The 3rd Annual Cinema Touch Awards!

by

Julien Faddoul

Welcome to the 3^rd Annual Cinema Touch Awards for 2014.

Here are my favourite cinematic achievements of the year in several categories. Enjoy!

PICTURE

DIRECTOR

SPECIAL CITATION

ACTOR

ACTRESS

SUPPORTING ACTOR

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

CINEMATOGRAPHY

PRODUCTION DESIGN

COSTUME DESIGN

FILM EDITING

ENSEMBLE CAST

SOUND MIXING/SOUND EDITING

VISUAL EFFECTS/MAKEUP

ORIGINAL SONG

ORIGINAL SCORE

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

ANIMATED FILM

TOP 5 OPENINGS

TOP 5 ENDINGS

TOP 20 SCENES OF THE YEAR

The 2014 Cinema Touch Awards - PICTURE

by

Julien Faddoul

5. Gone Girl

For a staggeringly realized, preposterously plotted pulp-thriller that constantly remodels itself throughout its duration. What begins as a tawdry crime drama, becomes an electrifying depiction of the inherent aspects of reciprocity in human relationships.

4. How to Train Your Dragon 2

For a radiant, ravishing animated-film that pleasantly feels independent from its predecessor. It substitutes that film’s soulfulness and humor for serene wisdom. Visually, it is a true beauty to behold. Who could ask for anything more?

3. Love is Strange

For an honest, seemingly glancing variation of the Tokyo Story theme that depicts its central situation with startling insight and assuredness.

2. The Immigrant

For a towering accomplishment: An American melodrama, classical in its telling and pure in its intensions. It interprets a world savagely torn apart by our will to survive and delicately mended by forgiveness. For the viewer, it is a deconstructing, endlessly rich experience.

1. Listen Up Philip

For an immeasurable work of American cinema: Mixing eye-level close-up compositions on 16mm, dateless mise-en-scène and Phillip Roth-esque passages to encapsulate the narcissistic posture one can inculcate to be protected by past pain. It is one of the most deeply empathetic movies ever made.

My Top Ten

6. The Grant Budapest Hotel

7. Why Don’t You Play in Hell

8. The Boxtrolls

9. Starred Up

10. Under the Skin

Honorable Mentions (Alphabetical)

Big Hero 6

Boyhood

Citizenfour

Coherence

Edge of Tomorrow

Inherent Vice

Two Days, One Night

Films I'm Sad to Have Missed

Abuse of Weakness
Closed Curtain

A Field in England

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

The Green Prince
Heli

Jimmy P
The Last of the Unjust

National Gallery
Norte, the End of History
The Overnighters

A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness

Stray Dogs
Thou Wast Mild and Lovely

Wetlands

Winter’s Sleep

Wrong Cops

Films I'm REALLY Sad to Have Missed

Bird People

Goodbye to Language

To return to the main awards page, CLICK HERE.

Citizenfour (2014/US/Germany)

by

Julien Faddoul

*** (3 stars)

d – Laura Poitras

ph – Laura Poitras, Kristen Johnson, Trevor Paglan, Katy Scoggin

ed – Mathilde Bonnefoy

p – Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky

Cast: Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, William Binney, Jacob Appelbaum, Ewen MacAskill, Jeremy Scahill

Laura Poitras’ Citizenfour premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 10^th 2014. Before the NYFF schedule had been announced it was unknown, or at least unclear, to the public that she had been working on such a film. After My Country, My Country (2006) and The Oath (2010), this is her third film in a row that deals with the ramifications of 9/11. As a result, Ms Poitras is on a government watch-list for her activities.

Crisp Criticism - "Inherent Vice", "Beyond the Lights", "Leviathan", "Tom at the Farm"

by

Julien Faddoul

Inherent Vice ***

In Los Angeles at the turn of the 1970s, drug-fueled detective Larry "Doc" Sportello investigates the disappearance of an ex-girlfriend.

Truthful to the spirit of its source material, this is a sore, savage comedy on man’s rebellion to approaching complexities of life. Characters and plot machinations haphazardly enter as if they escaped from their own movie to the point where bewilderment becomes involuntary. It exhibits the growing maturity of its director, who here gives little effort to show off or even charm.

wd – Paul Thomas Anderson   (Based on the Novel by Thomas Pynchon)

ph – Robert Elswit

pd – David Crank
m – Jonny Greenwood

ed – Leslie Jones

cos – Mark Bridges

p – Paul Thomason Anderson, JoAnne Sellar, Daniel Lupi

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio Del Toro, Jena Malone, Joanna Newsom, Jordan Christian Hearn, Hong Chau, Jeannie Berlin, Maya Rudolph, Michael K. Williams, Michelle Sinclair, Martin Short, Sasha Pieterse, Martin Donovan, Eric Roberts, Serena Scott Thomas, Jefferson Mays, Keith Jardine, Peter McRobbie

Crisp Criticism - "Kingsman: The Secret Service", "Project Almanac", "Seventh Son"

by

Julien Faddoul

Kingsman: The Secret Service

A spy organization recruits an unrefined, but promising street kid into the agency's ultra-competitive training program just as a global threat emerges from a twisted tech genius.

All-purpose hateful, anti-American wallow disguised as a spy spoof with a big budget and kinetic violence. A movie this determined to offend everyone only ever comes off as immature.

d – Matthew Vaughn

w – Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn   (Based on the Comic Book by Mark Millar, Dave Gibbons)

ph – George Richmond

pd – Paul Kirby
m – Henry Jackman, Matthew Margeson

ed – Eddie Hamilton, Jon Harris

cos – Arianne Phillips

p – David Reid, Matthew Vaughn, Adam Bohling

Cast: Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Strong, Michael Caine, Sophie Cookson, Sofia Boutella, Mark Hamill, Jack Davenport, Samantha Womack

The Worst Films of 2014

by

Julien Faddoul

As we have now entered the 2015 cinematic year, it is time for me to reflect on the year prior, starting with my ten worst films of 2014.

The following films speak for themselves, as they were derided by critics, and in most cases, audiences as well. 2014 was an interesting year for cinema and one thing that befuddled me was how often Hollywood kept repeating the same mistakes in pathetic attempts to get audiences to go to movie theatres in an era when most no longer see the need.

Also, this year exhibited many once compelling directors, like Darren Aronofsky and Jason Reitman, delivering their worst work to date.

So here is the list, accompanied by my original review at the time of the film’s release:

Crisp Criticism - "Selma", "A Most Violent Year", "I Origins"

by

Julien Faddoul

Selma **

Selma, Alabama: the place where segregation in the South was at its worst, leading to a march lead by Martin Luther King Jr that ended in violence, forcing a famous statement by President Lyndon B. Johnson that ultimately led to the signing of the Civil Rights Act.

Fairly conventional piece of cine-history, that ventures forward with many different perspectives without ever really choosing an anchored direction to go with. Historical figures enter and leave the frame, many of them in scenes of arresting dramatic power and intrigue.

d – Ava DuVernay 

w – Paul Webb

ph – Bradford Young

ad – Kim Jennings

ed – Spencer Averick

cos – Ruth E. Carter

p – Christian Colson, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Oprah Winfrey

Cast: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tom Wilkinson, Tim Roth, Common, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Lorraine Toussaint, Oprah Winfrey, Cuba Gooding Jr, Niecy Nash, Colman Domingo, Giovanni Ribisi, Alessandro Nivola, Keith Stanfield, Andre Holland, Tessa Thompson, Wendell Pierce, Omar Dorsey, Ledisi Young, Trai Byers, Stephan James, Kent Faulcon, John Lavelle, Henry G. Sanders, Jeremy Strong, Dylan Baker, Nigel Thatch, Charity Jordan, Haviland Stillwell, Tara Ochs, Martin Sheen, Michael Shikany, Stephen Root

Crisp Criticism - "Fifty Shades of Grey", "Dear White People", "Love is Strange"

by

Julien Faddoul

Fifty Shades of Grey *

A literature student meets a tormented billionaire and two of them have lots of sex.

Not particularly sexy adaptation of the insipid best seller that attempts to conjugate the sleekly with the unfettered. Like the book, the characters and situations make little sense, but unlike the book, it is more than inflated pornography.

d – Sam Taylor-Johnson

w – Kelly Marcel   (Based on the Novel by E.L. James)

ph – Seamus McGarvey

pd – David Wasco

m – Danny Elfman

ed – Lisa Gunning

cos – Mark Bridges

p – Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, E.L. James

Cast: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Luke Grimes, Jennifer Ehle, Eloise Mumford, Rita Ora, Marcia Gay Harden, Max Martini

Crisp Criticism - "The Gambler", "Mortdecai", "The Wedding Ringer", "The Interview"

by

Julien Faddoul

The Gambler *

A literature professor in debt from gambling gets mixed-up with a loan shark.

Unnecessary remake of the 1974 film that provides intermittent pleasures without being particularly memorable.

d – Rupert Wyatt

w – William Monahan   (Based on the Screenplay by James Toback)

ph – Greig Fraser

pd – Keith P. Cunningham

m – Jon Brion, Theo Green

ed – Pete Beaudreau

cos – Jacqueline West

p – Robert Chartoff, Stephen Levinson, Mark Wahlberg, David Winkler, Irwin Winkler

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, John Goodman, Brie Larson, Michael K. Williams, Jessica Lange, Anthony Kelley, Emory Cohen

Crisp Criticism - "Foxcatcher", "Wild", "Big Eyes"

by

Julien Faddoul

Foxcatcher *

The Olympic Wrestling Champion brother team of David and Mark Schultz joins Team Foxcatcher lead by multimillionaire sponsor John E. du Pont as they train for the 1988 games in Seoul.

Suffocating, at times intriguing though removed film based on fact that contains many mini-movies inside of it fighting for attention, all of them at surface level. Because of the apogee, the director percolates a sense of dread that paralyzes the story, humour, politics and performances.

d – Bennett Miller

w – E. Max Frye, Dan Futterman

ph – Greig Fraser

pd – Jess Gonchor

m – Rob Simonsen

ed – Jay Cassidy, Stuart Levy, Conor O'Neill

cos – Kasia Walicka-Maimone

p – Anthony Bregman, Megan Ellison, Jon Kilik, Bennett Miller

Cast: Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Sienna Miller, Vanessa Redgrave, Anthony Michael Hall