2014 @ The Movies Archives - February

Below is a monthly compilation of my 128 2014 film reviews originally published on Facebook:

February 1 2014 through February 28 2014:

2014 @ the movies take 10: "Oscar Live Action Shorts 2014" a so-so selection this year. The strongest entries were from France and the UK. "Avant que de tout perdre" has a great narrative structure and never falls into the syrupy pathos trap that comes with portraying victims - trap where the Spanish & Danish entries jump with both feet... The British entry pokes at religion in a very unique an funny way. The last short of the selection is an honest and fresh laugh from Finland :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpGOaR1bTac

2014 @ the movies take 11: "Labor Day" I believed in you during 1h31m and you died like a over-baked peach pie in your last 20 minutes. You were subtle, well-acted, thought-provoking (in spite of spider-man delivering a redundant voice over), but you couldn't stop, you had to wrap up everything in a pretty bow and turn Spider-man into a pastry chef. We don't care! The film is not about him! I should have known that the mention "and Tobey Maguire" in the opening credits was a bad omen... Sorry Kate Winslet & Josh Brolin even my rant is all about Spider-Tobey... Go see it and walk out when Dawson picks the kid up for a ride along...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOQL3Xi8dPE

2014 @ the movies take 12: "Sundance Shorts 2014" A very diverse and thought-provoking selection - overall much stronger than the Oscar Live Action Shorts 2014. Bring them back next year Mike Stevens! :) 

My fave - visual poetry:

UNTIL THE QUIET COMES (Kahlil Joseph, USA, 4 min) Shot in the Nickerson Gardens housing projects in Watts, Los Angeles, this film deals with themes of violence, camaraderie and spirituality through the lens of magical realism.

My picks (tie) for best formal deviation for short documentaries:
SKINNINGROVE (Michael Almereyda, USA, 15 min) Photographer Chris Killip chronicled his time spent among the fiercely independent residents of a remote English fishing village.
&
IRISH FOLK FURNITURE (Tony Donoghue, Ireland, 8 min) In this stop-motion animated documentary, 16 pieces of old hand-painted furniture are repaired and returned home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ccO0WAfHnE

2014 @ the movies take 13: "The Monuments Men" It feels like a disjointed "Ocean's 1944" with a token French guy as well. Yes, it is an interesting historical event, but it did not need to be Clooneyified. A well-done documentary would have sufficed. Sorry, Terry Miller Barakat even Bob Balaban gives a lackluster performance. The most thought-provoking aspect of the film remains the plural noun "monuments" used as adjective in the title... but I digress...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CreneTs7sGs

2014 @ the movies take 14: "Robocop" It's slightly better than I thought it would be AKA a solid watchable C+. It is as scary as Fox News, but with imperialist robots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuVphAuRo7Q

2014 @ the movies take 15: "Her" (second viewing, but at The Moxie). Still very strong on a second viewing. It is even more subtly layered than I caught the first time. The use of silent scenes and references to silence oddly jumped at me this time. Hush…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTzCSDOM0JQ

2014 @ the movies take 16: "The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza)" a visual and auditory feast wrapped up in Italian political surrealism and vice-versa. Friends of the beaten paths, stay away. It's good to see there are still vanishing giraffes in Cinecittà.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyt430YkQn0

2014 @ the movies take 17&18: "Oscar Documentary Shorts 2014 Programs A & B" - strong selection this year. Despite the choice of the Academy, my pick of the lot is "Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall." A very powerful study in redemption and the absurdity of incarceration. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14uR69tbdxY

2014 @ the movies take 19: "12 Years a Slave" (2nd viewing). Still powerful and subtle a second time around. I especially love how Steve McQueen takes the time to paint the south as a completely different environment. A fully-deserved best feature film Oscar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrDg_6rxCzs

2014 @ the movies take 20: "Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises)." (English Dub) Hayao Miyazaki's last opus should have been the recipient of the Oscar for best animated feature, and also nominated for best feature. The Wind Rises is not about plot, sirupy singing or snappy dialogues, it captures the drive to create: how craft can lead to beauty and destruction, flight and death. It also captures the Japanese people of the time animating the most vivid and beautiful crowd scenes I have seen. Poetic and realistic, intimate and universal, mechanical and organic, it lifts you like a gust of wind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGr8XDxB-9I