[WATCH] The best and worst films of 2014

THE WORST

 

5. Pompeii (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)

Kit Harrington takes a lunch break from Jon Snow duties at Game of Thrones without apparently bothering to change this costume. It’s a joyless Gladiator-meets-Titanic mashup that’s as dull at ditchwater. In a world where Marvel Studios have succeeded in giving us blockbusters with verve and humour, and in which historical drama is well served on television, Anderson’s film is the runt of the pack – an evolutionary failure.

 

4. American Hustle (dir. David O. Russell)

All-star cast, a director on the rise and a deliciously decadent 1970s milieu. What could go wrong? Everything, apparently, since American Hustle’s foundation isn’t sound at all. A caper story with no suspense, Russell’s film coasts on attitude and sketchy set pieces. Not to mention cleavage. Lots and lots of cleavage. A loud, messy waste of talent, and your time.

 

3. Nymphomaniac Vol. II (dir. Lars von Trier)

The fact that its original segment was one of the prickliest and inspired films of the year makes the terminal descent of its latter half hurt so much harder. Gone is the subversive humour that marked its first chapter, in favour of a slack approach to story and an indulgence of juvenile nihilism for its own sake. It might work as a subtle take-down of what we’ve come to expect from mainstream cinema (i.e., the story is so deliberately un-subtle that it matches the likes of Transformers, and so mocks them by proxy), but as a standalone film it’s a hollow experience.

 

2. Dracula Untold (dir. Gary Shore)

Dracula Untold feels like a film made by a committee of geeks with blind faith in their passions – apart from the gothic horror of its key source material, there’s overtones of epic fantasy and undertones of ‘grimdark’ superhero origin story thrown in – but who have an equally submissive approach to the whims of their studio superiors. It has its references lined up in a strict rank-and-file, but it has no real animating force to make them dance, instead commanding them to simply march onward. Calling it ‘de-fanged’ may be the most facile critical cheap shot of all time, but in this case, anything else would feel like an injustice.

 

1. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (dir. Peter Jackson)

Peter Jackson is probably laughing all the way to the bank, after having had a blast fiddling around with JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth for the better part of a decade. Great for him, but what about us? The final chapter of The Hobbit trilogy – a sliver of children’s book forced to work its way into a lather to yield three-by-three hour films – is a testament to why this was all a bad idea in the first place. Lop-sided pacing and zero emotion makes this an insult, not just to faithful Lord of the Rings fans, but to film fans everywhere.

 

THE BEST

 

5. Frank (dir. Lenny Abrahamson)

It could have been a disastrous, self-loving hipster road trip that appeals to indie kids and indie kids alone. Instead, we got an affecting insight into the creative process, that eschews clichés and delivers some dark laughs along the way. Oh, and Michael Fassbender remains hidden behind a bobble-head mask for its duration, but that this isn’t the film's be all and end all is a testament to its poignancy.

 

4. Guardians of the Galaxy (dir. James Gunn)

Laughs, action and more laughs. B-movie stalwart James Gunn directs the rough diamond of the Marvel Studios stable with sensitivity and aplomb, keeping one jittery eye on the superhero universe it tangentially forms part of, but a closer focus on the hearts and minds of its rag-tag group of reluctant anti-heroes. Less of a superhero film, ‘Guardians’ is more like Star Wars… if each character from Star Wars were Han Solo. The sequel can’t come soon enough.

 

3. Under the Skin (dir. Jonathan Glazer)

This arthouse sci-fi film may be a tad too willfully obscure for some, but it remains a chilling portrait of an alien threat that feels truly alien. Razor-sharp stylist Jonathan Glazer sends Scarlett Johansson to prey on unsuspecting men on the Glasgow streets, and the result in a mesmerizing exercise in horror. Nothing is explained away, though Glazer’s film has the power to work on the subconscious. The woman-as-predator is hardly new to cinema, much less the sci-fi genre (the Natasha Henstridge-starring Species being the obvious example), but Glazer isn’t interested in sexist femme fatale stereotypes. Rather, Johansson’s unblinking and unnamed protagonist challenges us to confront all the stereotypes about on-screen women we have already internalized.

 

2. Boyhood (dir. Richard Linklater)

The making of Linklater’s intimate epic is well documented, because it is, in effect, a news story in its own right. Filmed over 13 years, it’s a coming-of-age story happening in real time: the all-too-normal journey of Mason (Ellar Coltrane) from the age of six to 19. Seeing the character grow before our very eyes is already cool enough, but it’s Linklater’s deft hand that gives it that extra magic. The premise would have made for a dull film in the hands of a lesser director, but Linklater is an old hand at this sort of thing: the ‘Before’ trilogy of romantic films operating on a similar philosophy. Boyhood is a breath of fresh air in a film landscape increasingly devoid of real humanity, littered as it is with comic book and young adult adaptations, reboots and remakes.

 

1. Ida (dir. Paweł Pawlikowski) 

Our film of the year is yet another coming-of-age tale, albeit being an entirely different beast to Boyhood. There is an angelic touch to this tale of a young Jewish nun-to-be seeing to some unfinished family business in post-war Poland. Hotly tipped for the Foreign Language Oscar, the quiet, carefully composed story is a reminder that good visual storytelling requires both restraint and aptitude. A quietly bewitching performance by Agata Trzebuchowska crowns Pawlikowski’s film, which is shot in black and white – not as a gimmick, but as part and parcel of this sparse and crystal-clear narrative.