A BIG SHORT SPOTLIGHT: Looking Back at Cinema in January 2016
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MAKING A BIG BANG: 13 Hours - Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
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What happened in the world of film this month? From celebrity deaths and box office highs to Oscar controversies and box office woes, Deep Focus Film Studies brings you all the major events.
The year began on a sad note with the loss of singer and sometimes film actor David Bowie. The star of such cult favourites as The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976) and Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (1983) lost his battle with cancer, an illness the public never even knew he had. Adding a further air of ambivalence to his death was the announcement by TriStar that a new Labyrinth (1986) project had been given the green light. A much loved film which starred Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King, it is unknown yet whether the new movie will be a sequel or a remake. |
CULT CLASSIC: The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976)
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NOT SO FESTIVE: Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (1983)
DANCE MAGIC: Labyrinth (1986)
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The mood only grew worse a few days later when actor Alan Rickman died. Fans of the Harry Potter series mourned the loss of Rickman, who portrayed Severus Snape in the franchise, however older movie-goers may have better remembered him as chief villain Hans Gruber in Die Hard (1988). His death was particularly tragic since the actor had only recently returned to directing, a passion he had put on hold for over a decade in order to meet the demands of his Harry Potter role. As a director his contributions to cinema will now forever remain 1997’s The Winter Guest and 2015’s A Little Chaos. It isn’t the last we’ll see of him however, as his final performance will be viewed by millions this summer as the Blue Caterpillar in Alice Through The Looking Glass (2016).
COLD TIMES: Alan Rickman's directorial début The Winter Guest (1997)
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BOWING OUT: Rickman's second, and final, film A Little Chaos (2015)
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UBER GRUBER: Rickman in Die Hard (1988)
NO HA HA ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST: New found still from Lewis' The Day The Clown Cried (1972)
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Almost as uncomfortable as a celebrity death was the BBC discovering new images from Jerry Lewis’ unreleased 1972 Holocaust film The Day the Clown Cried. Apparently Lewis didn’t want to release the film on grounds of taste, and the new pictures seem to support the famous Jewish comedian’s decision.
Happier times were to be found at the box office for Disney, as Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) continued to dominate the market, and grossed almost $2 billion. Its overwhelming presence was a nuisance to some however, with director Quentin Tarantino complaining that it left less screens to show his latest offering The Hateful Eight (2015) in its intended format. The dispute got heated, and led to 3 major UK film distributors refusing to show the film at all. In addition to this Tarantino made some comments that irked the Police Union in America who then boycotted the movie. As a result The Hateful Eight may be his lowest grossing film since Death Proof (2007).
Space Balls II: The Search For More Cash
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EIGHTH WONDER OF THE CINEMA:Tarantino made several enemies during the distribution stage of his latest film The Hateful Eight
GOING FOR GOLD
Of course January is traditionally a month of films vying for Oscar gold, and 2016 was no exception. First to stake a claim was David O. Russell’s Joy (2015), which after much ‘Oscar chatter’ failed to emulate his previous Jennifer Lawrence collaboration, American Hustle (2013), and managed only one nomination (Best Actress) as opposed to their other film’s ten. At the moment Leonardo DiCaprio’s January release The Revenant (2016) looks set to clean up at the ceremony with no less than 12 nominations (including Best Picture and Leading Actor), with its closest competitor for most awards being last year’s Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), which has 10.
In fact 4 of the 8 Best picture nominees were released in January (in the UK). Adam McKay’s The Big Short (2016) made a slight, if unusual, comical impact as it attempted to explain the financial crash of 2008, Irish-Canadian production Room (2015), despite being considerably less lucrative than any of its contenders seems to have been a favourite with audiences, and Spotlight (2015) captured the paedophile-hunting mood of current times by going hard on the church.
In fact 4 of the 8 Best picture nominees were released in January (in the UK). Adam McKay’s The Big Short (2016) made a slight, if unusual, comical impact as it attempted to explain the financial crash of 2008, Irish-Canadian production Room (2015), despite being considerably less lucrative than any of its contenders seems to have been a favourite with audiences, and Spotlight (2015) captured the paedophile-hunting mood of current times by going hard on the church.
SHINING BRIGHTLY: The Spotlight Cast
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BEARING GOOD NEWS: The Revenant is up for 12 Oscars
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BEST ACTRESS: Jennifer Lawrence in Joy
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THE BIGGER PICTURE: The Big Short
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PLENTY OF ROOM for Room at the Oscars
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#OscarsSoWhite
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The Academy Awards found themselves in the news even more than usual with the announcement of their nominations this year, as the Twitter hashtag #OscarsSoWhite gained popularity with celebrities, media and just about anyone who had an opinion. The complaint stems from the fact that for the third time in a decade there are no black artists nominated for any of the major awards. Having realised the problem from last year, the Academy made popular black comedian Chris Rock this year’s host, however if anything it only served to emphasise the problem rather than side-line it.
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FILM OF THE MONTH: 13 HOURS
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Nowhere on the list of Oscar nominees will you find 13 Hours: Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016), the latest action flick from bomb-dropping explosion fetishist Michael Bay. Normally any sane human being would be okay with that, however I feel the film has been overlooked by critics due to its emergence in a month when Hollywood’s finest don their gold-grabbing gloves. By no means is it a superior film to any other released this month, (and not necessarily because it has been a particularly strong month in film), however it brought with it numerous surprises such as an unexpected performance from ‘nice guy’ John Krasinski, great supporting roles from Toby Stephens and Max Martini (doing his usual special forces stuff), a compelling free-style feel to an engaging story, but also just the simple fact that Bay seems to have improved as a film-maker and made a picture that seems less cocaine-fuelled than usual. 
There is nothing erotic about a group of hot, sweaty bearded guys with guns getting naked
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FILM OF THE MONTH - 13 Hours: Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
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It may not be as nuanced or self-reflective as it could have been in the hands of someone more, erm, grown up, but one can’t help but think that if the film had been released under a fake director name then it would have been more openly accepted by critics. This is why we decided to make it the DFFS Film Of The Month.
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