TOP 150 MOVIES

Directed by Madeleine Gavin, Beyond Utopia chronicles the efforts of South Koreon pastor Seungeun Kim and his church Caleb Mission in helping defectors from North Korea escape the tyrannical communist nation.

With camera crew in tow, Gavin captures the gruelling and dangerous journey to freedom undertaken by a North Korean family while evading detection by North Korean and Chinese authorities. Alongside them is Pastor Kim, who like a good shepherd should, guides his flock through dangerous territory as red-star adorning wolves try to track them down.

Archival footage that shows the cruel and inhumane conditions that has befallen upon the North Koreon people – especially those caught escaping their supposed “utopia” – heightens the stakes in a treacherous journey fuelled by hope and faith.

With Old Henry, director Potsy Ponciroli delivered a western of high stakes and intense emotion that blend of western mythos, character driven drama, and action thrills.

Set in 1906, Old Henry stars Tim Blake Nelson as Henry, a farmer whose face presents a weariness, grit, and beady-eyed suspicion of a world not to be trusted. Widowed and raising his son Wyatt (Gavin Lewis), Henry toils on his isolated farm located on Oklahoma Territory. That is until the discovery of an outlaw left for dead and carrying a satchel of money brings with him all matter of hell in the form of brutal bank robber Ketchum (Stephen Dorff).

Filmed in Tennessee, Old Henry features beautiful photography as well as a mourn-filled score that captures the danger, dread, and sadness of this western tale. Tim Blake Nelson’s delivers a fantastic performance of crusty grit and salt of the earth demeanour who under the surface bubbles violent tendencies true in aim and brutal in delivery.  

An immensely entertaining, visually extravagant, heartfelt story about a dreamer with a wild imagination and a heart of gold, Amelie saw director John-Pierre Juenet return to French cinema after a brief liaison with Hollywood and deliver his best work to date.

Starring the sublime Audrey Tautou as the title character, the film follows Amelie as she finds her calling to help others through good deeds. When she falls in love, however Amelie finds it hard to follow her own lead and fill her life with happiness.

An extremely pleasurable film to watch, Amelie succeeds in being a quirky, surreal and cheeky comedy filled with lush colours and rich landscapes that create a bubbly atmosphere. Above all Tautou brings a warmth that is simply infectious, resulting in a sweet feel-good movie without any sickly side effects.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout builds upon its well-established formula of first-class entertainment to make for a high stakes, high quality, and character rich action spectacle.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout finds IMF agent Etan Hunt (Tom Cruise) on the hunt for missing nuclear weapons that have fallen in the hands of mysterious terrorist group “The Apostles” led by Hunt’s arch-nemesis Solomon Lane (Sean Harris). Also on the chase is Hunt’s one-time love interest, MI6 agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), and CIA agent August Walker (Henry Cavill.)

Director Christopher McQuarrie (Jack Reacher) delivers an action movie that is as serious as a heart attack yet knows how to entertain. This is enhanced by Cruise in prime daredevil action-man mode, placing life and limb on the line while also bringing further dimensions to his (arguably) most memorable character of Ethan Hunt.

The sequel to 2015’s award winning Inside Out proves to be one of Pixar’s best films in its own right, with its continuing story of young protagonist Riley (voiced by Kensington Tallman) and her emotional journey into adolescence a quintessential example of how to create a coming-of-age story with rich emotions and dazzling artistry.

Amy Poehler returns as Joy, the de-facto leader to a group of personified emotions in Riley’s brain whose optimism and patience is put to the test in the arrival of Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke) who turns Riley’s life upside down as she heads into high school.

Director Kelsey Mann does the near-impossible in delivering a sequel better than the original, with Inside Out 2 a masterclass of strong emotional-intelligent storytelling within an eye-popping animation film.  

A highly successful throwback to the tone and quality of the original trilogy, Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens saw director J.J. Abrams bring that Midas touch that relaunched the Star Trek series to a galaxy far, far away.

Set 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, this most excellent chapter in the Star Wars saga once again pits a rebel alliance against an evil empire, with series veterans (Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher) effectively passing the torch to a new generation of galactic heroes and villains (Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver.)

Impeccably crafted with great cinematography, production design, visual effects and editing, even more impressive is Abrams understanding that a great Star Wars movie is not only about the whiz-bang external stuff, but also about the soul in its classic riff on the eternal struggle between the sides of light and dark (good vs evil) and the jubilant, infectious spirit of its adventure.

A beautifully crafted and performed blend of Looney Tunes madness, physical comedy gags, and silent film artistry, Hundreds of Beavers delivers filmmaking ingenuity at its most energetic and entertaining.

Hundreds of Beavers stars Rylan Brickland Cole Tews as Jean Kayak, an apple-jack salesman whose distillery is destroyed by a group of beavers. Out of business and out of his depth in the snow-driven wilderness, Jean learns how to survive in the elements while courting the daughter (Olivia Graves) of a merchant (Doug Mancheski) who demands a steep price for her hand: one hundred dead beavers.

Shot in black and white and with no dialogue, director Mike Ceslik adds playful 2D animation elements along with a wonderfully composed score by Chris Ryan to create a wholly engaging adventure comedy spectacle. The sight of actors dressed in animal costume to depict the wildlife, meanwhile, delivers a surreal zest as if Sesame Street blended with Jeremiah Johnson by way of Evil Dead II.

Director Edward Zwick has a knack for making a great war movie, and his best yet is The Last Samurai, a staggeringly crafted and exceptionally portrayed historical epic that still does not get enough love.

Set in 19th century Japan, the film stars a tremendous Tom Cruise as haunted civil war veteran Nathan Algren, who after being hired to train the new Imperial Japanese Army instead falls in with the rebelling samurai he was paid to kill, among them samurai leader Katsumoto (Ken Wattanabe.)

Cruise’s performance might be his most complete yet, with its coupling of action and drama combined with a quiet yet powerful soulfulness. Zwick in turn creates a thoughtful and spirited movie of sweeping visuals and undeniable charisma.

It was a large task for director Alejandro Gonzalez Innatiru to follow up his Oscar winning Birdman, yet he did just that with an even more technically impressive and overall better film in The Revenant.

Loosely based on the legend of frontiersman Hugh Glass, The Revenant stars DiCaprio as a fur trapper left for dead (the result of a bear mauling) after he witnesses the death of his son by the hand of criminal Fitzgerald (a menacing Tom Hardy.)

Swearing revenge, he pursues Fitzgerald in this gritty story that sucks its audience into a world of snow, blood and grizzly vengeance, and astounds with its epic scope that makes 3D look like the chump change novelty that it is. Throughout it all DiCaprio delivers the performance of a lifetime in a grunting, grinding, spitting, all-in physical performance that is complemented by the portrayal of a soul wounded by hardship and tragedy.

A sure to be crime classic that is as thought provoking in its themes as it is visually and narratively absorbing, Killing Them Softly continues to establish director Andrew Dominick as a creative force to be reckoned with.

Brad Pitt stars as Jackie Cogan, a hitman brought in by the mob to investigate and dispense with the sad souls (Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn, both excellent) who thought it wise to knock off a mob backed card game.

While the theme of gangsters and capitalism is hardly new (The Godfather and Scarface being prime examples), recent fiscal history adds weight to Killing Them Softly with the stakes high in an “industry” where crime still must pay even in a recession. Dominick makes it all work and does so with unmistakable style.