Charlie Creed-Miles: Wild Bill

On the posters for Wild Bill, we see Charlie Creed-Miles holding his fists up towards us, with the title tattooed across his knuckles. If people didn’t think much of Dexter Fletcher’s directorial debut based on the impression left by this misleading poster, then we can hardly blame them. The fact is, the eponymous Wild Bill is a dad who’s just got out of prison, and has to learn to look after his two young sons, played by Will Poulter and Attack The Block‘s Sammy Williams.

Initially planning to swan off and leave the bad influence of his East End former cohorts behind, Bill is reluctantly forced to keep Child Services from taking his kids into care. There’s a flavour of post-modern western to this film, as Bill is determined to leave his violent ways behind, and Creed-Miles has no trouble making a potentially difficult character into a very likeable and relatable protagonist, building a believably begrudging rapport with Poulter and Williams. Not just one of the most underrated performances of the year, but one of the most under-seen films.

Lynn Collins: John Carter

In the critiques of Andrew Stanton’s big-budget sort-of-flop that don’t whinge solely about how much money was spent on it compared to its box office return, there are some genuine problems with John Carter. That said, this writer personally quite liked the film, and found one of the indubitable highlights to be Lynn Collins’ turn as a princess of Mars, Dejah Thoris.

John Carter’s source material has been cannibalised in plenty of sci-fi films, but as the first straight adaptation, it looks as though it’s ripping off those films instead – Dejah’s passing similarity to Princess Leia is one example. In a year of strong, well-rounded female characters, Collins does a great job of portraying more than just a love interest, but a character with the smarts and resourcefulness to be the most watchable part of the film.

Liam Neeson: The Grey

The Grey surprised most of us back at the beginning of 2012, by being less ‘Taken, with wolves’ than a rumination upon death and masculinity, within a classically horrible man versus nature scenario. There’s a good male ensemble here, including Frank Grillo’s nuanced supporting turn, but Liam Neeson gives his best performance in years as Ottway, a huntsman who helps a bunch of outcasts and ingrates to survive the unforgiving Alaskan climate after a catastrophic plane crash.