By Teri Bayus
I see just about every picture that comes out, so this list of my favorites was hard to whittle down. It started with 50 movies. This is an eclectic list, strange, wonderful, and weird, littered with cartoons, superheroes, multi movie franchises and independent films.
10. Furious 7 — I know you all groaned when you saw the number after the movie, but sometimes the sequels build upon a concept and nail it in the later films. The cast becomes a well-oiled machine. The audience waits for the familiar and rejoices in being surprised. Plus, this was a tribute to the lead actor, Paul Walker, who was killed, ironically, in a car crash. Yes, it’s cheesy, but the film knows it. The action set pieces are properly shot with little quick cuts and do not induce headaches. The humor is organic and not at the expense of stupid racist gags. The female leads, while attractive, are not sexually objectified. These films are my guilty pleasure and I’ve adored every one.
9. McFarland, USA — Director Niki Caro tells the true story of Jim White. In all underdog sports movies, the emotional journey is a rollercoaster ride, and there is forever a light at the end of the tunnel (that isn’t a train). This film reaches into our California consciousness even deeper, as we all travel past the migrant workers laboring in the fields every day. This movie gives us a heart-wrenching and honest view of their lives.
But this is also a story about community. The athletes are from the poor side of the tracks, not the wrong side, which puts a spin on that stereotypical kid who comes from a family of gang bangers. This movie is highly motivating for all.
8. The Walk — The Walk is the story of Philippe Petit, a street circus performer who in 1974 had the idea of wire walking between the World Trade Center towers. While it may sound simple, the journey is a captivating one. The presentation is almost magical with circus acts and a flamboyant atmosphere Although there are plenty of realistic details and intricate planning involved, at times it almost felt like a funny, heist movie. As a circus veteran myself, this story was lore to my fellow performers and it is brought to life in the best possible way.
7. Me, Earl and The Dying Girl — Have you had a cinematic experience that has left you speechless? Packaged as a quirky, coming-of-age story, this surprising film turns into a magnificent drama with an unexpected depth. Out of the story of a self-centered, teen-age boy comes a portrait of loss, love and life. This independent movie is a rich, creative, emotional, and inspiring narrative. It is so much more than a tale of a teenager diagnosed with leukemia. Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon orchestrates with his inventive cinematic shorthand, creating a quirky gem. It’s an anti-romance with the platonic relationship between the leads, but their chemistry and compassion sparks a delightful giddiness that’s utterly life affirming. It’s a film that felt deeply personal but was soaked in a pure love of cinema.
6. Inside Out — This animated film is the story of a girl and her emotions, as she becomes a teenager and has life changing situations. It is funny and heartfelt. In a wonderful animated way, human psychology is the setting where emotions come to life to tell the story of the chaotic. The somewhat abstract events occurring inside Riley’s head with exceptional attention to detail and an impressive clarity was fun to witness. Between nods to the studio’s classics and the work of Hayao Miyazaki, everything is carefully thought out and perfectly executed, adding an incredible depth and complexity to the amusing spectacle.
5. The Avengers the Age of Ultron — Yes, it is super heroes based on comics. But the Age of Ultron is a wonderful work with strong characters, with a fantastic script by Joss Whedon, who wrote and directed. He described this film as smaller, more personal, and more painful. He felt it was the next thing that should happen to these characters, and not just a rehash of what worked the first time. A theme that was completely fresh and organic to itself. My favorite part of this film was how the characters were handled. There was significant effort put into developing each main character’s personality, motivation and fears. It was so well flushed that I felt more invested in the characters and the outcome of the film. I loved every frame.
4. The End of the Tour — Without a shadow of a doubt, this features one of the best scripts of the year. This film is very dialogue heavy and focused.
Much of the film is made up of scenes of the two main characters, Rolling Stone journalist David Lipsky and author David Foster Wallace, simply talking over the course of the five day interview conducted by Lipsky back in 1996 shortly after the publication of Wallace’s novel “Infinite Jest.” Maybe this appealed to me most because it is about an author (like myself) and how our brains work, but I felt that the leads, Segel and Eisenberg, inhabited their roles.
3. Brooklyn — Nick Hornby brings a precise tangible element to his work showcasing fragility and humor better than most. This is a simple story, but a love story. The storyline is unpretentious — girl travels abroad, boy meets girl, they fall in love, girl leaves, it gets complicated, and then it is resolved. Brooklyn plays out with an understated approach. It’s genuine and from the heart. An honest and deeply poignant journey that, much like all great tales, takes us on an emotional roller coaster. Everyone in the theater cried, but it was worth every Kleenex.
2. The Martian — I expected to hate this movie, but loved every frame. The Martian is a Ridley Scott classic; his best work in years. It has the best performance I’ve ever seen from Matt Damon, as the lead taking a boring situation and making it believable and sometimes fun. It also had an outstanding supporting cast, and a surprisingly funny screenplay by Drew Goddard. The film itself is visually stunning and feels like an exceptionally made biopic. Martian’s intelligence complements the convincing special effects, believably fallible but professional and determined characters, and the realistic depiction of the problems and triumphs of space agency bureaucracy and more importantly space exploration, to make an absorbing and involving movie. This marriage is crafted beautifully.
1. Star Wars — No spoilers here, as my full review will be after the New Year, but J.J. Abrams has crafted a film so perfect, with an homage to the original movies and fans. I saw it twice on opening day. I will see it again, and then own it. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time and my heart was pounding in the more intense scenes. The theater collectively laughed at the humor, gasped at the plot reveals, and cheered for the heroes in the moments of triumph. It gave us glimpses of the original plot, set pieces and thru-lines without even mentioning them, so us “geeks” simply shuddered with ecstasy.
I loved that the new cast members were relative unknowns, and that the original cast was honored with their age, not asking them to complete ridiculous tasks.
I was astonished, time and again, by how meticulously balanced this film turned out — here’s something new, and there’s a reference to something old. Abrams brought back Star Wars the way it was meant to be. The Force is strong with this one.
Teri Bayus can be reached at: [email protected] or follow my writing and ramblings at: www.teribayus.com. Teri is also the host of Taste Buds, a moving picture rendition of her reviews shown on Charter Cable Ch. 10. Dinner and a Movie is a regular feature of Tolosa Press.
