Saturday 28 January 2017

My Top 10 Best Movies of 2016

The prevailing wisdom about 2016 in the movies is that it was a bad year, but that might be overstating it. True, it's a step down from the highs of 2014 and 2015, and the summer season was catastrophic, but this year wasn't without its positive trends, and furthermore, even a lesser year isn't without its standout films. Here are the ten best which I saw.

Sunday 15 January 2017

Movie review: "Silence"

dir. by Martin Scorcese
Silence is a film which Martin Scorcese has been trying to get made since the 1990s. An adaptation of Shūsaku Endō's 1966 novel of the same name, the film dramatizes the oppression of Catholics in Feudal Japan, following a Portuguese Jesuit mission. What drew Scorcese, an auteur who frequently deals with themes regarding faith, to the material is obvious, and Silence is remarkable both for the obvious passion which went into its creation, as well as for its nuanced themes on the nature of faith, sin, guilt, and arrogance. However, at nearly three hours, the film is a monotonous and frequently unengaging sit, and while its fascinating concepts and enormity of vision make it worth seeing, it stands on the line between art and homework.