Sam Gray

Don’t worry I found it! And yes I agree, Happiness is definitely his most selfless performance.

I’m very envious! Someone told me that particular Broadway performance was unmissable. I would have loved to have seen one of the plays he directed or starred in.

Did you know that David Lynch screened Sunset Boulevard to everyone before making Eraserhead? It’s one of his favourite films, which might explain passing similarities it has to Mulholland Drive. Anyway, I think you captured what makes this classic film noir so great. My favourite Billy Wilder film will still always be Double Indemnity but this is a close runner-up.

I thought Gravity was the most recent film to use 3D well because it, like Avatar, showcased the potential of the technology. I think this approach is the only justification for the expensive price tag. Of course, not all films are like this – Toy Story 3 was an abysmal example because it only used the 3D to slightly blur the background and slightly emboss the foreground, and having to use the glasses meant it became darker and blurrier. It can work but usually doesn’t, and I think that’s why 3D’s gotten quite a bad reputation among the more discerning cinema-going audience.

While your first two sentences sound like the beginning of a Twilight Zone episode, I do think this is an interesting topic to discuss, particularly in today’s context. I’ve always thought the success of recruitment films like Lone Survivor, Black Hawk Down, Act of Valor and so on can be seen as analogous to the success of video games such as Call of Duty and Medal of Honor. They offer an exciting alternative to the more depressing realities of war, something we hear about on the news but would rather not know. It’s easier to imagine a group of people triumphing over the forces of evil through teamwork and bravery than to imagine those same people being sent into a politically unstable, dangerous region with no clear long-term objective.

But I do think the conclusion you reach is a bit cynical. For every Lone Survivor there’s something like The Hurt Locker or Jarhead, a film which both presents and subverts the stereotypes of war films we’ve come to expect, often with an explicitly political slant. And to their credit, critics were fast to call out Lone Survivor on the brash way it dealt with patriotism, although I agree that some of the positive response the general public gave the film was disturbing.

I’m glad you admitted your predictions were cynical, there are some promising mainstream releases too! You didn’t mention the new Sin City film and 22 Jump Street, which both might be fun if they’re anything like their predecessor. And later in the year we’ve got films from great directors like David Fincher with Gone Girl and Christopher Nolan with Interstellar. Although I would say that yes, there are a LOT of comic book adaptations coming out this year.

While there are some interesting ideas you bring to the mix, I’ve lost hope in seeing anything good come out of this franchise. Prometheus’ problems lay in the storytelling, and Ridley Scott just can’t seem to tell a good story anymore – how did he manage to screw up The Counsellor? As long as he’s attached to the franchise I’m sure that the films will look beautiful but lack that key ingredient of humanity a good science fiction film needs.

The Great Gatsby is many things, but I’m not sure I’d label it “forgettable”. It was bold and (at least visually) distinctive, and prompted quite a bit of discussion – admittedly, much of it was negative, but the very fact that it provoked such a response in the first place means it can’t really be labelled as “forgettable”. Otherwise this a fine list.