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2014 Foreign Film Oscar Analysis

2014 was an amazing year for US cinema, but also a genuinely terrific period for international movies as it gave us some of the greatest foreign films of the decade. The Oscars did nominate some of the best films of the year, but the wrong film ended up winning, which happens way too often unfortunately.

My Ranking of the Nominees:

5. Ida

Yes, Ida ended up winning the award, but it is by far the worst nominee in this particular year. That is not to say that it’s a bad movie. Certainly not as it looks incredible with its classic European arthouse feel and a great channeling of the 60s black-and-white aesthetic. However, visuals don’t make movies amazing, and this one is so slight in its very thin storyline and so boring in its overly slow pace that it simply failed to engage me properly. Pawlikowski just copied much better directors and movies without making anything original himself.

4. Timbuktu

Timbuktu is an important movie about a serious subject matter that is the Islamists in Mauritania and how horrible their actions are toward the regular folk in this country. It’s thus a good lesson about this rarely seen region in cinema and it’s definitely quite moving. The sophisticated tackling of hypocrisy when it comes to religious fundamentalism was the highlight, but the structure did not appeal to me, the characters were too numerous and the third act was quite inferior in its plot development to the rest of the film.

3. Tangerines

While the third act is weaker than the rest of this film, much in the same vein as the above entry, Tangerines is still a very solid chamber drama that benefits from excellent characterization and outstanding performances across the board. The movie is simplistic in its message, but it still works as this important anti-war parable that offers us a glimpse into the early nineties War in Abkhazia and just how fraught the relationships between these neighboring countries are.

2. Leviathan

Superbly acted, masterfully directed, wonderfully scripted, relevant and powerful, Leviathan is a terrific film by all means and a shameless Oscar rob. The pacing isn’t great, but this is such an important film with great social commentary, it explores some very thorny issues, it is emotionally intense and very difficult to watch due to its immense realism. It is such a superbly crafted film that ranks among the best foreign movies of 2014 and one of the best Russian films in recent memory. It should have won an Oscar without a doubt.

1. Wild Tales

I loved the above film, but Wild Tales was my personal favorite foreign film from the 2014 season due to its sheer entertainment values. This is one of the most fun movies in this entire decade and one of the best genre-benders out there as it mixes comedy and thriller in fabulous fashion. It’s also one of the greatest anthologies ever made as its segments all have a thematic point and almost all are incredible in their own right. Watching this highly cinematic, thrilling and hilarious film reminds you just how great cinema can be.

Films That Should Have Been Nominated:

Force Majeure – Exploring the responsibilities of parenthood and fraught marriage, this Ruben Ostlund masterpiece was shamefully snubbed by the Academy, but it remains a beautifully written, thought-provoking, emotional and very grounded film that is consistently engaging despite its slow pace.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night – Of course there was no way that the Academy would ever nominate a horror movie in this category, but A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night remains one of the best horrors probably of all time and one of the most artistic ones for sure. The black-and-white aesthetic is gorgeous and its atmosphere is terrific too.

PK – PK is one of the funniest Bollywood movies out there. It isn’t for everyone, but for SF comedy fans, it’s a gem for sure. The plot is surprisingly sophisticated in themes while the central performance from Aamir Khan is reliably charismatic and this character is just so much unabashed fun as is the whole flick.