In which I revisit a previously explored topic with fresh eyes and an open mind.
So after a full week and two preceding lists, we finally arrive at the money shot: my top ten favorite films of the year. This is it, folks - the best of the best. These are the movies that were so good that they warranted special accommodation against an uncannily crowded field of great films. And if you haven't checked them out already, please check out the first and second parts of this list as well.
10) The Lego Movie - Everything about this movie is, in fact, awesome. Never mind what the Academy says - never mind that they evidently think that The Box Trolls is a more artistically rendered film - The Lego Movie is hands down the best animated film of the year. The fact that it was so nearly knocked out of my top ten list is simply testament to how strong the year as a whole was.
What by all rights should have been a 90 minute toy commercial for children turned into the surprise hit of the year: a heart-felt story about discovering your purpose in life and coming to terms with who you are as a person. It featured some of the best action sequences and biggest laughs of the year, not to mention the heart-rending destruction of Cloud Cuckoo Land, which caused a bigger emotional uproar than even "Tadashi is here." The Lego Movie is easily one of the best written, best directed and most confidently executed films of the year and will only improve with age.
What by all rights should have been a 90 minute toy commercial for children turned into the surprise hit of the year: a heart-felt story about discovering your purpose in life and coming to terms with who you are as a person. It featured some of the best action sequences and biggest laughs of the year, not to mention the heart-rending destruction of Cloud Cuckoo Land, which caused a bigger emotional uproar than even "Tadashi is here." The Lego Movie is easily one of the best written, best directed and most confidently executed films of the year and will only improve with age.
9) Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) - Michael Keaton's epic return to form was the big winner on Oscar night: justly winning four out of its nine nominations (including Best Picture and Director). To say that this wasn't the weirdest movie of the year is a stern reminder of just how trippy movies like Predestination, Enemy and Under the Skin actually actually were. And although it seems tailor-made to appeal to industry insiders, it's a film that struck a chord with a lot of theater-goers last year, myself included.
Birdman was one of the most aggressively original films of 2014: blurring reality and delusion so often that it was hard to tell what was actually happening at any given point of the film. The ending in particular is sure to inspire more debate than any finale since Inception, and that's a good thing. Movies don't have to be open-and-shut stories; they can inspire passion and debate among their audiences and make the story carry on well past its pre-described shelf life in theaters.
Birdman was one of the most aggressively original films of 2014: blurring reality and delusion so often that it was hard to tell what was actually happening at any given point of the film. The ending in particular is sure to inspire more debate than any finale since Inception, and that's a good thing. Movies don't have to be open-and-shut stories; they can inspire passion and debate among their audiences and make the story carry on well past its pre-described shelf life in theaters.
8) Boyhood - Although it was closely contested by Birdman, Boyhood is my favorite film of the eight Academy nominees for Best Picture. That's right: this list is only populist trash from here on out. And although it was my favorite in its category and although it is prominently ranked among the year's overall favorites, I can't really bring myself to buy it on BluRay. It's a once - maybe twice - in a lifetime experience that doesn't lend itself to additional viewings in the same way that Into the Woods or The Book of Life do, and that's okay. Some movies only need to be seen once to burrow their way into your heart.
Richard Linklater has fast proven himself to be one of my all time favorite directors. Despite a few speed bumps along the way, His Before Trilogy and Boyhood are absolute masterpieces of film. They are confidently helmed, organically written and exceptionally well acted movies that speak to the heart of reality: what people really sound like and how they actually interact with one another. Boyhood is particularly interesting in that the film acts as a visual shorthand of what a person would actually remember of their childhood: a few snippets from early on, then increasingly more as he gets older, with many of the narratively critical moments happening off screen. In this way, Boyhood doubles as a time capsule: perfectly capturing what it was like to grow up in the post-9/11 landscape of the 21st Century.
Richard Linklater has fast proven himself to be one of my all time favorite directors. Despite a few speed bumps along the way, His Before Trilogy and Boyhood are absolute masterpieces of film. They are confidently helmed, organically written and exceptionally well acted movies that speak to the heart of reality: what people really sound like and how they actually interact with one another. Boyhood is particularly interesting in that the film acts as a visual shorthand of what a person would actually remember of their childhood: a few snippets from early on, then increasingly more as he gets older, with many of the narratively critical moments happening off screen. In this way, Boyhood doubles as a time capsule: perfectly capturing what it was like to grow up in the post-9/11 landscape of the 21st Century.
7) Oculus - Unquestionably the best-directed horror movie since Halloween, Oculus was last year's installment into Blumhouse Productions' immaculately execute filmography. Equal parts enthralling and terrifying, it injected some much-needed life into an increasingly flaccid genre and provided a more than serviceable launching pad for British actress Karen Gillan's Hollywood career.
What makes Oculus so unique is that it's story isn't a linear progression from cause to effect (ironically, something that fans of Gillan will be well aware of coming into the film). Like The Imitation Game, it succeeds in balancing multiple narratives with equal heft and even lacing them together in order to produce a whole that is far greater than the sum of its parts. The scares are real and the dizzying editing style - match-cutting from one timeline to another with such increasing rapidity that the lines dividing the two become impossibly blurred - is absolutely perfect. Even those who are a bit gun shy with horror movies (due to an admittedly dubious track record of quality) should check this absolute gem out anyway.
What makes Oculus so unique is that it's story isn't a linear progression from cause to effect (ironically, something that fans of Gillan will be well aware of coming into the film). Like The Imitation Game, it succeeds in balancing multiple narratives with equal heft and even lacing them together in order to produce a whole that is far greater than the sum of its parts. The scares are real and the dizzying editing style - match-cutting from one timeline to another with such increasing rapidity that the lines dividing the two become impossibly blurred - is absolutely perfect. Even those who are a bit gun shy with horror movies (due to an admittedly dubious track record of quality) should check this absolute gem out anyway.
6) Nightcrawler - Nightcrawler ranks up there with Selma as one of the most important films of the year. Whereas Selma took on racial injustice and illustrated the best way to practically take on such matters, Nightcrawler peers into the seedy underbelly of journalistic ethics. While the subject has always been a hot-button issue of grave importance, it's rarely been so popular a conversation piece than it is in our post-Gamer Gate world.
Jake Gyllenhaal's Lou Bloom is an infectiously charming sociopath looking to make it big as a nightcrawler: a late-night cameraman who scours L.A. for crime and accident footage for the morning news. But when he faces competition from veteran news teams, he begins blurring the lines between reporting on news and creating it. Nightcrawler is nothing less than a dark perversion of the American dream, whose predatory protagonist finds success through a combination of opportunity and hard work.
Jake Gyllenhaal's Lou Bloom is an infectiously charming sociopath looking to make it big as a nightcrawler: a late-night cameraman who scours L.A. for crime and accident footage for the morning news. But when he faces competition from veteran news teams, he begins blurring the lines between reporting on news and creating it. Nightcrawler is nothing less than a dark perversion of the American dream, whose predatory protagonist finds success through a combination of opportunity and hard work.
5) Guardians of the Galaxy - The biggest and most talked about hit of the summer was perplexingly based on Marvel's most obscure property. Heading into its August release date, Guardians of the Galaxy had everything going against it: notably source material with zero name recognition and the writer-director responsible for the live action Scooby Doo movies and 1/16 of Movie 43. Its two biggest stars were going to voice a raccoon and an Ent, its next biggest star would appear in greenface for the entire movie and everything was headed up by the fat guy from Parks and Recreation. Oh, yeah, and it it also starred a professional wrestler, because that's always a good idea.
And yet, much like its underdog protagonists, the film somehow worked despite itself. It was fiercely original, and yet instantly familiar. It was at once the funniest comedy, one of the most action-packed romps and one of the most movingly dramatic films of the year - proving once again just how unerringly good Marvel is at producing high-quality movies of such wildly different genres. And while speculation abounds about what's going to happen in Guardians of the Galaxy 2, we can rest assured that the franchise is in more than capable hands.
And yet, much like its underdog protagonists, the film somehow worked despite itself. It was fiercely original, and yet instantly familiar. It was at once the funniest comedy, one of the most action-packed romps and one of the most movingly dramatic films of the year - proving once again just how unerringly good Marvel is at producing high-quality movies of such wildly different genres. And while speculation abounds about what's going to happen in Guardians of the Galaxy 2, we can rest assured that the franchise is in more than capable hands.
4) The Raid 2 - I wouldn't have believed it myself going into it, but The Raid 2 was the definitive action movie of 2014. That's not to say that it was the best movie to feature car chases and fight scenes in it from last year (but more on that later), just that it was the best at what it was: a visceral, adrenaline-pumping punch-fest meant to excite and titillate. It's pretty much would have happened if Jackie Chan had starred in Infernal Affairs instead of Tony Chiu Wai Leung, and every last second of it is awesome.
Critics of 2012's The Raid: Redemption often cited its overly simplistic plot as the film's greatest shortcoming. The Raid 2 seemingly exists for the sole purpose of answering that criticism: exploding outward with what could arguably be considered far too much plot for its 150 minute run time. Its absurdly good action sequences are strung together with a conspiratorial gangster story of undercover cops and double-crossing criminals. With so many twists wrung out out such a complicated story, many audience members were understandably confused, but when you're watching fights this well choreographed and this visually distinctive, it's easy to forgive it of its over-reaching ambitions.
Critics of 2012's The Raid: Redemption often cited its overly simplistic plot as the film's greatest shortcoming. The Raid 2 seemingly exists for the sole purpose of answering that criticism: exploding outward with what could arguably be considered far too much plot for its 150 minute run time. Its absurdly good action sequences are strung together with a conspiratorial gangster story of undercover cops and double-crossing criminals. With so many twists wrung out out such a complicated story, many audience members were understandably confused, but when you're watching fights this well choreographed and this visually distinctive, it's easy to forgive it of its over-reaching ambitions.
3) Interstellar - I will never understand what the Academy fails to see in Christopher Nolan. Looked over for 2008's Dark Knight, that snub prompted the expansion of the Best Picture race to as many as ten nominees. Since then, only one of his films have been nominated for Best Picture (2010's Inception) and none - either before or after - have been recognized by the director's branch. 2014's Interstellar - Nolan's min-blowing, Kubrick-esque space epic - only earned a few technical nominations at this year's Academy Awards, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why.
Interstellar is both Nolan's most epically scoped and restrictively shot film to date: preferring to sit back behind the camera and let the quietly monolithic visuals of interstellar space dominate the screen while its immensely talented cast play out a human drama that spans light years and decades, but never loses sight of the emotional core at the center of everything. And while, as I mentioned in m review of the film, I loved Gravity's "exceptional direction, phenomenal lead performance, adherence to scientific realism and scene-stealing special effects," Interstellar makes Gravity "look like its retarded little brother drawing stick figures in the dirt" and I will go on record calling Interstellar the best space-set film ever made.
Interstellar is both Nolan's most epically scoped and restrictively shot film to date: preferring to sit back behind the camera and let the quietly monolithic visuals of interstellar space dominate the screen while its immensely talented cast play out a human drama that spans light years and decades, but never loses sight of the emotional core at the center of everything. And while, as I mentioned in m review of the film, I loved Gravity's "exceptional direction, phenomenal lead performance, adherence to scientific realism and scene-stealing special effects," Interstellar makes Gravity "look like its retarded little brother drawing stick figures in the dirt" and I will go on record calling Interstellar the best space-set film ever made.
2) X-Men: Days of Future Past - The X-Men franchise has had a wildly uneven journey since its first outing in 2000. The initial trilogy went straight from good to bad to ugly, then produced a pair of nebulously decent Wolverine solo movies before finding its footing again with X-Men: First Class. The franchise's most recent installment - the iconic Days of Future Past - faced an uphill battle from the outset by tackling a fan-favorite storyline helmed by the once-great director that abandoned the series to direct Superman Returns.
Fans needn't have feared, however, as Bryan Singer showed the world why he was entrusted with the franchise in the first place. His crisply focused direction succeeded at keeping two vastly different storylines in two vastly different time periods that occurred simultaneously from becoming confusing. In fact, he used the juxtaposition of the two against one another to build tension and heighten the visceral excitement of the film's titanic climax. It even managed to fix the film series' tangled continuity: undoing the wrongs of the past while opening itself up to the possibilities of the future (such as the much speculated upon Deadpool movie).
Fans needn't have feared, however, as Bryan Singer showed the world why he was entrusted with the franchise in the first place. His crisply focused direction succeeded at keeping two vastly different storylines in two vastly different time periods that occurred simultaneously from becoming confusing. In fact, he used the juxtaposition of the two against one another to build tension and heighten the visceral excitement of the film's titanic climax. It even managed to fix the film series' tangled continuity: undoing the wrongs of the past while opening itself up to the possibilities of the future (such as the much speculated upon Deadpool movie).
1) Captain America: The Winter Soldier - The second Captain America film answered the very real question of what you do with a problem like Steve Rogers: a white-bread goody-goody whose old-fashioned morality can be most readily defined as obsolete in an increasingly global, increasingly complex world where previously black-and-white concepts of right and wrong are more often grayed by compromised ethics and Machiavellianistic altruism. The answer? Make that the entire central premise of the movie. To put it simply:
The Winter Soldier is a gritty, Nolan-esque spy thriller where everyone is suspect and nobody is innocent. It is a masterpiece of post-9/11 paranoia and 21st Century realism [that] delivers on the promise of The Avengers: that Phase 2 can continue to produce interesting, nuanced films beyond Phase 1’s origin stories.
Like what you've seen so far? Please check out Part 1 (30-21) and Part 2 (20-11) of this list.
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