Best of 2014

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Birdman
Whiplash
Babadook
The Rover
John Wick
Grand Budapest
Gone Girl
Foxcatcher
Big Hero 6
The Guest
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Lord High Filmquisitor
2014 seems to me a very good year in terms of quality films...
Definitely. I feel that any stretch of ten films in my top 30 for the year could have easily been my top 30 for any other year.
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I still haven't seen too much from 2014, including most of the Oscar nominated films. But here are my top five favorites of what I'd consider a weaker year in film.

1. Leviathan


2. Supervenus (Short film)


3. Boyhood


4. The Babadook


5. St Vincent
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“Hell will hold no surprises for you.”
1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2. X-Men: Days of Future Past
3. The Imitation Game
4. Birdman
5. Interstellar
6. Gone Girl
7. Guardians of the Galaxy
8. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
9. American Sniper
10. Godzilla



My Top 10 Favorite Movies of 2014


  1. Gone Girl
  2. The Interview
  3. Walk of Shame
  4. Edge of Tomorrow
  5. Divergent
  6. The Lego Movie
  7. Horrible Bosses 2
  8. Lucy
  9. Kill Me Three Times
  10. Captain America: The Winter Soldier



I have to return some videotapes.
1) Gone Girl
2) Nightcrawler
3) The Imitation Game
4) Whiplash
5) It Follows (if you count the limited release)



Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
1. Lilting
2. Paddington
3. Birdman
4. X-Men: Days of Future Past
5. The Way He Looks
6. Gone Girl
7. The Grand Budapest Hotel
8. The Lego Movie
9. Nightcrawler
10. The Theory of Everything

Which shows you just how few films I've still seen from 2014.

It seems to me that there are always some films which get 'lost' between years - nobody has seen them in 2013 but they're listed on imdb as 2013 so they don't really count as 2014 films either, so they don't show up on lists like this unless you are making them years later.

I'd include Only Lovers Left Alive and Under the Skin, which weren't released here until 2014. But it's the case for quite a lot of films that they get released here later but officially belong to the year before. Most of these films I didn't watch until early 2015 at the earliest. And sometimes it seems that the film year runs from March to February rather than January-December.



1. Nightcrawler
2. The Imitation Game
3. Birdman
4. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
5. Grand Budapest Hotel
6. 22 Jump Street
7. X-Men: DOFP
8. Edge of Tomorrow
9. Guardians of the Galaxy
10. The Interview
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Gangster Rap is Shakespeare for the Future
I haven't seen too much from 2014, we got a ton of prestige pics, arthouse and foreign alike, a pretty good Eastwood flick, but most of the films I most anticipated seeing aren't around yet. My favorite I've seen from 2014 was Hill of Freedom, Hong Sang-soo's unassuming and excruciatingly awkward take on globalization. Hong's blank sheet mise en scene and playful narrative tinkering are on full display but the subject here becomes more complicated, especially for Western viewers.

This Friday I'm heading up to New York to see the movie I've been anticipating above all others, Pedro Costa's Horse Money. It's only playing in New York, Columbus OH, and Oklahoma City (thanks nearly single-handedly to the work of the great critic and programmer, Michael J Anderson, who is turning OKC into the unlikely bastion for cinephiles), so there's very few chances to catch it in a theater, so I'm snatching up the opportunity. I'm sure it's a film I'll need to write about after I see it. Just look at some of the images that have come from it:





Cinema Guild's trailer for it is here:
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Wow! So many good movies on this list, and just in 2014 alone. And for some reason I keep thinking there are no good movies anymore... must be something wrong with me :/



Watched Grand Budapest, consider it great; the film`s humour is good and it doesn`t feel like you already heard those jokes somewhere else



My Top 20 Favorite Movies of 2014

  1. Gone Girl
  2. Respire
  3. It Follows
  4. The Drop
  5. The Interview
  6. Predestination
  7. Mommy
  8. Black Sea
  9. Edge of Tomorrow
  10. Into The Woods
  11. Whiplash
  12. Walk of Shame
  13. Divergent
  14. Wild
  15. Time Lapse
  16. Nightcrawler
  17. Horrible Bosses 2
  18. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
  19. Guardians of the Galaxy
  20. The Lego Movie



BEST FILM

1.) Citizenfour
2.) Manakamana
3.) The Overnighters
4.) Under The Skin
5.) Virunga
6.) Ida
7.) The Grand Budapest Hotel
8.) The Dance of Reality
9.) Stray Dogs
10.) Life Itself
11.) Inherent Vice
12.) Force Majeure
13.) The Strange Little Cat
14.) Whiplash
15.) Blue Ruin
16.) Listen Up Philip
17.) Birdman
18.) Nightcrawler
19.) Night Moves
20.) Boyhood
21.) Visitors
21.) The Lego Movie
22.) Enemy
23.) The Unknown Known
24.) Gone Girl
25.) Horses of God

Runners up: Coherence, Edge of Tomorrow, Godzilla, Rich Hill, Selma, Goodbye to Language, Two Days, One Night, Hateship Loveship, Dear White People, Bird People, The Retrieval, Starred Up, Little Hope Was Arson


BEST DIRECTOR
1.) Jonathan Glazer -Under The Skin
2.) Pawel Pawlikowski -Ida
3.) Wes Anderson -The Grand Budapest Hotel
4.) Orlando von Einsiedel -Virunga
5.) Laura Poitras -Citizenfour
6.) Alejandro Jodorowsky -The Dance of Reality
7.) Ruben Ostlund -Force Majeure
8.) Jesse Moss -The Overnighters
9.) Tsai Ming-liang -Stray Dogs
10.) Ramon Zürcher -The Strange Little Cat

BEST LEAD ACTOR
1.) Jake Gyllenhaal -Nightcrawler
2.) Ralph Fiennes -The Grand Budapest Hotel
3.) Michael Keaton -Birdman
4.) Lee Kang-sheng -Stray Dogs
5.) Joaquin Phoenix-Inherent Vice
6.) David Oyewolo -Selma
7.) Oscar Isaac -A Most Violent Year
8.) Miles Teller -Whiplash
9.) Macon Blair -Blue Ruin
10.) Tishuan Scott -The Retrieval

BEST LEAD ACTRESS

1.) Scarlett Johansson -Under The Skin
2.) Agata Trzebuchowska -Ida
3.) Lisa Loven Kongsli -Force Majeure
4.) Marion Cotillard -Two Days, One Night
5.) Luminita Gheorgiu -Child's Pose
6.) Tessa Thompson -Dear White People
7.) Kristen Wiig -Hateship Loveship
8.) Rosamund Pike -Gone Girl
9.) Essie Davis -The Babadook
10.) Julianne Moore -Still Alice

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
1.) Edward Norton -Birdman
2.) J.K. Simmons -Whiplash
3.) Ethan Hawke -Boyhood
4.) Jonathan Pryce -Listen Up Philip
5.) Ben Mendehlson -Starred Up
6.) Mark Ruffalo -Foxcatcher
7.) Josh Brolin -Inherent Vice
8.) F. Murray Abraham -The Grand Budapest Hotel
9.) Fabrizio Rongione -Two Days, One Night
10.) Gary Poulter -Joe

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
1.) Agata Kulesza -Ida
2.) Elizabeth Moss -Listen Up Philip
3.) Emma Stone -Birdman
4.) Kim Dickens -Gone Girl
5.) Katherine Waterston -Inherent Vice
6.) Carmen Ejogo -Selma
7.) Carrie Coon -Gone Girl
8.) Jessica Chastain -A Most Violent Year
9.) Natasa Raab -Child's Pose
10.) Rene Russo -Nightcrawler

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
1.) Wes Anderson -The Grand Budapest Hotel
2.) Rebecca Lenkiewicz & Paweł Pawlikowski -Ida
3.) Alex Ross Perry -Listen Up Philip
4.) Ruben Östlund -Force Majeure
5.) Dan Gilroy -Nightcrawler
6.) Damien Chazelle -Whiplash
7.) Jeremy Saulnier -Blue Ruin
8.) Kelly Reichardt & Jonathan Raymond -Night Moves
9.) J.C. Chandor -A Most Violent Year
10.) Chris Miller & Phil Lord -The Lego Movie

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
1.) Alejandro Jodorowsky -The Dance of Reality
2.) Paul Thomas Anderson-Inherent Vice
3.) Christopher McQuarrie & Jez and John-Henry Butterworth -Edge of Tomorrow
4.) Gillian Flynn -Gone Girl
5.) Mark Poirier -Hateship Loveship
6.) Jamal Belmahi -Horses of God
7.) Javier Gullón -Enemy
8.) David Gordon Green -Joe
9.) Max Borenstein -Godzilla
10.) Oren Uziel, Rodney Rothman, & Michael Bacall -22 Jump Street

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
1.) Pen-jung Liao, Qing Xin Lu, & Woon-chong Shong -Stray Dogs
2.) Lukasz Zal & Ryszard Lenczewski -Ida
3.) Robert Yeoman -The Grand Budapest Hotel
4.) Bradford Young -A Most Violent Year
5.) Robert Elswit -Nightcrawler & Inherent Vice
6.) Fredrik Wenzel -Force Majeure
7.) Daniel Landen -Under The Skin
8.) Franklin Dow -Virunga
9.) Jesse Moss -The Overnighters
10.) Christopher Blauvelt -Night Moves


BEST EDITING
1.) Tom Cross -Whiplash
2.) Gareth Evans & Andi Novianto -The Raid 2: Berandal
3.) Barney Pilling -The Grand Budapest Hotel
4.) James Herbert -Edge of Tomorrow
5.) Paul Watts -Under The Skin
6.) Frederick Wiseman -National Gallery
7.) Katie Bryer, Masahiro Hirakubo, Mikka Leskinen, & Peta Ridley - Virunga
8.) Jeff Seymann Gilbert -The Overnighters
9.) Leslie Jones –Inherent Vice
10.) Kirk Baxter -Gone Girl

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
1.) Mica Levi -Under The Skin
2.) Antonio Sanchez -Birdman
3.) Alexandre Desplat -The Grand Budapest Hotel
4.) Joshua Adams -Life Itself
5.) Joe Hisaishi -The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
6.) Philip Glass -Visitors
7.) Daniel Bensi & Saunder Jurriaans -Enemy
8.) Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross -Gone Girl
9.) Alexandre Desplat –Godzilla
10.) Alexander Ebert -A Most Violent Year

BEST SOUND DESIGN
1.) Silvio Naumann -The Strange Little Cat
2.) Ernst Karel & Stephanie Spray -Manakamana
3.) Johnnie Burn, Steve Single, & Nigel Albermaniche -Under The Skin
4.) Mark Ford, Tu Duu Chih, & Kuo Li Chi -Stray Dogs
5.) Joakim Sundström -Starred Up
6.) Ben Wilkins & Craig Mann -Whiplash
7.) Chris Burdon, Dominic Gibbs, Mark Taylor, & Stuart Wilson -Edge of Tomorrow
8.) Marc Orts & Oriel Tarrago -Enemy
9.) Julia Shirar, Kent Sparling, & Glenn Micallef -Night Moves
10.) Anna Behlmer, Sung Rok Choi, & Tae-Yung Choi -Snowpiercer

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
1.) Alisarine Ducolomb -The Dance of Reality
2.) Adam Stockhausen -The Grand Budapest Hotel
3.) Ondrej Nekvasil -Snowpiercer
4.) David Crank –Inherent Vice
5.) Masa Liu, Tsai Ming-Liang -Stray Dogs
6.) Happy Massee –The Immigrant
7.) Josefin Åsberg -Force Majeure
8.) Marco Bittner Rosser -Only Lovers Left Alive
9.) Scott Kuzio –Listen Up Philip
10.) Donald Graham Burt –Gone Girl

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
1.) Manakamana
2.) Virunga
3.) Ida
4.) The Dance of Reality
5.) Stray Dogs
6.) Force Majeure
7.) The Strange Little Cat
8.) The Raid 2: Berandal
9.) Two Days, One Night
10.) Horses of God

BEST DOCUMENTARY
1.) Citizenfour
2.) Manakamana
3.) The Overnighters
4.) Virunga
5.) Life Itself
6.) National Gallery
7.) Visitors
8.) The Unknown Known
9.) Rich Hill
10.) Little Hope Was Arson

BEST ANIMATED FILM
1.) The Lego Movie
2.) The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
These are the only two animated films I've seen this year. Want to check out Rocks in my Pockets, Ernest and Celestine, and Boxtrolls.



Here are my top 10 movies of 2014:
  1. Birdman
  2. Guardians of the Galaxy
  3. Boyhood
  4. Love Is Strange
  5. Under the Skin
  6. Winter Sleep
  7. Gone Girl
  8. Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow
  9. Leviathan
  10. The Imitation Game



1. Birdman

2. Guardians of the galaxy
3. Nightcrawler
4. Edge of tomorrow (what a surprise, I thought that be bad or meh movie)
5. The grand budapest hotel
6. Whiplash
7. Intersellar
8. Gone girl
9. The lego movie (another surprise)
10. La grande bellezza
11. 22 jump street (great satire about sequels)
12. What we do in the shadows
13. Song of the sea
14. Fury
15. Ida
and Jodorowsky's dune (documentary)

It was a good year