A Quick Look at Some of 2014’s Most eXcellent Movies
As ever, in the wake of 12 months passing we’re left with little to do other than reflect on what’s been, and look to the future. The latter of the two appealing more given the rather generous UK Box Office release schedule cinemagoers are now faced with.
It all kick starts this weekend, with a film many critics are heralding as one of the greatest ever made. It’s rare for that particular statement to be uttered, usually ‘outstanding’, ‘unmissable’ and ‘unforgettable’ suffice. It’s even less common for this declaration to target a story about slavery in the U.S. Furthermore, for that work to come from a British-born, black director, namely the celebrated Steve McQueen, marks a complete anomaly.
Spurious predictions (Best Picture at next month’s Oscars being one common theory) and praise aside, the unarguably powerful story behind 12 Years A Slave, wherein Solomun Northup starts out a free man from the northern states before being abducted and forced into servitude in the Deep South, certainly warrants attention. Few major motion pictures dare to tackle this embarrassing chapter in global history, and a smaller number still do so with such brutal realism. It also marks the start of a loose trend set to dominate theatres throughout this year, or the first few months at least.
History, it seems, is very much back on the agenda for big studio output. Next month the glossy and impressively rendered, albeit cartoonish Pompeii retells of Mt Vesuvius’ 79AD eruption, which wiped the eponymous Roman city out leaving behind a town-sized museum full of scorched silhouettes. Meanwhile, Stalingrad’s trailer suggests a gung-ho take on one of World War II’s most famous battles. Arriving around the same time, we’ll have to see if the finished product proves weightier and more sensitive than the advertising clip suggests.
And then we have The Monuments Men, a title everyone was eagerly awaiting last year but had to be delayed. Opening 14th February, director and star George Clooney, Matt Damon, John Goodman, Bill Murray and more help retell of how museum curators and historians became Allied soldiers on a mission to save priceless works of artistic and cultural importance from Hitler’s grasp. By all accounts it looks great. As does the far more fictitious 300: Rise of An Empire, inspired by Frank Miller’s graphic novels, which in themselves are loosely based on what’s known about ancient Greece, with a healthy dose of dramatic embellishment thrown in for good measure.
The list could go on (a new vision of Hercules, for example, will also be unveiled this year), but you probably get the point. As such let’s skip to something different, namely Spike Jonze’s Her, the tale of a writer who falls in love with his operating system, which begins screening nationwide from 14th February. Meanwhile, Wes Anderson’s typically quirky looking comedy murder mystery set in an exclusive hotel during the interwar period, Grand Hotel Budapest, should also be worth a punt on 7th March. Both will hopefully prove to be every bit as accomplished and mature as either director’s previous outings.
Anyone with a penchant for Eastern cinema should make a note of The Rocket. Set in Laos, a young boy is branded as bad luck and blamed for a string of local disasters, before being forced to move after his family lose their home. More important, though, is the deeply emotive way in which this character, and those around him, try to overcome and look beyond the tragedy that is their war-torn country; a key reason attendees at festivals across the globe fell head over heels for the yarn last year, and why we’ll certainly be in line to examine from Friday 14th March.
Closer to home, and acclaimed UK filmmaker Jonathan Glazer presents his third feature length work the same weekend. As you might expect from a man whose background includes experimental music videos and slick commercials, the simplistic premise behind Under The Skin- a female alien preying on Scottish hitchhikers- is made thoroughly surreal through some exceptional directorial techniques and aesthetic tricks.
Moving forward- although not forgetting expensive sci-fi in the form of Last Days On Mars and Transcendence, superhero fun from The Amazing Spiderman 2 along with Captain America: The Winter Soldier- and Richard Ayoade’s latest effort, a version of Dostoevsky’s The Double, should also be amongst spring’s highlights, arriving on 4th April. Offering doppelganger drama via the hands of the rising practitioner (who went from small screen comedy man in The I.T. Crowd to promising director via 2010’s startlingly original coming of age tale, Submarine), it’s further proof that 2014 is shaping up to be quite the year in cinemas. And to think we haven’t even found room for May yet.
