Notwithstanding my resolution to review my ‘starring’ policy this year, as I compile my top ten films for 2014, it has once more transpired that they do not exclusively include 5-Star films; as some were beaten there by a couple of four-star films which clearly deserved a better rating from me. I never said I was infallible!
2014 brought its share of million-dollar grossing blockbusters, plus a plethora of quality films that are currently jostling for position as awards season heats up.
As usual, unexpected hits made up for disappointing misses (one of the worst films of the year, Transformers: Age of Extinction, sits at the top of the international box office chart for 2014; while The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies didn’t end the saga with the bang I genuinely hoped it would).
As ever, action-packed movies dominated the landscape. Of the bigger titles, Captain America witnessed a dip in the quality normally expected from the Marvel Universe; The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 left me hungry for more, andthe Guardians of the Galaxy didn’t endear themselves to me in the way they did everyone else.
It was X-Men: Days of Future Past that for me was a textbook example of what the super-hero movie should be all about, and so earns my Best Blockbuster of the Year award.
In a tight fight between the zanily funny The Lego Movie and the poignant and funny How to Train Your Dragon 2, the latter wins out as Best Animated Feature, proving a lesson to all in how to make a great sequel.
The year was also a good year for foreign language movies; and in a year that gave us Ida, Leviathan and The Lunchbox, it was very hard to choose. However, it is impossible to forget Marion Cotillard’s extraordinary performance as a blue-collar woman begging her colleagues to let her keep her job in Two Days, One Night, which gets my Best Foreign Language Film accolade.
And finally without much ado, here are my Top Ten films of the year, (in alphabetical order
12 Years a Slave. 2014’s Best Picture Oscar winner took an unflinching look deep inside the horrors of slavery, told through the eyes of Solomon Northup (a career-best Chiwetel Ejiofor). The film effortlessly summed up the injustice, brutality and absolute despicability of this blight on American history
Boyhood. This is a film that follows the life of its protagonist Mason as he grows from a six-year-old to a young man about to start college. Filmed a little at a time over a 12-year period while his protagonist grew up along with the character, it is an astonishing achievement.
The Grand Budapest Hotel. A typically quirky entry from director Wes Anderson, this delightful magical caper not only provided some stunning visuals in the telling of its extraordinary tale, but in Ralph Fiennes’s sublime concierge Gustave, provided one of the funniest performances of the year.
Gone Girl. Director David Fincher has a penchant for moody and dark thrillers and is helped tremendously by his casting of Ben Affleck and Rosamunde Pike as a happy couple whose marital bliss takes a turn for the worse.
Her. A sympathetic Joaquin Phoenix starred in the unorthodox love story Her, as a man who falls in love with his computer operating system, voiced by Johansson in a sublime performance.
Locke. Tom Hardy in a car provides a couple of hours of emotion, drama and nail-biting suspense as a man on a personal mission. One of the greatest surprises of the year.
Noah. The first Biblical epic out of the gates this year, Russell Crowe was equal parts modern-day environmentalist and Old Testament fundamentalist in this film by visionary director Darren Aronofsky.
The Imitation Game. Benedict Cumberbatch shines in the triumphant, yet tragic, tale of Alan Turing, the pioneering computer scientist essential to breaking the Enigma code that ultimately helped win World War II.
Interstellar. This year’s Gravity, Interstellar achieved the impossible task of telling the intimate tale of the relationship between a father and his daughter, set against the backdrop of a vast landscape in space.
Simshar. The event movie of the year, a home-grown product that was submitted for Oscar consideration, Rebecca Cremona’s take on the true-life Simshar tragedy so many years ago is a movie we can be proud of.
And finally, special mentions to: A Thousand Times Goodnight, Begin Again, Dallas Buyers Club, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Labor Day, Nymphomaniac Vol I; Only Lovers Left Alive, Philomena, Pride and The Wolf of Wall Street.