Annie (2014)

It's tempting to view this "colorized" version of the old musical as something gimmicky and as an unwarranted attempt to "update" the look of what has long been considered a classic--but as you watch this film, it becomes clearer and clearer that this is a legitimate re-telling of the tale. Indeed, this is probably how the story should play in today's world; we should expect a modern-day Annie would be more Quvenzhané Wallis than Andrea McArdle. Having never seen the play or original movie (or even read the comic strip, for that matter), I have no opinion on how "true" to the original this version is; I can just testify that the story remains strong, its modern touches make sense and work within the plot, and the performances are mostly true and done well. This seems to have been an overlooked work when it came out, and unfairly so; I suspect most viewers will appreciate it greatly and enjoy it very much.

Beasts of the Southern Wild

First things first: HOLD THE CAMERA STILL! Now that that's out of the way...I wanted to hate this film, because of the stupid amateur shakycam BS, but that contrivance becomes less of a problem as the movie moves forward. Good thing, too, because the visual settle-down actually lets you focus on the meat of the movie: the deeply compelling relationship between main character Hushpuppy and her father Wink. The girl (Quvenzhané Wallis) got all the glory around Oscar time, but I actually found Dwight Henry's work as Wink to be the more riveting performance. Both excellent performances, along with an interesting storytelling vision and a lot of engaging oddness, make this movie worth the effort. (The film is also fairly short, which never hurts the cause.)