Review of 2016: My 15 favourite undistributed films of the year

Fifteen very fine films that didn't get - and, in some cases, didn't want - a UK cinema release in 2016. They instead found a home on DVD/Blu-ray, or on a View On Demand/streaming service, such as Netflix or Amazon Prime Video...

15. James White (dir: Josh Mond)
Sharply observed character study of a hedonistic New Yorker struggling to cope with his mother's terminal illness. Christopher Abbott (Martha Marcy May Marlene) is perfect as the handsome, entitled and hopelessly lost titular character, but it's Sex And The City stalwart Cynthia Nixon who provides the movie's beating heart.

14. Tallulah (dir: Sian Heder)
Ellen Page is an itinerant young woman (the titular Tallulah) who kidnaps a neglected baby and passes it off as her own in this smartly-written drama. Alison Janney - as the mother of Tallulah's boyfriend - and Tammy Blanchard - as the baby's alcoholic mother - are both superb in a film with more shades of grey than an E.L. James fan convention.

13. The Invitation (dir: Karyn Kusama)

It's the dinner party from hell in this unsettling horror as an unsuspecting young couple attend a reunion of friends and old flames in the Hollywood Hills. Something feels 'off' from the moment they walk through the door and Kusama has enormous fun working with that to bring the sense of tension and paranoia slowly but surely to boiling point. The last 20 minutes - when everything goes batshit crazy - are well worth the wait.

12. Nina Forever (dirs.: Ben Blaine and Chris Blaine)
Bizarre British chiller about a man whose girlfriend returns from the dead every time he has sex with his new lover. Underneath the blood and craziness, there's a rather clever meditation on grief in which Utopia's Fiona O'Shaughnessy excels as the titular Nina. It perhaps runs out of steam a little towards the end but the first hour's a blast.

11. Other People (dir: Chris Kelly)Jesse Plemons is a gay, New York-based, comedy writer returning home to Sacramento to spend time with his cancer-stricken mother (Molly Shannon). It might sound like the perfect set-up for a total syrup-fest but this is a very smart, very funny black comedy in which every moment rings true. The opening scene - set immediately after Shannon's death - manages to be both hilarious and heart-breaking at the same time.

10. The Bronze (dir: Bryan Buckley)
The Big Bang Theory's Melissa Rauch is a former Olympic bronze-medal-winning gymnast fallen on hard times after her career is ended by injury. Rauch has enormous fun upending her goody-two-shoes onscreen image to deliver a series of brutal, potty-mouthed zingers as the thieving, foul-mouthed has-been, who clings for dear life to her small-town hero status. But this, more than anything, is a story of redemption and an effective one at that.

9. Amanda Knox (dir: Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn)
Revealing documentary in which Knox, the young American twice convicted then acquitted of the 2007 Perugia killing of Meredith Kercher, talks about the terrible impact of the murder and subsequent trials on her life (she was innocent, let's not forget). The filmmakers strike (fool's) gold in their interviews with the Kercher case's buffoonish prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, and sleaze-ball journalist Nick Pisa.

8. The End Of The Tour (dir: James Ponsoldt)

Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg are both terrific in this sharply-written drama about David Foster Wallace, the acclaimed but deeply troubled author of breeze-block-sized novel Infinite Jest. Eisenberg is his usual dependable self as the wheedling magazine journalist trying to get into the novelist's head as he embarks on a book tour, but How I Met Your Mother alum Segel gives the performance of his life as tragic Wallace.

7. Divines (dir: Houda Benyamina)

Oulaya Amamra is a revelation as Dounia, a tough, ambitious street kid who deals drugs in a bid to earn enough money to escape the rough Paris estate where she lives with her alcoholic mother. After falling for a young dancer, she finally sees a way out, but soon discovers leaving the street life behind is far from easy. Benyamina's poignant film doesn't pull its punches or offer up glib happy endings and is all the better for it.

6. Blue Jay (dir: Alex Lehmann)

Compelling, melancholic two-hander starring Sarah Paulson and Mark Duplass as former high-school sweethearts, who bump into each other many years later and quickly fall back into old routines... while trying desperately not to talk about the painful episode that drove them apart in the first place. Written by Duplass, it boasts another stellar performance from Paulson.

5. White Girl (dir: Elizabeth Wood)
Based on director Wood's real-life experiences, the film sees pretty, entitled New York college student Leah (Morgan Saylor) getting in well over her head when she begins a relationship with a local drug dealer (Brian Marc). The writer/director takes on class, race and gender in a raw, breathless film that doesn't stand still for a minute.

4. April And The Extraordinary World (dirs: Christian Desmares and Franck Ekinci)
This beautifully rendered and incredibly imaginative animation, set in a Steampunk version of 1940s France, is a delight from beginning to end. Yes, the plot is utterly daft (something about an invincibility potion and talking animals) but that's easy to forgive amidst all the mad science and breathless derring-do. Marion Cotillard voices the titular April.

3. Entertainment (dir: Rick Alverson)
Bleak, baffling and often quite brilliant road movie about a depressive, misanthropic comedian on a stand-up tour of seedy bars and strange visitor attractions in California. It's scabrous, outrageous and hugely funny, but also has something to say about the loneliness and desperation of stand-up life. Gregg Turkington channels his real-life comedy alter-ego Neil Hamburger to uproarious effect.

2. Look Who's Back (dir: David Wnendt)
Adolf Hitler returns to life in 21st century Berlin in a biting satire from Germany. At first the Führer is mistaken for a stand-up comedian and takes his 'act' onto television, but it isn't long before his gift for manipulation, and lethal charisma, brings him a whole new army of followers. Oliver Masucci is scarily plausible as Hitler and, with fascism on the rise on both sides of the Atlantic, I'm not sure Wnendt's film could be any more timely...

1. 13th (dir: Ava DuVernay)

The Selma director's documentary about the mass incarceration of African-Americans (particularly men) in US jails is excoriating stuff. DuVernay starts her analysis with the abolition of slavery in 1865 and the US constitution's 13th amendment which wrote it into law: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

Her controversial but powerfully argued contention is that rather than being abolished, slavery was merely "redesigned", the line that says "except as a punishment for crime" deployed as a weapon against America's black population in the form of mass incarceration.

Back in October 13th became the first documentary to open the New York Film Festival, and features a parade of diverse and impressive talking heads, including Black Panther activist-turned-tenured professor Angela Davis and former Republican speaker of the house Newt Gingrich.

But anyone expecting a party political broadcast on behalf of the Democrats will be sorely disappointed as DuVernay turns some of her fiercest fire on former president Bill Clinton and his wide-ranging crime bill of 1994, which led to prison overcrowding amongst other unintended consequences. Impressively up to date - including coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement and Trump's bid for the White House - if 13th doesn't make you fizz with anger, I'm not sure what will. 

**Next up: My Top 30 Favourite Movies of 2016 - numbers 30-21**

The Last 5 Films I've Seen

Sing when you're winning: John Carney's '80s-set film is a real joy

1. Sing Street (2016) John Hughes meets Roddy Doyle in writer/director John Carney's joyous tale of love, escape and music set in '80s Dublin. The wonderfully named Ferdia Walsh-Peelo is Conor, a smitten teenager who forms a band purely so he can spend time with aspiring model Raphina (Lucy Boynton). But his feelings for her bring out the pop star in him and it isn't long before the titular band are improving in leaps and bounds, finding their own identity, making videos, and even dreaming of the big time. There's so much warmth and wit here, and so much about Carney's screenplay that rings true, that it would take me all day to list its merits. Additionally, the young leads are terrific, ably abetted by Aidan Gillen, Maria Doyle Kennedy and Jack Reynor as Conor's dysfunctional family. One gripe? The rest of the band disappear well into the background after being introduced early on, which is a shame as they are interesting characters in their own right. It's a small criticism, though, for a film that quickly outstrips any suggestion it's just an exercise in cheesy '80s nostalgia (although even that element is fun) and one that left me with a great big smile on my face. Rating: WWWW

Model behaviour: Lucy Boynton lights up Sing Street

2. The Bronze (2015) If Sing Street is about youthful optimism and having the talent to take on the world, then The Bronze deals with its flipside - the frustration and bitterness of shattered dreams. Melissa Rauch has been the best thing about The Big Bang Theory for a while now and she enjoys herself here as Hope Ann Gregory, a former gymnast who – against all odds – won an Olympic bronze medal back in the day. Her career ended by injury, she's now a thieving, foul-mouthed has-been who clings for dear life to her small-town hero status, only agreeing to train a young gymnastic prodigy after a letter from her late coach promises a big cash prize for doing so. Yes, it's Eastbound & Down with a female lead but ultimately Bryan Buckley's film (co-written by Rauch with her husband) is a lot warmer than HBO's misanthropic sitcom. Gregory may be a nasty piece of work but there are reasons for her perma-scowl - Danny McBride's Kenny Powers, on the other hand, was really just an obnoxious arsehole. Beneath the abrasiveness, there's a palpable melancholy to Rauch's character - she has allowed her life's one success to totally define her, the old USA Olympic training top she wears a constant reminder of her inability to move on. But this is a story of redemption, above all else, and while the film could have done with a few more moments as laugh-out-loud funny as its much-discussed and improbably athletic sex scene, The Bronze is ultimately more Nadia Comaneci than Dong Fangxiao. Rating: WWW

Rauch and roll: Melissa is solid gold in The Bronze  

3. The Brand New Testament (2015) God lives in Brussels with a wife, who he bullies, and a young daughter - Ea (Pili Groyne) - who has grown to hate the appalling way he treats humanity. Breaking into his vast computer room, she releases the 'death dates' of everyone on Earth and runs away to assemble a team of six new apostles with a plan to "rewrite the world". Apoplectic, God (Benoît Poelvoorde) gives chase. Jaco Van Dormael's gleefully provocative film is a magical realist satire that has religion firmly in its sights. This supreme being is a capricious monster who visits torment on his creations both because he can and because he enjoys it. It's hardly an original notion but Van Dormael interrogates his subject with black humour both sharp and surreal, so the various twists and turns never feel hackneyed or dogmatic. Each of the new apostle's stories are served up as vignettes as Ea visits each one in turn, the strangest of which sees Catherine Deneuve's unfulfilled wife commencing a passionate affair with a circus gorilla. Bound to drive conservatives mad, Le Tout Nouveau Testament (it's original French title) is a rich, off-kilter call to arms full of optimism and imagination. Rating: WWW

Gorilla warfare: God under fire in Brand New Testament

4. Disorder (2015) Matthias Schoenaerts is Vincent, a soldier suffering with PTSD who, between missions, gets a job as a private security guard for Jessie (Inglourious Basterds' Diane Kruger), the glamorous wife of a troubled arms dealer in over his head with some very nasty people. When the husband is arrested while travelling abroad, Vincent suspects his charge and her young son are in danger. Is he right or merely paranoid? Take a wild guess. Whilst we've seen this kind of set-up before in The Bodyguard and Someone To Watch Over Me, Disorder stands out because it keeps the obvious attraction between Vincent and Jessie firmly on the back burner and concentrates instead on building an atmosphere of unease punctuated by the occasional burst of flinch-inducing brutality. I don't recoil like everyone else seems to when Schoenaerts steps out of his Bullhead comfort zone to tackle less physical roles in A Little Chaos or The Danish Girl, but he's best as an arse-kicking taciturn lump and certainly doesn't disappoint here. Some critics have tried to sell Disorder as a kind of psychological thriller but that's only half right. Alice Winocour's film is certainly thrilling (taut and stripped back, too) but whether PTSD-impaired Vincent is imagining the threat to Jessie and her son isn't something that is left hanging for long. You know exactly where the story is heading but it is none the weaker for that. If anything, Disorder is really an exploration of violence - its rank ugliness and occasional necessity. Rating: WWW

Welcome to the punch: Schoenaerts takes no prisoners

5. Suicide Squad (2016) The stuff I actually liked about Suicide Squad can be dealt with in short order: Margot Robbie, Will Smith, Viola Davis and Jared Leto, the latter adding much needed danger and unpredictability to proceedings every time his Joker (a punk-rock Al Capone) put in an appearance. The problem with the rest of David Ayer's film is that it's a bog-standard s̶u̶p̶e̶r̶h̶e̶r̶o̶ super-villain flick when its trailers promised something spikier and cooler. I expected Nirvana and got Nickelback. The problems start to mount in an interminable first 20 minutes as some of the characters are clumsily introduced, complete with their own somewhat on-the-nose 'entrance music' (Sympathy For The Devil for government black ops bad ass Davis, You Don't Own Me for Robbie's Harley Quinn). That feeling of clunkiness hangs around and sticks to the film like glue. It affects the main villain (the Scarlet Witch's dull goth sister), various plot strands (one character is introduced purely to be killed off 10 minutes later), the CG (ugly, unconvincing) and at least a couple of the team themselves (Jai Courtney's Captain Boomerang contributes nothing, Karen Fukuhara's Katana little more). When Leto pops up it's like he's reminding us what we could have had – Ben Affleck's Batman (who gets a cameo here) duking it out with Mr J and Harley in a gangster-packed Gotham. That's a film I'd have wanted to see. This one? Not so much. Rating: W½

Worst. Heroes. Ever? Pretty much, yes.

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