Coco

#39 at the time of writing.

This is middling Pixar, so it's merely... brilliant. (IMDb currently has it ranked as the best Pixar, and the 39th best film of all time, which is somewhat overselling it.)

One of Pixar's strengths is that it doesn't shy away from adult themes - in this case, death. The story world is inspired by the Mexican Día de los Muertos, and whilst it touches only lightly on death it was sufficient to scare my film-hardy 6-year-old. But this movie is infused with colour and music and family values, and it's a delight to spend time with.

It's about a boy who defies his family to pursue his dream of becoming a musician, but in the process falls foul of a curse that sends him to the land of the dead - where he must untangle some family secrets to be able to return.

There's another recent animated kids' film that's also very colourful, very musical, and very much inspired by the Mexican Day of the Dead, The Book of Life, which I also enjoyed. I wonder why it didn't get the same hype as this one. Even the two stories are a little similar - here's the IMDb tagline from The Book of Life, adjusted so it describes Coco instead:

ManoloMiguel, a young manboy who is torn between fulfilling the expectations of his family and following his heart, embarks on an adventure that spans threetwo fantastic worlds where he must face his greatest fears.

Logan

#195 at the time of writing.

I'm pretty burned out on superhero movies. Whenever I watch one I'm usually perfectly well enough entertained, but the prospect of going to the cinema for yet another terribly witty/violent comic book extravaganza is kind of exhausting. I think I only saw the first two X-Men films (and Deadpool).

But in fact there were nine X-Men films before this one. Nine. For die-hard fans, that's a huge amount of emotional investment in the characters. So when I say that this film got me emotionally engaged, I can only imagine the magnified impact it must have had on the legions of true Wolverine-worshippers out there.

You can imagine the pub conversation that sparked this film. So, says the writer, we've got these two characters - the most powerful brain in the world, and a rapid-healing fighter with anger issues. What can we do that's new, that hasn't been done before? I know! Super-brain has dementia and invincible wants to kill himself. Pretty dark, huh?

Yes, it's dark. The story doesn't shy away from the darkness, and is all the better for it. But it also succeeds in delivering a treatment of the (prolifically overdone) superhero genre that feels genuinely new. And for that, kudos.

Trivia: Upon opening at 4,071 theatres in the United States, this film became the widest opening R-rated release in cinema history. But only for a few weeks. It was surpassed by It, which opened in 4,103 theatres.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

#119 at the time of writing.

This is the story of one woman's fight for justice and redemption in small-town Missouri, where cops still beat people up just because they're black, and where townsfolk are trapped in cycles of poverty and abuse. In other words, a place where there is no justice, and no redemption.

With the exception of whiter-than-white Chief Willoughby, sensitively played by Woody Harrelson, no-one and nothing in this town is morally black and white, least of all Frances McDormand's bolshy protagonist - the characters exist in a grey zone, often outside of the law, and with their own peculiar definitions (or tolerances) of right and wrong.

It's a bleak story, but compelling, and with occasional touches of dark humour. By the end I feared it was dragging on too long - which I think is because once the story has played it course the ending still had to be set up, but it was probably worth it because the ending is just as it should be.

I was surprised to learn that the theatrical pitch-black comedy In Bruges was written and directed by the same person, Martin McDonagh, not least because this feels like such a deeply American film and he's not remotely American. I overheard someone say they thought this was a Coen Brothers film. Nope. A British-Irish dude made this. (Although it does star Joel Coen's wife, of course...)

Look out for this one at the Oscars...

The Elephant Man

#149 at the time of writing.

One of the worst film experiences of my life was sitting through David Lynch's interminably boring Inland Empire at the cinema. Neither am I a fan of Mulholland Drive. Nevertheless, I've long been curious about his earlier works.

This 1980 biopic of deformed Victorian gentleman Joseph Merrick is clunky in parts, but on the whole thought-provoking and sometimes genuinely moving. Even the Lynchian indulgences feel avant grade rather than annoying.

The story is apparently faithful to the source material, except for one major difference: the film depicts Merrick as weak, exploited and abused by his cruel carnival master, until he is rescued by the surgeon Treves; when in fact the real-life Merrick was an enterprising soul who voluntarily entered into an equal partnership with a showman and made very good money in the process. Perhaps the filmmakers thought Merrick would be more sympathetic if portrayed as a helpless victim, but I would have liked to see a truer portrayal of the man - his gumption makes him all the more remarkable.