2014 - Some Interesting Films?
I am not a great fan of film lists such as Top 10 etc. They seem to be artificial impositions. But lists do help focus, and if you compile them without trying to remember too hard, then they give you an idea of what films impressed most (whether good or bad) in say, a specific year.
BIRDMAN – Michael Keaton has been scarred by Batman. He is
haunted by the monsters of Gotham, he believes he has power over inanimate
objects. He exhibits all the signs of dementia including running through Times
Square in his boxers. His Icarus leap of faith into the unknown tells us that
you win some, lose some.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY – I never imagined Harrison Ford
would be re-invented as a chatty Raccoon, or that Wookie would turn into a talking
tree (thanks to Vin Diesel) but they have and Star Wars has entered the
Twilight Zone.
INTERSTELLAR – Matthew McConaughey is almost the Man Who
Fell to Earth. From Top Gun astronaut to farmer, we meet him fighting an
advancing Dustbowl that spells the end of the world. Sent back into space on a
rescue mission, he discovers worlds that each presage Earth’s impending
environmental destruction (tsunami waves, bleak rocks, an ice world). But
Kubrick’s narcissistic interpretation of the theory of relativity still rules.
Birth to death understood as a four dimensional trip around a floating library
is Nolan’s mind-blowing interpretation of spaceship Kubrick and the Stargate
trajectory.
BOYHOOD – someone asked me if it would be as interesting (on
the assumption that it is interesting) if it had not used the 12-year
technique. Linklater, like quite a lot of his contemporaries, is a technician
of things – dialogue, emotions, and here of time. The mundane rendered – by
Time – as lived experience. The film’s essential question: who cares?
LEVIATHAN - great
film noir that follows the classic adage, cherchez
la femme. A worthy successor to CHINATOWN in its charting of political
manipulation, personal ambition, and lives frustrated. Curiously a more
biblical film than Ridley Scott’s EXODUS.
FARGO – a unique (?) case in film history where the TV
derivative has equaled the original movie. A worthy candidate for binge
viewing!