Best Of 2014: ‘The Big Screen Edition’

4. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I

This sequel is a bestselling book that was broken in half to double the money. That precedent was already set by Harry Potter. Why should Mockingjay – Part 1 be included in such an article if it’s so obviously one half of a film? Because this section of The Hunger Games was very different from the previous two films.

This time around, there are no Hunger Games. For me, that’s a relief. Though the spectacle of the Games were lush in previous films, they always felt… weird, and overwrought. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and President Snow (Donald Sutherland) were able to make up rules as the games went along. Those new rules never made much sense other than the cat-and-mouse approach was able to make a book and movie series out of the Katniss-Snow tit-for-tatness. But Mockingjay – Part 1 isn’t about the games, it’s about making Katniss a presentable hero. It’s a propaganda crew (Natalie Dormer, Elden Henson, Mahershala Ali, Wes Chatham) following her to battle zones so that she can ad-lib a speech of horror at those sights. That speech will be broadcast. So to will that moment she sings a song by a lake will be remixed. Sound bites and soundtracks. That’s the call to arms.

The society that the rebels (led by Julianne Moore and Philip Seymour Hoffman) want to build has a socialist feel to it: equal distribution of goods. But they need a hero, and she’s gotta be strong, she’s gotta be fast, and she’s gotta be fresh from the fight.

3. Birdman

This is classical in tale; A comedy that turns into a great tragedy where even we have contributed to the poor downfalls of the collapsed hero. This single-shot living play is metaphysical in many ways (it discusses itself and its existence more than Riggan Thomson does), and it will become as much of a confused dream/nightmare for you as it does for its lead. You will undeniably laugh, and you will end up feeling awful that you did, especially when you see just how harrowing it is to live in Thomson’s shoes. Everything swirls around you, not much makes sense, there is noise everywhere, and everyone cackles in your direction for the wrong reasons. There is so much creativity shoved into this film that could have easily been just a pity tale, that it’s often difficult to know where to begin or where to continue with its intelligence. That’s why this disguised-drama is best left in your hands. Don’t worry; It’s uplifting, too, and definitely rewarding.