- My Favourite Films of… 2009 - 3 May, 2014
- Wrinkles – Review - 30 April, 2014
- The Trip to Italy – Preview - 4 April, 2014
Well, another year is almost over. It’s time for drinking, reflection and some more drinking to cheer us up afterwards. But it’s not all bad – there have been some good memories too.
And so, over the Xmas period, my gift to you is a post which provides the highlights of the film (plus smaller screen) articles of the year as chosen by the talented writers themselves.
As a beautiful boy once said, happy Chrismukkah everybody!
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Carl Eden… has been writing for Vada since before I have, with articles dating all the way back to late February. He made a big impact with his Gays and Game of Thrones article, exploring the refreshing attitudes and uses of sexuality in the narrative. He followed this up with a look at Homosexuality in Buffy and in September gave us numerous reasons as to why we should be excited for Gravity (how right he was) with a preview piece on the director, Alfonso Cuaron.
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Jack Sadler… settled in quickly with alternating articles on film and music reviews, and focusing on the visual side of the coin he’s decided upon two classic reviews and one modern. His debut article on Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures marked him out as one to watch (or read, rather) with similar insight in a recent look at Don’t Look Now. Jack’s 3rd post centres on one of his very favourites from 2013 – The Way Way Back – which happens to be one of the best coming-of-age films of the year.
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James Gallagher… may have only been with us for a couple of months, but what an impact he’s made. He proved his horror credentials by kicking off with the sprawling article-cum-essay entitled LGBT Representation in the Modern Horror Film and followed it up soon after with the wonderfully informative and timely 5 Classic Horror Sequels for Halloween. James’ final choice is his concluding review of the Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves mini-series from just last week, but be sure to check out the other two (of this must-see drama) too!
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Matt Mallinson… has provided us with his take on comics, films and anything geeky since the early days, starting in January 2013! A whole year of Matt has given us plenty of good stuff to choose from, with his own favourites being his Iron Man 3 review in May, thoughts on Monsters University back in July and his recent post on Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. He also wore some pretty neat Simpsons trainers to the Vada Xmas Party, so bonus points for that!
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Rakshita Patel… during her many months at Vada, has often combined film with the political. It’s no surprise, therefore, to see articles on both Harvey Milk‘s influence (via the 2008 film) and the Alan Turing biopic Codebreaker in her Top 3. Rounding off the best-of is another common source of inspiration for Rakshita and it comes in the form of reviewing Edward Scissorhands.
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As for me? Well, I’ve written 57 articles of various sorts over the last 9 months, but the three that I’m choosing are my recent interview with Floating Skyscrapers director Tomasz Wasilewski, my review of the shattering documentary Blackfish and finally a Modern Greats feature on Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender’s Shame.
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We’ve also seen the formation of Film Club, a fortnightly collaborative discussion about a relevant topic. In the ten so far, we’ve collectively covered high-school films, robot movies, scores and soundtracks, biopics, Tarantino, ensembles, remakes, Xmas comforts, book adaptations and most recently our Xmas favourites, featuring clips and controversial choices.
In summary: what a year it’s been! For Vada (just one year old), for our writers, and for film in general. Don’t believe that film isn’t as strong as it’s ever been (if not stronger) – my films of the year (part 2) to come next week will demonstrate that for sure.
But for now – enjoy the holidays and enjoy our posts. We look forward to doing it all again – bigger and better – in 2014, and hope you do too. Thanks for reading.
Michael Prescott – Vada Film Editor
