By Keri O’Shea
It’s become customary, as we approach the end of a year, to complain about the dearth of good cinema in said year. It’s almost a new Christmas tradition for film writers. There were no classics; there were too many lazy efforts; why do we still have to contend with all these remakes? No doubt according to your tastes, all of the above could be said about 2014, and any year which precedes or follows it. Personally, the number of films I’ve enjoyed out of films I’ve seen has been pretty high this year. The issue for me isn’t that there are no good films being made; it’s more that I haven’t yet gotten to see a lot of the films which I can see are now appearing on other writers’ lists. What can I say? All of the regular BAH writers have demanding full-time jobs and/or young families; we don’t necessarily always have the luxury of the time or the money (which need to closely coincide) that it takes to get to see absolutely everything which we might otherwise choose to see. Therefore, on this list you will see no Babadooks, no Guests, no minute dissections of the second ABCs of Death – and if I talk about them at all in future (which I sincerely hope to do) it’ll be as a viewer fashionably late to the party.
All of that said, I have been lucky enough to see some great films. The ones which have really stuck with me this year have been the ones which surprised me pleasantly (it’s easy to get glib, especially when you get hit with a run of screeners you don’t particularly love) or unnerved me in some way, either by pulling apart horror/sci-fi convention in some intriguing manner, or riffing very successfully on a tried-and-tested horror theme, bringing something new to it. In nearly every case, it’s taken a while for the film in question to bed in – a few days, or even weeks before I could really say I loved it. Perhaps that’s the ultimate compliment for a film – to suggest it has that sort of staying power, in a climate which sees such a rapid turnover of movies and so many filmmakers vying for the attention of their audiences, before they move on to the next thing.
Without further ado, then, here are the films which I’d say are my favourites this year.
10 – Lucky Bastard
I’ll start off with a film I had no high hopes for, but which impressed the hell out of me. Maybe pleasant surprises have more weight than banal disappointments? It’s a nice thought. Anyway, I received a link for an online screener for Lucky Bastard, something which looked to be a type of found footage film, based around the adult film industry. Hmm, thought I – it’ll be headache-inducing camera spin all the way, with the odd pause of course reserved for some crowd-sating T&A. How wrong I was. Lucky Bastard, first of all, doesn’t exploit the premise of adult film for cheap laughs, or use it as a pretense to moralise whilst covertly enjoying the nudity, Daily-Mail style. Instead, this is a well-written story in which the characters are completely humanised; these are good people who just happen to work in porn. When they are threatened as the story progresses, they show that they care for each other and you, by proxy, care what happens to them, in a series of escalatingly tense situations – though the filmmakers never forget that a well-timed moment of black comedy needn’t derail the whole story or that tension. Furthermore, here’s one occasion when it’s completely believable that there would be cameras everywhere, thus lending credence to an otherwise tired-and-tested framework. Lucky Bastard shows that found footage can still be done very well indeed, in the right hands; many people have rated The Borderlands for the same reasons this year, but for me, Lucky Bastard is streets ahead. You can check out my full review here.
9 – Soulmate
It is both a blessing and a curse that Axelle Carolyn’s debut feature, Soulmate, has become so well-known as the film that got the BBFC wagging its finger (and its scissors) at the opening sequence, of a young woman attempting suicide – which the censors deemed imitable, and thus beyond the pale for us poor, fragile filmgoers. On one hand, many people became aware of the film via the furore, but on the other, many of those new viewers have as yet found themselves unable to see the film in its entirety, a fact which I believe sadly and significantly impacts upon the film as a whole. You may, however, watch the scene for yourselves on Youtube here – and I strongly advise that you do. Not just to circumvent the BBFC, but because it’s actually a very moving scene, beautifully directed and sensitively done. Taking this scene as part of the whole, as it was always intended, Soulmate moves beyond a supernatural horror – though it does this very well – and turns into something else: it’s not about scares, really, it’s about extraordinary events befalling a woman, turning her from a victim into a victor, someone who wants to live. You can read my full review here.
8 – Big Bad Wolves
During my initial review of this film, I remember noting my ignorance of Israeli cinema, and in the months since I’ve watched Big Bad Wolves, it’s had me thinking of just how many countries and film industries there are out there which mostly pass us by, alongside their own abilities to dramatise topics which may yet be beyond at least mainstream European/American cinema. Certainly, it feels next to impossible that you’d get such a skilled, engaging, but ultimately unflinching take on the topic of child abduction from our neck of the woods. Hollywood would rope in Liam Neeson a-fucking-gain, throw in a few car chases, demonise a nationality or two and ultimately come out in a blaze of redemption. Without getting into specific nation politics, perhaps things can be done differently in Israel. A fascinating watch, Big Bad Wolves may be no horror film, but it deftly weaves a number of elements of horror into its crime drama. Its twist in the tale is one of the most understated shocks I’ve ever received from a film. Absolutely superb stuff.
7 – The Sacrament
The Sacrament, directed by Ti West, served as an excellent palate-cleanser for me. See, I hated The Innkeepers, and I was all but ready to give up on Mr. West; with his newest film however, one very different in direction, he’s restored my faith that he is capable of good storytelling with likeable, believable characters. In so doing, he’s also (in all but name, really) taken on the potentially risky real-life story of the Jonestown Massacre, where a notorious cult were persuaded by their charismatic leader, Jim Jones, to off themselves with spiked Kool-Aid. The tale of Jonestown has been much considered and debated in the decades since it happened. But what makes a normal person with a normal upbringing throw everything in to live an isolated, precarious existence in the back of beyond? By updating and retelling the story – yes, with hand-held cameras – West has made a good show of charting the escalating paranoia of an isolated, vulnerable community, via some interested parties trying to track down a missing sister. The results are impressive, especially in how West communicates the panic of the cult members on screen, without exploiting it all for kicks. Saying it provides insight into the mindset of the cult member may be pushing it a little far, but it’s a deft, worthwhile dramatisation in any case. The central performances are superb too. You can read my full review here.
6 – Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
I’m so, so happy that my malingering suspicions about the (so far) two Planet of the Apes prequels have been greatly disappointed. I really am. In getting us up to the point at which, in the original, Charlton Heston touched down on an unrecognisable Earth (in one of my favourite films ever made), these prequels have developed the story sensitively and cleverly – but also given the subject matter a high-gloss Hollywood look, which actually fits very well indeed given the fantastical developments we’re asked to accede to, using frankly genius SFX to flesh out the subject matter (and it’s getting harder and harder to wince at CGI these days – things have moved so quickly that developments have quite overtaken my cynicism). This most recent prequel may have started on relatively safe territory with the whole ‘virus decimates humanity’ riff, but from here on in, the story moves in new directions entirely, whilst quickly jettisoning the ‘apes good, men bad’ dichotomy which not only would have severely limited the success of the film overall, but hardly have paved the way for what we know, plot-wise, is to follow. Andy Serkis has become the go-to guy for these sorts of hybrid CGI/acting performances, but let’s face it – there’s a reason for this. Through his skilled work, Caesar the chimpanzee is an incredibly well-developed character. The film has some faults but nonetheless this is an engaging and surprisingly moving piece of work. You can read my full review here.
5 – Godzilla
From a prequel of a classic, to a remake of a classic which has spawned many other remakes and sequels and may well now, at the time of writing, be back in business via the Japanese studio which launched the original. Leaving aside this complicated family tree, I have no qualms in having Godzilla on my best of the year list. In fact, I’ve been quite surprised at seeing so many ‘meh’ reviews of it this year, or even downright hostility towards it. Look, it’s a fucking big monster movie, a nod of the head to the ultimate fucking big monster movie, and I for one would take a fucking big monster movie over a whole cohort of its peers any day of the week – especially when it looks as glorious as Gareth Edwards has made it look. Edwards earned his monster movie chops, for me, when he made the (again often maligned and misunderstood) Monsters in 2010; he was clearly the guy for the job on the Godzilla remake, albeit a film drastically different to the study of human folly that is Monsters, and I love what he’s done here. As for criticism on the family focus in the film – well, this is right there in the incredible original Godzilla too, a film that has been with us now for sixty years. Sure, it’s a little saccharin in the 2014 version, but Edwards does enough around and outside of all of that to make this one of the most fun films of the year for me. And that’s the thing, really: I don’t want morose and subtle all the time. Godzilla is pure entertainment, and whether we get the next film from Toho or from Hollywood, or indeed both, I hope they’re just as entertaining. You can read Ben’s full review of the movie here.
Click here for the second part of Keri’s Top 10…