The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Screenwriter: Terence Winter
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Jon Bernthal, Jon Favreau, Jean Dujardin, Joanna Lumley, Cristin Milioti

What is there to say about Martin Scorsese’s three-hour, instant classic The Wolf of Wall Street that hasn’t been said before? If you were young in 2013, you would understand this film as culture itself. From putting Margot Robbie on the map to introducing the song “Jordan Belfort” to every high school basement party in America, Wolf of Wall Street defined a generation of simultaneously wealth-obsessed and wealth-repulsed youth.  

Scorsese succeeds at a have your cake and eat it too approach to satire. His sprawling biopic of financial criminal and multimillionaire stockbroker Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) is both braggadocious and reflective. On the heels of the 2008 financial collapse and the subsequent Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011, the film examines America’s obsession with wealth – the good, the bad, and the drug-fueled. Belfort’s lifestyle enthrals us – the mega yachts, three-day parties, even the crime. The film approaches everything with a larger-than-life approach. The score is boisterous, we hear a foul-mouthed Belfort narrating his trials and tribulations with the feds, and everything is dialed up to the nines. 

We do see the eventual fall of Belfort, but it’s as stylized as ever. In perhaps one of the most iconic scenes in modern film history, Belfort is confronted with the gravity of his financial crimes and the eventual ruin of his criminal empire. Just as this realization kicks in, so do the quaaludes that Belfort popped 90-minutes ago. Earlier in the film, Belfort brags about the many benefits of the retro drug but now he has entered a new phase of intoxication: the “cerebral palsy phase.” Belfort drags himself like an infant toward his white Ferrari. We see him crumble to the ground; gone is the the fast lifestyle of a degenerate and in his place lays a helpless man at the mercy of his own hubris. 

The scene is both funny and ironically sobering. We finally watch Belfort answer for his crimes in the most physical sense. Scorsese plays perfectly with tension and humor. We hold our breathe, wondering if Belfort will make it to his Ferrari or drive off into the sunset. We don’t root for him, but we have no choice but to be at the mercy of his storytelling. 

The script functions as a mere skeleton for this ambitious film, making it an absolute treat for any viewer. Leonardo DiCaprio delivers one of his career-best performances. He skilfully adlibs his way through Belfort’s life, adding many a “fuck” or New York slang to make the character feel that much more real. On his first day at a brokerage firm on Wall Street, Belfort goes to lunch with his magnanimous boss, Mark Hanna (Matthew McConaughey). Like everything they do, the scene is filled with popping pills and downing champagne in the middle of the day. At one point, the two even break into full song in the middle of the restaurant. The best part of the scene? It’s almost all improvised. McConaughey and DiCaprio have an undeniable chemistry that makes the scene impossible to look away from. They play up on each other’s ludicrous energy and take turns trying to outdo the other’s performance, all for the benefit of the viewer. 

More than ten years after its release, The Wolf of Wall Street holds up as an incredibly fun watch and a decisive voice on class in the United States. It underscores how the people at the top will exploit the system until the bitter end and those at the bottom will be forced to pay the price. Scorsese is a master of humor and pacing, making the three-hour run feel like nothing. 

Score: 23/24

Recommended for you: Where to Start with Martin Scorsese

In this Movie List from The Film Magazine, we’re looking at why this early 2000s film has held up for younger viewers, in this: 5 Reasons Elf Is a Gen Z Christmas Classic.

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter.

1. Elf’s Use of Absurd Humor

Popular memes often dabble in some form of absurdist humor, which makes Elf’s use of it more relevant than outdated for a movie that is almost 20 years old. From the claymation animals to Buddy’s first experiences of New York, Elf illustrates the absurdity of the mundane.

On his trek from the North Pole to New York, Buddy encounters a raccoon, which he assumes will be as friendly as the claymation Arctic animals he’s used to. He is instead attacked by it. When he sees a diner with a sign that reads “World’s Best Cup of Coffee,” Buddy doesn’t hesitate to run in and enthusiastically congratulate them for the honor, to the bewilderment of customers and staff. 

From the spaghetti with maple syrup scene to Buddy’s getting drunk and breakdancing in the Empire State Building mail room, Elf is full of absurd moments that make for a hilarious and memorable movie.

2. Elf’s Quotability

In the era of TikTok “acting” and viral fancams of memorable scenes from films and TV shows, quotability is king. In my own town, a local boutique has a sign out front which reads “Six inch ribbon curls, honey. Six. Inches.”

While some films can fall victim to sacrificing plot for quotability, Elf’s plot is instead carried along by quotes like “You smell like beef and cheese. You don’t smell like Santa.” In the aforementioned case, the quote prompts Buddy to rip the fake beard from a mall Santa’s face and proceed to get into a fight with the imposter. This incident gets Buddy “fired” from his job at Gimbels, but drives him to seek out his younger half-brother, Michael (Daniel Tay), who ends up being one of Buddy’s biggest advocates through the film, especially to their dad Walter (James Caan) and Jovie. 

Recommended for you: 10 Best Home Alone Moments

Elf (2003)
Director: Jon Favreau
Screenwriter: David Berenbaum
Starring: Will Ferrell, James Caan, Bob Newhart, Zooey Deschanel, Ed Asner, Mary Steenburgen

Heart-warming, joyful and kind, Elf has become a timeless Christmas classic. The premise of a fully grown man dressed as an elf wandering around New York City in search of his birth father is one that could have made for a grotesque film, and yet thanks to the shared vision and unbridled devotion of its creators, this 2003 film remains as identifiable and rewatchable as ever. 

Written by David Berenbaum and directed by Jon Favreau, Elf earned $223.3million from a $33million budget, making it a certifiable box office hit. It is now considered one of the best Christmas films ever made. There are several reasons for this.

First and foremost, its star… 

Buddy was Will Ferrell’s breakout role and remains one of his most iconic performances. This was a star-making turn and led to Ferrell going from being an SNL cast member to one of the most beloved comedy actors in Hollywood. Vitally, to both Ferrell and 21st century comedy, Buddy has proven to be an outstanding and lasting protagonist. 

Without any context regarding his comedy background, Will Ferrell could easily look like any businessman. He looks average in the best way possible, and at first glance is the last person who would seem suited to playing an elf. And this makes sense: the whole point of the film, and his character’s reason for travelling to NYC, is that he doesn’t fit in with other elves and wants to find his biological family. Even when he loses the costume, Buddy the elf never disappears – he shines brightly against deeply cynical backgrounds such as grimy cafes and depressing offices. Ferrell never falters, he is equally as entertaining in a suit as he is in an elf costume.

Elf is, at its heart, about rediscovering your inner child to find happiness, and this starts with Will Ferrell treating New York like his own personal playground. From interacting with clueless people in the street (yes, the guy in the white beard and red track suit Buddy refers to as Santa was not an actor), to playing with a revolving door until he throws up, Buddy’s energy is immediately contagious.

While Will Ferrell’s star power makes the film, Jon Favreau’s visionary direction is responsible for the film’s timeless quality. Favreau had the hindsight to avoid relying on computer effects, instead employing the use of forced perspective to make Buddy appear bigger than the rest of the elves for each scene set in the North Pole. While CGI continuously improves and gets more realistic, to the point that films that are only five years old already look dated, forced perspective will always remain effective – practical effects that tricked the eye almost twenty years ago cannot age. The strength of this vision and effectiveness of this technique is even more impressive considering that this is Favreau’s sophomore film as a director (following Made). To this day, Jon Favreau’s talents as a filmmaker continue to shape the history of blockbuster cinema, with 2008’s Iron Man launching the MCU, a multi-billion-dollar franchise, and his recent work on Disney live-action remakes altering big studio release slates forever.

From costumes to set design, Elf is instantly recognisable. Favreau and Berenbaum both cite Rankin/Bass’ animated specials as a leading influence: while the writer was inspired by the animation’s innocence in his childhood, the director decided that this would also influence the look of the film. The most obvious influence comes in Elf’s stop motion animation scenes, each of which serve a vital purpose regarding Buddy’s characterisation, setting the tone for him being a memorable, charming and unusual protagonist. Leading strongly with this influence also smartly taps into the nostalgia of older audience members. Films are, after all, a communal art. Whenever a film can play on the nostalgia of a generation while being creative, it yields great results.

The heart of this film lies beyond the quality of its lead performance and the creativity of those behind the scenes however, instead settling squarely on the father and son journey – one inspired by Berenbaum’s own grief. In Elf as in life, the idea of a parent rejecting a child is a powerful one, especially when facing a character as innocent as Buddy. Yet Buddy is not jaded by the rejection of his father; he embraces him and continues to love him unconditionally throughout the film. While this, of course, leads to some hilarious scenes, it also causes heart-breaking confrontations. Much of the effectiveness of this narrative strand comes from actor James Caan, best known for his role as Sonny Corleone in The Godfather, who plays to his strengths by offering a jaded and importantly intimidating presence. He is both a stand-in for the more cynical members of the audience and a noteworthy oppositional force for Buddy to bounce off. As a result of this passion, talented writing and overall quality of performance, Buddy’s father’s final acceptance of his son remains stirring to this day.

The supporting roles were also impeccably cast. Zooey Deschanel is able to strike a chord as a disenchanted worker who slowly rediscovers the magic of Christmas, while Bob Newhart brings his trademark dry humour to the character Papa Elf, balancing Buddy’s instincts as his level-headed father figure. Perhaps most crucially Ed Asner, who played Santa Claus a total of eight times in his career, is a wonderfully comforting presence in the film, radiating the same warmth we all expect of a globe-trotting gift giver.

Thanks to the shared vision of its creators and a star-making lead performance, Elf is a modern classic. Against many a stumbling block in the creative process, this strange premise for a Christmas story has ultimately made for one of the most perfect examples of a timeless Christmas favourite.

24/24

Written by Elisabetta Pulcini

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The Lion King (2019)
Director: Jon Favreau
Screenwriter: Jeff Nathanson
Starring: Donald Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Beyoncé, John Oliver, Alfre Woodard, John Kani, James Earl Jones

The Lion King marks the second Disney “live-action” remake helmed by director Jon Favreau, the first being 2016’s The Jungle Book. I was delighted by the latter film; new life was given to a familiar story with state-of-the-art animation and a slue of talented actors lending their voices to create an incredibly entertaining reimagining of a Disney classic. Because of this, when I discovered Favreau would also be directing The Lion King, I had very high hopes… hopes that were perhaps too high. While The Jungle Book enhanced the magic of its predecessor, The Lion King did the opposite.

We all know the story: the animal kingdom is led by the mighty lion Mufasa (James Earl Jones), whose young cub Simba (JD McCrary) is next in line for the throne. However, Mufasa’s jealous brother Scar (Chiwetel Ejiofor) believes he should sit atop Pride Rock because he thinks he’s better than everyone else. After throwing Mufasa to his death, Scar blames Simba for the murder and forces the young heir to run away so he can take the throne for himself. While Scar is busy screwing up the entire kingdom, Simba meets new friends: the meerkat Timon (Billy Eichner) and warthog Pumba (Seth Rogen), who are both outcasts themselves. The duo teaches Simba not to worry about anything, and to enjoy life day by day (in other words, “Hakuna Matata”). It isn’t until Simba is fully grown that his old friend Nala (Beyoncé) finds him and urges him to return to Pride Rock and challenge Scar, who has turned the kingdom into a barren wasteland. At first, grown-up Simba (Donald Glover) refuses, because Timon and Pumba turned him into a big baby, but when the mysterious monkey Rafiki (John Kani) comes knocking, he convinces Simba that Mufasa is watching from above. The booming, familiar voice of James Earl Jones tells Simba “remember who you are,” and just like that, Simba is off and running back to Pride Rock where he defeats Scar and, of course, retakes the Lion Throne. And Scene.

Visually, the film is stunning. There are shots that truly amaze, such as lifelike fireflies illuminating the face of Rafiki against the backdrop of an African sunset. Favreau indulges the power of the visuals at his fingertips, allowing the most breathtaking shots to play out so the audience can absorb them to the fullest. The opening scene is the most prime example of this, as “The Circle of Life” plays and the camera pans over the thriving plains of Africa. Nostalgia grips hard here. Unfortunately, I would soon discover that this is the best scene of the entire movie.

As soon as The Lion King moves to an intimate level among its characters, problems arise. First and foremost, the animals are way too realistic. The strong voiceover performances are undermined by a lack of expression in each of the characters’ faces, something that was not an issue with the original film’s traditional form of animation. The mix of almost photorealistic visuals and more traditional animated film voiceover work creates the sense that some characters are borderline creepy when they speak, particularly that of John Oliver’s Zazu, who’s anatomically perfect hornbill face just doesn’t do the comedian’s voice justice. I found myself wondering if the Disney Nature crew took over midway through. The dialogue also faces its share of obstacles. At times, character lines feel forced, especially in the case of James Earl Jones’ Mufasa. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the filmmakers either took his words directly from the original film and placed it in this one, or Jones half-assed his lines on repeat for the sake of pleasing fans of the 1994 version.

Some of the musical numbers also don’t sit well with me. A few iconic songs from the first film are seriously altered here, and it doesn’t feel right. Scar’s song “Be Prepared” is choppy and uncomfortable (probably due to Ejiofor’s lack of singing voice), and Zazu’s delightful “Morning Report” is flat out removed. The only songs I did enjoy were the reimagining of “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” featuring Beyoncé and Glover, as well as a short rendition of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” with an animal ensemble.

I wish there was more to say about this one, and I wanted so badly to commend Favreau for another job well done with a Disney remake. The trouble is, a lot of these films are so damn nostalgic and personal to a lot of viewers, that the remakes only do the originals a disservice (see also Aladdin). The Lion King is worth a single viewing for its stunning visuals, but don’t expect to be moved like you were 25 years ago.

12/24

Written by Samuel Sybert

Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)
Director: Jon Watts
Screenwriter: Erik Sommers
Starring: Tom Holland, Jake Gyllenhaal, Samuel L. Jackson, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Marisa Tomei, Colbie Smulders, Jon Favreau, J.B. Smoove, Martin Starr, Angourie Rice, Remy Hii, Tony Revolori

The latest instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Far From Home, is the second Spider-Man movie in the MCU and realistically concludes their Infinity Saga, the 22 film marathon that has been going for over a decade. Peter Parker heads on a class trip to Venice, where he must team up with Nick Fury and a new superhero, Mysterio, to combat elemental monsters from another dimension. The film is a solid summer blockbuster that nicely wraps up Spider-Man’s first character arc, but there isn’t anything radically new or earth-shattering to be found here.

Tom Holland perfectly portrays the skittish teenager who finds himself conflicted between what he wants and what Fury urges him to see as a greater responsibility. The internal struggle between hiding in the shadows or stepping into the light is the real conflict of the film, and the lead actor nails this effortlessly. Jake Gyllenhall’s performance in the film’s largest supporting role is also strong, the veteran actor swinging from kind to wrathful in seconds. There’s a quiet moment in a bar between the two characters, which is perhaps the best part in the film, where CG and action set pieces are replaced by an emphasis on the struggle of the Spider-Man character in particular, the acting of the starring pair coming to the fore in an absolutely wonderful way.

The scenes without all the action sequences are undoubtedly the best in the movie, because the big blockbuster moments, while fun and exciting, are fairly typical Marvel spectaculars. You’re not going to see anything radically new from it. There is a several-minute sequence playing on reality that is fairly disorienting and fun, but in terms of the explosions and fight scenes, there’s nothing revolutionary along the lines of Kingsman: The Secret Service’s church fight. You go in knowing what you’re going to get out of it.

Far from Home isn’t going to be completely ripping up the rulebook like Infinity War did, but neither is it as bland as a Marvel entry like Thor: The Dark World. It’s a decent entry into the MCU with a strong central premise and good acting. Marvel movies were made for increasing popcorn sales, and this is what Far From Home does. It’s two hours of a fun time that bookmarks the end of an era, and begins to put in the groundwork for the next sprawling narrative.

17/24

Follow Kieran on Twitter: KJudgeMental

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Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Screenwriters: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Paul Rudd, Don Cheadle, Karen Gillan, Bradley Cooper, Brie Larson

The Avengers are back, this time as a depleted albeit universe-trotting combination of humans, super-humans, bionic beings and Gods alike, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes coming full circle from their debut outing in The Avengers (2012) by re-establishing the core group in their attempts to save the universe from that which has already occurred: Thanos’ Infinity War snap that wiped out half of all life – the decimation.

With the audience-pleasing combination of fresh ideas and a nostalgia towards revisiting the core group, Avengers: Endgame has shattered pre-sale and preview records, and is expected to become the highest grossing movie of all time. The Marvel Studios culmination project, directed by franchise leaders The Russo Brothers (Captain America: The Winter Soldier; Captain America: Civil War; Avengers: Infinity War), is more than a blockbuster, it’s a cultural event around which all of superhero cinema is set to pivot. In the years to come, we’ll discuss the superhero sub-genre as either before or after Endgame, the 21 Marvel releases and countless films from other studios bound together under one banner defined by this film, the result and/or pay-off to every superhero movie ever released to this point and the cinematic version of a thank you letter to those who’ve stuck with it for so many years. Disney, Marvel, Marvel head Kevin Feige, The Russo Brothers and everyone involved with this film seemed to have had one goal in mind: pleasing everyone.

Endgame, or more aptly Fan Service The Movie, is a film not lacking in issues – a plot defined by leaps in logic (both within the film itself and the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe) as well as conveniences big and small being the central most concern – and much like many a season finale, Endgame was arguably outshone by the series’ penultimate episode (in this case Infinity War) in an artistic sense. But, that’s not to say that it wasn’t possibly the greatest season finale of all time, a new standard bearer for the ultimate long-term, many-franchise-long, pay off. For fans of the MCU, this is almost everything you could have wished for, and for those going in without 21 films of knowledge and a backlog of Marvel comic book information to guide them, there’s more than enough about Endgame to not only keep your attention but to truly shock, inspire and wow you. Endgame is a blockbuster that pushes all the right buttons.

Logic holes and plot conveniences aside, Endgame does actually feature a very solid narrative through-line considering the number of factors at play, encapsulating motivations and potential issues in amongst its countless battles and nostalgia trips, never seeming to shy away from offering real stakes (despite such concerns regarding most Marvel releases to date) and satisfying narrative conclusions – it seems Marvel’s apparent lack of faith in traditionally secondary characters has waned due to the success of projects like Guardians of the Galaxy and that the studio is finally embracing the inevitable: that nobody lives forever.

Endgame is, without a doubt, the biggest superhero tear-jerker to date.

It is perhaps assumed that an Avengers film is going to look good at this stage, and in Endgame that is certainly the case once again, the CG-rendering of characters like Hulk and the challenging battle sequences seamlessly blending with the cleverly assembled visual motif of the Russo Brothers’ live-action footage, providing the true peak of superhero-related CG work to date. What’s more is that Endgame sounds fantastic, the work in sound editing working to deliver extra impact to every punch and the score being integral to the emotion of the piece, not least to reacquainting us with the themes and traumas of previous movies and thus the narrative arcs of the central most characters.

As a standalone artistic venture, Endgame may not quite live up to its predecessor (arguably the greatest offering Marvel have constructed to date) on the page, but it is without a doubt a phenom of the genre despite this and does, in almost every other conceivable way – importance to the franchise, to its audience, to cinema and to culture – outstrip Infinity War, making it quite possibly the greatest superhero movie of all time and certainly the most important.

Take some tissues and stay through the credits despite there not being an after-credit scene because it’s likely we’ll never see superhero cinema reach the heights of this again. Every single minute of the 3 hour run-time will captivate you (and then some). Laugh, cry and be left in awe at the majesty of the peak of the Marvel mountain…

23/24

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Director: Ron Howard
Screenplay: Jonathan Kasdan, Lawrence Kasdan
Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Joonas Suotamo, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Paul Bettany, Jon Favreau, Linda Hunt

If it looks like a Star Wars movie and sounds like a Star Wars movie, then surely it is a Star Wars movie?

Considering the well publicised problems that occurred during production and ultimately saw the end of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie; 21 Jump Street) as the movie’s directorial duo deep into photography, Solo: A Star Wars Story somewhat surprisingly does not feel like a Frankenstein’s Monster of a movie and actually flows a little better than fellow Star Wars spin-off Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a movie which featured a similarly as extensive list of re-shoots. According to reports, anywhere between 30 and 70 percent of the theatrically released feature was re-shot by the steady and trustworthy hand of incoming director Ron Howard, who reportedly added key characters and sequences in the process of transitioning the movie from a meta comedy with an apparent likeness to Guardians of the Galaxy into a much more traditional Star Wars adventure inspired by old swashbuckling tales and grand Westerns.

Solo is a fun and modern take on a friendly outlaw Western adventure flick with Han the unlikely hero at the centre of everything – often surrounded by smarter and more powerful characters he looks up to – but it does lack a deeper level of investment that seemed super-glued onto the Star Wars franchise until this point. Alden Ehrenreich sufficiently delivers a similarly as charming but infinitely more innocent portrayal of Han Solo than Harrison Ford did, but his effectiveness in the role is ultimately ruled by the character’s position in the narrative as a want-to-be pilot turned “secret” good guy looking to please every bad father figure he comes across; a characterisation that feels skewed from the Solo we’ve all come to know and love for his resistance to teamwork and general opposition to doing the right thing in the original trilogy. This is where Solo begins to fall down, as through presenting the iconic outlaw as an easily influenced child searching for a meaning to his life and a sense of belonging within his own universe, the movie sets forth an arc that should ultimately see his vision of the universe destroyed and idea of grandiosity crumble, but it doesn’t do this and the entire movie is left without a natural conclusion; it feels void of any real connection or purpose. Han’s arc ends just inches forward from where it began, making for an almost hollow reincarnation of a character that develops more in your own mind as a result of his association with the Han from the other movies than it does of its own accord – the film succeeds in developing a deeper understanding of Han from Episodes 4, 5, 6 and 7 but barely develops anything for the Han from Solo.

It’s an issue that comes to encompass the negatives of Solo as a whole, as the characters we’re familiar with are left with little to nothing from which we can progress our understanding of them with as far as their characterisations in this movie go, while side characters that do have more sufficient character arcs are weighed down by the film’s premise being so irrelevant to anything iconic or even unique to Star Wars lore. Unlike in Rogue One, where the brand new cast of characters were interlaced with the ongoing adventures of the popular central franchise in order to add a sense of meaning to their adventure and to reinforce the popular mythos of the universe, Solo offered much lower stakes, with the central character’s transition from caring, optimistic, loving kid to grumpy “if I have to” Harrison Ford being the only anchor point for a movie that missed the boat entirely in terms of this story thread’s importance and left a feeling like there was something missing that you couldn’t quite put your finger on, but that you knew didn’t quite overwhelm you like The Force Awakens, Rogue One or The Last Jedi did (for better or for worse).

Paul Bettany’s take on the cold and calculated villain Dryden Vos and the highly anticipated Donald Glover portrayal of iconic Empire Strikes Back character Lando Calrissian can each be considered far more positive outcomes for Solo however, with each actor bringing a unique sense of charisma to the screen during their limited involvements, really helping to develop at least a semblance of that special Star Wars feeling that we’ve come to know and love. Similarly as praiseworthy were the visuals, which were phenomenal. In fact, this was one of the more well constructed Star Wars movies in this respect, with the environments being specifically noteworthy for their epic scope and sometimes awe-inspiring construction. Characters, landscapes, weaponry and space-tech were all at their most convincing and at the creative limits of Lucasfilm’s CGI, with the factory-like planet Han occupies in the opening act being one of the more visually striking environments in any Star Wars movie ever. The combination of these very good performances in the face of a level of adversity caused by their underdeveloped characters, as well as the beautiful, seamless CG constructions, did evoke a much more positive outcome than could have been the case without them, and this was matched by the score composed by John Powell which evoked that familiar sense of universal belonging that comes with every famous Star Wars composition.

Solo: A Star Wars Story looked and sounded like a Star Wars movie and will work for fans of the pre-existing mythos who want an extra slice of Han Solo shaped information, but ultimately this film did not live up to what we’ve come to love and expect from the Star Wars franchise because of shoddy characterisations and boundaries placed on the writing that made the necessity of a complete arc for its central character a clear afterthought. As such, Solo is the type of movie that will likely feel long and even perhaps tiresome to someone less knowledgeable or invested, and bears little to no resemblance to the other Disney-owned Star Wars movies in terms of its heart and conviction. This A Star Wars Story comes across like a studio looking to play things safe, hoping that a pre-existing character name will be enough to draw the eye (and the money) from many an expectant fan, but it could also go down as the first movie in a strong down-swing for the franchise under Disney’s ownership and must stand as an example of how fun adventure movies based on popular IPs and centred around well-known and beloved characters do not succeed in a paint-by-numbers, creation-by-committee environment, and that for all the good this movie had, it is this that will ultimately tag Solo as an average 2018 release and mediocre Star Wars movie. Fun but unessential – Rogue One it is not.

14/24

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Spider-Man is back (again… for the third reboot of the franchise in just 15 years) as Tom Holland returns to the red and blue morph-suit turned gadget-clad go-getter we first saw him don in Civil War for perhaps the most grounded presentation of any Spider-Man yet. It’s fair to say that Marvel Studios learned the lessons that predecessors seemed hesitant to heed.

The three strikes and you’re out rule certainly seemed to apply to Sony who surrendered the Spider-Man character back to Marvel Studios in 2015 following their tremendously misjudged incarnations of his story in Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 between 2007 and 2014. Thankfully, for fans of the character and for Sony who remain involved in all aspects of Spidey’s cinematic representation, Marvel may well have sprinkled enough of their magic dust on their friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man to resurrect him from his fate worse than death: his unfortunate place as the poster-child of creatively cheap, money-grabbing, merchandise spinning, superhero sequels and reboots.

“Just stay close to the ground” is a line Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark repeats to Holland’s Parker throughout the film when the hero of the piece becomes insistent upon fighting battles too big to fight alongside his high-school education, and it seems that the screenwriters used this line as inspiration for their own work, collectively writing a well grounded MCU micro-story that ticked the boxes of enhancing investment in the titular character and being hugely entertaining, yet not demanding that the world comes to an end or that time portals be opened up to alternative realities (the sorts of things that would demand the entirety of the Avengers). Much like Ant-Man, Homecoming was an example of Marvel carefully constructing localised stories within their greater universe, allowing space for “lesser” (or new, as is the case here) MCU characters to be introduced via stories of fighting crime that, as Stark claims in this film, is “below the Avengers’ pay grade”, something that certainly lessens the stakes but is creatively masked here courtesy of a number of personal arcs playing to different levels of importance. The screenwriters understood that the character had already been introduced 3 times before (including in Civil War) and therefore jumped straight in to developing the story points and overarching themes that would come to define the picture and separate it from its lesser contemporaries, assisting the development of the arcs that became central to the stories emotional impact.

One of the central concerns of would-be fans of this franchise ahead of the movie’s release was whether Tom Holland would live up to the high expectations set during his impactful yet brief appearance in Civil War, and whether Marvel’s risk at casting such a young actor (21 in 2017) in the role for the sake of a realistic teenage portrayal would pay-off in terms of drama considering his fellow Spidey actors were considerably older (Maguire was 27, Garfield was 28) at the time of their respective debuts. With Spider-Man: Homecoming, those concerns have surely been laid to rest, for Tom Holland’s incarnation of the character is not only the most accurate portrayal of Peter Parker turned Spider-Man ever seen on the big screen, but also the most likeable.

Holland excelled at being the nerdy kid looking to impress his pears, and his interactions with Stark, who was the perfect overly cool mentor character who seemed just as dismissive of Parker’s desired credibility as many of his high-school classmates, was a triumph in terms of the movie’s screenwriting and the acting that brought it to life. This was also an example of the relationship between Holland’s Parker and the majority of other characters in the movie that was never overplayed, nor unrealistically portrayed via high-school movie tropes of overtly bullysome fellow students or nobody knowing who Parker even is, and was enhanced greatly by how identifiable Holland played it. Never was he so much of a loser that he was embarrassing, as was the case with Maguire’s Parker, and never was he so seemingly confident in his quips that he was actually cool, as was the case with Garfield’s Parker, as Holland established a very reasonable middle ground much more representative of the modern middle-america intelligent kid than we have previously seen, quite clearly attempting to create someone identifiable to the legions of comic book fans who may have felt unfairly tarnished with the same brush.

Michael Keaton’s Vulture was also, somewhat surprisingly for an MCU movie, a well developed villain. Much of his backstory seemed glued on to the film in much the same way that many a big-budget blockbuster attempts to gain a source of empathy for a character, but the movie’s focus on more comedic elements of the central story arc meant that Vulture was able to develop from being a typical would-be villain into a very real threat to Peter Parker’s personal story while going under the radar as a probable bad-turned-good character courtesy of his comedic timing and sometimes unrealised threat. This fed his character into MCU-lore seamlessly and Keaton himself was also very good in the role, transforming from his usual likeable self into a somewhat monstrous (and particularly gangster) version of the character in a manner that provided drama yet didn’t darken the overall up-beat tone of the picture.

Visually, Homecoming was about as great as you’d expect from a modern superhero movie with the techniques of its director and cinematographer doing the best job possible to stay out of the movie almost entirely, and while its score did fall into the Marvel trashcan of unremarkable soundtracks, there didn’t seem to be anything remarkably bad in this aspect either. In fact, criticism of the film can be found only in how unremarkable aspects of it are as opposed to how bad they are, and the movie has more than enough going for it to cover up these blemishes.

It can be said then, that despite Homecoming’s not quite perfect complexion and the ways in which it doesn’t go beyond expectations on any sort of visceral level, Marvel have certainly put their best foot forward in reigniting the Spider-Man character as a franchise leader with the funniest silver-screen Peter Parker story yet, a choice that has made a star out of Tom Holland and added yet more character dynamics to their overall cinematic universe.

An enjoyable superhero movie…

17/24

There are 2 post-credit scenes in this movie.

7 – Cowboys & Aliens (2011)

Coming off the back of two huge superhero films (that will feature later in this list), excitement was running high for Favreau’s sci-fi western crossover, but it failed to deliver.

Despite featuring James Bond (Daniel Craig) and Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) as the main characters, Cowboys & Aliens suffered from a major case of the snores, for its plot was thin at best and the movie felt too slow. What’s more is that the action was hardly as entertaining and creative as was expected.

The film was void of real entertainment, and thus became a forgettable if not disappointing presentation of what seemed to be a cool idea.

6 – Iron Man 2 (2010)

The sequel to Marvel’s game-changing superhero action movie was another of Jon Favreau’s projects filled with promises that it simply did not deliver.

The casting of independent movie hero Sam Rockwell in one of the lead roles suggested that Iron Man 2 would further the franchise as a distinctive and memorable part of Marvel’s bigger picture, and the introduction of man-of-the-moment Mickey Rourke – who was fresh off his success in The Wrestler and in the midst of a resurgence – only boosted expectations further. Unfortunately for fans, Favreau, and all involved, Iron Man 2 was a bit of a dud.

It’s not that Iron Man 2 was bad, it’s more that it didn’t live up to expectations nor brought anything as fresh and interesting to the table as its predecessor did. We’ll chalk it up to the ‘studio intervention’ that forced Favreau to give up the gig before Iron Man 3.

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5 – Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005)

Zathura belongs to a very particular type of film: the under-appreciated kid’s flick.

Managing a cast of children, not least 12-year-old Josh Hutcherson (of Hunger Games fame) and 15 year old Kristen Stewart (Twilight), can’t have been easy, yet Favreau still managed to prove that he was capable of directing a fantastical adventure movie that was, probably, a little bit before its time.

By no means was Zathura a masterpiece, but it was a lot of fun (especially for something based on a board game) and it really managed to showcase some of Favreau’s more creative talents with regard to CGI and special effects; each being key elements in his making of the Iron Man films.

4 – Made (2001)

At our halfway point is the film that introduced the directorial talents of Jon Favreau to the world.

Made, released in 2001, was one of that generation’s Favreau and Vaughn pics – the first being Swingers (1996) – and truly established Favreau as a noteworthy talent courtesy of its deep themes and dark humour.

What had made Swingers such a success was Favreau’s script that was unapologetically critical of the movie industry and self-conscious in its references, plot points, and so on. Made was along the same lines, with Favreau receiving a lot of praise for time-stamping the film courtesy of some excellent contemporary references. This of course leaves Made, much like Swingers, feeling dated, but it should certainly be acknowledged as a successful and important picture with regard to this director’s career.

3 – Chef (2014)

This movie about a chef who quits his job and moves to Florida to start his own business is another film, like Made, that is very of its time. In fact, the whole plot revolves around Twitter. But, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

What Chef does is tell a story of now… the contemporary west; the recession hit social-network-loving America… and yet still, somehow, it makes you smile.

Chef is arguably neglectful of the traumas that being of work has caused so many people living below the poverty line, and it worked almost exclusively to reinvigorate problematic dogma regarding heteronormativity, the white middle class, and capitalism.

It is a good watch with food, however, and doesn’t require deep thought if you’re unwilling to engage with it.

It’s tightly put together, with seemingly very little time wasted on filler material, and John Leguizamo (Ice Age) is a pleasure to watch, making this movie the bronze medal winner.

2 – Elf (2003)

5 Reasons ‘Elf’ Is a Gen-Z Christmas Classic

If ever there was a feel-good and funny Christmas movie, then Elf is it.

Perhaps the greatest Christmas movie of the 21st century, Elf has touched the lives of millions of young people around the world, and probably their parents a little too.

Filled with quotable lines, and featuring such a memorable performance from Will Ferrell in the lead role, Favreau’s 2003 picture is sweet, magical, and most importantly filled with Christmas spirit. It is undeniably one of the high points of the director’s career and certainly helped to open the door to his role as director for number one on this list…

1 – Iron Man (2008)

What Jon Favreau’s presentation of Iron Man did for Marvel can not be understated. The studio, not to mention the company, wasn’t performing very well after a string of less-than-impressive releases and ill-advised business decisions, but then Jon Favreau came along and changed everything… with a little help from Robert Downey, Jr. (and Kevin Feige) of course.

Iron Man was fresh. Its comedic tone and generally light-hearted take on superherodom was entirely the opposite of Christopher Nolan’s darker but equally as successful Batman movies, and the sarcastic charm of its resurgent star made for smirks and laughter throughout.

If ever there was a high point for Favreau’s directorial career it was here. Iron Man was truly a game-changing release that announced Favreau’s arrival as a tour de force in the industry for what will likely be many years to come.

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Make sure to leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

Jon Favreau’s latest vision is a star driven character piece with a feel-good script called “Chef”. Released in 2014, the movie written and directed by the Iron Man 1 & 2 director is technically efficient and the script is neatly put together but the movie isn’t without problems.

The biggest issue with Chef is that it’s an R rated family movie. Yeah, you read that right. Favreau’s movie is laced with profanities, hence its rating, yet can ultimately be defined as a family movie that is reinforcing of the dominant white middle-class hetero-normative ‘restoration of the father figure’. It simply didn’t work as a combination. In fact, this movie seemed like more of the usual white middle-class nonsense of living in big houses, and being able to quit jobs and take vacations that we’ve become accustomed to in the pseudo-indie parts of Hollywood’s film industry as of late. Chef took zero steps to confront issues regarding unemployment despite being centered around a chefs firing from his long-term job, which was disappointing. Instead, Favreau’s movie was more of an idealistic right wing vision of being able to start again at a moments notice and truly make something of yourself with some good ol’ hard work. It offered nothing by the way of social commentary and was instead the very personal journey of a man and his relationship to his son; something that only grew through his chasing of the American dream.

Social commentary aside, Chef was able to present a positive story of new beginnings and reforming old ties, no matter the circumstances. Favreau’s performance was solid alongside Emjay Anthony (who played his son) and their relationship seemed real, specifically in their moments of interaction with uncle figure and best friend to Favreau’s protagonist Carl, Martin (Leguizamo). John Leguizamo’s character was perhaps the most lovable of the bunch, with his now trademark voice being of benefit to the overall feel-good nature of this film, and with the odd appearance from megastars Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr and Dustin Hoffman thrown in there, Chef had enough talent and drawing power to maintain engagement through some of its less interesting scenes.

The main thing to recognise about Jon Favreau’s Chef is that it was a simple feel good movie about the family, the likes of which we’ve seen a million times before – yes – but with a slight modern twist and presented with the typically tightly formed gusto of its writer-director. It won’t be winning any awards anytime soon, but it’s a perfectly adequate date movie and even better film to watch with dinner given its appropriately excellent food porn scenes.

14/24