February 18, 2015
The
Portland Observer Black
History Month
Page 13
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Counterpoint to the Oscars
PHOTO COURTESY P ARAMOUNT P ICTURES .
David Oyelowo brings Martin Luther King Jr. to life in ‘Selma.’ The Oscar nominated movie for Best Picture came in at No. 1 on the list of Best Films of 2014 by
Portland Observer film critic ‘Opinionated Judge’ Darleen Ortega.
My top
10 films
of 2014
I have even less interest than usual in
making Oscar predictions this year; it's the
whitest and most unimpressive slate of nomi-
nees in years, overlooking a particular wealth
of absolutely amazing work, including some
featured in the films below. But as is my
tradition, I offer this list of the 10 best films
of 2014 just in time to provide a counterpoint
to the Oscars, with a little bit of Academy
Awards commentary thrown in.
My three top films were hard to rank; I
could make a case that any one of them was
the best film of the year. The two I ranked first
are underappreciated, and both happen fun-
damentally to be stories of heroic faith. They
are followed by two films that have received
and deserved a lot of awards notice. My list
also includes three films that I first saw at last
year's Portland International Film Festival
(PIFF), two of which garnered Oscar nomina-
tions.
1. Of all the films on my list, "Selma" pulls
off the most difficult and important
storytelling on this or any list. The American
film industry loves stories of dark chapters in
O PINIONATED
J UDGE
other people's history (most notably Nazi
Germany), but doesn't have much of a track
record for producing films that wrestle com-
petently with the troubled parts of our own,
barely more recent history. Ava DuVernay
deserved an Oscar nomination for best direc-
tor for what she accomplished here: a depic-
tion of an important chapter of American
Civil Rights history which neither white-
washes nor oversimplifies, and which im-
parts a sense of the canny strategy, guts, and
heroic faith that it took to win for black
Americans rights already guaranteed to them
by the Constitution. She has set the bar for
future work in telling the scores of neglected
stories of this part of our history. And David
Oyelowo deserved best actor honors for
presenting Martin Luther King, Jr., as a living
human, a young man thrust into leadership
with the skills to pull it off but also with
flawed humanity.
As with any historical drama, valid ques-
tions can be raised about some dramatic
choices (most notably about Coretta Scott
King, whose depiction here likely diminishes
her influence, though no more than has
chronically been the case). But compared to
most other fact-based dramas (including the
Oscar-nominated "The Theory of Every-
thing," "The Imitation Game," and, most
BY J UDGE
D ARLEEN O RTEGA
egregiously, "American Sniper"), "Selma"
gets the balance right between facts and
truth.
2. "Calvary" is the film that means the
most to me personally. It is also a perfect
depiction of heroic faith as it might be lived
by the rare person who takes seriously what
faith demands in daily life. I actually can't
think of a film that deals with questions of
faith in a more complex and challenging way-
-which may account for why it hasn't really
received the critical reception that it de-
serves. What passes for faith, in life and on
film, is too often way more packaged and safe
than what is depicted here; this film is pitched
perfectly between faith and doubt, and shows
how heroic action often occurs in exactly
that intersection. It's a film I will return to for
inspiration again and again.
3. "Boyhood" has received universal
acclaim--and that acclaim is, for once, well-
deserved. By filming over the actual span of
the lead character's childhood and making
flexible and attentive use of that childhood in
continued
on page 20
PHOTO COURTESY I RISH F ILM B OARD
Kelly Reilly and Brendan Gleeson star in ‘Calvary.’ Portland Observer movie
reviewer ‘Opinionated Judge’ Darleen Ortega puts the film at No. 2 on her list of
Top 10 films of 2014 for its perfect depiction of the challenges and complexities
of faith and doubt.