Eventually, the citizens of Arendelle discover the secret of their new queen. They are understandably terrified of her unexplained powers. After this turn of events, Elsa elects to live a life of her own choosing in the mountain skies. Using her powers, she creates an icy fortress to keep the rest of the world away. What is novel about Elsa is that she embraces the change. To the tune of Let It Go, the likely Academy Awards winner for Best Song, Elsa announces her intention to be free from the expectations of society. A Disney original, she no longer worries about the perceptions of others. She does still love her alienated sister, though. And the power of their love has a profound impact upon the land of Arendelle. Elsa and her younger sister, who appears lower on the list, are the type of role models that the girls who support Disney have dreamt to have for a century now. Finally, Disney has developed a heroine worthy of admiration, and our staff embraces her not just for her beauty (and voice) but also strength of character.

Our third nomination for Best Character is Llewyn Davis from Inside Llewyn Davis. Davis is a struggling musician who is chasing down a dream of music stardom. He also has a penchant for heckling that gets him in trouble multiple times. Probably. There is also a cat who does not belong to him yet keeps following him around. I should note that the cat received a lot of votes in this category as well. This is important because Davis could be the cat. Maybe. Look, Inside Llewyn Davis is a complex film from the Coen Brothers that features an absolutely amazing character. Our staff adores all 100 minutes he is onscreen, even if we do not necessarily understand all of them.

The final selections in our top five are Jasmine from Blue Jasmine and Gary King from The World’s End. Jasmine is a pain in the ass in every sense of the phrase. She is a needy, duplicitous woman who is self-serving beyond a point of fault. Whatever the opposite of the Midas Touch is, she has it. Everyone who comes into contact with her finds themselves worse for wear. Her adopted sister can never do anything to please her, her stepson wants nothing to do with her, an ex-husband understandably cheated on her with anybody with a pulse and her latest boyfriend unearths any number of untoward truths about her. Stating the obvious, Jasmine is a fascinating character. She is not, however, someone whom you should try to befriend. You would regret doing so.

Gary King is a simple man with a simple dream. The protagonist of The World’s End believes that he can fix all of the problems in his life if he can simply reunite his friends and duplicate a failed pub crawl from when they were students. His friends all hate him so there is already one problem. He is also a recovering drug addict so a night of binge-drinking is probably not the best idea. Then again, the events of the night are such that our staff would hate the thought of anyone trying to live through them sober. Eventually, The World’s End reveals just how troubled Gary King is before it also demonstrates an unexpected streak of existentialism. As always, the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg tandem surprises us with their inventiveness. The character of Gary King may be their finest creation yet.

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