Best British Films of 2014

I've been dragging my feet about making this list because I wanted to write a little something about each film. It seems that I am just never going to have the time to do this properly though, so instead I'm just going to plunge in by posting this up as a quick list. It's February 2015 already and this list is long overdue.

Don't get me started on what makes a film 'British' because I could go on and on about this until we finally get rid of the Royal Family. I'm pretty sure it's fair to say that most of these are definitely British. Without further ado, here are my top 10 favourite British films of 2014:

10. Under the Skin

9. Belle 

8. Jimmy's Hall

7. The Double

6. What We Did On Our Holiday

5. Locke

4. Calvary

3. '71

2. Starred Up

1. Pride

Watch the trailer for Pride:



What were your favourite British films of 2014?

Why I Love Jack O'Connell: Top 5 Films

When an actor has been picked by director Shane Meadows to feature in a film like This is England, you know they are bound to be special. Strangely though, the15 year old Jack O'Connell only had a very minor role in that British classic before getting to really show his skills in later films like Eden Lake and many more. So even though This is England is possibly the best film on O'Connell's CV, you will not find it on this list of his five finest performances.

With Angelina Jolie's Unbroken on the verge of release and likely to see O'Connell's star go stratopheric, here is a look back at what I consider to be his best five performances so far. Expect Unbroken (in which he plays Olympian and POW survivor Louis Zamperini) to be the film to send this guy straight to super stardom.

5. Eden Lake

The first of O'Connell's properly nasty little shits. He seemed to savour the nastiness with every line spat and every smirk and sneer coming naturally to this swaggering young actor. Tormenting Kelly Reilly and Michael Fassbender to death, Brett is a hooded terror; the Daily Mail's worst nightmare. 

4. Tower Block

O'Connell delivers a towering performance in a pretty decent low budget British sniper thriller. He's an awesomely unlikeable anti-hero who steals the limelight from the cast around him.

3. The Liability

O’Connell might have been in danger of being typecast, with his wide-boy posturing becoming a little familiar here but he manages to keep Adam very sympathetic, aided hugely by a strong script and some great banter with Tim Roth. It is another of his sure to be star making turns with Adam being a laugh out loud presence in the film.

2. '71

O’Connell has far less of his usual swagger here; more of a limp actually. It’s arguably his best performance, turning that usual confidence into a cowering, wounded and terrified boy out of his depth. Gone is the hard lad, replaced with something more sincere and though the camera is often pinned to his face, he rarely speaks and gives little away. In fact, by the end of ‘71, we still know little of Gary Hook, but enough to care that he gets home.

1. Starred Up

Jack O’Connell is frequently a Jack-the-Lad type character and this is never more true than in Starred Up. He even has 'Jack the Lad' tattooed on his arm and his sneer, swagger and savagery all attest to the boy’s unflinching desire to do damage. After being brought in to an adult prison, he is stripped and processed. Silent for the first ten minutes of the film, he might appear an unproblematic prisoner. But alone in his cell, he goes about setting himself up with makeshift (and terrifying) weapons and ensuring that when he is attacked, he will be ready. He is a caged animal; cornered, grunted at by the guards, dismissed or threatened by other prisoners but totally unafraid to fight his way out of any corner by any means necessary. O'Connell is riveting and it is one of the best performances of 2014. It will be interesting to see if he can top it with Unbroken.

What is your favourite Jack O'Connell performance?

More from I Love That Film:

 Why I Love Jake Gyllenhaal: Top 5 Films

 Why I Love Cloverfield 

 Why I Love The Hunger Games 

 Why I love Sundance Film Festival

 Why I Love Titanic: Part 1

 Why I Love Aliens

Why I love Sacha Baron Cohen

Best British Films of 2013

I saw nearly 20 British films in 2013, many of them of an excellent quality. I love a bit of homegrown cinema and wish more of our talent felt that they could stay in the UK and make the films they want to make. It seems that the Brits pretty much rule Hollywood anyway but imagine if all our stars, directors and all the rest of the talent that bugger off to Hollywood continued to make films for the British industry, I'm damn sure we could rival the American industry.

Superman, Spiderman and the last Batman were all British. Harry Potter was British. Why isn't the British industry as wealthy as Hollywood? Well that's a debate for another time. But thankfully because there isn't as much ludicrous amounts of money flying around, we get to make some gritty and challenging films that often reflect the ugliness and occasionally the beauty of this fair isle.

Sometimes we want to make crowd pleasers and sometimes it seems our directors are actively trying to put people off from seeing their films. I think my top 10 of the year shows a very healthy and diverse British film industry at work.

The only films that I suspect I should have seen before making this list are: The Selfish Giant, Philomena and About Time.


The films that nearly made this list include: Summer in February, Song For Marion and Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa. 

And now on to the main event. If I have reviewed the film, then please click the title to be magically transported! Here is my top 10 British films of 2013:

10. The Look of Love 

'The Look of Love is the rise and fall of an exploitative entrepreneur. Raymond may not be overly likeable but his relationship with his daughter can be touching and provides evidence of a misguided heart beneath the brash exterior perfectly played by Coogan.'

9. Trance 

'Trance may not have the propulsion or the life affirming joy of Danny Boyle’s greatest films, but as a modern noir and an intriguing psychological maze of a film, it leaves most recent thrillers as distant fading memories.'

8. Sunshine On Leith 

'If nothing else Sunshine on Leith should have you singing along to many of the tunes and confirms Dexter Fletcher as a diverse director to watch. It is a sunny delight!'

7. In Fear 

'In Fear is simplicity itself for much of its running time before running out of gas and resorting to conventional psycho killer thrills by the final scenes. The story may lack much that is new but the execution is brutally efficient.'

6. The Liability 

'The Liability comes loaded with two smoking barrels worth of humour and warmth. While it does not match the very best of British, it is a sharp shooting hitman thriller nonetheless.'

5. I Give it a Year 

'Taking awkward comedy to new levels of cringe worthiness, I Give It A Year will make you squirm in your seat more than a Saw film. Give it ninety minutes of your life.'

4. How I Live Now 

 'Adapted from the novel by Meg Rosoff, it really treats its audience as adults containing mild incest, plenty of swearing, a dash of sex and some shocking moments of violence. It is admirable for not toning down the brutality of war (hello Hunger Games) or the language and lust of its protagonists (goodbye Twilight).'

3.Filth 

'With a sensational soundtrack and putrid performance from McAvoy, Filth is far more fun than it should be. Wallow in it…'

2. Broken 

'Broken is at its best with its wonderful characters and their beautifully observed relationships. The film is filled with outstanding performances that will make audiences smile, laugh and maybe even cry. There are minor issues but nothing in urgent need of repair and Broken will likely be fixed in your mind long after the credits roll.'

1.The World's End

 'The World’s End is like a perfectly poured pint. Golden, bubbly and with an excellent head on it; it tastes so good, you hope that there will be more flavours to the so-called Cornetto trilogy. Instantly quotable and with some of the best profanity ever written, The World’s End is a great way to spend your last night on Earth.'

What were your favourite British films of 2013?

Why don't you stay awhile? More 2013 lists from I Love That Film:

TV in 2013: Breaking Bad, Dexter, The Walking Dead, Homeland and more

World Cinema in 2013

Best books I read in 2013

Top Documentaries of 2013

2013 List of Shame or 25 films I should have seen this year

2013 Top 10 Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction

2013 Top 10 So Far (written in July)

Top 25 Films to see in 2014

Director Retrospectives: Part 2 Danny Boyle

In the continuing series of director retrospectives over at Filmoria, my latest is on the career of British director Danny Boyle, ahead of the release of his new film Trance. I'm seeing Trance tomorrow at a preview screening and cannot wait! It's got James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson and Vincent Cassell and looks like it might be a hypnotic blast. Early reviews are looking very good, no surprise after Danny Boyle wowed the world with the London Olympics Opening Ceremony last year!

 In advance of some of the biggest and best film releases of 2013, Filmoria writers are all contributing retrospectives of many directors' work. We have all chosen six directors who have films being released in 2013 and the idea is that in the week leading up to the new film, we will write and publish a retrospective look at that director's body of work.



The six directors I picked are some of my very favourites and others that have significant films to make their body of work worth revisiting. I take tasks like this very seriously and would like to get through all the films of each particular director before I write the pieces. I started out with Quentin Tarantino as my first director and that retrospective was published back in January ahead of the release of Django Unchained.


In the meantime other Filmoria writers have been tackling the likes of:


Sam Raimi

Pedro Almodovar
Steven Soderbergh
Walter Hill
Kathryn Bigelow
Judd Apatow
Robert Zemeckis

and many more!

I've been re-watching all of Boyle's films over the last couple of months in order to reappraise them and give this retrospective of the great director's work the respect it deserves. You can check out my Danny Boyle retrospective at Filmoria here. In case you didn't know this is the guy who gave us the likes of Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours. He's easily one of my favourite directors and definitely my favourite British director, responsible for two of the greatest British films of all time in my opinion. Please go check out the retrospective to find out more about the man and his films.

If you aren't uncontrollably dribbling and desperate to see Trance by the end then I will consider myself a failure and hang my head in shame. Choose Life! Choose reading my retrospective!

December's Best of British

Continuing our look at the best in upcoming British films, here are the details of the best of British hitting cinemas in December…

December is a strange time of year on the British film calendar. Fearing the might of Hollywood heavyweights like The Hobbit and Life of Pi, British films find it hard to compete around the Christmas season.  Seasonal favourite Nativity is getting a sequel but that came out last month and it’s too early to release serious Oscar contenders.  However there are still a few little gems to watch out for if you fancy a Brit-flick at the cinemas this month.

First up is the wonderful sounding Seven Psychopaths from Irish director Martin McDonagh.  Returning for the first time since 2008’s In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths again stars Colin Farrell who is this time joined by a fantastic cast including Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson.  It is the story of a struggling screenwriter Marty (Farrell) who inadvertently becomes embroiled in Hollywood’s criminal underworld after his eccentric friends (including Walken and Rockwell) abduct the pet Shih Tzu of a psychopathic gangster. Early reviews have not been wholly positive but it sounds like a clever film that tackles writing screenplays in its screenplay and violence in film through violence in the film. Wacky, gory and killer fun!

Life Just Is is more typically British fare with a cast of unknowns playing university graduates having trouble making the move into adult life. Debut director Alex Barrett graduates from shorts to his first feature that finds the 20 somethings searching for a spiritual answer to life's meaning and hoping to not get hurt in relationships again.  Meanwhile two of the ex-students look to be falling in love.  It promises a lot of moping, tears and staring into the distance from the giving it their best cast but it will all be down to Barrett’s script to get the audiences emotions flowing.

A co-production with some funding from the Irish Film Board, Grabbers looks like an insane amount of fun from the Emerald Isle. Off the coast of Ireland, an island is invaded by bloodsucking aliens with long tentacles. The heroes discover they have to get drunk to stop the aliens feeding on their blood.  It looks from the trailer as much fun as that sounds! 

Others to look out for this month are Boxing Day and Dead Europe.  

November's Best of British including My Brother The Devil and Sightseers

October's Best of British including Skyfall

What British films will you be watching this month?

Best of British: My Brother the Devil Review

My Brother the Devil is an extremely moving and powerful British film from writer/director Sally El Hosaini, starring James Floyd and Fady Elsayed, as well as someone I don't see nearly enough of in film, La Haine's Saïd Taghmaoui.

Read my full review of My Brother the Devil at Filmoria here.

Sometimes it sucks being a film critic and having to see films that you think are rubbish.  You have to write why you don't like a film, knowing full well that others may love it.  Also you know that countless people have put in huge amount of hours and hard work in bringing the film to the screen.  That sucks.

Other times it is the greatest job in the world.  You get to say why you loved a film and share a positive review which you hope will be read by many and will encourage them to see the film.  That is the case with My Brother the Devil.  I love this film but know that it will be fighting for position in multiplexes with blockbuster behemoths like Skyfall.  That is why I am very glad to be doing my bit to spread the word on this great film.

And it gives me great pleasure that one of the stars of My Brother the Devil, James Floyd is extremely active on Twitter and has come across some of my writing about the film, tweeting:

Thx 2 @Filmoria 4 giving @MBTDFilm an Amazing review! *powerful performances nearing perfection* *endlessly complex* *purely entertaining*

He also retweeted this from me straight after I saw it: #MyBrotherTheDevil is likely to be 1 of the best British films of the year. Disturbing reactions from some ppl in the screening with me tho!

It really was disturbing how some people reacted in the screening I was in.  To say more would be to ruin one of the biggest surprises in the film.  Unfortunately there are still some disgustingly immature, prejudiced people on the planet!  And I hope more of them sit through this film.

Every month I am doing a piece at Boolean Flix to help spread the word on British films that are coming to a cinema near you.  This month I took a look at My Brother the Devil, Sightseers and Great Expectations among others.  Read my best of British film for November over at Boolean Flix.  Is this poster one of the greatest ever produced?

In other news, it looks like before the end of the day, I Love That Film might break the 12,000 hits in one month mark so thanks very much to everyone who pops by!  I Love That Film loves you!

Anyone seen My Brother the Devil?  What did you think?  If you haven't seen it, check out the trailer below.