Films

Spotlight (2015)
[#144 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

this week on 100 Films

2016 entered yet another new month this past week, meaning it was time to look back at August on 100 Films in a Year...




As well as that, only 2 brand-new reviews were published this week... but one of them was an epic...


The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011)

100 Films in a Year #1000 — Written, directed, and narrated by film journalist/historian/fan Mark Cousins, The Story of Film: An Odyssey is an epic 15-hour account of innovation throughout the history of moviemaking, which began its premiere broadcast five years ago today. It’s an acclaimed work, to be sure, but one that also attracts its fair share of controversy — about films and filmmakers that Cousins chose to leave out, in some cases about those he chose to include, and about how the documentary itself was made: the oddly framed interviews, the artistic shots of baubles, Cousins’ accent and vocal inflections.

Read more here.


Zoolander (2001)

The story of an almost-past-it model who’s brainwashed into being an assassin, it’s essentially a one joke film (“aren’t models dumb?”), but gets surprisingly good mileage out of that. Not relentlessly amusing, nor the best thing on anyone’s CV, but some bits are very funny.

Read more here.


And my 100 Favourites series continued with 2 more posts, too...


One Hour Photo (2002)

“Family photos depict smiling faces… births, weddings, holidays, children’s birthday parties. People take pictures of the happy moments in their lives. Someone looking through our photo album would conclude that we had led a joyous, leisurely existence free of tragedy. No one ever takes a photograph of something they want to forget.”

Read more here.


Phone Booth (2002)

Regular readers will know of my fondness for the single-location thriller, and this is one of the films that helped define that love. And events occur in real-time, which is just a bonus. Colin Farrell and Kiefer Sutherland are both on excellent form as the hostage who maybe has it coming and the hostage taker who maybe has a point.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.