Films of the Year 2014
Crack’s Film Editor Tim Oxley Smith runs down the 10 films which defined his year in cinema.
10
The Wolf Of Wall Street
dir. Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey
Scorsese is an undisputed master of shining his spotlight on the more undesirable aspects of the human condition, and in his latest example utilised these dark recesses for grimly comic effect – translating into the director’s highest-grossing ever film. We all laughed at the sheer ridiculousness of it all, while equally ingesting its worrying reflection of how the other, bloated half live. The Wolf… exposed not only the excess of 80s yuppie culture, but brought into sharp focus the fledgling up-city crooks of today, while all the while the film’s debauched, decadent nature appealed to everyone's excessive, drug-addled capitalist inner self.
09
Frank
dir. Lenny Abrahamson
Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Fassbender
Encapsulating a romantic vision of creativity and the nature of performance, with some great original music thrown in for good measure along with the excellent but faceless Fassbender and lashings of quirk and kitschness, at the time we called Frank a film made for the MTV2 generation, and thought that was a pretty clever thing to say – so we're saying it again.
08
The Wind Rises
dir. Hayao Miyazaki
The last Studio Ghibli with long-serving director and co-founder Hayo Miyazaki at the helm. The Wind Rises was a devastatingly poignant demonstration of Ghibli's technical artistry and the evocative imaginations that have defined an entire movement, serving to fittingly mark the end of an era in cinematic animation.
07
Interstellar
dir. Christopher Nolan
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain
In the midst of current mainstream media’s intrigue with space travel, Nolan crafted this breathtaking film which matched science fiction to popular culture. By bringing outer space a whole lot closer (and with his sights set on a broader audience), Nolan showed science fiction isn't for nerds and whilst doing so, also succeeded in making Interstellar as typically challenging and immersive as we’ve come to expect, even demand, from the man.
06
The Grand Budapest Hotel
dir. Wes Anderson
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan
Wes Anderson once again charmed the pants off everyone with impeccable dolly shots and exquisite typefaces, but also with his most action-packed film to date. Ralph Fiennes was just so good, he could even be in line for an Oscar nomination for that Academy anathema – a comedy role.
05
12 Years A Slave
dir. Steve McQueen
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch
Steve McQueen's ability to open up an expansive discourse, both emotional and intellectual, around the subject of slavery was in itself commendable. He harnessed an exceptional team of actors to build an attuned and cinematic experience of suffering through this almost-unbelievable yet not-that-distant historical period. Oscars, deservedly, tumbled in its direction.
04
Night Moves
dir. Kelly Reichardt
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning, Peter Sarsgaard
Kelly Reichardt’s ice cold minimalist thriller glides into our top 5. We loved the script’s bitter purity; the visceral isolated performances and sumptuous cinematography which made the quaint beauty of Oregon feel eerily deceitful. It had the classical cinematic formula of cause and effect, all the while invigorated by pessimistic modern pretences of directionless youth and their futile attempts at green activism.
03
The Babadook
dir. Jennifer Kent
Starring: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall
A breath of chilling, fresh air in a genre diluted by fads and spin-offs, where the film s themselves are more soul sapping than the evil beings within, The Babadook showed that a subtle amount of hype can enhance the overall scary movie experience. It helped that The Babadook was genuinely petrifying, too. With its unbearably brilliant sound design and well-crafted story, it dismantled the reassuring protection of motherly love and used the utterly rational fear of things that go bump in the night to terrifying effect.
02
20,000 Days On Earth
dir. Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard
Starring: Nick Cave, Kylie Minogue, Blixa Bargeld
Every so often a documentary inverts the precedent codes that make a ‘documentary’. By definition, it’s a search for the truth, and to portray an artist whose persona exists as equally in a fictitious dimension as it does in reality meant 20,000 Days needed to accommodate the full spectrum of Nicholas Edward Cave’s enigmatic self. It was presented as a guided tour of Cave’s multi-faceted art, a feast of concept and content that transcended form and genre resulting in a befitting and inspiring relic.
01
Boyhood
dir. Richard Linklater
Starring: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke
Richard Linklater has rarely shied away from a strong concept. The well-read grunger and his pet motifs are usually just as striking as those concepts, which in combination with his veracious methods often left his films on the fringes and difficult to love. Boyhood signified Linklater’s Zen moment; a moment that spans 12 years, the time it took to film this unique project. He found the perfect marriage of concept (finding realism in real time), to his philosophies, whereby we learned some of life's key lessons through a boy’s formative experiences. This triumphant vision came underpinned by the love and dedication of the troupe of actors, but also by the sheer fact that this film was the first of its kind. And it worked. Morality and one’s place in the universe have never been so aptly discussed, life was realised as a tapestry of fleeting moments experienced as an audience, made to resemble character-defining moments in the hero’s life. It was truly original, truly untarnished ground. Boyhood was indie cinema absolution, and it was beautiful to behold.
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