1. Lawrence of Arabia
*****
Epic in both senses of the word - and to parrot my elders "they don't make films like this anymore". Peter O'Toole's debut tells the story of T.E. Lawrence's journey from a weedy British officer to the leader of an Arab uprising against the Turks with momentous historical implications. This film tackles questions of colonialism, freedom, democracy, leadership, community and fraternity in a surprisingly progressive way that is as or if not more relevant today as it was in the 60s. A strange and slight suggestion of homosexuality and sexual abuse off-camera mid-way left me wondering, but this ambiguity is resultant of it's age. The now second remastering of the film has rendered the film spectacular and astonishingly beautiful. Undoubtedly the longest film I'd ever watched, but long as the Great Wall of China is long, and this film is Great.
2. Cloud Atlas
***
I really wanted to like this film. My biggest problem was that the concept of the film was ruined by making the film. David Mitchell's (not the comedian) book is the book that cannot possibly be made into a film. The timelessness, the intermingling, confusing plot-lines getting mangled and mutated to create a Frankensteinian monster. The ideas of the film are interesting to say the least, and I applaud everyone involved for trying to do something original and groundbreaking, it's just that they failed. Tom Hanks and Ben Whishaw was as ever stellar, but Halle Berry left much to be desired (acting-wise). The visuals were stunning and the creative impetus was awesome, but everything else besides was heavy-handed and amateurish. I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed.
3. Captain Phillips
*****
Tom Hanks' best in my opinion. The true story of a group of Somalian pirates boarding an American cargo ship and kidnapping the captain. It was captured intensely through Paul Greengrass' expertise at creating tension in his mockumentary style, that placed you with the crew on the bridge. I literally couldn't breathe for most of the film. It has such a momentum that I've never felt before with a film. The dual perspective on the Somalis and the crew on the ship was unexpected and very welcome. I got the sense that the film acted on two layers - one where there was a Captain Vs. Captain relationship, and another where it explored the effects of globalisation - a situation that neither captains could captain or control, as in, they were both in a context bigger than themselves. The ending was also unexpected for me as I was unaware of the original story (it wasn't as reported in the UK as it was in the US) and Hanks' last half an hour in the film was one of the greatest emotional pieces I've seen by him.