THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE

"The Man who Wasn't There " is one of the finest of all film-noirs, (or since it was made in 2001, perhaps we should call it a 'neo-noir'). The Coen Brothers made it, (they wrote it and directed it), and they chose to shoot it in black and white which was an inspired choice since this is one of the most beautiful looking movies ever made, (the DoP was Roger Deakins, still shamefully chasing his elusive first Oscar), and it's got a classic film-noir plot and some classic film-no"ir characters; a schmuck of an anti-hero with a trampy wife, (she's got a lover, of course), as well as a girl who may be the schmuck's redemption or his downfall and it involves blackmail and a couple of murders and it's set in a classic film-noir period, the 1940's. And yet this magnificent movie is seldom cited when people are asked to name their favourite Coen Brothers' films. Could it be that it's just too stylish or just too much of a pastiche, (it is often very funny). Personally I find its beauties are manifold and the superlative cast, many of whom are Coen Bros. stalwarts, includes Billy Bob Thornton, (the schmuck), Frances McDormand, (the wife), James Gandolfini, (the lover) and Scarlett Johansson, (the girl), as well as Richard Jenkins, Sol Polito, Tony Shaloub and Michael Badalucco. Stunning.

CARNAGE

Roman Polanski knows all about carnage. A survivor of the concentration camps, his wife and unborn child murdered, while his movies include such un-family fare as "Repulsion", "Rosemary's Baby" and a very bloody "Macbeth", so it may seem appropriate that his new film should actually be called "Carnage". No-one dies in this film, (which is based on Yasmina Reza's play "The God of Carnage"), but civilised behaviour sure as hell takes a beating as two cultured couples (Jodie Foster and John C Reilly and Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz) squabble over which of their children was to blame for a playground brawl. All four players are superb, (Winslet and Waltz particularly so) and the 79 minute running equates to the time scale of the events on view. It may not be carnage, then, of the kind we normally associate with Polanski but it's down-there and dirty and very, very funny.

THE REVENANT

Sometimes I wonder if it's just me; at other times I'm convinced that critical snobbery really is alive and well. For many critics a director can do anything but be successful. The latest case in point is Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu who may be raking in the Oscars but is now fashionable to slag off and for that very reason. Nothing like back to back gold statuettes to attract those critical brickbats.

Last year Inarritu won both the Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for "Birdman", not to mention the screenplay prize. In a year that also saw "Boyhood" I felt this was a bit excessive but while "Birdman" may not have been the year's Best Picture it was infinitely better than many critics suggested; bold, innovative and one of the great movies about the theatre. Now we have "The Revenant", a two-and-a-half hour wilderness epic about survival that has just received 12 Oscar nominations and would appear very much the one to beat when it comes to handing out the awards. It's also become very fashionable, in some critical quarters, to pan it and to pan Inarritu, not just for having the audacity in making it in the first place, but suddenly for his entire body of work, as if success at the Oscars was beneath a real artist.

Okay, I don't think it's a masterpiece but it's also bold, innovative and the work of a visionary director who isn't afraid to take chances even if they don't always pay off. Basically it's the story of one man, Hugh Glass, (a terrific Leonardo Di Caprio), left for dead by his fellow trappers in the wilderness, (the title comes from the French for ghost or perhaps more appropriately someone returning from the dead), as he makes his way back to what passes for civilisation to extract his revenge.

It's a long and gruelling picture, never more so than for Di Caprio who is really put through the mill here and while there are several scenes of action and excitement there are equally long stretches when absolutely nothing happens. Perhaps, with a bit of judicious pruning, Inarritu could have made a tighter film, (there is only so much of Di Caprio wandering through the snowy wastes we can take), but I am also out on whether shrinking the film would have improved it. What we have is very much Inarritu's vision, warts and all, and in an age when commercial film-makers tend to play safe, it's great to see someone break the rules.


Visually it's extraordinary, (once again the stunning cinematography is in the safe hands of Emmanuel Lubezki), and as well as Di Caprio there is equally fine work from Domhnall Gleeson as the captain who tries to save him and Tom Hardy, (stealing every scene he's in), as the villainous Fitzgerald. Last year I felt "Birdman's" Oscar glory was undeserved; this year I will have no such reservations when "The Revenant" sweeps the board.

WOMAN OF THE YEAR

"Woman of the Year" was the first teaming of Tracy and Hepburn and it's one of the greatest of all romantic comedies, but why wouldn't it be with two of the greatest performers ever to grace a movie screen as the leads, a great director of mainstream entertainments, George Stevens, at the helm, (at least before he became the director of lugubrious epics), and best of all a classic, cracking script from Ring Lardner Jr and Michael Kanin, (it won them the Oscar).

It is, of course, a love story of opposites attracting. Hepburn is the multicultural, multilingual columnist and Tracy, the sports writer on the same paper whose initial rivalry turns to something more than mere affection when they finally meet. Theirs are two of the greatest comedy performances in all of cinema and even at this early stage in their working and personal relationship the chemistry between them is electric even if, as legend has it, Katie is reputed to have commented that she was a little too tall for Mr Tracy to which producer Joe Mankiewicz is supposed to have said, 'Don't worry, he'll soon cut you down to size'. A first-rate supporting case includes Fay Bainter, William Bendix and that fine and underrated actor, Dan Tobin. Wonderful.

SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, WINTER ... AND SPRING

Kim Ki-Duk's "Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter ... and Spring"
is the kind of film that Terrence Malick should be making right now but isn't. This Korean picture is as visually ravishing and as poetical as anything Malick might have made but whereas Malick's films have tended to become cold, rambling affairs this is a movie with a great deal of respect and affection for its characters.

Virtually plotless in the conventional sense, the film takes a philosophical view of life from the perspective of a Buddhist monk and a boy who live on a tiny floating island in the middle of a lake. The boy grows up and older as each season passes, (and is played by different actors), and each season represents a different tale or rather a variation of the same tale. You could say not a great deal happens. There is little dialogue; we see, rather than hear, the events that make up the days, months and years of his life. It's a slow-burner of a film but it holds you, often with a good deal of humour until finally it turns into a thriller of sorts, (there is a murder, a suicide and an accidental death by drowning but all are dealt with in a most unconventional way). It also marks a very welcome change from the ultra-violent thrillers that have mostly been coming our way from Korea in recent years.

MOLLY'S GAME

All you need to know about "Molly's Game" is that it's an Aaron Sorkin picture, (he directed it as well), and you're hooked. Sorkin is the best writer of dialogue in the movies, just as he was once the best writer of dialogue on television and here he shows he's a damn good director too. The subject is poker and Sorkin's genius is that you don't have to know anything about poker to enjoy this massively entertaining film. Molly is Molly Bloom, a one-time skier, who ran one of America's highest stake poker games until she was arrested by the F.B.I. and she's played, terrifically, by Jessica Chastain, who just happens to be one of the best actresses working in movies today. She completely dominates the film, which is something considering just how good everyone else is, (there's a great cameo from Bill Camp). This is a brilliant movie, the kind of highly intelligent film you hardly ever see at the multiplex these days. See it.

WHIPLASH

Who would have thought that a movie about a young musician training to the the drumming world's equivalent of Charlie 'Bird' Parker could be this gripping but Damien Chazelle's "Whiplash", (it's only his second film and he both wrote and directed), works both as a study about a pupil/teacher relationship and as a film about obsession as well as being a superlative jazz 'musical' and it's a film that confounds expectations at every turn. Only once does it go slightly off the rails in a melodramatic sequence leading up to a crucial concert but it recovers from this blip building to an incredible musical climax in Carnegie Hall.

The pupil/teacher relationship is that between Andrew, a priggishly self-confident young drummer and Fletcher, his martinet music instructor. Fletcher's idea of teaching is to abuse, verbally and sometimes physically, his students until they do things his way. If they don't measure up, they're out. He's played by J.K. Simmons as the music world's equivalent of R. Lee Ermey's drill sergeant in "Full Metal Jacket" and at times you hope he might suffer the same fate. It's a career best performance from a great character actor finally getting his dues and almost certainly an Oscar. Andrew is MilesTeller and neither Teller nor Chazelle make him particularly likeable or sympathetic which is a nice touch; there are times you feel he deserves all he gets. A cosier actor would have made for a cosier picture and a less exciting one. When they go up against each other you feel at least we might have a battle of equals. Fletcher is a monster but he might also be a great teacher who knows he may have finally found his Charlie Parker. There's just enough of an edge to Simmons' performance for us to want to look for the man beneath the caricature just as Teller's Andrew is equally alienating.



Luckily, for such a blood-soaked saga, in a very literate sense, there is enough humour in Chazelle's excellent script to get us through the sticky passages, (and there are a few; there's only so much cymbal-throwing bluster we can take), and the almost wordless climax, including a nine minute drum solo, is as musically and dramatically riveting as anything in recent cinema. "Whiplash" may not be perfect but it's as near as dammit and marks Chazelle out as one of the best and most exciting young directors working today.

GREEN BOOK

If "Green Book" does win the Oscar for Best Picture, as some people think it might, then I for one won't complain. There are, of course, better pictures, ("Roma" and "The Favourite" to name two), but this extremely well-made, nicely directed, intelligently scripted, (if at times a little too obvious in its heart-tugging sentimentality), and very well acted movie ticks all the boxes. It's a feelgood film of the old-fashioned kind that can look back at the bad old days of segregation rather smugly from its 21st Century perspective without feeling particularly smug.

It's a movie about how two mismatched people, (a chain-smoking, rough speaking Italian-American and an African-American you might even call 'uppity'), who, on a long road trip in the Deep South in the early sixties, bestow on each other the gifts of friendship and humanity. Even if you knew nothing of the 'true' story of the musician Don Shirley and his driver you can predict the outcome from the get-go. Of course, it also helps that it's also very funny despite the seriousness of the material and that leads Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali are so damn good, (Ali's second Oscar in three years looks like it's already in the bag). It is, then, something of a treat and might even convince you to seek out the music of Don Shirley.

MAMMA MIA; HERE WE GO AGAIN

Like the first one it is, of course, critic-proof, (Meryl knew that when she agreed to put in a cameo appearance and Cher knew it when she saw a chance to resurrect her career at the age of seventy-two). There are times when it resembles nothing more than gay night at the pantomime, (and if you thought the first one was gay wait until you see this one), but it would be churlish to try to resist it and, to be fair, this is by far the better movie. We are talking, of course, about "Mamma Mia; Here We Go Again", the sequel/prequel to the film version of the stage show that has been playing somewhere in the world for what seems an eternity.

The first film worked because the Abba songs were/are basically indestructible and I did think it quite clever how they were able to construct a story around them. It was a terrible movie but it was also undeniably good fun and there were even a couple of times when it didn't seem so terrible at all. I enjoyed it while recognising every one of its faults but I dreaded this follow-up. Surely all the best songs had already been used up, I thought. Isn't this just cashing in on the success of the original?

Well, yes and no. It was obvious to anyone with a brain that they were on to a good thing so why not come up with another 'story', however flimsy. The plot is simply how did Donna meet the men in her life and how come she couldn't be sure first time around who the father of her child was. It isn't much of an idea to hang a whole movie on so let's have her daughter Sophia plan a big reopening of Donna's hotel, (Donna/Meryl has been dead a year when the film opens), bringing together the cast of the original, (as I said Meryl's appearance is reduced to a good-natured cameo), while cross-cutting between past and present.

In the flashbacks, Donna is Lily James while Stellan Skarsgard and Pierce Brosnan are now hunky Josh Dylan and Jeremy Irvine. Unfortunately, poor Colin Firth is reduced to a very nerdy and obviously gay Hugh Skinner who seems to have mastered the art of playing fools. No matter, he's still the first to bed Miss James, losing his virginity in the process. So far, so obvious but this time around the musical numbers are much better served by the material and are actually very well staged while the performances are, in every way, stronger. As I said, by the time 'Dancing Queen' comes around resistance is futile and the movie becomes an elaborate party, the kind you always hoped you'd be invited to. Of course, neither film will ever be on anyone's list of all-time great musicals but even if you hate yourself in the morning, this is one party worth having a hangover for.

THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING; THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING

"The Russians are Coming; the Russians are Coming" is a comedy from the height of the Cold War about a Russian invasion of America. Of course, the joke is that there is no invasion; rather a lone Russian submarine has strayed too close to the shore, (of an island community off the mainland), causing widespread panic among the inhabitants. Rather than aim for outright farce as Spielberg did in the not dissimilar 1941 the humour here is almost quaint which should come as no surprise since it was written by William Rose. It was also the film that brought stage actor Alan Arkin to the movies and he turns in a brilliant comic performance and one that won him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. There is also excellent work from the likes of Brian Keith, Jonathan Winters, Paul Ford and a very likeable John Phillip Law. The fine direction is by Norman Jewison and the splendid location photography is by Joseph Biroc.

SILENCE

Martin Scorsese has wanted to make "Silence" for a very long time, (he secured the rights to Shusaku Endo's novel 28 years ago), and now that he has I am happy to report that this is one of his greatest films and one of the finest films to deal with religion and spirituality ever made. It is the story of Father Rodrigues, (a magnificent Andrew Garfield, virtually never off the screen), one of two Jesuit priests, (the other is played by Adam Driver), smuggled into a 17th century Japan in which Christians, and priests in particular, are being put to death. They are there to find their former spiritual mentor Father Ferreira, (Liam Neeson in a small but commanding role), who it is rumoured has denied his faith.

This is a long film, (almost three hours), and concentrates almost entirely on Father Rodrigues, who is portrayed here as a Christ figure complete with his own personal Judas, (a superb Yosuke Kubozuka). Will he find Father Ferreira and will he deny his own faith or suffer martyrdom? The film never deviates from this central theme and Scorsese and his cast, (there's great work, too, from Issei Ogata in Oscar-worthy form and Tadanobu Asano among his tormentors), never slackens their grip. This is Scorsese at his most austere, art-house rather than multiplex Scorsese with no concessions to his audience. It is absolutely not to be missed.

MADEMOISELLE

Long before Glenn Close took to boiling bunnies we had Jeanne Moreau as MADEMOISELLE, a provincial French school mistress whose passion for hunky Italian Ettore Manni leads her to commit all kinds of mischief, (arson, flooding farms, poisoning the water supply), you might say all in the name of tainted love. Tony Richardson's remarkable (and greatly underrated) film was written by Jean Genet who knew all about obsessive, sado-masochistic longing and it's so brilliantly plotted and acted by Moreau that I'm even inclined to overlook the atrocious dubbing of most of the supporting cast, (and the Italian speaking scenes in the version I saw were without sub-titles). The magnificent wide-screen photography is by David Watkins, ensuring that at least it looks like a masterpiece.

GOOD MORNING

As if to show it wasn't just old age that he was adept at conveying, in 1959 Ozu virtually remade his silent "I was born, but ..." in this delightful comedy about children and the petty foibles of their parents and he made it in colour. "Good Morning" may not be one of his masterpieces but it's hugely enjoyable nevertheless with lovely performances from both the children and the adults. The plot is simplicity itself; two young brothers stop speaking as a protest against their parents not buying a television set, leading to all kinds of complications with their grown-up neighbours. It may be slight but it is also a wonderful picture of human behaviour, gorgeously shot in typically Ozu fashion from the ground up as if we are seeing the world from the perspective of the children. Masahiko Shimazu is particularly outstanding as little Isamu, silently turning his nose, and his arms, up at the world around him. Minor then but also unmissable.

THE LEGO MOVIE

Who would have guessed that any film called "The Lego Movie", made up almost entirely of animated pieces of lego, would be so brilliant but there you have it, as they say. With a truly terrific script from co-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller that rips off a whole host of sci-fi films and as many superhero movies as you can name, some of the best animation ever put on the screen, (visually this is a total mind-fuck), and an Oscar-worthy voice-over performance from Chris Pratt, not to mention an inspired cameo by a well-known comedy superstar, this is as good as movies get. Young kids will love it, their older siblings will love it and their parents will positively wet themselves with glee. Indeed, everything is awesome.

SHOTGUN STORIES

Jeff Nichols' debut film "Shotgun Stories" marked him out as a major talent, something than has been more than realised in the ten years since it was made. It's a great piece of backroads Americana, thinly plotted but brilliantly observed and superbly acted by a largely unknown cast, (only a young Michael Shannon is familiar to me), as well as being beautifully photographed by Adam Stone in a style reminiscent of early Malick and the early films of one of its producers, David Gordon Greene. It's set in rural Arkansas and deals with a family feud between two sets of half-brothers. The pace is leisurely and there's little in the way of action despite the promise of the title. When violence does finally erupt it is shocking, if not unexpected, and largely happens off-screen. It remains one of the best American Indies of the last 10 years.

THE BOUNTY

This version of "The Bounty" story was one of David Lean's unrealised projects. The screenplay was by Lean's longtime collaborator Robert Bolt and it finally reached the screen under the direction of Roger Donaldson who actually does a very good job. This takes a different slant on the usual take on the mutiny making Bligh, (an excellent Anthony Hopkins), if not exactly the hero, considerably less of a villain than he is usually painted while Christian, (Mel Gibson), is weak and dissolute with his own, selfish motives for rebelling. There is also a much greater emphasis on the events after the mutiny than in previous pictures.

It may lack the physical excitement of the Frank Lloyd version but it's definitely an improvement on the elephantine Brando/Howard remake. The large cast includes early performances from Daniel Day-Lewis and Liam Neeson as well as Edward Fox and Laurence Olivier as officers presiding at Bligh's court-martial and there's a terrific performance from the New Zealand actor Wi Kuki Kaa as King Tynah. Like all good yarns this has stood the test of time remarkably well.

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SEPTEMBER

"September" is Woody Allen's most shamefully underrated film and one of several masterpieces that he has made. Except for the chosen few it seems to be universally hated, (Allen disliked his original cut so much he shot the entire film over again with an entirely different cast), but I think this beautifully written chamber piece (much more Chekov than Bergman this time round) is one of the very finest films of the eighties.
Unusual for Woody, not in its seriousness, (though I seem to find much more humour in the picture than most people), but in that he moved slightly out of his comfort zone to base a movie on an actual event, in this case the Lana Turner/Johnny Stompanato murder trial, though, of course, he creates an entirely fictitious take on the case. His characters, (it's basically a six character piece), may still be embedded in Woody's world of artists and writers and actors etc but I think the writing here is much more fluid than in many of his other pictures. Gorgeously photographed, too, by collaborator Carlo Di Palma in what is basically one set, (had he not already used it "Interiors" would be a great title for the film), and magnificently acted by everyone.

REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2018

It's that time of the year again (the start of a new one) when I look back at the films I saw between Jan 1st 2018 and December 31st 2018 and award my honours for the year ended. For newcomers to these 'prizes' I will explain that the films may have been released in 2017 or sometimes even a year or so earlier but which I am seeing for the first time in the last calendar year so please no comebacks saying these are 'old' films. Let me have my place in the sun and humour an old man. When I combined films released this year and those from 2017 that I saw for the first time it turned out to be a pretty nifty 12 months of movie-watching, thanks in no small measure to the likes of Netflix and especially Mubi. 

It was a particularly good year for international cinema, (i.e. movies in a 'foreign' language), as well as independent American cinema but a poor one for indigenous British cinema. "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" was only British by a margin over the other countries involved in its making, ("The Wife" also fell into this category). Probably the best actual totally British film was Sally Potter's "The Party". Ireland, however, gave us "Black '47" and the magnificent documentary "A Cambodian Spring" directed by fellow Derryman Christopher Kelly.


There were some superb performances but overall this was not really an actor's year.  I chose Nahuel Perez Biscayart as my best actor for his fearless work in "120 BPM" with Rupert Everett running a close second in "The Happy Prince". I was also very impressed with the work of Daniel Day-Lewis in "Phantom Thread", Jonathan Pryce in "The Wife", Ben Foster in "Leave No Trace" and Robert Pattinson in the remarkable "Good Time". My best actress choice was a no-brainer; Glenn Close did what is almost certainly her best ever work in "The Wife" though those old stalwarts Meryl Streep, Judi Dench, Kate Winslett and Sally Hawkins, (in both "Maudie" and "The Shape of Water") were all outstanding.

It was also nice to see new directors come to the fore; Chloe Zhao and Valeska Grisebach shared my most promising director award though the Safdie brothers, Greta Gerwig or Ari Aster could just as easily have taken this one.  Good comedies, thrillers and musicals were thin on the ground and apart from "Isle of Dogs" I didn't see any animated films that impressed me. It was also a very disappointing year for LGBT cinema. I found "A Fantastic Woman" to be overrated while neither "The Wound" nor "Beach Rats" did anything new while "B&B" was truly dreadful. However, it was a great year for westerns, whether they came from Australia, ("Sweet Country"), Ireland, ("Black '47") or America, ("Hostiles" and "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs"). It was also good finally to see Demy's "The Bay of Angels" and Forman's "A Blonde in Love". As for the biggest turkey? What was Eastwood thinking of when he made "The 15:17 to Paris"?

Here now is the full list of my honours for 2018 as well as ten turkeys.


 Best Film from any source: ROMA (Mexico, Cuaron)
Best American Film: PHANTOM THREAD (Anderson)
Best British Film: THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER (Lanthimos)

Best Director: Pawel Pawlikowski for COLD WAR (Poland)
Best Actor: Nahuel Perez Biscayart for 120 BPM (Campillo, France) (Runner-up Rupert Everett for THE HAPPY PRINCE)
Best Actress: Glenn Close for THE WIFE (Runge, GB) (Runner-up Kate Winslett for WONDER WHEEL)
Best Supporting Actor: Adam Driver for BLACKKKLANSMAN (Lee, USA) (Runner-up Sam Rockwell for THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE OF EPPING, MISSOURI)
Best Supporting Actress: Lesley Manville for PHANTOM THREAD. (Runner-up Patricia Clarkson for THE PARTY)

Best Original Screenplay: Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie for GOOD TIME, (Safdie, USA) (Runner-up Joel and Ethan Coen for THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott and Spike Lee for BLACKKKLANSMAN. (Runner-Up Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini for LEAVE NO TRACE)

Best Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnel for THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS (Coen, USA) (Runners-Up Lukasz Zal for COLD WAR; Alfonso Cuaron for ROMA and Vittorio Storaro for WONDER WHEEL)
Best Art Direction: Paul D Austerberry and Nigel Churcher for THE SHAPE OF WATER (Del Toro, USA)
Best Costume Design: Mark Bridges for PHANTOM THREAD.

Best Film Editing: Ronald Bronstien and Benny Safdie for GOOD TIME.
Best Sound Recording: SOLO; A STAR WARS STORY (Howard, USA)
Best Special Effects: SOLO; A STAR WARS STORY.
Best Score: Jonny Greenwood for PHANTOM THREAD.

Most Promising Director: (tie) Chloe Zhao for THE RIDER (USA) and Valeska Grisebach for WESTERN (Germany)
Most Promising Actor: Barry Keoghan for AMERICAN ANIMALS (Layton, USA), BLACK '47 (Daly, Ireland) and THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER.
Most Promising Actress: (tie) Thomasin McKenzie for LEAVE NO TRACE and Vicky Krieps for PHANTOM THREAD.

Best Comedy: GAME NIGHT (Daley and Goldstein, USA)
Best Thriller: AMERICAN ANIMALS.
Best Musical: MAMA MIA; HERE WE GO AGAIN (Parker, GB)
Best Horror Film: HEREDITARY (Aster, USA)
Best Western: THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS
Best Documentary: A CAMBODIAN SPRING (Kelly, Ireland)
Best Animation: ISLE OF DOGS (Anderson, USA)
Best Action/Adventure: SOLO; A STAR WARS STORY.
Best War Film: N/A

Most Overrated Films: A STAR IS BORN (Cooper, USA) and ZAMA (Martel, Argentina)
Most Underrated Films: THE WIFE and WONDER WHEEL.
Most Neglected Films: HOUNDS OF LOVE (Young, Australia) and SWEET COUNTRY (Thornton, Australia)
Most Imaginative Film: THE NOTHING FACTORY (Pinho, Portugal)
Most Disappointing Film: THE DEATH OF STALIN (Iannucci, UK)
Most Distasteful Film: PATRIOT'S DAY (Berg, USA)

Best Classics Seen for the First Time: THE BAY OF ANGELS, (Demy, France), A BLONDE IN LOVE (Forman, Czecholovakia) and CHRONICLE OF A SUMMER (Morin and Rouch, France)
Best Rediscovery: MAGNIFICENT DOLL (Borzage, USA)

and finally 10 Turkeys: 1) 15:17 TO PARIS (Eastwood, USA) 2) LE FORT DES FOUS (Mari, France) 3) LOST RIVER (2014) (Gosling, USA), 4) MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (Branagh, GB), 5) PAPILLION (Noer, Spain), 6) B&B (Aherene, GB) 7) BILLIONAIRE BOYS CLUB (Cox, USA) 8) THE GREEN ROOM (2015) (Saulnier, USA) 9) THE GREATEST SHOWMAN (Gracey, USA) and 10) AVENGERS; INFINITY WAR (Russo, USA)