Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

A remarkable drama written, directed and co-produced by Martin McDonagh. 

Frances McDormand portrays Mildred Hayes, a grieving woman drawn to increasingly extreme behaviour by her sense of loss and frustration because she feels the police gave up trying to solve the case of her daughter’s rape and murder. 

Given the subject matter, it’s remarkable how funny this film is – a dark, deadpan wit that’s full of empathy for a cast of strange and desperate individuals. Gritty and unsentimental, it refuses to offer a single ray of hope.

Vice (2018)

Punningly titled biopic of Dick Cheney, the US vice president in 2001–2009, during the period that George W. Bush was in power. 

There is a fascinating story to be told here, but director Adam McKay chooses a gimmicky, tricksy approach, breaking the fourth wall, adding text on screen and inserting surreal skits that constantly remind you you’re watching a film, rather than allowing you to become absorbed in it. There’s even a “false ending” about halfway through, with the production credits rolling up the screen. 

Cheney emerges as a complete enigma and the film cannot get inside his character enough to explain the motivations behind his various abuses of power. In reality he was an extreme figure, responsible for introducing torture, abolishing the FCC fairness doctrine (leading to the rise of biased, politicised TV news reporting), rebranding “global warming” as “climate change” to make it more palatable to the masses, and focus-grouping reactions to September 11th in order to further America’s geopolitical interests. It’s all especially relevant in the era of Donald Trump.

There’s no shortage of strong material, and the key performances by Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Steve Carell are outstanding. But Vice is hugely frustrating nonetheless.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)

Biopic directed by George Clooney. That fact alone sets alarm bells ringing – I couldn’t finish his film Leatherheads (2008) and I barely got through The Monuments Men (2014), as they were simply too self-conscious and annoying. He’s fine at surface-level tricksiness, but there’s little emotional depth and his “funny” scenes fall flat. 

This film is marginally better. Chuck Barris (played by Sam Rockwell) is a successful TV producer who also kills people for the CIA. He’s recruited by George Clooney, works alongside Julia Roberts and is in a relationship with Drew Barrymore. 

The story is interesting, and Rockwell and Barrymore have real chemistry together, but Clooney’s direction is awkward and gimmicky. He regularly changes filters and keeps reminding you that you’re watching a film, rather than simply letting you become immersed in it. 

The film dodges perhaps the most interesting aspect of Rockwell’s life – the possibility that all of his CIA deeds were completely invented and never took place. That would have made for a whole extra dimension to the story, but it seems that Clooney is a hamfisted director who just couldn’t quite handle the material.

Moon (2009)

Absolutely mind-blowing. Written and directed by Duncan Jones, David Bowie’s son, this is a clever, thought-provoking and heart-rending sci-fi masterpiece. Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) works alone on the Moon as a mining engineer with only a computer (voiced by Kevin Spacey) for company. But events take a surreal, hallucinatory turn and he discovers that all is not as it seems (I don’t want to give away the plot twists, but what Sam learns about his situation changes everything).

The film asks deep questions about who we are, what it is to be human and how we live. It’s unbearably tense, partly thanks to the compelling music by Clint Mansell (by contrast, there’s a memorable scene that uses Katrina and the Waves’ “Walking on Sunshine” to comic effect). The lunar scenery is incredibly believable (models rather than CGI), as is the somewhat scruffy interior of the base. There are thematic connections with 2001, Blade Runner and Passengers. After seeing the film I felt moved and wanted to watch it again immediately.