Eileen Tom on the Movies of 2014

2014: A YEAR IN REVIEW by Eileen Tom

Above: Megan Fox in the infamous "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," produced by Michael Bay

 

To me, 2014 was an odd year for movies.  So while I was asked to create a top ten list for this past year, as I sit here typing on my laptop at the local Starbucks in my beret, I’m still staring at a largely blank white page.  

I’m really just kidding—I’m actually sitting at home in my pajamas and sweater sipping on non-caffeinated tea, because I’m just not as awesome as those people in Starbucks.  What I’m not kidding about are the movies released in 2014.

For me (and probably most other movie-goers), a great film is something that stays with you.  It’s something that you are able to quote months later—you can remember how it made you feel, how it absorbed you so much that you eventually forgot everything else you did the day you watched it.  And it’s a kind of movie that, right now, seems to be in short supply

            I’m not saying that there weren’t amazing films produced in 2014.  It’s just that they have all blended in my mind.  Most of the major releases of 2014 relied heavily on C.G. effects, which, in my opinion meant that their writers didn’t try as hard to engage their audience.  Instead they (wrongly) assumed that everyone would be simply awed by explosions (DANG YOU MICHAEL BAY) and shiny spaceships.

This is part of the reason why diversity in films has fallen off.  Most of the new movies I saw in 2014 were about men in tights (not complaining), so I spent most of the year going to the local movie rental and renting films like “Cabaret” (Fosse, 1970) and “The Godfather” (Coppola, 1970)—old-fashioned movies that did not rely on computer-generated effects to create a story and a cinematic environment.

            Does this mean modern cinema is worthless?  Not necessarily.  Yes, we’ve seen films such as “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (Liebesman, 2014) spit special effects-heavy venom on our childhood memories.  But now that the spectacle of computer graphics has become more common, it’s being used to actually engage audiences in stories, in films like the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy—which, like “The Godfather,” are movies that people will still be renting a couple decades down the line.