Films of the Year – 2014

It has been a particularly strong year for cinema, both blockbuster and indie. There have of course been disappointments along the way, but 2014 has been bolstered by a reinvigorated superhero genre, whip-smart animations and accessible foreign fare. It was a good year for the Brit-flick (Postman Pat: The Movie notwithstanding), an interesting twelve months in Australian filmmaking (The Rover sits just outside my top twenty) and high time for some cinematic introspection (even Step Up: All In had something to say about reality television and celebrity culture). Most importantly, however, it’s been glorious fun. Scroll down to see my pick of the most thoughtful, emotional and entertaining films of the year. Haha, awesome!

10. Pride

Based on a true story, Pride dramatises the unlikely alliance of the LGBT community and a Welsh mining village in protest against Tory spending cuts to tremendously rousing effect. Though fundamentally uplifting, director Matthew Warchus doesn’t underestimate or undermine the obstacles that stood in either group’s way.

09. Noah

The story of Noah’s Ark may be a Sunday school favourite, but Darren Aranofsky’s adaptation is no nursery rhyme. Mining the fairy tale for unseen dramatic depth, it is a brutal tale of obsession, egomania and entitlement that ends in exile, attempted murder and alcoholism. Amen.

08. How to Train Your Dragon 2

Four years ago Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders’ How To Train Your Dragon topped my list of the best films of 2010. The sequel — this time directed by DeBlois alone — came very close to doing so again, thanks to its emotional performances, spirited score and unparalleled 3D animation.

07. Boyhood

Eleven years in the making, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood is a film like no other. Documenting the development of Mason Evans, Jr. (and Ellar Coltrane, who plays him) from boy to man, it condenses and in many ways concentrates the aging process in a manner that is both inspiring and utterly heart-breaking.

06. Life Itself

Although perhaps best known as part of a double act, Roger Ebert was still remarkable in his own right. Steve James’ documentary explores his subject’s formative years, his international, multi-media success as a film critic and his almost decade-long battle with terminal cancer with an honesty that makes the story accessible to all.

05. X-Men: Days of Future Past

It’s safe to say that nobody went into Bryan Singer’s third X-Men movie expecting very much. Since X2 the series had staggered and stagnated, spreading itself paper thin and rendering itself almost unintelligible through endless spin-offs, retcons and reboots. Not only did Singer manage to create one of the best superhero movies ever, however, but retroactively consolidate and even exonerate a franchise that had apparently passed its prime.

04. Tracks

Based on a memoir which was in turn based on a National Geographic article, John Curran’s Tracks told the true story of Robyn Davidson, a disillusioned Australian woman who in 1977 walked 1,700 miles from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean. Tracks is remarkable not only for its story, its minimalist script and its beautiful cinematography, but for Mia Wasikowska’s transformative central performance.

03. Under the Skin

It’s been quite a year for Scarlett Johansson, but while the traditionally indie actress managed to prop up tentpole movies such as Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Lucy it was in Jonathan Glazer’s low-budget, high-concept Under the Skin that she truly excelled. By turns sexy, sympathetic and terrifically sinister, it’s a performance that mesmerised almost everyone who witnessed it. This adaptation of Michel Faber’s novel also boasts the best soundtrack of the year and an ending that will haunt you long into the next.

02. The LEGO Movie

How To Train Your Dragon 2 may have boasted the best animation of 2014 but The LEGO Movie is its best animated movie. Simultaneously satirising consumer culture and embracing it, writer-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller both have their cake and eat it. With a top-notch voice cast, cameos from some of cinema’s most iconic characters and a gag rate that most live-action comedies would give their whoopie-cushions for, The LEGO Movie is the very definition of family entertainment.

01. Men, Women & Children

Unfairly dismissed by most who saw it, Men, Women & Children has to be the most underrated and misunderstood film of the year. It may not be realistic, or even particularly subtle, but where would cinema be without the occasional suspension of disbelief? Using Pale Blue Dot as reference point, Jason Reitman asks pertinent and even prescient questions about our place in the universe — whether the abstract or exotic realities we forge online or the insignificant little galaxy that we call home in RL. Ansel Elgort and Adam Sandler, meanwhile, give the performances of their respective careers.

11. Guardians of the Galaxy, 12. Paddington, 13. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, 14. Fury, 15. Next Goal Wins, 16. Frank, 17. The Babadook, 18. The Riot Club, 19. Lone Survivor, 20. Starred Up

April 2014 – Yo, Sparkles!

I didn’t spend quite as much time in the cinema this month as I’d have liked to, though that’s largely because I spent the first week of April walking from Milngavie in Glasgow to Fort William in the Scottish Highlands and the next week writing about it.

That said, I spent the 31st of March watching Noah, Divergent and The Raid 2: Berandal, so there was still plenty to write about when I’d finally finished with the West Highland Way. I eventually even got around to reviewing Calvary, which I had seen in February at the Glasgow Film Festival.

My first new film of April was Veronica Mars, which was soon followed up with The Amazing Spider-man 2 (which I really liked, regardless of what everyone else might have thought), Tracks (which had me on the verge of tears almost from its opening scene) and Pompeii (the second worst film Paul W. S. Anderson has ever made).

For HeyUGuys I wrote two blogs after an unintentionally long absence from the site: Six Sinister Questions That The Amazing Spider-man 2 Must Address (in reality it managed five) and Eight Creatures We’d Like To See In The Goosebumps Movie. Additionally, having initially closed its doors at the beginning of the month, I filed my first review for a revived BestforFilm.

I ended the month with not-Disney’s Tarzan, a 3D CGI motion capture that had its moments, and Plastic, a British crime caper that sadly did not. I also saw Frank, Next Goal Wins, Brick Mansions and The Wind Rises, though I’m embargoed on each until their respective weeks of release.

Film of the month: Tracks

 

 

Tracks (2014)

In 1977 Robyn Davidson (Mia Wasikowska) left Alice Springs on a 1,700-mile journey to the Indian Ocean. Armed with a rifle and accompanied by a small animal convoy (consisting of camels Dookie, Bub, Zeleika and Baby Goliath, as well as dog Diggity), she set off into one of the most hostile and formidable environments on Earth. Sponsored by National Geographic under the proviso that she meet with a photographer at regular intervals, Robyn travels first to Ayers Rock, and then to a number of other designated rendezvous points so that her journey can be documented by Rick Smolan (Adam Driver). Along the way she has to deal with scorching days and freezing nights, in addition to feral camels, blinding sandstorms and lengthy diversions in order to avoid sacred Aboriginal land. To avoid one such detour, Robyn teams up with Eddie (Rolley Mintuma), a respected Aboriginal elder who offers to escort her a small part of the way.

“Talking is overrated”, Robyn is told, about half-way through John Curran’s film adaptation of Robyn Davidson’s popular article for National Geographic. It doesn’t just influence Robyn, who until this point has been searching for ways to express her thanks to Eddie for escorting her through one of the country’s vast sacred regions, but the filmmakers themselves. Up until now Tracks has skewed heavily towards exposition and conversation, which are perhaps overrepresented in this story of one woman’s solitary quest through some of Australia’s most isolated areas, but after which the film seems to gather faith in Davidson as a complex and compelling character in her own right. After all, if just one image can say a thousand words then imagine what a feature film might achieve.

Not that the first act isn’t interesting, or indeed necessary, because on both counts it absolutely is. Over the first hour we learn that Robyn has something of a family history, not just of walking willingly into wastelands but of struggling with feelings of loneliness and disconnection. We witness her preparing and funding her expedition, by taking jobs on camel farms to earn money and acquire animals, and by seeking sponsorship from National Geographic after a chance encounter with one of their roving photographers. We then see her begin her journey in earnest, the film skipping straight from Day One to Day Twenty-nine and her next encounter with Smolan. This main narrative is supplemented by scenes written specifically for the film, dramatising the childhood tragedy that would shape the woman Robyn was to become.

Eventually, however, the safety wheels come off and Wasikowska is required to do more than roll her eyes at naysayers and lead camels through interchangeable desert. As the sun beats down, unrelenting and inescapable, it appears to have a transformative effect, cracking her lips and burning her skin until Robyn begins to look like the desert she now inhabits. It’s not just a case of effective make-up either; something in her character seems to change too, and when she’s forced to shoot a couple of feral camels that are making a beeline for her convoy it’s clear that we are no longer dealing with someone who is lost. Wasikowska is a revelation; she’s impressed before, undoubtedly, but it is here that you for the first time gain a sense of her true potential. As she is stripped bare, not just by the sun but the very desert itself, it’s impossible not to feel for her, and feel inspired by her.

Though the central theme is one of self-discovery, and Robyn is ultimately motivated by the hope of rebirth (to be baptised by the Indian Ocean), this is no Eat, Pray, Love. Robyn hasn’t chosen to ‘find herself’ at an Indian temple or in an Italian pizzeria, but in one of the most dangerous and hostile places on Earth. “You don’t have to be unlucky to die out there”, she is reminded before setting off, and isn’t above losing her bearings or running out of water. Rather than espousing cod-philosophy and touring some of the planet’s prettiest places, Tracks has other things on its mind. Ayers Rock is briefly glimpsed, but Robyn is turned away. Aboriginal rights, modern Australian melaise and the merits of photo-journalism all come up in conversation, as do more personal questions pertaining to privacy and principles. As in real life, Robyn Davidson sees herself as having sold out, and as she earns a name for herself as ‘camel lady’ she has to deal with reporters rooting for a piece of her story.

Of course, it may seem a little strange to hear her reprimand Smolan for taking pictures of an intimate Aboriginal ceremony when we are now watching a movie attempting to replicate their way of life, but the counterargument stands that with increased attention also comes increased awareness. Although almost hideously unlikeable at the start — Smolan is portrayed as an irritant, as an inescapable part of the problem that follows her unbidden into the desert — Driver quickly justifies his photographer’s presence. If there are, as the film states, two types of nomads — one that is at home everywhere, and one that belongs nowhere — then Robin is the former and Smolan is the latter. Their relationship is an interesting one, and as Robyn begins to feel the weight of her endeavour it is explored to a much greater degree. The whole cast shines, from tutors Rainer Bock and John Flaus to Aboriginal guide Rolley Mintuma. Each makes an impression, without resorting to the charicatures that usually populate road movies.

With or without Wasikowska Tracks would have been a captivating watch, so inherently dramatic is the Australian scenery (especially as lensed by Mandy Walker). The actress, however, brings so much humanity and indomitable spirit to the film that it becomes something else entirely. Director John Curran cannot realistically hope to capture Davidson’s not only months of hardship but lifetime of turmoil in a film that is less than two hours long, but he finds a fundamental truth and honesty in her story that is incredibly humbling, occasionally heart-breaking and — for its simple pleasures as much as its existential pain — really quite haunting. I was on the verge of tears throughout, hanging on every note of Garth Stevenson’s swooning score.