Now that it's 2015, I was curious to see what people's favourite movie releases have been over the past year.
In my own opinion, 2013 was a fairly miserable for movies. I didn't go to the cinema often, and was usually disappointed when I did. But 2014 made up for it. We went to see loads of movies over the course of the year, and I ended up enjoying the vast majority of them.
I'm including my own top 10 below, but obviously this is just my own opinion and is also restricted to the movies that I've seen. I watched a lot of new releases in 2014, but there are many I still want to see. This includes a number of films that have yet to be released in Ireland such as Whiplash, Foxcatcher, John Wick and particularly The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.
(I'm dying to see that film and there's not even an announced release date for here yet ... argh).
Ye don't have to go into the detail that I'm going into below obviously. I was just having this conversation with a bunch of my mates last night and thought it'd be fun to jot down a list.
10) Bushi no Kondate
The English name of this film is A Tale of Samurai Cooking: A True Love Story. I just saw this over the weekend, but it was released last year in most Western countries. It's a story about the marriage between a kitchen samurai intent on abandoning his duties and becoming a warrior, and a female chef who teaches him to embrace his duties. It's far from perfect, but it's charming and quaint with beautiful scenery and costume design. It also features a lot of delicious-looking food so I was glad I had a dinner reservation for afterwards!
09) The Fault In Our Stars
I loved this book, and I rate John Green highly as an author in general. I've liked everything I've read of his. He has a way of taking serious events and emotions and portraying them honestly without making them overly melodramatic. Unfortunately, the film didn't really share this skill which is why I didn't rank it higher on the list. The acting performances here were very good for the most part, and the story is still compelling. But some of the magic was gone.
08) The Lego Movie
It wasn't my favourite animated film of the year, but The Lego movie was highly entertaining nonetheless and started the year off with a bang. The referential humour really worked here and the cast was stellar. Will Arnett stole the show as Batman, but Chris Pratt, Morgan Freeman, Alison Brie and Liam Neeson were all great. The twist at the end seemed to make or break the film for people, but I was definitely into it. I thought it made the moral of the story a lot more resonant.
07) Nightcrawler
Jake Gyllenhaal is a creepy bastard! This was one of the finest acting performances of the year. It's rare that I can watch a movie with no truly sympathetic characters and be so compelled. The film is just fascinating in that you can't help but want to see how far this guy will go. This was beautifully shot too, and explores some of the seedier aspects of our media that are very relevant today.
06) How to Train Your Dragon 2
The first How to Train Your Dragon movie caught me by surprise. I'm a big fan of animated films, but Dreamworks Animation hadn't done much worthwhile since the first Shrek movie at that point. Now the sequel has surprised me again, by being even better. Rather than just being a cash-in, it seems like they're going for a proper trilogy narrative here, focused on Hiccup growing up and taking his place in society. This was touching, funny and featured some gorgeous animation.
05) Veronica Mars
I was a big fan of the Veronica Mars show. The first two seasons were incredible, but it lost its way a bit in the third season and ended terribly. So I was cautiously optimistic when this movie was announced and the money was raised on Kickstarter. And it's awesome. A simple story, but an enjoyable one. The spunky banter is still there in spades and the action is really well done, particularly given the small budget. This is a smart film that can be enjoyed by fans of the show and newcomers alike.
04) The Wind Rises
A very different kind of animated film, and one of the most recent films by Studio Ghibli. It was released in 2013 in Japan, but the rest of us only got it over the past year so I figure it still counts. This was the final film by acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki and is a fictionalized biopic of Jiro Horikoshi, designer of fighter airplanes used by the Empire of Japan during World War 2. It's an ambitious film about following your dreams and the compromises that can come along with it. I'd really recommend it.
03) Boyhood
This is a film that everybody's been talking about for the last six months. The concept was really intriguing: the movie was recorded over the course of 12 years so you get to see actors aging for real and you watch a young boy growing up right in front of your eyes. Awesomely directed with some brilliant performances (I'd love to see Ethan Hawke get a Best Supporting Actor nod). Linklater created something special here. Now I'm looking forward to seeing if another filmmaker may try this same technique and apply it to a more conventional narrative.
02) Calvary
Very few of you will probably have seen this. It's an Irish film about a Catholic priest living in a remote parish. At the start of the film, an unseen man enters the confessional and threatens to kill the priest in a week, as punishment for the sins of abusive clergymen. The rest of the film takes place over the following week; as he goes about his usual routine we see that certain people have started to resent the church for a variety of reasons, and how that effects this genuinely kind-hearted priest. Meanwhile the audience is trying to figure out who threatened him in the first place. This is intriguing, insightful, darkly hilarious ... it's like very little I've seen.
01) Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Fucking hell. I loved this film. I really wanted to see it for the longest time, but it was released late over here so we only got around to it last night. It was everything that I was hoping for. The film appeared to be done in one long take, and while I was worried that this might come across as gimmicky, it only added to the story. It helped to demonstrate Keaton's fragmented psyche as days flew by without any kind of pause, and the crazy stuff happening inside his head was not separated from the events that were actually happening. It also seemed fitting for a movie about the production of a play, where just one wrong move could ruin the entire production. This film was hilarious, weird and still very dramatic. Powerhouse performances from everyone involved. I'll be amazed if it doesn't clean up during award season.