My three favourite films of the year:

Boyhood: Richard Linklater has proved himself to be our primary guide to cinematic time travel. Whether it's in his Before Trilogy which captures the arc of a relationship over a decade or his lighter fare like Dazed and Confused which looks back on our teenage years through the lens of nostalgia, he has shown an uncanny ability to demonstrate on screen the subtleties of how time affects us all. Boyhood, which was shot over twelve years, following characters as the actors that play them literally age, is Linklater's magnum opus. The persistence and determination of the all involved in the production is admirable and they deserve the attention they are receiving, however what is more remarkable is the film itself. A film so modest, light, and carefree and yet so powerful, Boyhood is the antithesis of the modern Hollywood blockbuster (Interstellar) characterized by their pomposity and heavy handedness. Here is a film that never claims it is telling us anything and yet in the end tells us everything.

We Are the Best: While We Are the Best! may not be the best film of the year, it was my favourite film of the year. I can't remember the last time a film contained so much genuine warmth and pleasure. This heart warming and beautifully written story about the aimlessness of being a teenager had me smiling from ear to ear for the entirety of the running time. Unlike Boyhood, which provides the perspectives of both children and parents over an extended period of time, We Are the Best!, is a time capsule of a film, giving us the subjective perspectives of three young girls during a key part of their childhood. Veteran Swedish writer and director Lukas Moodysson, provides us with a glimpse into the lives of these young girls as they form a punk band despite two of them having no musical experience. They are indeed terrible, but the film isn't about punk music, it's about the punk attitude that perfectly captures the defiance of being a teenager. A loving ode to growing up, We Are the Best! Is easily the most charming film of the year.

The Babadook: A deliciously strange combination of the Exorcist, Repulsion, and Dr.Seuss, Jenifer Kent's debut feature The Babadook is simultaneously true to the roots of horror and daringly original. Anchored by a brilliant performance by Essie Davis as a single mother attempting to raise a problem child without becoming a monster herself, The Babadook is possibly the best horror film to come out since Guillermo Del Toro's Pans Labyrinth. And yet, to say this is the best modern horror film in years feels odd, primarily because The Babadook has very little in common with the recent trends of jump scare found footage films (Paranormal Activity) or torture porn films (Saw). No doubt, fans of these more recent horror movements will be disappointed. Jenifer Kent's film is a better fit in the cannon of 70's classics that capitalize on the primal fears of parenthood (Rosemary's Baby, Don't Look Now, The Brood). Much like these masterpieces of horror, The Babadook is a film with depth, atmosphere, and ambiguity but most importantly it's terrifying.