Top 10 films of 2014 and a few other films
Happy New Year!
Below are my top 10 films of 2014 (in the order I saw them, not of preference.)
12 Years a Slave - for me was probably the most important film of the year. Not easy to watch, but artistry was poured into it.
Fill the Void is a powerful, Jane Austen-influenced film about the life-altering decisions that must be made by a young woman in a modern day Hasidic Jewish community.
The Lego Movie was probably the film I recommended most this year, because it offers something for everyone to enjoy.
Only Lovers Left Alive is the one where Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddlestone are married vampires. Cool, intelligent and mesmerising, it lives up to that premise and more.
One of the reasons why 2014 was such a good year for Scarlett Johansson commercially and artistically was the unsettling and mysterious Under the Skin.
She also turned up in another tiny little arthouse gem called Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier (I think most of you saw it and knows of its merits, right?)
A Most Wanted Man is a very good grown-up movie and thriller about modern day Western security forces, featuring one of the great Phillip Seymour Hoffman's last leading performances, ably supported.
Ida is another film with a mystery at its heart. Beautifully shot, it is a road trip movie about two female relatives, one of them on the equivalent of rumbsringa, in 1960s Poland, which is all true, but doesn't even begin to convey its power.
I really hope that Mr Turner isn't too overlooked in the awards race (the BAFTAs should give it its due, surely). A masterful, detailed and textured biopic about the artist, and Timothy Spall is excellent.
Whatever else it is, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 1 is a great examination of post-traumatic stress disorder, as Katniss beomes part of the anti-Capitol revolution.
X-Men Days of Future Past and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies came close to being on this list, but I had all kinds of questions after seeing both, and both are part of franchises that I've been so engaged in over the years that it's hard to judge them as films. I saw The Hobbit yesterday, and there were some good bits (mainly involving Bilbo making my heart ache, the slow realisation of how much the people of Laketown's lives had been devastated and the hope of Bard's leadership and, if I'm honest, watching Saruman do wizard-fu. There were less good bits - I tried to pretend that this new feeling of love was affecting Tauriel's fighting skills, but the handling of Tauriel-Kili-Legolas really did not work for me and there was the fact that most of the Company got no individual screen time, and there were confusing bits - who was fighting who?
I was left with two burning questions: did they change who died from the book? (I don't have a copy to hand, and I knew a few of the dwarves died, but only remembered Thorin was definitely one of them, yet I feel there should have been more dead dwarves and different one at that.) Also: which were the actual five armies? Was it the Dwarves (the Iron Hills force and the Company), the Men (with the wicker shields!), the Elves, the Orcs (counting the two groups as one and including Goblin mercenaries) and then the Birds and the Beasts? Or am I wrong there?
I'm still unconvinced that this material, from the book, the appendicies and Kiwi imaginations, should have been a trilogy, given the same weight as LOTR. For instance, the battle didn't have the same stakes as LOTR battles - no named characters got killed in it and despite their numbers most Orcs seemed easy to dispatch, so it was almost a shock to see dead Elves. I am treating the super Orcs and the fighting at Ravenshill seperately to the main battle. So, I have mixed feelings about that film.
Anyway, I wanted to mention and recommend two films that I saw on DVD for the first time in 2014, both directed by Shane Carruth: Primer and Upstream Color. I am not claiming to fully understand either, they're headscratchers, but Upstream Color really moved me and Primer satisfied my geekiness (even if I still don't expect to get the time travel until I watch it a few more times, I actually trust that it makes sense.)
Films that I didn't get to see in 2014 because I blinked and missed them at the cinema include Two Days and One Night, The Grandmaster and Standby. Snowpiercer still hasn't been released in the UK.
Previous lists can be found here.
This entry was originally posted at http://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/149377.html.
Below are my top 10 films of 2014 (in the order I saw them, not of preference.)
12 Years a Slave - for me was probably the most important film of the year. Not easy to watch, but artistry was poured into it.
Fill the Void is a powerful, Jane Austen-influenced film about the life-altering decisions that must be made by a young woman in a modern day Hasidic Jewish community.
The Lego Movie was probably the film I recommended most this year, because it offers something for everyone to enjoy.
Only Lovers Left Alive is the one where Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddlestone are married vampires. Cool, intelligent and mesmerising, it lives up to that premise and more.
One of the reasons why 2014 was such a good year for Scarlett Johansson commercially and artistically was the unsettling and mysterious Under the Skin.
She also turned up in another tiny little arthouse gem called Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier (I think most of you saw it and knows of its merits, right?)
A Most Wanted Man is a very good grown-up movie and thriller about modern day Western security forces, featuring one of the great Phillip Seymour Hoffman's last leading performances, ably supported.
Ida is another film with a mystery at its heart. Beautifully shot, it is a road trip movie about two female relatives, one of them on the equivalent of rumbsringa, in 1960s Poland, which is all true, but doesn't even begin to convey its power.
I really hope that Mr Turner isn't too overlooked in the awards race (the BAFTAs should give it its due, surely). A masterful, detailed and textured biopic about the artist, and Timothy Spall is excellent.
Whatever else it is, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 1 is a great examination of post-traumatic stress disorder, as Katniss beomes part of the anti-Capitol revolution.
X-Men Days of Future Past and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies came close to being on this list, but I had all kinds of questions after seeing both, and both are part of franchises that I've been so engaged in over the years that it's hard to judge them as films. I saw The Hobbit yesterday, and there were some good bits (mainly involving Bilbo making my heart ache, the slow realisation of how much the people of Laketown's lives had been devastated and the hope of Bard's leadership and, if I'm honest, watching Saruman do wizard-fu. There were less good bits - I tried to pretend that this new feeling of love was affecting Tauriel's fighting skills, but the handling of Tauriel-Kili-Legolas really did not work for me and there was the fact that most of the Company got no individual screen time, and there were confusing bits - who was fighting who?
I was left with two burning questions: did they change who died from the book? (I don't have a copy to hand, and I knew a few of the dwarves died, but only remembered Thorin was definitely one of them, yet I feel there should have been more dead dwarves and different one at that.) Also: which were the actual five armies? Was it the Dwarves (the Iron Hills force and the Company), the Men (with the wicker shields!), the Elves, the Orcs (counting the two groups as one and including Goblin mercenaries) and then the Birds and the Beasts? Or am I wrong there?
I'm still unconvinced that this material, from the book, the appendicies and Kiwi imaginations, should have been a trilogy, given the same weight as LOTR. For instance, the battle didn't have the same stakes as LOTR battles - no named characters got killed in it and despite their numbers most Orcs seemed easy to dispatch, so it was almost a shock to see dead Elves. I am treating the super Orcs and the fighting at Ravenshill seperately to the main battle. So, I have mixed feelings about that film.
Anyway, I wanted to mention and recommend two films that I saw on DVD for the first time in 2014, both directed by Shane Carruth: Primer and Upstream Color. I am not claiming to fully understand either, they're headscratchers, but Upstream Color really moved me and Primer satisfied my geekiness (even if I still don't expect to get the time travel until I watch it a few more times, I actually trust that it makes sense.)
Films that I didn't get to see in 2014 because I blinked and missed them at the cinema include Two Days and One Night, The Grandmaster and Standby. Snowpiercer still hasn't been released in the UK.
Previous lists can be found here.
This entry was originally posted at http://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/149377.html.