Zootopia

Zootopia was a fun, animated whodunnit that made up for its predictability with its relevance: a gorgeous new-world that aptly parallels the real world and bolstered by a great chemistry between the leads: Ginnifer Goodwin & Jason Bateman. 

The story, albeit unoriginal, deserved praise for veering left instead of keeping it straight in the Third Act which was mildly unexpected. The world building was done seamlessly in the exposition and was introduced with as much awe and wonder to us as to the lead bunny.

The script was equally accessible to junior as it was layered for the adult which made it slightly more enjoyable. Who doesn't like a gag about Breaking Bad? And it sure was fun spotting all the in-jokes and easter eggs which were thankfully not as distracting as Marvel's. But on a more serious note, the themes were surprisingly heavy and relevant to our society now and hopefully the subversive message can be translated and absorbed into the younger generation.

Goodwin and Bateman had great voice chemistry and their relationship formed the core of the story that helped to maintain the pacing and tempo. The music by Michael Giacchino definitely helped too but it was less distinctive than his past works.  

Running at a brisk 109 minutes, this was a fun way to idle away some time, and I suspect it would have been great in 3D too. 

Hail, Caesar!

The Coen brothers' latest is a star-studded film that was really reflective of the time that it was set in: Hollywood circa 1950s. It was neither their best nor worst film, but was elevated, and made enjoyable, by the tremendously well-cast actors (except for one Mr Tatum).

The film's best moments were when the actors were self-consciously parodying their 50s counterparts. But otherwise, the Coens got occasionally too self-indulgent in trying to replicate film-making back in the 50s, which ultimately caused the A-plot and narrative to feel meandering and choppy.

Of all the cast, Alden Ehrenreich, Tilda Swinton and Scarlett Johannson were standouts. Co-leads George Clooney and Josh Brolin were fine and adequate in their roles but neither brought anything exciting to the screen, although the former scored points for hamming it up as the archetypal male heart-throb A-lister. Ralph Fiennes, Frances McDormand and Jonah Hill were glorified cameos but at least the first two were memorable and hilarious, whereas Hill was nondescript. Hollywood needs to stop trying to make Channing Tatum work.

Roger Deakins' cinematography is as per usual stunning, but like the Cohens', this was not his best work. Similarly, Carter Burwell's score was fun and reminiscence of the era, but rather forgettable once the film ends.

Hail, Caesar! was a fun film to watch that meandered more than it should, but its mainly brilliant cast more than made up for the thinnest of narrative.

Anomalisa

A very smart stop-motion drama-comedy by the insanely brilliant mind of Charlie Kaufman. A simple story that belied a complex and deep study about humanity.

Using creepily life-like stop-animation and the concept of Fregoli delusion (which actually took a few minutes to realise), Kaufman and co-Director Duke Johnson wove together a story that compelled you to keep on watching despite its seemingly conflicted, and mildly unlikable, anti-hero.

The story plodded on slowly initially but if you paid attention, then you would have realised the brilliance of the narrative. Hint: Tom Noonan voiced all the characters aside from the two leads.

David Thewlis and Jennifer Jason Leigh were great in their voice acting, making their characters both real and relatable.

However, the real star was Kaufman and the story. Followed by the animation, and then Carter Burwell's score. Stop-animation has never been so brusque, brash and sexual since Team America: World Police back in 2004, Heck, even the sex scene was even more erotic and realistic than most non-animated ones!

Anomalisa is a film that rewards its patient viewer. Smart, oddly beautiful and strangely engaging.

Brooklyn

John Crowley's historical Romantic drama showcases Saoirse Ronan in the role of her life (thus far), and she hits it out of the park, reminding us why she had always been an actress to watch since Atonement.  

The film itself was simple enough as we followed a typical story of the transformation of a simple village girl to a city lady as she finds love, deals with lost, and ultimately discovers herself. Although her growth were only shown in quick sketches by Crowley and screenwriter Nick Hornby, they were enough to establish a believable timeline and honest to the characters to make it acceptable. That showed the strength of the script and the vision of the director. 

However, in all romantic dramas, the core strength - regardless - will lay in its core couple (or couples). And here, Ronan and Emory Cohen held court. Their love story was sweet, yet not saccharine; romantic yet not mushy. They are in love and it was believable. 

However, the latter half was a bit disappointing. Crowley and Hornby ought to have spend more time on Ronan's character's growth and change rather than just making it happen so. Although Domhnall Gleeson (he really is having an ubiquitous moment) and Ronan has a spark, it was not as palpable as Ronan's with Cohen to make it believable. 

Ronan was spectacular in her role. An emotionally charged performance from start to end but a lot more restrained with less histrionics that could have made her more Nicholas Sparks than Nick Hornby. Voters would likely give Brie Larson the win come Oscar time, but Larson was let down by the second half of Room which really diluted her performance. Ronan, on the other hand, had a great character from start to end and maintained it. Just like Rampling in 45 Years. 

Julie Walters was a hoot with all the best lines, and Cohen definitely brought out a sincerity and an old school charm in an otherwise straightforward role. 

A smartly written tale of Love, Romance and Self-discovery that entertained and tugged at the heartstrings without ever being overly dramatic or self-indulgent. 

45 Years

Andrew Haigh's follow-up to his under watched, yet sublimally honest Weekend, is a quietly powerful and emotionally poignant examination of love and relationship, anchored by the extraordinary performances of Tom Courtenay and the brilliant Charlotte Rampling.

Haigh uses a simple narrative and a very naturalistic style to convey the complexity relationships. And in this instance, he found in Rampling a face that speaks a thousand words, and it was in the quiet moments that both the film and Rampling stood out. Words were truly not necessary, and even inferior, to the describe the complexity of emotions and feelings that Rampling's character goes through. 

Rampling is utterly deserving of the praises for her nuanced, thoughtful performance. It's not showy like Brie Larson in Room or Jennifer Lawrence in Joy, neither was it overtly transformative like Cate Blanchett in Carol or emotionally-wrought like Saorise Ronan in Brooklyn. Here, Rampling simply inhabited her role. She was her character as her character was her. You never really, for one moment, think that she's acting a role. 

Equal praises should, and must, go out to Courtenay. He was a brilliant partner to Rampling and their chemistry was natural and electrifying. But in this film, he really was more a supporting actor to Rampling's story. 

A beautiful film for the matured-thinking audience who likes to be challenged rather than pandered to, with an ending that throws up more questions than answers, but yet utterly satisfying and appropriate. 

Deadpool

A welcomed distraction to all the seriousness of the year-end glut of Oscar nominees. Deadpool, and Ryan Reynolds, was a R-rated, irreverent entry to Fox's Marvel Cinematic Universe that was fun but never really laugh out loud funny, violent but oddly gratuitously un-goresome, and towards the end, way too overly self-referentially meta to be effective anymore. The best praise for the film will be that the concept itself would have made for an excellent Netflix series!

T.J. Miller is a competent director and the film went along speedily through it 108 minutes as Rhett Reese's and Paul Wenick's script weaved through time to present an origin/love story for the eponymous character. You know you are in for a different sort of MCU movie when you hear the word "mutant" being uttered (instead of "enhanced" or "inhumans") and when you see your first blood splatter.

Although Miller's opening sequence set the tone for the title character, it also unfortunately set his unoriginal directing style. An over-reliance on slow-mo for the sake of slow-mo with an over-contrasted palette reminiscence of  300. Also, the initial fun and hilarity of having Deadpool breaking the fourth wall slowly became repetitive and annoying, but at least the meta-jokes worked better. Even the use of 80s-era pop songs over key scenes - a la Guardians of the Galaxy - got overbearing towards the end. At least the last song was not "Don't You (Forget About Me)". That would have been too much!

The film strongest element was its cast. And the believable chemistry between Reynolds and Morena Baccarin.

Reynolds, and his voice-acting, really, finally found a franchise worthy of  his dashing good looks and brilliant comic timing. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for Reynolds, as a character, Deadpool was only superficially explored and Miller et al did not really plunged into his madness and angst. The result was Reynolds coming off as more of an insecure wimp with a motormouth rather than a mad psychopath with a broken heart.

Baccarin was a highlight of the film and the mad love affair between her and Reynolds was actually believable. Her heartache was much more palpable than Reynolds', It is a pity then that she winded up as nothing more than a plot device/damsel in distress.

Ed Skrein has a great screen presence and poses as an intimidating villain, but like almost all MCU villains he came across as one-dimensional and over-simplified.

With such rich characters and backstory, and with such a resounding success from Netflix's Daredevil and Jessica Jones, Deadpool and Ajax would have made for great TV. What a shame!

Stay till the end for the end-credits scenes!

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

A ridiculously bad film that remained watchable only for the sheer novelty of its concept, otherwise, it largely squandered the potential of its source material - and its source material's source material - and its cast. With the exception of Matt Smith who provided the best laughs with his bumbling buffoonery as Mr Collins, everybody else were literally dead on their feet with nary a spark of chemistry between the cast.

Written and directed by Burr Steers, this film was more a zombie-apocalyptic film with Austen-esque beats, rather than Pride & Prejudice with the undead. Steers screenplay was undecidedly un-Elizabethean and when he tried to shoehorn dialogue into Austen's prose, it just stucked out like a sore thumb. Even his characterisations of the beloved characters - updated as it were to this version - were off kilter and sorely superficial.

There could have been so much potential in the storyline if Steers just kept truer to the novel, but instead he padded it out with juvenile fantasies and recycled trope. Austen's novels are famed for their pro-feminist leanings, so having Elizabeth Bennet to be the heroine is nothing new in this genre even if she is a sword fighting/gun welding/zombie-slayer. However, there are some moments where it worked - especially when the Bennet sisters bust out their moves - however they were sorely lacking beyond the first 15 minutes.

The poor direction, poor fight choreography, messy editing, bad lighting, generic score (flashes of a Mozart in the Jungle scene where some orchestra members were scoring a B-grade horror/slasher flick) and ghastly CGI made everything worse.

But the absolute worst, and unforgivable, sin of this film was the total lack of chemistry of between Lily James' Elizabeth Bennet and Sam Riley's Mr Darcy (I refuse to call him "Colonel"). They are the central characters of the story - in whatever form - and even if all else fails, we have to believe in their relationship, their love and that they are meant for each other. I just wished him dead.

Riley is perhaps one of the worst Mr Darcy ever. He only has one mode: brood. And he could not even brood as well as James Norton in War and Peace (the broody Prince Andrei to James' exquisite Natasha Rostova). Steers could not even bother to give the audience the equivalent of Colin Firth's Pemberley lake scene.

James can do so much better. If any prove is required that she is an actress worth keeping an eye out for, watch BBC's War and Peace, where she transformed from an innocent naïveté to a sexually-awoken young woman to a tormenter self-hating wreck and finally to ... let's not spoil it here.

Lena Headey and Charles Dance were just wasted; Matt Smith was a fantastic Doctor.

There is a post-credit scene which hints at a possible sequel, but I doubt - I hope - it never gets made. Go read the book instead.