Ghostbusters (2016)

...Because anything that pissed the misogynists off so much had to have something to recommend it. This proved to be true, in that it was genuinely the most flat-out enjoyable film I've seen in several months -  unpretentious entertainment that didn't ladle on the pathos in an attempt to be taken seriously. If leads Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy were a little understated, then Kate McKinnon and Chris Hemsworth amply compensated with sparkling comic turns. I was touched by the many warmhearted homages to the (vastly inferior) original, too. Not great cinema by any means, but a truly, unreservedly great time.

(IMDB link)

Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)

Sweet-natured fun abounds here, as Stephen Frears tackles the true story of the worst singer ever to appear at the Carnegie Hall. It's a tremendously polished affair, naturally, from the sensible casting of the likes of Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant, to the elegant sets and costumes the target audience is presumably meant to drool over. Bonus points to Frears for ensuring all the main players come across sympathetically - it would have been easy to turn Grant's character into a cad, if not an active antagonist. Not particularly my sort of thing, but your elderly mother will likely love it.

(IMDB link)

Swiss Army Man (2016)

The unholy offspring of Pete's Dragon and Fight Club, this features what might possibly be the first ever instance of a Manic Pixie Dream Corpse* as Paul Dano's lonely shipwreck victim and Daniel Radcliffe's flatulent zombie navigate their way back to civilisation. While the critics are all over this one, I have (minor) reservations - the unending whimsy starts out charming and even exhilarating, but eventually begins to feel like a rejected concept piece for last year's John Lewis Christmas ad. Absolutely worth a watch, but I think I might have liked it better as a short.

<sub>*Only possibly, because although I haven't seen it, I suspect Warm Bodies might hold this particular honour.

(IMDB link)</sub>

Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

Predictably dazzling work from Laika studios, whose stop-motion animation has more substance, in every sense, than anything Pixar or Dreamworks can offer. This time they're tackling Japanese mythology with a finely-crafted tale of a one-eyed boy and his magic shamisen. This is as close as Laika have ever come to the mainstream, and on a different day I might have found the heavy sentiment too much. As voiced by Art Parkinson, the titular character is commendably mischievous, though, and Charlize Theron and Matthew McConaughey provide fine support as a pair of allies who might just be more than they seem.

(IMDB link)

I Walked with a Zombie (1943)

This early horror effort from Jacques Tourneur and Val Lewton tries for atmospheric and might have achieved it, in its day. Unfortunately, there's not a lot here that a pessimist like me wouldn't be bargaining on, from the painfully stilted acting to the dodgy sexual and racial politics.  The story plays like a cousin to Jane Eyre, with a beautiful young nurse co-opted to a remote location and falling for the handsome but stern master of the house - it's a classic setup, but sadly, censorship rules of the time don't really allow the cast and crew to run with it.

(IMDB link)

The Sorcerers (1967)

There's much campy, culty fun to be had in director Michael Reeves' second and, as it turned out, penultimate directorial outing before his death, aged 25, from a drug overdose. A terminally ill Boris Karloff stars as the discredited hypnotist who takes over the mind of Ian Ogilvy's disaffected youth. No real scares here (despite the soundtrack's enthusiastic attempts to convince us otherwise), but there's some top-notch psychedelic effects and Catherine Lacey seems to be having a wonderful time as the eventual villain of the piece. A word of warning, however: this film may contain social commentary.

(IMDB link)
 

Telstar: The Joe Meek Story

Seen this one a few times now, but the ending came as a heck of a shock the first time round. Granted, it's based on a true story, but one that happened long before my time, and while I vaguely recalled some sort of bad business when the cinematic foreshadowing started, I found myself watching in abject horror as a fairly jolly drama about the 1960s music business turned into an altogether darker beast. Con O'Neill's lead performance is a little too effortful for my taste, but this is still an entertaining watch, if an ultimately depressing one.

(IMDB entry)