10) Fruitvale Station - Sundance darling and true story of the last day of Oscar Grant, who was killed by the Oakland transport police. From the opening shot, which is real footage of the incident itself, the lump in your throat starts to form and never lets up. At the end, I was positively in tatters. Beautifully directed and featuring an outstanding lead performance from Michael B. Jordan.
9) Mud - This story takes place in the deep backwoods of the Mississippi river, where two young boys befriend a love-sick hobo. Sounds ridiculous. It's not. It's actually a pretty wonderful coming-of-age tale by Jeff Nichols (who is fast becoming one of the better directors out there) and a great cast, including Matthew McConaughey doing almost his best work (see #5)
8) Only God Forgives - As I mentioned previously on this blog, I loved this film. Many didn't. Many find it to be offensively bad. It is a completely perplexing, ultraviolent, enigma wrapped in a mystery of a film, and certainly not an easy watch, that is for certain. However, I liked it. A lot. That's pretty much I can say.
7) Before Midnight - The third of Richard Linklater's "Before..." trilogy which follows Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy's romantic journey together. The first film we watched them meet, the second they rekindled, the third (this one) they are together, married, parents of two children and struggling to hold it all together. This film is about people talking, and talking, and talking some more. Yet when the dialogue and acting is this good, I found myself totally engrossed the entire time. It is literally like being a fly on the wall into someone else's relationship. You want to watch through your eyes at times, but overall you'll be glad you did. Beautiful film.
6) Prisoners - To this day I am completely baffled by the lack of award-season recognition for this film. It may be down to the subject matter at hand, which we can safely call "dark". There is not one facet of this film that's not excellent. The cinematography and performances of Gyllenhaal, Jackman and Dano being most noteworthy. First-class stuff.
5) Dallas Buyers Club - I went into this film thinking it was going to be an "oh, look Matthew McConaughey's got AIDS, watch him lose weight and affect all of our lives with his heaviness. However, I could not have been more wrong. An outstandingly directed, life-affirming bit of cinema done in the least cheesy way you could imagine and McConaughey's performance is nothing short of iconic. Jared Leto is also excellent...but then aren't we all when wearing a dress.
4) Nebraska - Black and White ultra-slow burner about a borderline senile man trying to claim a fake lottery win? Surely that can't be good, can it? Turns out it can, with Alexander Payne proving once again that he is the absolute master of making films about middle-aged men that somehow get right under your skin. Well played all.
3) Behind The Candleabra - This film does something which I personally think is a very hard thing to pull off (no pun intended) it paints a very dark tale in a bright and shiny package. Obviously it's hard to not be bright and shiny when telling the story of Liberace (played by Michael Douglas who has rarely been better), but make no mistake friends, this is a dark, dark, tale about the trappings of fame and fortune. Matt Damon brilliant as always and will be overlooked again. Oh, by the way, this film is extremely gay. Makes The Birdcage look like Fight Club.
2) Her - Joaquin Phoenix lives in the future and falls in love with a computer, which sounds ridiculous but this is one of the most original, moving and funny films I've seen in recent memory. Similar to "Lars and The Real Girl" in the sense that the sheer preposterousness of the plot goes immediately out of the window due to the quality of the film-making. I aspire to make something this good one day, which is about the highest praise I can give it. In fact, any other year I'm certain this film would be #1 on my list. This year however, all bucked under the weight of...
1) 12 Years A Slave - It's hard to say I enjoyed this film, such is the nature of the subject matter and the way it's portrayed, however it's harder not to bow down and respect a truly magnificent piece of work such as this. 12 Years... tells the true (incredibly) story of Solomon Burke, a free black man tricked and sold back into slavery, and it is every bit as harrowing, stomach-churning and awful as you'd expect. Obviously I didn't cry because I'm a bloody bloke and that's not what we do. However, my eyes happened to get very sweaty multiple times during this film, resulting in what looked like tears pretty much continuously running down my face. If Steve McQueen and Chiwetel Ejiofor don't win every award under the sun, then there really is something wrong with the world. An absolute masterpiece in every way. See it. At once.There you have it. The world can breathe again.
Let's see if I can keep up this blogging lark for 2014.
Onwards.
John.
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