Counting Down The Fourteen Best Films Of 2014
In this totally subjective game of lists, there can only be one winner.
#7: Obvious Child, dir. Gillian Robespierre
The Hollywood studio romcom is dead, but indie cinema has stepped in with the defibrillator paddles. Right from Donna’s (Jenny Slate) opening stand-up routine about gross dirty undies, Gillian Robespierre’s sharp, utterly beguiling comedy announces itself as a film by and for women. It indulges women’s desire for romance that’s both adorable and believable, without succumbing to the sexist genre clichés that made The Other Woman such a depressing watch this year.
Obvious Child is good-natured without being overly whimsical, and satisfying on both an emotional and a comedic level. When you find yourself simultaneously laughing at Donna’s jokes, crying when she finally summons the courage to tell her Type-A mum she’s pregnant, and thinking, “I would totally have his abortion,” then dammit, the film has worked.