15. Spring Breakers, Dir. Harmony Korine
I'm never sure of how to explain Spring Breakers in a way that makes it seem like a favourable experience. That's because it isn't the kind of film that can be easily summed up, but you can put a few colourful adjectives under the umbrella of the "Spring Breakers experience". I have to applaud Harmony Korine for being different, and not choosing to put a filter on it (which we'll see more of further down in this list), and for all the anti-feminist statements that could be made about this film, there's plenty of pro-feminist statements to back that up. The four girls in this film are awesome. And hey, how awesome is the "Every Time" scene? Definitely one of my favourite scenes of the year.
14. The Past, Dir. Asghar Farhadi
I saw this back at the New Zealand Film Festival, and just like I was with A Separation, I was left utterly in awe of how Asghar Farhadi can create a thriller with words. He is so deftly talented at writing, creating these very real accounts of life which don't need copious embellishments and adjectives to help get them off the ground. The performances are all fantastic in this, particularly from Berenice Bejo, the Cannes winner, who sheds every ounce of Peppy Miller in The Artist to play one of the most difficult characters of the year. I'm a little shocked that it didn't make the Foreign Film shortlist, and will most likely pass without a whimper because of that. Which is a great shame, because Farhadi hits the mark yet again.
13. Frances Ha, Dir. Noah Baumbach
All I can say is that I'll be watching this when I'm Frances' age, and I'll probably find plenty of parallels. Which is either depressing, or kind of cool, because I'd love to be Greta Gerwig.
12. Disconnect, Dir. Henry Alex Rubin
One of the years most cruelly underseen and underrated films, but such an important film on so many levels. It is too rare that films can get the dangers of technology so right and not get caught up in the "zeitgeist" of looking cool with their Facebook/Twitter/Instagram plugs. Even when things perhaps get a little bit too overdramatic, there's some fantastic performances by the likes of Jason Bateman, Jonah Bobo, Andrea Riseborough, Paula Patton, Alexander Skarsgard and Max Theirot to make it an extremely special film. I'm calling it: this should be required viewing at schools.
11. Stories We Tell, Dir. Sarah Polley
Another film I caught at NZFF, and one that surprised me to no end. I wanna be Sarah Polley. It was so brave of her to make her family story the subject of this documentary, but also to comment on the way that stories are passed down through the years. Stories We Tell does so much more than it says on the packet, and is all kinds of awesome and inspiring.
