during World War II. It’s been overshadowed a bit by All Quiet On The Western Front but, in its quieter way, The Bombardment is also a strong look at the horrors of war.

19. Goodnight Oppy (dir by Ryan White)

This is a poignant documentary about Opportunity, the NASA exploration rover that spent 15 years exploring Mars. This movie proves that a robot can make you cry.

18. Dark Glasses (dir by Dario Argento)

Don’t listen to the critics. This enjoyably over-the-top giallo was an entertaining return-to-form for Dario Argento.

17. Wildcat (dir by Melissa Lesh and Trevor Fost)

This poignant documentary follows a depressed veteran as he finds purpose helping to raise a baby ocelot in Peru. Be prepared to cry.

16. Apollo 10 1/2 (dir by Richard Linklater)

Richard Linklater’s animated film was well-received by critics but it’s still hard not to feel that it’s been a bit overlooked. Narrated by Jack Black, the film details the 1969 moon landing from the perspective of a child with a very active imagination. Nostalgic, sweet-natured, and ultimately rather moving, Apollo 10 1/2 is a film that celebrates life.

15. Three Minutes: A Lengthening (dir by Bianca Stigner)

This haunting and moving documentary, which is narrated by Helena Bonham Cater, examines a three-minute snippet of 16mm film that was shot in a Jewish town in Poland in 1938, shortly before the Nazis invaded. By examining every aspect of those three minutes, this documentary becomes both a memorial for the inhabitants of that town and a much-needed reminder of the horrors and reality of the Holocaust. With anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial on the rise, this is an important documentary.

14. The Northman (dir by Robert Eggers)

The Northman is occasionally thrilling and occasionally ludicrous but it’s always watchable. Robert Eggers finds moments of humor and odd beauty in this Viking epic. Nicole Kidman embraces the melodrama and goes all out. I just hope Valhalla was actually worth all the trouble.

13. Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (dir by Joel Crawford)

Yeah, you knew this film was going to show up on my list. To be honest, the film could have been about just about anything. I’d watch Puss In Boots read the phone book as long as Antonio Banderas returned to do his voice. The fact that the film itself was cute and even touching was an added bonus.

12. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (dir by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson)

Yes, a puppet can make you cry.

11. Babylon (dir by Damien Chazelle)

Was it flawed? You bet. Did it run a little bit too long? Yes, it did. Could I have done without the scene with the elephant? You better believe it. That said, this film was so gloriously excessive and over-the-top that it was easy for me to forgive its flaws. The critics may not have liked it but Babylon is a film that will be rediscovered.

10. The Fabelmans (dir by Steven Spielberg)

I went back and forth over whether to put The Fabelmans or Babylon in the number ten spot. In a way, they’re kind of similar in that they have their flaws but they’re both saved by their director’s obvious love of cinema. In the end, David Lynch’s role as John Ford moved The Fabelmans into the 10th spot.

9. Everything Everywhere All At Once (dir by the Daniels)

To be honest, I think some people are going a little bit overboard in their praise for this film. Yes, it’s one of the year’s best but 2022 wasn’t that strong of a year and Everything is one of those probable Best Picture winners that, like Nomadland and CODA, will probably not be quite as celebrated after it actually wins. That said, Michelle Yeoh and especially Ke Huy Quan deserve all the praise that they’ve received and I appreciated that the film featured the destruction of an IRS office. It’s not as perfect as some say but, due largely to the cast, it still deserves to be in my top ten.

8. Nitram (dir by Justin Kurzel)

This is another unfairly overlooked film, this time from Australia. Caleb Landry Jones gives a powerful and disturbing performance as a troubled young man named Nitram who commits an act of shocking violence. Anthony LaPaglia and Judy Davis play Nitram’s parents, who are both troubled in their own individual ways. Essie Davis plays the older woman who falls in love with Nitram, despite the fact that Nitram is incapable of loving anyone.

7. Emily the Criminal (dir by John Patton Ford)

Aubrey Plaza plays Emily, who discovers that not only does crime pay but, in the gig economy, it’s one of those few ways to get ahead. Part thriller and part satire, Emily the Criminal reminds us that Plaza is one of the most interesting actresses working today.

6. All Quiet On The Western Front (dir by Edward Berger)

This German anti-war epic stays true to the themes of its source material while updating the plot for the modern era. The contrast between the generals and the diplomats planning battles and the soldiers dying in them is a powerful one.

5. Elvis (dir by Baz Luhrmann)

This wonderfully excessive biopic features good music, a great performance from Austin Butler, and a wonderfully eccentric one from Tom Hanks. Luhrmann is hardly a subtle director but Butler’s performance keeps the film from spiraling out of control.

4. Vengeance (dir by B.J. Novak)

This whip-smart satire of both true crime podcasts and the red state/blue state divide deserved far more attention than it received. Ashton Kutcher has actually become a surprisingly dependable character actor. Director and screenwriter Novak tells the story with sensitivity and a sharp eye for the absurd.

3. The Banshees of Inisherin (dir by Martin McDonagh)

In his best film yet, Martin McDonagh examines friendship, art, violence, and anger in Ireland. Brendan Gleeson no longer wants to be Colin Farrell’s friend. Farrell’s attempts to discover why leads to all sorts of surprising and macabre developments. Gleeson and Farrell have never been better. Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan offer up poignant support.

2. Tar (dir by Todd Field)

Lydia Tar is a brilliant artist. Does it matter that she also might be a terrible human being? Todd Field’s return to filmmaking meditates on the meaning of art, morality, and the consequences of hubris. Cate Blanchett is perfectly cast. The scene where Tar talks to a student who objects to playing music by a white male is a real litmus test. Do you think Tar is a bully or do you think the student is being too sensitive? For all the talk about how Lydia dismisses the student’s claims, many also fail to note that the student is the one who calls her a “bitch” and runs out of the room. Much as in Field’s previous film, no one is as perfect or as justified or as blameless as they may believe.

And, finally, my top film of 2022 is….

Top Gun: Maverick (dir by Joseph Kosinski)

After 2 years of lockdowns and pessimism, Top Gun: Maverick was finally released and it reminded audiences of what they loved about movies in the first place. Top Gun: Maverick was the movie that we needed in 2022.

Well, that concludes my late look back at 2022! Now, let’s focus on 2023!

Lisa Marie’s 2022 In Review:

Film Review: Ted K. (dir by Tony Stone)

Posted on August 6, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Ted K. is a film about a man who lives in a cabin in the Montana wilderness. The man was a child genius who attended Harvard University when he was only 16. He worked briefly as a professor but, in the early 70s, he started to retreat from society. He moved into a tiny cabin, one that he had previously built with his brother. The man’s name is Ted Kaczynski. He would later be known as the Unabomber. As of today, he is known as prisoner #04475-046 at a Colorado supermax prison.

When Ted K. begins, Ted (played by Sharlto Copley) has been living in the cabin for close to ten years. He is usually unshaven and unbathed. He loves the wilderness but he hates all evidence of technology. He screams at jets as they fly overhead. When a group of vacationers ride their snowmobiles across his property, Ted responds by breaking into their house and taking an axe to their snowmobiles. Ted carries on an inner dialogue with himself, talking about how technology and progress are destroying the world. He also talks about how he can’t handle the idea of ever having to take orders from a woman. Ted hunts a rabbit and then thanks its spirit for giving up its life so that he could eat. I’ve never quite understood people who do that. Is the spirt of the rabbit supposed to be happy that its body is getting eaten just because the schmuck who shot it offered up some halfass prayer?

Sometimes, Ted goes into town and he calls his mom on an old payphone, one that regularly steals his coins. He usually calls to demand money because Ted is incapable of holding down a job. Ted yells at his mom, blaming her for his lack of social skills and sexual experience. Ted swears that he will never again speak to his brother. Later, Ted calls his brother to beg for money and swears that he will never again speak to their mother. When he’s not in front of the payphone, he can be found buying tools at the local hardware store. He also sometimes goes out so that he can peep through windows and point his rifle at anyone who he sees. He gets especially upset when he sees a man and woman about to make love. Little seems to anger Ted more than knowing that there are actually happy people in the world.

In short, Ted Kaczynski is a loser, an incel who is bitter about having never been able to get his once promising life together. He hates everyone, with the exception of the always-sympathetic girlfriend who pops up in his fantasies. Every loser needs someone or something to blame and Ted challenges his self-loathing and his sexual frustration into rage against modern society. When he first appears in the film, Ted has already made his first bomb. As the film progresses, he starts to send his bombs out. Some, he mails. Some, he leaves sitting in front of computer stores and university buildings. Eventually, he becomes the most wanted man in the country but Ted has an offer to make to the authorities. If they just let him publish his manifesto, he’ll call of his reign of terror….

Ted K tells the story of Kaczynski’s life in Montana, often using passages lifted straight from Kaczynski’s journals to illustrate his inner thoughts. It’s an interesting film because, on the one hand, it’s clearly sympathetic to Kaczynski’s feelings about technology. The film starts with a slow motion shot that makes the snowmobiles plowing through Montana wilderness look like an invading, faceless army. Shots of blissful and silent nature are contrasted with shots of lumber mills, airplanes, and humming electrical wires. On the other hand, the film never makes the mistake of trying to turn Kaczynski himself into a heroic character. Ted is a creep from the minute that he first appears and he assures us in his own words that his main goal is to get revenge on a world that he feels has rejected him. He’s a misogynist who alienates everyone that he meets and who tries to hide his insecurity behind a projected air of arrogance. There are a few scenes in which Ted lowers his mask just enough to reveal his loneliness and that he’s someone who is incapable of understanding how communication works. He desperately wants to be able to talk to people and have someone in his life but he doesn’t know how to do it. His natural awkwardness gets in the way every time. Ted turns his anger out on the world. He may claim that he’s angry with what technology had done to society but the truth of the matter is that he’s angry at a world that has passed him by. Retreating to a cabin to seek enlightenment is charming when someone is in their 20s but far less impressive when that person is nearly 40.

With a two-hour running time, Ted K runs a bit long. The film’s final 30 minutes seem to move slowly, largely because we already know how the story is going to end. That said, Sharlto Copley makes Ted into a compelling character without ever making the mistake of trying to make him sympathetic. Director Tony Stone and cinematographer Nathan Corbin gives us some truly striking shots of the Montana wilderness. (At the very least, one can see why Ted would view it as being a potential paradise.) Blanck Mass provides a wonderfully ominous score, one that puts the viewer straight into Ted’s mind. Ted K deserves credit for both its refusal to idealize Kaczynski and also its attempt to understand just what exactly causes him to take the actions that he did. It makes for a valuable study of a man who has influenced terrorists on both the Left and the Far Right.

Incidentally, I once took a philosophy class where the TA was a huge Kaczynski fan. He suggested that everyone read the Unabomber Manifesto and “judge it by what it says, not what the author did.” I couldn’t get past the first paragraph.

Film Review: Free Fire (dir by Ben Wheatley)

Posted on April 21, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last night, I saw Free Fire, the latest film from the visionary British directing-and-screenwriting team of Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump.

Free Fire takes place in Boston in the 1970s. We know it’s the 70s because of all the wide lapels, the flared jeans, and the impressive facial hair. In short, everyone looks like an extra from Thank God, It’s Friday. Note that I said Thank God, It’s Friday and not Saturday Night Fever. None of the characters in Free Fire could pull off John Travolta’s white suit. As much as they try to pretend otherwise, everyone in this film is low rent. No one is as clever or street smart as they believe themselves to be. Even more importantly, no one is as good a shot as they think.

The film takes place in a decrepit warehouse, the type of place that is strewn with rats and hypodermic needles. Chris (Cillian Murphy), Frank (Michael Smiley), Steve-O (Sam Riley), and Bernie (Enzo Cilenti) are members of the Irish Republican Army and they’ve come to the U.S. to purchases weapons. Chris and Frank are no-nonsense professionals. Bernie is a well-meaning moron. Steve-O is a drug addict who, the previous night, got beaten up after he smashed a bottle across the face of a 17 year-old girl.

Working as intermediaries are Justine (Brie Larson) and Ord (Armie Hammer). Justine specializes in keeping jumpy people calm. She and Chris flirt as they wait for the guns to arrive. As for Ord — well, let’s just say that Ord was my favorite character in the film. He’s always calm. He looks really good in a suit. And, whenever things get intense, he’s always quick to light up a joint and make a sarcastic comment. This is probably the best performance of Armie Hammer’s career so far. (Or, at the very least, it’s the best performance of his that I’ve seen. I hear that he gives an excellent performance in the upcoming Call Me By Your Name.) Certainly, this is the first film that I’ve seen, since The Social Network, in which Hammer seemed to be truly worthy of the hype that has surrounded his career.

Finally, there’s the gun dealers themselves. There’s Martin (Babou Ceesay), who seems to be fairly low-key professional. There’s Gordon (Noah Taylor), who is a henchman who looks disconcertingly similar to Chris. And then there’s Vernon, who is from South Africa and who is constantly talking and smiling. Not surprisingly, Vernon is played by Sharlto Copley. Finally, Harry (Jack Reynor) is a driver who desperately wants to impress Ord. Harry loves John Denver and he also loves his cousin. In fact, he loves his cousin so much that, when he recognizes Steve-O as the junkie who smashed a bottle across her face, Harry pulls a gun and starts firing.

The rest of the film deals with the resulting gun fight, which is complicated with two mysterious snipers (Patrick Bergin and Mark Monero) suddenly open fire on both of the groups. Who hired them and why? That’s a mystery that could be solved if everyone stops shooting and yelling at each other. Of course, that’s not going to happen because 1) no one is a good enough shot to actually get the upper hand and 2) almost everyone in the warehouse is an idiot.

At it’s best, Free Fire mercilessly parodies the excessive violence of modern crime cinema. When it comes to crime films, most people just remember the shoot outs so Free Fire takes things to their logical extreme by just being a 90-minute gun fight. At its weakest, Free Fire occasionally becomes exactly what it’s parodying. The film’s structure — one night in one location — proves to be limiting. At times, you find yourself really wishing for a flashback or at least a little exposition to explain who everyone is outside of that warehouse. The cast is full of good actors and they all give good performances but the characters are, at best, thinly drawn. At times, it was difficult to keep track who was who. I especially found myself mixing up Michel Smiley and Sharlto Copely. It was all the facial hair.

About 30 minutes into Free Fire, I was already composing a bad review in my head but, by the final shot (and yes, the double meaning is totally intentional), Free Fire had won me over. It’s an experiment that doesn’t really work but it’s so relentless and dedicated to seeing its story to its conclusion that I couldn’t help but appreciate the film’s efforts. When the guns finally did stop firing and the end credits started, I was shocked to discover that, without even realizing it, I actually had gotten just a little caught up in the film’s story.

Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump previously gave us one of the most memorable films of the decade (so far), A Field in England. Free Fire might not quite work but I’ll always make the time to see the latest from Wheatley and Jump.

Here’s The Red Band Trailer For Free Fire!

Posted on March 5, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi, everyone!

When Jeff and I went to see Logan on Thursday night, one of the many trailers that played before the film was this red band one for Free Fire. Free Fire is an action comedy, one that I think is meant to satirize the ultra violent heist films of the 90s and early aughts. Seriously, there are parts of this trailer that should make Guy Ritchie cringe.

That said, this trailer is also about a minute too long. At first, everyone in the theater thought it was kind of funny but then, around the two minute mark, the yawns started to kick in. “Are they just going to shoot at each other for the entire trailer?” someone asked.

The answer is yes. And you know what? The trailer probably doesn’t do Free Fire justice because this movie was directed by Ben Wheatley and I’m still having dreams inspired by his oddly hypnotic A Field in England. I’ll follow him anywhere!

Free Fire has a March 31st release date in the UK and an April 21st release date in the States.

Anyway, here’s the red band trailer for Free Fire!

Let’s Play Hardcore Henry (2016, directed by Ilya Naishuller)

Posted on April 8, 2016 by Jedadiah Leland

Hardcore_(2015_film) If you ever wondered whether a movie would ever be able to capture the excitement of watching a total stranger silently play an uninspired video game, Hardcore Henry is here to answer your question.

Filmed with a GoPro Hero 3 camera that used a specially-built rig that could be worn as a mask, Hardcore Henry is an action film that, from beginning to end, is told from a first-person perspective. You are Henry. When the film starts, you are having a dream where Tim Roth calls you a “pussy.” When you wake up, a beautiful woman named Estelle (Haley Bennett) says that you are her husband and that you have amnesia because of a horrible accident. You also lost your left arm and left leg but Estelle replaces your missing limbs with cybernetic ones. Just before Estelle can give you a new voice, the laboratory is attacked by a telekinetic albino named Akan (Danila Kozlovsky), leaving you as mute at GTA III‘s Claude. You spend the rest of the movie running through the streets of Moscow, trying to rescue Estelle and getting advice and side missions from Jimmy (Sharlto Copely). Jimmy was my favorite part of the movie because every time he was killed, he would return in a different version. Cocaine Jimmy was the best of the Jimmys.

There are a few times when the stunt work is awe-inspiring but too often watching Hardcore Henry felt like watching a Let’s Play video on YouTube, the only difference being that at least the YouTube vid would have featured a joke or two. The problem is not that Hardcore Henry feels like a video game. The problem is that doesn’t feel like a good video game. It feels like a clichéd and uninspired first person shooter, right down to the scenes were Estelle and Jimmy train you on how to use your new abilities and weapons. (When Henry visits a brothel, it’s as if he figured out how to unlock the hidden rooms in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.) If Hardcore Henry had a plot that was as interesting as the first person gimmick, it would be a great action film. But, as it is, Hardcore Henry is just an intriguing experiment that does not really work.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Enter the Dragon, Drive Angry 3D, The A-Team, Ichi the Killer

Posted on November 27, 2015 by Arleigh

Tis November 27, 2015 and all 4 Shots from 4 Films are dedicated to four actors who share the same birth date. A date which all will have now figured out as being November 27. One comes from the Master of the Martial Arts himself, another a veteran character actor, a third who became a prawn and, lastly, the one who made the Glasgow Smile cooler before Heath Ledger.

4 SHOTS FROM 4 FILMS

Enter the Dragon (dir. by Robert Clouse)

Drive Angry 3D (dir. by Patrick Lussier)

The A-Team (dir. by Joe Carnahan)

Ichi the Killer (dir. by Takashi Miike)

This trailer is HARDCORE

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Arleigh

Gamers have been clamoring for some of their favorite games to be made into full-length feature films. Whether it be rpgs, adventure or first-person shooters the games that have had a film adaptation were usually not very good. Even the classic first-person shooter Doom got it’s own film with even a gimmicky sequence near the end that put the action in first-person perspective just like the game. In the end, the film didn’t end up being very good.

Last year, there was a crowdfunding for a project that would take that first-person perspective and build a film around it. At first, it sounded like another take on the found footage craze, but this time around it’s not a film using the found footage narrative, but a film that was from the point of view of the protagonist. The film from start to finish will not stop and we’d only see things from the lead’s viewpoint.

This was done to great effect with the remake of the horror from Maniac. Now we shall see how well it works in an action genre that looks to blur the lines what’s film and what’s video game. Just from the released trailer alone this looks quite like some of the first-person shooters gamers have been eating up for the past decade. Having the film also stay in first-person could also make for many audiences to lose their mind or their lunches or both.

Hardcore just had it’s premiere on September 12, 2015 over at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Trailer: Chappie (2nd Official)

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Arleigh

Chappie will be the third film from Neill Blomkamp and with the release of it’s second trailer there already seems to be a sort of negative buzz surrounding the film. The first trailer made Chappie look like a modern remake of the 80’s “robot come to life” film Short Circuit. For many this is not a good comparison.

This second trailer pulls back on the cutesy Chappie robot stuff and takes a much more ominous and serious tone. The film seems like it’s all about the danger of artificial intelligence and how Chappie may be the key behind what can make A.I. work or fail.

Yet, despite taking a much more action direct approach the negative buzz is still there. Maybe people are not as quick to embrace Chappie after the underwhelming (some say heavy-handed) result of Blomkamp’s follow-up to District 9 with Elysium. It’s an understandable reaction considering how high Blomkamp reached and succeeded with his very first feature film.

Chappie (and Neil Blomkamp) has between now and March 6, 2015 to convince people that it will not be another Icarus-like release.

For Your Consideration #3: Angelina Jolie in Maleficent

Posted on December 14, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Way back in March, when people like me first started to ask ourselves what and who would be nominated for Oscars in January, a lot of us assumed that 2014 would be the year of Angelina Jolie. We predicted that her film Unbroken would be an Oscar front-runner and quite a few people felt that Angelina herself would become the second woman to win the Academy Award for directing.

And, it could still happen!

However, with Angelina being pretty much ignored by most of the traditional Oscar precursors and Unbroken getting positive but hardly rapturous reviews, it’s starting to look more and more like Unbroken will be lucky to receive a picture nomination, much less a mention for Jolie.

Now, I haven’t seen Unbroken yet so I can’t really judge whether it deserves any awards consideration or not. However, I can say that Unbroken is not the only film for which Angelina Jolie deserves consideration.

Maleficent came out this summer and did quite well at the box office but it seems to have been forgotten and that’s a shame because it features one of Angelina Jolie’s best performances. The film itself is a revisionist take on Sleeping Beauty, re-telling the story from the point-of-view of the fairy queen Maleficent (played, of course, by Angelina.)

In this version of the story, we see that the true villain was Sleeping Beauty’s father, Stefan (Sharlto Copley). When they were younger, Stefan and Maleficent were lovers but the Stefan eventually abandoned her, knowing that having a relationship with a winged fairy would only serve to thwart his own ambitions. Years later, when the humans attempt to conquer Maleficent’s kingdom, it is announced that whoever slays Maleficent will become the new king. Knowing that Maleficent is still in love with him, Stefan drugs her and then cuts her wings off. Using her wings as evidence to back up his claim that he has killed her, Stefan becomes the new king. The now wingless Maleficent is left alone and embittered. When Stefan’s daughter, Princess Aurora, is born, Maleficent announces that, on her sixteenth birthday, Aurora will sink into a deep sleep and will only be awaken by the kiss of someone who truly loves her.

Maleficent was one of those films that truly divided critics. Male viewers tended to rightfully criticize the film for being tonally inconsistent and for relying too much on CGI. Female critics, however, understood that none of that mattered. As flawed as the film may have been, we knew that the most important thing was Angelina Jolie’s performance. She may have been playing a fairy and she may have been appearing in a movie that was dominated by CGI but Angelina Jolie brought such strength and complexity to the role that she transcended all of the film’s flaws and instead created a thoroughly real character. We understood and we related to Maleficent’s fury. When she first woke up to discover that her wings had been stolen from her, it was devastating because the moment was real. We all knew what had truly happened to Maleficent. When she sought revenge, we sought it with her. When she regretted her actions, we shared her regrets. Her pain was our pain and her triumph was our triumph.

Angelina Jolie gave one of the best performances of the year in Maleficent and she certainly deserves your consideration.

Trailer: Chappie (Official)

Posted on November 5, 2014 by Arleigh

District 9 introduced Neill Blomkamp to the world. People bought into that film hardcore and were soon wondering what he would be doing next. Some fans of Blomkamp who have been following his career since he was first chosen by Peter Jackson to helm the now defunct Halo film thought he now had the leverage to get the film made. This was never going to happen.

The follow-up to District 9 was Elysium and the visuals that was slowly released for the film and having Matt Damon star in it gave it some major buzz and hype. The finished product was more than just a tad disappointing.

Was Elysium a hiccup?

People will find out on March 6, 2015 if this was indeed just a blip on the rising career of Neill Blomkamp as his third feature film, Chappie, will arrive in theaters.