Saw 6 films released in the UK in February this year. They were (in order of me liking to disliking it):
1. The Duke of Burgundy -
- Evocative and provocative, The Duke of Burgundy is an astounding work of art; Strickland takes an intriguing plot and masterfully weaves it into a gem filled with a fine mixture of uncanny eroticism and unexpected sadness. One of 2015's best films so far, and one of the best films I've ever seen about love.
2. Selma -
- February's first great film comes in the form of Selma. While its enjoyability occasionally wavers, it's never an uninteresting watch, strengthened by a fantastic Oyelowo performance and its ability to move without manipulating.
3. Jupiter Ascending -
- Are there any directors working today that are currently more ambitious than the Wachowski siblings? On this basis, perhaps not, as the directors' latest flick has all the initiative as their last flick, Cloud Atlas, though not quite the same handsome payoff. Beautiful, wildly entertaining, and balls-off-the-walls crazy, Ascending has all the potential to become a cult classic.
4. Big Hero 6 -
- Ignoring early expositional problems, a few plot holes and a lack of unpredictability, Big Hero 6 is a very funny, very charming and very entertaining animation that services its target audience near-perfectly.
5. Kingsman: The Secret Service -
- For all of Kingsman's entertainment values, it's an infuriating watch. Ridden with snooty stereotypes, frustrating sequences and incoherent plot points, it's an absolute necessity to turn off all brain cells if you want to watch this muddled mess.
6. American Sniper -
-
Diabolically lifeless. Unforgivingly misinformative. Brimming with uninteresting characters caught up in a script as stilted as some of the ex-marines. Yet the flick's biggest downfall is its lack of any emotional, and more importantly, political heft; American Sniper misses the target by quite some distance.
February was largely a disappointing month for films in the UK. The Duke of Burgundy is fast-becoming my favourite film of the year so far (If I had to rank my top 3 at this current moment, it would be 1. Inherent Vice 2. The Duke of Burgundy 3. Whiplash). Selma was also a very good film and Oyelowo really was shockingly snubbed at the Oscars. Jupiter Ascending is much better than critics make it out to be, and crazily ambitious. It saddens me that Big Hero 6 won the Oscar when Lego Movie wasn't even nominated, but eh, it's not a big deal. I reckon both reviews of Kingsman and Sniper will irritate some Smogon users, but it's genuinely how I feel about them.
March looks even worse for films, but I hotly anticipate retro-horror 'It Follows', Blonkamp's latest, 'Chappie', and Ryan Reynold's 'The Voices'.
The other, non-2015 films I saw in February were:
Short Term 12 -
To the Wonder -
The Illusionist -
Moon -
Moonrise Kingdom -
- rewatch
and Kahn's short, Power/Rangers -