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It's December, and film writers everywhere are putting together their lists of the best films of 2014. But best-of lists are so subjective, so here's our take: ten films from 2014 that are guaranteed to get you thinking, and talking!
Sex addicted woman Joe's story is marked by innumerable sexual encounters with random men. Often it is explicit, and thoroughly unpleasant. It culminates in a pointed statement about societal double standards regarding gender and sex. By contrast, Carol's story about trying to get ahead in a man's world is affirming and uplifting at every turn. Both stories are about women and power, but ultimately Carol's is the more empowering.
When I was 15 I decided not to kill myself. I am still sometimes prone to baseless bouts of depression, but that ragged dark hole has never engulfed me. The main characters in two recent films are notable for deciding to live, rather than lie down and be overrun by dark emotions and events.
The Troubled Artist — for whom self-destruction is a necessary by-product of creation — is a cliché whose ubiquity risks robbing it of tragedy. Gainsbourg is portrayed as a swaggering louche, drinking and chain-smoking his way amid a murky and surreal Parisian backdrop.
The most recognisable Bob Dylan in this multi-Dylan film is infuriating. Hollow, vain and abusive. But also vulnerable and pitiable; an angry animal pacing his cage.
Stephane has an overactive imagination and is prone to bizarre dreams and daydreams. Director Michael Gondry manages to wring plenty of emotion out of his high-concept premise.