Evan's Top 11 of 2014
Inherent Vice I thought Inherent Vice was a brilliant piece of work, in large part thanks to Jacquin Pheonix. Pheonix plays Larry "Doc" Sportello, a beach-bum detective bumbling through a mystery in a constant haze of marijuana smoke. Doc is constantly teetering on the edge of usefulness in the same way the character is constantly teetering on the edge of consciousness. Doc an unreliable protagonist and a pleasure to watch. The narrative of the movie is ultimately a very simple detective story, complete with a visit from an old flame, a drug syndicate, land deals in Los Angeles, and back-stabbing by the rich. It's to writer / director Paul Thomas Anderson's credit that he makes the audience feel lost in it, confused. We experience the world through Doc's pot-haze paranoia, where new information comes sluggishly and everyone might or might not be connected. The lackadaisical pacing and narrative isn't for everyone, but thanks to Doc, I felt like I was in good hands.
Lucy I watched Lucy without many expectations, but I was utterly blown away by how confidently absurd it was. Scarlett Johansson plays her usual action-chick character, which is both a waste of her talents and pretty fun to watch, while Morgan Freeman and Min-sik Choi pop up for roles that they're clearly enjoying. I think my favorite scene is when director Luc Besson decides to lecture us on evolution by having Freeman talk over images of animals mating. Completely ridiculous. Awful, but overwhelmingly endearing.
Noah "Noah" deserved a lot more credit for how deftly Darren Aranofsky told an ages-old story without bumbling his way into sentiment or committing to a particular theology. Ultimately, the movie isn't much different than his other films about men and women driven to near-insanity by what obsesses them (drugs, success, obsession and love have all been previous subjects). In "Noah," God itself becomes the object of Noah's affliction. His fidelity to God's word, and ultimate rejection of it, is told with great nuance and weight. I was greatly impressed.
The Unknown Known While "The Unknown Known" first appeared in festivals around 2013, it didn't receive wide release until 2014. Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris has long been one of my favorites. "The Unknown Known" is a one-on-one interview with Donald Rumsfeld, who served as the U.S. Secretary of Defense under both Gerald Ford and George W. Bush's administrations. Morris' work (including his excellent essays published at the New York Times) often deal with the issue of truth, and how truth is created and changed over time. After watching "The Unknown Known," it's hard not to imagine Morris throwing his hands in the air and giving up. Rumsfeld consistently lies to Morris, the audience and himself, yet you never get the impression he's quite aware of it. In the end, "The Unknown Known" asks the question: Is it scarier to think there's a vast, intelligent conspiracy behind our national bad decisions, or that none of these men really had any idea what they were doing?
Muppets Most Wanted I didn't really like 2011's "The Muppets" reboot movie all that much. Oh, sure, the Oscar-winning songs were all catchy and sweet, but there was too much focus on humans and the cookie-cutter story. "Muppets Most Wanted" refocuses on the Muppet characters, featuring strangeness and sight-gags galore (little pink frog and little green piggy, anyone?). It manages to be clever, placing all the Muppet characters into roles that fit their classic personalities much better than the previous movie. To top it off, songwriter Bret McKenzie returns, and even outdoes his previous work.
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) Birdman is bold, brash, angry and has something to say. It's hyper-stylish, but never felt over-the-top to me. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu and his remarkable cast (Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts, Ed Norton, Amy Ryan and more) bring their best in a story about art, love and ego.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier Steve Rogers is a tough character to crack. How do you write a character who exhibits American ideals of 75 years ago in today's society? "The Winter Soldier" managed it, and then some, by focusing on what makes Steve Rogers, the man, so noble and compelling. His national identity isn't what makes him a hero; we're just lucky to have him. We're also lucky to have superhero franchises in the hands of writers, producers, directors and actors willing to go the extra mile by making their action blockbusters a little more nuanced and rewarding.
Snowpiercer In "Snowpiercer," climate change results in a permanent winter, stranding the remainder of humanity on a perpetually moving train, segmented into a brutal caste system. "Snowpiercer" follows impoverished inhabitants of the tail section as they rebel and fight their way to the control room. While I love how colorful, strange and downright despicably violent the movie is, what I found the most rewarding about "Snowpiercer" is how director and writer Joon-ho Bong keeps us asking questions. What's in the next car? What are they eating? How do they get water? What happened outside? Who is the conductor? Most importantly: If human society, even in the apocalypse, inevitably trends toward wealth consolidation and inequality, why can't we just blow it all up? It's an action movie for the books.
Visitors Director Godfrey Reggio & composer Philip Glass team up for an hour-and-a-half documentary on the human soul. It's a trance movie, similar to the duo's Qatsi trilogy ("Koyaanisqatsi", "Powaqqatsi, "Naqoyqatsi"), with images fading in and out with musical accompaniment. It's not for everyone, but what struck me and stayed with me about "Visitors" was how the entire movie is, in essence, an exhausting act of empathy. How do you feel when you see a stranger's face? What things do you notice? Reggio and Glass mix things up with occasional shots of scenery, but for the most part, "Visitors" keeps up the pace. Glass's score, his best since "Koyaanisqatsi," doesn't hurt, either.
The Dance of Reality Cult Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky's ability to blend surrealist imagery, mythology and psycho-spiritualism has only improved with age. "The Dance of Reality" is an autobiographical film, but one created under the auspices that reality is malleable. It's unclear which parts of the story are fact or fiction. It doesn't really matter. The movie is one of the most emotionally honest I've ever seen.
Naturally, the film does feature Jodorowsky occasionally dip into his old brand of gonzo film-making. Many filmgoers might roll their eyes. Even I did, occasionally. But these moments are outweighed by frequent scenes that feature young Jodorowsky experiencing humiliation, sadness, and occasionally triumphs. Occasionally the real, 80-something Jodorowsky appears on screen and embraces his youthful alter-ego, providing shockingly effective ruminations on life. It could have been corny; instead, it comes off as sage-like and personal.
Jodorowsky has spent the last few decades creating his own brand of mysticism, which he apparently teaches in Paris cafes. "The Dance of Reality" is the result of him using his teachings on his own life. It's a personal psychological makeover, a journey through his childhood that lets him fully process the experience of growing up as a poor Jewish immigrant in 1920's Cuba, where he was persecuted heavily. We're fortunate, as an audience, to be allowed a front-row seat.
Boyhood "Boyhood" was filmed over the course of 12 years, chronicling the fictional life of Mason Evans, Jr. (Ellar Coltrane) from first grade to college. We watch him grow from a boy to a young man. "Boyhood" focuses on little moments. We don't see Mason's friendships form, we don't see him kiss his first girl, go on his first date. We see the post-breakups; we see one particularly memorable night with his friends in junior high school. The movie is better for it. Richard Linklater, the writer and director, has created a uniquely humanistic movie about life. It is devoid of cynicism (but not tragedy) and does not concern itself the least bit with death. "Boyhood" is about the moments that make an individual life and how every minute, no matter how "important," is significant in its own way. It is truly epic.
Honorable Mentions! "X-Men: Days of Future Past" and "Guardians of the Galaxy" were both wonderful movies that captured precisely why I've spent so much of my life aimlessly reading, collecting and thinking about comic books. 2014 wasn't as groundbreaking as 2008 or 2012 (with "The Dark Knight" and "The Avengers", respectively), but it was maybe the next most significant year for the genre because it really captured the breadth of potential these franchises have as they continue. "Days of Future Past" said goodbye to characters now 14 years old; "Guardians" said hello to an all-new genre of superhero cinema. I couldn't have been happier.
For that matter, "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" is the new best example for how to revive an ages-old franchise to its former glory. Good god, what an action movie, with such heart. "Godzilla" was adequate, but nowhere near the revival that was "Dawn."
Conversely, "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" was a huge disappointment, although I didn't much like the first iteration of Sony's rebooted Spider-Man franchise. It's the current poster child for franchise mismanagement, a movie by committee that is less, much less, than the some of its parts.
I thought "Under the Skin" was the same trick over and over again, which was unfortunate because it was a very, very good trick. I loved the first 20 minutes or so, but Johansson's alien seductress changes far too slowly, and arbitrarily, for the movie to have left a lasting impression on me.
This year's greatest disappointment was "Interstellar," the second Christopher Nolan film in a row to feel more like a plot than a story. If I had to pinpoint precisely where the story failed for me, it would be in Nolan & Co.'s over-reliance on God to tell a story that was explicitly not about God.
When it comes to the rest of the year's Oscar crop, I really enjoyed "Nightcrawler," "Foxcatcher" and "A Most Violent Year." "Nightcrawler" had a riveting lead performance, and felt in some way like the dark side of 2011's "Drive." "Foxcatcher" had a strong sense of dread that made the movie an excellent two-hour exercise in feeling really, really creeped out. "A Most Violent Year," probably my favorite of the three, managed to tell an almost entirely non-violent crime saga about a man who legitimately sees himself as a straight businessman. It's an intelligent, atmospheric look at the duality and dissonance at the heart of the American Dream.