Alright I know it’s already Feb but I just need to post my yearly Award season. My own personal Oscars, if you may. So here you go:
5. Beginners
I was genuinely surprise when I finished watching this movie. I thought this would be your average sweet rom-com, but boy I couldn’t be more wrong. Here’s a movie that examines relationship, fear, and tragedy without losing its charm. Ewan McGregor plays Oliver who is dealing with his father (played brilliantly by Christopher Plummer) who just comes out of the closet and embrace his newfound identity as a Gay man. In a different timeline, sets a couple of months after his father passed away, Oliver is in a relationship with a French actress (Melanie Laurent). As we are going through different phase of Oliver’s life, we were shown about his difficult past and how it’s affecting him until now. With its undeniably attractive cast and great narrative tools, Beginners excels due to its examination of Oliver’s complex and conflicting character. It’s a bit heady and philosophical in some point but the movie never failed to charm its audience, making it one of the nicest surprise of the year.
4. Take Shelter
Criminally overlooked during this award season. Michael Shannon gave the performance of the year in portraying a family man haunted by vision of apocalypse. The movie itself successfully blends drama, and thriller that also managed to capture brilliant yet disturbing imagery. What I love most about the movie is that it never falls into a cliche and you won’t know where will it take you. Best thriller of the year.
3. X-Men: First Class
I had my worries about X-Men First Class. Matthew Vaughn is a great director but Fox Studios is the kind of studio that give a lot of pressure and likes to interfere with the creative side of what should be the director’s job. Vaughn didn’t have as much time as he had on Kick-Ass or Stardust, but Vaughn still managed to hit this one out of the park. He managed to dissect the film into what matter most in the X-Men world, the relationship between Xavier and Magneto. We see how their friendship blossom, 2 completely different personalities from different background that managed to be best friends, only to be undone by society’s view of what they are, Mutants. It’s really great seeing the chemistry between McAvoy and Fassbender as the two characters. All of the cast and crew has just been confirmed to return for a sequel. I’m a happy man.
2. The Ides of March
As far as politics-themed movie go, Ides of March doesn’t contribute anything new to the genre but that doesn’t stop it to be a great movie. Using elements that’s already been examined by tons of other movies, the movie worked because of its brilliant cast and wonderfully written script. Clooney did a great job in writing and directed the movie. Although his character in the movie is under-utilised, he managed to keep the pace of the film and deliver an emotional punch through its complex characters. His finesse in directing are shown in the scene which involved Clooney character’s press conference and followed by the next scene which is the confrontation between him and Gosling in the kitchen of a restaurant. Those 2 scenes are masterfully shot into perfection. Those plus the ambiguos ending is exactly what made this film so great. It might not be a classic but it’s one of the most exciting experience in movies last year.
1. Drive
There’s one thing that I can be sure of last year, Drive is the movie to beat (at least by my standard). A lot of people might be thrown off by the movie because it seemed like they’re getting a full on drive & action film a la Fast & Furious or Ronin, but this is not it. This is a whole lot better than that. Drive is a moody crime drama about a stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver and gets tangled in a heist gone wrong. The unnamed Driver (Ryan Gosling) is someone who you can’t predict. We, as audience, don’t know anything about him. Where he came from, how did he get so good at what he’s doing, heck we didn’t even know his name. The first get away action scene is a great way to show the character. We see that Driver is cool, calm, and calculated. Almost showed no emotion when he’s under pressure. The whole scene was handled superbly by director Nicolas Winding Refn. He opted to shoot an action scene where our Driver tried to disappear into thin air, rather than putting his feet on the gas and run over the police.
Underneath his cool and almost nihilistic exterior, he can’t help to fall for his new neighbour Irene (Carey Mulligan). From there, the plot kicks on. Irene’s husband is a criminal who just about to get released from prison. Driver offers his expertise to help him and it all went to hell. Having only few dialogues to show what the character’s about, Ryan Gosling did a great job with his action and mannerism. The real star of the movie is director Nicolas Winding Refn. He made some bold decision with the 80’s feel soundtrack and choosing to show more than talk, but those decisions paid off. This is the movie that could be so different if it were directed by another person, but I’m glad he’s behind this. Best of the film of the year, no question at all about it.
Honorable mentions: 50/50, Midnight in Paris, Rango.
