FILM: Inside Llewyn Davis (dirs: Joel and Ethan Coen, 2014)

"It's just music."

Shot in chilly winter-grey and suffused with an increasing sense of melancholy, Inside Llewyn Davis will probably be the most poignant and beautiful film released this year.  Oscar Isaac is perfectly cast as the end-of-the-line folk singer, as the viewer is literally dropped into a few days of his couch-hopping life that takes in a road trip and his transitory relationships.  As ever with the Coens, a string of quirky characters (Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund and others - all terrific) and their fine attention to small details make this a credible and relatable milieu, but this wistful and carefully-built meditation on missed opportunities, disconnection and the power of the music is particularly captivating.  The cat is no mere whimsy; it is the key to understanding the character and the movie itself.  Whilst Inside Llewyn Davis might be one of the Coens' more subdued movies, it is also one of their most heartfelt and thus most effective on both a cerebral and emotional level.

FILM: Jack Ryan Shadow Recruit IMAX (dir: Kenneth Branagh, 2014)

"Keep your faith in me."

The latest Jack Ryan reboot places the hero firmly in the modern world with a snappy and jingoistic trot through 9/11 and Afghanistan before reverting to what is essentially a rather old-fashioned spy thriller potboiler with a somewhat slim but scarily credible (banking-based) East vs. West plot, yet with quite a lot going for it.  Branagh's direction is crisp, but there is little to set the pulse racing in the first two acts, all saved for a frenetic pedal-to-the-metal third act.  Chris Pine, always an likable screen presence, is particularly sincere here; Branagh (as the throwback Russian antagonist) and Costner as Ryan's recruiter both bring effective experience and gravitas; and Keira Knightley is maturing into a pleasing and (at last) watchable actress with an impressive performance as Ryan's fiance.  IMAX adds little apart from showing off the well-shot Moscow cityscapes.  Clearly picking up tips from the modern Bonds and Bourne films - but not hitting the heights of either - Jack Ryan Shadow Hunter is certainly one of the better films in this series and provides a solid and reasonably entertaining basis for another outing.

DVD: No One Lives (dir: Ryûhei Kitamura, 2013)

"This is so wrong."

This gleefully demented little visceral psycho-horror-thriller punches way above its weight. There are many pleasures here, including the touching on a range of genre styles and overt references that are used cleverly to wrong-foot the viewer at almost every turn, a wicked streak of laugh-out-loud dark humour and a mesmerisingly steely lead turn from Luke Evans. No One Lives is taut, knowingly constructed and sleekly efficient, making it one of the most surprising and effective horror films of 2013.

FILM: The Wolf Of Wall Street (dir: Martin Scorsese, 2014)

"I was hooked in seconds."

For a film that is so long that one expects hobbits to start appearing, The Wolf Of Wall Street is so packed with character, incident and rich film-making that its three hours are a constant joy to watch.  That it is also based on real life events makes it equally absorbing and disturbing.  Here, Scorsese and his team feel off the leash, on the one hand creating a freewheeling sense of spiralling, out-of-control excess that at once appals and creates guilty envy, but which also reveals such intelligence and control in direction (an energised Scorsese), editing (the peerless Thelma Schoonmaker), scripting (exquisite wit and range from Terence Winter) and performance. Leonardo DiCaprio gives an utterly dynamic, magnetic and finely-tuned performance which will be remembered as one of his very best, even managing to generate some touchingly human moments in an utterly repellent character, Jonah Hill continues to grow as a fine character actor as his buddy and side-kick, and in a film that reflects a world that treated and represented women so appallingly, a revelation here is ex-Neighbours actress Margot Robbie who is quite magnificent as morally bankrupt broker Belfort's second wife, who subtly develops into the moral and human centre of the movie.  These are extraordinary times reflected in an extraordinary film, which as well as showing exemplary film-making and acting is also riotously entertaining and outrageously funny.

FILM: Devil's Due (dirs: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, 2014)

"This will be quick and painless."

Although it has barely an original idea in its 89 minutes, Devil's Due is by far one of the best of the recent crop of cheap found-footage horror movies, even if that is damning it with faint praise.  For older viewers, it is a mash-up of Rosemary's Baby, It's Alive and a dash of The Omen; for recent converts, it is a karaoke version of Paranormal Activity, The Last Exorcism and a bit of Blair Witch.  The saving graces, however, are stronger-than-expected turns from Allison Miller and Zach Gilford (an amiable and attractive couple who bear the endless camcorder close-ups well) as the unfortunate expectant parents of the Devil's offspring; three very well-staged (brief but powerful) set pieces; and a lively finale.  Whilst the imagery and narrative trajectory hold no surprises whatsoever, there is sufficient consistent drip-feeding of ideas and an engaging journey conveyed by the lead pair to make Devil's Due a reasonably effective entry into the genre.

FILM: 12 Years A Slave (dir: Steve McQueen, 2014)

"Why is this one crying?"

This compelling and important period drama is perhaps in some ways a less successful fit to McQueen's objectifying directorial style than Shame, but it nevertheless produces a strong and moving film experience.  Central to the film's success is Chiwetel Ejiofor's powerful performance of tremendous strength and humility, backed up by numerous terrific supporting performances from the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti, Paul Dano, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o and Sarah Paulson, who all give committed and finely-drawn performances.  It has to be said that the film is a little uneven in terms of scripting (some very stilted dialogue creeps in) and tone, with some odd soundtrack moments, and McQueen's occasional Van Sant-style visual longueurs can be irritatingly intrusive, but there is tremendously effective use of foreground/background juxtaposition and layering of sound and vision at play.  All the conventions of the genre are neatly ticked off, and this harrowing and sobering true story remains powerful to the end.

FILM: American Hustle (dir: David O. Russell, 2014)

"How's it look?"
"Fine."

American Hustle is impeccably acted, intelligently scripted and directed with terrifying ease and confidence.  The acting ensemble is extraordinary and awards-worthy: Christian Bale and Amy Adams completely inhabit their characters with conviction, Bradley Cooper displays scalpel-precise delivery and Jennifer Lawrence divines terrific depth for what could have been a superficial role. A wonderfully-selected 70s soundtrack accompanies key moments, but it is the character interplay and the setting up of the scams that keep the attention throughout and totally impress for the film's lengthy running time.

FILM: Paranormal Activity The Marked Ones (dir: Christopher Landon, 2014)

"There's a naked girl!  There's a naked girl!"

Inevitably, The Marked Ones bears some of the over-familiar tropes of the parent franchise - the ominous bass rumble, the abruptly disappointingly deflating ending - but it also has a lot to recommend it and is a considerably better film than the weak trailer suggested.  This Latin-community-based offshoot shows considerably more energy than the ossified formula of the main movies, helped enormously by two engaging (older-)teen leads and their Chronicle-style shenanigans in the first half, paving the way for the darker turns as the movie progresses.  There are some effective jump-shocks, and the lively first-person shooting is generally well-used in this entry, although there is now a real sense of deja-vu and an unnerving ability for the viewer to literally guess the next shot in play.  This film might actually have benefited from being a standalone movie, as the references to the core franchise (one completely random, the necessary location tie-in for the finale, and a truly audacious jump-the-shark moment at the end) add little.  In spite of some underdeveloped potential - the supermarket scene cries out for a more violent display, for example - The Marked Ones is more accomplished and has more actual content than expected.