Hello and welcome to Ramblings on Unconnected Thoughts, yet another film blog dedicating itself to film analysis, praise and criticism, as well as whatever else I feel like talking about.
On todays post: I count down my favorite films of 2014.
Lets get started.
But first some honorable mentions.
Guardians of the Galaxy and Caption America The Winter Solider
Both fine examples of the Superhero genre and how far it has come, but for completely opposite reasons, and two more notches for Marvel to add to their ever growing bedpost. Good job.
The Guest
A radically entertaining and stylish film, with a star making turn from Dan Stevens; in this bizarre mess of 80s horror, psychological thriller, and action flick. It only set back being some weak story resolutions, which didn’t really need to be there, and it only manages to save itself, in its very last seconds. But definitely worth a see.
Enemy
Director Denis Villeneuve, and personal man-crush Jake Gyllenhaal, prove to be a winning combination again, in this complex and lynchian thriller. Gyllenhaal leads with twin leading roles, in another of his growing repertoire of great performances. Check it out if you love a mind-bender, but don’t if you’re scared of spiders.
Now onto the list!
20: The Hobbit: Battle of the five Armys.
I really fucking enjoyed this. Having only liked the last two entries into this Middle-Earth Trilogy, I was completely expecting this to just be fine, but it turned out much more than that. It manged to bring all the funnest characters together into one huge battle scene, while also adding weight and depth the them, helped largely by some very good performances all round; this is the first of the Hobbit movies I felt matched up to the originals. Though the CGI was a bit much at times.
19: Mr Turner
A strikingly realistic period piece, about the latter days of abstract painter J.M.W. Turner. The film succeeds in creating a portrait of a man without passing judgement on him, and shows how beautiful things don’t always come from beautiful places. Through a bit long, and slow, it has enough style, humor, character, and is so stunningly well acted, there is more than enough to enjoy all the way though.
18: Calvary
Great Irish cast, great dark humor, great Brendon Glison, great oddly poignant story; Gothic Wes Anderson. Need i say more.
17: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson strikes again, with his most teww and Anderson-y film yet, but also possible his most dark. At the helm of this entertaining, but overly packed film, is Ralph Fiennes who is truly excellent as the Hotels eccentric concierge. Packed with all the Anderson whimsey you have come to expect, and a whole host of cameos, its a fun ride throughout.
16: Edge of Tomorrow
Tom Cruise continues his well placed strides through the action genre, while not retaining to one character type, in this smart, exciting, and darkly comical Science Fiction Action flick. It may also be the first American live-action adaption of a Manga- it being based on the series ALL YOU NEED IS KILL-that is not only good, but great, and way better than the source material.
15: Pride
A funny, emotional, and very British film, about the true story of a gay group that helps support a mining town through the strikes of 1984, and the history they made by doing so. Full of great performances in an all start British cast, its the feel good film of the year. Move over Theory of Everything.
14: The Raid 2
This is the Godfather 2 of action films (though I prefer The Godfather 1), that uses the the first film as a jumping off point, to become not only anther perfectly choreographed Kung-Hu flick, but a sprawling and epic undercover cop thriller, which brilliantly blends the Departed-esque drama with kick-ass fight scenes. The only thing I can say is, don’t watch it dubbed, and marathon both films back to back like I did.
13: Maps to the Stars
David Cronenberg delivers another slice of sizzling satire in this Greek tragicomedy about our modern empire; Hollywood, with just as much, sex, death, and incest as the best of them. With a great performances from Juliana Moore, John Cusack, and Mia Wasikowska, as well as the rest of the cast; combined with icy sharp writing and the blackest sense of humor this side of In Bruges, it really made this film enjoyable, and stand out from other comedies of the year.
12: Chef
Jon Favreau surprised everyone this year, creating something genuinely heartfelt, heart warming, likeable and funny, that shows he has great depth beyond his usual persona, and has a a voice of his own. Also the food looked fucking delouse, like straight-up food porn.
11: Foxcatcher
I toiled over where to rank this film. Sometimes I think it was just decently good, bit slow, maybe top 15, but then I’ll remember the knock out performances, the haunting music, the great chemistry of the cast, and the cerebral directing, that really made this one of those films you may appreciate more than you out-and-out enjoy it, but it turns out I kinda like how must appreciation i have for it, so I ended up really enjoying this film overall. Though I think its the weakest of Bennett Miller’s films.
That’s it for part one.
Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter here.
And keep an eye on this page for more details about all my up and coming projects with my film company Troubled Productions.
See you in part 2.
But what’s really got my attention recently is how they’ve been advertising it. They’ve completely embraced the modern Social media trends, following, tweeting, and especially #hashtags; and i find it brilliantly hilarious that a such a twisted show is selling itself like a teen drama, i mean #Nemma people. But at the same time, its the perfect way to advertise it because at (or at least near) its heart, Bates Motel is a teen drama, just surrounded by violence, insanity and incest, and the fact a show like that can be sold the same as The O.C. is great.
Ramblings on unconnected thoughts 