10 Best Films of 2015

The question that I would have Christy, is does “Room,” “Carol”, “45 Years” or “The Martian,” deliver any ‘new’ characters?

A character that we haven’t perhaps seen before.

I was shocked for example, where movie makers these days – where they are given on a plate – a collection of rich characterization’s to play around with – for example, in the movie version of the ‘A-Team’ – it appears that the movie industry doesn’t know how to work with characters any longer. It’s been ‘bred out’ of the current generation almost completely. All that one is left with are the special effects fire works, and the hype.

The actor Tom Selleck for example, will probably be best known amongst young audiences, for something like ‘Blue Bloods’. A television drama. That’s how audiences nowadays consume their ‘Selleck’. But that still didn’t prevent Selleck working as an actor to create something like the character of police man, ‘Jesse Stone’ in a series of low budget movies. And I think that those will stand a test of time, as modest and all as they might be.

What they say, is that the 1970’s, was a decade of the ‘big’ movie directors. The decade that we are in now, is a decade of writers. The problem with giving ‘writers’ the upper hand over ‘directors’ I would argue, is that writers go after pay cheques, stable employment etc. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

But it brings me back to the same question. If ‘Shane’ (1953) were to be started as a project today, would it become folded into ‘Hell on Wheels’? A tough, gritty drama based on the old frontier era in America. Ben would be reviewing the first episode for ‘What the Flick’ audience, talking about how the little kid shouting across the prairie at the end of the first episode – was a really great ‘opening’ – and not a really great ‘ending’.

And do the leading actors in the industry today, have any point of view on that? In general, it’s good that television should get to recycle old material. It’s understandable that television series writers, will loot the treasures that can be found in older movies. But once in a while, perhaps the writing community, ought to think about replenishing the stock of characters, that exist in movies too. In short, give something back.

Is that a really big ask?

Saoirse Ronan does get a lot of praise, at least here in Ireland, and I gather across the movie viewing universe too. Just to choose the example of an Irish actor in recent times, who is very talented at breathing life into characters that end up on the big screen – is someone like Colm Meaney. Colm did a movie called ‘A Belfast Story’ a couple of years ago, in which he did help to create the character of a Belfast city based detective. Critics of the movie, did complain that it was flawed, it wasn’t the perfect movie. But Meaney’s tradesmanship and craft in his performance in that movie, is undisputed. That’s just what he brings, very often. However, it’s most likely that Colm Meaney and many other actors – are known best these days – for series on television, such as ‘Hell on Wheels’, 2011 to 2015.

It is the downside of having a ‘golden age’ for writing, in my humble opinion. They’re not all that generous at giving back – instead of looting the archives for ‘spare parts’. Because when it was the ‘decade of the movie director’ in the 1970’s, they did give back in spades. One thinks of directors such as Martin Scorsese. A television series like ‘Las Vegas’ for example, pulled in two great character actors – one from feature length movies like ‘The Rookie’, and another from ‘The Matrix’, no less. What did a series such as ‘Las Vegas’ give back? At all, to everything that movie directors such as Scorsese helped to provide.

Maybe this is being over the top negative – but I honestly think that movies aren’t as good as we believe them to be any longer – it’s just that our expectations of movies, have become as low as they now are. I noticed that in social situations nowadays, chatting over beers about a television series. How dull can conversations over beers really become? What’s your favorite episode of ‘The West Wing’? That conversation dies in about two sentences. On the other hand, ‘pub talk’ about a feature length movie such as ‘The Big Lebowski’, can go on in drips and drabs for hours. Movies have something, as an art form, because they end after an hour and a half – that they leave so many un-answered questions. As Ben said, at the end of ‘Empire Strikes Back’, awh! c’mon. You can’t do that, leave it on a ‘cliff hanger’.

Famously amongst men (not sure what the equivalent if one exists amongst females might be), conversations which began long ago, on the subject of ‘The Godfather’ – have lasted for decades. Sometimes, even for generations. Men I think need movies, in order to be able to converse with each other. Imagine if ‘The Godfather’ had been conceived as a project today? I may have ended up – shock horror – as a seven season block buster. And they’re may have been no Al Pacino.

When actor turned director, Russell Crowe was interviewed in Dublin, he recollected his times when he worked with Ridley Scott on ‘The Gladiator’. I was a very flawed script, but they worked on it and repaired and re-built it, almost while that movie was being made. Crowe himself had to invent a lot he recounted. That movie about ancient Rome, spawned a flood of imitations in the short movie format, and in the longer television series format. Fine. But there ought to be some gentleman and gentle lady’s unspoken contract – that the archive is replenished with something in the original classic movie form – from time to time.

I decided to watch Ridley Scott’s prequel to Aliens for some reason this weekend – perhaps on foot of Christy’s recommendation for the Martian movie. And for some reason, I also decide to watch ‘Prometheus’, in the French language dubbed way. Don’t know why. But wow, Idris Elba has a small but interesting role in that movie (Elba’s character was a ‘counter point’ to that of Charlize Theron), and the re-dubbing of Elba’s character was awful (no grumbling, booming, low ‘base’ tone at all). My version didn’t have a French sub-title available either, which was another thing that I found strange. I’d rather have Elba’s character speaking in his voice, in a language I did not understand – and follow the subtitles – than listen to something badly dubbed over. I will look forward to Matt Damon’s character creation in the Martian – but directors like Scott, should take greater care – when they go to create movies with characters in them, to ensure that good subtitles are made, so that a wider global audience can enjoy it.