It's baaaaaack! I apologize for the lack of any new posts on this blog since July, but I'm not dead yet! And though this post hasn't quite been 12 years in the making (like some movies apparently), a lot has happened since I last wrote anything on here. Not only did I get a job, move to Eau Claire, and pass a bar exam, but I watched a bunch of movies to finally be able to write this post with a semblance of knowledge. And boy, was it worth it!
We won't quite know how 2014 will be remembered in terms of movies until a few years from now, but as it stands, I don't think I've ever given such consistently high ratings to so many movies in any single year. This last year, I saw 38 films, and I gave a rating of 8 or higher to 20 of them. That's over half of the films I saw this year, and I don't think I'd change a single one of those ratings if I had to go back and look at them again (granted, there were a lot of awful films that came out in 2014, but I tend to try and stay away from those). Needless to say, that made it incredibly difficult to narrow down my Top Ten list this year.
As is the case every year I've done this, any movie to which I've given a 9 or a 10 was guaranteed to make the list, with 8's filling out the rest. As you may have heard in the lead up to the Oscars, there have been a lot of great films this year, and because of the overall quality of the movies made, a lot of good movies didn't make the cut. And speaking of "cut," since this post is going to double as both a Top Ten and an Oscar Predictions post, I'm gonna keep my reasonings for each of these films much shorter than in previous year. So, in an effort to keep this post under 5,000 words, let's get to that list!
HONORABLE MENTIONS
As stated above, this could be a lot longer. However, I'm gonna keep it to three (in no particular order):
- American Sniper
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Interstellar
10: The Imitation Game
The big knock on The Imitation Game is that no one making it seemed to know what they were really trying to say (is this movie about a gay man who was persecuted? Or about WWII? Or about a misunderstood genius? What about that whole artificial intelligence test that Turing comes up with?). But what the film lacks in tact, it more than makes up for with great acting, dramatic pacing, and at it's heart (or at least what I think is its heart), an incredible story about how wars are won just as much behind the scenes as they are on the front lines.
9: Edge of Tomorrow
The best way I can think to describe Edge of Tomorrow is like a remake of Groundhog Day on steroids, but instead of Bill Murray's depressed weatherman, you get Tom Cruise going from a greenhorn soldier to a war-hardened veteran ready to save humanity, all in a single, countlessly relived day. This movie is one of the two smartest movies of the summer (along with the next pick), which makes sense seeing that it's directed by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) and written by Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects). I just threw out the names of three great movies...imagine them all rolled into one, and you've got this sadly under-appreciated gem
8: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
I've already written at length about the genius of DotPotA, so it should come as no surprise that it survived a gauntlet of Oscar-worthy fall movies and still made my Top Ten. This may make me sound crazy, but this prequel-sequel-reboot was one of the most original movies of the year. Brilliant CGI (surpassed only by Interstellar in that department), amazing animal acting, and stunning cinematography all worked together with a powerful story to create a worthy entrant on this year's list.
7: Selma
No movie in 2014 came out of nowhere more than Selma. Martin Luther King, Jr. finally got a biopic that could stand up to his image, and it happened because the movie focused not on the grandiosity of idol, but on the hardships that he and so many others had to face in their fight to help African-Americans earn the voting rights that they supposedly already had. David Oyelowo deserved a nomination over at least three of the other acting nominees for a powerful performance that is well worth seeing.
6. Nightcrawler
No character this year was more terrifying or interesting than Jake Gyllenhall's psycho with ambition, Lou Bloom, and perhaps no other movie got snubbed as much as Nightcrawler when this year's Oscar nominees were announced. First-time director Dan Gilroy crafted an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride that will make you feel sick at how much you're enjoying it. Like Oyelowo in Selma, Gyllenhall should've been an acting nominee for his crazily brilliant performance here. I'll never ask you to do anything that I wouldn't do myself, but I'm asking you now to go watch this movie.
5. Whiplash
Now we're getting down to the good stuff. I know J.K. Simmons would have you believe that "there are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job,'" but I'm gonna hand it to Whiplash. Good job, everyone. This movie deserves so much more than it's gotten. Quick, artistic editing and a scarily intense performance from Simmons make Whiplash a suspenseful viewing experience from start to finish. The slowly-increasing drum beat at the beginning perfectly begins the viewing experience, and puts the audience on a journey that won't let up until that drum beat slows back down at the very end.
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel
And now for something completely different! The Grand Budapest Hotel is perhaps the cinematic opposite of Whiplash, and may also be the apotheosis of Wes Anderson. GBH uses Anderson's well-defined dollhouse cinematography and adds an over-the-top story and a stableful of A-class acting talent to create a crazy comedy that is actually pretty dark (though I use "dark" in the most pastel-colored sense of the word). Through it all, Anderson shows a loving nostalgia for all things old (including film, hotels, women...), and creates the best movie he's ever made.
3. Birdman
The "Most Meta Movie of the Year" award certainly goes to Birdman, which takes outsized versions of Michael Keaton's (and Edward Norton's) public perception, adds in a bit of magical realism, and a lot of Hollywood references to create one of the best movies of the year. If you're reading this, I'm sure you know that Birdman may be poised to win the Best Picture award, and if it does, I won't complain. There are many great things about this movie, from the all-around acting to the looks-like-it-was-all-done-in-one-shot cinematography, but it's the simple story of a man wanting to feel beloved for his efforts--while constantly having to live up to his past success in the midsts of dealing with his current failures--that makes Birdman so amazing.
2. The Lego Movie
The Lego Movie is the first of two perfect 10's that I gave out this year, but it is the far more surprising choice. When this movie came out last January (over a year ago now), I had no expectations of quality. Little did I know that what I was about to witness was the best animated movie since Toy Story 3. Directed by the same guys that brought you 22 Jump Street last summer, The Lego Movie takes what could have easily been an excuse to make a 90 minute corporate commercial and instead imbues it with more heart than almost any movie this year. The story is smartly designed around whether Lego builders are supposed to follow the directions or to make their own creations, and it ends up deciding that the correct answer is that you're never wrong when you have the possibility to do both. It's this attention to quality (along with a few handfuls of cameos and Lego-inspired jokes) that makes this movie so...special.
1. Boyhood
Let's talk about the meaning of cinema for a second. Why do we watch movies? If we watch them to escape life, then perhaps Boyhood is the exact wrong pick for the best movie of the year. There's no explosions, no aliens, no time-traveling (or, in 2014's case, no apes, no Legos, and no Birdmen) in Boyhood. But if movies are supposed to create a reality that you can connect with and transport you through the screen to that world, then I can think of no better film in 2014 than Boyhood. What made Boyhood so real was that the world of the film is the world I grew up in. Scenes depicting Harry Potter midnight releases, baseball games with Roger Clemens on the mound, discussions of how there will never be anymore Star Wars films, and car rides spent in conversation about social media are all experiences that anyone in my generation can share with Mason in this movie. Likewise, the hardships of parenting, divorce, or domestic violence may have struck home with other viewers in ways that no movie has before. It is these scenes added together--filmed in a documentary-like fashion over a 12-year period and edited into a single, winding narrative--that make Boyhood a nostalgia factory for any viewer, and the best movie of the year.
Oscar Predictions!!!
In past years, I've made an entire separate post with all of my Oscar predictions. But since it's already Oscar Sunday (and since this post is already extremely long), I'll just post my picks for each category below (just a side note, I have absolutely no confidence in any of my last three picks):
Live Action Short: The Phone Call
Animated Short: The Feast
Documentary Short: Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Foreign Film: Ida
Documentary: Citizenfour
Animated Feature: How to Train Your Dragon 2
Visual Effects: Interstellar
Sound Mixing: Whiplash
Sound Editing: American Sniper
Original Score: The Theory of Everything
Original Song: Glory
Production Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Makeup and Hair: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Costume Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Editing: Boyhood
Cinematography: Birdman
Adapted Screenplay: The Imitation Game
Original Screenplay: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)
Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)
Actress: Julianne Moore (Still Alice)
Actor: Michael Keaton (Birdman)
Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Birdman)
Picture: Boyhood
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