2011: A Look Back

This time last year, I decided to set up a little blog. A place for me to jot down what I thought of books and films I'd been enjoying. One year on, and the site is far more successful than I could have imagined and has turned into a place not just for my ramblings, but for everyone to share their opinions and debate to their heart's content! So as 2011 draws to a close, here are my favourite things from this past year.

What have your book and film highlights been in 2011? As always, comment away! Enjoy xxx

FILMS
2011 has been an impressive year at the cinema with massive hits from comic books to classics and brilliantly original screenplays. But it all started out with The King's Speech and Black Swan back in January - two completely different films that were both staggeringly good to watch. Later in the year, there were some more arty, occasionally darker films to marvel at rather than enjoy. The violence in Tyrannosaur - Paddy Considine's directorial debut - was intense but entirely overshadowed by the phenomenal performance given by Olivia Colman. Tilda Swinton also gave a quietly torturing performance in the bloodstained We Need to Talk About Kevin.

ADAPTATIONS
We Need to Talk About Kevin was one of the biggest adaptations of the year - but not the only one. There was also One Day, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Help and the final Harry Potter instalment - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two. While The Help and We Need to Talk About Kevin did brilliant jobs with their original source text, it was the final Harry Potter that stood out and for all the wrong reasons. The team behind the final film opted for 3D spectacle over plot and lost all the fitting ends to the beloved characters. It was a sorry end to an incredible series.

BOOKS
While 2011 was the year I managed to read The Help and We Need to Talk About Kevin - two incredible books - the book of the year has to be Afterwards by Rosamund Lupton. It held its own, even given the high standards set by Lupton's staggeringly brilliant debut Sister back in 2010. It was a lot to live up to but Lupton managed to prove just how talented she is with her second book. I look forward to book number three...
Though released a few years ago, 2011 was also the year I read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, a brilliant piece of young adult fiction set in a dystopian future. The book has been made into a film for release in 2012 and I am hugely excited to see it on the big screen.
A piece of quality non-fiction came out in 2011 in Dani's Story by Bernie and Diane Lierow. It is heartbreaking and heartwarming all at once and looks at the struggle the Lierows had in adopting Dani, a young girl who had been removed from her family home due to severe negligence.

INTERVIEWS
In the last year, I have had the great pleasure of chatting to some brilliant people in the world of film and book, but the highlights have to be getting to pose my questions to two brilliant authors - Rosamund Lupton and John Grisham. Getting to hear Real Steel director Shawn Levy and star of Fright Night David Tennant talk about their films at Empire Big Screen Weekend was also brilliant fun.

FUN
Sometimes, films and books get overlooked because they are silly and not to be taken seriously - though this does not make them bad. For pure unadulterated enjoyment, highlights have to include the Hugh Jackman robot film Real Steel and hilarious romp My Sweet Saga by Brett Sills. Marvel film Thor was also suprisingly entertaining and saw newcomer Chris Hemsworth pull off arrogant, funny and charming with apparent ease. Kristen Wiig also proved her worth by starring in and writing the massive hit Bridesmaids which mixed gross-out comedy, humour, touching sentimentality and heartbreaking sadness with class. But the clear winner by a mile was the JJ Abrams/Steven Spielberg summer hit Super 8, which had me hooked from start to finish. It was an adrenaline fuelled ride with incredible young stars, amazing effects and a dark and twisted storyline to match.

Hidden Cinematic Gems of 2011

2011 has seen some incredible blockbusters hit the big screen. The year kicked off with The King's Speech and Black Swan, the summer was spectacular with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Super 8 and two Marvel films Thor and Captain America. There was the brilliantly witty and original Bridesmaids and some incredibly successful art-house films including We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Tree of Life. Even though it was widely criticized by critics, even The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn did tremendously well at the box office thanks to its massive fan base. And the year isn't up yet - we still have the Sherlock Holmes sequel, Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to go.


But in amongst all that spectacle, a few gems have hit our screens and fizzled quietly away almost as quickly as they arrived. They may not have made millions at the box office but they deserve to be recognised as great pieces of cinema and I strongly urge you to check them out as soon as you can.

First off is Oranges and Sunshine, the true story of social worker Margaret Humphreys (Emily Watson) who stumbled across one of the biggest cover-ups in recent British history. Humphreys helped a young Australian woman who was trying to track down her birth parents. What she discovered was that thousands of British children were removed from their parents, told their parents were dead (when in fact they were not) and shipped off to Australia for a better life. Many were left in care, some abused, but largely they were forgotten about. Humphreys then takes it upon herself to track down all the families she can to reunite them. The stories are heartbreaking but instead of focusing on them, the film beautifully stays with Humphreys, who divides her time between her home in the UK and a house in Australia, away from her family and dealing daily with the horrifying stories each new person tells her.

Albatross was a hilarious surprise when I saw it. I didn't really know much about it, except that Jessica Brown Findlay from Downton Abbey was in it. What I found was a brilliantly naughty and oh-so-funny script about what happens when an outspoken young girl starts her cleaning job at a B&B and gets involved in the lives of the family who run it. The film has a British cast that shine in its countryside setting. Also starring Julia Ormond and Felicity Jones, Albatross was a shining example of originality and cleverly tongue-in-cheek.

I was apprehensive about seeing Tyrannosaur as it was meant to be incredibly violent. It was even more violent than I had previously imagined but what I did discover was an incredibly powerful film about an unlikely friendship between a violent man and a woman suffering domestic abuse at the hands of her husband. Written and directed by Paddy Considine and with a performance from Olivia Colman - known before this for her comedic roles - that blew me away, the film is flawless - if you can handle the violence. I truly hope that Colman and Considine are recognised for their work and not just in the UK.

I stumbled across Welcome to the South (Benvenuti al Sud) entirely by accident as it was part of the local Italian Cinema selection. What I found was an absolutely hilarious, laugh-out-loud film about the misconceptions of others. When a man in the north of Italy is punished for lying at work by being sent to the office nobody wants in the south, he prepares - rather comically - by putting on a bullet-proof vest. When he gets there, he finds that they may speak funny and they may have a different way of approaching things but they are still great people. He soon befriends them and starts to enjoy life their way.

BIFA Award Nominees Announced

The nominees have now been announced on Twitter by Moët BIFA (The Moët British Independent Film Awards).

The nominations include Submarine, Tyrannosaur, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Albatross, Jane Eyre and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. All in all, it's been a great year for British Cinema and long may it continue. There seems to also be a great mix of fresh new screenplays and book to film adaptations.

Personally, I would love to see Paddy Considine and Olivia Colman get recognised for their incredible work in Tyrannosaur and must say a massive congratulations to Jessica Brown Findlay for her nomination for Albatross, though I am sad to see Tamzin Rafn hasn't made the list for her brilliantly witty and original screenplay of the same film.

The hardest award to call may just be the Best Supporting Actor category as Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ezra Miller all brought phenomenal acting to the screen.

See what you think of the list below. Is your favourite on there? 

MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER (ON SCREEN)

• Jessica Brown Findlay for ALBATROSS
• John Boyega for ATTACK THE BLOCK
• Craig Roberts for SUBMARINE
• Yasmin Paige for SUBMARINE
• Tom Cullen for WEEKEND

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Felicity Jones for ALBATROSS
• Vanessa Redgrave for CORIOLANUS
• Carey Mulligan for SHAME
• Sally Hawkins for SUBMARINE
• Kathy Burke for TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Michael Smiley for KILL LIST
• Tom Hardy for TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
• Benedict Cumberbatch for TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
• Eddie Marsan for TYRANNOSAUR
• Ezra Miller for WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

BEST ACTOR

• Brendan Gleeson for THE GUARD
• Neil Maskell for KILL LIST
• Michael Fassbender for SHAME
• Gary Oldman for TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
• Peter Mullan for TYRANNOSAUR

BEST ACTRESS

• Rebecca Hall for THE AWAKENING
• Mia Wasikowska for JANE EYRE
• MyAnna Buring for KILL LIST
• Olivia Colman for TYRANNOSAUR
• Tilda Swinton for WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

BEST SCREENPLAY

• John Michael McDonagh for THE GUARD
• Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump for KILL LIST
• Abi Morgan and Steve McQueen for SHAME
• Richard Ayoade for SUBMARINE
• Lynne Ramsay and Rory Kinnear for WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

BEST DIRECTOR

• Ben Wheatley for KILL LIST
• Steve McQueen for SHAME
• Tomas Alfredson for TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
• Paddy Considine for TYRANNOSAUR
• Lynne Ramsay for WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM

• SENNA
• SHAME
• TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
• TYRANNOSAUR
• WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

Tyrannosaur Q&A with Paddy Considine, Olivia Colman and Eddie Marsan

Thanks to the lovely folks over at the Phoenix Cinema, I was fortunate enough to attend a Q&A session with Tyrannosaur Writer and Director of the film Paddy Considine, along with two of the film's stars - Olivia Colman and Eddie Marsan.

Considine talked a lot about this being his directorial debut and showed unashamedly his complete adoration for his cast members. On Colman's performance, he said she was "a force of nature" and it was "a transformation of the soul". There was no gaining weight or changing your hairstyle. This was an entirely different transformation, he explained.

On directing in particular, Considine said that he had worked on so many film sets in the past and just knew that he had to stand out on his own and "make my own stories". He admits that acting is not his primary form of expression.

On Considine's skills as a director, Colman said that he was "so passionate, so fair" and everyone just loved him which made it easier to get things done. The entire film was shot in only four weeks and Colman insists that it was "not long enough".

When I asked all three how they prepared for the film, given the sensitive subject of domestic violence, Considine said he was familiar with the environment, though clarified he did not mean his own parents, Colman said she worked with an abuse charity and read a couple of case studies - which she argued were so horrific that if they were in the film, nobody would have believed they were true. She also said that Eddie Marsan is such an incredible actor that he was terrifying. And as Considine added, it's not acting - it's reacting. When filming one of the dramatic final scenes, Considine allocated a lot of time to allow Colman sufficient time and care to reach the places she would have to reach to really pull off the scene. But then, when it came to shooting, she just "tore the place apart".

All three talked a lot about the script. Marsan and Colman both said they had most of the preparation they needed in the script itself because it was so well written, it was all there for them. Marsan said: "The characters were so clear. It was written by an actor." Even Considine admitted that he didn't write the script just to have actors "improvise" with it. When asked if it was easy to give his script over to his actors, if they had suggestions, he added: "It's easy to give it over to good actors, it's not easy to give it over to wankers [laughs]."

When asked how they kept themselves from getting bogged down in the seriousness of the film's theme - Considine joked that they had a bouncy castle on set. "They do their best work when at ease," he said.

He also stuck up for British cinema and said it was time to stop apologising for British cinema and just make great films - to rapturous applause.

Considine spoke openly about his recent diagnosis with Asbergers Syndrome and explained that he was actually quite relieved to know he wasn't "mentally ill" as he has been told since he was a teenager. He says it has not restricted him in his film-making. He is focused and wrote the script to Tyrannosaur in a week and prefers being "on the outside looking in". He actually found it easier directing as he was running the ship.

So will this be the end to Considine's acting career?... "I will act again," he says. "I've got family. It's alright. [laughs] I haven't done my best work yet. I like to think there's another few discoveries on the way..."

Well Paddy - so do we... so do we!

Review - Tyrannosaur

Tyrannosaur is Paddy Considine's baby. He wrote and directed it and in his own words: "It is the film I always wanted to make." To sum up what the film is about in one sentence would, I fear, do it a disservice. It's a complex tale with many lives interweaving - but at the centre of it all are two people. These two people, both damaged in their own way, form an unlikely bond. Joseph, played by Peter Mullen, first meets Hannah (Olivia Colman) after he has thrown a brick through a shop window and decides to hide in a nearby shop. Alone in the shop, Hannah is forced to talk to him. It is this chance meeting that starts their relationship.

It gives nothing away to say that Joseph is a massively violent and abusive man - the opening scene sees him kick a dog to death in a fit of rage and blurt out expletive after expletive as though there were no other words in the English language. So when Hannah, who we see soon after is a victim of domestic abuse at the hands of husband James (Eddie Marsan), forms a relationship with Joseph, it is jarring but sort of comforting. At least he will be able to protect her from her violent husband, you think - unless he hurts her himself.

There are two moments of animal cruelty in the film, a fair few punches and what can only be called one-sided fights and one incident of utterly horrific human on human violence that will leave you stunned. But if you can get past all of that, this is a cinematic masterpiece.

Joseph opens the film, as I said, by kicking a dog to death. Yet you are still invested in him as the film progresses. Mullen is such a phenomenal actor that he brings you into his constant battle with his violent outbursts. It is something that seems very much beyond his control and watching him try to fight the urge to lash out is compelling viewing indeed. He also doesn't know how to be around people. He is abrasive and snappy. So when Hannah prays for him and shows him kindness, he is moved in a way he doesn't fully comprehend.

 

DIY


Hannah is the most fascinating character of all though. Solitary in her work in a charity shop, she is often devoid of human company. She has a strong belief in God, which she uses to get her through her struggles and goes from happy, smiley "I fell in the bathtub" to shaking with fear vulnerability in a second. Known largely as a comedic actress in Peep Show and Hot Fuzz, Colman has done a performance here that should not just win every British award going but every award - period! She never over-plays the role and gives Hannah just that little bit something extra. She is feisty and conflicted and more than just a one-dimensional victim. She has depths you don't see coming.

All in all, the acting, the script and the direction make for a completely brilliant film. It is a snapshot into the lives of the two leads in the time when their paths converge and where that snapshot will take them is anyone's guess. The only fault I can find in the film is the intensity of the violence, which many film-goers will just find too much to bear. But even that is needed to really bring out the heart of the film.

A perfectly acted and written cinematic masterpiece, occasionally too unbearable to watch.

4.5/5 FOBLES

Tyrannosaur hits UK cinemas this Friday 7th October.

For Q&A with Paddy Considine, Olivia Colman and Eddie Marsan click here