A new year stretches out in front of us, and the way things are going it’s probably humanity’s last. Before we deal with that carnival of terror, let’s look back at the best and the worst films we caught during Space Year 2016.
Download direct | Subscribe on iTunes | Subscribe via feed
We’re largely concerned with films that received a wide U.K. release in calendar year 2016.
Our collective pick for film of the year goes to Laika’s Kubo and the Two Strings, a beautiful, emotive, warm, magical movie that evokes parts of Studio Ghibli’s best works. We at Fuds On Film are pleased to announce the coveted “Film of the Year” award of a five pound book token is winging its way to Oregon.
Also in the running for this prestigious award were Trumbo, the story of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and his McCarthy-era persecution with an incredible central turn from Brian Cranston, and Spotlight, an excellent and compellingly low-key look at the investigation into Catholic Church scandals with a brilliant ensemble cast.
Perhaps disappointing is a more apt term, as we’re sure there’s many no-budget, largely ignored travesties knocking around that haven’t impinged on our consciousness.
Zoolander 2 seems to have it’s heart in the right place, but sadly not the laughs, so is a waste of all involved’s talents.
If we’re talking about gulf in quality between how generally well received a film was and how extraordinarily boring, needlessly overstuffed, meanderingly plotted and visually disappointing it was, it’s tough to see past Captain America: Civil War. A garbage film, for garbage people.
YA-targetted alien invasion flick_The 5th Wave_ has a reasonable cast, making the terrible performances quite disappointing, which combined with a ludicrous plot and some garbage CG sinks this almost to the bottom of the list.
But the “honour” of Turd of the Year must go to Gods of Egypt, from the generally not-insane Alex Proyas. While Egyptian mythology remains ripe for a good ol’ plunder and cultural appropriation, there’s nothing good about this mish-mash of dismal acting, ugly, unconvincing effects work, and bewildering design choices and casting decisions. A right ol’ dumpster fire.
There’s been, we think, an unusually large number of very good films released this year, such that the usually relatively slim pickings for filling out a top ten has instead blossomed to volumes that made it hard to cut it down.
Highly recommended, in no particular order, are the following: Eye in the Sky, Deadpool, The Nice Guys, Our Kind of Traitor, Sing Street, Doctor Strange, Anthropoid, Lights Out, Your Name, Batman vs. Superman – yes, you heard us ,Batman vs. Superman, Midnight Special, Green Room, and 10 Cloverfield Lane.
We’d like to take a moment to express our appreciation to those who’ve recommended us to others over the past year, and to those who have stumbled on our little podcast and subscribed. We hope to keep up, and improve, on our standard of work over the coming year, and we hope we can keep being worthy of your time and attention.
Also, after next month’s podcast I believe we’ve fulfilled any requested topics from our last call, so if there’s any subjects you’d like us to look at please get in touch and we’ll get cracking on them.
If you’ve been affected by any of the issues discussed today, please hit us up on Twitter (@fudsonfilm), on Facebook (facebook.com/fudsonfilm), or email us at podcast@fudsonfilm.com. If you want to receive our podcast on a regular basis, please add our feed to your podcasting software of choice, or subscribe on iTunes. If you could see your way clear to leaving a review on iTunes, we’d be eternally grateful, but we won’t blame you if you don’t. We’ll be back with you on the 10th with a look at movies based on, of all things, one vs one fighting video games, but until then, take care of yourself, and each other.
Leave a Reply