The MoFo Top 100 of the 2010s Countdown

What's a better type of comedy - the one that's cleverly written but doesn't make you laugh out loud, or the one that's not too smart but still gets you chuckling? What We Do in the Shadows definitely falls into the former category - despite a simple yet ingenious premise and a sharp take on vampire lore, most of it is merely amusing. It runs through almost every trope associated with vampire fiction over the course of a quick eighty minutes, which is about how long the gag can last. Fortunately, it helps that the main trio of vampires (the fourth one, an 8,000-year-old Orlock-like creature called Peter, only pops up at crucial plot points) have enough odd-couple chemistry to keep the humour flowing. As befitting the mockumentary angle, the vampires go about talking about parts of their everyday lives - the struggle of not being able to look in mirrors, being unable to get into clubs because they need to be invited, and (in one memorably black sequence), the prim and proper Viago going the extra mile to make sure his victim has a nice last date before he feeds on her. The lead characters all get sufficient development and their own subplots - selfish "young" vampire Deacon has a thrall who is constantly doing favours for him in order to become a vampire herself, while Vladislav is an older vampire clearly based on Bram Stoker's Dracula who constantly grumbles about his old arch-nemesis "the Beast" in such a way that you know a confrontation is inevitable. Having the film establish a climax to work towards - in this case, the yearly gathering of supernatural creatures known as the "Unholy Masquerade" - is a good move to counter the relative aimlessness of the film's premise.

This is a film that brutally slays what passes for news coverage in our current society. A few days previous to this I had caught up with and finished the Aaron Sorkin TV series “The Newsroom” which proved to be quite a fascinating companion piece to Nightcrawler. The Newsroom presents journalism at its most idealised and optimistic, showing it as the tool of integrity and information that we all know it should be. Sadly that is now a somewhat outdated notion. In contrast Nightcrawler presents what is all too disappointingly closer to the actual truth of things. The term 'if it bleeds, it leads' is one that has now been around for quite some time. This film takes that sentiment and pushes it right to its absolute extremes, showing us where it is we are heading or perhaps arguing that it's too late and we're already there. The film highlights just how fear-driven the media has become. In one particularly unseemly sequence Russo's news director is seen coaching the on-air talent to really push the horror of a tragic news story and to induce fear in the audience.

Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)

One of the most riveting films of the decade, Nightcrawler throws us into a world that's exhilarating and feels as dangerous as our protagonist's profession. Jake Gyllenhaal is truly transfixing in the lead role. Unfortunately if I was making a list of the worst films of the decade I would probably put Dan Gilroy's Velvet Buzzsaw near the top.

What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement & Taika Waititi, 2014) -

Three vampires (Jemaine Clement, Johnny Brugh & Taika Waititi), who share a flat with a Nosferatu-type (Ben Fransham) who doesn’t get out much, prepare to spend a night on the town.

Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014) -

Amoral thrillseeker/entrepreneur Jake Gyllenhaal comes across a triple murder in a mansion and videotapes it for the news.

What We Do In the Shadows (Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, 2014)

After seeing the trailer for this, I had my reservations but I really like Jojo Rabbit and since this made the Comedy Countdown I thought I'd give it a shot. I think the concept is good - and certainly mockumentaries can work very well for me - but it relied a little too heavily on silliness and there just wasn't enough substance here for my tastes. I did chuckle a few times, but I mostly felt detached from the whole thing and were it any longer than its 86 minute runtime I don't know that I would've finished it.

Not a bad movie and amusing enough for one watch, but not something I'm likely to revisit and I definitely won't be voting for it in the 2010s countdown.

Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
(Recommended by @cricket)

In attempting to review this, I have a bit of a dilemma: Do I rate it highly, because it's incredibly well-crafted, or do I give it a more neutral rating because I don't think I ever want to watch it again?

Nightcrawler is incredibly well-crafted - and also aptly titled. It's crawling with soulless, slimy people in settings that are equally disgusting. Jake Gyllenhaal's Louis Bloom is equal parts intriguing and revolting as a freelance crime journalist who views his work more like a movie production and will go to terrible extremes to create the perfect shot.

And with all this spectacle of greed, carnage, and misery, I couldn't look away but I also felt somehow unclean for having watched it. It's an amazing film, but also one that is just, well, kind of icky and my lack of desire to see it again means it's unlikely to make my ballot.