My 25 favourite films of 2017 so far: Part One #25-11

The first six months of the year pretty much flew by, didn't they? It doesn't seem like five minutes ago that it was January and I was sat in my local multiplex watching A Monster Calls - my first new movie of 2017. Since then we've had the usual parade of the good, the bad and the downright terrible (I'm looking at you Assassin's Creed). This is Part One of my top 25, with Part Two - featuring my top 10 - following tomorrow. If you see anything you violently disagree with, feel free to let me have it in the comments below...

To qualify for inclusion, films had to have been released into UK cinemas between 1 January-30 June 2017. Just because a film was released in the US or other territory last year doesn't preclude it from inclusion on this list. Movies that went straight to DVD, Blu-ray or VOD (including releases exclusive to Netflix and Amazon Prime) are not eligible for inclusion...

25. Frantz
Director: Francois Ozon UK release date: 12 May
Haunting post-WWI drama from prolific French director Ozon (The New Girlfriend). A young German woman (Paula Beer), still in mourning for her dead fiancé, meets a mysterious Frenchman (Adrien Rivoire) at his grave. He has a devastating secret and the way Ozon handles that revelation and its consequences is never less than utterly compelling.    

24. Their Finest
Director: Lone Scherfig UK release date: 21 April
Gemma Arterton's best role in years sees her signed up as a screenwriter for Allied propaganda films during WWII. In this sexist milieu, she is assigned the task of writing the 'slop' (i.e. dialogue for women). Suffice to say, she soon shakes things up in an absorbing book adaptation that nicely balances broad comedy and heart-rending drama.

23. My Life As A Courgette
Director: Claude Barras UK release date: 2 June
Beautifully-realised animation from France about a young boy - the titular Courgette - sent to a children's home after the death of his alcoholic mother. Barras's film (with a screenplay by Girlhood's Céline Schiamma) handles some incredibly heavy issues with sensitivity, warmth and winning humour. Lovely.

22. Hacksaw Ridge
Director: Mel Gibson UK release date: 27 January
Gibson returned from the Hollywood naughty step with this powerful World War II epic about Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield), an army medic and staunch pacifist who refused to take a gun into the hell of Okinawa. Garfield's terrific, while the visceral nature of the battle scenes make his character's point about the horrors of combat better than any dialogue ever could.  

21. Colossal
Director: Nacho Vigalondo UK release date: 19 May
Alcoholic Anne Hathaway realises she is psychically linked to a monster rampaging through South Korea in this odd and highly original indie flick. Cut through the Kaiju hijinks, though, and Vigalondo's film is really about the affect self-destructive behaviour can have on those around you. Jason Sudeikis provides the toxic masculinity to give things an extra kick.

20. Suntan

Director: Argyris Papadimitropoulos UK release date: 28 April
Unsettling drama about an emotionally disturbed doctor (the excellent Makis Papadimitriou) on a small Greek island falling in love with a beautiful young tourist initially happy to play along with his obsession. An odd but satisfying mix of pitch-black humour with deluded middle-aged men in its sights and sheer, unadulterated creepiness.

19. Kong: Skull Island
Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts UK release date: 9 March

The only blockbuster this year that had me gripped from beginning to end. A weird amalgam of monster movie and war film (Apocalypse Now's influence looms large), it may have wafer-thin characters but more than makes up for that deficiency with some terrific action set-pieces and a kickass Kong.

18. Neruda
Director: Pablo Larrain UK release date: 7 April
Off-kilter but visually sumptuous biopic of the famous Chilean poet, Nobel Prize winner and communist. Luis Gnecco's titular lead becomes a fugitive in his own country during the 1940s as he is pursued by Gael García Bernal's disturbed police officer. Larrain (Jackie) takes all sorts of liberties with real events, while his portrayal of Neruda is enjoyably unflattering.

17. Mindhorn
Director: Sean Foley UK release date: 5 May
Julian Barratt (The Mighty Boosh) is a washed-up former TV detective in this Isle Of Man-set comedy which comes on like a cross between Bergerac and The Six Million Dollar Man. Some critics suggested it petered out before the end but I think the opposite is true - the crazier it gets, the funnier it gets. Sequel, please!

16. T2 Trainspotting
Director: Danny Boyle UK release date: 27 January
Spud, Sick Boy, Begbie and Renton are reunited on Edinburgh's mean streets after 20 years in a nostalgia-soaked meditation on ageing and coming to terms with your past. It's certainly not as good as Boyle's original movie from 1996 but is extremely funny, endlessly entertaining and, ultimately, oddly moving.

15. Certain Women
Director: Kelly Reichardt UK release date: 3 March
The Meek's Cutoff director presents three loosely-linked stories about the lives of four very different women, the best of which sees a naïve young Native American (Lily Gladstone) desperately trying to forge a romantic connection with Kristin Stewart's oblivious teacher. Gorgeous-looking, low-key, and poignant.

14. Free Fire
Director: Ben Wheatley UK release date: 31 March
It turns out a 90-minute shoot-out in a filthy warehouse between two gangs of inept criminals is a hell of a lot better on the big screen than it sounds on paper. Michael Smiley, Sharlto Copley, Brie Larson, and Armie Hammer are all on top form in a violent and riotously funny piece of work that doesn't owe quite as much to Reservoir Dogs as you'd imagine.

13. The Levelling
Director: Hope Dickson Leach UK release date: 12 May
Compellingly dark British drama about a young woman (Ellie Kendrick) returning to her family's farm following the suicide of her younger brother. Director Leach conjures an atmosphere of dread and claustrophobia which is only a hop, skip and a jump away from proper horror. These are helpless people caught in life's vicious crosshairs.

12. Silence
Director: Martin Scorsese UK release date: 1 January
Based on Shûsaku Endô's novel, Silence sees two Catholic missionaries (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) searching for their lost mentor (Liam Neeson) in 17th Century Japan, at a time of great religious persecution. Bloated, self-important and old-fashioned? Maybe, but nobody does heavyweight epic with quite as much pizzazz as the Goodfellas director.

11. Lady Macbeth
Director: William Oldroyd UK release date: 28 April
The title's a warning about what to expect in this merciless Victorian-set drama about a young woman sold to a wealthy landowner as his wife. While he's away, she commences an affair with a stable-hand and, soon emboldened, her thoughts turn to darker matters. A blisteringly bleak meditation on class, race and sex based on the Nikolai Leskov novel.

Your Week In Film will return next week. Look out for #10-1 here tomorrow...

Your Week In Film: Hacksaw Ridge, Live By Night, and The Happiest Day In The Life of Olli Mäki (May 22-28)

Shoot the messenger: Andrew Garfield in Hacksaw Ridge

The highs and lows of UK home entertainment for the next seven days. All films available to buy, stream or watch now, unless otherwise stated...

I'm not sure Ben Affleck was ever 'cool' as such but these days he seems about as cutting edge as your mum and dad dancing down the front at a Nickelback gig. I've no idea when this sorry state of affairs came to pass. Despite the Oscars for Argo, did he truly ever recover from that whole excruciating 'Bennifer' business? Or has the malaise been a more recent phenomenon, perhaps prompted by the likes of Batman v Superman, The Accountant and his latest box-office flop Live By Night (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD) WW½?

The latter - a sprawling Prohibition-set mob drama with a revenge twist - isn't half bad actually but does suffer from a couple of major shortcomings. Firstly, it isn't very memorable. I only saw it a few months ago and, before writing this column, struggled to recall much of what happened or why. That's because the film is so plot heavy, lifting it could be an event in one of those World's Strongest Man contests. Secondly, Affleck - who directs, produces and stars - isn't the right choice for the lead. As mob enforcer Joe Coughlin, he's supposed to exude unshakeable confidence and menace, but instead spends the entire film looking a bit fed-up, like someone who's splashed out on a new pair of expensive trainers only to step in a big pile of dog muck the minute he puts them on. Frankly, Affleck couldn't do 'gangster' if his life depended on it.

All that said, there's something rather admirable about Live By Night's old-fashioned, deliberately-paced nature and slightly po-faced seriousness. Affleck's a better director than actor these days and his sumptuously-appointed 1920s-set film certainly looks the part. He also gets fine performances out of a terrific cast, especially Chris Cooper and Elle Fanning, as a self-loathing Sheriff and his troubled daughter.

Original gangster: Ben Affleck directs, produces and stars

Homeland and the aforementioned Argo may have been pulling our legs. It turns out that Iranians don't generally spend all their time burning the American flag and screaming "Death to the Great Satan" in Tehran's main square after all. In fact, whisper it, some of them drive cars, speak to each other on mobile phones, hold down jobs and own businesses. If Inversion (VOD) WWW is anything to go by, they also have huge rows with their families.

Behnam Behzadi's film centres on Niloofar (Sahar Dolatshahi), a 30-something businesswoman who runs her own clothing alterations shop in Tehran. She's single but romance seems set to blossom when an old school friend re-enters her life. Unfortunately, around the same time, her ageing mother's respiratory condition goes from bad to life threatening, and a doctor decrees the woman must leave the heavily polluted city for the cleaner air up north. Because she is unmarried and without children, Niloofar's brother and sister conspire to bully her into leaving Tehran to care permanently for their stricken mum. Niloofar resists...

If you've seen any of Asghar Farhadi's work you'll have some idea of the middle-class milieu to expect here, but Inversion is rougher round the edges than the likes of A Separation or The Salesman. It is a small but compelling, character-driven film with the odd soapy moment lobbed in for good measure. Dolatshahi is terrific and sells her predicament to perfection while Ali Mosaffa, as her scheming brother Farhad, is a noxious study in selfishness and misogyny.

I know it's a cliché to talk about cities being characters in their own right in certain films but Tehran is an important player here. Its smoggy atmosphere, jammed roads and pollution-stained buildings concoct an oppressive 'fug' that is mirrored by Niloofar's situation, both within her family and perhaps in Iranian society as a whole.

Family plot: Niloofar fights for her future in Inversion

Cinemagoers are surely so used to every 'true story' adapted for film being described as 'extraordinary' or 'astonishing', that we've become desensitised to it. But forget all those tales of soulless entrepreneurs and overrated entertainers, Hacksaw Ridge (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD) WWW is the real deal.

Andrew Garfield is Desmond Doss, a World War II medic and staunch pacifist, who went into the hell of battle completely unarmed. Up against guns, bayonets, knives, grenades and lord knows what else, he didn't have so much as a pointed stick with which to defend himself or his comrades.

Mel Gibson's Oscar nominee is very much a film of two halves; the first sees Doss struggling to rein in his violent, alcoholic dad (Hugo Weaving), wooing a local nurse (Teresa Palmer) and fighting the US military brass for the right to serve; the second pitches him right into Okinawa's heart of darkness, a hell of mud, blood, explosions and mangled limbs. Of course, it is in this latter scenario that the young medic truly comes into his own. Gibson does too because few can do jaw-dropping, stomach-churning violence quite like he can. The controversial director's depiction of death and destruction has been criticised for its graphic nature but I'd say it's necessary to lend credence to Doss's moral standpoint, to show precisely why the idea of killing another human being repulsed him so much.

Meanwhile, Garfield - a reserved study in stoicism, decency and profound bravery - turns in what had been his finest screen performance until Martin Scorsese's Silence came along. Yes, it's all a bit 'Oscar-baity' and the film's depiction of the Japanese (frothing lunatics to a man) is problematic to say the least, but this is often a more complex film than it is given credit for, with Gibson keen to highlight the problems with Doss's pacifism as much as his extraordinary acts of courage.

Death before dishonour: Garfield fights the good fight

One true story you could never describe as 'astonishing' or 'extraordinary' is The Happiest Day In The Life of Olli Mäki (MUBI) WWW, a lovably low-key film about a real-life Finnish boxer in the weeks leading up to a big world title fight. His preparations are derailed when he falls in love with his friend Raija (Oona Airola). Suddenly she's all the titular Mäki (Jarkko Lahti) can think about, and beating the tar out of his opponent or posing for corny photos with sponsors seem less and less appealing.

Set in the early 1960s and shot in gorgeous black and white, Juho Kuosmanen's film is an anti-boxing movie, not in the sense it rails against the sport, but because it breaks just about every rule this particular sub-genre usually insists upon. Yes, there's sparring, training and weigh-ins, but Mäki spends most of his time looking ill at ease, bored or worse (I don't recall a moment in any of Rocky's numerous training montages when he stuck his fingers down his throat to make himself throw up into a toilet in a bid to lose weight).

The former amateur fighter - nicknamed the 'Baker of Kokkola' - has stopped enjoying what he does, hates the constant glad-handing and compromises of the professional game, and is heartily sick to death of Elis (Eero Milonoff), his controlling trainer-cum-manager. He's a modest, humble man and dealing with documentary crews and press conferences is more than he can bear. When Olli falls for Raija, she's like a ray of light in his darkness and you instantly care more about their future together than you do about the climactic title bout. It's an effective and delightfully unusual love story in which the real Olli and Raija have a cameo.

Boxing clever: Kuosmanen's film is 'delightfully unusual'

This week's TV highlights
1. Django Unchained (Channel 5, Tonight, 10pm) 
2. United 93 (ITV4, Tuesday, 11.55pm) 
3. Bad Moms (Amazon Prime Video, from Thursday)
4. Rams (Film4, Thursday/Friday am, 12.40am)
5. Sex, Lies And Videotape (MUBI, from Saturday)

What I shall be watching this week: Everyone and his wife seems to hate Guy Ritchie's King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword but I remain optimistic...

Ratings guide
WWWW - Wonderful
WWW - Worthwhile
WW - Watchable
W - Woeful

Reviews: De Palma, The Handmaiden, Hacksaw Ridge, Jackie, and Denial

Coke is it: Al Pacino in Brian De Palma's Scarface

Time for a reviews catch-up - here are my thoughts on the last five movies I've seen (in order of preference). Please note, my reviews may contain the odd spoiler...

1. De Palma (2015)
Directors: Jake Paltrow and Noah Baumbach

Controversial director Brian De Palma takes us on a fascinating but breathless rummage through his life and career, explaining how he went from being a New Jersey "science nerd" as a kid, to shooting Pacino in Scarface and Cruise in Mission: Impossible. Bambauch and Paltrow keep it simple, training their camera on the director himself and leaving it there. Their questions and interjections are edited out, and there are no other talking heads to provide further context or even an opposing view. It's just straight-no-chaser De Palma - maverick, provocateur, supreme technician - and a ton of clips from pretty much everything he's made over the last 50+ years. Luckily, the 76-year-old is hugely articulate and utterly candid about his successes (The Untouchables) and failures (The Bonfire Of The Vanities). He's also full of great stories about his stars, collaborators, working process and lifelong passion for Hitchcock. It would have been good to see him challenged about the lurid, exploitative content of some of his films (Dressed To Kill, Body Double), but this is more a celebration of an extraordinary career than an attempt to put him on trial for the perceived shortcomings of his sexual politics. I'm not sure old-school fans of the director will learn anything new but, as an introduction to his work, it's hard to see how it could be topped. Rating: WWW½

Director's cut: De Palma under the microscope

2. The Handmaiden (2016)
Director: Park Chan-wook
Sumptuous adaptation of Sarah Waters' 2002 novel, The Fingersmith, which relocates the action from Victorian England to 1930s, Japanese-occupied Korea. A young pickpocket, Sook-hee (Kim Tae-ri), is sent to serve as a maid for Lady Izumi Hideko (Kim Min-hee), a Japanese heiress betrothed to her repulsive uncle (played with villainous gusto by Cho Jin-woong). Sook-hee's employment is part of a criminal scheme set in motion by a conman, calling himself Count Fujiwara (Ha Jung-woo). He plans to seduce Hideko, before having her committed to a mental asylum and pocketing her inheritance. Just one fly in the ointment: the two women fall in love. Like Fujiwara's plot, The Handmaiden is all about deception - during the film's three separate chapters, it time and again picks the pocket of your expectations. Park deliberately withholds information and skews perspectives, making for a discombobulating ride that keeps you on your toes every step of the way. There's a reason Waters' book has been adapted so often (a TV adaptation, stage play and this film since publication) and that's simply because her story is such a giddily entertaining - and sensuously erotic - romp, with much to say about patriarchy and female sexuality. Its romantic central message - that love always finds a way - may be corny and as old as the hills but its rarely been articulated as fulsomely or perfectly as it is here. Rating: WWW½

The con is on: Park Chan-wook's The Handmaiden 

3. Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
Director: Mel Gibson
Cinemagoers are surely so used to every 'true story' adapted for film being described as 'extraordinary' or 'astonishing', that we've become desensitised to it. But forget all those tales of soulless entrepreneurs and above-average sports people, this is the real deal. Andrew Garfield is Desmond Doss, a World War II medic and staunch pacifist, who went into the hell of battle completely unarmed. Up against guns, bayonets, knives, grenades and lord knows what else, he didn't have so much as a pointed stick with which to defend himself or his comrades. It's very much a film of two halves; the first sees Doss struggling to rein in his violent, alcoholic dad (Hugo Weaving), wooing a local nurse (Teresa Palmer) and fighting the US military brass for the right to serve; the second pitches him right into Okinawa's heart of darkness, a hell of mud, blood, explosions and mangled limbs. Of course, it is in this latter scenario that he truly comes into his own. Gibson does too because few can do jaw-dropping, stomach-churning violence quite like he can, while Garfield - a reserved study in stoicism, decency and profound bravery - turns in his finest screen performance to date. Yes, it's all a bit 'Oscar-baity' and the film's depiction of the Japanese (frothing lunatics to a man) is problematic to say the least, but this is often a more complex film than it is given credit for, with Gibson keen to highlight the problems with Doss's moral stance as much as his extraordinary acts of courage. Rating: WWW

War and peace: The amazing story of Desmond Doss

4. Denial (2016)
Director: Mick Jackson
Powerful dramatisation of the late-'90s libel action - and subsequent trial - brought by Hitler historian David Irving (Timothy Spall) against Professor Deborah Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz), the author who accused him of falsifying evidence to support his claims the Holocaust never happened. David Hare's screenplay is, out of necessity, a little on the nose at times (legal jargon and processes are integral to the plot) and there was one clumsy moment that actually made me cringe. But, for the most part, this is a very smart piece of work that finds intriguing conflicts between Lipstadt - a fiery, tough-talking American, who just wants the chance to take the stand and get stuck into Irving - and her cool-headed UK legal team (led by Tom Wilkinson and Andrew Scott), who plot a rather different and more sober course. There's a sequence filmed at Auschwitz that will chill your blood and, while Spall doesn't look much like Irving, he captures his hubris and arrogance to a T. At a time when the providence of truth is under assault in the Western world, this is a timely and perhaps even crucial film. Rating: WWW

Truth be told: Rachel Weisz as Deborah Lipstadt

5. Jackie (2016)
Director: Pablo Larrain
Natalie Portman is First Lady Jackie Beauvoir Kennedy in the days immediately following the assassination of her husband and US president, JFK. Chilean filmmaker Larrain (The Club) brings a real arthouse sensibility to a movie that in other hands (Steven Spielberg or  Ron Howard, perhaps) would have been a big dramatic potboiler. But the results are somewhat mixed. Technically, it's perfect and beautifully structured, with all manner of flashbacks inserted seamlessly and imaginatively into a framing device, which sees Jackie being interviewed by a reporter just a week after her husband's murder. It's gorgeously shot, too, and a couple of times I wanted to reach out, grab what was on screen, and put it in a frame. Somehow, though, for all its technical elan, Jackie lacks a soul. Portman gives us a note-perfect impersonation of the iconic First Lady but you never quite shake the knowledge she's putting on a rather mannered, over-rehearsed show. In fact, with its elegiac tone and Mica Levi's discordant score, this is a cold, somewhat distancing film, that should pack far more of an emotional punch than it does. Rating: WW½

Line of fire: Jackie Kennedy struggles with grief

Ratings
WWWW - Wonderful
WWW - Worthwhile
WW - Watchable
W - Woeful