2014 is coming to an end, and so it becomes time to look back and reflect on the year that has past. It started with the oscars, and to no one’s surprise 12 Years A Slave dominated the awards.
The summer box office saw science fiction, fantasy and superhero movies completely dominate proceedings. One has to go to 13 (Rio 2) before one can find a film outside one of these three genres. Also, although not all the films in the Top Ten were sequels, films like Guardians of the Galaxy and Maleficent (2 and 3 respectively) definitely benefitted from the Marvel and Disney brand recognition. This will continue to be the case, with only a handful of directors (Nolan, Jackson, Scott, del Toro, Cameron) able to get blockbuster levels of funding for original projects. Finally, 3D is dead, or at least paying extra for it is. IMAX is the future now. Expect to hear little about whether a film is 3D or not over the next few years.
Finally, the year ended with one of the oddest diplomatic incidents of recent years, after a Seth Rogen film caused the type of tension normally associated with cuban missiles or the shooting down of passenger jets. The truth of the matter seems somewhat muddied, although what seems to have emerged is Sony relying on alternate streams of revenue to big theatres to ensure a profit. Perhaps The Interview will mark a watershed moment where the simultaneous release of “Video on Demand” for non-blockbuster films is the rule rather than the exception.
Anyway onto the main event, my Top Five Films of 2014:
5. Frank
I’m a big fan of Jon Ronson’s writing (The Men Who Stare at Goats, Them, and Psychopath Test among his best known). If you’re unfamiliar with him, he has a similar style to Louis Theroux in that he gets to know people on the outskirts of society in a non-judgemental way. Before he was a well-known writer, Ronson was part of Frank Sidebottom’s band. Frank is a fictional retelling of that time told from the point of view of Jon (Domhnall Gleeson).
The film is an exploration of the thin line between being true creativity and madness. Frank (Michael Fassbender) refuses to take off his paper maché head through out the film for reasons that are never completely clear. Jon is determined to make his band a success, despite the protests of the other odd ball members of the band for whom the art is all that matters.
Like its protagonist, Frank is both eccentrically funny yet undeniably tragic. It gets to the heart of the fact that often we want to change the most idiosyncratic of our acquaintances to be ‘normal’ like the rest of us, and yet there is something beautiful and appealing about someone who chooses to live outside those norms.
4. Interstellar
Christopher Nolan currently stands alone as a director able to command big budgets and do something spectacular and original with it. Standing on the shoulders of Kubrick and Spielberg, he does this with Interstellar which not only looks beautiful but which inspires us to see beauty in the universe we live in.
It’s not a perfect film, and undoubtedly owes a lot to 2001: A Space Odyssey, yet it forces us to look up and out at our place in the universe, a rarity in film and also in sharp contrast to the other big sci-fi success of this year, Guardians of the Galaxy.
3. Lego Movie
There’s just something joyful and hopeful about this movie that meant it would have been a crime to leave it out. The Lego Movie, like The Muppets or Wallace and Gromit seems to inhabit such a positive, funny, imaginative space that it’s impossible not to want to be a part of its world.
Its rare a franchise film manages to capture what’s so *ahem* awesome about its product, but The Lego Movie managed to perfectly capture what makes the toy such a hit with generation after generation of children since its inception.
2. Her
On paper, the concept of Her seems like a bad Saturday Night Live sketch: a man falling in love with the “Siri”-like personality of his computer. However, there is a depth and subtlety to the execution of the concept that sends it well beyond its initial idea.
Her explores notions of regret, intimacy, AI, and romance in a profound, funny and endearing way. Like Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror, it allows us to think about technological advancement by focussing on the unchanging aspects of human nature. No matter how much the world changes around us, we still need companionship, acceptance and love. However, can we ever experience such things from an articificial being?
1. Boyhood
There’s nothing original about my choice for Best Film of 2014, however, perhaps that is testament to the quality of the film. Boyhood is a film that transcends the medium and shows us the power cinema can truly have. Filmed over 12 years, Boyhood shows us the growth of a young boy, Mason, into adulthood.
There are so many wonderful moments in the film it’s hard to pick out just one or two. What it manages to capture beautifully though is the changing problems you deal with as you get older. Whether that be an annoying sister who tries to get you in trouble, changing schools, a new haircut, or a new step-father, there’s something simply amazing about the way such an individual story will evoke so many different memories in the mind of each individual viewer. A masterpiece that will be studied and adored for many years to come.
you can observe a lot just by watching 