December 2 2014 – Here we are once again in the twilight of another jam pack year full of compelling cinematic narratives that run the gamut from mayhem to madness, comedy to comeuppance, cerebral to acerbic and everything in between. Vetting through a bounty of buzz-worthy indie gems, festival favorites, Hollywood blockbusters, International documentaries and theatrical releases that struck a chord with audiences,we present T-Mak Worlds’ Top 10 Movies of 2014.
So for venturesome cinefiles looking to watch an eclectic mix of films, here you go.
10. Tales of the Grim Sleeper – Played at Toronto International (TIFF) Film Festival. (DOCS Program)
Everybody knows Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Charles Manson and Wayne Williams but few outside the South Central Los Angeles area were aware or have even heard of Lonnie Franklin Jr. and his systemic depravity between 1985 and 2010. It would take the award winning filmmaker Nick Broomfield (Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, Biggie and Tupac and Kurt & Courtney) and the unconventional ways in which he unearths stories of abuse that makes Tales of the Grim Sleeper a must see in 2014.
Verdict: 4.5 / 5 Full review here
9. Cub – Played at Toronto International (TIFF) Film Festival (Midnight Madness Program)
The camp and carnage subgenre is simple enough and when done well may infect the conscious of the masses to become a classic. In my opinion, Jonas Govaert’s “Cub” is well on its way. This nimble little screenplay by Govaerts and Roel Mondelaers supplies enough fully funded trickery and mercurial characters to keep you guessing right till the very end. The first half of Cub simmers just below a boil, which is just long enough before it erupts into an all-out explosion of terror and mind-bending deadly hoaxes that will keep you wanting more.
Verdict: 4.5 / 5 Full review here
8. Life Itself – Theatrical Release
Paying it forward has always been good karma in the film industry and when Steve James the award winning filmmaker behind such celebrated documentaries like Hoop Dreams and The Interrupters (both lauded by Ebert) helmed the quintessential documentary on the Pulitzer Prize winning Film Critic Roger Ebert, the circle was complete. Chronicling a life from his early years at the University of Illinois and the Chicago Sun-Times right through to the heydays of the Siskel & Ebert years is truly a life well lived. James saturates the narrative with poignant anecdotes from literary colleagues, endless stills from festival travels around the world and family portraits with Chaz.
Verdict: 4.5 / 5 Full review here
7. Heaven Adores You: The Elliott Smith Project – Played at Canadian Music Week (CMW) Film Festival
The fame game can be fleeting. With so many chasing the spotlight, Elliott Smith would tell you he’s the wrong kind of person to be really big and famous. And yet he found himself nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song “Miss Misery” at the 70th Academy Awards for Gus Van Sant’s Goodwill Hunting. His arrival was a culmination of years of indie folk musings in Portlandia that catapulted Smith into the Simon and Garfunkel of our generation. Director Nickolas Dylan Rossi captured this tortured soul who left us way too soon.
Verdict: 4.5 / 5 Full review here
6. The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz – Played at HOTDOCS Film Festival
The brilliance of youth can sometimes turn tragic. None more so than the programming prodigy and wunderkind Aaron Swartz, whose intersection between copyright legislation, political advocacy and the internet laid bare revolutionary changes with seismic consequences for the one-percent. Director Brian Knappenberger dramatically framed the life of Aaron Swartz around the two year legal odyssey as an advocate for civil liberties with martyr-esque zeal.
Verdict 4.5 / 5 Full review here
5. The Secret Trial 5– Played at HOTDOCS Film Festival
The Secret Trial 5 investigates the rise of Islamophobia and how non-citizens living in Canada with no priors, yet deemed a threat to national security can be detained and deported without ever being charged with a crime. As Canadians, we like to think that when it comes to civil liberties, we are just a little better than our neighbour to the south. The fact is, cold war relics of the past like Security Certificates, which allowed for indefinite detention with no charges being laid on secret evidence created a legal imbalance within the law. All the while the Canadian government keeps saying, “Trust us”. Director, Amar Wala documents each ill-fated case as five separate vignettes with one binding thread woven throughout.
Verdict: 3.5 / 5 Full review here
4. X-Men Days of Future Past – Theatrical Release
Beautifully crafted action sequences have always been part of Bryan Singer’s M.O. and he continues that visceral splendour unabated. With Magneto holed up below the magma of the Pentagon, wonder kid Peter Maximoff, aka Quicksilver (Evan Peters), who’s fleet feet makes the world around him move in super slow mo. During a breathtakingly staged kitchen breakout sequence set to the time honoured Jim Croce classic, “Time in a Bottle”, this silver shagged mod with a biting sense of whimsy, playfully resets the stage by redirecting bullets, punches and body positions into an amalgam of safely maneuvered confusion when his masterpiece eventually goes live. This sequence is a stand-alone thing of beauty. If for no other reason than that awe inspiring sequence, X-Men Days of Future Past is more than worthy of your time.
Verdict: 4.0 / 5 Full review here
3. Highway of Tears – Human Rights Watch (HRW) Film Festival
Dubbed the Highway of Tears, this unforgiving commuter corridor became a serial killer’s playground as vulnerable young women with limited access to social services gambled their lives each time they hitch-hiked. But, this story cuts much much deeper than that. Indian residential schools, negative stereotypes, systemic and socio-economic suppression, mistreatment by authorities, generational poverty and domestic violence have all played a part in allowing this forty year atrocity to fester. With poignant narration by Nathan Fillion of Castle fame setting the tone, this weighty subject matter may run long but never thin. Director Matt Smiley makes no apologies for where the faults lie and isn’t opposed to turning the mirror inward on the aboriginal community if necessary.
Verdict: 3.5 / 5 Full review here
2. 20 Feet From Stardom – Theatrical Release
Their playgrounds are the venerable concert halls, stages, festivals and recording studios throughout the world. Their collaboration on timeless songs and anthems across various musical genres would comprise the better part of most record collections of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. With 20 Feet from Stardom comfortably steeped in a staggering array of memorable performance footage, stills and interviews, Director Morgan Neville’s coherent pacing and unfiltered appreciation for these experiences shines like a beacon as he mines these evolutionary changes with glee.
Verdict: 4.5 / 5 Full review here
1. PREDESTINATION – Toronto After Dark (TAD) Film Festival
As Sci-fi thrillers of the Meta variety go, this critic has endured a plethora of faux reproductions and low brow misses for decades. But all ye who have lost faith fear not, for the Spierig brothers have created a nearly flawless adaptation that will infect and illuminate your subconscious as it did mine. Don’t kid yourself, the mental gymnastics required to square this cinematic circle is daunting at best and that’s what makes the causality loops and hypotheticals so special and worthy of your time. PREDESTINATION is a true meta-fiction with the untenable situations and immersive storytelling required to yield enough emotional freight worthy of that climatic mind altering ending. Clever doesn’t begin to describe the thought processes one will undergo as PREDESTIONATION takes you to their final destination. With PREDESTINATION as their latest calling card, the evolution of the Spierig brother’s career will be on a trajectory that will see then inhabit the lofty confines of such celebrated auteurs such as The Coens and Wachowskis.
Verdict: 5.0 / 5.0 Full review here
We hope you have found a hidden gem in our list and have a great 2015!
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