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hgamesfan · 7 years

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There is a recent comment from Jennifer saying she hopes that Hunger Games fans are proud of her for doing mother. I hope she realises how many fans arent! And how many THG fans dislike mother. I think its to do with the tone. THG are full of hope and always condemn violence and cruelty. Aronfsky is like Coin, enjoying the use of violence & intimidation to scare people, think of the end, where Coin wants to reinstate the games with the children of the capitol, for revenge.

Hello. Thanks for your messages.

I am very disappointed that Jen would suggest that this movie is something that would resonate with fans of THG. THG was a pretty horrifying story that showed how vicious people can be to those they view as inferior to them. But the ultimate message of THG is that one person can make a difference and the fact that that one person was a slight young woman beatened down by the circumstance of her life is incredibly empowering. The human spirit is resilient and can overcome all types of hatred and violence. In this horrible movie, Jen’s character’s sole purpose is to have atrocities befall her and ultimately be destroyed by the one being that should love and protect her. This movie used violence to shock and appall but offers no resolution if, in fact, you are suppose to empathize with Jen’s character. She just dies to allow her husband to rebuild his home and life. The message here is that a man will deplete and destroy the woman in his life for his own success and adulation and he will do it again and again and again.

As for the greater metaphorical message, there’s no way anyone would associate Jen as Mother Earth without Darren saying that’s who she symbolizes and that is a failure in his story telling. One can easily walk away from this movie as a retelling of biblical stories. A home/paradise has been created (Eden). God has invited man and woman to his paradise (the wound to Man’s chest is the rib being removed to create Eve). The breaking of the crystal is man eating the forbidden fruit. The sons show up and one kills the other (Cain and Abel). People show up causing destruction until they break the sink and flood the home (the great flood of Noah’s ark). Him rapes/coerces mother to create a life (Mary being impregnated w Jesus through no choice of her own). Her baby being sacrificed and eaten by man (body and blood of Christ). The poster was clearly reminiscent of the Virgin Mary and the Sacred Heart. It’s all a Bible story and an anti religious one at that. The main message is that man will create havoc and destruction in the name of glorifying God.

He failed as a story teller. No one gets that this is about the environment without someone telling you that’s what this is suppose to be about. His movie was heavy handed and unnecessarily violent and gratuitous and you leave the theater assaulted. As a woman there is no hope. There is nothing to glean from this story. Aronofsky exploited his actress to make a movie and showed her in the most degrading and violent situations to drive home a point. It’s just not the point he thought he was making.

And with this I’m done talking about this movie. Jen needs to go away and try to rebuild her image and good name. It is really heartbreaking to see. Jen is not viewed as a feminist or even a positive role model. This movie may have remained an unfortunate professional misstep but the fact that she has linked herself to the writer and director of this disgusting mess reflects poorly on her as a person. I hope she can get out of this situation as soon as possible.

#mother!#jennifer lawrence #darren aronofsky #spoilers

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sinfulfolk · 4 years

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Bookstores: Shakespeare & Company in Paris

Read my books at Shakespeare & Co.

Read more BOOKSTORE POSTS

One year ago, I had the distinct pleasure of visiting perhaps the most famous independent bookstore in the world with my daughter. Shakespeare and Company is the marvelous English-language bookshop in the heart of Paris, on the banks of the Seine, opposite Notre-Dame. Since opening in 1951, this store has been a meeting place for anglophone writers and readers, becoming a Left Bank literary institution. This lovely bookstore bookstore has been an oasis for generations of writers, including Allen Ginsberg, Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, William Styron, Martin Amis, Zadie Smith, Dave Eggers and a myriad number of other “tumbleweed” writers who have lodged here, read here, and written here in this English-language literary oasis.

The bookstore is full of legends and stories about itself. To start with, its scavenged floorings include marble tiling that founder George Whitman stole decades ago from Montparnasse Cemetery and laid down in an abstract mosaic around the store’s “wishing well” — a hole in which customers toss coins to be harvested by poor writers who may need change for a cheap room in Paris. The wishing well also had a gas main that ran into it, and sometimes George would turn it on, and throw a lit match in, just for the excitement (and he once burned the hair off a visiting model with this trick. The model said she never received a proper apology.)

Writers often camped out in Shakespeare and Company overnight, and found themselves shanghaied into helping out with book sales and with (occasionally) babysitting the proprietor’s daughter Sylvia (who now runs the bookstore herself). It is also true that George once kicked Johnny Deep out of the bookstore (for refusing the generous offer of a bed for the night — George enjoyed entertainment in books, not in movies or TV, so he may not have known who Johnny Depp was at all). It’s also worth nothing that the building was originally a monastery — La Maison du Mustier. George liked to pretend he was the sole surviving monk, saying, “In the Middle Ages, each monastery had a frère lampier, a monk whose duty was to light the lamps at nightfall. I’m the frère lampier here now. It’s the modest role I play.”

Some of the legends, however, are not true. For example, James Joyce is sadly not buried in the cellar (he is buried in Zurich). And it is also not true that George once stocked the wishing well with live seals (he wanted to do so, but never succeeded in getting the permits).

And there’s one more note to make about the history. This is the second version of a bookstore called Shakespeare and Company based in Paris. Sylvia Beach founded the original Shakespeare and Company in 1919. Her store at 12 rue de l’Odéon was a gathering place for the great expat writers of the 1920s and 1930s — Joyce, Hemingway, Stein, Fitzgerald, Eliot, Pound — as well as for leading French writers. In fact, James Joyce’s Ulysses was first published in its complete form by Beach because the government authorities in Britain and America deemed it obscene. Sadly, Beach closed up shop during the Nazi occupation in 1940 and never reopened.

When George’s store first opened in 1951, it was called Le Mistral. George changed it to the name Shakespeare and Company in April 1964—on the four-hundredth anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth. Perhaps he had Beach’s blessing in this… perhaps he did not… the line between fiction and nonfiction was never quite clear, as with many stories told by the inimitable George Whitman.

Epigrams on the Walls of the Bookstore

LIVE FOR HUMANITY

FEED THE STARVING WRITERS

BE NOT INHOSPITABLE TO STRANGERS LEST THEY BE ANGELS IN DISGUISE

OLD SMOKY READING ROOM and BLUE OYSTER TEAROOM

From the first day George’s version of Shakespeare and Company opened, writers, artists, and intellectuals were invited to sleep among the shop’s shelves and piles of books, on small beds that doubled as benches during the day. Since then, the bookstore’s website notes that an estimated 30,000 young and young-at-heart writers and artists have stayed in the bookshop, including then unknowns such as Alan Sillitoe, Robert Stone, Kate Grenville, Sebastian Barry, Ethan Hawke, Jeet Thayil, Darren Aronfsky, Geoffrey Rush, and David Rakoff. These guests are called Tumbleweeds after the rolling thistles that “drift in and out with the winds of chance,” as George described.

I created this bookstore like a man would write a novel, building each room like a chapter, and I like people to open the door the way they open a book, a book that leads into a magic world in their imaginations. -— George Whitman

In 2002, at the age of twenty-one, Sylvia Whitman, George’s only child, returned to Shakespeare and Company to spend time with her father, then eighty-eight years old, in his kingdom of books. In 2006, George officially put Sylvia in charge.

Sylvia introduced several new literary endeavors. In June 2003, Shakespeare and Company hosted its first literary festival, followed by three others. Participants over the years have included Paul Auster, Will Self, Marjane Satrapi, Jung Chang, Philip Pullman, Hanif Kureishi, Siri Hustvedt, Martin Amis, and Alistair Horne, among many others.

Although George Whitman passed away on December 14, 2011—two days after his 98th birthday—his novel, this bookshop, is still being written, both by Sylvia and by the thousands of people who continue to read, write, and sleep at Shakespeare and Company.

Sylvia recently published a new book: Shakespeare and Company, Paris: A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart. This 400-page book, the first ever about the shop’s history, features more than 300 images—including photographs, rare materials from the shop’s archive—and 70 editorial contributions from writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Anaïs Nin, Kate Tempest, Ethan Hawke, and Jeanette Winterson.

Shakespeare and Company is one of my literary touchstones, and I invite you to read my books at this amazing bookstore.

Epigram Written by George on the Wall When He Retired

INSTEAD OF BEING A BONAFIDE BOOKSELLER I AM MORE LIKE A FRUSTRATED NOVELIST. THIS STORE HAS ROOMS LIKE CHAPTERS IN A NOVEL AND THE FACT IS TOLSTOI AND DOSTOYEVSKY ARE MORE REAL TO ME THAN MY NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORS…. IN THE YEAR 1600, OUR WHOLE BUILDING WAS A MONASTERY CALLED ‘LA MAISON DU MUSTIER.’ IN MEDIEVAL TIMES EACH MONASTERY HAD A FRERE LAMPIER WHOSE DUTY WAS TO LIGHT THE LAMPS AT NIGHTFALL. I HAVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR FIFTY YEARS NOW IT IS MY DAUGHTER’S TURN. — GEORGE WHITMAN

Pinterest – Ned Hayes Bookstore Board

Bookstores: Shakespeare & Company in Paris was originally published on Ned Hayes

#Bookstores #sinfulfolk #books #writing #novels #book #bookshelf #sinful-folk #Sinful Folk #novel

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acelucky · 6 years

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Exploring themes in mother! and Darren Aronofsky as an auteur director.

I’m gonna add a little note at the start - I started to write this back In january, I find when I don’t work on an essay properly until it’s done, it never really gets finished. I planned on writing this in a proper film theory kinda way but instead you’ve got a rambling half-essay, half-thoughts kinda nonsense text going on.

I first watched mother! in the cinema with my now husband, six people walked out as the film reached the climax of the second act, many did not. We went to the cinema that evening as I needed escapism from the real world, and although I found escapism within the walls of the multiplex, I was reminded

The metaphors are abundant, from how we treat the earth, to how wrapped up we can become in ourselves or more in searching for meaning in life, putting all our hopes into one idea or person. Some are, a little on the nose, but I think that’s the point. There are subtle references that you really have to be looking for, but the film was made with passion to tell a story and therefore I cannot be angry for making some of the references stand out. It is in a way, a variation of the oldest story their is, ‘The creation,’ which is also the theme of Aronofsky’s 2014 film Noah.

I have my biases, for sure, I have admired Aronofsky’s work for many years. But what he did with mother! was unique, bold, beautiful and in many ways, unforgivable. The film stays with you for days afterwards, the way the high and immediate low after a holiday lingers, you get over the initial shock, the pain after just a few days, but somehow it’s always there. You can’t switch it off, the memory stays with you.

The silence is what struck me, from the very opening of the film we experience the world through the mother’s eyes, there is the faint noise of birdsong and insects but aside from this the world is at peace. It’s perfect and calming in a way, but also a reminder of how deafening silence can be in a world so preoccupied by technology and noise, the sound of distant traffic, a train, fans in summer becomes like a comfort blanket to us. With the sound stripped away we become vulnerable, forced to listen to our own heart beat, to the voices in our heads.

Sometimes we need to take a moment to listen to the silence, whether that’s the sound of the world outside, the birds in the trees, water, a breeze… or whether it’s the beating of our own hearts. Time to reflect on what we have built up from the ashes.

Aronsfky is an auteur in the truest form of the word, I cannot help but compare mother! to Aronfsky’s other films that have many central and underlying themes;

Complex and intense relationships between the characters.

Fantasy, but not within the realms of the unbelievable.

A creator/God

The use of colour - whether saturated colours or the use of mute colours. Extremes often feature.

Music - With Clint Mansell as his go to composer, yet mother! omits all non-diegetic sound, even the credits leaving you feeling incased.

A quest - okay so this isn’t unique to one director’s films, or films in general. Most good stories focus on a quest, but the type of quest in Aronosky’s films can be catergorised in a similar way. Perfection, wanting to better oneself and the world around it. A quest for the unobtainable.

Perhaps this last point is the real horror in mother! but also in his earlier films such as Black Swan and The Fountain. There is a need for love, acceptance and above all to prove oneself before time runs out. But time always runs out, the pacing of Aronfsky’s films reflects life, our lives. At first the tempo seems slow, there is time to take time, to make time, to watch the world go by. But the older we get, the quicker time seems to fly by, our understanding of the concept of time changes due to the number of years we have spent on this earth and bearing witness to our own mortality.

When Jennifer Lawrence pleads, “Please don’t leave me” and is still left alone feels reminiscent perhaps of our own lives, when we have spoken to a god and hear nothing in return, no matter how desperate our words.

Throughout mother! there are small moments, gestures, items, that could easily represent things often overseen here on earth. Of course some of these symbols are obvious (such as the use of the snake in Noah) others are left for interpretation.

The breaking off of the door knob to stop others getting into the study - a metaphor perhaps for how we have destroyed parts of our earth, how some areas are now off limits due to destruction

When the blood stains won’t come out and grow when others are close,

We constantly ignore mother earth’s suffering, though maybe that’s twee.

No matter how strong the foundations, things can easily be destroyed, just like the house cracking at the end, this could easily represent earth quakes. Whilst earth quakes are a part of what keeps our world turning and are a natural occurrence - man made earthquakes caused by fracking are quite a different story.

It is the first part of the film that feels more like a horror than the gore itself in the Second Act. Whilst the Second Ace features all the horrific imagery, from depictions of war, jealousy, obsession, lust, pain, fear and the grotesque nature of man kind, there is an unease that slowly creeps up on you in during the First Act. It is the kind of unease that truly gets under your skin and remains with you for days afterwards. We witness Jennifer Lawrence’s character slowly loosing the peace her and her husband are used to, loosing her home, her husband and finally her child.

“Get out, get out all of you.” A line that harrows the truth that boundaries are important, even when it’s with those we love. Ultimately it represent’s Eve’s resentment of how we have treated earth, of the pain that man let in. I use man here on purpose, many comment on how it is Eve who takes the first bite of the forbidden fruit, much like Pandora opening a box, it must be women who are to blame for suffering. Yet it was Adam who was told not to eat the fruit, Eve was unaware of this warning and Adam looked on, watching her taste it before he dared.

Circular imagery is important throughout the movie, the forest around the house, the stairs. Everything represents earth and a centre.The theme of continuation, a spiral, something that has no clear defined beginning or end is represented through even the camera angles and shots that are used throughout the film. There are only three shots used, over her shoulders, faced on and continuously tracking. The shots are long, sometimes almost exhausting to watch.

In mother! we have the concept of God’s word speaking to all - “These words, I feel like they were written for me.” How many times do we feel the same? Whether it’s talking about religious text or lyrics in a song.

Numerous lamps are used to create soft lighting rather than main lights. Warm, like a mother’s love. The use of lighting to convey emotion is something that isn’t new to Aronofsky’s work, shadows play a huge part in Black Swan and The Fountain is full of warmth and rich tones that symbolise the earth. Much like the colours inside the house, the pallets that are being used to paint the walls are full of soft soil and sand like colours that represent the salt of the earth.

“This doesn’t belong to you,” When people are stealing everything from her house, people stealing all of earth’s natural resources.

The crescendo of the movie brings together the mania that paparazzi and fandom can create, there is a circle, almost like the eye of a storm where everything is sucked in and once you are a part of that movement it can consume you and make it difficult to separate yourself from it. In mother! we see how God’s love their ‘subjects’ and cannot let go, but the onus is on both sides as we witness the subjects unable to let go of their god, unable to part with something that may give them the ultimate answer, “Why are we here?” But the answer never comes.

Black Swan deals with perfectionism, for the lead character, Nina, that is her purpose, to be perfect, to dance in a way like no-one has before, it becomes her sole ambition and she becomes blind to the other things that make up her world, forsaking them for dance. In The Wrestler we see a similar story, Randy “The Ram’ Robinson, becomes fixated on his past self and being unable to let go of what has been. Instead of living out his life in peace and contemplation, he trains for another fight, seeking glory and fame. And in both The Fountain and Noah, religion is at the heart, there is a chase for something else. Whether that is the cure for cancer or the hunt for the holy grail in The Fountain or the re-birth if the world in Noah. Arronofsky’s films all have central characters who are on a quest that consumes them and solidifies their own ideal of their purpose on this planet. Aronofsky’s films constantly feature characters who have to find ways to ‘live with themselves’ and outside of these concepts we see them struggle to cope with identity.

Whilst Mother! does not address mankind’s purpose on earth, it explores the emotions that are attached to those ideals and in the end perhaps the suggestion that Aronofsky gives us is that it is okay to not put all our trust in a ‘god’ that maybe instead we should be looking out for one another. Maybe greed and selfishness are not ideologies we should feed into, but rather it is the planet that needs our protection, perhaps that is our purpose, to protect what we already have before it is too late.

And maybe that reading is, like some of the metaphors in the film, a little on the nose, but considering the themes of the film, it fits.

Mother! is a cinematic marvel, with two defined acts, the horror is too real, too close to home to bare at times. The silence is, as the saying goes, deafening It stays with you for days afterwards leaving you asking what did you just witness? Because mother! isn’t a film you feel you just watched, you experience it and bare witness to the horrors and warnings that are within. It felt true to all of Aronofsky’s work, in that the film brought together all of his usual motifs and ideals.

#film #darren aronofsky #mother!#film essays #ramblings

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emiliosandozsequence · 7 months

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the fountain (2006) dir. darren aronfsky

#the fountain #the fountain 2006 #the fountain movie #hugh jackman #darren aronofsky #mine #msc #tfsc #film caps #screencaps

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thepeoplesfilmfestival · 6 years

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In an seven-figure historic acquisition, VR studio CityLights acquired the VR series “Spheres.” at Sundance. Made for the Oculus Rift by director Eliza McNitt , “Sphere” was produced by Darren Aronfsky’s Protozoa Pictures with Jess Engel, Arnaud Colinart and Dylan Golden & narrated by Jessica Chastain. Financed by Oculus Studios & Protozoa Pictures. VR part by AtlasV, Crimes of Curiosity & Novelab with support from Intel. #vr #sphere #film #sundance #darrenaronfsky #elizamcnitt #citylights #tpff2018 #virtualreality #filmmaking

#filmmaking #darrenaronfsky #tpff2018 #film #virtualreality #vr #sundance #sphere #elizamcnitt #citylights

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thejohnkagwikamau-blog · 6 years

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Noah, No Longer A Child's Story

“He chose you for a reason, Noah. He showed you the wickedness of man and knew you would not look away. But then you saw goodness, too. The choice was put in your hands because he put it there. He asked you to decide if we were worth saving and you chose mercy, you chose love. He has given us a second chance.” -Ila; Noah (2014)

Darren Aronofsky’s Noah is a dramatization and more realistic version of the biblical story of Noah, who, being the only man God viewed as righteous, favorable and just, was called upon to build an ark that would hold two of every animal, protecting them from a great flood that would return the earth to a pure and sin free state. Compared to the character we saw as a child in Sunday school, Noah, in this film, is portrayed as a man who is only seeking to fulfill God’s plan and is struggling greatly with his family. Noah, played by Russell Crowe, is developed into a complicated man, capable of tremendous dignity and dreadful hypocrisy, torn, at times painfully, between his duty to God and his responsibilities as a husband and father. This may explain the tensions that arose between Aronofsky and the different companies that wrestled with Paramount Pictures, who got nervous when largely religious audiences reacted badly to test screenings in October of 2013, and consequently fought for inventive control over the final few parts of the film. These objections were later, however, warranted because it didn't make the big money its creators thought it would make and was, however, banned in many religious countries. After testing different cuts that deflected away from Aronofsky’s vision, Paramount allowed Aronofsky to release his version of the film. There were, however, specific features of the story that could have contributed from the interference of the powers.. The most noticeable example is the depiction of Watchers, fallen angels to be exact as depicted in the ancient Jewish texts.. It’s said that, after mankind’s banishment from Eden, the Watchers disobeyed God by descending from heaven and plunged on mankind’s behalf. As punishment, the Watchers, were wrapped in mud and volcanic rock, turning them into huge, colossal stone monsters. Genesis 6:11-12 describes how God judges man for being violent and corrupt. Aronofsky depicts the violence and corruption skillfully, without being too modest, nervous.. As Noah, his family, and the Watchers assemble the ark, King Tubal-Cain, who murdered Noah’s father years prior over a land dispute but and is the leader of a tribe turned ferocious due to a lack of food. There’s a disturbing scene in which Noah enters Tubal-Cain’s camp, trying to find wives for his sons. In the midst of all the desperation, starved masses weeping, wail, and stampede, a live goat is tossed into the middle of a crowd and is rapidly torn to pieces. This scene reveals to Noah that not only these people were full of sin, but him, and his family were full of sin too. No matter how hard they tried, they still remained completely and utterly sinful. Hence the quote, "The wickedness is not just in them, it's in all of us.” There are also some differences between the Bible and this movie that are quite clear ad may only catch the eyes of people who actually sit down and make time to read the bible. Nowhere in the Bible, does it state that Methuselah, Noah’s grandfather, was capable of miraculous achievements. However, that’s how he’s depicted in the film as a powerful and miraculous man. In Aronofsky’s film, Noah is portrayed as distant from God and is a tortured soul who senses through a dream that the Creator plans to destroy the world with a flood. However, that is not how Noah is depicted in the Bible. In Genesis 6-8, much of the account involves direct communication from God to Noah. Noah was God’s close friend, and he understood Him. In the film, Noah visits his grandfather, who helps him understand that a global catastrophe is coming. However, in Genesis 6, God revealed this plan directly to Noah, yet in Aronofsky’s version, Methuselah serves Noah some dark tea to help him hear the Creator’s voice. Nobody in the Bible ever had to take a drug or a potion to hear from God, and Noah certainly never visited anyone for help. Lastly, in the second half of the film, Noah decided God didn’t want the human race to survive. He becomes a psychopath and threatens to kill his daughter-in-law’s child when she gives birth! The biblical Noah would never have tried to prevent repopulation. Noah understood he and his family had been commissioned to replenish the earth. There are many more reasons that differentiate these two versions, however, you can tell by these simple differences that Aronfsky didn't want this movie to look or sound like the one in the Bible in any way. Nevertheless, judging from today’s society, most viewers should might see that, by developing and enhancing the title character beyond the capacity of biased notions, the story can actually resonate with reality and the society and natural phenomenon of this world.

In spite of the fact that the movie is a dramatization of the biblical version of Noah and brings out the reality and human nature within a man like Noah, it is also a more dreadful and dissatisfactory version of the Bible. The perspective in which Aronofsky directed this film really changed the angle at which I see most people would look at Christianity. The director is an atheist, after all. One thing is for sure, I don’t look at the story of Noah the same way I did before or in Sunday school, and this movie has shown me that Noah may not have always been a hero. Sometimes he was probably a normal man, struggling between God and his family, hope or doubt and mercy and forgiveness.

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kwispayne · 6 years

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The Top 10 Films Of 2017

Ok, I said this year was great for albums...it was probably even great for films. I mean it, some of the worst weren’t even that bad (some where worse than ever but I usually don’t do worst lists, ask me personally for that). But there was some amazing movies to choose from this year, but sadly I can only pick 10 for this list.

So here is some rules

1.Technically some of these movies have been released in 2016, but some where only released at film festivals or had overseas released. I usually go by the rules of if it was released in Cinemas in 2017 or on DVD

2. This is a personal list. So some opinions are biased and selfish.

3. I haven’t seen every film from this year sadly. So any recommendations or even your top 10 lists would be helpful. I always want to watch more and I have an odd fetish for lists and stuff, so if you have any send me links and stuff.

This list may change in time…so this isn’t 100% final…but it’s pretty damn close.

10. The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook)

Korean cinema this year was actually amazing, with some real great movies coming from the far east. But as always, the top title has to go to the king of Korean revenge Park Chan-wook (who is one of my all time favourite film makers. Set in Japanese occupied South Korea, this movie tells the tale of a handmaiden who is brought into a world of deceipt, greed, sex and madness. As always Park Chan-wook tells this tell with some amazing cinematic techniques and with some mad imagery. Also this movie is also probably the strongest LGBT themed movie of the year too (if you watch it you will know what I mean). The king has returned!

9. Lady Macbeth (William Oldroyd)

Period dramas usually bore me to death. But I heard Northern English accents in this one, so my intrigue was heightened. A definite master work this movie is, with some amazing shot scenes and wonderful acting, but the real highlight has to do with the main themes raised. A psuedo horror movie, dealing with a woman's slow hatred of men that she slowly becomes a monster, this movie slowly goes from one shocking moment to the other. Oldroyd's amazing directing really adds to this tone with the smallest details being highlighted to create a real tapestry of drama, intrigue and evil. Major props have to be given Florence Pugh and Cosmo Jarvis for giving some amazing performances throughout.

8. Get Me Roger Stone (Dylan Bank, Daniel DiMauro & Morgan Pehme)

This is a brilliantly made documentary about one of the most controversial figures of American politics, a definite bogeyman if there ever was one. While most people fight and shout over politic issues, there is always a master manipulator in the background for his own personal gain or just for the fun of it, and Roger Stone is definitely one of those characters, who is so dishonest and slimy that you almost have to respect his own evil twisted genius and odd take on the world around him. Brilliantly told and brilliantly seen through the eyes of Mr Stone himself, it is a definite watch for those who need to see the other half live and how they work behind the shadows.

7. Paddington 2 (Paul King)

Paul King is definitely one of the most underrated directors working today (he's the next Michel Gondry). Loving the original Paddington haven't been aware of the character since I was a child, I am so glad that Paul King has his hands on this property, because I can't think of any other director who has such great charm, talent or design. Certain technical scenes in this movie are way better than anything Wes Anderson could ever play out. As a comedy, especially a kids movie, this movie really is a laugh a minute rollercoaster. My mouth hurt from smiling too much. Ben Whishaw takes the main role so well as usual, but the best addition to this movie is Hugh Grant who plays the madder than life villain.

6. Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America (Matthew Ornstein)

This documentary is just a mad one, but it is the story we all need. Daryl Davis is a famous activist who is famous for de robing Klan members in some very controversial yet practical methods. Politically, the race issues in USA at the moment really are a minefield and taking a side really can be suicide at times, but thankfully a man comes along who I can at least side with in a more philosophical and pacifistic manner. Brilliantly told through the words and eyes of Daryl, the documentary really shows how love can conquer all. It may not take immediate effects, but at least it's the most, dare I say it, Christian way to deal with issues from a mostly Christian country.

5. It (Andrés Muschietti)

It really is a horror staple, being a main influence on many peoples fear of clowns. While the first celluloid adaptation (the original mini series) is a guilty pleasure to horror fans, it really was a platform to show off the brilliant talents of Tim Curry, many believed would never be bettered. Enter Bill Skarsgård who has approached the role in a very unique and creepy fashion. While being a real treat for this movie with his outstanding performance, more props has to be given to the kid actors in this movie, who may be the best young ensemble I've seen in a blockbuster movie, turning this original mad horror movie to a heart-warming childhood tale with a good few laughs thrown in too. Don't fret, this movie still will have horror movie fans gushing with some really impressive scares and effects. This movie really touched me and I am looking forward to the upcoming sequel.

4. Prevenge (Alice Lowe)

Being a fan of her casual work in British comedies and loving her acting and screenwriting talent in Sightseers I was of course looking forward to her directorial debut, with a concept as mad as herself (she was pregnant while making this movie...this is gonna produce some awkward conversations to her child). Telling the tale of a mother who becomes a serial killer under the guise of her unborn baby, this movie had B movie schlock written all over it, but being a talented screenwriter, Lowe really fashions an interesting study into mental health, dealing with grief, auto and postal depression. With every line of dialogue being as important as the next, this movie is a great re watch, piecing together the many brilliant fabrics she has woven throughout. Also behind the psuedo drama there is also hilarious comedy movie underneath this madcap rollercoaster. I look forward to anything Mrs Lowe will produce in the future.

3. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)

Finally. The Oscars got it right (...almost). If you have only heard about this movie through the controversial fuck up at the Oscars, I advise you to ignore it and focus on the genius of this celluloid masterpiece. Also I would also try and ignore the click bait nature of seeing a movie about a gay black guy, this movie is so much more. Split into 3 chapters, the movies sees the life of a young boy who goes through turmoil, both personally, mentally and sexually. In many ways I see the movie as a tale of someone approaching masculinity, but adopting an almost Freudian approach (each chapter representing id, ego and super ego). Masterfully shot, shockingly portrayed and hauntingly beautiful, Barry Jenkins really shines as both a technical director and a brilliant visual storyteller.

2. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)

A very odd movie with a very odd sense of humour. If you are a fan of cringe comedy, this is definitely a worthy one to watch. Equal part uncomfortable yet equal part hilariousity, this movie has it all. Also oddly enough this movie is near 3 hours long, but only feels about an hour and a half, and has you begging for more. This movie also has a lot of heart too. Behind the nudity, wigs, hairy bodysuits and cum covered cakes, this movie deals with family, distance and how we all grow apart and become different people. Sandra Hüller and Peter Simonischek lead this movie with amazing talent having me on the brink of tears one moment, crying with laughter the next and now and then covering my face into my hands with some awkward yet hilarious scenes. Fans of British comedy would definitely get a kick out of this.

1. Mother! (Darren Aronofsky)

I have been a fan of Aronosky's movie's for a few years and I have always marvelled at his interesting methods of telling stories, dealing with images and themes more than a concise and cohesive narrative and I was approaching this movie with caution due to it's mad campaign before release. I went in knowing nothing and I came out knowing only slightly more. I love how deep this movie is. You can watch it 100 times and still not fully pick up on all it's nuances or themes. Multiple people can watch this movie and come away with many different interpretations. A good director shows and doesn't tells, and Aronofsky proves that in this movie. Using well crafted techniques and a lot of shocking scenes (mixing graphic and emotional material), Aronofsky creates a magnificent piece of art with a potent and intelligent critique on religion, humanity, environmentalism and philosophy. Carried by griping performances from Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem, this movie is a masterpiece and fully plants Aronfsky's flag as one of the world's most controversial and talented filmmakers.

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