Well, I can't deny the fact they we're firmly into the New Year now (I had my annual tax return meltdown this morning) so it seems like a good time to look back at my highlights of 2014. As usual, my attempts to stick to a Top Ten have failed miserably.
Art
I found 2014 a little disappointing for visual art in all honesty, although this is probably down to me rather than the exhibitions on offer. There were several interesting shows in commercial galleries, including Steve McQueen at Thomas Dane, and Gerhard Richter at Marian Goodman, but the blockbusters didn't really do it for me, apart from the Richard Hamilton exhibition at Tate Modern. I wrote about how much I adored this show back when I saw it, and I still find myself thinking about it regularly.
Books
Going Off Alarming, the second volume of Danny Baker's autobiography, is the funniest, properly laugh out loud, book I've read in a long time. Baker writes beautifully about his life, his rise to fame and the absurdity of the worlds of tv and radio in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Paying Guests is yet another gem of a book by the wonderful Sarah Waters. I don't want to say too much about it for risk of spoiling it, but I didn't want it to end.
Yes Please by Amy Poehler is smart, funny, warm, wise and inspiring. I don't think I could be friends with anyone who didn't love it.
Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler is a quiet calm book set in a small town in which nothing much happens. It is beautifully written, and Butler draws complex but real characters and creates an immaculate sense of place. My book of the year.
Film
With additional positive nods to Gone Girl and The Imitation Game, the highlights of my film year were:
12 Years A Slave
I've written about this before, but I can't overstate how moving, challenging and downright beautiful this film is. Steve McQueen is a genius.
Frank
It's true that I am a little obsessed with Michael Fassbender, but seeing he spends the vast majority of Frank hidden by a large plastic head, that can't be the only reason I loved this film sooo much. Quirky and original, funny and moving.
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson is a 'love him or hate him' director and I LOVE him. I think The Grand Budapest Hotel is the finest of all his films, with an inspired central performance from Ralph Fiennes and a bucketful of Anderson's distinctive visual panache.
Pride
A lovely, funny and altogether cheering film about gay activists who supported a village of striking Welsh miners in the 1980s. The set design totally captivated me, dragging me into a wave of nostalgia for childhood visits to my grandparents' house in Wales.
Boyhood
Boyhood just blew me away. Filmed for a week or two every year over twelve years, it is just a wonderful original premise executed perfectly. I couldn't have loved it more.
Theatre
The Crucible
Quite aside from an unbelievably powerful central performance from the unfeasibly attractive Richard Armitage, this production from Yael Farber at the Old Vic was the best I have ever seen of The Crucible. The tension in the auditorium was palpable and you could have heard a pin drop during the final act. Stunning.
Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies
I loved these RSC productions of the books by Hilary Mantel so much I saw them twice, once in Stratford and once in the West End.
Skylight
I sat in the front row of this new production of David Hare's play (not deliberately - I didn't book the tickets) and I can tell you it is very unnerving watching Bill Nighy on stage when he is basically looking at you straight in the eye. That aside, he and Carey Mulligan both put in captivating performances, the play doesn't seem to have dated a bit and the set design was gorgeous.
