Saturday, December 27, 2014

Finding the Beauty in the Spare: Overlooked movies of 2014

It's the season for 2014 top movie picks.  We are highlighting two movies that were under the radar. Spare and austere, they contain no elaborate costume designs or special effects.  An antidote to high budget blockbuster movies, you will be thinking about these movies months after you see them.

 Agata Trzebuchowska in Ida

Ida
Plot: An orphaned woman in a convent investigates the history and fate of her relatives in post World Wat II Poland.
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski

This film could easily be mistaken for a European Criterian New Wave film circa 1960. It is stark, black and white, and stripped down.  The silent moments with little dialogue are like a January morning after a snowfall. Still.


Tom Hardy in Locke

Locke
Plot: A Birmingham construction manager leaves work in his car and instead of making a left to go home, he makes a right.  We learn where he goes and why in this 90 minute journey that will change his life.
Director: Steven Knight

The entire film takes place in a car and although we hear other people via phone calls we see only one actor.  If you are thinking "tedious" or "an exercise" you would be thinking wrong.  This movie is a great storytelling mystery.


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