Two four-star films you need to watch: The Father and Seaspiracy

In a rather unlikely coincidence, I watched my first two four-star films of 2021 on the same day - March 24. I got to see one of them (The Father) at the cinema (my first visit to the cinema this year), which may have given it an unfair advantage.

The Father was technically released in 2020 (thus eligible for the Academy Awards), but it wasn’t released in cinemas until 2021, so it qualifies as a 2021 film for my annual top-15 lists (and will certainly appear on that list).

The Father was directed and co-written by Florian Zeller and is based on his 2012 play. It feels and looks like a play, but that’s not a bad thing as far as I am concerned (my second-favourite film of 2020 also felt like a play). Anthony Hopkins stars as Anthony, an 80-something man suffering from dementia. The film’s unique filming structure/vision allows us to view events as Anthony is experiencing them, which is hugely disconcerting and powerful. There were times during the film when I began to wonder whether I was suffering from a form of dementia (maybe it was the fact that I had just been sitting in a dentist’s chair for 75 minutes). 

Olivia Colman plays Anthony’s daughter, Anne, and Rufus Sewell, Olivia Williams, Imogen Poots and Mark Gatiss play the rest of the film’s characters. All of the performances are excellent, but Hopkins’s performance is sublime, with Colman close behind. They very much deserve their Oscar nominations.The writing is intelligent, the direction tight and the score and use of music are outstanding. 

I am not generally a fan of films about dementia (there have been quite a number of such films in recent years), but the way dementia is presented in The Father, taking us deeply and empathetically into the mind of someone with dementia, is absolutely brilliant. The Father is nothing short of a classic and should not be missed. An easy **** and my favourite film of 2021, so far. My mug is up.

My second four-star film of March 24 is Seaspiracy, a documentary released on that day by Netflix. Netflix has been presenting some amazing and important documentaries recently, including Disclosure, The Social Dilemma, A Life on our Planet, Collective and My Octopus Teacher. Hats off to Netflix!

Seaspiracy pretends to be an exposé of the commercial fishing industry, but really it’s an 89-minute ad for the plant-based meat-substitute industry. A very effective ad! Seriously, if Seaspiracy was somehow connected to that industry, I would only applaud such a brilliant campaign (though I daresay that industry also needs some close scrutiny). 

I won’t try to go through the many horrific discoveries made by the filmmakers (Ali and Lucy Tabrizi) in the course of their investigations, because they need to be seen to be believed. I will say the filming and presentation are extraordinarily effective. The 89 minutes fly by, though not without a growing sense of despair (there are some hopeful comments, but they are few). I will also note that it’s not just the fishing industry that’s exposed - so are some non-profit environmental organizations. Devastating stuff!

Seaspiracy isn’t perfect. Ali Tabrizi focuses too often on himself and his incredible bravery and skill, which isn’t great for a documentary-maker, but it’s not enough to be distracting. And the film’s content is just too important to quibble about such flaws. **** My mug is up.

P.S. I love eating fish - by far my favourite meat - but I may never eat it again. Indeed, being a vegetarian (like my daughters, son-in-law) really seems to be the only sustainable life-affirming option out there, unless you are catching/raising/killing your own meat.