AMBULANCE (2022) dir. Michael Bay

Eiza González in Ambulance (2022) dir. Michael Bay

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II For Calvin Klein🫦😍💕

“Leave the flamingos alone. Those are two separate events!” Danny Sharpe, Ambulance (it’s a comedy, really)

Brother's love

Yahya: There's love between two of them, as brothers. To me this story is a love story. I like to say that every good story is a love story. Jake: They both found a lot of comfort with each other, they were very close. Danny is desperate to his brother's love and that connection.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II play two brothers with a rocky relationship in the new movie Ambulance, directed by Michael Bay. They love each other but the two have taken very different paths. Danny is a criminal leader with few scruples, while his brother, an ex-military man, wants to live in peace with his family. “The first time we met in person was at Michael’s house, the three of us together, to talk about some things and the week that was coming up, and I loved Yahya. He is a very kind person with a heart, very humble, considerate… He came to the scenes without too much intensity as an actor but with enough for a film like this. He felt like we always looked out for each other, even in the car fight scene. There wasn’t a lot of ‘acting work’, we just had a good time“ says Gyllenhaal.

***

Extended parts from various interviews that show their wonderful relationship. Abdul-Mateen II: You can look someone in the eye and say, 'Okay, I like this person. I think we're on the same page and let's just go.' We're laughing and [we] sang. We taking care of one another.

Gyllenhaal: Both of us coming back and forth at each other with our own questions we've had, and trying to make an argument and being open to each other, because we knew we could trust each other. I knew if he was ever going to do anything that would hurt me, and vice versa, but we knew we were gonna have fun. That comfort was always there between the two of us.

Abdul-Mateen II: There's a silent dialogue happening between us at all times.

Jake Gyllenhaal: I was grateful that when I met Yahya he was so kind and open-hearted. He made it so easy to love each other as siblings, as brothers. He’s a very smart actor.  He’s constantly asking the right questions, not the annoying ones. And because of that he drew me closer to him. I knew that he was going to be protecting his side of the bargain in a scene. That just started from the very beginning. I think we just had real respect for each other as performers, and our friendship… Jake Gyllenhaal: Yahya is adorable. He's an actor who is curious and asks questions in the same way that I do because we're always looking for something deeper. And that was fun because it's possible in a movie like this not to ask those questions; but we both knew that the deeper we went together, the more interesting the film would be. Plus, he has a wonderful energy about him because he's very positive and frankly, that's what matters most today. I love working with Yahya."

About beauty of each other. Jake: And because Yahya is so handsome, I couldn't stop filming him or looking at the screen. I was mesmerised by his beauty.

Yahya (when he first met Jake): "and there was like, a beautiful view in the background and there you are... Jake Gyllenhaal. I'm meeting you for the first time. And he turned around and the light was perfect, his eyes were piercing - I'm like wow this is great, this is gonna be dope..."

Jake Gyllenhaal about his character: "Danny Sharp is a complex human being. He was very close to his adopted brother, Will, and I think they both found a lot of comfort with each other in this family that had so much chaos. Then, in the years leading up to Will's departure, they grew apart. And I think, in many ways, Danny is desperate to regain his brother's love and that connection."

P. S. They love to sing, so maybe this is the karaoke room? Or is it a cinema where they watch a movie together? I haven't decided.

2022 in Movies - My Top 30 Fave Movies (Part 1)

30.  THOR: LOVE & THUNDER – All right, STRAIGHT AWAY I’m gonna address the elephant in the room – this year’s big-screen MCU offerings have been somewhat underwhelming compared to previous years’ track record, which certainly points to a worrying continuing trend (especially after 2021’s subjective misfire Eternals) of the previously CONSISTENTLY ON-FORM movie-making behemoth starting to slack off some.  Could it be true?  Well the latest offerings are still entertaining cinema, but there’s no denying some of the shine seems to be coming off the product after COVID, especially with all the other shit we’re having to put up with in the real world right now … still, even on an off-day, writer-director Taika Waititi is still capable of delivering something special, and while this never reaches the rewarding heights of Thor: Ragnarok, his second tour of duty for Marvel is still a lot of fun. As with its predecessor, there are certainly times where it’s clear that plot was never a major concern with this movie, but at least there’s enough to keep the film from devolving into a two hour string of admittedly frequently hilarious fan-service skits … Gor the God Butcher (Christian Bale) has embarked on an intergalactic crusade to rid the Universe of gods with his deadly Necrosword and an army of nightmarish shadow demons, prompting Thor (Chris Hemsworth) to get over his post-Endgame funk and MAN UP again in order to save the day with the help of his faithful companions Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Korg the Kronan (Waititi himself), as well as his ex-girlfriend, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who’s now been gifted the powers of Thor by the reconstituted hammer Mjolnir (I shit you not), which is also helping her fight the terminal cancer ravaging her body. Got all that?  Good, because that’s all we really NEED to know as Waititi and co lead us on a merry romp through a series of visually stunning cosmic adventures, rousing larger-than-life primary-coloured superhero battles and a riotous cavalcade of impressively well-pitched jokes that display an impressively consistent hit rate.  Hemsworth once again proves that funny Thor is the best Thor, but there’s enough emotional heavy-lifting involved in the story that he gets to exercise his dramatic muscles too, while it’s nice to finally see Portman finally return to a role she’s been absent from for far too long, and this time she’s clearly having a fine old time finally getting to play on an equal footing with the big boys as Jane’s new superpowered alter ego; Thompson and Waititi, meanwhile, both get to do a lot with significantly expanded roles this time round, while the brief first act appearance of the Guardians of the Galaxy is a welcome whetting of our appetites as we wait for Volume 3. Then there’s the newcomers, of course – the sojourn to Omnipotence City, the galactic Home of The Gods, is one of the film’s undeniable highlights, especially with the introduction of a delightfully hammy Russell Crowe as the mighty Zeus, while Christian Bale brings a welcome touch of old school professional gravitas and method intensity to the role of Gor, who, despite his despicable methods, ultimately proves to be one of the MCU’s most sympathetic villains.  This is one of those movies that’s definitely less about the destination than the journey, as the real pleasure here’s just submerging ourselves in the spectacle, the characters and the endless rich humour and going with the flow, and it’s this kind of filmmaking that Waititi excels at like few others – ultimately it doesn’t hold up to some of the greats that came before, but it’s still worth giving a chance.  Let’s just hope Marvel can do better in the future, yeah?

29.  THE 355 – my cinematic year kicked off in what I thought was thoroughly fine style with a rip-roaring, star-studded spy thriller which was clearly intended to start a franchise which I’d totally be up for since it’s everything I love to watch – hard-hitting, visceral action pinned to a genuinely compelling plot powered by a quintet of strong women who take on a patriarchal establishment and beat it at its own game.  Clearly it wanted to shake-up the status quo and as far as I’m concerned it pulled it off in fine style  … NO WONDER, then, that it’s been (largely) roundly reviled by critics and tanked at the box office, much as previous attempts at similar ends such as the intended Ghostbusters and Charlie’s Angels reboots did a few years back. I thought we’d gotten past this, guys! Come on … it’s a criminal shame, because this is SUCH great movie.  Jessica Chastain heads the cast as tough-as-nails CIA operative “Mace” Browne, out for blood after a botched operation in Paris to acquire a potentially devastating piece of terrorist-tech results in the death of her partner and friend Nick Fowler (Sebastian Stan).  Given a second chance at tracking down the device, things get complicated when a clandestine conspiracy is revealed and Mace is forced to team up with retired MI6 officer Khadijah Adiyeme (Lupita Nyong’o), rival German BND operative Marie Schmidt (Dianna Kruger), Colombian DNI analyst and psychologist Graciela Rivera (Penelope Cruz) and Chinese MSS agent Lin Mi Sheng (X-Men: Days of Future Past’s Fan Bingbing) to beat the bad guys and clear their names after they’re all framed as terrorists themselves.  All five of the film’s badass leading ladies have been given impressively memorable and thoroughly well-written characters with plenty of potential for growth and character development not only throughout this film but in what now looks like an extremely unlikely franchise future (even Fan who, despite coming into the action quite late, immediately makes QUITE the impression and builds on that groundwork admirably throughout the latter half of the film); similarly, Stan once again proves what a mighty screen talent he is, while there’s an enjoyably reptilian turn from Jason Flemyng as the film’s Big Bad, international crime boss Elijah Clarke.  While this was advertised as a relentlessly-paced, breakneck thrill ride, the action quota is actually somewhat more restrained here than on some of its more established peer franchises (like Bond and Mission: Impossible, anyway), but what IS on offer is, correctly, very much in service to the intelligently written story, and the film certainly doesn’t scrimp on the thrills when it DOES decide to get our adrenaline pumping, delivering some suitably robust set-pieces that punctuate rather than drive the agreeably pacy plot.  Former X-Men writer Simon Kinberg acquits himself admirably here, but like his previous crack at directing it really is starting to look like Hollywood just has it in for him, since Dark Phoenix ALSO got a critical and release-debacle-based financial mauling it really DIDN’T deserve.  This is a cracking spy thriller with a killer premise and exceptional cast of characters which deserves far more respect than it's received – altogether this is a film which needs a SERIOUS reappraisal.  Give it a chance, guys, it REALLY needs it …

28.  NIGHTMARE ALLEY – Guillermo del Toro is one of my favourite filmmakers of all time, and one of the things I love most about him is his innate understanding of the inherent truths about the cinematic monsters he frequently portrays in his works.  Some of his most interesting thematic material comes when he examines the horrors that his NON-supernatural characters are capable of, but until now the only time he’s genuinely FOCUSED on inherently human monsters was in 2015’s Crimson Peak – sure, it had proper ghosts in it, but the actual threat was very much from the film’s living, breathing flesh-and-blood characters. His latest offering has embraced this principle to a far greater degree as he adapts William Lindsay Gresham’s none-more-dark novel about morally grey grifters and carnival sideshow charlatans in World War II America, Bradley Cooper delivering what might be a career best turn as voraciously ambitious and inherently talented con-artist Stan Carlisle, who rises through the ranks working the sideshow acts in a lowly travelling carnival before finally striking it big when he goes it alone in a one-man psychic act in Buffalo, New York, with the increasingly reluctant help of his disillusioned girlfriend Molly Cahill (Rooney Mara).  When he comes to the attention of influential high-society psychologist Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), she opens the door to a business opportunity which has the potential for MASSIVE financial rewards, but also a truly ruinous fall from grace if Carlisle doesn’t play it JUST RIGHT … del Toro’s always has some pretty palpable darkness in his movies, but he’s never tackled subject matter so genuinely jet black in its pitch before, the film wallowing in some seriously murky waters as we follow an already morally questionable protagonist as he digs down into the most thoroughly reprehensible depths of his own meagre soul, as well as the heart of an uncaring society as irredeemable corrupt as he’s in danger of becoming.  This is NOT an easy film to watch, several times testing the resolve of even the strongest viewers, but the rewards on offer for sticking with it are vast – this is another gold-plated work of art from an immensely talented filmmaker at the very height of his game, and it deserves all of the Oscar buzz it got, even if it ultimately missed out on that coveted Best Picture gong (much as del Toro was snubbed for a directing nomination this time round).  Cooper is a genuine revelation here, suitably seductive but still thoroughly slimy as an already shady guy who becomes progressively worse as his success grows, while Mara’s definitely the only true bright light in the cast as the sweet innocent he takes for a ride who ultimately gets wise just a little too late; Willem Dafoe once again piles on the creepiness as suitably unpleasant geek show barker Clem, while Toni Collette and David Strathairn are both excellent as Zeena and Pete Krumbein, the fading psychic sideshow act that teach Carlisle his craft, and Del Toro’s The Shape of Water star Richard Jenkins is far more complex than he first seems as Ezra Grindle, the potentially lethal mark he underestimates to such dangerous degrees.  The REAL standout star of the film, however, is Blanchett, who captivates and repulses in equal measure as an ice-cold psychopath who deserves to go down as one of the all-time great femme fatales of cinema. This was DEFINITELY the year’s darkest film, but it’s also an immensely rewarding viewing experience, incredibly intelligent, breathlessly edgy and unbelievably tense from its creepy opening to its ruinous ending, and every inch as surprisingly seductive as its untrustworthy lead character, the truest film noir to come along in a very long time indeed …

27.  AMBULANCE – Michael Bay’s cinematic output in the last ten years in particular has been very interesting. It’s like he’s going through phases as he’s trying to work out how he wants to go forward as his style “matures” – 2013’s Pain & Gain was, like all his previous output, big, loud and definitely flashy in the most indulgent way, but it also had something somewhat serious to say, given its origins as an (admittedly genuinely BONKERS) actual TRUE STORY.  Then came the fourth Transformers film, Age of Extinction, widely regarded as THE VERY WORST of the bunch, and rightly so.  But then he turned right round and did something COMPLETELY SERIOUS when he tackled a much less OTT but far more emotionally charged and potent true story in 13 Hours: the Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, which is a genuinely masterful piece of work which I personally regard as his VERY BEST FILM. Then he went and did ANOTHER Transformers movie with The Last Knight, which was more of the same – juvenile, disjointed in plot and narrative and pure over-the-top indulgence – and yet, somehow, it was just a little bit BETTER than much of what had come before all the same (actually getting close to the quality of his first, still BEST, instalment).  Most recently he went to Netflix to create something which was clearly always INTENDED to be over-the-top and indulgent but this time saw him actually getting the recipe RIGHT (like he did on The Rock) with 6 Underground, a thoroughly enjoyable action-packed escapist romp with Ryan Reynolds effortlessly holding court like he always does.  Anyway … Bay’s latest feels like something else entirely, somehow managing to sit VERY comfortably in the middle ground – once again, it’s big, loud, flashy and DEFINITELY indulgent, but it’s also one of those rare things for a Michael Bay film, because it’s anything but dumb.  Sure, it’s got a REALLY simple premise – veteran marine Will Sharp (Candyman and The Matrix Resurrections’ Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and his dangerous livewire adoptive brother Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal), the sons of a notorious LA bank robber, pull off a spectacular high-stakes daylight heist but are then forced to hijack an ambulance and its inhabitants, skilled but jaded EMT Cam Thompson (From Dusk Till Dawn’s Eiza Gonzalez) and her patient Zach (Mrs Fletcher’s Jackson White), an LAPD patrolman wounded during the robbery, which leads to a crazy cat-and-mouse chase through the streets of Los Angeles – but there’s clearly some real intelligence behind the script.  The plot is surprisingly smart despite its clichéd nature, the characters all impressively written and skilfully developed over the course of the film, and the twists are rewardingly effective when they come.  Sure, Bay keeps throwing the camera around like a lunatic, sometimes chucking in some genuine vertigo-inducing drone shots PURELY because he can, I think, but this time it just seems to ramp up the excitement factor as he does one of the few things he’s always really excelled at – crafting properly BLINDING action sequences – over and over again.  Certainly the second unit and stunt teams really earned the big bucks on this one, every car crash, crazy jump and desperate manoeuvre executed with astonishing precision made all the more impressive because it’s immediately obvious there’s NO CGI AT ALL being used to pull any of this stuff off. Refreshingly, though, Bay doesn’t scrimp on the character work at all here, screenwriter Chris Fedak doing a lot of the heavy-lifting so the uniformly excellent cast can just concentrate on BEING their characters for 2+ hours – Gyllenhaal is a ferocious, tightly-wound force of nature who’s both antihero and antagonist throughout the film, while Abdul-Mateen II is, as usual, electric in every second of his screen time, investing Will with wounded intensity and conflicted complexity as a desperate everyman stuck in this impossible situation because he’s just trying to help his family, and Gonzalez holds her own against these two craft-MASTERS with incredible skill and determination as a world-weary, disillusioned blue collar worker who finally rediscovers the passion she once had for her work under the most extreme circumstances; Garret Dillahunt (Fear the Walking Dead) and Keir O’Donnell (American Sniper), meanwhile, both shine as a winningly spiky odd-couple as LAPD SIS Captain Monroe and FBI special Agent Anson Clark, the polar-opposite cops thrust together in the race to hunt the Sharp Brothers down, and The Walking Dead’s Olivia Stambouliah frequently steals entire scenes with a single withering putdown or quirky aside as LAPD surveillance wizard Lieutenant Dhazghig.  Sure, this ain’t a perfect movie, Bay still not FULLY jettisoning his off-the-wall and rather off-colour sense of humour, which still surfaces in a few scenes, and it’s still VERY overblown, but these are small quibbles when a film is THIS enjoyable, visually impressive, pulse-pumping exciting and truly unforgettable.  Definitely settling into the camp of Bay’s more worthy films, this is another cracker that again proves he’s a director who really can DELIVER when he actually TRIES.

26.  THE CURSED – some of my favourite horror movies are films that snuck in under the radar to become cult hits, or simply stuck to the shadows to become secret weapons of the genre, uncut gems known to a lucky few who always recommend them to likeminded genre fans when they get the chance.  This impressive indie horror from writer-director Sean Ellis (The Broken, Anthropoid) is another great example of this particular phenomenon, and I’m sure it’s destined for some small cult status somewhere down the line. The plot is … STRANGE, but in a very good way, and there’s a lot here that I really shouldn’t give away because it’s better to let you just ease in and discover it on your own - suffice to say, this is an intriguingly offbeat take on the classic werewolf trope, set in late 19th Century France (albeit with a mysterious coda set during World War I’s Battle of the Somme) but shot in England with a largely British cast and thoroughly OOZING with a genuinely palpable doom-laden atmosphere of pregnant dread teeming with hazy mists and overcast skies.  Narcos’ Boyd Holbrook pulls off a surprisingly decent English accent as he smoulders with restrained, broody intensity as John McBride, a haunted pathologist who goes to an isolated French village to investigate a succession of animalistic killings which may be the result of a curse laid upon the community after the brutal eradication of a group of Roma travellers some years before.  There are allusions made to the legendary Beast of Gevaudan throughout, which formed the inspiration for the enjoyably oddball cult classic Brotherhood of the Wolf, but this is a very different breed of horror cinema – moody, understated and deliberately slowburn, parcelling out its scares and impressively visceral violence with cool restraint throughout while building to a feverish climax that brilliantly pays off the groundwork meticulously laid through its two hours, while the inventive use of some very icky physical effects has crafted something pretty unique to this particular sub-genre.   Holdbrook makes for a tragically fallible hero here, while Kelly Reilly brings restrained, wounded classiness to the film as Isabelle, the wife of complicated, brutish landowner Seamus Laurent (a restrained but potent turn from Rogue One’s Alistair Petrie), whose pig-headed short-sightedness seems to have doomed his community, and Amelia Crouch (Kate, The Last Dragonslayer) thoroughly impresses as the Laurents’ daughter Charlotte, whose younger brother Edward (Rocketman’s Max Mackintosh) was the first bitten and therefore first cursed.  Ellis has crafted a magnificently subtle masterpiece of the genre, playing an understated long game that pays off magnificently, and the results are one of the best indie horror movies I’ve come across in years.  I look forward to whatever he does next.

25.  THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN – British-Irish writer-director Martin McDonagh has been drumming up a hell of a fuss with his darkly comic indie cinema for a good while now, exploding on the scene with the delightfully malevolent In Bruges before becoming THE award-season darling when he unleashed the astounding Three Billboards In Ebbing, Missouri on an unsuspecting world. His latest snuck into cinemas with a good deal less fanfare than either of those, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worthy of consideration in the same sentence as those two masterpieces, and it’s certainly due for some major cult classic status since it’s clearly being overlooked.  McDonagh reunites his In Bruges leading double act here, with Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell playing Colm and Padraic, two salt-of-the-earth working men living in the isolated Irish island community of Inisherin in 1923.  For much of their lives, these two have been thick-as-thieves, but then one day Colm inexplicably decides he just doesn’t want to be friends anymore, much to Padraic’s dismay and confusion.  As the latter attempts to find out why and repair whatever the damage actually is, a well of resentment and deep feelings is dug up and brought to light which threatens to turn into pure chaos as the former friends seem set on a path to becoming bitter enemies … as you’d expect from their sheer levels of acting talent, both men are BREATHTAKINGLY exceptional in their roles, their spiky antagonistic chemistry sparking a wealth of potent performance-based fireworks, while McDonagh’s brilliantly acerbic script pops and crackles with pleasing intensity with each increasingly bitter exchange – Gleeson is stoic and gravelly, largely keeping his volcanic eruptions under strict control but you’re always aware that it’s bubbling away just below the surface, while this might be the best performance I’ve EVER seen Farrell deliver, a masterclass in wounded pride and confused bluster as a fussy, fastidious and deeply ordered man whose perfect little world has suddenly been blown apart and he’s thoroughly incapable of piecing it back together.  There’s also excellent support from Better Call Saul’s Kerry Condon as Padraic’s long-suffering sister Siobhan, Dunkirk’s Barry Keoghan as flighty local likely lad Dominic, Gary Lydon as his father, brutish local copper Peadar Kearney, and Garage’s Pat Shortt as Jonjo, the local innkeeper caught in the middle trying to keep the peace.  McDonagh’s crafted another delectable slice of black comedy here, not quite as emotionally weighty as Three Billboards but just as capable at stirring us with its rich character-based turmoil, and he’s once again proved that, with the possible exception of his brother, The Guard and Calvary writer-director John Michael McDonagh, there’s nobody else out there who can deliver low-key indie comedy drama quite like this …

24.  WHITE NOISE – Sneaking in just before the close of the year, this blissfully anarchic social satire-as-subtle screwball comedy from writer-director Noah Baumbach, based on the award-winning breakout novel by Don DeLillo, came as a welcome surprise final salvo at the end of the year just as I was ready to call it a day for my cinematic adventure for 2022.  Once again teaming up with his frequent collaborator and wife Greta Gerwig, Baumbach presents the tale of professor Jack Gladney (Adam Driver), who teaches Hitler Studies at College-On-the-Hill in 1984.  Regarded as something of a mythic rock star by his students and fellow teachers, he’s a subtly charismatic and deeply intellectual man with a fascinating way of speaking, but underneath the visage he’s actually riddled with deep-seated neuroses, hopelessly dependent on the emotional support of his fifth wife Babette (Gerwig), herself on her fourth marriage, who helps him raise their four-strong gaggle of kids born through their various marriages.  He’s on the verge of a particularly significant academic milestone when their collective lives are thrown into utter upheaval after a nearby freight-train crash leads to a dangerous “airborne toxic event” which has everyone in their small town scrambling away in a massive chaotic evacuation, which not only exposes the Gladney family as a whole to the inherently mad nature of humanity in a crisis but also polarises previously unresolved feelings between Jack and Babette as a startling hidden truth is laid bare.  Baumbach’s always been a delicately mischievous filmmaker, crafting subtly observant cinema about oddball people stretched far beyond their comfort zone in the likes of The Squid & the Whale, Frances Ha and Greenberg, but this really feels like the first time he’s really let his own inherently satirical grasp of the absurd have free rein outside his co-writing collaborations with Wes Anderson on The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou and Fantastic Mr Fox, and as a result this is definitely a film I myself can get into much more easily (really, I liked his previous stuff, but THIS is the first one where I’ve genuinely FALLEN IN LOVE with his work). He’s certainly helped on his way by a uniformly game cast, Driver dominating the film as a wonderfully puffed-up self-important self-promoter who thinks he’s a legend and is gradually informed by the events of the story that he is, in fact, just as insignificant as the rest of us, while Gerwig is about as on-fire as I’ve ever seen her, investing “Baba” with a slightly scattered deer-in-the-headlights sense of well-hidden desperation that adds in intriguing edge to her interactions with Driver; Tomorrowland and The Killing of a Sacred Deer’s Raffey Cassidy, meanwhile, is an understated GEM as Babette’s unshakably determined daughter Denise, as is Sam Nivola as Jack’s precociously intelligent son Heinrich, Don Cheadle is quietly masterful as Jack’s fellow professor and best friend Murray Siskind, who teaches about “living idols” through his courses on American culture, and High Life’s Lars Eidinger shines as a seriously baked intellectual drug dealer who drops some bizarre wisdom in the final act.  This is a wonderfully off-the-wall piece of highly nostalgic social satire which is as nourishing to the mind as it is to the funny bone, and Baumbach deserves to be proud of his achievements here.  Ignore the clueless critics – this is a GREAT MOVIE! I’m certainly intrigued to see what he and Gerwig deliver next Barbie arrives …

23.  BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER – It’s a telling state of affairs for the MCU that, while the first standalone vehicle for the late Chadwick Boseman’s most famous role was a triumphant milestone not only for the franchise but for cinema in general, and a genuinely GREAT superhero movie in its own right too, this follow-up, while entertaining enough to warrant its place on this list, is an ultimately comparatively underwhelming piece of work which seems far too concerned about being WOKE to truly deliver on the franchise’s long-running inherent promise of escapist superhero blockbuster thrills.  Granted, the film had a tough uphill battle to fight even before it was started, since the death of Boseman left Marvel in a very tricky position with a genuine cinematic Sophie’s Choice to make – recast the role and run the risk of appearing unsympathetic over the star’s loss, or simply kill off the character of King T’Challa and then work out how to address his absence in the subsequent story.  In the end Kevin Feige and the others chose the latter, and in a way this is the right call, but it still gave them a hell of a tricky hurdle to navigate going forward, and while the film does an admittedly beautiful job of laying both T’Challa and Boseman to rest with dignity, it also creates a tricky tightrope trick that the film only PARTIALLY manages to pull off.  Like many of the other MCU movies, the less actually given away about the plot the better, but there are points that need to be addressed here, so I’ll try my best to do it concisely and with respect.  First of all, the gap Boseman left behind just CAN’T be filled, and where they ultimately went trying was probably NOT the right one, even if it did make the most narrative sense – Letitia Wright’s Shuri was an absolute SWEETHEART in the original film, it was the best thing about her, and while she’s a phenomenal actress the character just DOESN’T WORK spending most of the film ANGRY.  Personally, I think Danai Gurira’s magnificent Okoye or, even better, Lupita Nyong’o’s frustratingly underused Nakia would have been better choices to ultimately succeed T’Challa as the new Black Panther, but in the end you can KIND OF see why they went there; as a result, the introduction of a particular new possibility in the mid-credits cutscene was a particularly frustrating move since it essentially undermines all the work the filmmakers did to convince you beforehand.  And then there’s the villain … oh boy.  Okay, Namor is a pretty fascinating character, and the way he’s introduced and portrayed is BRILLIANT, Tenoch Huerta Mejia (The Forever Purge, Narcos: Mexico) is phenomenal and intense and chilling as the superhuman mutant warrior protecting his aquatic Mayan civilisation of Talokan, but in the end he’s just TOO sympathetic, coming across as a bit of a retread of Kilmonger when the story really calls for a more straightforward BOO HISS Big Bad to give Shuri’s struggles more weight than just one anti-coloniser nation inexplicably being turned against another that’s a little too much like itself. Granted, I understand that this was KIND OF THE POINT here and that it sets things up for darker developments later on in the franchise narrative, but maybe this wasn’t really the right time and place.  Worst of all, though, is the introduction of Riri Williams (Judas & the Black Messiah’s Dominique Thorne) – yeah, I get that Marvel wanted to introduce Ironheart ahead of Armor Wars, and she’s a good character played very well, but she really doesn’t bring ANYTHING to the film beyond a convenient plot point that could have been more effectively brought home with a story-specific character.  So yeah, the film has its flaws, and don’t get me started on that frustrating damp squib of an attempt at a big all-action climax … but when it works it’s still REALLY GOOD, very much the well-oiled, precision-crafted top-notch work we’ve come to expect from the MCU.  Thankfully it works OFTEN ENOUGH to be worthy of it’s place here – the rest of the action is THRILLING, especially a pulse-pounding city chase to rival the first movie’s Busan sequence and the fight that follows when the Submariners are first properly revealed in all their creepy glory, the emotional heavy lifting is executed with respect and delivered with suitable power and gravitas, and the cast are very much ON FORM, particularly Wright, Gurira, Mejia, Winston Duke, once again returning as deserved fan-favourite M’Baku, and the always magnificent Angela Bassett as Wakanda’s grieving, embattled queen Ramonda. Once again Ryan Coogler shows he’s a director of impressive vision and commanding attention to detail, and he’s certainly got a strong grasp on the characters, who are still as well-rounded and convincing as they were in his previous outing … it’s just a shame he couldn’t quite pull off the sheer, unfettered level of GENIUS he managed with the first Black Panther.  Ultimately it’s another sign the franchise is starting to flounder, and while they’re still delivering good product they really need to get back on course before the whole thing comes off the rails entirely …

22.  BELLE – Yeah!  Finally!  After one long-arse wait, I FINALLY got to see the latest from one of my favourite anime directors, Mamoru Hosoda, creator of such gems as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Wolf Children, The Boy & the Beast and Mirai, which have come DAMN CLOSE INDEED to equalling the dizzying heights of Studio Ghibli and the godfather of anime himself, Hayao Miyazaki.  This is another solid gold feather in his cap, a stone-cold masterpiece of the art form that has also, interestingly, forged some intriguing new ground for anime in general, specifically through the integration of fascinating new design ideas and sensibilities from up-and-coming Disney animator and character designer Jin Kim (Tangled, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, Over the Moon, Raya & the Last Dragon, Encanto) in the creation of the film’s spellbinding virtual online metaverse of U (an intriguingly magnificent improvement on Summer Wars’ already impressive OZ).  The story revolves around Suzu (Kaho Nakamura in the original Japanese version and Kylie McNeill in the English dub), a timid, stage-fright-riddled teenage girl who nonetheless has a beautiful singing voice and a wildly imaginative talent for writing songs, who finally finds a means to unleash her talents anonymously through her online persona of Belle, who becomes a massive international sensation in U.  Then the emergence of a strange, incredibly disruptive beastly monster, the Dragon (Kamen Rider Den-O and Rurouni Kenshin’s Takeru Satoh and Paul Castro Jr), throws a major spanner in the works, but Suzu slowly realises there’s more to this misanthropic persona than meets the eye, and as she tries to get to the heart of his mystery she’s led to face some hard truths about herself and finally find a reason to grow up and come out of her shell once and for all … this is one of the most beautiful, compelling and EMOTIONALLY DEVASTATING animated features I have EVER SEEN, Hosoda once again proving he’s an undeniable master at tugging our heartstrings to thoroughly ruinous effect even as he’s effortlessly lifting our spirits, and the story here is one that seems precision-crafted to hit us all RIGHT IN THE FEELS while saying intriguing things about the paradoxical nature of fame in a world of all-encompassing social media.  Then of course there’s the soundtrack … OH MY FUCKING GOD what a soundtrack, the music is ASTOUNDING, Suzu/Belle’s songs just fire a flaming arrow RIGHT THROUGH YOUR HEART every time she starts singing, but ESPECIALLY in the film’s powerful climax.  Okay, so since I saw the English dub I ONLY actually know that version, as performed by newcomer Kylie McNeill, but if the Japanese is ANYTHING LIKE as beautiful (which I’m sure it is) then it’s gotta be something truly special.  Once again Hosoda has proven he really is one of the best filmmaking talents operating in anime today, and that if ANYONE could someday succeed the mighty Miyazaki as the new godfather then it’s GOTTA be him …

21.  THE GRAY MAN – Netflix ALWAYS seems happy to give us something heavyweight and undeniably fun to enjoy in the summer blockbuster season, and this is certainly one of their most ambitious offerings to date.  Seriously, they genuinely went ALL OUT with this one, poaching the Russo Brothers from the MCU after their ASTOUNDING tours of duty on two Captain America pictures AND the Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame double feature, as well as their 2020 gig writing and producing Netflix’ similarly impressive Chris Hemsworth action-vehicle Extraction.  Certainly you can see a lot of their strong connective tissue from those previous efforts to this hefty piece of work, which is an action cinema fan’s WET DREAM, but available to stream instead of showing on the big screen where it REALLY belongs … anyway, the Brothers have ONCE AGAIN teamed up with their favourite leading man Chris Evans, who this time gets to flex his frustratingly rarely-exercised BAD GUY muscles as gleefully narcissistic psychopath-for-hire Lloyd Hansen, the flamboyantly reptilian ex-CIA operative brought back into the fold to hunt down the film’s titular hero, a former convict-turned-CIA assassin known simply as Sierra Six (Ryan Gosling) who’s jumped the reservation after being tricked by corrupt Agency honcho Carmichael (Bridgerton’s Regé-Jean Page) into taking out his contemporary, Sierra Four (Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s Callan Mulvey).  Hansen immediately abducts Six’ retired handler and friend Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton) and his ailing daughter Claire (Once Upon a Time In Hollywood’s Julia Butters), the only two people in the world Six has left that he cares about, prompting the rogue agent to go on the warpath, leading Six and Hansen into a headlong clash of wills set to bury half of Europe in chaos.  This movie is EXACTLY what you’d expect from the Russos and Netflix – over two hours of blisteringly explosive and highly imaginative action and breathless plotting, dynamically shot by cinematographer Stephen F. Windon (Justin Lin’s regular collaborator on most of the Fast & Furious movies AND Star Trek Beyond) and scripted to within an inch of its life by Joe Russo and his regular co-writers Christopher Marcus and Stephen McFeely with an equal eye on overblown spectacle and sly humour that perfectly fits the film’s inherent ridiculousness.  The cast are certainly equal to the task – Thornton hasn’t had a role this great is AGES, he’s clearly having a blast in every one of his scenes, while Butters is incredibly endearing, and there’s further strong female presence in Gosling’s Blade Runner 2049 co-star Ana Di Armas as Dani Miranda, the operative that circumstance forces Six to team up with, and Iron Fist’s Jessica Henwick as Suzanne Brewer, Carmichael’s colleague who’s sent to try (and spectacularly fail) to keep Hansen under control, as well as a typically strong turn from Alfre Woodard as retired CIA bigshot Margaret Cahill, and Page makes for an enjoyably slimy, self-important Big Bad behind the scenes; of course the film really belongs to its two heavyweight leads – Gosling is an understated joy, bringing his laconic subtlety to bear to great effect as he matches Evans scene-for-scene while the ubiquitous former Marvel veteran has a whale of a time cutting loose without restraint in a blissfully unhinged turn that’s about as far removed from Steve Rogers as he could possibly get (I suspect he’s been waiting YEARS for a role where he could just UNLEASH like this, he’s clearly just having TOO MUCH fun).  Altogether this is about as perfect an action-fest as you could ask for in the summer blockbuster months, the Russo Brothers again proving they’re two undeniable MASTERS of the genre; thrilling, spectacular and unapologetically SILLY, and my one and only gripe about it would be that it really was a shame I didn’t get to enjoy it on the big screen.  WHERE IT REALLY BELONGS …

Ambulance (2022)

Is it just me or was every character exponentially stupid?

Danny. That's all there is to say about him.

Will. Well. . . That's all there is to say about him.

Why did the big viking guy have to die? He was so big.

They should've called this Drone Shots: Ambulance. They put in so many drone shots that served no purpose but to extend the running time of this movie.

BEHIND THE SCENES:

Editor: Hey we have a surplus of drone footage and most of it is just sweeping shots that has no regular or steady cam matching shot.

Director: Well, we shot it so put it in.

Editor: Did you have a specific shot in mind?

Director: All of it. Put all the drone shots in.

Editor: I'll do my best.

It was quite annoying to have this cool sweeping shot that then hard cuts to another shot that has no correlation to the sweeping shot. It was dizzying.

A better ending would be if she was walking off into college. This ordeal gave her the courage to go back to school.

All that said I will be watching this movie 8 more times and probably big chunks of it when it makes its way to cable.

Jake Gyllenhaal as DANNY SHARP  AMBULANCE (2022) dir. Michael Bay

Jake Gyllenhaal as Danny Sharp in AMBULANCE (2022).

GUYS THIS IS SO RECENT!

Sir looking so fineeee 😫😫🤤🤤 no fr he looks so good!! 😍

Ambulance (2022)

i’m going into cardiac arrest what the actual shit.

Movies of 2022 - My Pre-Summer Rundown (Part 2)

The Top Ten:

10.  THE 355 – my cinematic year kicked off in what I thought was thoroughly fine style with a rip-roaring, star-studded spy thriller which was clearly intended to start a franchise which I’d totally be up for since it’s everything I love to watch – hard-hitting, visceral action pinned to a genuinely compelling plot powered by a quintet of strong women who take on a patriarchal establishment and beat it at its own game.  Clearly it wanted to shake-up the status quo and as far as I’m concerned it pulled it off in fine style  … NO WONDER, then, that it’s been (largely) roundly reviled by critics and tanked at the box office, much as previous attempts for similar ends such as the intended Ghostbusters and Charlie’s Angels reboots did a few years back. I thought we’d gotten over this, guys! Come on … it’s a criminal shame, because this is SUCH great movie.  Jessica Chastain heads the cast as tough-as-nails CIA operative “Mace” Browne, out for blood after a botched operation in Paris to acquire a potentially devastating piece of terrorist-tech results in the death of her partner and friend Nick Fowler (Sebastian Stan).  Given a second chance at tracking down the device, things get complicated when a clandestine conspiracy is revealed and Mace is forced to team up with retired MI6 officer Khadijah Adiyeme (Lupita Nyong’o), rival German BND operative Marie Schmidt (Dianna Kruger), Colombian DNI analyst and psychologist Graciela Rivera (Penelope Cruz) and Chinese MSS agent Lin Mi Sheng (X-Men: Days of Future Past’s Fan Bingbing) to beat the bad guys and clear their names after they’re all framed as terrorists themselves.  All five of the film’s badass leading ladies have been given impressively memorable and thoroughly well-written characters with plenty of potential for growth and character development not only throughout this film but in what now looks like an extremely unlikely franchise future (even Fan who, despite coming into the action quite late, immediately makes QUITE the impression and builds on that groundwork admirably throughout the latter half of the film); similarly, Stan once again proves what a mighty screen talent he is, while there’s an enjoyably reptilian turn from Jason Flemyng as the film’s Big Bad, international crime boss Elijah Clarke.  While this was advertised as a relentlessly-paced, breakneck thrill ride, the action quota is actually somewhat more restrained here than on some of its more established peer franchises (like Bond and Mission: Impossible), but what IS on offer is, correctly, very much in service to the intelligently written story, and the film certainly doesn’t scrimp on the thrills when it DOES decide to get our adrenaline pumping, delivering some suitably robust set-pieces that punctuate rather than drive the agreeably pacy plot.  Former X-Men writer Simon Kinberg acquits himself admirably here, but like his previous crack at directing it really is starting to look like Hollywood just has it out for him, since Dark Phoenix ALSO got a critical and release-debacle-based financial mauling it really DIDN’T deserve.  This is a cracking spy thriller with a killer premise and exceptional cast of characters which deserves far more respect than it's received – altogether this is a film which needs a SERIOUS reappraisal.  Give it a chance, guys, it REALLY needs it …

9.  NIGHTMARE ALLEY – Guillermo del Toro is one of my favourite filmmakers of all time, and one of the things I love most about him is his innate understanding of the inherent truths about the cinematic monsters he frequently portrays in his works. Some of his most interesting thematic material comes when he examines the horrors that his NON-supernatural characters are capable of, but until now the only time he’s genuinely FOCUSED on inherently human monsters was in 2015’s Crimson Peak – sure, it had proper ghosts in it, but the actual threat was very much from the film’s living, breathing flesh-and-blood characters.  His latest offering has embraced this principle to a far greater degree as he adapts William Lindsay Gresham’s none-more-dark novel about morally grey grifters and carnival sideshow charlatans in World War II America, Bradley Cooper delivering what might be a career best turn as voraciously ambitious and inherently talented con-artist Stan Carlisle, who rises through the ranks working the sideshow acts in a lowly travelling carnival before finally striking it big when he goes it alone in a one-man psychic act in Buffalo, New York, with the increasingly reluctant help of his disillusioned girlfriend Molly Cahill (Rooney Mara).  When he comes to the attention of influential high-society psychologist Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), she opens the door to a business opportunity which has the potential for MASSIVE financial rewards, but also a truly ruinous fall from grace if Carlisle doesn’t play it JUST RIGHT … del Toro’s always has some pretty palpable darkness in his movies, but he’s never tackled subject matter so genuinely jet black in its pitch before, the film wallowing in some seriously murky waters as we follow an already morally questionable protagonist as he digs down into the most thoroughly reprehensible depths of his own meagre soul, as well as the heart of an uncaring society as irredeemable corrupt as he’s in danger of becoming.  This is NOT an easy film to watch, several times testing the resolve of even the strongest viewers, but the rewards on offer for sticking with it are vast – this is another gold-plated work of art from an immensely talented filmmaker at the very height of his game, and it deserves all of the Oscar buzz it got, even if it ultimately missed out on that coveted Best Picture gong (much as del Toro was snubbed for a directing nomination this time round).  Cooper is a genuine revelation here, suitably seductive but still thoroughly slimy as an already shady guy who becomes progressively worse as his success grows, while Rooney’s definitely the only true bright light in the cast as the sweet innocent he takes for a ride who ultimately gets wise just a little too late; Willem Dafoe once again piles on the creepiness as suitably unpleasant geek show barker Clem, while Toni Collette and David Strathairn are both excellent as Zeena and Pete Krumbein, the fading psychic sideshow act that teach Carlisle his craft, and Del Toro’s The Shape of Water star Richard Jenkins is far more complex than he first seems as Ezra Grindle, the potentially lethal mark that he underestimates to such dangerous degrees.  The REAL standout star of the film, however, is Blanchett, who captivates and repulses in equal measure as an ice-cold psychopath who deserves to go down as one of the all-time great femme fatales of cinema.  This is DEFINITELY going to be the year’s darkest film, I don’t see ANYTHING unseating it from this dubious honour, but it’s also an immensely rewarding viewing experience, incredibly intelligent, breathlessly edgy and unbelievably tense from its creepy opening to its ruinous ending, and every inch as surprisingly seductive as its untrustworthy lead character, the truest film noir to come along in a very long time indeed …

8.  AMBULANCE – Michael Bay’s cinematic output in the last ten years in particular has been very interesting.  It’s like he’s going through phases as he’s trying to work out how he wants to go forward as his style “matures” – 2013’s Pain & Gain was, like all his previous output, big, loud and definitely flashy in the most indulgent way, but it also had something somewhat serious to say, given its origins as an (admittedly genuinely BONKERS) actual TRUE STORY.  Then came the fourth Transformers film, Age of Extinction, widely regarded as THE VERY WORST of the bunch, and rightly so.  But then he turned right round and did something COMPLETELY SERIOUS when he tackled a much less OTT but far more emotionally charged and potent true story in 13 Hours: the Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, which is a genuinely masterful piece of work which I personally regard as his VERY BEST FILM. Then he went and did ANOTHER Transformers movie with The Last Knight, which was more of the same – juvenile, disjointed in plot and narrative and pure over-the-top indulgence – and yet, somehow, it was just a little bit BETTER than much of what had come before all the same (actually getting close to the quality of his first, still BEST, instalment).  Most recently he went to Netflix to create something which was clearly always INTENDED to be over-the-top and indulgent, but this time saw him actually getting it RIGHT, like he did on The Rock – 6 Underground, a thoroughly enjoyable action-packed escapist romp with Ryan Reynolds effortlessly holding court like he always does.  Anyway … Bay’s latest feels like something else entirely, somehow managing to sit VERY comfortably in the middle ground – once again, it’s big, loud, flashy and DEFINITELY indulgent, but it’s also one of those rare things for a Michael Bay film, because it’s anything but dumb.  Sure, it’s got a REALLY simple premise – veteran marine Will Sharp (Candyman and The Matrix Resurrections’ Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and his dangerous livewire adoptive brother Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal), the sons of a notorious LA bank robber, pull off a spectacular high-stakes daylight heist but are then forced to hijack an ambulance and its inhabitants, skilled but jaded EMT Cam Thompson (From Dusk Till Dawn’s Eiza Gonzalez) and her patient Zach (Mrs Fletcher’s Jackson White), an LAPD patrolman wounded during the robbery, which leads to a crazy cat-and-mouse chase through the streets of Los Angeles – but there’s clearly some real intelligence behind the script.  The plot is surprisingly smart despite it clichéd nature, the characters all impressively well-written and skilfully developed over the course of the film, and the twists are rewardingly effective when they come.  Sure, Bay keeps throwing the camera around like a lunatic, sometimes chucking in some genuine vertigo-inducing drone shots PURELY because he can, I think, but this time it just seems to ramp up the excitement factor as he does one of the few things he’s always really excelled at – crafting properly BLINDING action sequences – over and over again.  Certainly the second unit and stunt teams really earned the big bucks on this one, every car crash, crazy jump and desperate manoeuvre executed with astonishing precision made all the more impressive because it’s immediately obvious that there’s NO CGI AT ALL being used to pull any of this stuff off.  Refreshingly, though, Bay doesn’t scrimp on the character work at all here, screenwriter Chris Fedak’s impressive work doing a lot of the heavy-lifting so the uniformly excellent cast can just concentrate on BEING their characters for 2+ hours – Gyllenhaal is a ferocious, tightly-wound force of nature who’s both antihero and antagonist throughout the film, while Abdul-Mateen II is, as usual, electric in every second of his screen time, investing Will with wounded intensity and conflicted complexity as a desperate everyman stuck in this impossible situation because he’s just trying to help his family, and Gonzalez holds her own against these two craft-MASTERS with incredible skill and determination as a world-weary, disillusioned blue collar worker who finally rediscovers the passion she once had for her work under the most extreme circumstances; Garret Dillahunt (Fear the Walking Dead) and Keir O’Donnell (American Sniper), meanwhile, both shine as a winningly spiky odd-couple as LAPD SIS Captain Monroe and FBI special Agent Anson Clark, the polar-opposite cops thrust together in the race to hunt the Sharp Brothers down, and The Walking Dead’s Olivia Stambouliah frequently steals entire scenes with a single withering putdown or quirky aside as LAPD surveillance wizard Lieutenant Dhazghig.  Sure, this ain’t a perfect movie, Bay still not FULLY jettisoning his off-the-wall and rather off-colour sense of humour, which still surfaces in a few scenes, and it’s still VERY overblown, but these are small quibbles when a film is THIS enjoyable, visually impressive, pulse-pumping exciting and truly unforgettable. Definitely leaning into the camp of Bay’s more worthy films, this is another cracker that once again proves he’s a director who really can DELIVER when he actually TRIES.

7.  THE CURSED – some of my favourite horror movies are films that snuck in under the radar to become cult hits, or simply stuck to the shadows to become secret weapons of the genre, uncut gems known to a lucky few who always recommend them to likeminded genre fans when they get the chance.  This immensely impressive indie horror from writer-director Sean Ellis (The Broken, Anthropoid) is another great example of this particular phenomenon, and I’m sure it’s destined for some small cult status somewhere down the line.  The plot is … STRANGE, but in a very good way, and there’s a lot here that I really shouldn’t give away because it’s better to let you just ease in and discover it on your own - suffice to say, this is an intriguingly offbeat take on the classic werewolf trope, set in late 19th Century France (albeit with a mysterious coda set during World War I’s Battle of the Somme) but shot in England with a largely British cast and thoroughly OOZING with a genuinely palpable doom-laden atmosphere of pregnant dread teeming with hazy mists and overcast skies.  Narcos’ Boyd Holbrook pulls off a surprisingly decent English accent as he smoulders with restrained, broody intensity as John McBride, a haunted pathologist who goes to an isolated French village to investigate a succession of animalistic killings which may be the result of a curse laid upon the community after the brutal eradication of a group of Roma travellers some years before.  There are allusions made to the legendary Beast of Gevaudan throughout, which formed the inspiration for the enjoyably oddball cult classic Brotherhood of the Wolf, but this is a very different breed of horror cinema – moody, understated and deliberately slowburn, parcelling out its scares and impressively visceral violence with cool restraint throughout while building to a feverish climax that brilliantly pays off the groundwork meticulously laid through its two hours, while the inventive use of some very icky physical effects has crafted something pretty unique to this particular sub-genre.   Holdbrook makes for a tragically fallible hero here, while Kelly Reilly brings restrained, wounded classiness to the film as Isabelle, the wife of complicated, brutish landowner Seamus Laurent (a restrained but potent turn from Rogue One’s Alistair Petrie), whose pig-headed short-sightedness seems to have doomed his community, and Amelia Crouch (Kate, The Last Dragonslayer) thoroughly impresses as the Laurents’ daughter Charlotte, whose younger brother Edward (Rocketman’s Max Mackintosh) was the first bitten and therefore first cursed.  Ellis has crafted a magnificently subtle masterpiece of the genre, playing an understated long game that pays off magnificently, and what resulted is one of the best indie horror movies I’ve come across in years.  I look forward to whatever he does next.

6.  THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH – this adaptation of one of my very favourite William Shakespeare plays is a particularly notable milestone in cinematic history, because for the very first time, writer-director Joel Coen has made a feature film without his ubiquitous filmmaker brother Ethan having anything to do with the project.  That being said, Joel’s always been such a dominant force on the DIRECTING side of the Coen Brother’s output that, if you didn’t know this, you’d never know Ethan was absent on this one, because it’s still EVERY INCH a Coen film.  It’s also Denzel Washington’s first time working for either Brother, but he’s SO magnificent as one of the greatest fictional villains OF ALL TIME that you won’t have any idea WHY they never worked together before.  He’s absolutely MESMERISING as Macbeth, the doom-courting Thane of Cawdor, who decides to murder his way to the throne of Medieval Scotland after receiving a very tempting prophecy from a trio of creepy-ass witches right after a decisive battle sees him get one hell of a royal promotion – Washington sizzles and sears in every scene, whether he’s smouldering with pregnant understated menace or exploding with un-righteous fury as Macbeth is haunted by gruesome ghosts or egged on by his scheming, ambitious wife.  Coen-regular Frances McDormand matches him in every scene as the DEFINITIVE Lady Macbeth, particular as she crumbles spectacularly once the guilt of what they’ve done starts to weigh her down; Brendan Gleeson is typically grand yet cuddly as ineffectual ill-fated King Duncan, while Harry Potter star Harry Melling continues to prove that he's grown up into a truly DYNAMITE star-in-the-making as his untested but prematurely put-upon son Malcolm, The Boys’ Alex Hassell is obsequious but complex as duplicitous young nobleman Ross, and Straight Outta Compton’s Corey Hawkins makes for a suitably strapping and dynamic Macduff (ALWAYS my favourite character in the play and EVERY adaptation). Joel Coen has once again dropped a blinder on us, solo-effort or not, making Sakespeare’s text breathe in fresh and interesting ways while he weaves a beautifully bleak and haunted visual spell, unleashing compositions on us that recall the subtly unsettling weird mundanity of American Gothic art or the surreality of German expressionist cinema, especially in the film’s very unusual interpretation of the supernatural, as well as framing the story’s bloody and decidedly non-glamorous violence with an almost clinical detachment which perfectly complements the gorgeously stylised world he’s built, all of it topped off with an unsettlingly lowkey atmospheric score from regular Coen collaborator Carter Burwell.  Thoroughly deserving all the immense acclaim it’s had heaped upon it, this has definitely proven to be one of the year’s early surprises and one of its most downright exquisite works of art (so far).  Most important of all, though, Joel’s taken what’s always been a definitive Shakespearean villain and turned him into one of the all-time GREAT Coen protagonists ...

5.  BELFAST – Kenneth Brannagh’s an interesting duck.  As an actor, I love his work, he’s consistently impressed me over the years, blowing me away with some truly spectacular performances, whether in his favoured territory (essaying Shakespeare) or doing something fun and different (such as The Road to El Dorado), or even just providing some solid support to other stars in a smaller role (Dunkirk instantly springs to mind); as a director, on the other hand … yeah, the results have been mixed at best.  For every masterpiece like Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Thor or Murder On the Orient Express, he’s also brought us dreck like Dead Again, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or (gods help us) Artemis Fowl, and a fair amount in the middle ground that’s either kinda meh or actually not too bad if you just go with it (Hamlet, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit and Peter’s Friends are certainly ones I actually kinda liked).  Approaching a new release, therefore, is always a trepidatious business, you never know what you’re gonna get … so you can probably imagine my surprise when his OTHER latest offering (JUST preceding the aforementioned Death On the Nile) ACTUALLY turned out to be the very best feature I’ve ever seen from him.  Then again, this is BY FAR his most personal film to date, Brannagh going RIGHT back to his roots with a semi-autobiographical story which is HEAVILY based on his own personal experiences as a boy growing up in the titular city in Ireland at the height of the Troubles, specifically during the August Riots of 1969.  The film is told largely from the point of view of nine year-old Buddy (newcomer Jude Hill), the younger son of a small working class family living on a mixed denomination street, who find themselves in the middle of a powder-keg when anti-Catholic resentment starts to boil over in their neighbourhood.  His dreamer “Pa” (Jamie Dornan) is looking at the possibility of a brighter future for him and his family if they move abroad to greener pastures, but forceful and pragmatic “Ma” (The Beauty Inside and Ford V Ferrari’s Catriona Balfe) just wants to stay put, and both are forced to make hard choices that directly affect the family’s future as the Troubles start to impact their lives as a whole.  Dornan and Balfe are both exceptional throughout, Balfe in particularly shouldering a lot of the film’s heavy lifting with spectacular skill and undeniable talent, while Dame Judi Dench and Ciaran Hinds warm our cockles and pluck at our heartstrings in equal measure as Buddy’s grandparents, two people who are clearly still deeply in love even in the twilight of their time together, and Merlin’s Colin Morgan brings a charged menace to proceedings as the film’s nominal villain, Billy Clanton, an up-and-comer in the local sectarian movement who wants Pa to join The Cause.  Buddy’s the undeniable beating heart of the film, though, Hill instantly showing he’s gonna be a star in the future as he essentially brings a young Brannagh to life, a deeply imaginative boy who loves movies and science fiction (especially Star Trek) but is struggling to find his place in the world and what’s going on around him.  The director shows as much skill with his writing as he does behind the camera, weaving a compellingly rich tapestry out of a deceptively simple storyline and bringing some genuinely palpable, fully realised characters to vital breathing life (although I guess he had STRONG inspiration to draw from), as well as paying frequent, loving respect to all the massive influences he’s drawn from over the years, from the films he grew up with (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and One Million Years BC among others) to the music his parents taught him to love.  The resulting film is a powerful and rewarding viewing experience, a clear labour of love which is equal parts dramatic, moving, heart-breaking, warmly funny and deeply inspiring.  Brannagh wins our hearts by wearing his on his sleeve.

4.  KIMI – we were already getting movies about the COVID outbreak and the resulting chaos that the Pandemic’s wrought upon us around the world as early as late 2020, but for the most part it’s largely been small, under-the-radar indie stuff.  Now we’re starting to get BIG stuff, and the latest from Steven Soderbergh is one of the most impressive offerings I’ve seen to date.  Written by thriller cinema extraordinaire David Koepp (Carlito’s Way, Panic Room, Stir of Echoes), this is a spectacularly taut and blissfully streamlined suspense thriller that not only brings the impact of the Pandemic into sharp perspective, but also our growing overreliance on smart device technology and social media – altogether then, fertile ground for a socially-conscious filmmaker like Soderbergh, who essentially PREDICTED all the shit COVID just put us through with 2011’s terrifyingly prescient outbreak-thriller Contagion. The Kimi of the title is the latest creation of the film’s fictional tech conglomerate Amygdala and its visionary CEO Bradley Hasling (Derek DelGaudio), an all-encompassing smart speaker which revolutionises the technology by taking the potentially controversial step of having live human moderators overseeing its operation instead of AI in order to cut down on potential voice recognition-based cock-ups. The film’s main narrative focuses on one of these moderators, Angela Childs (Zoe Kravitz), whose long-standing social anxiety and agoraphobia have been immensely exacerbated by lockdown to the detriment of many aspects of her life.  Then one day, a routine review of some of her daily moderations uncovers something deeply disturbing – what sounds to her VERY MUCH like a break-in and the murder of a Kimi owner.  Under pressure from Amygdala to bury the information but driven by her own conscience and personal trauma from a similar incident, Angela decides to take matters into her own hands instead … this might be the best performance I’ve EVER seen Kravitz deliver (which is definitely saying something when we just saw her PERFECTLY embody one of my favourite comic book characters of all time), as she invests Angela with twitchy awkwardness but also fierce, unshakeable determination when faced with truly insurmountable obstacles, creating one of the most refreshingly compelling and resourceful lead protagonists I’ve come across in cinema so far this year, and since big chunks of the film are a one-woman show with many of her interactions with other characters playing out through phones and computer screens, this means she largely DOMINATES the film. That’s not to say there aren’t other great performances in this – DelGaudio does a lot with quite a small part, while there are excellent turns from Byron Bowers (The Chi, Honey Boy) as Angela’s occasional casual friend-with-benefits, Terry, who wants to become something more to her, Devin Ratray (Blue Ruin, The Tick) as Kevin, a fellow shut-in neighbour, and Rita Wilson (Runaway Bride, The Good Wife) as Natalie Chowdury, an executive with Amygdala to whom Angela attempts to blow the whistle on her findings.  Soderberg and Koepp have crafted a spectacularly suspenseful thriller which expertly ratchets up the atmospheric dread of Angela’s situation from the slowburn scene-setting start to the fraught and harrowing climax, the film’s determination to keep its focus squarely on Angela meaning that we’re right there in the thick of it with her throughout all her anxiety, paranoia, terror and downright feral fight for life.  The end result’s one of the best films either Soderbergh OR Koepp have delivered in a good while, and definitely the year’s top big screen thriller (so far, anyway).  Not bad for something which was inspired by and executed entirely in the midst of COVID.

3. TURNING RED – Disney/Pixar’s latest offering is also one of the most deeply personal films they’ve ever produced, with writer-director Domee Shi (who made the spell-binding and evocative Pixar short Bao) making a hell of a splash as the first woman EVER to land a solo direction credit on a Pixar feature with what’s essentially a fictionalised account of her own experiences as a teenage girl growing up in Toronto, Canada.  The result is a film which feels far more emotionally truthful and infinitely resonant that ANYTHING I’ve ever seen EITHER studio deliver before, perfectly encapsulating what it must have felt like to be a 13-year-old girl in 2002 (while I am mostly of the other gender, I too was once 13 and VERY unsure of myself, so I remember only too well how unbearably hard, hectic and downright UNWIELDY that part of my life could feel at times).  The 13 year-old girl in question here is Mei Lee (a DEEPLY affecting performance from newcomer Rosalie Chiang), the only child of a Chinese couple in Toronto who run their family’s temple, which is dedicated to their ancestor Sun Yee, a powerful sorceress who once harnessed the spiritual power of the red panda in order to protect her daughters.  For much of her life Mei has put her own personal feelings on hold to be everything her overbearing mother Ming (Sandra Oh, once again putting in a palpable turn full of deep heart, soul and frequent observational comic GOLD) wants her to become, and she’s become a straight-A student because of it, but as she starts to grow up she’s discovering there’s more to life than just good grades.  Specifically 4*Town, a five-man boyband (yeah, I know) that Mei and her three girlfriends – confident tomboy Miriam (newcomer Ava Morse), stoic and deadpan Priya (Never Have I Ever’s Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) and diminutively hyperactive bundle of barely-contained-malevolent-energy Abby (newcomer Hyein Park) are thoroughly obsessed with, who the quartet discover are coming to play a concert in Toronto … JUST as something awakens in Mei, and she suddenly finds herself stricken by a deeply strange supernatural affliction – specifically, whenever her emotions run out of control, she turns into a giant red panda.  She’s told that her family can perform a ritual to help her remove the panda spirit (which turns out to be on THE SAME NIGHT as 4*Town’s performance), but in the meantime she must learn to control and restrain the panda or it’ll be that much harder to exorcise.  But as the concert approaches, Mei and her friends hit upon a unique solution to help them earn the money for four tickets in time, which utilises the panda’s runaway cute factor and makes Mei realise that maybe she doesn’t actually WANT to get rid of this part of herself … there are definitely a lot of interpretations that can be derived from the phenomenon at the heart of the story, but whether it’s about teenage girls first learning to come to terms with a certain feminine bodily function or not, this is THE most powerful and, if I’m honest, downright ENTERTAINING film about growing up as a teenage girl I’ve EVER experienced, a GOOD DEAL better than all those sometimes genuinely vomit-worthy teen comedies and dramas I’ve found largely preferable to avoid over the years.  Of course it definitely helps that ALL the characters are SO well realised, beautifully derived from what are, clearly, Shi’s own friends, family and personal experiences when she was going through (most) of what we’re witnessing here – Mei and her friends are THOROUGHLY lovable (not least Abby, who became one of my VERY FAVOURITE characters of THIS ENTIRE YEAR within a few minutes of us first meeting her), while Ming is the perfect embodiment of helicopter mums the world over, but in particular that specific kind of Asian mother who seems determined that their only child will grow up be something truly exceptional to the exclusion of ALL ELSE, and as a result she’s very nearly the actual VILLAIN of the film but at the same time has clear, strong redeeming features which make us feel very deeply for her.  Shi and co-writer, playwright Julia Cho, have crafted a deeply affecting but also frequently riotously comical, thoroughly chaotic piece of work, injecting plenty of joyful mirth and madness into proceedings to compliment the massive amounts of heart and emotion on display, and the gloriously designed, beautifully realised early Noughties Toronto setting has been lovingly captured through Pixar’s typically rich and lively animation.  Sweet, spicy and perfectly evocative of its subject matter, this is WITHOUT A DOUBT one of the two studios’ finest collaborations to date.  Simply wonderful.

2.  THE NORTHMAN – over the last few years, writer-director Robert Eggers has been getting under our skins to magnificently unpleasant effect through his subtly unsettling arthouse horrors, The Witch and The Lighthouse.  When we heard he had another movie in the works we started preparing ourselves for another skin-crawling mind-troubler of a horror movie, but he’s taken an intriguing leftfield swerve and really surprised us with his third feature, a dark, edgy and subtly fantastical retelling of the legend of Amleth, the Viking prince who became the inspiration for Shakespeare’s Hamlet.  As a boy (played by impressive newcomer Oscar Novak), Amleth witnesses the murder of his father, King Aurvandill (Ethan Hawke), at the hands of his uncle Fjölnir (The Square and Dracula’s Claes Bang), who then usurps the throne intended for Amleth and with it his mother, Queen Gudrun (Nicole Kidman). Amleth flees, swearing to avenge his father, kill his uncle and save his mother, but when we next encounter him many years later (now played by Alexander Skarsgaard), a berserker raiding the lands of the Rus, it’s an oath he seems to have largely forgotten, at least until a chance meeting with a mysterious seeress (Bjork) reminds him in Eggers’ typically unnerving fashion.  Suitably inspired, Amleth disguises himself as a slave and secretes himself amongst a party destined to be shipped to the Icelandic land of Fjolnir’s underwhelming exile, where he now rules over a far less impressive kingdom than he once intended.  Through canny strategy and subtle magical assistance, Amleth begins to torment his uncle as he tightens to screws in the build-up to his vengeance, but as he draws closer to his goal it begins to become clear to him that things may not actually be that simple … this is a singularly stunning feature which PERFECTLY encapsulates everything that’s so great about Eggers’ filmmaking style while also effectively repackaging it as something completely fresh and new to what he’s brought us before as he takes all the tricks he so keenly fashioned through his previous horror ventures and sets to them to ruthlessly efficient and thoroughly fiendish effect in what is surely destined to become known as the greatest Viking movie of all time, or at least the most interesting.  Skarsgaard is SPECTACULAR here, by turns understated and downright FEROCIOUS depending on the needs of the story and Amleth’s own personal plot, but he also crafts a character who’s far more complex that just a spiteful, vengeful warrior out for blood; Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch), meanwhile, brings subtly fierce feistiness to proceedings as Olga of the Birch Forest, the enslaved Slavic witch that Amleth forms a conspiratorial bond (and eventually more) with in his quest, Bang and Kidman both skilfully subvert expectations of their characters as the story progresses, and both Hawke and The Lighthouse’s Willem Dafoe deliver brief but potent performances in their early scenes which sear great impressions on us that resonate throughout the rest of the film.  As with his previous films, this is as much about mood, atmosphere and some truly jaw-dropping visuals as it is about its dark and twisting labyrinthine central plot, but this is still BY FAR Eggers’ most refreshingly coherent and linear film, even if there are times when it seems to turn into some kind of strange (but admittedly deeply compelling) cinematic fever dream, and the characters are all impressively well-developed and three-dimensional, quickly making us root for or hate them according to requirements before the ingeniously crafty script sometimes turns things on their head to frame them in a new and startlingly different light.  This is as powerful, inventive and downright DOOM-LADEN as we would ever have expected from Eggers, but also definitely THE BEST film he’s brought us so far, and as he goes on this is going to be a really tough one to beat …

1.  THE BATMAN – another year, another Batman movie, it would seem.  But this one … somehow, this one feels a little different, a little special.  Frankly, THAT is actually something of an understatement … yeah, basically, Dawn of/War For the Planet of the Apes writer-director Matt Reeves’ long-gestating (and certainly long-awaited) reboot of DC’s flagship superhero franchise (originally intended to be part of the increasingly problematic DCEU canon but now, thankfully, cut loose so it can be its own thing) has actually turned out to be THE VERY BEST Batman movie outside of 2008’s simply DEFINITIVE The Dark Knight.  Perhaps this take’s most notable (not to mention most controversial) choice was in the casting of its Bruce Wayne/Batman – Robert Pattinson, the admittedly precocious young wunderkind who’s been working VERY HARD INDEED to distance himself from the godawful memory of Edward Cullen but still hadn’t quite managed to fully evacuate the stink of his tenure on Twilight … until now, at least. Turns out, he’s PERFECT for the role, especially in THIS version – this incarnation is JUST starting out, still finding his way as he tries to become the Dark Knight Defender that the nightmarish, corrupt, deeply FUCKED UP city of Gotham desperately needs to rescue it from its inexorable slow descent into criminal hell.  This Batman is still very fallible, still learning his craft, and the police don’t trust him yet, they’re openly hostile and always right on the verge of turning on him as he tries to insert himself into investigations with only one man on his side – Gotham City Police lieutenant Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), perhaps the one good man in a genuinely rotten police force, who’s as determined as his mysterious vigilante “friend” to save his city.  Certainly they’re all Gotham’s got as a brutal murder kicks off a fiendishly Machiavellian game of homicidal cat-and-mouse as newly emerged villain The Riddler (Paul Dano) begins to dig up a twisted web of lies and conspiracies that’s long held the city in the grip of criminal purgatory, spurring the fledgling Batman into a desperate investigation which inexorably leads him to dark and troubling revelations which hit uncomfortably close to home as some truly terrible long-buried truths are finally uncovered.  Matt Reeves and co-writer Peter Craig (The Town, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Top Gun: Maverick) have delivered a screenplay which not only makes this one of the best written superhero movies ever, but just a downright masterpiece of a film, PERIOD, but Reeves’ simply AWESOME direction deserves just as much praise here because every scene has been crafted to flawless precision and shot with an uncommonly artful eye too (certainly cinematographer Greg Fraser, known for the likes of Zero Dark Thirty, Rogue One and Dune, deserves a big dollop of the credit too).  The cast are uniformly phenomenal too – there are FAR too many blazing bright star turns in this to name, but the standouts include Wright himself, noble, steadfast and forthright as the most honest cop in Gotham, John Turturro as a surprisingly seductive mobster kingpin in the role of Carmine Falcone, Peter Sarsgaard as Gotham’s enjoyably sleezy and hopelessly corrupt district attorney Gil Colson, Colin Farrell, COMPLETELY unrecognisable and therefore able to just ACT HIS SOCKS OFF as the very best and DEFINITELY most faithful take on Oswald Copplepot/the Penguin we’ve had to date, a low-down, brutal thug with delusions of grandeur, and of course Reeves-regular Andy Serkis, taking Bruce Wayne’s faithful manservant Alfred Pennyworth in an intriguing new direction as a former soldier and reserved man of action in his own right, while Paul Dano’s clearly having the time of his life as the Riddler (I also fully applaud the way they’ve fully embraced the alternative take on the character from the Hush run of the Batman comics, which finally gives this villain REAL TEETH), playing things subtle and close to the chest in his earlier appearances before he’s finally unmasked and allowed to fully unleash in typical showstopping style.  The film truly belongs, however, to our new Batman and Catwoman – Pattinson largely plays the role in quite an understated way, but it’s a performance BRIMMING with deep nuance and subtle layers, perfectly pitched to highlight this Bruce Wayne’s somewhat isolated upbringing and deep-seated underlying trauma, which manifests in his suitably awkward public image, while when he’s in the suit (which is, of course, how he spends the majority of the film) he’s quietly menacing and thoroughly ODD in the best way possible; Zoe Kravitz, on the other hand, is PERFECTLY cast as Selina Kyle, investing my very favourite comic book antihero with just the right mix of sultry, sexy fire and sass and a ferocious determination to never be owned by ANYONE, and even LOOKS perfect with her spot-on short hair, sharp claw-like nails and genuinely preternatural feline grace (yeah, I thought Anne Hathaway was fantastic and pretty definitive in The Dark Knight Rises, but Zoe has thoroughly trumped her in this).  Altogether this is an essentially perfect package that effortlessly brings the Dark Knight and his hellish Gotham City to life just as effectively as Christopher Nolan did in his seminal trilogy – the design-work is on-point throughout, the action sequences are phenomenal (that insanely awesome car chase in the rain may well be this year’s best set-piece, although there’s also an incredible fight scene, lit ONLY with machine-gun muzzle flashes, which comes impressively close), the plot twists and turns like few others I’ve seen, dropping some genuinely AMAZING rug-pulls that I TRULY did not see coming, and Michael Giacchino’s incendiary score is a MASTERCLASS in low-key dramatic brilliance.  Most importantly, though, this is the first Batman film that genuinely gets the psychology of its central character COMPLETELY RIGHT, and I truly look forward to seeing what Reeves, Craig, Pattinson and all the rest do with the already greenlit sequel when it comes (hopefully it won’t take anywhere near as long as this one did to finally reach our screens).  If it’s anywhere NEAR as good as this it'll be GOLD …

I was drawing Henry and this Henry looked a lot like another one I did, so I merged two Henry´s to create some Ultimate Henry (because Henry IS the Ultimate Henry)

But teeth

Missing some missing some, but He is Happy

He is, He is