Last year, upon posting a year end best list, I wrote something along the lines of “no year is essentially any greater than another for film, we just choose to see the good films more than the bad films.” Maybe I was wrong, maybe I was right. Either way, I suppose my opinion has changed somewhat on the subject, or rather, the subject has somewhat changed my opinion. This years crop of cinematic wonders were no less successful than last years, but for some reason I feel like the wrong films got attention for the wrong reasons. For example, indie auteur Richard Linklater’s coming of age film Boyhood (whose unique production you have no doubt heard of by now), was lauded for illustrating the maturing and aging of a young Texan boy over the course of 12 years. However, upon further examination, the film has glaring flaws and a preachiness that should have been altogether absent from the film. But, Boyhood was the indie film of choice this year, topping numerous best-of lists. It was placed above numerous deserving films like Palo Alto and We Are the Best!, films that are perhaps just as deserving than Boyhood, but were yet more overlooked. Then there are the independent films that aren’t even independent. Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, dubbed by many as “one of the best indie films of the year”, grossed just north of $59,000,000 domestically. This begs the question of whether a film that made just as much as a major studio comedy should be included on lists about independent cinema. It would be nice to see smaller comedies like Listen Up Philip or Suburbanite get attention on film radars instead of big-name, big-money ensemble comedies. So in conclusion, I suppose that the good films were seen more than the bad ones this year (though the second Spider-Man movie made more than a billion worldwide), but part of me feels like smaller films could’ve been pushed a little further at the box office. It’s ultimately irrelevant though, being that opinions are opinions. So without further adieu, here are mine:
