The best films of 2015 so far – Australia

Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts in While We’re Young

January

The Imitation Game
Director: Morten Tyldum
Running time: 114 minutes
Certificate: M
Oscar-winning drama that tells the true story of Alan Turing whose code-breaking helped to win the second world war while homophobic laws hastened his tragic downfall.

Birdman
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Running time: 119 minutes
Certificate: MA 15+
One-shot, double-Oscar-winning comedy starring Michael Keaton as an actor who tries to put his movie superhero past behind him by classying it up on Broadway.

Paper Planes
Director: Robert Connolly
Running time: 96 minutes
Certificate: G
Warmly-received look into the competitive world of paper plane throwing with a big homegrown heart and driven by Sam Worthington and a charming young cast.

American Sniper
Director: Clint Eastwood
Running time: 134 minutes
Certificate: MA 15+
Clint Eastwood’s most commercially successful film to date stars Bradley Cooper as US Navy SEAL Chris Kyle who became one of the most lethal snipers in American history.

The Theory of Everything
Director: James Marsh
Running time: 123 minutes
Certificate: G
In an Oscar-winning turn, Eddie Redmayne plays physicist Stephen Hawking, whose relationship with wife (Felicity Jones) is tested by his motor neurone disease.

Foxcatcher
Director: Bennett Miller
Running time: 134 minutes
Certificate: M
Brooding true story of eccentric billionaire John du Pont, who invited a down-on-his-luck wrestler (Channing Tatum) to train at this estate, with tragic results.

February

Kingsman: The Secret Service
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Running time: 129 minutes
Certificate: MA 15+
This box office comic book adaptation stars Colin Firth as an agent who mentors a rufty-tufty youth training to become a super-spy.
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The Interview
Director: Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg
Running time: 112 minutes
Certificate: MA 15+
Controversial comedy with James Franco and Seth Rogen as a TV host and producer who are recruited to assassinate Kim Jong-un during an interview.

Selma
Director: Ava DuVernay
Running time: 128 minutes
Certificate: M
The story of Martin Luther King’s struggle to get African-American people the right to vote without fear of discrimination by focusing on a march in Alabama.

A Most Violent Year
Director: JC Chandor
Running time: 125 minutes
Certificate: MA 15+
A crime drama starring Oscar Isaac as a business-owner trying to keep on the right side of law, despite mounting pressure from all around him.

March

Inherent Vice
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Running time: 149 minutes
Certificate: MA 15+
Woozy, polarising adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s cult novel, with Joaquin Phoenix as a perma-stoned PI investigating the disappearance of an ex.

Home
Director: Tim Johnson
Running time: 96 minutes
Certificate: PG
Animated comedy with Rihanna voicing a young girl who befriends an alien that helps her to find her mother after the human population is relocated.

Big Eyes
Director: Tim Burton
Running time: 106 minutes
Certificate: M
The true story of an artist, played by Amy Adams, who is convinced by a new boyfriend to put his name on her paintings to achieve more success in 60s California.

Shaun the Sheep the Movie
Director: Mark Burton & Richard Goleszowski
Running time: 85 minutes
Certificate: G
In the Aardman creation’s first big screen outing, this kids adventure follows Shaun as he heads to the big city with his flock to save the farmer.

Leviathan
Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
Running time: 142 minutes
Certificate: M
Nominated for best foreign language film at the Oscars, this Russian drama follows a man as he tried to maintain control of his property as the authorities try to break him.

April

Furious 7
Director: James Wan
Running time: 140 minutes
Certificate: M
Already one of the five most successful films of all time at the worldwide box office, this action-packed sequel brings back Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, in his final role, as they are pitted against a revenge-seeking Kurt Russell.

X+Y
Director: Morgan Matthews
Running time: 111 minutes
Certificate: M
A young maths prodigy must overcome is social anxiety when he lands a spot on the British squad at the International Mathematics Olympiad.

While We’re Young
Director: Noah Baumbach
Running time: 97 minutes
Certificate: M
Hipster satire starring Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts as a couple stuck in a rut who befriend a younger couple, played by Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried, causing them to reassess their outlook on life.

Avengers: Age of Ultron
Director: Joss Whedon
Running time: 141 minutes
Certificate: M
Smash hit Marvel sequel which brings back the supervillain-fighting band of heroes who are faced with a new enemy, played by James Spader via motion capture, intent on destruction.

May

Wild Tales
Director: Damián Szifron
Running time: 122 minutes
Certificate: MA 15+
A collection of darkly funny tales from Argentina, revolving around themes of anger and revenge that was nominated for the best foreign language film Oscar.

Mad Max: Fury Road
Director: George Miller
Running time: 120 minutes
Certificate: MA 15+
Long-awaited reboot of the dusty apocalyptic action saga with Tom Hardy taking on the lead role, with support from a one-armed Charlize Theron.

Ex Machina
Director: Alex Garland
Running time: 110 minutes
Certificate: MA 15+
A young computer programmer is chosen to spend time with his company’s reclusive CEO, played by Oscar Isaac, who reveals a humanoid robot with her own agenda.

Clouds of Sils Maria
Director: Oliver Assayas
Running time: 125 minutes
Certificate: MA 15+
Juliette Binoche plays an actress who is forced to examine her life when she takes on a role in a play that she starred in 20 years before.

Jurassic World record: dinosaur reboot scores monstrous $511.8m on debut

Dinosaur blockbuster Jurassic World made Hollywood history this weekend after rampaging to a monstrous $511.8m worldwide.
The gargantuan total, the first time a movie has ever opened north of $500m, was helped by a gigantic $204.6m US total and huge $100.8m Chinese bow, as well as $29.6m in the UK. The previous world record opening was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2’s $483.2m bow in 2011.
Colin Trevorrow’s film stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard as employees on a fully operational dinosaur park who discover its newest creation, an enormous genetically modified carnivore named Indominus Rex, has escaped from captivity. It is the fourth film in the Steven Spielberg-created action adventure saga, following 1993’s Jurassic Park, 1997’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park and 2001’s Jurassic Park III.

In the wake of the $150m film’s staggering financial success, it has emerged that Pratt is signed on to shoot a number of sequels, though Safety Not Guaranteed director Trevorrow is not expected to return. “We’re saying if the film-makers agree, we’d love to have another movie,” Universal’s Nick Carpou, told the Hollywood Reporter. “But right now we are concentrating on this movie.”
The film has benefited from a decent, if rarely glowing critical appraisal, and currently boasts a 70% “fresh” rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw called it a “terrifically enjoyable and exciting summer spectacular” in his four-star review on Wednesday, though The Observer’s Mark Kermode flagged up a number of T-Rex sized plot holes.
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Jurassic World’s box office success augurs well for an excellent 2015 for Hollywood, with a more than reasonable chance that five movies released this year could now cross the $1bn mark. Furious 7 and The Avengers: Age of Ultron have already done so, and Trevorrow’s film looks to be well on course. Studios still have James Bond’s latest adventure, Spectre, to come in November, while Star Wars: The Force Awakens bows in December.
Elsewhere on the north American box office it was a quiet weekend, with studios wisely keeping their new offerings as far away from Jurassic World’s frenzied giant reptiles as possible. Paul Feig action comedy Spy, starring Melissa McCarthy, slipped from first to second with $16m in its second week for a total of $56.9m, while Dwayne Johnson disaster flick San Andreas pulled in a third-week total of $11m for an overall haul of $119.3m in third. The top five was rounded out by low budget horror sequel Insidious: Chapter 3, in fourth, with $7.3m in its second week for a $37.3m total, and comedy Pitch Perfect 2, with a fifth-week haul of $5.9m for a total of $170.6m.
US box office chart, 12-14 June
1. Jurassic World: $204.6m - NEW
2. Spy: $16m, $56.9m
3. San Andreas: $11m, $119.3m
4. Insidious: Chapter 3: $7.3m, $37.3m
5. Pitch Perfect 2: $5.9m, $170.6m
6. Entourage: $4.3m, $25.9m
7. Mad Max: Fury Road: $4.1m, $138.6m
8. Avengers: Age of Ultron: $3.6m, $444.7m
9. Tomorrowland: $3.4m, $83.6m
10. Love & Mercy: $1.7m, $4.7m

From gardening week to pie day: the strangest movie tie-ins

As you’re already totally aware, this month brings with it National Gardening Week: seven glorious days for us all to discuss hanging baskets without fear of social rejection. The annual holiday was launched four years ago to celebrate the splendour of grass, flowers and trowels. But this year’s festivities will be marked by something extra special. The new, garden-featuring period drama A Little Chaos has been announced as National Gardening Week’s official film which means that, well, a microsite has been launched with a competition to win tickets to a flower show. And yes, that’s about it.
The film, which stars Kate Winslet as a competitive landscape designer who falls for her boss, has had mixed reviews, but the decision to work with the Royal Horticultural Society at least plays into their key demographic: people who like gardens. Unsurprisingly, it’s the first time there has been an official film for the week-long soil celebration.
Winslet is no stranger to partnering with dubious national celebrations: her melodrama Labor Day was a key element of last year’s National Pie Day. The cross-promotion hinged on a pivotal scene where convicted killer/helpful man-about-the-house Josh Brolin teaches Winslet how to make peach pie, and (naturally) awakens her sexuality. A poster was sent out to bakeries and a Facebook competition launched for pie-lovers to enjoy a private screening.
But the film failed to bring in an audience, even of pie-eaters, with a worldwide gross of only $20m – and the decision to focus a marketing campaign on a scene that was the movie’s unintentionally hilarious low point was, said Lou Lumenick of the New York Post, an “eccentric choice”.
Disney’s recent hit Big Hero 6 happened to coincide with National Hugging Day, which meant that its creator Kevin Zaborney, AKA the Ambassador of Hugs, awarded inflatable robot Baymax the accolade of most huggable character of 2015. Previous winners have included no one – the honour was cooked up to promote the film. But, while the association might seem spurious, the specially created trailer generated 1m views.
While the national holiday tie-ins seem to include the bare minimum of activity, other partnerships work harder to offer more effective, and shareable, content. One of the most successful examples recently saw Air New Zealand join forces with Warner Bros on Hobbit-themed in-flight safety videos. Statistics show that 14% of all visitors to New Zealand are influenced by what they see at the movies, which this campaign cleverly played on. It was a hit online with more than 30m views across the three ads, and visitor figures were up 6.2% last year.
Linking an airline or tourist board to a film’s promotional campaign is a clearer choice of partner than many other case studies. After watching Skyfall, for example, it seems only natural that some audiences might want to visit its locations, so teaming up with Visit Britain makes total sense: there was a reported rise of 41.7% in visits to Glencoe, Scotland after the film’s release. But action-seekers hoping to get involved in a shootout might have been somewhat shortchanged with the spy-free scenery and locals have been fighting back against an increase in litter from disappointed 007 fans. Equally, the Yemen tourist board were forced to sadden fans of Ewan McGregor comedy Salmon Fishing in the Yemen about the lack of actual salmon fishing in the country after they were inundated with eager travellers who clearly thought the film was a documentary.
Finding the right partner for a campaign is key and it’s these carefully considered collaborations that can make a difference. Last year’s partnership between X-Men: Days of Future Past and Virgin Trains seemed like a match made by randomly picking companies out of a hat. The April Fool’s hilarity of rebranding Wolverhampton station as Wolverine and a specially refurbished train with the characters plastered all over it didn’t feel like a natural fit for the film which didn’t a) take place in England or b) feature any trains. Eurostar jumping aboard as the official travel partner of 2004’s Paris-set Phantom of the Opera was a better fit. But since when was having “official travel partner” the key to a film’s marketing campaign?
Some promotional collaborations also have another more earnest objective in mind. With the release of every Saw film, a “Give Til’ It Hurts” blood drive took place and by the time Saw IV was out, the American Red Cross became an official partner. The event was always promoted with an artfully gruesome poster and horror fans were encouraged to give blood, leading to more than 40,000 gallons being donated. In a similar, ahem, vein, last year’s Hunger Games entry saw Lionsgate working with Whole Food Market in a charitable effort that saw money donated to a global poverty charity for every branded bottle of juice.
But donating blood and money wasn’t enough for one particularly demanding campaign ...
In 2013, Zack Snyder’s city-crushing spectacle Man of Steel boasted more than 100 official brand partners. The most insidious was a deal with the National Guard, which involved a campaign to recruit “soldiers of steel” by tying the mythology of Superman to the work of the military. Snyder himself worked on specially branded ads, and there was a tie-in workout routine and online game. The objective was recruitment (would you like to destroy stuff just like Superman?) and the key demographic of 17- 24-year-olds mirrored the target audience for the superhero blockbuster.
While increased ticket sales and interest in the brand are obvious aims for these sorts of activity, often it’s as simple as getting a journalist to write about it. Before you started reading this article, were you even aware of Kate Winslet’s new film about gardening? Had you even realised that National Gardening Week was a thing? Are you craving peach pie now? Do you want a hug? Shall we all go to Glencoe together? And then join the army? Maybe we’re part of the problem.

In for a Penny: Who would make the most spine-chilling Pennywise the killer clown?

True Detective’s Cary Fukunaga seems the perfect choice to direct the first ever big-screen adaptation of Stephen King’s It. The 1990 miniseries benefited from a crackerjack-crazy turn from Tim Curry as Pennywise, the leering, sneering killer clown who haunts a small Maine town. But 25 years later, the production seems melodramatic, and some of the adult performances – not to mention the haircuts – are straight out of a Roger Corman flick.

Fukunaga’s brooding style ought to make for a far scarier movie, and there is talk that this will be a two-part film to mirror the split narrative of King’s epic 1,138-page tome. Furthermore, King himself is reported to have given the screenplay his seal of approval.

So far, so good. But Fukunaga says he is still struggling to find the right actor to play Pennywise, the main manifestation of the shape-shifting supernatural nasty. Here’s a few suggestions to help him out.

Michael Shannon

The Boardwalk Empire actor proved that he can play the powderkeg villain to a tee as Nelson Van Alden AKA George Mueller. He may lack Curry’s clownish grin, but those bulging basilisk eyes are unmatched in modern Hollywood.

Michael Shannon in Boardwalk Empire. Photograph: HBO/Everett/Rex Features

Tilda Swinton

The current fan favourite would make for some powerful stunt casting, though the Oscar-winning British actor’s androgynous look is very different from Curry’s extravagantly proportioned features. Swinton was the best thing about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and really went to town on the camp villain front with her squinting, spitting Minister Mason, a cross between Hilda Ogden and Hitler, in the excellent Snowpiercer. She looks scary in clown makeup, and has been tipped for – and played – high-profile male roles before.

Tilda Swinton as the gender-bending Orlando. Photograph: Liam Longman/Adventure Pictures Ltd

Willem Dafoe

A wide grin and intense, baleful eyes are essential to capturing Pennywise’s demonic malignancy, and Dafoe has the perfect look. His Green Goblin stands second only to Heath Ledger’s Joker in the grand pantheon of big-screen supervillains, and his sleazy, dentally challenged mobster Bobby Peru in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart was downright abhorrent.

Willem Dafoe as Bobby Peru in Wild at Heart. Photograph: Landmark Media

Kiefer Sutherland

Nearly three decades after essaying a pretty decent camp cult villain in The Lost Boys, Sutherland would make for an assured Pennywise. He has the ability to deliver the husky New York brogue that Curry pulled off to surprising effect, and his poisonous leer would be straight out of the seventh layer of Hades.

Kiefer Sutherland, second from left, in The Lost Boys. Photograph: Allstar

Nicolas Cage

Bear with me. Cage may have the furniture-chewing capacity of an army of hungry termites, but when he’s good, he’s very good indeed. And while Fukunaga’s take on Pennywise is likely to be more subtle and layered than the 1990 version, it’s still a pretty one-dimensional role. Whoever takes on the part needs to be capable of adding genuine venom to occasionally shonky dialogue (remember all that stuff about “floating in the deadlights”?) Cage has off-kilter energy in spades, as well as a willingness to push the boundaries of taste at every available opportunity. He could be a car crash in the role, but he might also prove a revelation.

Nicolas Cage in Drive Angry. Photograph: Lionsgate/Allstar

Geoffrey Rush

The Aussie Oscar winner certainly has a knack for gurning, sneering villains, with his Captain Hector Barbossa from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies occasionally surpassing even Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow for sea-dog pantomime posturing. And it’s a little-known fact that Rush trained under the late, legendary French mime actor and teacher Jacques Lecoq, so the physical side of the role should be well within his sphere of expertise.

Geoffrey Rush, centre, in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Photograph: Rex/BuenaVista/Everett

Oscars 2015: who will win the best animated feature race?

There are those who complain that it’s too easy to score an Oscar nomination for best animated feature. They’re essentially right: current Academy rules state that at least 16 feature-length animated films must qualify for consideration in any given year for the category to yield five nominees. This year, 20 films did, meaning a full quarter of the titles in play wound up with a nomination. When you consider that 87 submissions for best foreign language film were vying for the same number of slots, or that 323 films qualified for best picture this year, the animated race looks a little soft.
Then again, try telling that to the makers of The Lego Movie. The year’s highest-grossing animated film was also among the year’s most universally acclaimed in any medium. (It cracked the Guardian’s top 10, for starters.) It had been running the table on the precursor award circuit so convincingly that most pundits regarded the Oscar as a done deal. Gasps were heard across Hollywood when, in arguably the biggest shock in the category’s 14-year history, the film failed to score a nomination. The word snub is used too often to describe simple Oscar omissions, but this one felt oddly pointed. Were irreverent directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller being penalised by the Academy’s insular animation branch for their success in the live-action sphere? Was the film’s postmodern blend of art and commerce too distastefully hip for them? Could they simply not bring themselves to vote for something called The Lego Movie? One way or another, the race has lost its pace-setter.

And no one is more delighted about that than the folks at DreamWorks Animation, who now slide by default into the frontrunner position with How to Train Your Dragon 2. In fairness, even before the Oscar nominations were revealed, signs were in place that this safe, attractively crafted, roundly well-liked sequel to the 2010 fantasy smash could be a spoiler in the race: its surprise win at the Golden Globes proved that the appeal of slick traditional storytelling is never to be underestimated with conservative voting groups. With a US gross of $177m, it hasn’t quite matched its predecessor’s success, but it’s still a vastly popular, robustly reviewed choice, while the franchise has generated enough affection that people would like to see it rewarded. The first film was unlucky to come up against Toy Story 3, to date the only sequel to win the Oscar; look for this to become the second.

A few months ago, Big Hero 6 was the big-studio contender most nervously regarded by its rivals: Disney, after all, are the reigning champions, having finally nabbed their first win (not counting Pixar films) in the category with the world-beating phenomenon, Frozen. Yet somehow, despite racking up more than $450m worldwide, the robot-superhero romp is at risk of seeming an afterthought in this race. While Frozen is still a ubiquitous pop-culture fixture 21 months after its release, Big Hero 6 simply hasn’t captured the popular imagination in the same way. (Can anyone who hasn’t seen the film really tell what it’s about?) That may not hurt it as much as you’d think: the film is still sturdy, well-received populist fare, while its canny commercial fusion of the Disney and Marvel brands will net it a lot of corporate-loyalty votes. Still, if any nominee is hindered by its makers’ past glories, it’s this one.
Voters who find the DreamWorks and Disney offerings a little too vanilla have a quirkier mainstream option in The Boxtrolls – the third feature (and third Oscar nominee) from Portland-based stop-motion studio Laika, following Coraline and ParaNorman. With its steampunk styling and flashes of historical allegory, this offbeat, elaborately imagined cautionary tale is perhaps the most divisive contender here. American trade critics trashed the film after its Venice premiere, but it swiftly found more sympathetic admirers – particularly in the UK, where its proportional box office has far outstripped its US numbers. Regard for the film’s craft is high in the animation community; if the final vote were branch-restricted, I’d like its chances more.
But it’s not, and lack of awareness across the wider Academy also puts the final two nominees at a crucial disadvantage. Still, GKIDS, a plucky New York-based distributor of foreign and independent animated films, has established itself as a formidable giant-killer at the nominations stage, regularly sneaking in ahead of glossier megabucks contenders. So it was this year: with The Lego Movie down and out, two gorgeous GKIDS delicacies made the cut. Song of the Sea, Irish animator Tomm Moore’s sumptuous reinterpretation of Celtic selkie mythology, was always a dark horse to be reckoned with: Moore’s last film, the lovely The Secret of Kells, was a shock nominee (GKIDS’ first, in fact) in the category five years ago. His latest is even better – an inventively hand-drawn, culturally rich fairytale, it deserves better than fifth place.
But if either of the arthouse Davids can make a lunge at the American Goliaths – and that’s a big if – it’s more likely to be The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, which has sentimental appeal to match its artistry. The presumed swansong of Studio Ghibli, and the first film in 14 years from 79-year-old master Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies), the film offers voters a second consecutive opportunity to give the cherished Japanese animation house a suitably respectful send-off. (Hayao Miyazaki’s farewell feature The Wind Rises lost out to Frozen last year.) Critics have clustered around Takahata’s film since Cannes, while the Los Angeles Film Critics’ Association handed it their win. It’s by no means quintessential Ghibli: a melancholy adaptation of a 10th-century folk tale, rendered in stylised ink-and-watercolour strokes, it’s a world away from the florid fantasy of Spirited Away (Ghibli’s only Oscar winner to date), but scarcely less exquisite.