The year has really started to pick up steam and March brought us some films that are worth noting, for sure. This March seemed to be a much higher level than last March, although it still had it’s low moments as well. And while, things will get better in April and leading into May, I’d say this wasn’t a terrible month at all for film. Some of these films came as surprises and were better than expected.
Again, as a side note, there are always a few films that have different release dates for limited releases vs wider releases, etc., so we based it off when we got the films here locally in Kentucky. So while you may have seen these at different times, we base this off of the release to us here, which of course was March 2014. There was a good amount of films in March but here’s some of the best of the month.
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RELATED: Best Movies of February 2013
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Best Movies – March 2014:
5) Need for Speed
Need for Speed was a descent surprise for March as I wasn’t expecting much out of this, but it ended up being a good time despite it’s formulaic narrative. It was great seeing Aaron Paul outside of Breaking Bad and he really brought it here, which was fantastic to see. Dominic Cooper and Imogen Poots were also good, outside a few moments here and there. For me personally, Scott Mescudi as Benny stole the freakin show. He was hilarious and better than any supporting characters in the Fast & Furious franchise if you ask me. He was awesome. And you got to love Michael Keaton’s small role, he was great as the race owner. While a lot of this film is predictable, it was still thrilling and fun and that’s all you can ask for.
4) Bad Words
Our review for this will hopefully be up sometime later this week, but I actually really liked this movie. I had on Fox from GeekScholars and Matt from Silver Screen Riot on for an Extra Film where they discussed the humor and it’s effectiveness but how the dramatic elements fell flat, and I couldn’t disagree more. The humor was hit or miss for me and your tastes in humor will be effected greatly as to whether you like it or not, but the dramatical elements struck with me and had motivation behind it. For me, it was a little deeper than most comedies of this type and for that, I really enjoyed this film.
3) Veronica Mars
I never saw the TV show, but the film Veronica Mars, was an easy worthy watch in the month of March. While this movie did cater to the fans in a big way, that was okay since they are the one’s that paid for it. So while non-fans of the show may be lost at times, overall you’re never taken out of the film and everything seemed to flow naturally. Fans of the show will get a kick out of the inside jokes and seeing all of these characters come back, as well as seeing Veronica come back and do her thing. Kristen Bell is perfect for this role and is absolutely terrific. For have never seen the show, I had a pretty good time with it for the most part. It’s not a perfect film by any means but it’s more than serviceable.
2) Nymphomaniac: Part One
Lars von Trier isn’t for the faint of heart by any means and Nymphomaniac: Part 1 isn’t for those who are offended easily by nudity and sex. Von Trier leaps over boundaries and takes us to a place where taboo reigns and sexual desires are always satisfied. While we see a lot of nudity and sex, the film to me, speaks more to insecurity and how that is underlying master our characters sex addiction. Addiction of any kind isn’t fun and the exploration of dealing with that here is interesting and heartbreaking at the same time. The way Von Trier explores this idea was really good and lead into Part 2 really well. If you can get past the graphic nature of the film, there’s some really good stuff here.
1) The Grand Budapest Hotel
While this isn’t Wes Anderson’s best film, it’s still one heck of a time. The film is goofy and hilarious in all the ways you’d expect from an Anderson film and by the end, you want to visit The Grand Budapest Hotel. Ralph Fiennes’ comedic timing is perfect and given his resume, I’m not sure you’d expect that. However, he was fan-freakin-tastic as well as his Lobby Boy, Tony Revelori, who was in his first feature length film. The dynamics between the two were wonderful and you couldn’t help but have a great time. This film is darker and more straight forward then I originally thought, but it explores the idea of nostalgia and relationships in some of the most interesting was you’ll ever see. Love, love this movie.
Outside of these five, there aren’t a ton of honorable mentions, but Mr. Peabody & Sherman was a descent animated movie. It’s not stand-out worthy though and Stephen Colbert, whom I love, was distracting to me. I love his TV show and it’s all I could think about. It’s still a descent time though with a good message. Everyone is raving about Enemy though, however it’s a film we haven’t got yet, which is why it’s on this list. The same goes for The Raid 2 and 50 to 1. I’ve heard great things about all those but we’ll have to wait to see on our end of things. Muppets Most Wanted came close to making this list too and while I had a great time with it, it wouldn’t make my Top 5, but it’s definitely worth a watch for sure.
I got to say though, that while this was a good month overall, I was pretty disappointed in Divergent and Noah, both films I was really looking forward to. Perhaps expectations played some role but the narrative’s of both films were just messy and forced elements that took me out of the film. Noah had some great visual elements and dove into themes that were great, but could’ve been handled better in my opinion.
Anyway, that’s what we think of March. How about you? How does your list compare to ours? Let us know in the comment section below!