REVIEW - IN THE HEART OF THE SEA (RON HOWARD)

You're stranded at sea for 90 days, countless miles from land and with precious little food and water, and only Chris Hemsworth and his crew of strapping young sailors for company. Do you a) wither away to a bag of miserable, crusty bones, or b) find invaluable ways to pass the time, and ingest some equally invaluable protein? In the Heart of the Sea needed more sex-starved gay characters. Anything to make it more interesting. As trite as it may be to summarise a film by comparing it to two other films, this really is just Life of Pi meets Unbroken, only cheaper, uglier and less entertaining. And the film itself is trite, a collage of substandard writing, simplistic character design and disinterested direction, its finer moments lifted from finer films, its weaker ones too. And all in service of its one and only purpose: watching a big boat torn to pieces by an even bigger whale. This is ostensibly the film's excuse not to bother with any of its other elements, that it might nail these Moby Dick sequences. And Ron Howard, as always only as good as the team he's working with, does a decent job at administering immediacy and intensity in the action scenes, some of which only rendered as such in the technical design. But a decent job isn't what an otherwise dreary film needs, nor what its audience deserves - In the Heart of the Sea lives or dies on the strength of these scenes, and they barely get the blood flowing enough for 90 minutes, never mind 90 days. Anthony Dod Mantle does typically excellent work with his saturated colour combinations, though the overall aesthetic is spoilt by poor visual effects. Other tech creds are mostly only passable at best. And yes, the lack of gratuitous sailors-at-sea sex scenes is a major disappointment.

CEMETERY OF SPLENDOUR TOPS LA INTERNACIONAL CINEFILA'S FILMS OF 2015 LIST

La Internacional Cinefila has chosen Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Cemetery of Splendour as the best film of the year! The Thai director's final film in his homeland has impressed critics the world over, and this is only the latest in an already long list of honours the film has received. Other international arthouse hits populate the seven-strong list, plus George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road.

1. Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

2. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao Hsien)

3. Arabian Nights: Volume 1 - The Restless One / Arabian Nights: Volume 2 - The Desolate One / Arabian Nights: Volume 3 - The Enchanted One (Miguel Gomes)

=  Homeland (Iraq Year Zero) (Abbas Fahdel)

5. Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sang Soo)

6. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)

=  Mountains May Depart (Jia Zhang Ke)

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD IS #1 WITH TWITCH CRITICS FOR 2015

Twitch Film has released its choices for the best films of 2015, and the list is as diverse yet sci-fi / fantasy friendly as one would expect. Naturally, Mad Max: Fury Road tops the list, which features only two titles that couldn't be classed in the above genres plus thriller and horror - fellow Oscar favourites Carol and Spotlight. Check out their top 24 below:

1. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
2. Sicario (Denis Villeneuve)
3. The Martian (Ridley Scott)
=  Victoria (Sebastian Schipper)
5. Ex Machina (Alex Garland)
6. Carol (Todd Haynes)
=  Spotlight (Tom McCarthy)
=  Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J. J. Abrams)
9. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao Hsien)
=  It Follows (David Robert Mitchell)
11. Arabian Nights: Volume 1 - The Restless One / Arabian Nights: Volume 2 - The Desolate One / Arabian Nights: Volume 3 - The Enchanted One (Miguel Gomes)
=   A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Roy Andersson)
13. Inside Out (Pete Docter)
=   Mistress America (Noah Baumbach)
=   The Revenant (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)
=   Tangerine (Sean Baker)
17. Girlhood (Celine Sciamma)
=   Mustang (Deniz Gamze Erguven)
=   Phoenix (Christian Petzold)
=   Room (Lenny Abrahamson)
=   Son of Saul (Nemes Laszlo)
=   Steve Jobs (Danny Boyle)
=   Taxi (Jafar Panahi)
=   What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi)

SPOTLIGHT TOPS YAHOO! MOVIES 2015 POLL

One wonders whom and why, but Yahoo! Movies critics have compiled a list of their favourite films (and their least favourite) of the year. Spotlight's their favourite! Fantastic Four's their least favourite! Take a look:

Yahoo! Movies' Best Films of 2015 

1. Spotlight
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. Carol
4. Inside Out
5. Finders Keepers
6. The Big Short
7. The Martian
8. Brooklyn
9. The Revenant
10. Creed
11. The Look of Silence
12. What We Do in the Shadows
13. Straight Outta Compton
14. Tangerine
15. The Night Before
16. Dope
17. Wild Tales
18. Room
19. Chi-Raq
20. Amy
21. Paddington
22. The End of the Tour
23. Trainwreck
24. Anomalisa
25. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
26. The Diary of a Teenage Girl
27. Spy
28. Love & Mercy
29. Son of Saul
30. It Follows
31. Furious 7
32. Sicario
33. Cobain: Montage of Heck
34. Ex Machina
35. Bridge of Spies
36. Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
37. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
38. The Russian Woodpecker
39. Beasts of No Nation
40. The Gift

Yahoo! Movies' Worst Films of 2015
1. Fantastic Four
2. The Cobbler
3. Mortdecai
4. Pixels
5. Strange Magic
6. Hot Pursuit
7. Terminator Genisys
8. Aloha
9. The Boy Next Door
10. Insurgent

2015 VILLAGE VOICE FILM POLL RESULTS!

A belated post recognising the Village Voice's excellent picks for the best in film this year. The publication's critics convened to make choices across a variety of categories and posted the results online: Mad Max: Fury Road was top for Best Film and Director, while there were surprising but strong wins in the acting categories for Son of Saul's Rohrig Geza and 45 Years' Charlotte Rampling. The lists were long, so I've edited them to the top ten in each (Screenplay edited to include the ten highest-ranking original works and the ten highest adaptations), as only these ten will count toward the SOS Critics' Tally.

Best Film

1. Mad Max: Fury Road

2. Carol

3. Spotlight

4. Phoenix

5. Tangerine

6. Anomalisa

7. Inside Out

8. Clouds of Sils Maria

9. Brooklyn

10. The Assassin

Best Director

1. George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

2. Todd Haynes (Carol)

3. Hou Hsiao Hsien (The Assassin)

4. Nemes Laszlo (Son of Saul)

5. Tom McCarthy (Spotlight)

6. Aleksei German (Hard to Be a God)

7. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (The Revenant)

8. Evan Johnson and Guy Maddin (The Forbidden Room)

=  Spike Lee (Chi-Raq)

=  Abderrahmane Sissako (Timbuktu)

Best Actor

1. Rohrig Geza (Son of Saul)

2. Michael B. Jordan (Creed)

3. Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)

4. Peter Sarsgaard (Experimenter)

5. Paul Dano (Love & Mercy)

6. Ben Mendelsohn (Mississippi Grind)

7. Christopher Abbott (James White)

8. Tom Courtenay (45 Years)

9. Matt Damon (The Martian)

10. Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)

Best Actress

1. Charlotte Rampling (45 Years)

2. Nina Hoss (Phoenix)

3. Brie Larson (Room)

4. Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn)

5. Cate Blanchett (Carol)

6. Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road)

7. Rooney Mara (Carol)

8. Bel Powley (The Diary of a Teenage Girl)

9. Juliette Binoche (Clouds of Sils Maria)

10. Arielle Holmes (Heaven Knows What)

Best Supporting Actor

1. Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)

2. Sylvester Stallone (Creed)

3. Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight)

4. Michael Shannon (99 Homes)

5. Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina)

6. Emory Cohen (Brooklyn)

7. Benicio del Toro (Sicario)

8. Jacob Tremblay (Room)

9. Paul Dano (Love & Mercy)

10. Liev Schreiber (Spotlight)

Best Supporting Actress

1. Kristen Stewart (Clouds of Sils Maria)

2. Rooney Mara (Carol)

3. Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight)

4. Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina)

5. Mya Taylor (Tangerine)

6. Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs)

7. Cynthia Nixon (James White)

8. Elizabeth Banks (Love & Mercy)

9. Jada Pinkett Smith (Magic Mike XXL)

10. Rose Byrne (Spy)

Best Screenplay

1. Spotlight

2. Carol

3. Mistress America

4. Anomalisa

5. Ex Machina

6. The Big Short

=  Chi-Raq

=  The Duke of Burgundy

=  Steve Jobs

10. 45 Years

=   Brooklyn

=   Clouds of Sils Maria

=   The Diary of a Teenage Girl

=   The End of the Tour

=   The Hateful Eight

16. Bridge of Spies

=   Inside Out

=   Love & Mercy

=   Timbuktu

20. Amour Fou

=   The Assassin

=   Bone Tomahawk

=   Dope

=   Experimenter

=   The Fool

=   The Forbidden Room

=   Gemma Bovery

=   Grandma

=   Heart of a Dog

=   Heaven Knows What

=   Jauja

=   Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter

=   Mad Max: Fury Road

=   Phoenix

=   The Princess of France

=   Results

=   La Sapienza

=   Tangerine

=   Trainwreck

Best Animated Feature

1. Inside Out

2. Anomalisa

3. Shaun the Sheep Movie

4. The Boy and the World

5. When Marnie Was There

=  World of Tomorrow

7. Cheatin'

=  The Good Dinosaur

=  Mad Max: Fury Road

=  Minions

=  The Peanuts Movie

=  Unfriended

Best Documentary

1. The Look of Silence

2. Amy

3. Listen to Me Marlon

4. In Jackson Heights

5. Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief

=  Heart of a Dog

7. Approaching the Elephant

=  Call Me Lucky

9. Best of Enemies

=  The Hunting Ground

Best Undistributed Film

1. Chevalier

2. Right Now, Wrong Then

3. 88:88

=  The Academy of Muses

=  Cosmos

=  Embers

=  How Heavy This Hammer

=  The Lobster

=  One Floor Below

=  Pervert Park

=  Uncle Kent 2

Best First Feature

1. The Diary of a Teenage Girl

2. The Mend

=  Son of Saul

4. Ex Machina

5. Mustang

6. James White

=  The Tribe

8. Approaching the Elephant

=  Appropriate Behaviour

10. Bone Tomahawk

=   Court

=   The Gift

Movie Everyone Is Wrong About

1. Jupiter Ascending

2. Sicario

3. Aloha

=  The Big Short

=  Mad Max: Fury Road

=  The Revenant

7. By the Sea

=  Crimson Peak

=  Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

10. Anomalisa

=   Burnt

=   Carol

=   Chappie

=   Creed

=   Ex Machina

=   The Hateful Eight

=   Steve Jobs

=   The Tribe

=   Tomorrowland

Worst Film

1. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

2. Jurassic World

3. The Cobbler

4. The Human Centipede III (Full Sequence)

5. Entourage

6. Youth

7. Chappie

8. Jupiter Ascending

9. Son of Saul

10. The Danish Girl

REVIEW - SPOTLIGHT (TOM MCCARTHY)

Journalism falls under Tom McCarthy's Spotlight and rises up out of it, glorified for the power it possesses to shine its own light on truth and justice. It's a noble pursuit and a noble film, stoic and sober though not without lightness nor without passion - it's keenly aware of itself and the role it seeks to play, and McCarthy and Josh Singer's script skillfully avoids over-stressing its point. They're a smart pair, since their point is made so succinctly and so successfully as a result, yet perhaps at the expense of gravity - Spotlight is an intentionally slight film, stylistically plain, emotionally reserved, dedicated to an acute verisimilitude throughout, but the narrow breadth of its purview hinders it somewhat. The film is about a specific set of journalists at a specific time, but as interesting as the story it tells of them, the story that they're striving to tell is that bit more interesting, and Spotlight doesn't adequately acknowledge this. But what is to be gained in criticising a film for what it is not? What Spotlight is is deeply involving, that aforementioned verisimilitude achieved by calculated yet keen dialogue, the bread and butter of McCarthy's trade. He forms his film around words, be they written or spoken, and possesses a terrific understanding of their precise power. He constructs his film as a journalistic endeavour in itself, deploying patience and objectivity in uncovering one devastating detail after another. He takes shortcuts in his direction for negligible gains and sacrifices the sense of realism otherwise finely calibrated in his mise-en-scene - no bother, these are fleeting failures, themselves of negligible worth. This is an intelligent film made by intelligent people, and a noble one indeed.

THE ASSASSIN TOPS DESISTFILM'S BEST OF 2015 LIST

You totally need to start visiting blog.desistfilm.com. The writing is great, the opinions are sound, and you'll be introduced to so much brilliant new cinema. Just look at their list of the best films of the year, as compiled from the round-up of all their international contributors they published yesterday. From my perspective, I can attest to the fact that I've loved every single one of the films on this list that I've seen to date. Check it out:

Desistfilm's Best Films of 2015

1. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao Hsien)

2. Homeland (Iraq Year Zero) (Abbas Fahdel)

3. Arabian Nights: Volume 1 - The Restless One / Arabian Nights: Volume 2 - The Desolate One / Arabian Nights: Volume 3 - The Enchanted One (Miguel Gomes)

4. Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

=  Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)

6. No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman)

7. The Forbidden Room (Evan Johnson and Guy Maddin)

8. Blood of My Blood (Marco Bellocchio)

9. The Academy of Muses (Jose Luis Guerin)

10. In the Shadow of Women (Philippe Garrel)

11. Samuray-S (Raul Perrone)

12. Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sang Soo)

13. The Exquisite Corpus (Peter Tscherkassky)

14. Field Niggas (Khalik Allah)

15. Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson)

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD CONQUERS THE AUSTIN FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION AWARDS

The Austin Film Critics Association picked Mad Max: Fury Road today as the best film of 2015. Spotlight placed second on their Best Film list with Carol third, though the frailty of all three titles was exposed by their awards tallies - only the top two for Mad Max, one for Carol and nothing at all for Spotlight. Their top ten films oddly excluded Trumbo, which had been one of their five Best Film nominees. Have a hoke at what they chose below:

Best Film

1. Mad Max: Fury Road

2. Spotlight

3. Carol

4. Anomalisa

5. Room

6. Ex Machina

=  Inside Out

8. Creed

9. The Big Short

10. Sicario

Best Director

George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Actor

Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)

Best Actress

Brie Larson (Room)

Best Supporting Actor

Sylvester Stallone (Creed)

Best Supporting Actress

Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina)

Best Original Screenplay

Josh Cooley, Pete Docter and Meg LeFauve (Inside Out)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Emma Donoghue (Room)

Best Cinematography

Edward Lachman (Carol)

Best Score

Ennio Morricone (The Hateful Eight)

Best Animated Film

Inside Out (Pete Docter)

Best Documentary

The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)

Best Foreign-Language Film

Son of Saul (Nemes Laszlo)

Best First Film

Ex Machina (Alex Garland)

Austin Film Award

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (David Zellner)

The Robert R. 'Bobby' McCurdy Memorial Breakthrough Artist Award

Jacob Tremblay (Room)

NORTH CAROLINA FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES ITS SLATE OF NOMINEES FOR 2015

The Tar Heel state's finest critics - or so we might assume - convalesced and decided upon the following selection of nominations for its 2015 awards! Inside Out bags a Best Narrative Film nomination, which is highly welcome alongside its Animated Film nod, and it makes for strong female representation in the top category with this group. Nevertheless, due to the apparent disqualification of documentaries from said category, it won't be able to count into the SOS Best Picture tally. Award winners will be announced on the 4th of January. Check out the nominees just below:

Best Director

Lenny Abrahamson (Room)

Todd Haynes (Carol)

Tom McCarthy (Spotlight)

George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Ridley Scott (The Martian)

Best Actor

Bryan Cranston (Trumbo)

Matt Damon (The Martian)

Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)

Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)

Ian McKellen (Mr. Holmes)

Best Actress

Elizabeth Banks (Love & Mercy)

Cate Blanchett (Carol)

Brie Larson (Room)

Charlotte Rampling (45 Years)

Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn)

Best Supporting Actor

Paul Dano (Love & Mercy)

Benicio del Toro (Sicario)

Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight)

Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)

Sylvester Stallone (Creed)

Best Supporting Actress

Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight)

Rooney Mara (Carol)

Rachel McAdams (Spotlight)

Helen Mirren (Trumbo)

Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina)

Best Original Screenplay

Matt Charman, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen (Bridge of Spies)

Josh Cooley, Pete Docter and Meg LeFauve (Inside Out)

Alex Garland (Ex Machina)

Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (Spotlight)

Quentin Tarantino (The Hateful Eight)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Emma Donoghue (Room)

Drew Goddard (The Martian)

Nick Hornby (Brooklyn)

Adam McKay and Charles Randolph (The Big Short)

Phyllis Nagy (Carol)

Aaron Sorkin (Steve Jobs)

Best Narrative Film

Carol

Inside Out

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

Spotlight

Best Animated Film

Anomalisa

The Good Dinosaur

Inside Out

The Peanuts Movie

Shaun the Sheep Movie

Best Documentary Film

Amy

Cobain: Montage of Heck

Finders Keepers

Listen to Me Marlon

The Look of Silence

Best Foreign Language Film

The Assassin

Mustang

Phoenix

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

Son of Saul

Tar Heel Award (to an artist or film with a special connection to North Carolina)

Ramin Bahrani (99 Homes)

Finders Keepers

Peyton Reed (Ant-Man)

ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS ANNOUNCES 2015 NOMINATIONS

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists has announced its award nominees for 2015. Todd Haynes' Carol is way out in front with the AWFJ, pulling in an impressive nine nominations. But can it edge past award season frontrunners Mad Max: Fury Road and Spotlight to claim the prizes from this female-focused ensemble of journos? We'll find out when awards are announced on the 12th of January. Have a look at all their nominations below:

Best Film

Carol

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

Room

Spotlight

Best Director

Lenny Abrahamson (Room)

Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant)

Todd Haynes (Carol)

Tom McCarthy (Spotlight)

George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Ridley Scott (The Martian)

Best Actor

Matt Damon (The Martian)

Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)

Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)

Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl)

Best Actress

Cate Blanchett (Carol)

Brie Larson (Room)

Charlotte Rampling (45 Years)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Paul Dano (Love & Mercy)

Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)

Michael Shannon (99 Homes)

Sylvester Stallone (Creed)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Rooney Mara (Carol)

Kristen Stewart (Clouds of Sils Maria)

Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina)

Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs)

Best Screenplay, Original

Ronnie del Carmen, Josh Cooley, Pete Docter and Meg LeFauve (Inside Out)

Alex Garland (Ex Machina)

Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (Spotlight)

Best Screenplay, Adapted

Emma Donoghue (Room)

Drew Goddard (The Martian)

Adam McKay and Charles Randolph (The Big Short)

Phyllis Nagy (Carol)

Best Cinematography

Edward Lachman (Carol)

Emmanuel Lubezki (The Revenant)

John Seale (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Editing

Hank Corwin (The Big Short)

Tom McArdle (Spotlight)

Margaret Sixel (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Film Music or Score

Carter Burwell (Carol)

Tom Holkenborg (Mad Max: Fury Road)

David Lang (Youth)

Ennio Morricone (The Hateful Eight)

Best Ensemble Cast

The Big Short

Spotlight

Straight Outta Compton

Best Animated Film

Anomalisa

Inside Out

Shaun the Sheep Movie

Best Documentary

Amy (Asif Kapadia)

Best of Enemies (Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville)

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (Alex Gibney)

The Hunting Ground (Kirby Dick)

What Happened, Miss Simone? (Liz Garbus)

Best Non-English Language Film

Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven)

Phoenix (Christian Petzold)

Son of Saul (Nemes László)

EDA Female Focus Awards

Best Woman Director

Isabel Coixet (Learning to Drive)

Maya Forbes (Infinitely Polar Bear)

Sarah Gavron (Suffragette)

Marielle Heller (The Diary of a Teenage Girl)

Céline Sciamma (Girlhood)

Best Woman Screenwriter

Emma Donoghue (Room)

Marielle Heller (The Diary of a Teenage Girl)

Phyllis Nagy (Carol)

Amy Schumer (Trainwreck)

Best Breakthrough Performance

Brie Larson (Room)

Bel Powley (The Diary of a Teenage Girl)

Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl / Ex Machina / Testament of Youth)

Best Female Action Star

Emily Blunt (Sicario)

Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2)

Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Female Icon of the Year Award (a woman whose work in film and/or in life made a difference)

Chantal Akerman – In Memoriam for being a great filmmaker and inspiration

Maria Giese – activist filmmaker who is spearheading the movement for parity for women directors

Donna Langley – Chair(wo)man, Universal Pictures, who has brought the studio to unprecedented profits

Jennifer Lawrence – for breaking the silence about discriminatory practices and unequal pay for actresses

Charlotte Rampling – because she’s Charlotte Rampling and is iconic

EDA Special Mention Awards

Actress Defying Age and Ageism

Helen Mirren

Charlotte Rampling

Lily Tomlin

Best Depiction of Nudity, Sexuality or Seduction

Anomalisa

Carol

The Diary of a Teenage Girl

Movie You Wanted to Love, but Just Couldn’t

Aloha

The Danish Girl

The Hateful Eight

Sisters

Actress Most in Need of a New Agent

Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World)

Dakota Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey)

Emma Stone (Aloha)

Most Egregious Age Difference between the Lead and the Love Interest

Katarina Cas and Al Pacino (Danny Collins)

Daniel Craig and Léa Seydoux (Spectre)

Julianne Moore and Ellen Page (Freeheld)

Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone (Irrational Man)