Locke

Locke is an exercise in film minimalism. Going one better than Vertigo, Drive and Bullitt Locke takes place entirely in the car of Ivan Locke in real time as he drives from the West Midlands to London on a damp winter's night. To provide too much of the plot would be to spoil everything so I'll just give you the set up. Locke is the manager of a building site, who on this particular night, is in charge of preparing the foundations for the concrete pour ("the biggest non military concrete pour in Europe"). The foundation concrete pour we learn is the most crucial part of the construction of any building and a disaster at this stage will cost everyone millions of pounds. Instead of remaining on site to supervise the arrival of dozens of cement lorries from all over England, Locke drives off in his BMW X5 SUV to deal with an entirely different situation. Over the next 85 minutes we watch Tom Hardy as Locke attempt to manage 3 different crises over the phone while also having a Hamlet style conversation with his dead father who abandoned Locke when he was a boy.*
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If all this doesn't sound promising then you probably shouldn't rent Locke but for my money this is one of the best films I've seen in a while. How Tom Hardy didn't get an Oscar nomination is beyond me because his performance is underplayed, focused and utterly compelling. I watched Locke on Saturday night and I spent all of Sunday talking to everyone in a calm South Welsh baritone...You'll probably end up doing the same. Locke has a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It should be higher. Many directors these days feel that to entice people into the cinema you need striking visual images and awe inspiring special effects. In Locke Tom Hardy's beardy face is all we're given and all we need. The close up has been a cinematic tool for over 100 years and wise directors know that humans love looking at other humans, especially humans undergoing extreme emotional turmoil. If you enjoyed The Passion of Joan of Arc or the close ups at the end of The Good The Bad & The Ugly or the work of Kelly Reichardt you'll love Locke...Locke was written and directed by the great Stephen Knight and apart from Hardy it has a stellar cast of other voices that you will definitely recognise. 
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*(Anthony Lane in the New Yorker found this part of the story "hokey" but I thought it was the key to the entire narrative and completely fascinating. Maybe it's a Celtic thing (?) because I'm pretty sure that a high percentage of Irish, Welsh & Scottish men do indeed talk to their dead fathers....)

My Favourite Films Of 2011

I knew he couldnt programme the GPS

I don't get to the movies as often as I'd like for two reasons: it costs 17 dollars a ticket in Melbourne (and yes the USD and Australian dollars are at parity) and secondly because most films are terrible. But I do love going to the pictures and here's a little list of some of my favourites of the year. 
10 Bridesmaids: two very funny scenes and a lot of filler which is more than most films which are all filler. 
9 Archipelago: Joanna Hogg's film about a family holiday to the Isles of Scilly. No one saw this which is a shame because it's a kind of To The Lighthouse for our times.   
8 Moneyball: The true story of how Brad Pitt and a bunch of geeks turned the Oakland A's into that mighty baseball franchise it is today...oh wait, uh...
7 Cold Weather: No one saw this either. A murder mystery/family drama set in a very rainy Portland. 
6 Drive: Everyone saw this. Hollywood stunt man by day gettaway driver by night. It sounds crap but it isn't. 
5 Killing Bono: I haven't seen this one, but I was sold on it just by the title alone. 
4 We Need To Talk About Kevin: Lionel Shriver's excellent book turned into a great movie. 
3 Into The Abyss: A Werner Herzog documentary about death row not quite up there with his classics such as Grizzly Man and Encounters At The End Of The World, but still very compelling.  
2 Meek's Cutoff: Kelly Reichardt's feminist, minimalist Western about a bunch of settlers getting lost on the Oregon trail. The lovely Michelle Williams stars.
1 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: OK so I haven't actually seen this one either, but I loved the book and the BBC series and the director is the guy who made Let The Right One In which is one of my all time favourites. I know its a risk putting a film I haven't seen at number 1 but hey thats the kind of guy I am.