Inception (2010)

Inception will be a film that will be considered like no other by many. At its core, it deals with the notion of entering someone’s dreams. Sharing their dream. Implanting an idea into someone’s mind by literally going into it. It’s a heist movie where the prize exists in someone’s subconscious, populated by - occasionally aggressive - “projections”. Sounds like something Phillip K. Dick would conjure up, and certainly not something that is found in a blockbuster too often without seeming overly corny. The fact that Inception doesn’t feel that way can be attributed to director Christopher Nolan’s extremely solid and original script, and the unique aura that carries it. Complex is one word to describe the film, but then so is action and emotion. Though it doesn’t quite reach its desired effect with the latter. Either way, it is a movie that deserves you to enter it with as little expectations or knowledge as possible. Suffice to say, there will be no synopsis from me and definitely no spoilers, but perhaps wait until you see it before you read this.

Harry Brown (2009)

Harry Brown (Michael Caine), an ex-marine and Northern Island pensioner, lives in a much maligned apartment block in South London that is overrun by violent youths. His wife is dying in the hospital and his best mate, Leonard (David Bradley) - with whom he plays chess with in the local pub, is intensely frightened by the goings on in their neighbourhood, and feels forced to carry around an old bayonet for protection. Harry visits his wife everyday, but always avoids a quicker route to the hospital via an underpass, as it is a favourite hang out of the aggressive troublemakers. This proves costly as one night he receives a phone call alerting him to his wife’s worsening health. Avoiding the shortcut again, he arrives too late to find she has died. On top of this, a few days later, Leonard is accosted after a gang of youths vandalise his home and is murdered by his own weapon. This proves too much for Harry and his disheartening faith in a weak police effort to do something leads him to take methods into his own hands.

The Black Keys - Brothers (2010)

 

As a dedicated fan since the release of their second album, Thickfreakness, it’s comforting witnessing a band evolve the way The Black Keys have. Their willing journey to experiment has yielded possibly their best achievement so far with Brothers. That journey, that has seen them move away from the stripped down basement fuzz production of a lone drum/guitar ensemble of the earlier records, to performing and producing a unique hip-hop record (Blakroc) to releasing the first thing that fully embraces every instrument and arrangement at their disposal. If producer Danger Mouse showed them the potential with a few keyboards on the excellent Attack and Release, Brothers proves that not only did the Akron duo learn from that, but utterly embraced it.