2014 SLEEPERS
                                                        Part 2

Here’s another handful of very good movies from last year that didn’t get much play, or that you may have missed. 
Gillian Flynn’s marvelous thriller Gone Girl cried out for movie treatment, and got it in spades. Not as good as the book? Isn’t that always the way? But- the film is very good indeed with Ben Affleck convincing as the philandering victim of the meanest female movie villain in a while. Roasamund Pike does this very well, pulling off the most immoral movie female since Bette Davis sat there and let her husband die in The Little Foxes (1941). There are lots of delicious twists and turns in this one, and the ending is a corker. 
Two Days, One Night is one of those films with a fairly unpromising story line that turns out to be really good. Marion Cotillard misses a considerable time from her job in a solar panel factory because of illness. While she is gone, the other workers discover they can cover her duties by each working a little longer. The boss offers each of them a substantial bonus if they will continue to do the extra work and render Marion’s job superfluous. She begs the boss to let her stay. He tells her she has the week-end to convince the others to forego the bonus and let her come back. She must visit each one and convince them to help her. To find out how it comes out, you’ll have to watch it. 
Calvary features the splendid Irish actor Brendan Gleeson as Catholic priest Father James in a small town. In the confessional, a parishioner tells him that he was terribly abused as a child by a now-dead priest. He also states that he is going to kill Father James on a certain day. His warped reasoning is that by killing a good priest he will hurt the church more than it would to kill a bad one. The run-up to the confrontation involves Father James attending to his priestly duties and deciding what to do about the threat. The ending caught me completely off guard. 
Locke features an incredible performance by Tom Hardy. The entire film takes place in his car, as he rushes to be present at the birth of a child he has conceived in an extramarital affair. In his absence there is a complicated job to be completed at his work, and he must talk a somewhat dim subordinate through the process by phone. He also confesses to his wife and son where he is going and why and tries to convince them to stay together with him. It’s a unique concept. I thought it would be boring. It is in fact suspenseful and entertaining.
Remember those hokey paintings that were popular in the 50's and 60's featuring children with enormous eyes? Okay, maybe you’re too young to remember them. Well, anyway, Big Eyes is the more-or-less trues story of the shy female artist who painted them, how she was victimized by her controlling husband, and what finally happened. Amy Adams is splendid as the artist and Christopher Waltz convincingly slimy as her husband. 
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are for adult audiences.