All the Films I Watched in October 2019

Guy Cole
Guy Cole
Nov 3 · 12 min read

A list and ranking, with light commentary

[Image credit: Columbia Pictures; Matt Tolmach Productions; Seven Bucks Productions; Radar Pictures]

These are all the films I watched in October 2019, in the order I saw them, with the source. This list includes TV/online series, if I watched the entire series within that calendar month. Could have been a binge, could have been paced out, but has to have all been done within those 30-odd days.

The films

Ghost Ship (2002) (Amazon)
Good Omens (Amazon)
Men in Black (Netflix)
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (Netflix)
Twins (Netflix)
Joker (Cinema)
The Office (US version) (Seasons 4–5) (Amazon)
The Interview (Netflix)
Daddy Day Care (Netflix)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse (Blu-Ray)

The best:

1st Joker
2nd Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse
3rd Ghost Ship

[Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures; DC Films; Joint Effort; Bron Creative; Village Roadshow Pictures]

In a month that saw some of cinema’s old guard (Scorsese, Coppola, and Loach) decrying the modern trend for superhero films, which were pluckily defended by some of cinema’s young(er) bucks (Gunn, Whedon, Portman), in a shouting match mediated by the rather more sage Jon Favreau, I personally had two of my most interesting big-screen superhero experiences since the 1978 Superman and the aforementioned James Gunn’s 2010 Super. A glance above will tell you what they were — the weirdly controversial Joker, and the Christmas 2018 animated hit, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse.

By now you’ve probably had your fill of hot takes on Joker, most of which were, early on, uninformed and reactionary virtue signalling, and knee-jerk, right-on outrage pieces by bloggers gasping for attention. Some points were raised that were indeed worth more attention, although these were mostly obscured by hysteria, and in the case of The Guardian newspaper, pedantic misinformation (several times, I might add).

[Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures; DC Films; Joint Effort; Bron Creative; Village Roadshow Pictures]

This was interesting, because from a purely filmic point of view, Joker previewed exceptionally well and received glowing critical praise and a Golden Lion at its premiere at the Venice IFF in August. This didn’t stop the sanity and morals of its writer/director, Todd ‘The Hangover’ Phillips, from being vigorously called into question, although star Joaquin Phoenix seemed to escape with nothing but plaudits for a jaw-dropping performance (which didn’t involve sending his cast mates dead rats or over-dosing and dying half-way through production (*cough* Leto *cough* Ledger).

Now, in the post-release phase of the film’s life, behind-the-scenes anecdotes and stories are emerging that paint a picture of an experienced, professional crew and brilliant, dedicated actor doing a proper job with the part of the clown prince of Gotham, defying the odds and expectations of those (like myself), who thought that Spider-Man films without Spider-Man (Venom), and Batman films without Batman (Joker), were an exercise in futility. (Strangely though, I am a huge fan of Bruno Heller’s Gotham).

But now that the dust has settled, the Grauniad has tired of stirring up the British intelligentsia, and Joker has silenced the bloggers by establishing itself as the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time (with close to a billion US dollars at the time of writing), the voices of those revelling in its incredible 1970s’ Hollywood New Wave cinematography (by Phillips’ Hangover trilogy lens man Lawrence Sher), and heart-pounding score by Icelandic musical genius Hildur Gudnadóttir, can be properly heard. And just as well too, because Joker is not only a true milestone in the miserable history of Warner Bros./DC collaborations so far (James Wan’s excellent Aquaman and perhaps Wonder Woman aside), but also in comic-to-screen history too.

[Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures; DC Films; Joint Effort; Bron Creative; Village Roadshow Pictures]

Joker is a product of loving attention to detail and great thought and care for every moment of its running time, built upon the rock-solid foundation of a fundamentally well-written, carefully plotted story. Its weakest moments are perhaps those where it simply has to go to the Batman side of things or risk being too tangential. Even then, it cherry-picks some of the best Batman angles in the character’s history, which should surprise and interest the casual Bat-viewer, as well as satisfy the old hands. The film as a whole could, both aesthetically and thematically, be easily mistaken for vintage Schrader or Friedkin.

So, yes, ol’ Joker takes top spot this month, and comes with solid recommendations. To be honest, I had no interest in schlepping out to see it at the cinema, but my oldest son suddenly got a wild hair for it. My theory is that his classmates heard their parents fretting about it, and started bullshitting each other about how they’d all been to see it. I suspect very few of them actually had, so after much negotiation and wrangling with saner minds, we set off to the cinema for a thoroughly satisfying experience. Result: zero expectations far exceeded, and a memorable, pleasurable time with my boy. Carry on, Phillips, carry on.

[Image credit: Columbia Pictures; Sony Pictures Animation; Marvel Entertainment; Arad Productions;
Lord Miller Productions; Pascal Pictures]

Number two on my October list goes to the amazing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse. If you ever wanted to see it then you probably already have, so I don’t need to sell it to you. If you haven’t seen it, but you are a Spider-Man fan, or just like the whole capes-and-spandex thing generally, then what are you waiting for? Into the Spider-verse is an incredibly thoughtful, well-written story that effortlessly manages the difficult feat of paying respect to all the very best parts of the Spider-Man mythos (no Ben Reilly here!), while also making it as fresh and new and interesting as possible. Best of all, it does all this without crossing the line and becoming something alien to itself; a mistake that many reboots and reinventions of long-standing classics have made — hello Spawn and Constantine, and even some parts of the beloved Raimi SM trilogy.

Part of this success is down to Marvel bringing their version of New York more into line with the cultural, cosmopolitan reality of the actual city here in the new millennium. That means more people like African-American Miles Morales as worthy successor to the Spider-Man job, and Muslim teen Kamala Khan stepping into Ms. Marvel’s legendary shoes. When you can recognise your own reality in your art, that’s always both a fun thing and good grounding for contemporary works of fiction dealing in the ‘Real life, but with X’ genre (where X = superheroes, giant radioactive dinosaurs or high-tech soldiers with computer-goggles and unlockable emotes).

[Image credit: Columbia Pictures; Sony Pictures Animation; Marvel Entertainment; Arad Productions;
Lord Miller Productions; Pascal Pictures]

The other great thing about Into the Spider-verse, which I would be totally remiss not to mention, is its incredible animation and eye-popping colour and detail. Normally, I would read a phrase like ‘eye-popping’ and automatically skip it in my mind as being valueless hyperbole. But Into the Spider-verse is truly its very definition. Capably brought to life by none other than Phil Lord and Chris Miller (they of the fantastic Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs series, various Lego Movies, and a rejected pass at Solo: A Star Wars Story), reams of text and video interviews can be found on the Internet describing their approach. But the one quote I was most intrigued by in the pre-release hype stage is that they wanted the film to feel like you had “walked inside a comic book”. Well, this goal was admirably achieved using a variety of techniques, some of which are quite familiar (on-screen onomatopoeia, motion lines), while others are much more advanced (Ben-Day dots, variable frame-rates, motion smearing and ‘Kirby Krackle’).

If there’s any weaknesses in the film overall, it might be some under-cooked plot threads (Mahershala Ali’s character feels a little under-served), and a vague feeling that the ‘other’ Spider-Men were not used as much as one would have liked. But these come solely at the expense of a reasonably taught runtime and pacing that knows exactly when to tease, and when to please. See it if you’re a Spider fan, see it if you’re a film fan, see it if you’re into animation and art and cool stuff. And even if you’re not, you’re still going to leave feeling positively enriched.

[Image credit: Dark Castle Entertainment; Village Roadshow Pictures; NPV Entertainment]

Third place this month is something I’d actually, actively wanted to see for a long time. Like, years and years. And years. So when I saw the thumbnail on Amazon, I jumped on board Ghost Ship. This is a fascinating Australian-American hybrid of 2002-era talent: Gabriel Byrne (7 years after the now-legendary The Usual Suspects) is the captain of a salvage boat whose crew includes The 100’s Isiah Washington just a few years before his Grey’s Anatomy limelight, a youthful Karl Urban making his Hollywood debut, and Emily ‘Sucker Punch’ Browning, amongst others. This motley selection of talent is commissioned to investigate the re-appearance of a long-lost Italian cruise liner, on a trip that combines horror, history and avarice in one delicious, watery stew.

Behind the scenes is an original script by Mark Hanlon that was significantly re-worked, from a slightly creepy psychological thriller into a full-blown horror film, under the seasoned guidance of none other than Joel ‘God of 80’s action films’ Silver and Robert ‘Back to The Future’ Zemeckis, producing with long-time Silver collaborator Susan Levin (now Mrs. Robert Downey Jr.), for Warner Bros. The helmsman on Ghost Ship was former ILM Visual effects Director Steve Beck (with credits for such on The Abyss, The Hunt for Red October and Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade). Beck had made his directing debut the year before with the slightly strange but reasonably profitable Thirteen Ghosts — also a Zemeckis/Silver/Levin joint under their Silver Pictures offshoot, Dark Castle Entertainment. It seems pretty clear that Thirteen Ghosts got things ticking along nicely and they all decided to keep the spooky ball rolling.

[Image credit: Dark Castle Entertainment; Village Roadshow Pictures; NPV Entertainment]

And it’s a good thing that they did, too, because with all that muscle and top-drawer talent behind the scenes, Ghost Ship is visually, and in its special effects, every bit as polished and high-quality a product as any top Hollywood film of the last 30 years. In this way, it stands apart from so many genre pieces that have more brains and ambition than ability or resources. And as brilliant and enjoyable as many of those films turn out to be, you can’t help but wish that someone with more experience and access to money had been involved. Of course, the inverse is also true — an exciting idea can easily be totally muffed up because of the demands of slick, Hollywood executives who don’t ‘get’ it. So it was with genuine surprise and some concern that I saw Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis’s names in the (very stylish) opening credits. What can the dudes behind Brewster’s Millions, Lethal Weapon, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Forrest Gump bring to the horror genre that a thousand talented, penniless practitioners hadn’t already?

Well, the answer is right up there on the screen for all to see: a tight, pacey, 90-minute fright-fest crafted by experts upon a solid script for an interesting story. There are not so many haunted ship pictures that it’s a difficult field to dominate, but to my mind Ghost Ship comes in to port just behind the 2009 Triangle (one of the greatest horror/thrillers ever), and slightly ahead of Stephen ‘The Brendan Fraser Mummy films’ Sommers’ excellent Deep Rising. You will be surprised by the inventiveness of the kills, the perfect blend of outright horror and ghostly chills, and the unique creepiness of the setting. The story even finds time for a little bit of history and some genuine sympathy for its ghostly characters. There’s also a spiritual element that… well, spoilers. But it’s a pleasing mix, and if there was actually any controversy about the cast signing on for the original, psychological thriller version of the script only to turn up for filming to be presented with a full-blown horror script, then it was well worth it for us, the viewers. 2002 audiences agreed, and rewarded it with more than three times its USD 20m budget in ticket sales. So don’t delay, book your ticket today… aboard the Ghost Ship!

Honourable Mention

[Image credit: Narrativia; The Blank Corporation; Amazon Studios; BBC Studios]

Alrighty then, Honourable Mention this month goes to Amazon’s Good Omens. This is yet another recommendation from Disco Pete, which I again only started watching grudgingly, and again enjoyed mightily. In fact, it was on a Friday Film Night earlier this month, when we couldn’t agree on what to watch, that I convinced the fam to try it by emphasising that it was a Terry Pratchett classic (they don’t really know about Neil Gaiman, so that would only have confused them. Sorry, Neil).

Anyway! What an interesting, fun production it was. I do have the book, and it’s the same mouldering paperback I bought and read when it was new, about a million years ago now. I can’t comment on the faithfulness or accuracy of the adaptation, although since Gaiman did it himself, I trust that it’s a good job. But I at least had the gist of the story in my mind, and it was exciting to go in almost fresh anyway and experience it all again, and for the first time. Doing so with my kids was the best part, because although I’ve showered them with Discworld books and the David Jason Rincewind series, they’ve been a bit slow to recognise the genius inherent in either version of TP’s stories.

It was also interesting to look at it as an example of what top-drawer, modern British film and TV-making talent, cast and crew, can do with American budget levels. It’s sort of like the best of the post-2005 Dr. Who episodes, times about a thousand. It became almost an exercise in fascination as to when the money would run out and the production quality visibly drop, along with — perhaps — the writing. But it never did! From start to finish, over its very British 6-episode run, it was the proverbial tour de force of high-quality entertainment. And you can never go wrong with Number Ten.

NOT The worst

[Image credit: Joel Silver; Getty Images]

Following a trend in recent months perhaps exacerbated by the small number of things I’ve had time to see, I cannot honestly say that any of this month’s selection was so bad that I could write 3 paragraphs about why I didn’t like it. Perhaps my closest brush with boredom this month was watching Men In Black for the 300th time. However, as with all such viewings of ancient but beloved films or shows, the reason is usually that I’m watching it with my kids, and the pleasure of introducing them to old favourites and hearing their opinions far outweighs the ennui of a millionth repeat viewing (see also Twins, Daddy Day Care, and any of the vintage stuff on the lists this year).

Instead, this month I’d like to use this space to share with you the incredible filmography of Joel Silver, producer of September’s third-place winner, the good old Ghost Ship. Of course, Silver needs no introduction to film fans of a certain age. We’ll have seen his name in this article and immediately thought of Lethal Weapon, or Weird Science, or Die Hard, or any of dozens of other amazing 1980s-era films that defined our youth. So, in that spirit, cast your eyes over his filmography (cribbed from Wikipedia and reformatted so as not to kill anyone’s bandwidth; citation at the end), and be astonished at the sheer number of classics he’s helped organise, finance, and bring to your local cinema and thence to the shelves of the video shop…

He could have retired in 1997 and still been a total legend.
Hello Ghost Ship!
Suburbicon is excellent too, I highly recommend it.

Wikipedia contributors. (2019, October 23). Joel Silver. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:05, November 3, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joel_Silver&oldid=922640071

Guy Cole

Written by

Guy Cole

Freelance writer and editor. Father of two, dedicated Trekker and D&Der. Player of computer and video games. UN Special Liaison on Gin & Tonic.

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