Top 15 of 2011: 5-1

5-1

Number 5:

We Need to Talk About Kevin

Mummy's little devil...

Release Date: 21st October

Highest Box Office Position: 7

Directed by Lynne Ramsay

Starring: Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller, Jasper Newell

If there’s a few films from 2011 that certainly need to be spoken about, it’s Lynne Ramsay’s dazzlingly bleak We Need to Talk About Kevin, in which Tilda Swinton puts in a career-best performance as a mother who has to deal with the consequences of her son Kevin’s devastating actions. Through non-linear narrative, Swinton perfectly conveys Eva’s desire to love a son who hates her, and anguish at facing up to cruel revelations. Ramsey raises the game here – it has to be seen to believed.

We Need to Talk About Kevin reviewed...

Number 4:

Drive

Some heroes are real

Release Date: 23rd September

Highest Box Office Position: 5

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks, Christina Hendricks

Nicolas Winding Refn’s 80s neo-noir has everything going for it, not to mention guaranteed cult status. Ryan Gosling is the enigmatic toothpick-chewing Driver with no name who whisks away criminal’s right from under the cops’ noses by night. Keeping himself to himself, he threatens to ruin all stability when involving himself when a bid to protect Carey Mulligan’s innocent girl next door embroils himself in danger with Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman’s villains. Depicting this with an electro, vibrant, damn cool soundtrack, as well as tight editing and an iconic performance in Gosling to top it all off, Drive is races ahead.

Drive reviewed...

Number Three:
Melancholia

Enjoy it while it lasts

Release Date: 30th September

Highest Box Office Position: 15

Directed by Lars Von Trier

Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, John Hurt

Directed by Lars Von Trier, and promoted amidst his thoughtless remarks at Cannes Film Festival, this is a truly astounding work of art. Split into two parts, the film follows two sisters, played by an award-winning Kirsten Dunst and Von Trier regular Charlotte Gainsbourg, and how their lives are altered by the introduction of a new planet named Melancholia that threatens to collide with the earth. With support in the form of Kiefer Sutherland and John Hurt, this could be the arthouse auteur’s finest piece yet.

Number Two: 
Tyrannosaur

Release Date: 7th October

Highest Chart Position: 19

Directed by Paddy Considine

Starring: Peter Mullan, Olivia Colman, Eddie Marsan, Samuel Bottomley

The directorial debut of actor Paddy Considine proved that this guy has more than one string to his bow – and one that he should pluck more often. Tyrannosaur, a gritty British drama set in a Leeds estate, was quite simply storytelling of the cruellest, gruelling – yet sublime nature. Peter Mullan and Olivia Colman’s central performances (as the lost souls whose lives collide when the former charges into the latter’s charity shop) are ones to be shouted about.

Tyrannosaur reviewed...
Number 1:

The Artist

Release Date: 30th December
Highest Box Office Position: 8 (as of present)

Directed by Michel Hazanavicius

Starring: Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, John Goodman, Uggie the Dog

 The Artist is a very special film. Telling the story of George Valentin, a silent movie star who refuses to embrace the introduction of sound in cinema at a time when audiences 'want to hear what actors have to say', he remains set in his ways and continues making silents with his trusy dog (amazingly played by Uggie the Dog!). As his career hurtles downwards, new actress on the block Peppy Miller's soars - but Valentin remains in her mind amidst her success... A charming storyline propelled forward by the charming way in which French director Michel Hazanavicius depicts his film. If you don't know already, The Artist is a silent black and white. The irony of the storyline keeps this from ever becoming gimmicky, with lead actors Dujardin and Bejo keeping everything grounded: and just when you think you have this treat worked out, the rug is pulled from under your feet in a way you just don't expect.

This one really lives up to the hype and deserves any award success it receives.  

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Tyrannosaur

2011, 18, Directed by Paddy Considine
Starring: Peter Mullan, Olivia Colman, Eddie Marsan, Stuart Bottomley

If the title mistakes you into believing that this film features plenty of spectacle involving paleontology, you will be forgiven – but only once you’ve endured this breathtaking and completely tragic character exploration into what people do when they are helplessly and hopelessly involved in awful situations. Here, Paddy Considine debuts his skills behind the camera with an extension of his short, Dog Altogether, which sees Peter Mullan’s Joseph – an angry, belligerent and extremely violent figure – collide with Olivia Colman’s softly-spoken, charity shop worker Hannah. Both appear direct opposites, but both are victims of circumstance; Joseph exerts his unnecessary rage onto his beloved dog, whereas Hannah contains understandable rage for reasons that should only be discovered on-screen. For a film that tackles domestic issues to an extreme nature, it is wholly commendable to Considine that he manages to ensure Tyrannosaur is not completely disparate of smiles, albeit weak ones that are directly followed by a not-so-metaphorical punch to the gut. 

Through his actors, he has crafted something that deserves to be witnessed the world over. Mullan, further proving his worth, is Joseph. For all of his violence and c-word spouting, the viewer – like Hannah – sees something special in the guy. Underneath the aggressive exterior, he means well, whether this means looking out for the friendly kid neighbour on the estate who is terrorised by the pitbull of his mother’s boyfriend, or the daily visits to a dying friend - Joseph has a heart. Colman, best known for her comedic chops in Peep Show and Green Wing, is best summed up by one word: sublime. She displays a performance that rivals that of Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk about Kevin. Behind every action, emotion and word she utters, you feel precisely what it is Hannah conveys, despite the fact that the majority of us will thankfully never have the displeasure of experiencing the events she does. The ending may displease on a small scale for its admittedly rushed nature, but when a rarity like Tyrannosaur comes along, it hardly matters. Considine has found his true calling. Get excited.

5/5

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We Need to Talk About Kevin

2011, 15, Directed by Lynne Ramsay

Starring: Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller, John C. Reilly, Sioban Fallon

 Her first feature film since 2002's Morvern Callar, director Lynne Ramsay need not make another film to prove her worth; We Need To Talk About Kevin does so in an effortless manner that countless filmmaker's strive to master throughout embittered careers.  Let it be said, this is an uneasy watch. Adapted from Lionel Shriver's 2003 bestseller, the film centres on Eva Katchadourian, a mother attempting to deal with the anguish and backlash following a traumatic act committed by her son, Kevin. Tilda Swinton plays Eva and it is near impossible to imagine anybody else tackling such a role; flitting back to her days before Kevin arrived, through to his birth and her inability to conect with her son even as a toddler, Swinton connects instead with the watchful audience, providing a true insight into what it is to be this woman pushed to the edge by motherhood (just try and prevent your heart from sinking when, in a rare moment of affection, Kevin snuggles up with his mother whilst she reads him a bedtime story, causing Eva to have a fist-in-the-air moment). Her every action evokes an emotive response; you yearn to acquire the ability to reach into the screen, simply to reassuringly pat her on the back. In one word, Swinton is a knockout - quite possibly the performance of the year.

John C. Reilly as the ignorant father who sees Kevin as the inocent angel he definitely isn't, does quite a bit with not a lot. As for Kevin himself, he is a malevolent on-screen force; an out-and-out pure villainous creation - Ezra Miller plays the part so perfectly that he is in danger of becoming typecast for a long time to come.

The film is non-linear but somehow does not feel so due to a fathomable format that Ramsay adopts. There appear to be narrative lapses that are stitched together come the film's climax, and after glimpsing Eva's character before and then after the event that the film is moulded around, you piece the puzzle together, formulating debatable ideas in the process. Is it entirely her fault? Definitely not. Is she blameless? Probably not. Either way, this is one film that will have you talking all the way home. Although the difference in timeframe is present, you never once feel isolated in the plot - all you know is that something truly terrible occured. It is to Ramsay's credit that you wait so patiently to find out what. In lesser hands, the feature would have used this potentially gory event as a harrowing set-piece, but here, emphasis is placed on the interaction between mother and son, followed by mother's way of dealing with a situation she should never have had to deal with. Fearfully doing her weekly shop; unable to smile in the street at the risk of passers-by spotting her... Swinton plays it so it could be somebody down the stree, grounding the film with a sense of overwhelming realism. 

Barely any blood is spilt on screen. Ramsay knows the imagination is enough; so much so that when visceral images are shown, the shock and awe are enhanced. Pair this with a highlight on innocent imagery (Eva's house being repeatedly pelted with red paint), paired with the claustrophoic probing camerawork refusing to release the grip around Eva, and the sense of dread is unpalpable. This is truly remarkable filmmaking, aided by a talented visionary and performer at the top of their game. If there's one thing to talk about, it is most certainly We Need to Talk About Kevin.

4.5/5

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