'Ford v Ferrari' or 'Le Mans '66' (2019)

'Ford v Ferrari' was my number one surprise of 2020's awards season. For some reason this film just really didn't peak my interest. Perhaps for the fact it was renamed and poorly marketed in the uk or more likely that it was released in amongst a huge mountain of great films coming up to this most recent awards season. So many of the other films instantly grabbed my attention but something about 'Ford v Ferrari' just didn't in the same way. However once i finally sat down to watch it, i found myself very pleasantly surprised at how much i enjoyed this film. All my preconceived notions of 'this not being my kind of film' or it 'looking boring' washed away. 

In 'Ford v Ferrari' we follow the true story of acclaimed driver and designer, Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and his friend, and fellow driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale). Ford motor company hires Shelby to design a car to represent the company at races which comes to include the famous Le Mans race in 1966. As Shelby gains more and more success we see the strain it puts on his friendship with Miles. We also see Miles struggle between following his dream and providing for his family, a story I'm sure hits home for many.

In the past i have found Matt Damon to be hit or miss and although certainly not his best performance, this one is a hit for me. Christian Bale's performance I had no doubts about, and he perfectly filled my expectations. The friendship between the two characters was very well captured by the two actors. There are also a number of other good performances throughout the film, Remo Girone as Enzo Ferrari and Tracy Letts as Henry Ford II to name a couple. However even though the acting talent is on-point for this film, personally i find it's not a stand-out part of this film.

What does stand out is the cinematography, something which completely took me by surprise. Not that I expected for the job to be poorly done, but that I thought in a film about cars and racing this wasn't going to be a focus point. I was perhaps expecting more 'Fast and Furious' and a little less 'Rush'. The racing scenes are an absolute treat with the camera seamlessly floating along closely behind and beside the cars getting so close to the action you can almost sense the speed and danger being shown. But the great cinematography does not stop when the cars do. The whole film is a smooth sexy homage to the story it tells. In most scenes the camera is slowly panning and dollying across the subject, barely ever staying stationary, even in the slower more 'talky' scenes, the camera constantly stays in motion as the film moves forward, pulling us with it through the story. There's one particular scene that sticks in my mind as I'm sure it did for many others, Ken Miles is left behind as the rest of the team of attending a race. He stays late working in their hanger-come-garage listening to the race on the radio, a plane lands outside and the light of the plane as it turns illuminates the scene casting shadows of the cars on the wall behind Ken. as the camera dolly's around him to the right, the shadows move to the left. The scene is beautiful and the symbolism of the shadows racing behind him as he listens to their sounds on the radio is plain to see. Certainly something I didn't expect to see in this film.

This film achieved 2 Oscars both well deserved and both for post production work. Winning for sound and also film editing. It's a pleasure to see these awards given to a film that truly exemplifies great editing in both sound and film, unlike some previous winners of these two awards (*cough* bohemian rhapsody *cough*).

Another resounding triumph of this film I want to mention is James Mangold's direction. With a good career so far with hits such as 'Girl, Interrupted', '3:10 to Yuma' and 'Walk the Line'. Mangold now seems to have 'found his style' recently correcting his mistakes with 'The Wolverine' creating the unmistakably amazing 'logan'. 'Ford v Ferrari' proves he can put together great films again and again, which seems to have won him the opportunity to direct some big name features, recently being signed onto direct an Indiana Jones project. Hopefully he can do less of a Wolverine and more of a 'Logan' with that!

I could go much more in-depth, and talk about many of the other great aspects of this film but I'm sure by this point you understand the fact that this film blasted my expectations and truly surprised me. As I say, I don't know where i got the idea that this film was anything less than what it is but i'm kind of glad i did. Without my preconceived feelings the film wouldn't have the opportunity to surprise me and grab my attention in the way it did. This is a film I'd recommend to not only a fan of motorsport but to any fans of great films. All this makes 'Ford v Ferrari' a film I would happily add to my collection and one I can't wait to watch again.

8/10

'1917' (2019)

Sam Mendes’ vision of world war 1, finally came to fruition late 2019 ready for the 2020 awards season and immediately became early 2020’s zeitgeist film. For a few weeks everybody was talking about ‘1917’, and deservedly so. The film follows two young soldiers fighting their way along the front lines in an effort to deliver a message to a battalion to prevent them falling into a deadly trap laid by the Germans.

The two leading roles of Lance Corporal Blake, played by the ‘unknown to me’, Dean-Charles Chapman and Lance Corporal Schofield played by George MacKay were the epitome of the scared but brave young men sent to the front during world war 1. These roles are obviously very well researched and wouldn’t appear amiss in a true-life documentary about world war one. Both of these young and somewhat inexperienced actors excellently pulled off the challenge of playing these characters, obviously completely understanding the roles they were each given. Their triumph over these roles should hopefully give these actors a good chance at being chosen again to lead more films with such in-depth characters. Some reviews chose character depth to be a weak point of the film however I cannot disagree more. These roles are brilliantly written and expertly brought to life.

By far the most outstanding part of this film is the cinematography and with the great Roger Deakins at the helm, I had no doubts this would be the case. From the pure aesthetic of the film to the lighting used to a huge advantage especially in ‘The Night Window’ scene. Furthermore Deakins' choice to create a ‘one shot’ film pulls you along on the arduous and non-stop journey of the two soldiers, immersing the viewers deeper into the minds of these men. This film does not stop for one second to let you breathe, everything Deakins does holds you completely to your seat. Personally I made a special effort to see the film in IMAX and although I believe the visuals this film delivers would be amazing on every screen, the IMAX experience was out of this world. The visuals are brought together brilliantly with Thomas Newman's absolute pleasure of a score. The score is a treat to listen to alone, as i had done before seeing the film and multiple times since. This perfectly tailored score creates a fantastic bundle together with Deakins’ visuals and Mendes’ direction to create a truly unforgettable cinema experience. It is clear that no aspect of this film was left out when it came to a very keen eye to the minutest of details.

The most controversial part of what is a fantastic film seems to be some perhaps slightly far-fetched plot details, namely an un-spoilt pail of milk in an abandoned farmhouse. For me none of these very minor details felt out of place and certainly didn’t affect any immersion, personally i feel they don’t affect the films quality at all. However it appears that for some viewers out there these tiny details are entirely immersion-breaking and experience-destroying. For these people I feel sorry that such a beautiful, awe-inspiring film can be ruined by something of such triviality. To me the story feels excellently put together and I feel that had I been told it was based on true events I would not question that for a second. The writing is a fantastic effort from Mendes and speaks volumes to his ability to write especially considering this is his writing debut.

For me this film wrapped up a truly amazing week in which I'd worked on a World War 1 short film. Everyone on set could not stop mentioning the very recently released film, so the hype was tangible. This can often lead to disappointment but ‘1917’ more than lives up to any hype it receives. This leaves ‘1917’ becoming my favourite film of 2019 and one of my favourite war films of all time. Although working together multiple times, Mendes and Deakins seem to have hit their stride with ‘Skyfall’ further cementing their professional relationship with ‘1917’. For me future team-ups between the pair will be ones to watch. With me personally struggling to find a reason for this film to not receive a perfect rating, I had to resort to scouring negative reviews to see if I could find fault with the film. I failed to find one reason that I find truly reflective of the film and as such I can't help to give this film a perfect score.

10/10

'Knives Out' (2019)

'Knives Out' was one of those films I wanted to see as soon as I saw the first teaser, something about its style, the implied story grabbed me straight away. However with that being said i had some doubts, Rian Johnson for one has not an entirely amazing back catalogue, this including his recent butchering of the newest Star Wars trilogy. It took me a long time to get around to seeing the film, it was about exiting its run in the cinemas and i booked tickets for its one showing that day on the smallest screen at that cinema. I expected a small turn out, it was quite the opposite, the screen was sold out. I had heard mixed mumblings about the film, a lot of ‘non-film’ people saying great things but then all that was almost refuted by those around me that I would consider as film buffs. However I tried to put all of this out of my mind as I settled into my seat with my popcorn and ice blast.

The film has some award deserving acting first from my own unexpected source of Daniel Craig, a non-favourite of mine in the past, portraying the mysterious detective figure in this grand murder mystery. Viewing the trailer had me worried about him pulling off his southern american accent convincingly throughout the film, and well as maintaining a realism for the character. I need not have worried, not for one second did his character waiver or break my immersion of the film. Truly for this film however my amazement lies in the acting of Ana de Armas, playing our leading lady. I had barely been aware of Ana before this film but for me her performance in 'Knives Out' alone gives her the label of one to watch. I also want to mention amazing performances here by other cast members including Toni Collette, Micheal Shannon and surprisingly even Chris Evans. Overall a fantastically well put together cast.

This film really shines when it comes to the visuals it delivers, from the sets it was filmed on, to the costumes and to a massive extent the use of lighting. Some of the methods used to light this are something I have never seen before, some experimental lighting techniques lead to a very interesting look and incredibly life-like on-screen look, the likes of which we generally don’t see. A round of applause is well deserved for the whole crew who really bought Johnson's vision together, and I think this really shows the effectiveness of working with the same crew. Steve Yedlin, having worked on multiple of Johnson's previous productions knew exactly what he was after, the rapport built between the duo has totally paid off in what they have accomplished in 'Knives Out'. It is obvious that no expense was spared in creating the exact look this film called for.

Another fantastic part of this film lies in its writing. Good writing will also have you on the edge of your seat guessing the next twist and turn, great writing will have you guessing wrong and will surprise you, the astonishing writing of 'Knives Out' goes beyond that. Throughout the film I was pointing my mind's finger, I had figured it out, only to be proven wrong time and time again. Had I not seen this film in the cinema I would repeatedly be giving my thoughts and suspicions of the ending out loud, only to have looked silly being proven wrong not minutes later. I enjoyed the story and writing of this film so much, I had submitted it as my choice for the best original screenplay on my Oscars ballot, I don't dispute Parasite’s deserved win but I genuinely believe Johnson’s masterpiece had a better chance than most gave it.

Overall ‘Knives out’ has ended up being one of my favourite films of the last few years and had 2019 not bought us many other great films it would be easy for me to call this my favourite film of the year. After hearing mixed reviews, it coming from a director I had already written off as ‘bad’ and starring a lead actor who I'd not previously enjoyed performances from, I could not be more surprised at how much I enjoyed this film. For me ‘Knives Out’ is an instant cult classic that I cannot wait to watch again, and again. I sincerely hope Johnson can pull off a similar performance for ‘Knives Out 2’ as I desperately wish for a continuation of this story and the characters contained within it.

9/10.

'Jumanji: The Next Level' (2019)

Fun and enjoyable but not quite the surprising hit that welcome to the jungle was. Same brilliant cast with a few additional welcome appearances, however i feel the expanded team gives less importance to our original famous four. Because there is a larger cast of characters there more lives to go around it seems that the 3 lives per head carry much less gravity, one character uncaring losing 2 out of his 3 in under 5 minutes of screen time brings this issue to a head. I feel i must also mention the redundancy of the additional strengths and weaknesses given to the characters, as these just felt like unnecessary plot points. Most blatant of these is Dr. Bravestones (Dwayne Johnson) weakness to switchblade being used for all of 3 minutes of screen time and becoming of little to no consequence. I suspect deleted scenes might tell more of a story in this case.

With that all said, with my soapbox taking seemingly hate-filled tirade out of the way, i very much enjoyed watching this film. Although it doesn't quite exactly capture the magic of the first sequel, it is still a fantastically enjoyable time and its only failures are truly in comparison to what preceded it.

6/10