Top Ten Films of 2014: A deluge of sci-fi doppelgängers and one-word titles

I don’t want to label 2014 as a good, bad, or average year. I want to call it inventive, original, and delightfully dark. Whether it’s doppelgänger paradoxes leading to murderous rage, the bleak carnage of war, prison violence, or psychologically debilitating struggles to be great, my favorite films had an edge that cut to the bone by credits’ end. The best thing I can say about 2014 is that my top ten (heck, maybe my top twenty-five) could be re-organized and re-listed without making me too angry about what is…

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REVIEW: White Earth [2014]

“I don’t have any idea where it’s supposed to go” From the mouths of babes: Christian Jensen‘s White Earth is The Overnighters from the perspective of those uprooted along with the men heading to the North Dakotan oil fields. One boy remains in his trailer by himself rather than go to school while his father works. A young girl who traveled with her family from California so her dad could get a job makes new friends. And another girl—this one born and raised in the titular town—watches as strangers overrun…

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REVIEW: The Overnighters [2014]

“Just because you tough enough” The easiest thing I could say about The Overnighters is that director Jesse Moss got lucky. He looked to tell the story about a pastor doing God’s will against his congregation’s trepidation to house over a thousand strangers arrived in Williston, ND seeking employment within the area’s oil boom. Through interviews kept carefully hidden from those his subjects speak against, Moss found much more than a feel good piece depicting charity. He played the fly on the wall and discovered Pastor Jay Reinke‘s words “everybody…

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