My Top 5 Films of 2021

Posted on December 31, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

So following on from 10-6 last week, here are my top 5 films of 2021. It’s been a pretty great year for cinema and there’s still a ton of films that I haven’t seen, but want to. Without anymore delays.

5 – Censor

Prano Bailey-Bond's Excellent Horror Film 'Censor' Coming to 4K Ultra HD from Vinegar Syndrome Pictures - Bloody Disgusting

I really like the way Censor starts out like an almost nostalgia fuelled story that could be a drama, and to be honest I would probably still enjoy it if it wasn’t an all-out horror, and then as the story moves forward it becomes more and more twisted until the final moments that are absolutely great. It reminded me of Saint Maud, which is another excellent horror film. Censor is completely unique and I really recommend it.

4 – In The Earth

In The Earth Trailer: Ben Wheatley Heads Back To Horror In The Woods | Movies | Empire

2021 has been a great year for horror and In The Earth is my favourite release. It’s the only time I’ve ever squirmed and had to look away in the cinema and my heart was racing all the way through it. Even with that, it still made me laugh at points. It’s a trippy film, and it’s full of a creepy and unsettling atmosphere. It’s not for everyone, but if you like folklore horror then this is really worth checking out.

3 – Judas and the Black Messiah

Judas and the Black Messiah' New 2021 Release Date - Variety

This was the first film I saw when cinemas reopened back in May. I knew it was supposed to be good, but I was blown away by it. I love films that lead me to reading about the true story and learning more about history and that’s exactly what this did. It’s a dark story and something that more people should watch. The performances are beyond excellent.

2 – Pig

Pig' Summary, Ending & Sense Of Loss Explained | DMT

Nicolas Cage has had 3 great films out in 2021, Willy’s Wonderland, Prisoners of the Ghostland and the best of the bunch Pig. Cage’s pet pig is stolen, and he goes on a mission to save it. The premise sounds stupid, but the actual film is a heartbreaking drama that works perfectly from start to finish. It’s something that really stays with you once you’ve seen it and it’s Cage’s best performance in a decade at least.  

1 – Tick, Tick… Boom!

tick, tick...BOOM! (2021) - IMDb

I know I’ve spoken about this a few times recently and it’s not a perfect film, but it resonated with me so much. I’ve had the soundtrack on repeat almost constantly since seeing it and I can’t express enough how much I loved it. Andrew Garfield is phenomenal in this. It’s great music, great cast, and a moving and inspirational story. I want to watch it again right now.

2021 has been a great year for film fans and we can all look forward to 2022 where I’m sure there will be even more surprises to find. If your favourite film of the year isn’t on my list, let me know. I’m always happy to find new recommendations.

Thanks for reading and until next time,

Ashley

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Three Outlaw Samurai – Film Review

Posted on December 30, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter
Three Outlaw Samurai (1964) - IMDb

Director: Hideo Gosha

Writers: Keiichi Abe, Eizaburo Shiba, Hideo Gosha

Starring: Tetsuro Tamba, Isamu Nagato, Mikijirō Hira, Yoshiko Kayama, Kyoko Aoi, Junkichi Orimoto, Hisashi Igawa, Kamatari Fujiwara

Rating: ★★★★

Director Hideo Gosha, made his start with TV shows, before moving to feature films. His first feature length film, Three Outlaw Samurai, was actually an origin story for the TV show of the same name that he worked on. The TV show has mostly been lost to time, sadly, but the film still survives and it’s really worth watching as a stand alone story.

Sakon Shiba (Tetsuro Tamba) is a rōnin, a samurai without a Lord, who passes upon a group of rebels who have kidnapped the local Magistrate’s daughter. They are revolting because they want to be heard by their Magistrate, who doesn’t seem to care that the farmers are starving. Sakon is ambivalent towards their cause at first, just looking for a place to stay, but ends up siding with them once the Magistrate shows his true corruption.  

Three Outlaw Samurai (1964) - IMDb

Three Outlaw Samurai is a dark film. This isn’t a story of honour and a Samurai code, it’s about greed and betrayal. The Magistrate won’t listen to the peasant’s demands, instead he lives a lavish life while the farmers are starving. The Magistrate is a Samurai himself, but doesn’t honour the deals he makes with the other Samurai, instead he keeps his control over everyone around him. There is more honour with the three peasants who kidnap the Magistrate’s daughter, they go hungry to feed her, even though she rejects the food. Gosha’s film is a biting criticism of the system that the town is living in and how power corrupts.

Gosha does an impeccable job of creating likable characters that you really care about. Skaon Shiba feels like an iconic samurai. He’s loyal, lives by a code, and is a force for good wherever he goes. He sees the struggle that the farmers are in and tries to help them the best he can. The other two samurai that join him throughout the film are also great characters, and you can perfectly imagine how well the three characters would play off each other in the TV series. It’s a real shame it’s not available anywhere.

The action and fight sequences are just excellent. It is sometimes clear that the sword isn’t touching, and the deaths and blows are overdramatized, but there is still a rawness to it that feels real. The way that the camera moves around during the fight sequences is brilliant, it makes you feel like your part of it. It feels intense because you’re so invested in the characters.

Three Outlaw Samurai is an excellent samurai film. It’s really dark and gritting in tone and the action is thrilling. It still feels fresh and original, almost sixty years later, and that’s purely down to how great Gosha was as a filmmaker.

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The Book of Boba Fett – Chapter One: Stranger in a Strange Land – Review

Posted on December 30, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter
The Book of Boba Fett (TV Series 2021– ) - IMDb

Director: Robert Rodriguez

Writer: Jon Favreau 

Starring: Temuera Morrison, Ming-Na Wen

Rating: ★★★★

After being slyly announced at the end of the second season of The Mandalorian, Boba Fett’s solo show has started airing on Disney+. It feels like there’s barely been any promotion for The Book of Boba Fett, with the release feeling very under the radar compared to Hawkeye or Loki. Even The Bad Batch got bigger fanfare prior to release. Regardless, it’s here now and it’s a welcome addition to the Star Wars universe.

The first episode starts with an introduction of Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) with a shot of him as a child and then taking Jabba’s throne, which we saw at the end of The Mandalorian second season finale. The question of how he got out of the Sarlacc pit after Return of the Jedi has been answered in the most obvious way. The rest of the episode is then split between the present where Fett is taking control of Jabba’s empire and flashbacks to the aftermath of the Sarlacc pit. Whether you wanted the lead up to his appearance in The Mandalorian or the next chapter beyond that, The Book of Boba Fett has you covered.

Episode one is a great introduction to the series. If you’ve not seen The Mandalorian, then you can absolutely jump straight into this. It feels like it’s going to be completely self-contained. So far the set up is really well done and the rest of the series can’t come soon enough. To be wouldn’t expect anything less from Robert Rodriguez and Jon Favreau.

Both Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen, who plays Fett’s assassin Fennec Shand, are great. They were both excellent in the episodes of The Mandalorian they were in and are just as great here. Morrison is the perfect Fett, and Wen is deadly as Shand. There’s also an appearance from Matt Berry, from House of Fools and What We Do in the Shadows, and if there’s anything this world needs it’s more Matt Berry.

Seeing the expanded world is always exciting, and this feels like we’re getting to see a completely new side to the Star Wars universe. The gangster empire that Jabba the Hut ran has been a mystery previously, but it feels more complete here. The story showing Fett’s escape from the pit, and subsequent capture by the Tusken Raiders is also gripping so far. It may change, but it does feel the rest of the series is going to be split between the two story lines with the present and flashbacks. The visuals also look great. There’s a rooftop chase on Tatooine that looks excellent and the creature designs are simply spot on.

It may be too early to tell just yet, but there are hints that Boba Fett has been softened up for this series. In the original films, he was a ruthless bounty hunter who had no problems turning in Han Solo for the money. He doesn’t really get that much screen time in Empire or Jedi, but he is without any doubt a villain. Here, as he was in The Mandalorian, Fett is presented as a morally ambiguous character, he’s someone who wants to rule with respect and not fear, he also offers to help another prisoner escape in the flashback. It seems a little out of character, compared to the quiet and pay-check driven bounty hunter from the films, but then again he isn’t exactly fleshed out in the films, so this is his real chance to shine.

Chapter One does a great job at setting up the new show, as well as filling in gaps from the Star Wars lore. It’s exciting to see what’s coming next.

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Tokyo Godfathers – Film Review

Posted on December 29, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter
Tokyo Godfathers (2003) - IMDb

Director: Satoshi Kon

Writers: Satoshi Jon and Keiko Nobumoto

Starring: Tōru Emori, Yoshiaki Umegami, Aya Okamoto, Satomi Koorogi, Shouzou Lizuka

Rating: ★★★★

Satoshi Kon’s Tokyo Godfathers is delightful and fun tragicomedy that is the perfect alternative for normal Christmas classics. It’s a film about family, that is charmingly funny and at times heart-wrenchingly sad.

When three homeless people discover a child in the trash on Christmas Eve, they take it on themselves to find the child’s parents to find out why they abandoned their daughter. Along with the child there is a key that’s been left behind, that leads the trio to clues about who the parents might be.

You wouldn’t expect a film about homeless people and abandoned children at Christmas to be that fun to watch, but somehow Satoshi Kon really pulls it off. There’s a manic approach to it that gives it the same energy as something like It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, where it never really lets up. It’s wacky and whimsical moments lined up one after the other, with one of the tensest chase sequences in anime history towards the end. There’s always something going on, and whenever you think you know what’s coming, something happens that changes the plot’s direction. The last half an hour is filled with frantic chases and twists, and you’re constantly on the edge of your seat waiting for whatever could happen next.

There are so many twists and turns, and they always come out of left field. To mention any of them would be too much of a spoiler, but the premise alone should be enough to get that point across. At the heart of the story are the three main characters. On the surface they aren’t that likable, Gin (Tōru Emori) is an alcoholic, Miyuki (Aya Okamoto) stabbed her father and ran away from home, and Hana (Yoshiaki Umegami) is a self-absorbed woman who wants a child so much she doesn’t want to take it to the police in the first place. Other the course of the film they really grow on you, and you are completely rooting for them by the final act.

The film is also about family, a timely theme with the Christmas setting. There’s a sense of choosing your own family, that the film portrays really well. The three homeless people feel like a really close family, but they aren’t related. Miyuki completely regrets what she did but can’t go back home out of fear that her dad would have her arrested. Gin’s family died, which leads him to heavy drinking and Hana doesn’t believe her mother would approve of her if she saw her now. The child they find has also been abandoned. There’s a desperation for acceptance that the characters find within each other and a message that you can choose your family. The characters have to deal with their own family history at different points throughout the story in a series of strange coincidences and it does get emotional at points.

Tokyo Godfathers is a perfect mix of tragic drama and comedy. It’s funny, dark, and just something special.

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Final Update of 2021

Posted on December 29, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

I hope everyone had a great week of celebrations and hopefully spending time with family. We’re almost at the end of 2021 and hopefully 2022 will be a lot better as we’re slowly getting back to normal. I have high hopes for 2022. Throughout the holiday period I’ve still been putting up reviews and trying to stick to my normal schedule. I originally thought that may be silly and next to no one would read it, but Christmas Day was my best day of the year, view wise, which was then beaten by Boxing Day. Thank you everyone who read any of my posts throughout the period.

The last week of the year is always strange, I never know what day of the week it is, or what’s really going on, then it’s all over and everything’s back to normal for another 12 months. This week, there isn’t much coming out in the cinema. Near me it’s just The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, which I’m not that excited for. The first time I saw the trailer, I thought it looked quirky and great, then it’s been shown before almost every film I’ve gone to see and I’m just looking forward to not having to watch it again.

Titane and Liquorice Pizza aren’t being shown near me, which is disappointing. Spider-Man is still reigning supreme, taking up all the screens at my local cinema. Since it’s a long weekend we may take a trip to Milton Keynes to see Liquorice Pizza. It’s about half an hour drive, so we might make a day out of it.

Other than that The Lost Daughter is due out on Netflix on Friday, which I’m looking forward to. I don’t have any other plans to watch things, so I’ll be watching older stuff that I’ve had sitting on the shelf for a while.

Other than watching films, I’ve also been playing Halo Infinite, which I’m really enjoying. I think I’m getting close to the end of it. I don’t have a lot of time to play games anymore, so it’s been a nice change of pace over Christmas. I really like the open world style and the grappling hook you get to use. I’m no good at online vs games, so I’ll only be touching the single player side. Years ago, me and my brother used to play the campaign of Halo in split-screen. We played through the first 3, which I think got worse with each one, and a lot shorter. This is the first Halo game I’ve played since then, and I’m tempted to go back and play the ones I missed. To be honest, I probably won’t, but I’m tempted.

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year! Thanks for reading and until next time,

Ashley

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