The Master, Les Miserables, Rust and Bone…films for 2013

beastsjoaquimammaI know Christmas is all about the excess but I think I may have overdone it. I have spent the weekend locked away, huddled in my onesie, hand on the remote, going through all those BAFTA DVD’s so I can cast my vote. So in no particular order….

Les MiserablesTotally fabulous. Go and see it in the cinema though. You will not notice that it is very very long and you will come to love the extreme singing close ups.

DjangoEntertaining, slick, funny. Best scene – the one with the Klu Klux Klan – it is a corker. Jamie Foxx, very watchable and I hate to be shallow but especially with his shirt off. Leonardo Di Caprio ditto (although sadly he didn’t take his shirt off). But a film with no heart.

The SessionsDo not watch this with any close relations. Watch it though. A very disabled man and his relationships with his priest, his carers and his sex therapist. If you don’t laugh and cry, you have no heart.

LincolnEven when they have graded the film to a deep grey at its lightest and put loads of wispy hair on him and somehow elongated him, there is no denying that Daniel Day Lewis is a hugely gorgeous and charismatic man and yes you can watch him for several hours – lucky that! I learnt quite a lot about the civil war, well I did use some google to fill in the gaps, and I thought Sally Field was brilliant. But my word it is all a bit long and worthy and dark – literally ie quite hard to make out.

Beasts of the Southern WildWow. Original and gripping.

Rust and BoneIt starts off with a very pretty girl getting her legs bitten off by a Killer Whale – you can’t really beat that as an opener. I really liked this film. Understated after that beginning and convincing somehow.

Zero Dark ThirtyDisturbing and distressing. I don’t necessarily want to think about how we use torture and this film forces you to.

The MasterOne hundred per cent fabulous. Joaquin Phoenix is enough to give anyone sleepless nights with all that summerlightning energy and add to it the sibilant Mr Seymour Hoffman and a gaggle of besotted women….This film is all about the performances – give those actors a payrise.

ArgoHmm. A bit yawny. My Dad asked that horridly pertinent question, “But which characters do you sympathise with…”

The ImpossibleTerrifying underwater scenes and brought home the horror of nature smashing through your life. Compassionate treatment of how basically good most humans are. Definitely a weepy.

Seven PsychopathsQuite excited when I saw the opening titles – funded by the BFI who have taken over from the UKFC, first time I have seen their logo on anything. But why did they fund it was all I could think about. What was the UK connection to justify our Lottery spend. I am sure there is one as I am a believer, just want to know what it is. Didn’t make it through to the end.

Anna Karenina
She really IS pretty isn’t she, our Keira and come to that so is Aaron Taylor-Johnson and good actors both. Gorgeous costumes, beautiful production design. Sumptuous, delicious to watch. But let’s face it you can’t really do justice to an all time Russian classic in a couple of brief hours.

PrometheusI really liked it. I think I am in a minority on that but I just took it as another adventure film with nasty creepy things on a big planet and a bit of tension as to who was going to go next.

Salmon Fishing in the YemenI know I am way behind but I was saving it as a nice Christmas film. And it really was.

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