While last month’s column pointed you in the direction of multiple films that ended up on my year-end list, this month I thought I’d continue you in that direction with some rock-solid films that just missed the cut, a couple from my list and a couple that I missed in my mad dash to catch up. Consider it our continuing education in the films of 2014.
Starred Up (2014, dir. David Mackenzie)
Available on Amazon Instant Video
Let’s start with the films I sadly missed last year. Jack O’Connell’s ‘coming out’ party for American audiences was in Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken, but the real critical praise for this young performer was in support of his work in this British prison drama. Here, O’Connell plays a young inmate transferred early to adult prison (the process is referred to be as being ‘starred up,’ ergo the title) due to his violent tendencies. There he runs into his absentee father (the great Ben Mendelsohn) who attempts to harness his son’s always-coiled personality before it becomes too late. Can’t wait to catch up with it.
The Congress (2014, dir. Ari Folman)
Available on Amazon Instant Video
The other flick on the list that I missed out on is the latest from Waltz with Bashir director Ari Folman, a blend of live action and animation in support of what sounds like a truly trippy sci-fi premise. Robin Wright Penn plays a version of herself, an actress who sells the rights to her digital image to a film studio with the promise to never act again. This studio then uses her image to place her digitally in as many films as they want. Moral conundrums and leaps forward in immersion technology follow. Looks ambitious and delicious.
Frank (2014, dir. Lenny Abrahamson)
Available on Netflix
Of all the films I regret not putting on my list at the end of the year, Frank keeps nagging me as a particularly egregious omission. It’s a film that grows on you, slowly gaining power and resonance as it chugs along, concluding with one of the best final sequences that any film had to offer in 2014 (it’s criminal that it didn’t find its way into the discussion for a ‘Best Song’ Oscar, IMHO). It’s also a testament to the abundance of charisma Michael Fassbender happens to be in possession of, an amount so vast it allows for this performance, wherein he spends the film wearing a giant paper mache head to connect even when we’re never allowed access to the so-called ‘windows to the soul.’ It also works as a wonderful counterpoint to the film Whiplash as the flip-side of the tortured genius coin, showing how much easier things could be for geniuses to create if they didn’t feel tortured.
The Missing Picture (2013, dir. Rithy Panh)
Available on Netflix
A devastating documentary about director Panh’s attempts to give some lasting form to the memories that were erased by the Khmer Rouge over the course of his brutal childhood. He attempts to recreate memories (some sweet, most not) using tiny clay figurines to make up for these undocumented gaps in his personal history, as well as that of an entire people. These tiny, crude yet gorgeous dioramas serve in conjunction with dreamily philosophical narration that cast a spell and a pall over the entire picture. I wish I had seen this on the big screen when it played at this past year’s MFF, but am glad to have seen it at all. A gorgeous, haunting picture.
The Double (2013 dir. Richard Ayoade)
Available on Netflix
Richard Ayoade’s directorial debut Submarine proved him to be a man conversant in the language of cinema, but it’s his second feature The Double that proves him a man willing to speak that language fluently with this heir apparent to the throne of Terry Gilliam’s comically dour dystopias. Based on the novel by Dostoevsky, the film allows Jesse Eisenberg the opportunity to play both sides of the spectrum – the nebbish, socially awkward misfit (like that of Adventureland and Zombieland) as well as the slightly abrasive yet charismatic type (like champion of the autism spectrum Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network) – with a dual performance wherein he plays off of himself nicely. Ayoade has crafted a fully textured world here, an oppressive workday existence punctuated by meaningless acts of self-harm or verbal castigation. It is one of the most deliriously cinematic delights to come out this previous year.
Locke (2014, dir. Steven Knight)
Available on Amazon Instant Video
I don’t think Steven Knight’s “Tom Hardy drives in a car for 90 minutes” film could be described as deliriously cinematic, but it’s perhaps the year’s best performance in something that could otherwise been thought of as a gimmick. We follow Hardy over the course of what may be the most important day in his life as he drives in one direction leaving behind multiple, potentially explosive situations behind him. He attempts to navigate this tough situation with dignity and clarity over the course of dozens of phone calls, conversations where his work-oriented personality and belief that any problem can be worked through slowly come to the fore. It’s a masterclass from Hardy, proof that he may in fact be our finest living performer, showing the quiet desperation of Ivan Locke through his eyes, rolled-up sleeves, and choices in pregnant pause.
