In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, governments all over the world – including the UK – have urged those who can to stay at home. This newfound plethora of time may feel stressful and strange, or perhaps mind-numbingly boring. What better way to alleviate lockdown blues than by watching a great film, or finally tackling the tv show you’ve had on your watchlist for ages? Below, a handful of our writers share what films and television shows they’ve been watching to pass the time.

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Sex and the City

Tomi Haffety

The perfect binge, watch-whilst-you’re-eating, feel-good series, Sex and the City is a noughties classic. Spanning ninety-four episodes over six years, the witty and glamourous series follows the lives of four women as they navigate style, sex and, quite obviously, the city. Carrie Bradshaw’s namesake column in a small New York newspaper is the backbone to the show as she narrates her and her best friends’ lives, inventing a wealth of creative euphemisms as the group’s relationships go out of fashion quicker than nineties sequins. Winning seven Emmy Awards out of a substantial fifty nominations, Sex and the City was an unprecedented hit when it first aired and is still just as relatable and entertaining. Although the crucial theme of spending absurd amounts of money on shoes and labels feels somewhat outdated – a detail toned down in the subsequent films – the show pioneered the normalcy of casual dating and cherished female friendships. As with many series from the same era, the show’s punchlines occasionally drew on casual racism and sexism, revealing the lengths the show still had to go. Nonetheless, it is a sitcom best watched when you want to fantasize about living in a big city, laugh at Samantha Jones’ consistent sexual humour, and realise, as popularly regarded, that Carrie Bradshaw is possibly the worst friend to grace television. More than this, the show’s unashamed approach to important issues regarding female sexuality and debates surrounding feminism continues to be relevant. Sex and the City remains a turning point in representing the modern woman, and its lasting legacy has filtered through generations; take, for example, the Instagram page ‘@everyoutfitonsatc,’ which has reached 670k people twenty years after the show aired. Watching Sex and the City will make you laugh, equip you with fashion tips, and – most importantly – help you pass the endless hours of quarantine.

Before Sunset

Sang Park

Whenever the going gets tough, at least one person will tell you to just focus on the positives, look forward, and crack on until things work out. However, it would be criminal for any of us to claim that the question of “what if?” has never crossed our mind. In Before Sunset, set nine years after Jesse and Céline’s first encounter in Vienna, we are re-introduced to the pair, who have both been pondering that very same question since the last time they saw one another. Once the two reunite, this time in Paris, what ensues is a stroll through la ville de l’Amour accompanied by a conversation that bounces around from topic to topic like a pinball. While their ramblings and chitchats show us the beauty of people’s ability to reconnect in an instant, no amount of coffee at a chic Parisian cafe or a sarcastic back and forth about American optimism and French sullenness is able to prevent Jesse and Céline from asking the inevitable question: ‘Where would we be now if we had met again after our night?’ As the two grapple with this hypothetical, the facade that they have both put up fades away and ultimately unsheathes the caged hopeless romantics living inside them. 

Amidst this pandemic, most of us, like Jesse and Celine, are forced to make peace with the fact that our relationships with our loved ones and our community have come to an abrupt halt, and that they may be lost forever. Maybe like Jesse, you wish you could just call that girl, who took up all the nooks and crannies in your brain or maybe, you just miss grabbing a cold pint with your mates. Whatever the case may be, Before Sunset has something for everyone wrapped up in the pain of solitude. Jesse and Celine’s encounters remind us that there is a future, where we can love and treasure one another unconditionally; their enduring love reminds us of the joy in the unknown ahead of us, no matter our past and present.  

Climax

Sofía Kourous Vázquez

There are a lot of parallels between quarantine life and Gaspar Noé’s Climax. Much like the film’s protagonists, who find themselves stuck in their dance school during a snowstorm in the middle of nowhere, we are all trapped indoors in what is also somewhat of a nightmare. Quarantine brings out the worst in everyone: you’ve got your sad babies who would rather curl up in a ball until it all blows over; your angry types who are just looking for someone to blame; and your run-of-the-mill thirsty hoes keeping their eyes on the prize through the chaos. If you need a reason to reminisce over your long-lost days of (possibly) substance-induced clubbing and then take it all back as Noé’s neon dance fantasy degenerates into depravity and horrific mayhem, Climax is your ticket. A global pandemic is a total bummer but hey, at least you’re not stuck unknowingly drinking large doses of LSD-spiked sangria with a bunch of fucked up French people! Explosive and immersive. Many trigger warnings apply.

My So-Called Life

Fatima Jafar

I watched all nineteen episodes of My So-Called Life in rapid succession one summer a few years ago, when there was a lot of time to do nothing. Something about the story of Angela Chase, a fifteen-year-old living in a quiet suburb of Pittsburgh, rang true for me then, and has stayed close to me all this time. Now, in these weeks of quarantine and isolation, when cities have slowed down and the roads seem quieter than ever before, I find myself turning to these episodes for some kind of solace. My So-Called Life expertly charts the lives of a few adolescents and their families in the fictional neighbourhood of Three Rivers. Each episode navigates the fabric of each character’s experiences with a tenderness that I have seldom seen in American coming-of-age television shows. The uncomfortable intricacies of growing up are delved into, and families, relationships, and health are picked apart and tackled with an unflinching eye. I think the reason that my mind goes back to this television show during the pandemic is because of its own willingness to sit in its slowness. The plotlines unfold with both the hesitancy and intensity that accompanies every confused teenager— the fleeting, intense crushes, the hot bursts of anger, the frequent tears. Because the heart of the show is the emotional drama between various characters, the story simmers within its own anxiety, and at times, it’s own yearning. This suburban pull – the desire to feel and experience something more than boring high-school life in a small neighbourhood – evokes a tension not far from the isolation we are experiencing right now. Watching human lives slowly playing out on screen and immersing myself in the tender fragility of passing time has helped me reframe this period of isolation for myself, teaching me how to pause and be on my own for a while. 

Rocknrolla

Maria Düster

This film, I’ll admit, is a wildcard. I think about Guy Ritchie a lot – not because I admire him in any way, but because his films occupy such a niche place in the film industry that none of us knows exactly what to do with. While some may simply call them “British gangster films,” I prefer “pathological commitment to imbuing every single storyline on earth – from Sherlock Holmes to King Arthur to whatever the hell The Gentlemen was – with a mildly revolting form of British maleness that roots itself in Cockney accents, martial arts, and a simultaneous hatred towards and fetish for the class system.” All of his films – save for Aladdin, thank God – appear to be colour-graded with the hard salt spray of an ugly British beach somewhere. Yet, I still find myself drawn to his films, unable to look away (except for the half of them I have never seen). Rocknrolla follows a trio of crooks called “The Wild Bunch,” comprised of “One-Two” (Gerard Butler), his partner “Mumbles” (Idris Elba), and driver “Handsome Bob” (Tom Hardy). When a (you guessed it) Russian mob boss concocts a massive real estate scam, The Wild Bunch – along with a crime boss (Tom Wilkinson), an evil accountant (Thandie Newton), and a punk rocker named Johnny Quid (Toby Kebbell) – all duel it out for a big wad of cash. Mark Strong’s alluring narration, combined with a convoluted and unrealistic plot, provide the perfect escapism for surviving a raging pandemic. Also, unless I imagined it in a fever dream, Tom Hardy hooks up with Gerard Butler in one scene. Or maybe it was Idris Elba? Either way, happy watching!

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Niloufar Javadi

I grew up consuming an unhealthy amount of American media. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was one of those films that I had heard about countless times, but never actively sought out. So when my American flatmate suggested watching it, I tentatively agreed. I was pleasantly surprised. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off follows wisecracking high school senior Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), who is determined to enjoy a day off school sightseeing in Downtown Chicago with his girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara) and his best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck). Equipped with a charming protagonist, fast-paced plot, and surprisingly deep and tender moments, the film offers a welcome distraction from the sporadic episodes of uncertainty and confusion that seem inseparable from our new reality.  Like most people I know, I have become increasingly introspective during the lockdown (I like to think I have good reason to). Like Ferris, I am about to graduate and be hurled into the “real world,” where I will need to survive without an academic structure for the first time since I was four years old. The past month has forced me to put my life on hold, to think about the direction I am taking the rest of my adult life and why. Ferris Bueller offers a reassuring squeeze of the hand, reminding me that there is no harm (well, perhaps not too much)  in taking a day off of normal life to think, indulge and live more deliberately.

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COVID-19 is a global health emergency. UCL Film and Television Society urges all readers to consult their local government’s advice. For UK-specific advice, visit https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus.

There is an intimate relationship between cinema and the city. While urban environments possess ample potential for exploring space on screen, the intangible aspects of these places – identity, mood, energy – prove more difficult to portray. The lived reality of a city versus its depiction in film can inspire both love and hate, a somewhat strange confrontation with fact and fiction.  Below, five writers from Film Soc examine how cinema sees their hometown, and how the identity of that place makes it onto film.

Chungking Express, Hong Kong

Emma Davis 

When Hong Kong is featured on film, it’s often the commercial towers that make it on screen. Whether it’s Lara Croft, Batman or Pacific Rim, the jagged shiny buildings loom above an action star’s adversary. It’s an exotic urban locale; busy, anonymous and full of delights. However, such films fail to show the human, realistic side to Hong Kong’s urban environment. Wong Kar-Wai’s Chungking Express was one of the first films that showed western audiences a wondrous side to the city. In the film, I saw my own experiences of Hong Kong’s meandering character. The first eponymous location, Chungking Mansions, is an underrepresented area even within Hong Kong society. Regarded with suspicion as a crime-ridden area undeserving of attention, the Mansions are a place where ethnic minority Hong Kongers and immigrants support each other in a multicultural tower that functions as an indoor market, shopping centres, restaurants and guest houses. The city of Hong Kong is an equally chaotic concept. Unfortunately, the real fast food shop Midnight Express is no longer open, exemplifying the cutthroat reality of operating a business in Hong Kong’s central district. The area is constantly undergoing change, easy to see as you ride the Central-Mid Levels escalator up the hill. Chungking Express is a melodramatic and brooding movie, but it shows a simple Hong Kong; full of sweaty neon nights and long humid days, the way in which the characters languidly interact with the city is intimately familiar — not exotic or hectic.

Starter For Ten, Bristol  

Annabelle Brand

I watched Starter For Ten a few years before starting university and, in a lot of ways, it set my (sometimes unrealistic) expectations for what uni would be like. The film is a love letter to the student vitality of my hometown, Bristol, where city life is shaped by the ebb and flow of returning students. Based on David Nicholls’ novel of the same name, Starter For Ten follows Brian Jackson’s (James McAvoy) first year at Bristol university, attempting to navigate both systematic academic elitism and women.

As I became closer in age to the Bristol uni students I saw in town, walking around Clifton, Park Street, or College Green, the depiction of university as shown in Starter For Ten seemed to become more and more real to me. Although the movie seems a little dated now – the film came out in 2006, and I’ve been in uni for a while now –  its reckless cheerfulness still feels charatersitic both of my experience of uni life and my hometown. 

Dazed and Confused, Austin

Maria Duster

Dazed and Confused stumbled into cinemas in 1993. The film follows incoming high school seniors and freshmen on their last day of school, an eclectic odyssey of teenage life in the 70s. Director Richard Linklater (Before trilogy, Boyhood) has lived in Austin since the early 80s and remains an important presence in the city’s film community, alongside collaborator/patron saint Matthew McConaughey. Dazed and Confused is a cult favourite of Austinites, a sentimental day trip in the midst of a rapidly changing city. While most of the movie’s locations have been torn down and/or gentrified, those that remain find a way to sneak themselves into the lives of residents, whether they realize it or not. The field on which Pink and Wooderson muse about life is the Toney Burger Center, a stadium where I spent many afternoons at age 13 watching middle school football games in a painful attempt to get my crush to notice me. The Emporium pool hall was filmed at an old shopping center on North Lamar, one of the main thoroughfares of the city I’ve frequented my entire life. Growing up in Texas feels both dull and frenetic, a wide open space filled with nothing and everything. I love Dazed and Confused because it reminds me of the city I knew as a child – Austin before it became Austin – and the spark that’s still there. It feels like an old cotton t-shirt from a random Tex-Mex restaurant, weed and beer, stupidly nostalgic and incredibly heartfelt. Austin, through and through. 

Spike Island, Manchester

Daniel Jacobson

There was a period of around 20 years – between the Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall and Oasis’ Be Here Now– where Manchester was the coolest place in the world. For many, including the school lads at the centre of 2012’s Spike Island, this feeling was epitomised by The Stone Roses’ seminal 1989 debut album, a record brimming in equal parts with witty self-awareness and an epic, anarchic punk spirit of literal biblical proportions, capturing the community and paradoxical optimism following decades of rapid post-industrial decline.

I grew up in a very different Manchester – one where you can buy smashed avocados in the Northern Quarter, Morrissey has gone off the rails, and the last Stone Roses single was arguably the worst song of the decade. However, I found myself re-evaluating my relationship with the city following the 2017 attack. Though Manchester has shifted and evolved, it is grounded in its history, conserved by both its culture and people. Although Spike Island – which follows a band of friends attending The Stone Roses’ legendary Spike Island gig – can come across as overly slapstick and sometimes unfocused in capturing the youthful exuberance conveyed by The Stone Roses, it presents itself as not just a love letter to the band or the city, but an ode to distinctly Mancunian values. 

Slackistan, Islamabad/Karachi

Fatima Jafar

I grew up in Karachi, the chaotic, big-city sprawl of Pakistan, but the film that always reminds me of home is the 2010 independent film Slackistan, based in the country’s capital Islamabad. Made on an almost non-existent budget, the film is heavily inspired by Richard Linklater’s 1990-baby Slacker, but focuses on a group of twenty-somethings in Islamabad, fresh out of university and disenchanted with life. Slackistan encapsulates the laziness of a day spent driving around with friends aimlessly, in a car burning with the afternoon heat. It is hopping from friend’s house to friend’s house, in a seemingly endless post-university malaise, looking for excitement and life in a ‘city that always sleeps’. The director, Hammad Khan, manages to capture the detached reality of sheltered young adulthood in cities like Karachi and Islamabad, where time is whiled away drinking tea, smoking cigarettes, and having conversations about what you wish you could do with your life. Soundtracked by different Pakistani punk and rap artists, Slackistan is an irreverent, satirical ode to the slowness of freshly obtained adulthood in Pakistan, and the gnawing sense that, while people around you seem to be falling in love, getting married, and starting their lives, you’re still stuck in restlessness of your teenage years. Slackistan, with all its messy, amateurish cinematography and wandering dialogue, represents perfectly (with a healthy dose of irony) the angst and confusion of sheltered kids trying to find their place, and purpose, in Pakistani cities. 

All of the above films are available to stream or buy online in the UK. 

A selection of our writers take a look at the films that shaped them, and the world of film, this decade.

Waltz with Bashir (2008)

Never has an anti-war film felt as intimate and real as Waltz with Bashir, an animated autobiographical documentary about director Ari Folman’s experiences during the 1982 Lebanon War. The film has unique presentation. It is both a drama and a biography, with the director interviewing fellow veterans with the goal of recollecting his lost memories from the war. An animated documentary might strike some as odd, since documentaries are conventionally about documenting real life as accurately as possible. Yet the dreamlike presentation is purposeful; it meticulously captures the feeling of surrealism and alienation felt by young soldiers in wartime. Folman does not try to present his experiences in an objective, “news story” lens. What results is an extremely personal confession from the director.

Coupled with a haunting soundtrack by Max Richter, the film takes us through the absurdity of war, all building to one of the most shocking and disturbing finales I’ve ever seen in film. Waltz With Bashir is a prime example of cinema’s greatest strength: the ability to subjectively present a story that becomes more truthful than many other objective mediums of communication.

Bowen Xu

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

2010’s have been the decade of the comic book movie, in particular Marvel. The Marvel Cinematic Univerise has been the anchor in this area both in terms of popularity and arguably, quality. Avengers: Infinity War is, in my opinion, the mountaintop of the MCU. While it is debatable whether the film is the best comic book adaptation of the decade, it epitomizes the 2010s in film. The movie managed to do nearly all of its hugely popular characters justice by instead focusing primarily on the strongly crafted villain, Thanos. This meant the movie could experiment with many new ideas and offer non-stop fun for two and a half hours. It also had one of the best endings for a MCU movie, which usually suffers from similarly formulaic endings. The movie somewhat managed to satisfy almost all of its fans, which should have been an impossible task to start with, but it was also a great motion picture with strong performances, a flowing story, and fantastic visuals.

Kerem Uzdiyen

The Neon Demon (2016)

The Neon Demon is shimmering pearl of film. Nicolas Winding Refn has sifted through the silt and runoff of our culture, coalescing it into a warped, beautiful and giddying reflection of the decade.  The film follows an aspiring model, freshly orphaned, trying to make it in L.A. Elle Fanning is intoxicating, her innocence slowly souring into haughty disdain as fame drains away her humanity. Hunger haunts every frame: for fame, for survival, for youth, for beauty, for wealth. Fanning finds herself frequently isolated in frame, often in ethereal voids, her beauty centre stage throughout. We are carried along by Refn into the world of the superficial, finding ourselves yearning for the attention Fanning commands from the camera.

As we stare agape at The Neon Demon, entranced and horrified by the beautiful slow-motion death of Elle Fanning, we see ourselves and our present moment reflected back. A hall of mirrors shattering and reflecting back our million petty vices. We see Refn play out the death throws of the western cultural machine through the microcosm of the ultra-beautiful. Martinez’s sparse synths and the neon-heavy washed out set design are the bones of 80s excess, once fat on cold war clash of titans. All that’s left is the skin. Hollow excess and mouldering flesh beneath, Refn’s film is apocalyptic. One frame echoes Lynch, the next Fellini as Refn pinballs between influences, foregrounding the aesthetic above all else. Style becomes substance: The Neon Demon’s thesis is apocalyptic hedonism. All meaning has been lost, only the aesthetic remains, so we may as well relish in it. Touching on everything from abuse to the hyper-commodification of our lives to environmental havoc (the mountain lion in the motel room), the film is terrifyingly prescient. With the Epstein case coming to light the film becomes all too plausible.  Dangerous, beautiful and seductive, The Neon Demon is the quintessential film of the 2010s. A masterpiece for our end times, it presents the gaze from the abyss, daring you to stare back.

Jamie Cradden

Taxi (2015)

Taxi has been my favourite of Jafar Panahi’s “low-key” films since he was banned from making them for twenty years back in 2010. Mentored by Abbas Kiarostami, this film is highly reminiscent of the late director’s A Taste of Cherry and Ten, in the way it portrays modern Iran from the cockpit of a vehicle. In this docufiction in which Panahi poses as a taxi driver working in the city of Teheran, we meet a variety of different characters that hop in and out of the taxi and listen to their exchanges with their driver, which range from seemingly conventional to the most bizarre. Midway through the film, Panahi stumbles upon a bike accident, picking up an agonizing man and his wife. This ensuing scene brings to light not only the precarious situation of a lot of people in Iran, but also shows how it can push people to make morally ambiguous decisions in a way that is not only memorable, but rather harsh and is often echoed later in the film.  The use of the camera in Taxi is particularly creative; Panahi continuously plays with what the camera and audience can see, keeping certain characters and conversations off camera, while linking these with what is going on in front of the camera. This way of situating the viewer in the middle of the action might seem jarring at first, but develops surprisingly well as the film progresses. Out of Panahi’s most recent films, this one strikes me as the most creative, sharp and cinematographically interesting, and it is definitely worth a rewatch in the new decade.

Diego Collado

Roma (2018)

Roma came to us in the final hours of this decade. Netflix, front page: a black-and-white film, in Spanish and Mixteco, telling the story of an indigenous maid named Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) in late 60s, early 70s Mexico. To me, this was not only a monumental work of Latin-American cinema, but also a cultural moment: that such a high-profile director would return to where he came from and then choose to elevate this specific story — it’s simply unpredictable but Cuaron did it. Writing, directing, producing, and co-editing the film himself, his efforts produced an epic powerful enough to challenge his previous feature, Gravity (2013). Roma is the story of a woman, but like all good works of art it speaks to something greater. It is the story of the forgotten, disenfranchised, quiet, anonymous, working Woman, brown and indigenous. She exists, and she is so strong. Most importantly, Cuaron does not speak for her. In fact, this is a rather quiet movie, and beautifully so. Never has an indigenous person or story in film been given such intimate, syntonic treatment with such wide exposure. No one will remember Green Book but we will remember Roma.

Sofía Kourous Vázquez

Alex Dewing recaps the new original Netflix series.

Only a few months into 2019, Netflix released the show Russian Doll and immediately set the bar higher for every Netflix original to follow. Visually stunning, hilarious throughout, and wonderfully original, this show has a lot going for it. So, to match its eight-episode arc, here are eight reasons you should be watching the show – if you haven’t already binged it. 

1. It has a fantastic story.

Nadia Vulvokov (Natasha Lyonne) is a chaotic video game designer who, on her birthday, drunkenly stumbles out into the streets of New York to look for her missing cat – only to get hit by a car and die. And just like that, she’s back at her birthday party, confused but very much alive. Suddenly, death comes very easily to her – or maybe she’s just tripping? Maybe it was something she drank or ate? Figuring out the cause, and solution, to her Groundhog Day-esque cycle initially seems to be at the heart of Russian Doll, but as the episodes go on it’s clear that there’s a lot more to be explored beyond the show’s mysterious concept.

2. It’s created by a stellar group of women.

Amy Poehler of Parks and Recreation fame, playwright Leslye Headland, and lead actress Natasha Lyonne make up the powerhouse team of co-creators, which should get you really excited for this show – if you weren’t already. What’s more is that the entire writing and directing team is female. In an interview with The TODAY Show, Lyonne said the team made this decision so that “gender could disappear in a way that would make [Russian Doll] a far more human experience and a human story, without the historical tropes of what it would be for a woman to be going through this experience.”

3. It’s perfect for bingeing.

At eight episodes in total, each only 25 minutes in length, Russian Doll is a perfect show to binge-watch after a long day. Despite its relatively short episodes, the show is paced to perfection, drawing at first on the mystery at hand and later descending into time-bending chaos. Plus, with every episode introducing a new piece to the puzzle right at the very end, this is one that you’ll want to get through all at once.

4. That aesthetic tho!

Russian Doll is nothing if not rich in its production design. Nadia’s never-ending birthday party is hosted in an old yeshiva-turned-apartment owned by Nadia’s exuberant friend Maxine (Greta Lee); it’s full of modern people and modern art, including the iconic, “terrifying vaginal” bathroom door. There’s also Alan’s (Charlie Barnett) American Psycho-esque apartment, with its straight edges, clean surfaces, and alphabetised game collections. Everything you’ll see onscreen is lush with details and vivid colours. Don’t even get me started on the fashion; one look at all the wonderfully diverse New Yorkers portrayed in the show, and you’ll be grabbing your laptop to do some online shopping.

5. The characters are wonderfully flawed.

Lyonne has said that Nadia was, for her, a very autobiographical character, and the connection she shares with her character is evident throughout the show. Nadia is messy and hedonistic. Suffering from latent childhood trauma, she has no time for the banalities of the world, though she is deeply caring towards her friends. Meanwhile, Alan is her polar opposite: he is orderly, precise, and ascetic. Stuck repeating one of the worst evenings of his life, his forced cooperation with Nadia sets up for a lot of friction. But their development as individuals is handled with confidence and care, adding another dynamic to the show as a whole.

6. The music.

From the wistful, chill sounds of ‘Cherry Blossom (Moors Remix)’ by ALA.NI to the addictive energy of Harry Nilsson’s ‘Gotta Get Up’ that, quite simply, becomes the refrain for Nadia’s deaths and will not leave your head for a good long while, Russian Doll is filled with some absolute tunes. With an observant ear, you can catch classic rock songs, neo-psychedelia, experimental hip-hop, ’60s French pop, and even Beethoven concertos. Quite literally, there is something for everyone. So many of the songs, too, add thematic resonance in a way that is subtle but perfectly timed. Who doesn’t love adding new songs to their playlists after watching a show?

7. It’ll make you laugh.

Something you learn pretty quickly about Nadia is that her humour is dry and relentless; she’s always quick to make a sarcastic comment and sharp on the followup. Cynical in every sense of the word, her comedy embodies Russian Doll‘s morbid themes. Imbued with a delightfully dark humour (I mean, it’s a show about death, tragedy, and trauma – what else would you expect?), lines of dialogue are delivered masterfully, leaving you laughing probably more than you should. The chilling mystery, as well as the tense metaphysical exploration on which the show embarks, is adeptly balanced with this humour, and the show switches and blends the two tones expertly.

8. It never goes the way you expect.

You’ve seen Groundhog Day and, more recently, Happy Death Day – you know how these time loop shows go. Well, think again. What’s best about Russian Doll is that it is totally, wonderfully, fantastically unpredictable. So maybe give it a watch.

Russian Doll is currently available to stream on Netflix. Watch the trailer below:

The FilmSoc team looks back at some of 2018’s prominent TV shows, some latest seasons and some new underrated releases.

There is no skirting around the fact that we are now well into 2019. Plenty of new and delightful shows have come out since the start of the year, and perhaps the gems of 2018 have been buried in the instant gratification of new Netflix shows coming out every other weekend. Nevertheless, the Filmsoc blog team got together towards the beginning of the year to write some flash reviews of our favourite shows of 2018. Read, reminisce, and perhaps you will wish revisit some shows that you binge-watched that one March weekend when you had an essay to write but couldn’t be bothered. Here is to more, hopefully somewhat mindful, watching in 2019!

Westworld Season 2 (Xinyi Wang)

The problem with Westworld that stood out in season two was its insistence on pulling an aha! pseudo-intellectual rug from under its audience’s feet. It remains one of the most captivating television shows out there, however it did also feel as if Nolan and Joy want to always one-up their audience: constantly challenging notions and concepts, usually leaving viewers rather confused and tired.

Season two always promises a revelation in the finale that whips its world and characters towards a new, unforeseeable direction while posing more questions – a fine, exhilarating device that is, for the most part, used brilliantly.  However, by opting for a circular narrative, working with even more timelines than before (are they simply refusing to create chronologically linear stories?), the season as a consequence suffers from narratively useless filler episodes that ultimately do not contribute to the finale, where twists edge dangerously close to “for the sake of it”. This is an issue that Westworld needs to overcome in the future.

It is not to say that the show is not a marvel in terms of production and narrative design – the episode ‘Kiksuya’ is a complete stand out that deserves all the praise it received, while the main cast continue to shine in their roles. Character arcs and dynamics are developed in interesting directions, and altogether Westworld continues its fascinating path: diving into questions of free will, humanity and cognition.

The Good Place Season 2 (Sabastian Astley)

Leading on immediately from its incredible twist, The Good Place Season 2 constantly reinvents itself, developing and transforming the show’s core concepts at an incredible rate. The show’s infusion of casual philosophy alongside an ever-developing cast, constantly evolving from episode to episode, helps to highlight The Good Place as one of the most original shows of 2018.

Call My Agent! / Dix pour cent Season 3 (Emma Davis)

This fun French television gem fills the hole in my heart that HBO’s The Newsroom left behind. As in everyone is a terrible person and shouts a lot. It’s taken an incredibly funny premise – of the slapstick and frustration comedy in French show business – and used it to tell the messy stories of mixing professional and personal lives. The third season is impressive in showing how the show can evolve from its initial case-of-the-week of a client causing trouble to commentary on the ridiculous French movie industry and geographic inequality of French society.

The End of the F***ing World (Pihla Pekkarinen)

This show is kind of like Scott Pilgrim, but with more swearing and violence. The End of the F***ing world was born from a graphic novel, and the original format seeps through the frames and graphics of the show. Alex Lawther is brilliant in his deadpan performance of a self-diagnosed teenage psychopath, and Jessica Barden, while somewhat overshadowed by Lawther, manages to lose her self-consciousness enough to portray a character so unlikeable that you end up rooting for the one who wants to kill her. Despite losing itself a little in the second half, as the macabre aesthetics are pushed aside to create a supposedly more heartfelt, yet unfortunately hollow, love story,  the cliffhanger finale ties the show together; leaving the audience with the perfect cocktail of bittersweet satisfaction. However, as a fan of self-contained TV shows, I am not thrilled about the second series currently being filmed: I have no doubt it will spoil the ambiguous ending of the first series, and am therefore doubtful the show will be able to maintain its charisma.

Riverdale Season 3 (Sabastian Astley)

Honestly, this show is the definition of nonsensical – place it against its freshman season and you will find two different productions entirely. Bizarrely enough, this is exactly what makes the latest season so extraordinary. Weaving in a cornucopia of plots – satanic cults and their use of ‘Gryphons and Gargoyles’ and a megalomaniac criminal taking over the town – throwing in musical episodes, and even an 80s-drenched flashback episode, Robert Aguirre-Sacasa suggests that there are no limits for Archie and his friends to explore. I’m sure you’d struggle to find another show that is unashamedly as strange as this.  

The Last Kingdom (Ælfwine the Precarious)

Granted the dubious honour of a Netflix purchase, The Last Kingdom’s fate was in the balance. At the BBC it was a suitably grounded and surprisingly historical venture, outshining Game of Thrones by the very murk of its lustre; much like the earlier seasons of Thrones, it is a series focused more on political machinations than flighty distractions of High Fantasy. Would Netflix sex it up with magic and mystique, kill the gylden gos with a Valyrian axe? Despite the introduction of a Norse spellstress, the thankful answer is a clear no. The Last Kingdom remains a grim, violent, and (still! vaguely!) historical traipse through Anglo-Saxon Britain.

Sharp Objects (Thomas Caulton)

Confronted with childhood traumas and her oppressive mother, tormented reporter Camille Preaker spirals into self-destruction while trying to uncover the truth about the gruesome murder of a young girl and the vanishing of another in the small Missouri town of Wind Gap, isolated in the heartlands of confederate America. The slow-burn narrative cuts deeply, maintaining an iron-fisted grip on the audience’s attention while drawing us further and further into Jean Marc-Vallee’s bleak and sultry vision. The masterful direction and unwavering visual style elevate Gillian Flynn’s source material, offering a relentless and mesmerising experience that establishes itself as one of 2018’s finest releases.

Bodyguard (Maeve Allen)

Jed Mercurio’s Bodyguard was nail-biting brilliance on the BBC. When David Budd (Richard Madden) is assigned a new role as bodyguard to the Home Secretary (Keeley Hawes), he must put aside his personal politics for her protection. Book-ended by terrifically tense scenes of attempted terrorism, this Sunday night series was a thrilling tale of forbidden love and crooked conspiracy. The story swerved and surprised, leaving the audience suspicious. Who should we trust? Is Keely really dead? When will I marry Richard Madden? It was Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: a properly perfect thriller.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace (Alexandra Petrache)

Delectable, decadent, disturbing: The Assassination of Gianni Versace carries itself magnificently, with an opulent production design and great acting all-around. Darren Criss puts on a stellar performance as Andrew Cunanan (the man who assassinated Versace) and manages to innovate his character; bringing out a new facet every episode, carving out a textbook psychopath with a lingering touch of madness. The viewer is taken on a journey that makes them feel pity, sadness, exasperation, disgust and fear. Some might even find it difficult to watch. The direction and plot are tastefully composed, albeit slightly convoluted at times. All-in-all, a great show gilded in gold, emotion and blood.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 6 (Alexandra Petrache)

I must say I wasn’t sure Brooklyn Nine-Nine would manage to keep its comedic mojo for a 6th season – it somehow felt that Jake and Amy’s wedding sealed the end of the show. However, Season 6 is a bang! Slightly shy in the first episode, testing the waters with the return, it keeps picking up and even though the tone of the jokes is similar to the previous seasons, they feel refreshed and even funnier. The relationships between characters also develop and take slightly unexpected turns. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is crisper than ever before – I definitely recommend being loyal and watching on.

Welcome (back) to UCL! Maria Düster curates a list of back-to-school films for every taste. 

For The Fresher:

Monsters University (2013)

Heartwarming and funny, this prequel to Monsters Inc. follows Mike and Sully as they begin university and attempt to achieve their dreams. Filled with realistic struggles many new students may face, Monsters U. is relatable and will remind you of a simpler time before exams and the horrors of Tinder.

Raw (2017)

Sometimes university changes you in unexpected ways – in Raw, a student develops an insatiable desire for human flesh after starting veterinary school. As riveting as it is disturbing, the French-Belgian horror movie will make you thank your lucky stars you don’t go to RVC!

For the Oxbridge reject: 

The Riot Club (2014)

Considering Oxbridge rejects comprise about 90% of UCL’s student population, here’s a film to remind you of what you’re missing out on! Following members of an exclusive dining club at Oxford, the film explores institutional British classism and privilege through male students from varying backgrounds.

For Sports Night fanatic:

Animal House (1978)

If you’ve ever wished Sports Night could be at your house and multiple times a week, Animal House will allow you to live out this fantasy! Infamous for its depiction of US fraternity culture, the 1978 classic is full of debauchery and drunkenness – perfect for those who frequent Loop.

For the Economics & Finance Society member:

American Psycho (2000)

No explanation needed.

Honourable Mention: The Big Short (2015) – for inspiration.

For the Romantic:

Love Story (1970)

For those who dream of finding The One during their years at UCL, Love Story is a must-see. Following two students from wildly different backgrounds who meet while attending Harvard and Radcliffe College, the film is as heartwarming as it is heartbreaking. Bring a box of tissues. Or four.

For the Glittoris regular:

Love, Simon (2018)

While there are many incredibly depressing and exploitive LGBT+ films out there to recommend, Love, Simon is filled with optimism and love (and a happy ending!). This coming-of-age story follows a closeted teenager Simon who begins an online romance with the mysterious Blue as he struggles with his sexuality and the trials of growing up. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll probably live vicariously through the main characters.

Honourable Mention: Paris is Burning (1990)

For the Bartlett and/or Slade student:

Masculin Féminin (1966) 

Considering art and architecture students appear to live in a bubble of cigarette smoke, sleep deprivation, and “creative processes,” the French New Wave seemed apt. This Godard classic follows Paul and Madeline, two young Parisians struggling to pursue their artistic dreams while becoming increasingly disenchanted with the world around them. Full of commentary on film, art, sex, and capitalism, it’s just niche enough for conversation in someone’s “artist loft.”

For the “Film Buff”:

The Dark Knight (2008)

For those whose favourite films include Pulp Fiction, Taxi Driver, and Fight Club, The Dark Knight is the perfect film to add to your repertoire of angsty white men. The second instalment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy is a masterpiece with heaps of violence and toxic masculinity, and of course, the only good portrayal of a character in the entire trilogy (Heath Ledger as the Joker). Perfect for watching and then posting on Reddit about afterward.

Honourable mentions: Baby Driver (2018), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), anything Quentin Tarantino has ever touched.

For the recent or soon-to-be graduate:

St. Elmo’s Fire (1985) 

Following a group of recent university grads in America, St. Elmo’s is a great choice for those who have just received their diploma or who are in their final year. Whether you’re struggling to find a job, or working through a relationship that started at university but it isn’t working out in the real world, the movie discusses real issues against the background of an enjoyable 80s aesthetic.

Honorable mention: The Big Chill (1983)

Interested in joining FilmSoc? Check out our Try Fortnight events here.

Editor In Chief Xinyi Wang looks back at Wes Anderson’s iconic aesthetic in his much loved 2014 adventure comedy. 

It is a justified statement, to believe that Wes Anderson is most famous for his signature composition style and visual character. From pastel colours to centre framing, his strict use of symmetry and sharp but quirky designs throughout his filmography have quickly branded itself to be the ‘Wes Anderson Aesthetic’. The Grand Budapest Hotel, an effortless delight of a film, perhaps, is the ‘Anderson Aesthetic’ at its peak. Anderson, working with frequent collaborator and partner-in-crime Robert Yeoman, offer a myriad of perfectly composed symmetries in each and every shot whilst playing with not only a set palette of pastel pinks, purples, reds, blues, and browns but also three different aspect ratios – a single viewing is enough to permanently press its visual presentation into memory.

When almost every shot is so intricately designed, it is surely hard to identify a single perfect shot from the film. So instead, we attempt to limit that down to ten. Disclaimer: This is done in no respective order, and no disrespect to any shot that did not make the list.

1. The First Establishing Shot of The Hotel

The most iconic establishing shot of the film, its picturesque pinkness immediately makes a strong impression. This is the hotel in question. It’s a product of its time (especially presented in 4:3 Academy Ratio), it is majestic and luxurious, and as we wait for the tram to ascend up to the hotel, Anderson sets the scene, allowing his audience to absorb and appreciate its striking design.

 

2. Zero and the Writer at the Dining Hall

The only 2.35:1 wide angle shot of the list, this shot is particularly wonderful for its quietness and emptiness. The hotel has deteriorated over time, Anderson reminds us, and that its grandness is only history. Upon closer inspection, it exudes loneliness – not all tables are occupied, and those that are only has one diner each. A soft spotlight descends on Old Zero and the Young Writer centre-bottom, composed of course, in Anderson’s strict style of symmetry.

 

3. Escalator Shot #1 of Many

Awkward escalator shots such as this are sprinkled across the film. Saturated in red, our characters are crammed into the shot, amplified by the academy ratio that precisely fits the size of the lift. Zero is especially crammed in the back in this particular shot, giving the entire scene a claustrophobic undertone.

 

4. Gustave and Zero: An Introduction

We meet our characters: M. Gustave and Zero. Its composition is wonderful – a fish-eye close-up of M. Gustave, Zero slightly blurred but nonetheless still visible in detail, and the sign ‘GRAND BUDAPEST’ looming above. A shot with physical depth that introduces and encapsulates what the film is about, our main characters make their first proper interaction.

 

5. Bird’s Eye View: Concierge

There are many bird’s eye shots in The Grand Budapest Hotel, but this one metaphorically and literally takes the cake. Anderson’s use of symmetry and geometry turns the hotel concierge into, basically, a cake, with circles and circles of layered patterns that is reminiscent of the Indian Mandala pattern. The shot certainly does not last very long, but it is representative of the amount of detailing that went into the composition of each frame and is effective in communicating the busyness of the hotel in its prime.

 

6. Gustave in Prison

Once again, Anderson’s use of symmetry is marvellous. We have our subject, Gustave H., front and centre of the frame, and the background behind him is lined up with people separated by uniform. It echoes a previous shot of Gustave giving a speech to the hotel staff during dinner, and plot-wise it serves the same purpose. However, in addition, this call-back induces humour – it is already ridiculous (and in character) that Gustave insists on giving his speech, but the tidiness of everything and how inmates and officers both seem to be like his staff tops it all off.

 

7. Agatha

This one will always be an all-time favourite of mine. Saoirse Ronan’s Agatha, now properly introduced, stares into the camera in a close-up as the background shifts out of focus and spins. It captures Zero in love. It captures Agatha in love. Simplistic, romantic, intimate and beautiful, it also stands out for being so visually different from the rest of the film for its use of warm lighting, shadows, and soft lines, referencing itself as a special one. And it is.

 

8. Bird’s Eye View: Tool Hiding

Another bird’s eye shot, this one is all fun in its sweet, pastel goodness. It is the signature Anderson aesthetic, finding its quirkiness and humour in hiding small tools in pastry with perfect composition and pastel tones. Not much needs to be said.

 

9. Cable Cars

One of the few stop-motion sequences of the film, two cable cars overlap in the centre of the frame. Shots like this are aplenty in Isle of Dogs, but it does stand out in its predecessor. It is a clean shot, but hints danger – our characters are after all, on the run, suspended mid-air, carried by nothing but a tin can that is carried by nothing but a line. A moment of suspense, we watch as the second car approaches. Snow falls.

 

10. Bird’s Eye View: Mendl’s

There is another shot from the same scene, and the decision between which one is better was a hard one to make. Honestly, if I didn’t care about being repetitive, both would make the cut (honorary mention to this shot as well). This one’s just slightly a bit more perfect. The third bird’s eye shot of our selection, the negative space of pink surrounds our characters as Agatha and Zero look up from the car, staring straight into the camera. Within the small positive space that they have, they are engulfed by a sea of pastel pink Mendl’s boxes, the pink and blue complementing each other in this aesthetically pleasing shot. It is a moment of resolution, a moment of fresh air. And similarly, this minimalist shot is satisfying in itself.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is FilmSoc’s first screening of the year. It will be screened on Monday October 8th, at 6pm. View details here and check out the trailer below:

Emma Davis compiles a handy guide for your cinematic expenses in London Town. 

Welcome to London, one of the most expensive cities to live in but nonetheless an incredible cultural student location. Going to the movies sure is a treat, but it’s an expensive one. If you watch movies frequently, how will your bank account keep up with your habit?

This guide is for freshers and students alike. Students are always looking for deals, so here at FilmSoc, we provide:

BFI 25 & Under (£3 tickets)

These discounted tickets are only available on the day of the screening, and you can book online or buy them in person at BFI Southbank. Styled as Britain’s home of cinema, the venue has everything — latest releases, special screenings, Q&A events, a library, a free archive viewing room, and a shop. Even London Film Festival events are hosted there!

Sign up for the BFI 25 & Under Scheme here.

Genesis Cinema (£5 tickets & unlimited)

Ticket prices at this Mile End Cinema vary by event, as some are hosted by the cinema and some from others who hire the venue. You can get the Student £5 price from Monday to Wednesday, but it rises to £7.50 Thursday to Sunday.

There are also concession prices for students in their annual membership for unlimited access.

Curzon Student (£6 tickets)

The Curzon Student Membership is free to sign up for. The £6 ticket prices only apply before 5pm on weekdays. Otherwise, you only get a slight discount on weekends and evenings.

The scheme doesn’t give you the perks of its paid member schemes like discounted food or second tickets. However, you still get news about events by the cinema chain!

Find out more here.

Young Barbican (£5 tickets)

The Barbican is a world class arts centre and is kind to students! Signing up for their Young Barbican scheme entitles you to not only cheaper movie screenings, but cheaper access to other creative events.

Find out more here.

NUS x ODEON Cinemas (25% off)

The NUS card (now known as the TOTUM card) needs to be bought (from £12 to £32, depend on the length of membership). However, this gets you a heavy discount on tickets at ODEON cinemas. This discount only applies in certain conditions, and you cannot buy your tickets online. In my experience, it’s also a hassle for ODEON staff to put the discount through.

See the conditions for the student discount here.

Prince Charles Cinema (£1 tickets!)

This is not a student-specific scheme, but £1 tickets are still a bargain. The Prince Charles Cinema is an iconic venue, show a whole range of movies and hosting events — including the famous regular The Room screenings with Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero!

Find out more about PCC membership here.

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Outside physical theatres, here are also some alternative options to streaming services.

CLIE Database

As a UCL student, you are entitled access to CLIE’s Self Access Movie Database. If you’re learning a language, there is plenty of foreign language movies available. However, there is also a great selection of English-language films from recent releases to classic movies.

Log in with your UCL account here.

MUBI

This is a paid service, where films are curated for viewing everyday. It also acts a social network for rate and share movies. However, if you sign up with your UCL email, you can access a free selection of films.

Sign up for the MUBI Film Schools Programme here.

Don’t forget that FilmSoc also holds our own screenings! Follow our Facebook page to be updated with the events as they happen all year round.

Ivan Nagar curates a personal must-watch list.

Time and time again, people have asked me for Bollywood recommendations. This is not a simple task – a lot of great Bollywood films are so contextual that chunks are lost in cultural translation. This listicle will take that into account, and I will go over some films that provide a good entry point into Bollywood for non-Hindi speakers. This is in no way a ranking of the movies, but just a list of film recommendations, as varied as possible with regards to genres, topics and how old the films are.

1. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011)

In many ways, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara is the perfect first Bollywood film to watch for any non-Hindi speaker as it offers a unique balance of Indian and European sensibilities unseen in many mainstream productions. Following three friends on a road trip across Spain, it is a simple road movie on the surface with a beautiful philosophical core that deepens one’s understanding with every re-watch. The film is accompanied with excellent music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy and lyrics & poems by Javed Akhtar, staple features of not just Bollywood, but Indian culture going back thousands of years.

2. Awara (1951)

Raj Kapoor is one of the greatest Indian filmmakers of all time, leaving behind arguably the biggest and most popular legacy. Awara is Kapoor’s magnum opus. A film that fantastically pays homage to Kapoor’s biggest influences – Orson Welles and the German expressionist movement (involving works such as from F. W. Murnau and Fritz Lang) – the cinematography and production design are a sight to behold, involving perhaps the most exceptional (and earliest) dream song sequences in Bollywood history. Awara‘s beloved soundtrack by legendary composers Shankar and Jaikishen with lyrics by the greatest poet of Indian cinema Shailendra, is still sung by millions of Indians, and is Indian cinema’s biggest and most successful export during the Soviet era. Even today after half a century, I often run into Eastern Europeans who knew the songs by heart and are big fans of Kapoor. Auteurs like Raj Kapoor are immortalised by their iconic cinema, and there is not a better example of it than Awara.

3. Do Bigha Zameen (1953)

London. Late 1940’s. Two relatively unknown filmmakers from India watched Vittorio De Sica’s humanistic masterpiece The Bicycle Thieves and are influenced to bring neo-realism to Indian cinema. One of them was Satyajit Ray, who went on to make his internationally renowned Pather Panchali, while the other was the equally talented but unfortunately overlooked Bimal Roy. Though both Pather Panchali and Roy’s Do Bigha Zameen are highly influenced by The Bicycle Thieves, they differ with regards to directors’ choice in cast. Roy chose to go for a known cast because of commercial reasons, while Ray stayed true to the neo-realistic roots and worked with non-professional actors. This is not to say the performances in Do Bigha Zameen aren’t realistic or grounded in humanity – in fact Balraj Sahni’s lead performance cannot be praised enough and would undoubtedly be counted amongst the few greatest Indian performances of all time. Do Bigha Zameen is a powerful human tragedy, immensely moving and has several heart-shatteringly beautiful scenes. It went on to become the first Indian film to get nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and for good reason, as rarely does one come across Hindi cinema as beautiful and timeless as this.

4. Udaan (2010)

A brilliant display of where small budgeted indie filmmaking is headed in India, Vikramaditya Motwane’s Udaan is a debut any filmmaker would be proud of. A film that boldly announced the arrival of one of present day’s most original and consistently good Indian directors, Udaan is a coming of age film set in modern small town India and is a depiction that is refreshingly honest and sometimes brutally so. The film features brilliant music by one of the most exciting composers working in Bollywood today, Amit Trivedi, and equally brilliant lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya.

5. Dangal (2016)

From low-budget indies, we jump straight to the highest-grossing Indian film in history, and behold the most commercially successful Indian actor of all time, Aamir Khan. Western audiences might know him from his 2001 Oscar nominated epic Lagaan, but Khan’s fame in East Asia has grown rapidly over the years, so much so that his films earn up to 10 times more in countries like China than they do in India. Dangal is a film with a social message that also packs a hefty dose of mainstream Bollywood entertainment, and Khan’s performance in particular is unbelievable, managing to astonish Indian audiences (and now Chinese audiences as well) every year with his chameleonic abilities as an actor.

6. Pyaasa (1957)

Raj Kapoor wasn’t the only Indian auteur to be influenced by Orson Welles. Another disciple of Welles was Guru Dutt, a director who possessed the ability to paint beautiful visual poetry on the canvas of cinema. Whether it’s blocking, framing or lighting, they all pay homage to Welles’ Citizen Kane. Pyaasa is Dutt’s most renowned masterpiece and one that has aged incredibly well, with it’s sociopolitical themes ringing as true today as they did back in the late 1950s, when India was in it’s constitutional adolescence. The soundtrack of Pyaasa is perhaps the greatest ever composed in Bollywood, pairing the legendary composer S.D. Burman with renowned poet and lyricist Sahir. Sahir’s piercingly observant lyrics managed to garner praise from then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who was ironically criticised in them. Over the years, polls in several publications such as TIME Magazine and Sight and Sound have counted it amongst the best films of all time, so even though Guru Dutt may not have enjoyed much commercial success post-Pyaasa, his influence on Indian cinema will live on forever.

7. Kabhi Kabhie (1976)

No Bollywood listicle would be complete without a romantic film and no one in the history of Indian cinema mastered romance on screen like Yash Chopra. If one were to list the 10 most popular romantic Hindi films of all time, at least half would be credited to Yash Chopra – it comes as a surprise to learn he also managed to direct iconic non-romantic films like Deewar and Trishul in his career. Kabhi Kabhie came out at the peak of Chopra’s career, a time where he directed an amazing film almost every year and was operating at the top of his game. The music, direction and dialogues in particular are highlights of not just Kabhi Kabhie but Yash Chopra’s filmography. The film’s romantic core finds strength in the immortal songs penned by Sahir and a charming cast led by the talented Rakhee and the demigod of Hindi cinema, Amitabh Bachchan.

Since this is the only film on the list featuring Bachchan, I believe it’s fair to mention his iconic status in Indian pop culture. This is a man who has been leading films for over 50 years and remains one of 2-3 most popular Indians alive. For the last 32 years, fans of Bachchan swarmed his residence every Sunday just to see him come out and wave hello to them – such is the stardom of Amitabh Bachchan.

8. Lagaan (2001)

Lagaan probably has the most international exposure on this list, as it was famously the first Indian film in almost 50 years to be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars and garnered universal critical acclaim along with tremendous commercial success. Lagaan is a full blown Bollywood epic, one that Roger Ebert deemed ‘enormously entertaining’. I am in complete agreement with the claim: it manages to take all the usual ingredients of a mainstream Bollywood film and refines them to a degree of near perfection. A story set in colonial India about farmers being exploited by the British and how they settle matters by facing off on the cricket pitch, it almost sounds like an Indian fantasy. But Lagaan takes it’s unbelievable premise and grounds it with terrific performances (especially by Aamir Khan, who already has 2 films on this list), phenomenal music and a heartfelt story of the harsh colonial era in India.

9. Masaan (2015)

Masaan in many ways is the face of modern avant-garde Hindi cinema, and after premiering at Cannes in 2015 it went on to garner praise from all over. Unfortunately, as is the case with many great films, Masaan underperformed commercially. The script by first time screenwriter Varun Grover is superb and only second to the remarkable performances from the whole cast (in particular Vicky Kaushal). A story about individuals trying to escape the decay of small town urban India, it takes on heavyweight subjects such as the caste system, class divide, misogyny in society, and weaves them into one intertwining cathartic tale.

10. Sujata (1959)

Masaan wasn’t the first beautiful film taking on the caste system in India – Bimal Roy did it back in 1959 with Sujata. A tale of a lower caste orphan girl (Nutan) who is raised by an upper caste family and always made to feel the burden she bears by birth, Sujata is a tender but powerful takedown of the evils of the cast divide in India. It puts a mirror in front of the Indian audience and forces them to take note of their hypocritical and oppressive ways. Just like it’s predecessor on the list, Sujata too premiered at the Cannes Film Festival back in 1960, and even though it tackles subjects specific to India, I believe its emotional appeal remains universally accessible. Sujata‘s soundtrack by again, S.D. Burman, gave India one of the most popular lullabies of all time with its beautiful lyrics penned by Majrooh Sultanpuri.

11. Queen (2014)

Queen is the quintessential modern Indian feminist film, one that dismantles patriarchy in a way that is inoffensive enough for Indian audiences. Writer-director Vikas Bahl, like many influential Indian directors before him, understood that the best way to address the harshest of problems in society is through the humour that makes people look within once they stop laughing. Bahl was aided in his venture by Kangana Ranaut’s terrific lead performance, who along with actresses like Vidya Balan has brought a new wave of female-centric cinema to the mainstream of Bollywood. Queen doesn’t give us a ready-made strong female character. On the contrary, Ranaut convincingly depicts a plausible character arc of the titular working-class girl from Delhi, who finds herself in an unfortunate and unlikely situation but refuses to let life keep her down and embarks on a journey that is as much fun for the viewers as it is for her.

12. Salaam Bombay (1988)

The mention of Queen has provided us with an unintentional segue for this next entry, Salaam Bombay, which was the explosive debut of renegade filmmaker Mira Nair who has since become one of India’s biggest female directors. One could argue that Salaam Bombay isn’t a conventional ‘Bollywood’ film, in that it is not a part of the mainstream by any stretch of the imagination, but if so, could we say the same about the cinema of Guru Dutt and Hrishikesh Mukherjee? And if not, then what is it that separates the two? Mira Nair presents a stark realistic picture of the slums of Mumbai, a no holds-barred story about the grim realities of the city that the world usually associates with the glamour of the Hindi film industry.

13. Taare Zameen Par (2007)

With 2007’s Taare Zaamen Par, Aamir Khan proved that his talents not only lie in front of the camera but behind it as well. Khan has been notorious throughout his career for being extremely intrusive with the directors of his films, and all that backseat driving experience proved useful in his directorial debut, an unusually sure-footed and flawless first film for any director. Aamir Khan is a famously socially conscious artist, whether it’s hosting a TV show focused on social problems in India or constantly being involved with films that have strong sociopolitical statements to make. Taare Zameen Par is no exception. The film centres around a dyslexic child whose learning difficulty goes undiagnosed and is constantly labelled as ‘lazy’ and insincere, especially problematic in a country like India where parents often put a lot of pressure on their children to perform well academically. The film was immensely successful upon release, proving that Aamir had once again struck a chord within Indian audiences.

14. Mughal-e-Azam (1960)

In 2004, legendary film director Yash Chopra (of previously mentioned Kabhi Kabhie) made a film after 7 years. The hype for Chopra’s Veer-Zara was immense, bringing together top movie stars and a post-humous film score by exemplary music composer Madan Mohan. The same Friday as Veer-Zara, Mughal-e-Azam (English trans. The Great Mughals) was re-released in a fully restored colour version. What was amazing is that a film that was 44 years old at the time managed to give a tentpole release as stiff a competition at the box office as it did.

The production of Mughal-e-Azam is the stuff of legends, beginning in the 1940s with principal photography taking place only in the early 50s after a long period of pre-production disrupted by the India-Pakistan partition riots. The film’s financier also ended up relocating to Pakistan, which left Asif without any backer. When he finally managed to get the funds together, his old cast which consisted of heavy weights like actress Nargis had moved on to other projects, and Asif had to re-cast all the main players. Dilip Kumar was cast for the lead role, an actor widely considered the greatest to have ever graced Indian screens alongside stars like Madhubala and Prithviraj Kapoor. The film was shot in 3 languages so the filmmakers would shoot everything thrice, and on top of this as many as 14 cameras were used for some sequences, all of this contributing to sky high production costs. Principal photography took so long that during that time colour technology had arrived in India, and unable to restart the film from scratch but still wanting to shoot in colour, Asif shot a famous dance and song sequence in colour with the rest of the film in black and white. When Mughal-e-Azam finally hit cinemas in 1960, it had been 16 years in the making.

But the people were finally able to see Asif’s magnum opus, a story of an Indian prince rebelling against the Emperor Akbar for the courtesan he fell in love with. The film became so popular that most people to this day believe that the courtesan suffered the same fate in real life as she did in the film (Spoiler: She gets entombed alive). Mughal-e-Azam is not only the greatest epic ever to be made in India, but it is also a film with an unbelievably troubled production which is as fascinating as the film itself. Asif seemed to have been cursed with grand projects that went through unbelievable turbulence before completion – he went on to make only one more film and suffered an untimely death before it’s completion. At least we will always have Mughal-e-Azam to remember him by.

15. Dil Chahta Hai (2001)

Last but definitely not the least, we have Farhan Akhtar’s seminal Dil Chahta Hai. Arguably the strongest directorial debut in Hindi cinema, Dil Chahta Hai revolutionised Indian filmmaking in numerous ways, whether it was the gust of urban freshness it brought with it, or introducing basic concepts like a call sheet which was surprisingly not a thing in Bollywood until then. It is a coming of age story of 3 friends, Akash, Sid and Sameer, and includes all the main elements one expects from a Bollywood film, but in a way that appealed to urban elitists who looked down on Hindi movies in favour of Hollywood. For many people, Dil Chahta Hai was the first time they felt that a Bollywood movie could be relatable, cool and at the same time true to its mainstream roots.

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This list was denser than I initially expected, but I sincerely hope it will make you seek out some good Hindi movies and discover a cinema that I believe is misrepresented or in many cases, caricatured, in the minds of Western audiences.

Emma Davis curates a list of films about university life and industrial action in the spirit of the USS strike.

For the past two weeks, universities all over the country came to a sudden standstill as UCU strikes take place. As students, it’s a personal choice as to what one can do: take to the picket lines and stand with lecturers, become angry at the proposed pension scheme, write an angry email to management, sign a petition, voice your opposition to it all… or, kick back and watch something.

The FilmSoc Blog team presents a variety of films about university life and industrial action — fourteen films for fourteen days, a suggestion for each striking day passed. If you’ve got a lecture cancelled, consider loading up any of the films below and get into the mood in a more cinematic way.

1. Newsies (1992)

A baby Christian Bale leads New York City’s newspaper boys for better pay into a strike that also lasts two weeks. A feel-good film to start with, beaming with positivity as we’re still positive that the USS might negotiate and consider the pension demands. Unfortunately, you can’t expect academic staff to pull out a musical number at the picket line.

2. Pride (2014)

If you’ve got so many lectures cancelled and haven’t been outside since, there’s a few cheeky shots of recognisable London to remind you what Bloomsbury is like. This is a cute yet powerful film that transports you back to the 1980s with the striking miners in Wales and their unlikely solidarity with gay activists.

3. Good Will Hunting (1997)

In the magical land of movies, universities fund their mental health services and care for their students’ wellbeing. Robin Williams played an inspiring teacher in Dead Poets Society as well, so please remember how hard your lecturers work to educate you. It’s not their fault.

4. The Theory of Everything (2014)

Just like certain lecturecast uploads, no one seemed to have watched this film when it originally came out in 2014. That’s all the more reason to revisit the award-winning beautiful work, where Eddie Redmayne plays Stephen Hawking, who could not have achieved his success if not for the support of his professor (David Thewlis). Dive into the romanticised world of academia and get a glimpse of that sweet Oxbridge life without management taking away pensions.

5. The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015)

A movie that’s not The Theory of Everything, there’s nothing like celebrating London’s global university with the story of why diversity in higher education matters. Universities mistreating their academics? What a concept only reserved for movies like this, based on a true story.

6. Made in Dagenham (2010)

It’s a cracking, feel-good, educational flick that’s one of the best of its kind. Sally Hawkins teams up with a bunch of stalwart Brit character actors for women’s rights in 1960s London to demand their rightful pay.

7. Billy Elliot (2000)

The miners’ strike is the background to this film, but there are still themes of resistance and empathy in Billy’s individual struggle to accept his passion and prove it to those around him. Like students, Billy is just trying to chase his dream while those around him are too busy worrying about bigger things, like striking.

8. Hunger (2008)

Michael Fassbender stars as Bobby Sands, an IRA freedom fighter who goes on a hunger strike to protest the British government. You don’t have to starve yourself to death like Bobby does, but the movie could provide some good inspiration if you support the strike and are experiencing any instances of hopelessness.

9. On the Waterfront (1954)

A fantastic look into the corruption and union violence plaguing longshoremen in Hoboken, New Jersey, Marlon Brando stars as Terry Mallory, a misfit dockworker with a heart of gold. If you love young Brando’s face, vaguely inspirational storylines, and bragging to your friends about how many AFI movies you’ve watched, this is the movie for you!

10. Educating Rita (1983)

Directed by the late Lewis Gilbert, Educating Rita tells the story of a young, uneducated woman determined to study literature at university (Julie Walters) and her friendship with an increasingly jaded college professor (Michael Caine). A charming and funny film about the real value of education, despite the questionable soundtrack.

11. The Great Debaters (2007)

This film centres around a group of black students at Wiley College in rural Texas, who must battle discrimination and injustice as they work to make their voices heard and challenge the primarily white world of college debating. Denzel Washington plays their debate coach and secretly works as a farmer and worker union organiser, looking handsome all the while.

12. The Source/La source des femmes (2011)

The women of a small North-African village go on a sex strike because their husbands don’t want to fetch water for everyone. A modern and touching transposing of the Greek comedy Lysistrata, where the power structures are turned upside down by those with the least power. It’s a good reminder how effective it is to withhold necessities like water, sex, and an undisrupted education.

13. Modern Times (1936)

When Charlie Chaplin’s unsuspecting Little Tramp wanders into strikes — as many students have done so reach university facilities — his clumsiness and good intentions lead him to be the inadvertent spearhead of a worker’s march and a worker’s riot. The film sketches out a troubling period of economic problems, the loss of jobs, and the plight of the workers on strike with sensitivity and humour.

14. The Square/Al midan (2013)

Restless and ready to fight, members of the union have been tested for a long time on their pay and pensions. If you aren’t ready to start a revolution after watching this documentary on the 2011 Egyptian Revolution or restless after fourteen days without class — well, at least you’ve spent good time watching fourteen films.

If these films about the struggles in higher education or political resistance are too much, you can also go through the entire High School Musical trilogy for some lighter viewing instead.

Special thanks to Maria Düster, Calvin Law, Madeleine Haslam, Raphael Duhamel, and Liam Donovan for movie suggestions and additional writing. 

To support your striking lecturers, find out more information here. 

It’s a cold world out there. Your heating may not be working and your toes might be about to fall off… but allow us here at FilmSoc to entice you with an eclectic list of icy films this London snowfall has brought to mind.

(Group post)

1. Amarcord (1973)

Let’s start this right. In 1930’s Fascist Italy. Oh, El Duce, I remember, a m’arcord. This film is one of Fellini’s finest and most beautiful. It is entertaining and captivating while boasting some strong resonant moments. The coming of Spring. The first snow of Winter. The film is ripe and fresh and sucks you into its changing seasonal climate through the lens of some classic Fellini characters. The young boy, the buxom town tart. A master filmmaker.

2. Ice Age 1, 2 and 3 (2002, 2006, 2009)

But of course! The polar ice sheets are expanding, growing even! The Earth’s surface is slowly coating itself in a supreme, clean, cocaine white. You’re in bed, wondering whether to leave or stay. Protect your shelter or migrate to a warmer habitat where you’ll last this icy cold winter. If only you had a rag-tag team of lovable extinct animals to keep you company and inevitably leave you to be with their own kind. Ice Age is a tale of togetherness and determination. Something you show your kids to teach them morals.

3. Fargo (1996)

We’re almost glad that it’s sub-Arctic levels outside because it gives us a reason to put Fargo on this list! Am I watching a static screen or am I watching the Coen brothers’ cult-classic? Who knows. Fargo is a black-coffee-on-a-snowy-morning comedy. It’s violently bonkers and darkly funny. The film boasts some seriously snowy visuals, so you won’t be disappointed. Even if it had no snowy visuals, you won’t be disappointed.

4. The Shining (1980)

If you’re in the mood for a beautiful psychological horror (terror) you know you should watch because you’re tired of nodding when people bring it up, Kubrick’s masterpiece will leave you exacerbated.

5. Dead Poet’s Society (1989)

A beautiful, heartfelt schoolboy drama, a tribute to the creative spirit and working against the established order, it also features a very young boyish Ethan Hawke bawling his eyes out in the snow in one of the few instances of realistic film ‘crying’, which is alone worth the price of admission.

6. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Where do you go when you’ve just blown up a Death Star? A freezer, apparently. Shiver along with Luke and Han on the ice planet of Hoth while enjoying the best Star Wars film since, well, the first one.

7. Frozen (2013)

Just two sisters, two princesses, Elsa and Anna. One sister has cryokinetic powers capable of manipulating water into ice. The other sister is Rapunzel. Oh wait…that’s Tangled. Anyone else make that mistake? Anyway, it’s topical! Watch with your freakish doll-looking friends.

8. Snowpiercer (2013)

An attempt to turn back the clock on global warming backfires extraordinarily – the world is frozen, all life extinguished. All life but the passengers on the Snowpiercer, a state-of-the-art train set on an endless course, circumventing the world again and again. But all is not well on this locomotive, with the rich living it up at the front and the poor languishing at the back. Chris Evans has had enough, and what better way to warm him up than a bit of cold-blooded class warfare. The snow will turn red.

9. Ikiru (1952)

Possibly the most underseen of Akira Kurosawa’s masterpieces, featuring at its centre the story of Takashi Shimura’s Kanji Watanabe, a meek, mundane, depressed government bureaucrat is diagnosed with cancer and blindly pursues some will and meaning to his existence. A touch too bleak for casual viewing, one might think, but the film’s most iconic scene of Shimura in the snow on a swing, completely earns this tough viewing experience.

10. Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001)

Surprisingly enough, the Arctic is not the place to look for beaches and pina coladas. The first film ever made entirely in Inuktitut adapts the Inuit legend of Atanarjuat who, as the title suggests, must run – through miles upon miles of gorgeously-shot snow and ice.

11. Scott Pilgrim vs The World (2010)

Who else thinks that Michael Cera managed to carve out a space for himself and his awkward teen-cum-man vibe? It wasn’t a type before he made it one. Anyway, Scott Pilgrim (Cera) must battle 7 deadly ex-boyfriends to win the heart of his pink haired manic-pixie-dream-girl, Ramona Flowers. Videogame themes and graphics feature. Heavily.

12. Citizen Kane (1952)

‘Rosebud’ mutters an old and decrepit Charles Foster Kane before taking his last breath. What could it mean? We are supposed to be wondering. The film takes us back and shows us Kane’s rise and fall. From an innocent young boy ripped away from his mother to an idealistic wide-eyed yuppie to a business mogul churning out salacious news for a hungry audience to an old recluse. Kane builds a palace, Xanadu, to live in and segregates himself from the world that destroyed his innocence. A classic film that everybody should watch. At the very least, to say you’ve seen it.

13. McCabe and Mrs Miller (1972)

Like many a revisionist Western, McCabe and Mrs Miller swaps out the sunbeaten deserts of the classic cowboy flick for the frozen wastes of Washington State. In an effort to warm the frigid denizens of McCabe’s new locale he sets up a brothel, and what follows is a stirring examination of masculinity and its ice-like fragility. Especially impressive is Zsigmond’s hazy photography, emphasising both the cosy warmth indoors and the sharp frost beyond. But besting even this is Warren Beatty’s enormous coat. Doubling his width, it probably encompasses the hide of an entire bear, and looks as cumbersome as that sounds. But boy does it look warm.

14. Transsiberian (2008)

Take me back to the Winter of 2009, watching this icy thriller with my mother in our living room. An American couple composed of sharp, cold Emily Mortimer and dad-esque Woody Harrelson take the Transsiberian train from China to Russia. They befriend another couple on the train, your typical freaky druggy shady Europeans. Funny how snow can make everything seem sinister, like being trapped on a train with a very psychologically damaged duo. Tensions are high and they stay high and cold like the taught strings of a frozen guitar, ready to crack and snap. An hour and a half later, I emerged, a hardened eleven-year old girl.

15. Napoleon (1972)

16. Edward Scissorhands (1990)

You’ve seen this one! Have you not? Have you at least seen those stills of Johnny Depp with the crazy black hair and the huge metal nail clippers where his hands should be? Directed by Tim Burton (duh), Edward Scissorhands is a darkly Romantic Gothic film. It’s the Frankenstein of the 90’s set in snow-covered American suburbia. It’s every girl’s teen dream. Did anyone else grow up fantasising about Johny Depp stroking your soft warm face with his cold sharp metallic hands, the same hands that you know will never touch you anywhere else? Sign me up for a tetanus shot!

17. Dumb and Dumber (1994)

A film so dumb it’s kind of great. It also imparts some valid lessons for our current weather: avoid Harry’s mistakes and don’t get your tongue stuck licking any icy metal poles (I know it’s a big ask). Also… A Christmas Story, anyone?

18. The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

I know, I know, of all things, here’s a film about “global warming”. Clearly a lie fed to us by the government to make us conscious of our impact on this “Earth”. Surely if this “global warming” were real I’d be letting my scantily clad thighs melt into the hot felt seats of the tube by now? Anyway, Dennis Quaid plays a palaeoclimatologist (?) who just might be the one to save the world from this “global warming” induced catastrophic melting of the polar ice caps and subsequent flooding of the earth’s entire surface. The film is kind of terrifying, perhaps because it could actually happen. Meanwhile, Jack’s son, Sam, played by Jake Gyllenhaal is an anxious and adorable teen on his way to complete an academic decathlon as gigantic storm hits New York City.

19. The Hateful Eight (2015)

A blizzard roars over rural Wyoming. Seeking refuge from the cold, a wide variety of characters find themselves in a remote haberdashery, with four wooden walls and a door that won’t stay shut between them and the elements. But maybe some company is worse than a minor case of frostbite. Though it isn’t the witty dialogue or escalating drama that that comes to mind when thinking of this film. No, it’s the image of a man walking through the tundra, completely naked. Now that’s frosty.

20. The Gold Rush (1925)

Despite being over 90 years old, The Gold Rush remains intimately relatable. A snowstorm is raging outside, a fierce wind howling in its wake. You’re locked tight in your room – you don’t have a boiler, but you’re making do. You’re about ready to wait out the storm. But then you realize your fatal mistake. The cupboards are bare, the stocks exhausted. There’s no going outside, but your roommate’s hungry eyes are starting to take an unsettling interest in you. There’s only one solution; it’s shoes for dinner.

21. The Thing

Heralded by critics as “instant junk”, “a wretched excess”, and a “barf-bag movie,” The Thing is the perfect movie to watch during this god-forsaken barrage of snow. The movie follows a group of researchers in Antarctica (snow!) as they encounter an evil alien parasite they cleverly call “Thing.” The team eventually succumb to paranoia as they realise any one of them could be the Thing and that trusting people never works out. Rob Bottin, who designed the creature and largely handled special effects, was hospitalised for exhaustion, double pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer because of his production workload, only to be torn apart by critics and gain nothing from the experience. The Thing is one of the most disgusting movies you’ll ever see – happy watching!

22. Gangs of New York

If you’re one of those chics who’s screensaver is a doll-faced Leonardo DiCaprio, this is the film for you. Also if you’re a fan of seasoned director, Martin Scorsese, this film is also for you. Set in 19th Century Manhattan in the slum neighbourhood of ‘Five Points’, Leo plays a sexy badboy named Amsterdam newly returned to his childhood hometown with a score to settle. He will avenge his father’s death by killing Bill, the Butcher (Daniel day Lewis) in an gang war. Leo has an Irish “accent” and in one scene he wears his hair in a low Samurai-style bun. I’m into it. Watch out for snowy scenes in a New York setting you’ve never seen before.

23. Willow (1988)

Doesn’t the snow chase scene from this fantasy classic just make you want to hop onto a sled? In this weather, it’s also easy to spiritually identify with Val-Kilmer-As-A-Snowball.

24. SLC Punk! (1998)

Sean’s bad acid trip makes for great comedy. Snow features for a brief but iconic moment in this American cult film as he sits under-dressed and intoxicated on his front lawn.

25. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005)

So much snowiness in this childhood gem! From Lucy’s first magical forray through the wardrobe into the realm of Narnia, to the evil iciness of Tilda Swinton’s Snow Queen, our current weather phenomenon is showcased in all its forms.

Stay warm!

(Featured image: still from Phantom Thread)

2018 boasts an impressive lineup of films, ranging from superhero epics to buzzed-about indies. We compiled a list of films worth watching below, ranging widely and with something for everyone. This list includes UK release dates. 

Phantom Thread (UK release 2 February 2018)

Three-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis stars in his final film as Reynolds Woodcock, a renowned couturier who begins a relationship with a young waitress named Alma. Directed by the actor’s longtime collaborator Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, The Master), this sensual feature explores the dark underbelly of dependent relationships, gender roles, and control. Garnering early critical acclaim, specifically for Day-Lewis’ performance, the film is sure to be a proper sendoff for the legendary actor.

Wildlife (Sundance premiere 20 January 2018; limited release expected late 2018)

Actor Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine, There Will Be Blood, Love & Mercy) makes his directorial debut with this family drama, set to debut at the Sundance Film Festival in late January. The film will follow a young boy who witnesses the dissolution of his parents’ (Jake Gyllenhaal and Carrie Mulligan) marriage after they move to Montana in the 1960s. Upon positive reception, the film is expected for be picked up for distribution and released at the end of the year. If you’ve ever dreamed of seeing Jake Gyllenhaal as a dad, now’s your chance.

Black Panther (UK release 13 February 2018) and Avengers: Infinity War (UK release 27 April  2018)

Marvel Studios’ next two films come out within two months of one another, the former tying up loose ends for the epic face-off to come in Infinity War. Black Panther will follow Wakandan prince T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) as he returns to his home country to ascend the throne after his father’s untimely death. Michael B. Jordan plays Killmonger, T’Challa’s challenger to the throne, with Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Daniel Kaluuya, and Angela Bassett starring as some of the prince’s closest body guards and confidants. It will be Marvel’s first film mainly comprised of actors of colour and has already broken the studio’s record for most pre-sale tickets sold. The film will introduce important characters into the MCU in time for Infinity War.

Infinity War will be set four years after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, when the villain Thanos (Josh Brolin) arrives on Earth to finish his collection of the Infinity Stones, allowing him to control reality and conquer the universe. In order to stop him, every major character introduced since the inception of the MCU – from Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) to Rocket (Bradley Cooper) to Falcon (Anthony Mackie) – will have to put aside their differences, band together, and fight. The film will feature the largest amount of superheroes on screen in cinematic history, and is sure to be an unforgettable ride.

Annihilation (Netflix UK release expected March 2018)

Based on the acclaimed novel of the same name, Natalie Portman leads this sci-fi action film surrounding a group of soldiers who enter an environmental disaster zone after her husband (Oscar Isaac) survives a foray in the territory and barely makes it out alive. As they venture deeper into the zone, their perceptions of time, nature, and each other are tested. Director Alex Garland (Ex Machina) continues to expand the sci-fi genre by examining the relationship between human beings, technology, and morality.

Isle of Dogs (UK release 30 March 2018)

Following the success of his first stop-motion animated film Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson returns to the field with this film about canines. Set in a dystopian future, Japan has quarantined all dogs on an island due to “canine flu”. Five dogs agree to help a young boy named Atari to find his lost dog on the isle, and as Japanese forces try to capture him, Atari and the dogs race against time to reunite the boy and his best friend. The voice cast of the film nearly features every single actor who has ever starred in a Wes Anderson film, though Owen Wilson is notably absent. We hope everything is still okay between those two.

The Sisters Brothers (expected late 2018)

The story follows Eli and Charlie Sisters (John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix), two hitmen brothers on the trail of a prospector (Jake Gyllenhaal) who has stolen from their boss. The film is French director Jacques Audiard’s (A Prophet, Rust and Bone, Dheepan) first English-language film and will also star Rutger Hauer and Riz Ahmed in supporting roles. Many thanks to Jake Gyllenhaal for starring in so many films this year.

Boy Erased (USA release 28 September 2018; UK release expected late 2018/early 2019)

Joel Edgerton (The Great Gatsby, The Gift, Loving) writes, directs, and produces this coming-of-age drama surrounding a young boy (Lucas Hedges) who, after being outed to his parents (Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe), is forced into a gay conversion therapy program. There, he comes into conflict with his therapist and the rest of the patients. The film is based on Boy Erased: A Memoir and will feature Troye Sivan, Flea, and acclaimed director Xavier Dolan in its supporting cast.

Widows (UK release 16 November 2018)

Steve McQueen’s (Hunger, Shame, 12 Years a Slave) fourth film will center four widows (Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez, and Cynthia Erivo) who team up to finish the dangerous heist that killed their cousins. With a screenplay penned by McQueen and Gone Girl author/screenwriter Gillian Flynn, we can expect nuanced female characters, a gripping story, and (hopefully) Viola Davis kicking ass.

If Beale Street Could Talk (expected late 2018)

Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins will follow his acclaimed film Moonlight with this adaptation of James Baldwin’s novel of the same name. The story follows Tish Rivers (Kiki Layne), a woman living in Harlem, whose fiancé Fonny (Stephan James) is falsely imprisoned for rape. When Tish finds out she is pregnant, she, her lawyer, and her family race to prove Fonny’s innocence. With police brutality happening daily and mass incarceration continuing to increase in the United States, the film could not be more relevant and timely.   

Ocean’s 8 (UK release 22 June 2018)

Serving as both a sequel and an all-female soft reboot of the original Ocean’s Eleven film series, the film centers around Danny Ocean’s estranged sister Debbie (Sandra Bullock) as she organizes a team to pull off a massive heist at the Met Gala in New York City. Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Rihanna, and Helena Bonham Carter round out the core eight, promising a star-studded and exciting ride. George Clooney is not expected to make any cameos, but we can only hope. 

Other expected 2018 releases to keep an eye on:

A Wrinkle in Time (dir. Ava DuVernay)

Suspiria (dir.  Luca Guadagnino)

First Man (dir. Damien Chazelle)

The Death & Life of John F. Donovan (dir. Xavier Dolan)

Solo: A Star Wars Story (dir. Ron Howard)

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (dir. David Yates)

Backseat (dir. Adam McKay)