My 30 favourite films of 2015 (part three #10-1)

Of all the new films I saw in 2015 - 187 at the last count - these were the 10 I loved most...

10. Brooklyn 
(director: John Crowley UK release date: November 6)

Beautifully written and acted adaptation of Colm Tóibín's 1950s-set novel. Ellis (Saoirse Ronan) is a young immigrant relocating from her quiet Irish village to the hustle and bustle of the titular New York borough. There, she meets and falls for an easygoing Italian plumber but is soon recalled on urgent family business. Back on home soil, Ellis's new life, priorities and future are all suddenly thrown up into the air, especially when a potential new suitor makes himself known. She faces a huge choice - which way will she leap? The plot is simplicity itself but the themes and emotions are big. Julie Walters and Jim Broadbent are both superb in small supporting roles but this is Ronan's film and if she doesn't grab an Oscar nomination I will eat an entire hat shop. 

9. Girlhood

(Director: Celine Sciamma UK release date: May 8)

Excellent French-language drama set in and around a tough Parisian estate and focusing on the members of a black girl gang. Sciamma – a white woman – has been criticised in some quarters for portraying black characters and their lives negatively but this is as much about the limited choices and pressures faced by young women as it is a film attempting to chronicle the black or immigrant experience in France. Besides, at no point does Girlhood seek to denigrate its main characters or their choices. In fact, Karidja Touré's Marieme is an empowering, inspiring creation; a strong, determined and resourceful young woman who simply refuses to buckle under the weight of a difficult life. 

8. Carol 

(director: Todd Haynes UK release date: November 27) 

A film so classy and graceful it makes Breakfast At Tiffany's look like The Toxic Avenger, Todd Haynes' adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel The Price Of Salt is set in 1950s New York and tells the story of a forbidden love affair between unhappy socialite Cate Blanchett (the titular Carol) and Rooney Mara's Therese, a department-store clerk with dreams of being a photographer. Like Brooklyn, the plot is minimal and Haynes takes his time exploring his main characters' lives, the evolution of their feelings for each other and how that impacts upon their other relationships (Carol is married to Kyle Chandler's boorish drunk Harge). The cast is as impressive as any I saw all year, with Blanchett even more magnetic than usual and Sarah Paulson excellent in a supporting role. Haynes once again proves himself a consummate storyteller and an absolute demon when it comes to period detail. 

7. Phoenix

(director: Christian Petzold UK release date: May 8)
Quietly devastating German noir dealing with the return of Auschwitz survivor Nelly Lenz (Nina Hoss) to Berlin after WWII. Sporting a new face following reconstructive surgery, she tracks down husband Johnny who, failing to recognise her, instead recruits Nelly into an elaborate plot to claim his 'dead' wife's inheritance. It would be easy to dismiss Phoenix as little more than a clever spin on Hitchcock's Vertigo and denounce the implausibility of its plotting. But the film is so much more than that, effortlessly juggling big themes of rebirth, identity, guilt and betrayal while exploring the experience of Holocaust survivors. Hoss, in her sixth collaboration with director Petzold, is quite superb, and the ending will leave you in bits.

6. Mistress America 

(director: Noah Baumbach UK release date: August 14) 

The Frances Ha team of Noah Baumbach (co-writer/director) and Greta Gerwig (co-writer/star) reunite for a witty comedy that perfectly balances screwball elements with a more melancholic edge speaking to failure and betrayal. Lola Kirke (who you may remember from Gone Girl) is Tracy, a lonely college fresher taken in by her soon-to-be stepsister, Brooke (Gerwig). The older woman is impetuous, adventurous and appears to have the world at her feet. But it doesn't take Tracy long before she realises Brooke's schemes for success and world domination are little more than pipe dreams and that she is going nowhere fast. Woody Allen at something approaching his best is evoked in its rat-a-tat dialogue, spiky, not always likeable, characters and moments of pure, laugh-out-loud farce.

5. The Look Of Silence 
(Director: Joshua Oppenheimer UK release date: June 12)
Joshua Oppenheimer's bravura follow-up to The Act of Killing, his 2013 film about the 1965 Indonesian genocide of alleged communists. The Look Of Silence is a smaller, more personal story of one of the families who lost a loved one during the purge. The murdered man's brother - a gentle but determined optometrist named Adi - confronts his sibling's killers (many of whom are celebrated as heroes and hold positions of power) in a number of truly jaw-dropping scenes. My favourite documentary in a year packed with some very good ones.

4. The Dance Of Reality 

(director: Alejandro Jodorowsky UK release date: August 21) 

Veteran filmmaker Jodorowsky’s sort-of-autobiographical film, set in the small Chilean coastal town where the 86-year-old endured a difficult childhood, is peculiar, challenging and utterly bonkers. Counter-intuitively, it might just be his most accessible work to date. The movie - his first in 23 years - is full of surreal imagery, absurdist digressions, playful humour and several genuinely shocking moments (a golden shower, the killing of a donkey and genital torture, if you’re wondering), but at its core is really the story of Jodorowsky’s fraught relationship with his Stalinist dad (here played by Brontis, the director’s real-life son). It owes more than a little something to Federico Fellini (especially the Italian director's 8½ and Amarcord) but proves, that even pushing 90, the Chilean maestro is still capable of producing work every bit as intriguing, eccentric and transgressive as El Topo and Santa Sangre. 

3. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night 

(Director: Ana Lily Amirpour UK release date: May 22)

Utterly beguiling ‘Iranian vampire western’ that quickly transcends its influences to deliver something quite unique. Set in Bad City, a windblown, oddly-deserted industrial town somewhere in Iran (Taft, California in reality), this most peculiar of love stories centres on The Girl (Sheila Vand), a lonely, chador-clad blood-sucker who prowls the streets looking for wrongs to right and evil men to punish. One such night-time patrol brings her into contact with troubled Arash (Arash Marandi) – one part James Dean, one part major doofus – and they enjoy an immediate mutual attraction. Shot in gorgeous, high-contrast black and white with cinematographer Lyle Vincent, Amirpour's full-length debut never loses sight of its sinister horror edge despite also being playful, romantic and effortlessly cool. Superb soundtrack too.

2. Mad Max: Fury Road 

(Director: George Miller UK release date: May 15)

Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy in for Mel Gibson) returns to the post-apocalyptic Aussie badlands in a movie for which the term high-octane was surely invented. On the run from the tyrannical Immortan Joe and his motorcade of mutant crazies, Max teams up with Charlize Theron’s badass Imperator Furiosa (pictured, top of page) for one of the most exciting - and prolonged - chase sequences in movie history. At times, it's like the Marquis de Sade directing Wacky Races, at others surprisingly political, taking aim at patriarchy, climate change, and the one per cent. Hardy's debut as Max is solid enough but this film belongs to one-armed warrior woman Furiosa and the sheer avalanche of crazy ideas, images and stunts that Miller and his co-conspirators bring to the party. The finest action film ever made? It might just be.

1. The New Girlfriend 

(director: François Ozon UK release date: May 22) 

Loosely adapted from Ruth Rendell's bleak short story of the same name, The New Girlfriend is a strange but heady brew of farcical comedy and odd-couple romance that nevertheless contains a tiny sliver of thriller-ish ice at its heart. Ozon's film tells the story of David (Romain Duris) who, after the death of his wife, Laura, starts dressing as a woman, initially so his baby daughter can have a 'mother' but soon simply because he enjoys it. The only person who shares his secret is Claire (Anaïs Demoustier), poor dead Laura's married best friend who was secretly in love with her. 

Initially repelled by David's revelation, Claire tries to discourage his burgeoning transvestism but it isn't long before she starts to come to terms with her own sexuality and falls for his feminine alter-ego, Virginia. On a slightly sinister note, it becomes clear Claire is attracted to the part of David/Virginia that reminds her of Laura and is keen to, in effect, 'recreate' the dead woman using her new beau as a template. In fact, a hint of what can only be called 'necrophilia' informs the entire affair. Not only is Claire in love with Laura but we see David in the morgue dressing his naked wife in her wedding gown prior to her funeral. It's a scene that manages to be titillating and chilling at the same time, and The New Girlfriend is full of such contrasting moments, none more so than in its final shot.

There are times when the film's tone is uneven and the humour just a little too broad, while Ozon leaves some fairly important questions hanging (when David speaks of "living as a woman" does he mean as a transvestite or is he keen to fully transition?). So why is this rather than, say, Fury Road, my favourite film of the year? Well, because I love its ambition and its cheek and its desire to tackle a tricky subject head on and sod the consequences. I admire the fact that French auteur Ozon (Potiche, Swimming Pool) has given us a mature, challenging and utterly charming exploration of sexual and gender fluidity in the form of a film that is occasionally as daft as a brush and camp as Christmas. I also love that its leads are both brilliant. 

Duris (The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Populaire) is a hugely versatile actor and his turn here as a man finally able to throw off the shackles and be who he wants to be is sympathetic and believable. He's grieving and depressed, yes, but all of that soon gives way to relief and acceptance and he sells that shift perfectly. Demoustier is French cinema's best kept secret. She is one of those actors who elevates everything she is in by at least 10 per cent and that is certainly true here. As Claire, she's a beautiful ball of confusion and guilt - you can see every conflicted emotion etched across her face. 

Rendell died in May last year and, although Ozon excises her original story's nasty little twist, I'd like to think she'd approve of the complex and fascinatingly flawed film he has crafted from her source material.

The Dance of Reality is Alejandro Jodorowsky's first film for 23 years and is more than worth the wait

The Dance of Reality

Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky

Starring: Brontis Jodorowsky, Pamela Flores, Jeremias Herskovits

Running time: 133mins

To give you a flavour of Chilean director Jodorowsky’s first film since 1990’s The Rainbow Thief, here are some of the highlights of the first few minutes: Alejandro (Herskovits), a young boy in a long blond wig that makes him look like a miniature member of The Sweet, accompanies his father, Jaime, to the circus where he used to perform. They are approached by two colourful clowns – one so camp he makes Melvyn Hayes look like Wladimir Klitschko – who challenge Jaime to spar with them. Scared for his father’s safety but scolded by the older man for being a coward, tearful Alejandro runs home to the underwear store owned by his parents. Outside, a dwarf dressed as a devil tries to drum up business for the shop, while Alejandro’s mother, Sara (Flores), a distractingly voluptuous woman who communicates by singing operatically, calls out to him. “Alejandrito, why are you running like that, father dear?” she trills, believing the boy to be the reincarnation of her long-dead dad.

Yes, it’s peculiar, challenging and utterly bonkers but the above offers the merest taste of the many wonders to come in Jodorowsky’s autobiographical film set in Tocopilla, the small Chilean coastal town where the 86-year-old endured a difficult childhood. The Dance of Reality is full of surreal imagery, absurdist digressions, playful humour and several genuinely shocking moments (a golden shower, the killing of a donkey and genital torture, if you’re wondering), but at its core is really the story of Jodorowsky’s fraught relationship with his dad (here played by Brontis, the director’s real-life son). In many respects, Jaime is the centre of the film – it’s his journey we follow most keenly and his character that has the clearest arc. 

A domestic tyrant, it is little wonder Jaime sports a Stalin moustache and has hung an imposing portrait of the Russian dictator on the wall of his knicker shop (I can imagine no better accompaniment to the purchase of pants than Uncle Joe’s grim visage glaring down at you). When he isn’t bullying young Alejandro for his perceived cowardice and weakness, or suffering anti-semitic abuse from the numerous locals with whom he has beef, Jaime spends his time fulminating against Chilean president Carlos Ibáñez del Campo (Bastian Bodenhofer). In order to help the downtrodden poor, Jaime leaves home to assassinate the ruler, inveigling his self into Ibáñez’s affections after saving him from another would-be killer. He takes over as groom for Ibáñez’s magnificent stallion Bucephalus whilst plotting to kill the man. His inability to do so leads to a finale in which, thanks to Sara (fully clothed for once), Jaime gains uncomfortable but ultimately redemptive self knowledge.  

The Dance of Reality received a standing ovation at Cannes when it was shown there in 2013 and Jodorowsky (El Topo, Santa Sangre) has since started work on another autobiographical film, Endless Poetry, part-financed via Kickstarter. He even pops up here bedecked in a gleaming white suit as young Alejandro’s guardian angel/spirit guide, imparting knowledge and exposition like a ghostly Colonel Sanders. So that’s the real-life Jodorowsky interacting with a fictional version of his younger self, while his real-life son plays his dad. Head-spinning.

Anyone who has seen Federico Fellini’s Amarcord (the story of a young boy coming of age in fascist Italy), or the same director’s 8½, will immediately recognise the Italian master’s influence at work here. Nazis, clowns, amputees, dogs in fancy dress, scary skull people, a silver-faced man on the beach; at times it’s like watching a Felliniesque carnival parade of the weird and bizarre. But Jodorowsky – a master storyteller with a long list of credits in comic-books, poetry, novels and stage plays as well as movies – brings a modern sensibility to his tale, injecting pace and structure to counter the dream-like, nostalgia-tinged hyper-reality on display elsewhere. I'm not sure anyone makes films like this any more and when certain directors do dip their toes into symbol-heavy, magical-realist waters - as David Gordon Green did recently with Manglehorn - it just ends up looking clumsy and cack-handed. 

Generally, I prefer my films a little less obtuse but, for all its tonal and visual mischief, The Dance of Reality is thought-provoking, laugh-out-loud funny, ambitious and, ultimately, hugely enjoyable. Its strange magic stayed with me for days, bleeding into other movies I saw and rendering even the very good ones somewhat ordinary and under-cooked by comparison. I mean, Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years is truly wonderful but where’s the dog dressed as a kangaroo?

Rating: WWWW 

The Dance of Reality is in cinemas now (key cities) and also available via Curzon Home Cinema's View on Demand service

Ratings

WWWW = Wonderful

WWW = Worthy

WW = Watchable

W = Woeful

5 for Friday (August 21): Trailers, new releases and box office

Re-jigging this section to make it a little more ‘newsy’ and informative, I’ve realised just how few films get a proper nationwide cinema release in the UK. Of the 19 movies the Launching Films website lists as ‘on release’ this week, only two of them are afforded ‘saturation’ coverage in theatres (Vacation and The Bad Education Movie) while two more (Gemma Bovery and Sinister 2) are granted a ‘wide’ release. That leaves 15 films with only a ‘limited’ release, or which have been only released into ‘key cities’ such London, Birmingham and Manchester. 

Films are finding their way onto DVD, Blu-ray and particularly View on Demand quicker than ever but it remains a nonsense that you can read about the likes of The President and The Wolfpack in your morning newspaper but have little chance of seeing either if, like me, you live in a town out in the sticks. One of those remaining 15 titles – Good People – has been made available on VOD at the same time as its cinema release and this is a trend I sincerely hope continues to pick up steam. Ideally, I’d love to see all films available in all formats (including in cinemas) simultaneously but I realise that’s just crazy talk…

UPDATE: A few hours after posting this week's 5 for Friday column I discovered that VOD service Curzon Home Cinema is showing both The President and The Dance of Reality from today. It means film fans, including me, will be able to see both movies at the same time as they hit cinemas in 'key cities'. Great news!  

1. The Wolfpack

What is it? Documentary telling the extraordinary true story of the Angulos, six brothers raised in a small apartment in Manhattan’s Lower East Side and only very rarely allowed to venture into the outside world by their insanely overprotective parents. Isolated from society, the boys seek refuge in movies, building elaborate props and costumes as they re-enact favourite scenes from the likes of Reservoir Dogs and The Dark Knight. But what happens when they’re all grown up and no longer need follow their parents’ diktats?

Critical consensus? 83 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes makes it a big, fat hit.
Where can I see it in the UK? In ‘key cities’ only. Hopefully, there will be a DVD/Blu-ray along before the end of the year.
My take: Director Crystal Moselle’s film looks set to take its place amongst the very best documentaries of 2015 but there is a caveat. Some reports have suggested it plays fast and loose with the facts and that the Angulos’ story isn’t quite as cut and dried as The Wolfpack implies. 

2. The Dance of Reality
What is it? Acclaimed filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s first movie in 23 years – he is now 86 years old – is an autobiographical work based on his unhappy childhood growing up in Tocopilla, a Chilean coastal town, in the 1930s. The first half focuses on the young Jodorowsky himself – indulged by his mother, bullied by his Stalinist father – while the second half follows his dad (actually played by the director’s son, Brontis) as he leaves the family home and attempts to assassinate Chilean dictator Carlos Ibáñez del Campo. This leads to one of the most uncomfortable torture scenes you’ll see in this or any year. Like the director’s best work – El Topo and The Holy Mountain – it is spiritual, hallucinatory, surreal and infuriating.
Critical consensus? A barnstorming 95 per cent Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Where can I see it in the UK? Key cities only again. Look out for it on DVD from September 14 though.
My take: For those who might not recognise the name, Jodorowsky is the director who tried and failed to make a movie based on Frank Herbert's Dune novel in the mid-70s (a full decade before David Lynch made his own version of the book). A 2013 documentary – Jodorowsky's Dune – tells the whole fascinating story. Anyway, after 23 years away from the camera, this is a very welcome return for the director of wonderful psychedelic western El Topo.

3. The Treatment
What is it? Powerful but emotionally draining Belgian noir (based on a best-selling novel by UK crime author Mo Hayder) about police inspector Nick Cafmeyer's desperate search for a missing nine-year-old boy. The investigation contains uncomfortable echoes from the cop's past - he is himself haunted by the disappearance of his younger brother when they were children, a case that remains unsolved. As he journeys further into the new investigation's heart of darkness, Cafmeyer realises the two abductions may well be connected.
Critical consensus? It currently boasts a very healthy 86 per cent Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Where can I see it in the UK? Cinema-wise, only in key cities again... but it is getting a DVD and Blu-ray release on September 14.
My take: Themes of child abuse and paedophilia make it a tough watch but The Treatment proves yet again that edge-of-your-seat thrillers aren't the sole preserve of the Hollywood studios. If you like the original The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo films or Denis Villeneuve's Prisoners, this should be right up your street.

4. The President

What is it? Satirical drama about the fallen dictator of an unnamed country. Following a coup, ‘his majesty’ is forced to live among the very people he once brutally subjugated even while formulating an escape. The rest of his family fled the country by plane and the former despot and his young grandson must journey to the coast where a ship waits to take them to safety. Only problem is, the President is a wanted fugitive with an ever-increasing bounty on his head who risks discovery at every turn. 
Critical consensus? The film is at 100 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes so it’s as Fresh as it can possibly get.
Where can I see it in the UK? ‘Key cities’ only again, I’m afraid. 
My take: The President immediately brings to mind the flawed but funny Larry Charles/Sacha Baron Cohen collaboration The Dictator but, despite its satiric intent, is an altogether more serious work. Director Mohsen Makhmalbaf – an exiled Iranian based in London who has led an extraordinary life – is well known for making ‘difficult’ arthouse fare such as Kandahar but this promises to be far more accessible. 

5. The Bad Education Movie
What is it? Big screen version of the British TV sitcom starring ‘comedian’ Jack Whitehall as hopeless high-school teacher Alfie Wickers. Following their GSCE exams, Wickers takes his unruly class on a final school trip to Cornwall. Inbetweeners-style ‘hilarity’ ensues…
Critical consensus? It doesn’t seem to have been screened for critics, which should tell you everything you need to know.
Where can I see it in the UK? Every-bloody-where.
My take: To be honest, I’m only mentioning this at all because it’s one of the few movies out this week that is easy to see – it’ll be all over your local multiplex like white on rice. It seems sophisticated ‘key cities’ folk with their fancy book learning and opposable thumbs get the movies for grown-ups, the rest of us get low-rent comedies like this and Vacation (also out this week). Sheesh.



Also in cinemas this week

A Dozen Summers
All Is Well
Escobar: Paradise Lost
The Forgotten Kingdom
Gemma Bovery 
Good People 
Looking For Love 
Munde Kamaal De
Pressure
Sinister 2
Strange Magic
Trisha Illana Nayanthara
Vacation

UK box office
1. Pixels 
2. Inside Out
3. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
4. The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
5. Trainwreck
6. Fantastic Four
7. Southpaw
8. Minions
9. Absolutely Anything
10. The Gift

US box office
1. Straight Outta Compton
2. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
3. The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
4. Fantastic Four
5. The Gift
6. Ant-Man
7. Vacation
8. Minions
9. Ricki and the Flash
10. Trainwreck