Review Of The Year 2014
From a 350ft Godzilla to wormholes in space and time, via robots, aliens, superheroes, apes, vampires, cannibals, Welsh miners and a weapon-wielding racoon; 2014 had it all. Total Film turns its misty eyes to the past 12 months.
In 2013’s Review of the Year,
Total Film was so bowled over by the quantity of quality releases, we raised the possibility that it might just have been the best year for cinema since the vintage batch of 1999 ( Fight Club, Magnolia, The Matrix,
Being John Malkovich, The Sixth Sense, et al). Looking at the gold standard of the 2014 crop, it’s now clear that 2013 was no blip. Rather, we might well be enjoying some new golden age.
For all of our fretting about the financial playing field of today’s movie market (see p62), we’re enjoying a glut of distinguished titles, with a raft of intelligent, well-fashioned blockbusters ( Guardians Of The Galaxy, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, X-Men: Days Of Future Past, Godzilla, Interstellar, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, etc.) being just the tip of the iceberg.
If it’s US independents you’re
after, there’s Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Blue Ruin, Fruitvale Station, Cold In July and Inside Llewyn Davis (or even The Wolf Of Wall Street, independently funded despite its $100m budget). Meanwhile the UK gave us 12 Years A Slave, Under The Skin, Frank, Calvary, Exhibition, Mr. Turner, Ida, Starred Up, Locke, Pride, and more. World cinema afforded such powerhouses as The Wind Rises, Winter Sleep, Leviathan, Two Days, One Night, Stranger By The Lake and everyone’s favourite arthouse
delicacy, The Raid 2: Berendal. And documentaries were omnipresent, many of them strong: Citizenfour, Life Itself, The Overnighters, 20,000 Days On Earth, Mistaken For Strangers and Concerning Violence.
So here follows Total Film’s appraisal of a most excellent year. Enjoy – it’s one for the archives.