comedy
Despite its length, Toni Erdmann succeeds because of the character study at its core, and also contains one of the best scenes of the year.
On New Year’s Eve, six friends get together and reflect on their lives, and the bigger issues in the world. Auld Lang Syne is a nice addition to the small collection of films written, directed, and shot by women.
Amongst the influx of romantic comedies, (500) Days of Summer still stands above the rest, presenting a harsh yet realistic perspective of love.
Other People, a semi-autobiographical film based on writer Chris Kelly’s experiences, works in a beautiful way due to the subtext behind it.
Office Christmas Party is a glaringly unfunny R-rated comedy, which isn’t even saved by the talented crew in front of and behind the camera.
Counter Clockwise is a low budget sci-fi film, with horror and thriller inflections, in which a scientist stumbles upon the creation of a time machine.
Sugar Mountain is a dark thriller about life in small-town America; with fine character acting and tension building, it’s a unique hit.
Come, Sweet Death is an Austrian film from 2000 that, though grim and darkly funny, might be the perfect representation of the country.
Army of One could have been a lot of different things, with plenty of room to shock and titillate fans of Larry Charles’ usual propensity for visceral subversions of cultural norms. Instead, the movie falls flat as a conservative piece of biographical fiction.
I Am Not Madame Bovary is highly critical of Chinese bureaucracy, both using the plot to highlight its inability to care about anything other than their job position, as well as poking fun at the workings of officialdom with the conversations between the officials themselves.
There is a story with immense emotional depth within Toni Erdmann, but the movie is so frequently dull, when the moments of comedy arrive they can feel somewhat cynical.
The New Man is a fascinating insight into modern fatherhood, male identity, cultural expectation and the torturous path of late parenthood.
The humor in Capture is one of its best qualities. This isn’t the humor that comes from telling a good joke, but rather from the spontaneous situations that the people find themselves in.
Mindhorn, the debut feature film from theatre director Sean Foley, has one hell of a concept that has been created as a Frankenstein’s monster, taking bits and pieces from other British cult comedies from the last two decades.
Trolls is aimed as squarely at parents as it is the kids, who likely won’t be as familiar with the terrifically tressed toy trolls as they were say, Angry Birds. Probably not a problem. A comeback seems likely.