The Revenant

Alejandro G. Innaritu (2015)

This is the best film I have seen all year (since 'Birdman', in fact, the previous film by Innaritu). It was expertly directed. The use of natural light really adds to the danger of the environment that surrounds Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio). Innaritu loves the camera to pan around objects and people to create a sense of awe and spectacle.

Leonardo DiCaprio really did deserve all the awards that he got for this role. I thought it was his best film by far. The realism and intensity of his performance really comes through.

The story was gripping throughout the whole film and I found the twists and turns very interesting.

Spotlight

Tom McCarthy (2015)

This was a very shocking and well made film. It is about the scandal involving a cover-up of Catholic priests molesting children in the Boston area. I was surprised with the delicate nature of the film's script and how well it was handled. It had a very solid ensemble cast which helped make the film moving and horrific in parts.

I am glad that a film like this won Best Picture at the Academy Awards as it had a very important message (even if I was rooting for 'The Revenant').

Carol

Todd Haynes (2015)

'Carol' is beautifully shot and very maturely made. The acting was very class all around the film. The whole thing seemed like it was taken from the 40s. I loved how fine it all looked and felt and it deserved a lot more awards than it got.

The Lobster

Yorgos Lanthimos (2015)

This was Yorgos Lanthimos' English language debut. It was really funny. All of the actors had to perform their lines straight-faced and with no emotion which is very strange at first.

The screenplay and direction of the film was very intelligent and perfectly highlights the themes of the film. This film was very quirky and unique and so I really enjoyed it.

Sicario

Denis Villeneuve (2015)

'Sicario' was a really good action film. The acting all around was very good (in particularly Emily Blunt). The set pieces were very well made.

Legend

Brian Helgeland (2015)

'Legend' was not a very good film. It was poorly acted and written on the most part. It was predictable and just seemed like a forgettable straight-to-video gangster film. However, the only saving grace (and a really good one) was Tom Hardy.

Hardy was brilliant in the main roles (playing both of the Kray twins). He made the film funny and really tense when it tried to be. The soundtrack was also really good.

45 Years

Andrew Haigh (2015)

'45 Years' is a brilliant film. It was very well acted and so tense. The way each scene was shot and the cinematography was beautiful.

The Gift

Joel Edgerton (2015)

This film was good. The acting was good. It was well written and had good plot twists. It did get a bit too predictable and over-the-top by the end.

Deadpool

Tim Miller (2016)

This film was very funny. Ryan Reynolds was made for this role. The innuendos did get a bit much though.

It was well written and the direction was very good but it did go into a territory that it was trying to make fun of. I got bored of all the action hero conventions after a while.

Anomalisa

Duke Johnson, Charlie Kaufman (2015)

Reviewing this film gives me great pleasure as I thought it was very well made. It is a beautiful film about the isolation and the disembodiment of modern society. 'Anomalisa' tells the story of a man called Michael Stone played by David Thewlis on a business trip and we realise how lonely he is.The film is made using start-stop animation puppetry which had been chosen for amazing effect. Each character has the same face (seemingly like masks) and everyone has the same monotonic voice apart from the two main characters. This makes the themes of identity and loneliness so very profound and imaginative.

The repetitiveness of the main character's lifestyle comes to a halt when he overhears a guest in his hotel which is cleverly named The Fregoli which is the name of a mental condition to do with paranoia. This guest turns out to be voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh. She is the only other voice heard and Stone is enchanted by her and instantly asks for her to go back to his room. He makes her sing and listens to her intently. There is a very graphic sex scene which would be humourous in any other circumstance but it is very moving and beautiful.

I won't talk any more about the story as it'll ruin it. 'Anomalisa' is a very clever film from the mind who brought us 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', 'Adaptation.' and 'Being John Malkovich' and it shows. Everything about it is expertly done. It is sad that this was only up for 'Best Animated Feature' alongside two dimensional children's cartoons at the Academy Awards and it wasn't recognised for being the great film that it is.

Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse

Christopher Landon (2015)

I thought this film would be a cross between 'Superbad' and 'Zombieland'. I think I was too accurate. There is nothing original about this film. I suppose originality is not what you are looking for when sitting down to this film which is fair enough but every single character has been ripped from the pages of previous 'teen' movie scripts that have gone before it and the humour doesn't even make it stand out.

The story does move on slightly from the tiresome quest of American teenagers wanting to get laid when the zombies appear (spoiler alert!) which kept my interest slightly. The over-the-top gore was fun but only distracted me slightly from how poor the other aspects of the film were.

Overall, the screenplay and performances are nothing to write home about but it was quite well directed.

The Witch

Robert Eggers (2015)

This was a really good horror film. The direction was very interesting and Robert Egger plays with darkness and shadows in a really horrifying way. The tension is unbearable at times.

The dialogue is a bit hard to follow as it is very "oldé English" to add to the historical accuracy of the piece. The actors are all good at reciting this strange dialect and demonstrating the paranoia spreading through the family thanks to religion and superstition.The film is based on accounts and texts found from the era and so everything seen on screen has been taken from sources and barely been touched. Every part of the film seems authentic.

It is refreshing to see a film that doesn't really on jump-scares and annoying "cattle-prod" techniques to make audiences scared. 'The Witch' is genuinely disturbing without resorting to these techniques. It is very strange and gory when it needs to be. I also found these strange scenes quite fascinating and educational as the film almost seems like a historical document.

Ant-Man

Peyton Reed (2015)

I like Paul Rudd and was hoping this would be as funny as 'The Guardians of the Galaxy' but it wasn't. It looked good and the direction was solid but I think it suffered from the constant screenplay rewrites that the film underwent by changing the screenwriters (Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish).

I also felt it was a bit too long-winded and it was unbalanced. However, the main good feature in this film was the special effects.