{"id":2793,"date":"2014-12-31T01:57:41","date_gmt":"2014-12-31T01:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=2793"},"modified":"2016-09-13T22:17:03","modified_gmt":"2016-09-13T22:17:03","slug":"the-best-of-films-the-worst-of-films-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/the-best-of-films-the-worst-of-films-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"The best of films, the worst of films: 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lauren Rosewarne<\/a>, University of Melbourne<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

So it\u2019s that time of year when everything gets boiled down to arbitrary lists of ten.<\/p>\n

The top ten uses for milk crates in caf\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

The ten most mawkishly reported news stories.<\/p>\n

The ten most offensive things my uncle said at Christmas. (For the record, him calling me \u201cToots\u201d comes a close second to his casual use of \u201cboong\u201d over his pudding).<\/p>\n

But, truth be told, I\u2019m pretty much only interested in the movies.<\/p>\n

Compiling my top five was effortless: Nightcrawler<\/a> was 2014\u2019s equivalent of Drive<\/a>, a much-loved favourite from 2011. And Rosewater<\/a> seamlessly slid into second spot because months on and I\u2019m still so surprised at how crazily it was. And just because I continue to sing \u201cEverything is Awesome\u201d – and because that wretched earworm sits so gloriously disharmoniously with my cynicism – The Lego Movie<\/a> of course, makes the cut.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The remaining five however, were a tad more of a tussle. I was, for example, more entertained by The Equalizer<\/a> than by Her<\/a>, but objectively Her<\/em> was the better film. Birdman<\/a> was pretty good, sure, but if I only gave it a 6.5 when I left the cinema, in good faith I couldn\u2019t possibly elevate it to top-ten status. Equally, feeling sorry to see Transcendence<\/a> in so many \u201cworst films\u201d lists is probably not<\/em> reason enough to slot in it, even if it was actually quite decent.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Worth noting, the social scientist in me feels obliged to note that there seems something a wee bit challenging about writing a Best of 2014 list without actually having seen everything released.<\/p>\n

Years ago for example, I did a interview with a newspaper about one of those \u201cwhich country has the best lovers?\u201d rubbish surveys. In lieu of the funny quip that the journo wanted, I chose the opportunity to highlight the substantial methodological flaw: unless the same person had sex with a decent sample of lovers from every single country then the study was malarkey rubbish. I\u2019m not sure I convinced her.<\/p>\n

But of course I digress.<\/p>\n

Research methods aside, I\u2019d say I saw more films than the average person. Something attributable to having lived in the US for three months and having had access to both $6 cinema tickets and lashings of time. Something that makes me feel less guilty about handing out gold stars and, conversely, lumps of coal.<\/p>\n

So without further jibber jabber, my top ten:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Nightcrawler
    \n
    <\/figure>\n<\/li>\n
  2. Rosewater
    \n
    <\/figure>\n<\/li>\n
  3. The Grand Budapest Hotel
    \n
    <\/figure>\n<\/li>\n
  4. The Lego Movie
    \n
    <\/figure>\n<\/li>\n
  5. The Theory of Everything
    \n
    <\/figure>\n<\/li>\n
  6. Mistaken for Strangers
    \n
    <\/figure>\n<\/li>\n
  7. The Little Death
    \n
    <\/figure>\n<\/li>\n
  8. Tim\u2019s Vermeer
    \n
    <\/figure>\n<\/li>\n
  9. The Skeleton Twins
    \n
    <\/figure>\n<\/li>\n
  10. Her
    \n
    <\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Two casual observations:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. I haven\u2019t actually written much about most of these films. Which I think points to my relatively firm belief that thinking too much about anything beloved strips some of the joy.<\/li>\n
    2. Films 5 through 10 probably don\u2019t fare particularly well if compared to others across a period longer than 12 months. Good films yes, probably not enduring<\/em> ones though.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      And, because mocking the turkeys is even more fun than lauding the brilliant: my list of 2014\u2019s crappiest crap:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. The Guest
        \n
        <\/figure>\n<\/li>\n
      2. Horns
        \n
        <\/figure>\n<\/li>\n
      3. No Good Deed
        \n
        <\/figure>\n<\/li>\n
      4. Annie
        \n
        <\/figure>\n<\/li>\n
      5. Labor Day
        \n
        <\/figure>\n<\/li>\n
      6. Under the Skin
        \n
        <\/figure>\n<\/li>\n
      7. Sex Tape
        \n
        <\/figure>\n<\/li>\n
      8. A Most Wanted Man
        \n
        <\/figure>\n<\/li>\n
      9. Calvary
        \n
        <\/figure>\n<\/li>\n
      10. The Homesman
        \n
        <\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Two quick comments:<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. Cameron bloody Diaz<\/a>! After The Box<\/a> I swore I\u2019d never make the mistake of seeing anything else with her name attached. How quickly one forgets.<\/li>\n
        2. Was Rose Byrne<\/a> performing in Annie<\/a> under duress?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Cheers, Happy new year<\/a> and here\u2019s hoping that 2015 brings us many a celluloid pleasure!<\/p>\n

          \"The<\/p>\n

          This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>.
          \nRead the           original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          By Lauren Rosewarne, University of Melbourne So it\u2019s that time of year when everything gets boiled down to arbitrary lists of ten. The top ten uses for milk crates in caf\u00e9s. The ten most mawkishly reported news stories. The ten most offensive things my uncle said at Christmas. (For the record, him calling me \u201cToots\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":8062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2793"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8063,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions\/8063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}