As per the last couple years, I'm going to give a quick rundown of my favorite movies, books, and general finds from the past year... A little different from the last couple years: I'm trying to keep things brief. Fewer "honorable mentions" or "runners-up," shorter explanations/justifications - let's stick with the best, and then go from there.
At the start of the year, my literary goal was to give Stephen King a chance and venture through his Dark Tower series... I'm about a hundred pages from completing that goal; and while it's been fun, there were a few detours along the way. I started writing a short story, and the further along I went, the more bizarre and experimental it became... To keep up my inspiration, I sought out experimental literature. Enter House of Leaves.
Let me say up front: House of Leaves is not an easy book to read. Never mind the main storyline (which is fairly straightforward), or the footnotes/extracts/appendices so extensive they could be their own novel... I mean the book itself is hard to read. Danielewski puts you square in the minds of his characters, so much so that the text reflects their experiences. Best example: the titular "house" has a mysterious room which shouldn't be there - a room so vast and infinite a team of explorers and videographers get lost inside it... and it just may be haunted.
To convey the confusion, paranoia, and labyrinthine nature of the room, a whole section of the book is written as a maze. Think about that: you'll read a paragraph, which sends you to a paragraph a few pages ahead, which sends you to another paragraph a few pages back, which sends you to a paragraph on the same page but printed sideways... Or there's another page where a character falls and twists through the air, so the letters and words twist upside-down and rightside-up... This goes on for some time, and I'll admit it can be infuriating, but the payoff is so rewarding. You become invested in the story, and it's really a beautifully devastating book. It's trickery in the name of artistry, and by the end your heart will be cracked.
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| The whole book isn't like this, but this is the most extreme example |
BEST TV SHOW - Breaking Bad (specifically, "Ozymandias")
I pretty much got on board with Breaking Bad during the third season; and I've loved everything ever since. They ratcheted things into overdrive, though, with "Ozymandias" - which is probably the single greatest episode of television I've ever seen. Fast-paced, dramatic, shocking, well written, well acted, well directed, subtle, exciting... any positive description you can think of, just apply it to this episode and it still won't be enough. The first time I've actually rewatched an episode just for the joy of it.
BEST MOVIE (DISC) - Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger)
A "classic" I'd never seen, Anatomy of a Murder deserves its status as one of the great courtroom thrillers. A very smart, frank film about sex, rape, murder, and the justifications and excuses for all of those things - it's also got great music and cinematography to go along with it. We loved it!
BEST BAND - Lamb of God
I've gotten more and more into metal music as I've gotten older (while simultaneously refining a long-standing love of jazz and Chick Corea), and this year I started to really love Lamb of God.
Normally, this would be too heavy and intense, but I don't know... something about it has been sticking with me. A lot of it goes back to my love of drumming - and the percussion of Lamb of God is pretty obvious, even without musical training. Not just the work of double-bass virtuoso Chris Adler, but the music itself. The bass, the guitars, even the growling screams of Randy Blythe - all of it in the service of hitting you hard and leaving you breathless. They're not writing songs, these are sonic assaults. I love it.
For a long time, it seemed nothing would beat Rob Zombie's masterpiece, The Lords of Salem; I saw that in April 2013, and it took a DVD rental in January 2014 to finally knock it from the top spot.
Carruth's shoestring epic Upstream Color had me from the first moment, and it is without question my favorite film of the year. It's a bit like mixing David Lynch with Terrence Malick - that bizarre dream logic carried by soft, lyrical storytelling... it's more a tone poem than a movie, but that's what makes it so captivating. I suppose you could relay the story and try to pin down the narrative (an exercise in futility, if ever there was one), but why bother? It's a film about ideas, emotions, thoughts, gods, demons, life, death, birth, rebirth. If you like great cinematography and visual storytelling, it's a must-see. If you like ham-fisted writing with lengthy diversions and plot-point discussions, it's not the film for you.
This was actually a really good year for movies. The last two years, I could only come up with three movies I felt strongly about... this year I have nine strong recommendations, and a couple others I thought were really good. Below you'll find a list of challenging, interesting, sometimes outright strange movies that break with the norm... and what's really nice? Finally - some VISUAL storytellers! Some are obvious, but you could turn off the sound for most of these and still know exactly what's going on.
(1) Upstream Color
(2) The Lords of Salem
(3) The Act of Killing
(4) Blue Jasmine
(5) Before Midnight
(6) Inside Llewyn Davis
(7) Gravity
(8) Her
(9) Spring Breakers
...other fun ones: American Hustle, The Evil Dead (remake), Mud, About Time, and Warm Bodies.