A year in Film: The Good, The Excellent, The Wishlist...
The Good
Solid films. I liked their aesthetics, they were made in good taste, but in terms of story telling, of structure or character, they did not find their mark.
Ain't Them Bodies showed so much promise but was emotionally under-developed, the characters feeling so close to whole, perhaps a lot was lost on the cutting room floor. Also Ben Foster is a goddamn delight. (Oh and check out the style post here!)
The Place Beyond The Pines arguably had some of this year's most spine-tingling cinematic moments, but ultimately was consumed by it's own over-powering ambition.
Silence found one beautiful, calming, pensive, introspective emotional note but never reached beyond.
Frances Ha was very enjoyable and has real emotional value for the magic 20-something bracket, but it's self awareness kept it in the realm of parable instead of human drama. (Although this is not necessarily a problem.)
The Excellent
The Act of Killing // Leviathan // Spring Breakers // Star Trek Into Darkness (holyquinto)
The Act of Killing left me speechless and retching. Not only is this excellent, challenging filmmaking, it has such a crucial cultural and historical resonance. It should be compulsory viewing. We are all capable of the act of killing. This film is our own confrontation with the monsters that are sleeping in all of us. Of the horrors we can enact. And the importance of our guilt, shame and knowledge of this.
Leviathan also had me retching. This intense epic is unlike anything I have seen.The best outline I can give: an experimental documentary film about trawler fishing that creates a palpable sensory experience of life at sea. It's disgusting, terrifying and mystical.
Spring Breakers was another hypnotic number. A sickly neon fairy tale, it's dreamlike nature, unreal plot and alien color palette was trance-like and transporting.
Star Trek Into Darkness... Fast, funny, inventive, never taking itself too seriously but always having a lot at stake, this was blood-pumping science-fiction. The end credits featuring the original overture was outright boner inducing. Proper space adventure.
Star Trek Into Darkness... Fast, funny, inventive, never taking itself too seriously but always having a lot at stake, this was blood-pumping science-fiction. The end credits featuring the original overture was outright boner inducing. Proper space adventure.
The Wishlist
Here are some films I missed but am SUPER KEEN to see:
- Mud
- Blue Jasmine
- Before Midnight (hell I need to catch the whole series)
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Blackfish
- 12 Years a Slave
- Blue is the Warmest Colour
- Only God Forgives
- American Hustle
- Epic of Everest (restored footage from the 1920s climb of Everest, premiered at the LFF earlier this year)
- The Great Beauty
- The Pervert's Guide to Ideology
- The Selfish Giant
- Wadjda
The list, as always, goes on. But that's the bulk of it!
[As a side note I saw Bling Ring and A Field in England, so you don't have to. Oh. My. Lord.]
[As a side note I saw Bling Ring and A Field in England, so you don't have to. Oh. My. Lord.]
So! Who saw what!? Thoughts? Feelings?
2014 - COME AT ME BRO
