BEST MOVIES OF 2014

 HONOURABLE MENTION. THE LEGO MOVIE.

Will Ferrell is hilarious. Batman is a douchebag. Everything is awesome.  

10. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

It takes a lot of confidence for a studio to rely on a relatively obscure director to make a big budget blockbuster based on a relatively obscure comic book from the 70s, but that’s exactly what Marvel did and boy did it pay off. Probably the biggest surprise hit of the year, Guardians of the Galaxy managed to be funny, action packed and heartfelt and made a star of Chris Pratt. Plus it had the coolest soundtrack since Pulp Fiction.

9. DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

It’s become more and more common for blockbusters to adopt a serious tone and gesture towards serious subject matter without ever really saying anything. How refreshing it is then to see a sequel to a reboot which manages to improve on the previous movie while taking a different direction, all while managing to explore political and social themes in a mature way. Through Caesar’s eyes we are able to see the issues arising between the humans and apes, with neither side being portrayed as the bad guys. It makes it all the more heartbreaking when the inevitable war breaks out.

8. GONE GIRL

If anyone can direct dark thrillers, it’s David Fincher. Adapting Gillian Flynn’s bestselling novel, Fincher turns a story about a missing housewife into a tense drama about the news, social media, gender, identity and a damning examination of marriage. Ben Affleck is terrific as the seemingly nice guy who may just have murdered his wife, played by Rosamund Pike who turns in what’s probably the best performance of her career. It’s worth watching for her alone.    

7. FRANK

Every now and then a film comes along that is so weird, you can’t help but sit up and take notice. Following an aspiring musician who joins a band made up of a gang of psychotic bohemians, most notably Frank who always wears a giant mask with a surprises expression is a tragic-comic musical gem. Set mostly in a secluded cabin in rural Ireland as the band whose name no one can pronounce tries to record an album, it’s a quirky but sometimes dark exploration of creativity, mental illness and the desire to rise above mediocrity and obscurity.

6. THE RAID 2

Anyone who watched the first Raid movie knows it was a claustrophobic and violent masterpiece. If you haven’t seen it, go see it now! The second outing of the Indonesian action series takes the plot out of the tower blocks and out into the city. Feeling like the bastard child of Ong-bak and Infernal Affairs, The Raid 2 adds gangsters and undercover cops into the mix with brutal martial arts, making this perfect for action fans.     

5. INTERSTELLAR

It speaks volumes of a director’s talent and the expectations that come with that, when the most consistent criticism of his latest movie is ‘it wasn’t perfect’. An unabashed fan of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Chris Nolan takes his own stab at powerful Sci-Fi epic and largely succeeds. There are pacing issues in the first half of the movie, but when you get such beautiful imagery and great performances from the likes of Matthew McConaughey in a story about finding a new home world for humanity its hard not to be bowled over in awe. For all the science talk about black holes and relativity, where this film really shines is in its touching portrayal of the relationship between a father and a daughter.   

4. THE BABDOOK

A horror movie that’s not really a horror movie. It’s a tough sell. We’ve become accustomed to cheap scares and gore in our horror, easy payoffs. Australian director Jennifer Kent adopts a more old school approach reminiscent of movies like The Shining and The Omen, where the horror comes though creepy imagery and sustained sense of dread. At its core though this a movie about a troubled woman dealing with grief and an exceptionally difficult child as they are haunted by a dark fairy tale figure who embodies both of their fears.

3. NIGHTCRAWLER

Anti-heroes are hard to get right, especially when they’re ruthless psychopaths. Jake Gyllenhaal looks almost unrecognisable as Lou bloom, a down on his luck but driven young man who does an awful of reading. The movie plays out as a twisted satire on business and success as Lou forges a successful career recording violent crimes and selling the footage to news stations. Speaking like a corporate salesman with buzzwords and superficial charm, he manipulates and bullies his way to getting what he wants including a relationship. It’s a spine tingling performance form Gyllenhaal reminiscent of Christian Bale in American Psycho and it’s a dark thrilling movie form start to finish.

2. THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

Describing this film as ‘whimsical’ really doesn’t do it justice. Wes Anderson’s latest offering fantastically weaves a story within a story about the enigmatic and charming, Monsieur Gustave at the wonderful Grand Budapest hotel, told through the eyes of a lobby boy. Funny, serious, tragic and romantic in every sense of the word it’s a seemingly simple madcap caper movie which manages to touch on deeper themes while never becoming a downer. Ralph Fiennes is hilarious and endlessly likable as the charming concierge with a taste for older ladies. It’s one those movies everyone should watch.

1. X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST

When a franchise is on the ropes after a couple of poor movies, it takes something special to bring it back from the brink. Cue Bryan Singer’s return to the franchise he kicked off. A time travelling plot that brings together his original cast including Hugh Jackman with the new younger cast consisting of Mcavoy, Fassbender, Lawrence et al is just what the franchised needed. The cast is uniformly brilliant and the action delivers, but like the previous movies it never takes it eyes of the characters and their motivations. And scene of the year goes to Quicksilver’s super-speed beat down.

   

      

   

     

The Babadook

Modern horror movies often have throwaway characters, unoriginal stories and use clichéd tactics to deliver cheap thrills, the most well-known of which is the jump scare. You know the trick: there’s an unnerving quiet, the camera focuses on blank space, you’re lulled into a fall sense of security and then BANG. It’s either something grotesque and frightening or harmless and innocent, but either way you jumped though didn’t you?

How refreshing then that Australian director Jennifer Kent stays away from clichés for her debut feature, The Bababook. With a throw back style to classic horror, she understand that horror comes from characters you care about and the increasing tension as it becomes obvious something horrible is going to happen to them.

The Babadook centres on Amelia and her troubled young son, Samuel. He is obsessed with magic and convinced of the existence of monsters, to the point of building make-shift weapons and using them at home and school. His behaviour worsens after his mother unwittingly reads him a book about a terrifying spectre, Mister Babadook, who he now believes is haunting them and will hurt his mother. As she realises they are now not alone in their house having read the book and welcomed him in, it becomes apparent that ‘you can’t get rid of The Babadook’.

The central performances by Essie Davis and young Noah Wieseman are terrific and the backbone of the movie is the dysfunctional relationship between the mother and son. Noah is a strange child with an overactive imagination, acting out over never knowing his father, who died in a car crash. His obsession with monsters makes his increasingly difficult for Amelia, who has no idea of how to handle him. Amelia is lonely and depressed since losing her husband and the stress of dealing with Samuel is taking its toll on her. This relationship is explored in uncommon psychological depth throughout the film and as Mister Babadook becomes ever more present in their lives, Amelia becomes unhinged, meaning we have a parent and child as scared of each other as they are of their unwelcome guest.

Mister Babadook himself is genuinely creepy, almost an embodiment of Amelia’s and Samuel’s fears. The imagery of a pale-faced man in a top hat, moving around like a shadow and speaking in a voice reminiscent of the death-rattling ghost from The Grudge will stay with you.

The horror is expertly handled by Kent, never opting for the jump scare, instead maintaining tension and dread by using surreal imagery and excellent use of light and sound.  The soundtrack of the film is a collection of whispers and screams and Mister Badadook’s aggressive knocking is used to add to the creepy atmosphere. Rooms are never completely dark,and light is used to show just enough and keep just enough hidden. Every shot is meticulously framed with every prop exactly placed every camera angle used to build tension and keep your eyes glued to screen .

 The best thing about the horror is so much of it is psychological.  As Amelia’s mental state deteriorates over the course of the film she becomes twitchy, short tempered and darker. The Babadook becomes more powerful feeding off her negativity, adding a further level of psychological depth to the horror.

While this may not be a crowd pleaser, delivering the cheap thrills and scares that some movie-goers have come to expect and even enjoy, this is more of a throwback to horror classics like The Omen and The Shining. It is a psychologically deep and unexpectedly emotional movie, with a creepy villain and unnerving moments that will fill you with dread.