ITOL Top 15 Films of 2020 (So Far), Numbers 5-1

Phew! We’ve finally reached numbers 5 through 1. We hope you like our picks and maybe seek out the films that you haven’t yet seen. You can find numbers 15-11 here and numbers 10-6 here. Please let us know which films make your top 15 list and what films are you looking forward to catching later this year! A massive thank you to all the ITOL writers who contributed and voted. Here’s hoping the rest of 2020 won’t be so eventful! Continue reading ITOL Top 15 Films of 2020 (So Far), Numbers 5-1

Review: Babyteeth

The best way to describe Shannon Murphy’s engrossing and visually stunning “Babyteeth” is to imagine if Andrea Arnold directed “The Fault in Our Stars”. If this hasn’t piqued your interest already, then bear with me because there’s plenty of more wonderful things to say about this delight of a film.

Based on screenwriter Rita Kalnejais’ play of the same name, “Babyteeth” marks the arrival of an exciting fresh and innovative female filmmaker. Murphy gets extra points from us for selecting an all-female production and direction team, and for tackling the ‘cancer’ rom-com subgenre in a way that doesn’t feel over sentimental or contrived. Continue reading Review: Babyteeth

ITOL Top 50 Films of the Decade, Entry No 19: Captain Marvel

Despite arguably being the most powerful character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) Captain Marvel still had a lot of heavy lifting to do in terms of expectations. It was the 21st film in the MCU, and the precursor to the event that was “Avengers: Endgame”, which came out roughly 7 weeks after Captain Marvel’s debut. It was the first to be a solo outing for a female character in the MCU, being the titular Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). It also felt like an eleventh-hour decision to have our first introduction to the character, and it was heavily hinted that she was going to play a significant role in Endgame.

Fortunately, for the better part of the movie, Larson manages to shoulder the expectations set on her and uses them to launch herself into the MCU. Her extensive acting talents are sublimely on display when she rotates effortlessly between her two distinct personas. The first being Vers, battling with memory loss and the echoes of who she once was, while desperately trying to fight her emotional nature and to try and appear stoic in a foreign environment. Secondly, as the stone-cold badass Air Force pilot Carol Danvers that we witness in flashbacks. Continue reading ITOL Top 50 Films of the Decade, Entry No 19: Captain Marvel