ANDY's Top 10 movies of the year: 3-1
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3. Mommy (review by: Michelle Yeung)
Xavier Dolan’s Mommy follows Diane “Die” Despres (Anne Dorval), a single mother trying to make ends meet. Her teenage son, Steve (Antoine Olivier Pilon), has ADHD and is emotionally unstable; one moment he is sweet-natured and the next he is violent. Along with Kyla (Susanne Clément), a quiet neighbour with an idiopathic stutter and her own troubles, the three form an unusual friendship in hopes that their broken pieces will somehow form a whole.
The performances of Dorval, Pilon, and Clément are operatic in scale, with all three turning in tremendous work. The decision to shoot the film in a 1:1 aspect ratio also augments the film, emphasizing how characters in the story are all confined to some form of a boundary.
Mommy is raw, carnal, and positively engrossing. Like Steve, the film is menacingly incandescent, with heavy scenes of violence and grief punctuated by bursts of humour and the warmth of a mother’s irrefutable, almost desperate, love. Equal measures heartfelt and heartbreaking, Mommy is one of the dearest films in 2014, and will tug at your heartstrings without remorse.
2. Top Five (review by: Tobi Abdul)
The blunt, raunchy, but insightful nature of Chris Rock’s stand-up lends itself brilliantly to Top Five, arguably Rock’s smartest feature to date. The semi-autobiographical film follows Andre Allen (Rock), a sell-out comedian hoping to be taken seriously, and Chelsea Brown (Rosario Dawson), a Times reporter, through a day of self-discovery wrapped up in not-so-subtle chemistry that ultimately satisfies. During the day-long interview, the pair pose the question, “who are your top five all-time favourite rappers” repeatedly to those Allen interacts with. Allen is reminiscent of comedians like Adam Sandler, who once made genuinely funny movies only to fall from grace and continuously make offensively bad movies.
Top Five allows for the exploration into the precariousness of celebrity, selling out, family, and comedy. The movie, which features cameos from Hollywood’s top comedians, strays from the formulaic nature of the modern blockbuster and ostensibly takes us back to a time where movies attempted, not only to entertain, but to also say something.
1. Birdman (review by: Shane Madill)
A star-studded cast, brilliant cinematography, a script that allows for both unforgettable monologues and snappy back-and-forth dialogue across nearly any combination of characters involved, and a total package of a film that demands repeat watches all make for what could very well be the ceiling of what modern cinema is capable of.
Riggan, played by Michael Keaton, is a washed up actor who used to play in a series of superhero movies. His attempt to reclaim legitimacy comes in the form of a stage production of Raymond Carver’s short story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.” This short plot description does not do the film nearly enough justice given the complexity of Riggan’s situation and mental state, how well developed all of the secondary characters are as individuals, and the vastly different relationships that each of these characters have with one another.
Much of the preview and basic media coverage revolves around how the film is set up to look like one long-take, basically that it has minimal cuts or transitions, that most film fan boys enjoy in any usage for how well these shots are usually framed, what climax or point they attempt to build up to, and the requirements and complexity required by the actors in the scene. While Birdman does follow these conventions, the main purpose is to add emphasis to the parallels between the main characters and their roles within the play performed within the movie – this also spills over with the script in self-referential elements such as Michael Keaton’s own experiences with the Batman franchise or Edward Norton being notoriously difficult to work with on set. While the fine line between losing yourself within the universe of the story and these meta components of reminding the watcher of real life events could very easily backfire, it works for the most part in continuing to blur lines between who they are in real life, who they are in the movie, and the parts they play within the play in the movie.
Everything in the film leads itself to brisk, constant action and sensory overload by constantly switching your expectations for the upcoming scene. Every moment is memorable and unique from every other in the film. This is a must-watch.
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