Another year, another diverse range of bold, brilliant and creative filmmaking.
While you will find no shortage of articles celebrating the films that audiences and critics have deemed the year’s best, as usual many great films have slipped by under the radar. Some were given only limited releases, or once-off festival screenings. Others went straight to DVD or digital formats. A few were not even granted those luxuries.
The list of films below focuses on films that did fly under the radar for one reason or another. For that reason, many excellent independent, arthouse and foreign language titles - such as Ida, Two Days One Night, Under the Skin, Boyhood and Mr Turner - have been excluded, as they enjoyed comparatively comfortable releases and solid box office returns. You should still totally watch them, of course.
At Berkeley:
Fredrick Wiseman’s documentary sounds intimidating, but when viewing it’s anything but. Four hours fly by as Wiseman’s camera observes the people of Berkeley University. Unhurried though it may be, it’s an endlessly fascinating microcosm, capturing everything from the lecture halls to administrative meetings. The careful editing allows themes and common threads to emerge at their own pace, and differing perspectives are given ample space to breathe.
A masterclass in documentary filmmaking, and a reason to hope Wiseman’s National Gallery enjoys some decent distribution in 2015.
Exhibition:
I had a strongly negative reaction to director Joanna Hogg’s last film Archipelago. Perhaps lowered expectations led me to be so pleasantly surprised by Exhibition, then. Set pretty much entirely in a modernist home built by architect James Melvin, it’s a potently subtle and carefully controlled film. Hogg explores how the house has effectively absorbed one couple’s secrets, memories and dreams; their moments of strife, uncertainty and joy. Exhibition is most definitely not for everyone, but give it a go and it might surprise you too.
Exhibition is available on Netflix, DVD and VOD.
Goodbye To Language:
Here’s a cruel joke: pretty much the only film you ever need to watch in 3D skipped a proper theatrical release (a single showing at the IFI French Film Festival aside) and went straight to DVD and Blu-Ray. It’s a real shame, because GTL sees Jean-Luc Godard - well into his 80s - vigorously experimenting with form in a way that puts even the most experimental of younger directors to shame. Some of his provocative uses of 3D cinematography are among the most startling cinematic moments of this or any recent year.
Beyond the brilliant (and very witty) presentation, this is very much modern Godard - full of literary allusions, fractured storytelling, formal playfulness and political commentary. One viewing is nowhere near sufficient to get a proper grip on a film this defiantly challenging. Goodbye to Language proves that Godard remains cinema’s greatest troll - and I mean that in the nicest possible way.
Goodbye to Language is available on DVD, 3D Blu-Ray and VOD.
The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness:
A documentary for the Studio Ghibli fanatic. Director Mami Sunada is granted intimate access to the great animation studio during the production of The Wind Rises and (the as yet unreleased in Ireland) The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. It offers some genuine insight into the mind and method of the legendary Hayao Miyazaki as he works on his apparently final film - spending time in the company of such a genius is a treat indeed. Appearances from other great anime directors like Ghibli's other resident genius Isao Takahata and Evangelion's Hideaki Anno are equally delightful.
It goes well beyond a mere making-of, and there’s a thoughtful, even sombre mood maintained throughout the film’s two hours. One for the fans for sure, but then one would be hard-pressed to find a cinema fan who is indifferent or hostile towards Ghibli.
The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness is available on DVD and VOD.
Manakamana:
11 static shots. That’s all there is in Manakamana. Each one is around eight-and-a-half minutes long, and captures either the upwards or downwards journey of a Nepalese cable car transporting passengers to a mountainous Hindu temple. Easily the slowest and most sedate film on this list - the film’s first two shots don’t even feature any speech - those who commit to Manakamana’s unique pacing and style will experience beautiful and insightful moments.
While the film is often meditative and very subtle in its exploration of themes, there are more immediate pleasures too - such as a lively music session and a surprisingly hilarious sequence involving a melting ice-cream.
Manakamana will be released on DVD and VOD in February.
Night Moves:
Kelly Reichardt returns with another acutely observed and intelligent drama. Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard play three ‘eco-terrorists’ planning to blow up a dam. In many ways, this has a traditional thriller formula - the mood is one of suspicion, nervousness and tension. But Reichardt, as usual, handles it with uncommon artfulness. She is reluctant to judge or comment on the actions of the characters, and the film therefore offers the viewer much food for thought without ever feeling like a sermon.
Night Moves will be released on DVD and VOD in January.
Short Peace:
An unusual project that features four anime shorts and an accompanying game. To be honest, it’s the game - a very, very short and simple 2D platform game from maverick designer Suda 51 - that lets the side down, despite some entertainingly unhinged cutscenes. The anime omnibus itself achieves a consistent level of quality that is very unusual for an anthology film. All four shorts - including one directed by Akira’s Katsuhiro Otomo, and another based on one of his stories - are surreal and imaginative looks at fantastical versions of Japan’s present and future.
Short Peace is available as a bundle with Playstation 3 game Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day
Snowpiercer:
It’s a travesty that the wonderful Bong Joon-ho’s dystopian masterpiece was barely even afforded the opportunity to fly under the radar. A dispute between the director and Harvey Weinstein meant the - thankfully uncut - film received a shamefully low key release in the US, but hasn’t even been properly released in the UK and Ireland yet. This is one worth importing: Snowpiercer is a boldly allegorical science-fiction film that, with a fraction of the budget, shames every single blockbuster released this year.
The setup - the poorest group on a train endlessly barrelling through a post-apocalyptic wasteland decide to revolt and confront the ark’s ‘leader’ - is simple, but the drama and social commentary inherent in the premise is explored to its fullest. The film also has a number of remarkable and stylish setpieces - a mid-film torchlight battle scene stands out, as does a devilishly comic visit to the train’s classroom / brainwashing carriage. This is a film that offers some visceral genre thrills while also being incredibly smart. Track it down however you can (and hopefully it will belatedly reach Irish shores in 2015) - Snowpiercer demands to be seen.
A Touch of Sin:
The brilliant Jia Zhangke returns with this epic, damning commentary on contemporary China. Following a number of protagonists, each the victim or perpetrator of an act of violence, Touch of Sin is a dark thriller with deep sociological and emotional depths. While many of the acts in the film are unforgivable, Zhangke explores with frightening clarity the corruption, inequality and cruelty that pushes these characters to the edge. Devastating and vitally important filmmaking.
A Touch of Sin is available on DVD and VOD.
Why Don’t You Play in Hell?:
Described as Tarantino-esque by many, Sion Sono’s wild satire goes in the dark and bizarre directions Quentin hasn’t explored in many years. Telling the tale of a group of amateur filmmakers who get involved in a yakuza war, Sono’s film - his most playful since the terrific Love Exposure - takes its time (too much time, possibly) establishing the wacky setup before having it all implode in a hyperactive, bloody climax. While it offers many blackly comic genre thrills, it also pushes norms in dark and ultimately disturbing directions that boldly critique the very same things it seemingly fetishises.
Why Don’t You Play in Hell? is a rush, and offers a good reason to be hyped up for Sono’s Tokyo Tribes, which is set for a cinema and DVD release early next year.
