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!