How on earth do you make an exciting, sexy film about the creation of Facebook? The cynic (and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg) will probably answer by making history for you. I'm sure that's what happened in the case of "The Social Network", but it's mainly director Fincher , one of the most visually gifted filmmakers in Hollywood, who knows how to turn all the legal wrangling into beautiful cinema. The famous rowing scene - with its alienating tilt-shift effect - is one for the history books.
The devoted but somewhat rigid ballerina Nina is about to break through into Swan Lake, but some doubt she can perform the Black Swan. Powerful melodrama about obsession, madness and the downside of top-class sports evoked a lot of praise for actress Natalie Portman, who won the Oscar for best actress. Director Aronofsky, who declared that he considered Swan Lake to be a 'gothic piece', enhanced the feeling of claustrophobic paranoia by adding horror elements.
The title refers to the prognosis presented to 27-year-old Adam: he has a tumor and fifty percent chance of survival, but could also refer to the film's formula: fifty percent flat buddy comedy, fifty percent serious cancer drama. Sounds like a bad idea, but it works. The right tone between light-hearted and sensitive.
A blistering film about cage fighters, with emotional depth. With a tormented hero who repels his frustration, past and poverty. The film starts as a family drama, between an alcoholic father and his two estranged sons, but halfway through, "Warrior" becomes a fighter tale. All beautifully portrayed.
A pure feel-good tearjerker without shades of grey, that is the film adaptation of bestseller "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett, praised by Oprah Winfrey, about the tensions between whites and Afro-Americans in the South of America in the sixties. t is thanks to actresses Viola Davis< Emma Stone, Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer, that the film transcends the drama-of-the-week feeling.
The self-willed Nicolas Winding Refn was awarded the prize for best directing for the existential film "Drive" in Cannes. About an unnamed stunt driver who earns extra money at night as a driver during robberies. Tight direction, beautiful camera work and a sexy eighties techno score create a recognizable style. Main actors Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan clearly have chemistry. An excellent supporting roles by Albert Brooks, Oscar ISaac and Bryan Cranston.
Philippe, a Parisian millionaire with a spinal cord injury, hires the young, cheeky Senegalese Driss as his personal carer. Two complete opposites who have to make do with each other: the recipe for a traditional buddy comedy. It was an unparalleled hit, which must have to do with the contagious play of the protagonists. Although based on a true story, the film feels a bit like a fairy tale.
The story is about the temperamental Americana fan Didier , who falls in love with the hovering tattoo artist Elise . After they have a baby that becomes fatally ill, they grow apart. Will love triumph? A film as poetic as it is energetic, with lifelike characters and a fine bluegrass soundtrack.
At first sight 'just another high school movie' about the timid Charlie , a boy without friends. But then he meets the extravagant Patrick and Sam . A Brat Pack-like formula film that comes a quarter of a century late, drenched in nostalgia, but with a fine set of protagonists and a surprisingly vicious twist in the tail.
Angelic toddler Klara feels rejected by kindergarten teacher Lucas, her father's best friend, and claims that he has abused her. After which the world of Lucas collapses. Director Thomas Vinterberg stays close to Lucas and shows in fully credible and therefore extremely uncomfortable steps how his friends slowly but surely push him away.
Four Somali pirates raid a cargo ship and take the captain hostage. Director Paul Greengrass turns true events into a dramatic thriller imbued with humanity. With his signature style of handheld camera work, fast editing and a perfect sense of timing, he creates a controlled chaos, in which the tension is increasingly intense. Tom Hanks convinces as the sometimes heroic, sometimes fragile frightened captain, while newcomer Barkhad Abdi shines as the leader of the hijackers.
Even more than a racing film about the historic duel in 1976 between Formula 1 drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda, "Rush" is a film about two personalities. The British Hunt, a testosterone-driven playboy driver like many in Formula 1 at the time. And the humorless, unattractive Austrian Lauda, who races with his wits. Director Ron Howard has sympathy for both men.
The movie might make you feel uncomfortable and especially that ending is something you won’t forget easily. It’s one of the scariest endings I have seen in a long time, because it’s so unexpectedly and it messes with your mind. This movie will stay with you for a long time, you want to unravel every little detail of it. It’s complex, so not a movie for just any viewer, but for ys movie fans it’s a cinematic masterpiece.
To his horror, shy, fourteen-year-old Duncan has to spend the summer holidays at the beach house of arrogant Trent, his mother's new boyfriend. Luckily, the grief is alleviated by a charming neighborhood girl and a job in the local open-air swimming pool, led by the laid-back Owen. Coming-of-age film offers few surprises in terms of content, but is refreshingly sincere in tone, averse to hip irony. Makers Nate Faxon and Jim Rash, take adolescent suffering seriously without getting bogged down in melodrama. Warm film with a fine cast.
On Thanksgiving night, two girls disappear without a trace. The only clue leads to a camper, but the owner is soon released due to lack of evidence. Keller, the father of one of them, decides to take matters into his own hands. Ink-grey, sublimely constructed thriller by Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, who takes the viewer on an emotionally difficult journey through a landscape weaned from every shred of sunlight.
Impressive film about Solomon Northup, who, as a free man in New York, is kidnapped in 1841 and has to spend twelve years on cotton plantations in the South of America. Beautifully filmed scenes full of physical and mental suffering.
"Short Term 12" is a typical American indie film. About twenty-something Grace and Mason who work in a shelter for underprivileged youth and in the meantime try to maintain a somewhat difficult love relationship. If you take the well-known elements for granted, you will discover a gem of a film, full of warm-blooded characters, compelling drama and authentic-looking insights into the youth care sector.
Excellent music film in which young, ambitious jazz drummer takes on his demanding and ruthless teacher (a wonderfully intimidating J.K. Simmons). There is no false note in this exciting and gripping film by the young director Damien Chazelle, who presents the music world as a sports arena in which only the most fanatics survive. But where in sports films the climax is often over the top and unbelievable, Whiplash convinces from the beginning to the long, emotionally crushing end.
Actor Riggan Thomson was once world famous as superhero Birdman, but has been forgotten since he said no to making Birdman 4. When the film begins, he tries to regain something of the appreciation of the past in the theatre. "Birdman" is a post-modern, meta-masterpiece about acting, fame and self-respect. Shot as if it were one long take and with a fantastic score, consisting mainly of improvised percussion sounds. "Birdman" is unpredictable, hallucinating and especially for director Alejandro G. Iñárritu remarkably funny.
Jake Gyllenhaal's character Lou Bloom discovers in this satire that he can make good money by eavesdropping on police stations at night and being the first to film the victims of accidents and crimes. The more gruesome the footage, the more the TV stations pay. It goes from bad to worse, and Bloom feels increasingly invulnerable because of his success. This film is mainly excellent because of the wonderful depiction of L.A. by night and Gyllenhaal's performance.
A slick dramatic thriller about the depravity that can hide behind a neat exterior, leave that to director David Fincher. In this film adaptation of the bestseller of the same name by Gillian FlynnBen Affleck plays a beloved inhabitant of a quiet town, who is increasingly distrusted after his wife disappears without a trace. The story, full of twists and turns and caustic humor, becomes more and more nonsensical, but is sublimely told, with Fincher in top form and perfectly cast protagonists. Two and a half hours of pitch-black top entertainment.
Excellent docudrama about the Spotlight team of quality newspaper The Boston Globe, which in a series of notorious articles in 2002 announced the systematic concealment by the Catholic Church of sexual abuse in parishes in Boston. In "Spotlight", directorTom McCarthy keeps emotions at bay as much as possible. In this film no gruesome details of the abuses or images of rabble-rousing church fathers; McCarthy zooms in on the journalists and their hard work. And this down-to-earth, almost businesslike approach makes the film even more poignant.
Intelligent adaptation of the successful novel of the same name by the Irish Emma Donoghue, about a mother and her five-year-old son, held by Old Nick in a soundproof and steel-reinforced gazebo. The boy, Jack, was born in that garden shed and knows the world only from television. And from his mother's stories. Remarkably optimistic, despite the heavy subject matter, because the viewer mainly looks through Jack's eyes.
The movie is filled with humor, silly and loveable characters, unexpected situations and drama. This is a movie that a film lover like me can appreciate. Not only because of how well this movie was made and the artistic side of it, but also the awesome pop culture references. “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” manages to amaze the audience in every way. A movie from the heart, beautifully made and extremely honest.
Handyman Lee leads a lonely existence in the suburbs of Boston, plagued by demons from the past. When his older brother dies, Lee, to his horror, is appointed guardian of his sixteen-year-old son. The events in "Manchester by the Sea" are of an almost unbearable gloom, but thanks to the languid, unadorned storytelling, the film doesn't get bogged down in melodrama.
he long-awaited second film by fashion designer/director Tom Ford is as ingenious as it is virtuoso. In the film, three storylines are interwoven. About the successful but deeply happy gallery owner Susan; her once happy relationship with aspiring writer Edward; and the story of the book Edward wrote and dedicated to Susan, entitled 'Nocturnal Animals'. The latter story - which we see happening when Susan reads it - is an incredibly exciting filmed thriller about how Tony's family is terrorized by a handful of rednecks.
When twelve spacecraft perch across the world, the countries concerned send top teams to the ships to make contact with the aliens. The American team includes linguist Louise Banks, who seems to understand the aliens best of all. An excellent sc-fi drama.
The anti-authoritarian, but himself very compelling Ben lives with his six children far away in the forests of North America. When he hears that his wife, who first stayed in a hospital for months, has died, he and his children retreat into the evil inhabited world. To protect his wife from the civil burial that her parents have in mind. What follows is an often very funny, contrary film in which a lot of holy houses are kicked against. In addition, director Matt Ross poses poignant questions about parenthood, upbringing and today's consumer society.
Wonderful, but villainous fairytale by the Mexican horror master Guillermo Del Toro takes place in the fifties in a secret army complex. There the FBI imprisons a South American water creature and subjects it to cruel tests. Parallels with the Mexico bashing by Trump are obvious and are also meant by Mexican horrormaster Del Toro. But "The Shape of Water" is much more romantic drama than political pamphlet. Del Toro zooms in on the burgeoning love between cleaning lady Elisa and the water creature.
It's summer 1983. The 24-year-old American research assistant Oliver comes to Northern Italy to assist Professor Perlman. And impresses his seventeen-year-old son Elio, who falls in love with Oliver to his own horror and amazement. All praise is understandable, because "Call Me by Your Name" is a fantastic film. Sparkling, intimate and honest.
After a brutal action comedy about antihero Deadpool, superhero factory Marvel focuses again on adults with "Logan", another film about X-Man Wolverine, but now with its own signature. In the year 2029, mutants are virtually exterminated and Logan, addicted and tired of life, lives with a demented Professor X on a Mexican ranch. Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart play their roles better than ever, and director James Mangold creates an original stew of western, noir, sci-fi and drama. Nevertheless, a welcome change in the genre.
Mother of a murdered and raped teenager can't bear the fact that one year after that still no perpetrator has been arrested and decides to put pressure on the local sheriff. "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" feels like a western, but without the black and white hats. The mother is not only good, the sheriff not only bad. And that goes for all the well-drawn out characters. Comical and tragic at the same time, with unforgettable, razor-sharp dialogues by writer/director Martin McDonagh.
Quentin Tarantino gave us another gem this year to add to his already impressive resume. "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" is Tarantino's ode to the golden age of Hollywood. TV star Rick Dalton and his loyal stuntman Cliff Booth turned out to be the perfect characters to explore this period. With strong dialogues, intriguing characters and a muddy soundtrack, Tarantino manages to convince again. And then he drops a very unexpected twist in the true story of the Manson Murders and Sharon Tate.
This origin story for the Joker, the biggest villain in the Batman comics, is more a character study than a superhero film. We follow the downfall of the unstable forty-year-old Arthur Fleck, a freelance clown who still lives with his mother. When his therapy stops and he loses his job, Arthur's initial moods continue. Surprisingly gloomy film by director Todd Phillips. With an unparalleled leading role by Joaquin Phoenix.
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