lip film club: 2014 vs 2015

The Lip Film Club look back on the year that was and make their resolutions for the new one, answering the two most important questions on the lips of every cinephile: what was the best thing you saw in 2014, and what are you most looking forward to in 2015?

 

JADE BATE  

2014: One of my favourite films of 2014 was Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel; a whimsical, pastel-saturated caper, with pitch black comedy and an amazing cast led by Ralph Fiennes, it was irresistible viewing and an instant favourite. Then there was Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, the film shot over 12 years with the same cast and crew that follows a young boy as he grows up. It’s  an incredibly relatable and realistic film.

2015: The two films that I’m most looking forward to in the New Year are Birdman and Big Eyes. Birdman is a black comedy about a washed up movie star trying to revive his career, starring Michael Keaton, Edward Norton and Emma Stone. Tim Burton’s biopic Big Eyes stars Amy Adams as Margaret Keane, an artist in the 1950s whose husband (Christoph Waltz) takes all the credit for her whimsical paintings of big-eyed children.

 

KATELYN CAMERON

2014: Love, Rosie: If you know me even slightly well, you know that I am sucker for romantic comedies. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that I adored Love, Rosie. This British comedy tells the story of Rosie (Lily Collins) and Sam (Alex Claflin), childhood best friends who fall in love, but are pushed apart over the years by an unexpected baby, different partners, and the space between continents. The movie is heart warming without resorting to the sickly sweet scenarios of some romances – there are no montages of couples sharing popcorn at the movies and smooching on the kiss cam at a baseball game in this film. If you’re the kind of person who is happy to spend a night in with a cup of tea and a stack of Richard Curtis DVDs, Love, Rosie is for you.

2015: If you’re a Pixar fan, you’ll already know that the studio is gearing up to release their next big title, Inside Out. The film is focused on a young girl called Riley, who disgruntledly moves  from the Midwest to San Francisco for her father’s job. Interestingly, Riley’s story is told from the perspective of the emotions in her head – Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust, and Sadness.  Joy (voiced by the great Amy Poehler) takes the lead role in the film, following in the footsteps of 2012’s Brave and its female protagonist. Other great female actors involved in this film include Mindy Kaling, who plays Disgust, and Phyllis Smith, the voice of Sadness. Inside Out is a nice change from male-dominated Pixar films such as Toy Story, Cars, and Monsters, Inc., and I can’t wait to see it.

GIULIANA CINCOTTA

2014: Wes Anderson’s candy-coloured dream of kitschy grandeur, The Grand Budapest Hotel, exceeded every hopeful expectation of mine in what can only be described as a career best of. The dramatic zooms, the eccentric characters and those wonderful title cards in Futura bold. It was as though a friend who had once promised me so much had finally delivered after years of several mediocre attempts. Every Anderson trope is revived as though a gift to long-time admirers, who are further spoilt by a beloved cast so familiar to the Anderson fans that it felt like a family reunion. But best of all, the brilliant casting and visual delights were backed up by an exciting and original storyline and a dense, quick-witted script that meant multiple viewings must be awarded.

2015: Bryan Fuller left the second season of NBC’s Hannibal at a point so tense my palpitations have yet to subside. The relationship between its complex protagonist Will Graham and the infamous cannibal remains at a stand still following the many (mostly lethal) confrontations that graced our television sets each week. My appetite has grown so large in its seasonal absence that I am on the brink of resorting to cannibalism myself…

ROSIE HUNT

2014: One word: Pride. Based on a true story, Pride is a film about a gay and lesbian activist group in London who decide to raise money for Welsh miners during the 1984 strikes in Thatcher’s Britain. This one has it all: an amazing cast (Bill Nighy, Dominic West, Imelda Staunton), a great 80s soundtrack (Karma Chameleon, anyone?) and most importantly, a message about the power of ordinary people supporting each other. Keep tissues on hand!

2015: My most anticipated screen event of 2015 is easily The Beautiful Lie. A six-part drama coming to ABC, this show is being promoted as a modern take on Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. What excites me most is the production team of Imogen Banks and John Edwards, the clever pair who brought us Offspring, Puberty Blues and Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo. The last few years have seen a revival of sorts for Australian drama – let’s hope this continues.

 

KIAH MEADOWS

2014: My favourite thing this year was Carmilla, a fabulous webseries about a journalism student who enlists her brooding, lesbian, vampire roommate and some other great characters to take down some freaky supernatural bad guys. In just 36 short episodes, Carmilla managed to suck me in, tug at my heartstrings, make me ship, and hate, and cry, and yell at my computer, and then still be happy that my ship isn’t canon (yet). It’s just the cat’s pyjamas.

2015: I’m crawling out of my skin in excitement for Australian Justin Kurzel’s film adaptation of Macbeth. Marion Cotillard is Lady Macbeth, which is beyond perfect casting in my opinion. I really think she’ll bring the unhinged creepiness that the character demands.

 

LAUREN STRICKLAND

2014: Although this one technically hit US screens in 2013, it didn’t make it to Australian shores until 2014, so I think it still counts: Spike Jonze’s Her. By far the most visually interesting film I saw this year, it also had the advantage of a screenplay purpose-built for the silver screen, rather than being yet another awkward page-to-screen experience. Joaquin Phoenix gave his usual extraordinary portrayal of a sympathetic oddball as the lead, Theodore, and Scarlett Johanssen breathed unexpected life into her role as the voice of the operating system that Theo falls in love with – the titular Her. Rather than judging Theo’s relationship with an artificial intelligence, Her is graceful, accepting, and kind, and manages to explore the theme of loneliness in an engaging manner. That it creates a character for Johanssen rather than using her as a mere prop for Theodore’s story is what sets Her apart from other films that have attempted to engage philosophically with the ideas of being, existence and AI.

2015: In dramatic opposition to my most-beloved film of 2014, my most-anticipated release of 2015 comes in the form of utterly addictive, ever-so-slightly trashy television: How To Get Away With Murder. Part of me only wants to watch it because it has someone from the Harry Potter films in it – Alfred Enoch, who played Dean Thomas in HP, but (perhaps more relevantly) plays lead Wes Gibbins in HTGAWM. Produced by Shonda Rhimes (Scandal) and starring Viola Davis, How To Get Away with Murder is a legal/criminal drama that centres around a group of students who end up putting their legal training to nefarious use. With a racially-diverse, gender-balanced cast and an intriguing premise, I am very curious to see if this show lives up to the hype.

image credits: imdb.com