This post signifies the start of my 2014 film awards! While the other day I lamented stuff I had to exclude this post is all about celebration, or in the case of my worst films of the year list, derision. Since I am a writer/podcast producer at Awards Circuit, the following choices will represent part 1 of the ballot I will turn in, so you can’t blame me if the choices turn out boring lol jk. Anyways, here’s my special film awards.
You all don’t know what pain is until you attempt to vote on awards or do best of lists. 2014 in particular proved to be an incredibly difficult year to narrow down and so before I unleash my top 10 films of 2014 and personal ballot choices into the world, I wanted to pour a bit out for the stuff I had to leave off.
If there was a movie definition of the word bristling, Mommy would certainly be the representation. This movie, directed by Canadian wunderkind Xavier Dolan, is brash, aggressive, and all-consuming, yet there’s never a moment you aren’t caught up in its spell. It’s one thing to make a movie that’s incredibly charged with energy, populated with characters who are at once repulsive and magnetic, but quite another to add the humanist element that makes you extremely invested in the movie.
Movies can often stir up emotions and speak to a current culture’s issues and climate. Often times this is a conscious choice, but in the case of a film like Selma, which comes at a time where protests and racial conditions have factored into the news cycle, a film can hit a portion of the zeitgeist. Thankfully for audiences Selma is more than just a film that people are using to explain the now, it’s a wonderfully made picture with crackling energy and a larger than life performance at the helm.
There are movies that make you happy and then there are movies that so thoroughly fill you with joy that you can’t help but burst into applause and feel giddy even weeks after seeing it. The Way He Looks, directed by Daniel Ribeiro and starring a marvelous young cast led by Ghilherme Lobo and Fabio Audi, definitely qualifies as the latter and you’d be hard pressed to find a movie more enjoyable to watch that this one.
Happy New Year to all of you! I hope you are excited cause we are heading into the home stretch before the Globes announce their winners and the Oscars announce their nominees. Because of this, the Oscar predictions needed to take on a more drastic look, so I really tried to be judicious with my choices. Enjoy!