★★★★☆

Four Stars

I watched Frozen on a hot summer’s evening with my 18 year old sister and, at 20 years old, I would happily do it again. I was initially resistant – I couldn’t bear the thought of 90 minutes watching bubble-gum flavoured Disney princess crap. But what I expected turned out to be exactly what this movie is consciously rejecting and critiquing. The most important relationship in Frozen is not between a blonde bimbo and some guy she’s just met who has a crown and claims to be charming; it’s between two sisters. Two sisters who are really cool. Frozen, as it were.

When I was at the age of watching Disney movies, my two personal favourites were Mulan and Pocahontas. They seemed the coolest to me, and in retrospect that’s probably because they involve the most proactive Disney females in an industry of very passive princesses. They take matters into their own hands, and boy do they get shit done – Mulan saves all of China!

The two heroines of Frozen are similarly badass. Anna doesn’t send her prince on a rescue mission for her sister – she goes herself. When she needs “an act of true love” to save her from death, she doesn’t mope around – she goes herself to find one. Elsa builds an extremely cool palace, creates two ice beings, and ultimately overcomes what appears to be a form of anxiety or depression and rules in peace. They’re great models for me, and they’re undoubtedly great role models for young girls. (Certainly, it beats any of the women in The Hobbit. Oh wait – there’s only one! One woman who is shoe-horned into the work for the sake of romance. Great!)

Apart from finally having some cool female role models for the 21^st century, it’s also just a good movie. Unlike Brave it actually has a plot, rather than being an excuse to throw around a “feisty female” who has an entire CGI programme made for her hair. For example, a mainstay of any Disney movie is the songs – and the songs in this are great. There’s already a proliferation of YouTube clips showing adorable children singing the songs, and you absolutely need to add them to your Disney sing-along playlist. (Everybody has one. Don’t lie.) The little Sis and I were singing “Do you want to build a snowman?” for a week after we watched it. It is easily the best Disney song I’ve heard in the last 10 years.

Another thing you might consider is how beautiful the animation is. The wintry landscape is gorgeous, an on-screen representation of a snowy life which makes one feel like the cool breeze is emerging from the screen and settling onto your body. I’ve even been told that they created an entirely new CGI algorithm for the snow!

You should watch Frozen. Whether you are male or female, young or old, watching it in winter or summer, you absolutely need to watch it. Mainly so I have someone to sing “Do you want to build a snowman?” with. 

Frozen is in cinemas now

★★★★★

I cannot stand an audience who applaud the screen as the credits roll. However, a screening of Justin Chadwick’s glorious biopic Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom proved that occasionally, some films can warrant such reactions.

Based on the autobiography of Nelson Mandela, Mandela catalogues the life of the iconic figure from childhood to presidency with no moment of incomprehensible emotional and physical torment left unconsidered. However, against this struggle the pervading message of Mandela’s resilience and stoic commitment to fairness leaves an aftertaste that is utterly uplifting.

In a season of serious heavyweights for black male leads, Idris Elba, best known as Russell “Stringer” Bell in The Wire and for his leading role in the BBC’s Luther, proves a commanding Mandela who towers over even Morgan Freeman’s iconic interpretation of the South African president in 2009’s Invictus. The true-story narrative is captivating, lubricated by Elba’s wholly believable portrayal, from the gradual aging stoop he develops as the film progresses, to his uncanny imitation of Mandela’s soft, gravelly tones. He is effortless in his transition from cheeky, womanising barrister, to fugitive, to the age-wearied, post-Robben Island Mandela we have come to recognise, maintaining the revolutionary’s steely backbone throughout.

Naomie Harris as Mandela’s second wife, Winnie, is equally enchanting. After Mandela’s release, Harris needs only one devastating look to capture the grief that Winnie feels for the loss of her relationship with Mandela. Harris embodies a woman stuck in a predicament; oozing unhappiness but also total commitment, as if 27 years in waiting have created an indelible bond that ties her irrevocably to her husband.

Visually, Mandela is stunning. Although the golden hues of Mandela’s childhood kraal are inaccurate and rather far from the images of the unspectacular landscape we saw in the recent coverage of Mandela’s funeral, Chadwick should be allowed some cinematic sentimentalism in a film that could otherwise be overwhelmed by the grey of Robben Island and the harsh cacophony of gunfire that permeates the narrative. The running time is long at 146 minutes, but that must not be an excuse to wait until DVD release. This film yearns to be on the big screen, both for the astounding panoramic shots of the South African landscape and close-ups of the subtle expressions in the prosthetic wrinkles of Elba’s ageing face. Although, regrettably the prosthetics aren’t quite there yet; on occasion Elba’s puffy, waxy face feels more Bo Selecta than Madiba.

The film’s limitations come largely from the limits of the form. It is without doubt too great a feat for one feature-length film to do justice to the multiplicity of personas that Mandela adopted throughout his life, nor the many significant milestones accounted for in the 784 page autobiography. Nonetheless, the films succeeds both as an education in the struggles of segregated South Africa and as a testament to Mandela’s personal sacrifice and unwavering spirit. Amongst others, Chadwick’s greatest success lies with his portrayals of atrocities such as the 1960 massacre in Sharpeville, recreating violence that is deeply harrowing but never sensationalised.

Chadwick also seeks to remind us that Mandela was no saint, humanising him through dramatizing moments of adultery and abusive behaviour to his first wife. The result is a more tangible Mandela, as we see that the successes of his political life weigh intolerably onto his private. Despite the constant trials, the clenched fist of determination presides as a dominating symbol; one of resilience and empowerment. Yet it is when Mandela chooses to relax his clenched fist into a new movement of forgiveness, but Winnie keeps hers firm, that the true division in the partnership is revealed and the audience understands that their differences are irreconcilable. Elba and Harris capture this effortlessly, carrying the film with commanding performances that are sure to be defining moments of their careers.

For spectacular landscapes, performances of a lifetime and a crash course in the human cost of Mandela’s struggle against apartheid, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is an unmissable epic. Go and see it, before you know it this “long” walk to freedom will have flown by, and you might just find yourself on your feet like me, cheering with the rest of them.

Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom is in cinemas now

In case you missed it, our top tracks from last year were announced on Christmas eve. 2013 also saw the release of an array of brilliant debut albums and career climaxing records from a wide range of genres. Here are twenty favourites. 

20. II – Unknown Mortal Orchestra

19. Cold Spring Fault Less Youth – Mount Kimbie 

18. …Like Clockwork – QOTSA

17. Jai Paul – Jai Paul

16. The Child of Lov – The Child of Lov 

15. Light Up Gold – Parquet Courts: Loud, guitary, and simultaneously sarcastic and nostalgic.

14. Howlin – Jagwar Ma: Fuzzy psychedelia mixed with bubbly dance. 

13. Paracosm – Washed Out: The chill wave heavyweight evolves to a more subtle and textured wall-of-sound.

12. Factory Floor – Factory Floor: New New Order with added malice under the surface.

11. Love’s Crushing Diamond – Mutual Benefit: Economical, ephemeral, and crushingly sad.

10. 6 Feet Beneath the Moon – King Krule

Only tenth because I’m getting embarrassed about how much I talk about it. 

9. The New Life – Girls Names

In The New Life the Belfast four piece reinvent their sound: more brooding and restrained, vocals and guitars drip with reverb, and gloomy synths give a distinctly 80s feel. 

8. Immunity – Jon Hopkins

The expertly paced progression of the album follows that of a night: glitchy excitement teeters over into anxiety, the album peaks with crunching and aggressive techno, and the final washed out piano-ambient songs are the melodic equivalent of a sunrise.

7. Cabinet of Curiosities – Jacco Gardner

An eerie and ornate baroque pop album that could be a series of children’s stories: in turns charming and sinister, the diverse soundscape is as atmospheric as it is beautiful. The young Dutchman played all the instruments in the lush orchestration and produced the album as well, coating it with late 60s reverb.

6. Drone Logic – Daniel Avery

Acidic techno at times reminiscent of the early Chemical Brothers, this is a far cry from the garage-influenced minimalism dominating the current club scene – which is perhaps why it’s so refreshing. The Fabric veteran’s groovy, thrumming riffs are hard to resist.

5. Silence Yourself – Savages

Bracing, darkly energetic music that somehow manages to sound like it is being sung – or howled – in the same caps lock as their online manifesto. Simply post-punk karaoke? Far from it: Savages manage to be a product of their influences without being a pastiche. Glorying in their own intellect, their lyrics deal with art and sexuality. 

4. Cupid Deluxe – Blood Orange

Dev Hynes takes a break from production to develop his solo career. This is fluid and mournful stuff, 21st-century R&B with the emphasis on blues over rhythm, with smooth synths and gently throbbing drums interlaced with androgynous vocals.

3. Pale Green Ghosts – John Grant

Grant combines singer-songwriter and synth pop, his intensely personal lyrics dealing with the heartbreak, homophobia, and HIV he suffered – but still managing to be blackly humorous. The imagery is relentlessly inventive: depression is like ‘a cold, concrete room with fluorescent lighting…which, as you know, makes everything look bad´; and the pale green ghosts of the title are both the road-side trees on a solitary drive and reminders of his past.

2. Psychic – Darkside

Nicolas Jaar joins guitarist Dave Harrington for an uncomfortable but masterful melding of genres: influences range from krautrock to blues. The atmosphere is dimly lit and otherworldly, schizophrenic in its fluctuating BPM and sudden sustained silences – Psychic sounds like Eraserhead looks. The distant vocals and spectral guitar only add to the effect. Darkside weaves an intricate sonic tapestry worth exploring at length. 

1. Wakin On A Pretty Daze – Kurt Vile

‘Making music is easy, watch me’. Everything about Wakin On A Pretty Daze seems effortless. It is laziness elevated to an art form: the mumbled lyrics are contemplative and introspective, dealing with the touring life. The overgrown songs sprawl over 9 minutes. This is Kurt’s conversation with himself – and as such he can be as idle as he likes. But all this apparent effortlessness hides a complex and painstakingly created sound. It’s a testament to Kurt’s talent that his tangled guitar picking still feels spacious and improvised, as do his wittily tangential lyrics. Wakin On A Pretty Daze feels as hazy and sun-drenched as its artwork. If you have an afternoon with as little to do as Kurt Vile, spend it listening to this.

and…

Biggest disappointment: Daft Punk – Random Access Memories

Self-indulgent, lazy and Disneyfied – the comparisons with Andrew Lloyd Webber were entirely justified. ‘Alive’ it is not.

“You belong to nobody but yourself and you know exactly where you are going.” Thus ended the Call the Midwife Christmas Special, with Sister Julienne’s (Jenny Agutter) words to the Shelagh, the former Sister Bernadette (Laura Main), on her wedding day; on a definite note of self-possession and certainty, which accurately encompasses the tone of Heidi Thomas’ latest episode.

For a period drama which engages with the social issues rather than leaving its own life in the hands of its costume department and cinematographers, Call the Midwife does not shirk away from exploring the personal. While the customary medical issues continue to assert themselves in the latest episode; a polio epidemic threatens the inhabitants of Poplar, along with the brace pre-requisite childbirths the episode is also shaped by what on the surface seems to be an unusual subject for Heidi Thomas. The untimely discovery of an unexploded German bomb in the middle of the area is somewhat unexpected, but adds to the drama of the episode by exploring previously uncharted territory and show that Heidi Thomas is a long way from exhausted of material as well as examining the series’ common theme of the effect of the Second World War on Britain in a fresh way.

As well as the events which shape the wider community, the episode also brought new light to bear on the show’s regular characters. Sister Evangelina’s (Pam Ferris) worldly wisdom was shown in further light as her profound expertise on the disastrous effect of dolly mixtures were made known to all and Sister Monica Joan’s (Judy Parfitt) impromptu recitations of Victorian poetry take an unexpected turn for the Gothic. Apart from this, though, there are significant developments in the portrayal of the characters: the beginning of the episode sees Chummy (Miranda Hart) happily settling into her role as a new mother, far from the days when she capsized her bicycle every five minutes and accidentally assaulted policemen. The tension brought about by the presence of the bomb and subsequent evacuation throw a surprising light on one of the younger nurses, Trixie (Helen George), who acts with a competence and an enduring heroism, the extent of which is rarely seen among the younger nurses on the show, and manages to help a shell-shocked man particularly effected by the trauma of the situation.

Following the example of the previous two series, the third of which is scheduled to begin mid-January, the episode continues in a vein of clear feminine competence and co-operation. Reversing what may be called the normative male:female ratio, the cast of Call the Midwife stands out as offering an obvious voice for a new look at the lives of women. Apart from it being wildly refreshing to watch something that does not endorse the objectification or trivialisation of women, the show is engaging from the point of view of portraying feminine relationships that are supportive rather than competitive and on a level that allows emotion a rare precedence over appearance.

The episode closed with the eagerly anticipated wedding of the series favourites Shelagh and the local G.P., Dr. Turner (Stephen McGann). Having postponed and somewhat re-thought their original simple and muted wedding, the pair finally marry under the contented gaze of their friends. Avoiding what could have potentially been a sappy close to the episode, the episode ends with the subtle note of hope and affection that has been driving through the previous hour and a quarter. 

Call The Midwife is currently available to stream on BBC iPlayer

★★★★☆

Four Stars

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (starring and directed by comedian Ben Stiller) follows an inconspicuous middle-aged white collar worker in New York City who suffers from intense daydreams, and in a warming journey of self-discovery, finally manages to realise them.

Peter Bradshaw (film critic for The Guardian) didn’t fail to note the directing and acting credits claimed by Ben Stiller, in his opinion constituting a ‘narcissistic’ adaptation. Indeed, we are subject to many an extended shot of Ben Stiller’s face. Having said this, Stiller’s transition from such directly comedic (and arguably momentous) roles in Meet The Parents, Starsky and Hutch and Zoolander, has been surprisingly seamless. Despite considerable doubt, Stiller has produced a thoroughly convincing ‘everyman’ role which does not deserve to be criticised.

Kristen Wiig, who plays Walter’s love interest Cheryl, is cast equally successfully and adds an honest charm to the film which thankfully avoids the ‘sickly sweet’ trap common to the happy-go-lucky rom-com girl.It is partially due to this acting that The Secret Life earns such success in the realm of sentimentality: we accompany socially awkward Walter every step of the way as he matures clumsily from wallflower to winner. We laugh with him, not at him, and are satisfied when his efforts are rightly rewarded in the final scene.

Despite this success, one critic’s proclamation that the film was the new Forrest Gump is uninformed. Yes, Walter Mitty is a story of the underdog – one which doubles as a romantic comedy and warms the cockles. Regrettably however The Secret Life is neither a classic nor an epic. While we experience notable pathos, it is not quite enough to stir any tears, to leave us empty or even reflective upon leaving the cinema. Mitty’s story, despite his wild travels, is relatively insular; Gump’s manages to be relevant to the majority of North America. While similarities are apparent in sentiment and inspirational content, Walter Mitty will struggle to achieve half as much critical acclaim as Zemeckis’ masterpiece.

Apart from this, the film does triumph on the back of Stuart Dryburgh’s stunning photography. Walter’s adventures to Greenland, Iceland, the Himalayas and Afghanistan provide enough high contrast, high resolution scenes for us to be able to watch the entire film on mute. These epic, worldly shots, interspersed with banal scenes set in a concrete New York, do well to emphasise the grey life in which Walter lives, and the seemingly unattainable life of which he first dreams.

What can be aptly criticised however is the extent to which these bursts of colour and light affect the plot, rendering the film rather unrealistic and implausible. Walter, upon having a mental epiphany, leaves work unnoticed in the middle of the day, flies to Greenland immediately with no luggage and, from this day forward, becomes a new man. No strings attached. Just like that.

If we can overlook such trivialities though, the film undoubtedly constitutes a success: it’s a warm fusion of traditional feel-good cinema with an inspirational message to ‘stop dreaming and start living’, panoramic shots of mountains, and Ben Stiller’s face.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is in cinemas now