It’s that time of year again, when critics let you know which films are so important that you must watch them. Generally, these are worthy affairs, full of angst and bitter dialogue, with impenetrable plots and character motivations.
Well, we here at Two Little Fleas look at films a bit differently. In this article, we don’t tell you which films you need to see. We’ll look at the films you want to see and explain why you want to see them.
The Wolf of Wall Street
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio team up again to tell this tale of sex, drugs, money and the destructive power of one man’s greed. It’s set in 1987 and follows Jordan Belfort, a stockbroker who goes from being unemployed to an owner of a billion-dollar stock firm. His greed drives everything, until it gets to be too much. The FBI begins to investigate him, his marriage breaks down and he and his colleagues begin to turn on each other in the process.
This film has been nominated for more than 60 awards, including two Golden Globe awards, and critics’ reviews have generally been very positive. Interestingly, the film got only a C rating from a CinemaScore audience survey, the lowest score of all the films released that week. This is thought largely to be because the morality in the film conflicts quite drastically with most people’s morality. In short, you’ll want to see this film, if only to make up your own mind.
12 Years a Slave
This film is not easy viewing. Steve McQueen is not a director who shies away from the worst things people inflict on themselves and each other (his other films include ‘Hunger’ and ‘Shame’), and this film, all about slavery in America, is no different.
The film stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup, a freeborn black man in New York who is drugged, kidnapped and sold into slavery. He finds himself on a plantation in Louisiana, toiling under a relatively benevolent master, until he is sold to Edwin Epps, played by Michael Fassbender. There, Northup encounters the worst atrocities of slavery. He eventually gets freed and returns to his life in New York.
This film is based on the autobiography of Solomon Northup, to whom all of this actually happened. When he returned to New York, he wrote this book, which became a powerful tool in the fight against slavery. Similarly, this film is making audiences face up to the realities of slavery in a way they never have before. That, in short, is why the Oscars have been mentioned almost every time the film is: it is pretty much guaranteed to win a host of the prestigious awards.
It’s a film that gets people talking about real, hard-to-face issues, and that’s why you’ll want to see it.
American Hustle
American Hustle is not as hard-hitting or controversial as ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ or ’12 Years a Slave’. Instead, it is a really well made film about con artists who help the FBI in their attempt to take down a corrupt politician in the 1970s. It’s based on the real-life ABSCAM scandal, which saw one senator, six members of the House of Representatives and other smaller politicians convicted of bribery and conspiracy for granting political favours in exchange for money.
This film is fast-paced and funny, and its all-star cast, which includes Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale and Amy Adams, makes the most of the script. In particular, Lawrence and Adams are marked out for their performances, but the film is just good old-fashioned Hollywood fun, making it the perfect antidote to all the depressing Oscar contenders out at the moment. That’s why you want to see it.
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
In the film, we see bigger glimpses into the life that everyone was eulogising, which gives us extra insight into why this great man was as beloved and influential as he was.
Starring Edris Elba as Mandela, it starts with his life in the village of Mvezo, and it follows him as he becomes a lawyer and activist, a political prisoner and, eventually, the President of South Africa. Critics accuse the film of sentimentality and a lack of objective storytelling, but the film is based on Mandela’s point of view of his life, so those flaws are easy to forgive. Everyone pretty much universally loves Elba’s portrayal of Mandela, saying he captured the essence of the man, and the rest of the cast has received much acclaim for their acting, too.
But the real reason for wanting to see this film now has little to do with the film and more to do with the subject’s life: Nelson Mandela died less than a week after this biopic came out.
Frozen
As its awards season, most films being released are serious, heavy, “important” films. Frozen is nothing like that. It is Disney’s newest animation, and it is everything you could want in classic Disney entertainment. It’s a tale of good overcoming incredible odds, with plenty of laughs courtesy of a sassy sidekick or two, and it’s based loosely on a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale.
Elsa, a princess, has remarkable powers to create ice and snow. The King and Queen, frightened by her powers, seclude the family away in the royal castle in an attempt to keep the powers secret. Even her little sister Anna doesn’t know about them. The castle is opened to the public when Elsa is going to be coronated, and in the run-up to the festivities, Anna meets and falls for a handsome prince, Hans, who quickly proposes to Anna. Elsa refuses to give her blessing to the union, which causes the sisters to fight. During the fight, Elsa accidentally reveals her powers, which causes her to panic and flee. That flight from the kingdom causes an eternal winter to fall over the land, so it becomes Anna’s duty to find her sister, repair the rift in their relationship and bring an end to the bitter winter.
It’s a nice twist on normal Disney tales: the evil queen isn’t so much evil as she is scared of hurting her little sister. The love that conquers is the bond of sisterhood, so you’ll want to see this film, if only to get your kids to stop bickering for a while.
We think you just can’t wait to see these five films, but which ones are you looking forward to most? Let us know in the comments.
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