We’ve crunched, calculated and collated the top ten lists of all DN’s writers, which means we can now bring you a beautifully condensed list of the 10 feature films which represent our collective cinematic tastes for 2014.
10. BOYHOOD | Richard Linklater
Everything has already been said about Linklater’s ridiculous cinematic experiment. Maybe the most ridiculous thing is how impressive it is in pretty much every way and how creatively and intellectually lazy he made pretty much every other filmmaker on the planet look in one fell (well 12 years in the making) swoop. [Neil]
9. IDA | Paweł Pawlikowski
https://youtu.be/oXhCaVqB0x0
Ida plays like a long lost classic, beautiful, quiet with a whiff of the devil. A measured, heartbreaking and warm gem from Pawel Pawlokski . [Jeanie]
8. BORGMAN | Alex van Warmerdam
Borgman was a film I knew nothing about before watching. Only coming to my attention because of a tweet by filmmaker Riley Stearns that appeared in my stream and caught my eye, van Warmerdam’s film is a unique blend of suspense, mystery and down right weirdness. Described as a ‘dark suburban fable exploring the nature of evil in unexpected places’, Borgman is a difficult film to summarise. Managing to feel both tense and comedic in equal measure, it’s hard not to see van Warmerdam’s movie and not be reminded of the work of other boundary-pushing European directors like Haneke or Von Trier. If possible try to avoid reading anything else about Borgman, just track it down on VoD or Blu-ray and strap yourself in for a slice of the surreal. [El Vez]
7. A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT – Ana Lily Amirpour
A black and white Iranian Vampire Western which has an accompanying graphic novel and a kick-arse soundtrack to boot – how on earth could that NOT be my favourite film of 2014. In her debut feature A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night Ana Lily Amirpour populates the ghost-town of Bad City with a lively band of distinct, colourful characters, stalked through the city’s depravity by a stoic, skateboarding, chador wearing vampire.
Amirpour is a director who wears her cinematic influences proudly (and literally) on her chest, yet whose work is in no way derivative or defined by what has come before. Also any filmmaker who can loves Die Antwoord as much as we do will always have a home here at DN. [MarBelle]
6. COHERENCE | James Ward Byrkit
Crawling into your head and really fucking-with-it, James Ward Byrkit’s character-driven lo-fi Sci-Fi Coherence is a film destined to linger in your mindspace long after viewing. Watching the film cold, having seen no press on it – except a friend’s recommendation on Facebook – its taut and unexpected narrative had me wound around its little finger for its packed run-time. It’s one of those films that’s so immersive and so tense, you don’t actually realise that you’ve been shouting advice at the characters for the last 10-minutes. Avoiding fancy FX, slick post-production and lavish photography the film adopts an almost documentary style approach, to add a sense of realism to the film that makes it even more unsettling to watch. [El Vez]
5. NYMPHOMANIAC: VOLUME I & II – Lars von Trier
Cheating, but two separate films that I had to watch one after the other because I loved them. Charlotte Gainsbourg plays Joe who is attacked and saved by a passerby. As he tends to her back home he gets an erotic earful of everything that she has got up to over the years. Two films to explain why Joe got a beating in the first place, but an enjoyable few hours spent in an exhausting, sexual world that soon loses its eroticism due to the matter of fact tone Gainsbourg employs. [Miss D]
4. WE ARE THE BEST! | Lukas Moodysson
This is a gloriously celebratory movie about outsiders and individuality (as well as what it means to be a girl in a male dominated society) that also has some of the funniest moments and greatest music of the year. [Neil]
3. HER | Spike Jonze
A masterpiece that I thoroughly enjoyed – again, a lot written about this one but the exploration of the emotional and sensual relationship between one man and his operating system was enjoyable if a little frightening. [Miss D]
2. BLUE RUIN – Jeremy Saulnier
Jeremy Saulnier takes the everyman set on the path to revenge cinema staple and places it in the messy, blundering reality of the real world with stomach churning, edge of the seat results. Not to mention Macon Blair’s haunted performance at the centre of Blue Ruin, which brings a humanity and empathy to a character who has been lost for a long time but never loses the audience. [MarBelle]
1. UNDER THE SKIN | Jonathan Glazer
Time for a little honesty – I think if my level of expectancy wasn’t so high going in to watch Jonathan Glazer’s third feature, it’d almost definitely be sitting on the top of my pile right now. Whilst that may sound a strange way to a judge film (surely if it’s good enough, it’s good enough right?), surprise and the expectation plays a large for me when it comes to enjoying films and even though I loved Under the Skin…I knew I would. Leaving us waiting 10-years for his latest feature (2004’s Birth was his last), Under the Skin is by far the director’s strongest, most fascinating film so far. More of an experience than a movie, Glazer’s film immerses you in its science fiction narrative and leaves you feeling uncomfortable, unnerved and even somewhat distraught throughout its 108min run-time. [El Vez]
