Via Sony Pictures Classic.
Another year, another top ten list of movies for you to look at and be like “wow, I’ve only heard of, like, a quarter of these movies. Pat and Matt are such hacks.” Kidding! As we wrap another year at the movies, here’s what DCist film critics Pat Padua and Matt Cohen really, really liked in 2014. Spoiler: we didn’t put the same movie as our top choice again!
Anyway, thanks for reading our musings about the cinema this year and, as always, you’re invited to share your favorites of the year in the comments section. Discussions about movies! And now, our lists:
Pat Padua:
1. Whiplash (Dir. Damien Chazelle)
The scariest movie of the year doesn’t feature a drop of slasher bloodshed or even a single murder, but there is definitely blood. Director Damien Chazelle’s music school horror movie focuses on the tortured relationship between young jazz drummer Andrew (Miles Teller) and his abusive teacher Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) who may as well be his Michael Myers. Simmons’ most high-profile gig before landing this defining role may have been as the voice of the yellow M&M, but his incendiary performance here is the only reasonable choice to the Best Supporting Actor Oscar this year.
2. Jodorowsky’s Dune (Dir. Frank Pavich)
As memorable as Simmons’ Terence Fletcher is, the most colorful character at the movies this year may be one from real life. By the force of his charm, director Alejandro Jodorowsky can say outlandish things and make them hilarious. You don’t have to care about Frank Herbert or avant-garde cinema to appreciate the great drama in this tale of a dream deferred.
3. Under the Skin (Dir. Jonathan Glazer)
I’m tired of science fiction movies that need to explain everything in clunky exposition. Director Jonathan Glazer thoroughly immerses the viewer in the world of his alien (Scarlett
Johansson), and with the help of Micah Levi’s terrific score, creates something unsettling out of life on Earth.
4. The Overnighters (Dir. Jesse Moss)
Pastor Jay Reinke opened up his church as housing for the men looking for work in a North Dakota boomtown, but, as I wrote in my review last month, this documentary “isn’t just about the economic crisis or the breakdown of the American Dream. Its powerful metaphors take it from very specific circumstances to something universal. “
5. Rich Hill (Dirs. Tracy Droz Tragos, Andrew Droz Palermo)
This beautifully photographed documentary looks at the harrowing effect of economic struggle on young men in a small Missouri town. It’s as impressionistic a tale of the botched American dream as Beasts of the Southern Wild, except it’s real.
6. Journey to the West (Dirs. Stephen Chow, Chi-kin Kwok)
When I saw this title in a year-end package from Magnolia, I mistook it for some kind of Merchant-Ivory tale of enlightenment. But it’s not that at all. Imagine if Sharknado was good? That’s what this is, basically. Director Stephen Chow lays on the CGI in this loose adaptation of a 16th century Chinese literary classic, but the monster and set design are strong enough to make this the thriller of the year.
7. Force Majeure (Dir. Ruben Östlund)
A friend suggested that this film would be best seen in 70mm IMAX, if only that were possible. Director Ruben Östlund’s psychological thriller is set against the picture-perfect background of a ski resort where literal storms serve as a beautiful and dangerous metaphor for its human drama.
8. Manakamana (Dirs. Stephanie Spray, Pacho Velez)
Like Force Majeure, this 16mm documentary takes place at a high altitude, but on a much different scale. Directors Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez documented pilgrims traveling by cable car to and from Nepal’s Manakamana temple. Shot in real time, using the entire eleven-minute length of a 16mm magazine for each journey, this mesmerizing film is a series of moving portraits of technology and faith.
9. Rocks in My Pockets (Dir. Signe Baumane)
In this documentary-essay, director Signe Baumane tells the story of five women in her family who have battled severe depression. But the movie is far from a downer. Baumane uses papier-mâché stop-motion and hand-drawn animation (inspired by Bill Plympton) to tap a depressed mind that’s fertile with imaginative visions like DNA strands with eyes and a forest full of grotesque creatures.
10. Nymphomaniac Vol. 1 (Dir. Lars von Trier)
Director Lars Von Trier is the arthouse bad boy of cinematic excess, and the second volume of this film, broken down from what was a five-hour director’s cut, flags in the self-indulgence that weighs down much of the director’s recent work. But the first volume is brimming with an inventiveness that is ridiculous (it’s still Von Trier), but it’s one of the most engaging films he’s made in years.
Honorable Mention: The Babadook, Cheap Thrills, The One I Love, John
Wick, Keep On Keepin’ On.
Via Spooky Movie.
Matt Cohen:
1. The Babadook (Dir. Jennifer Kent)
On the surface, there’s not much about Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook that makes it especially remarkable. But once you start peeling back the layers, the brilliance of Kent’s feature film debut become apparent. It’s not just a perfectly crafted, creepy-as-hell horror film, it’s a deeply layered treatise on the nature of loss, trauma, and grieving.
2. Boyhood (Dir. Richard Linklater)
When you spend 12 years making something, there’s a whole lot that can go wrong. But, there’s also a whole lot that can go right and, thankfully, Richard Linklater’s great cinematic experience hit all the right notes. It’s not a perfect film, but what Linklater captures of his characters and their transformation/maturation over the years is something special and quite spectacular.
3. Whiplash (Dir. Damien Chazelle)
The most visceral 90-minute panic attack I have ever seen.
4. Two Days, One Night (Dirs. Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne)
The Darnenne Brothers have a gift for creating intensely personal drama out of simple premises. In Two Days, One Night, Sandra (Marion Cotillard) receives news that her boss has put her job to a vote with her co-workers: it’s either their bonus or her job. Thus, Sandra spends the film tracking down each of her co-workers to persuade them to vote to lose out on a hefty bonus so she can keep her job. It’s a beautifully tragic film.
5. Enemy (Dir. Denis Villeneuve)
The most head-scratching WTF of a movie I have seen in quite some time. Also, that ending is one of the most beguiling endings I have ever seen.
6. Starred Up (Dir. David Mackenzie)
Screenwriter Jonathan Asser used his real-life experiences as a voluntary prison therapist to write this terrific and tense drama about a violent, troubled young criminal who is “starred up” from a juvenile detention center to an adult prison where his father is locked up.
7. Snowpiercer (Dir. Bong Joon-ho)
Leave it to The Weinstein’s to basically self-destruct one of the best movies they put out this year. Bong Joon-ho’s wildly inventive post-apocalyptic comic book adaptation should’ve been one of the best and biggest blockbusters of the summer, instead of a VOD release with some theatrical push.
8. Hide Your Smiling Faces (Dir. Daniel Patrick Carbone)
I’m a sucker for anything that can be described as “Malick-esque,” so of course I loved this gorgeous and meditative film about troubled youth confronting life and death in rural America.
9. Interstellar (Dir. Christopher Nolan)
Perhaps the most awe-inspiring, mind-expanding cinematic experience i’ve had since the first time I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey.
10. Only Lovers Left Alive (Dir. Jim Jarmusch)
I’ve always admired Jarmusch’s absurdist approach and dry wit. To see it applied to a vampire film—a played out, tired genre if I ever saw one—was such a treat.
Honorable mentions: Fort Bliss, Gone Girl, Mommy, Under the Skin, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Cold in July, The One I Love, Blue Ruin, The Lego Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, Borgman, Dinosaur 13, The Machine, Edge of Tomorrow, Inherent Vice, Obvious Child, A Most Violent Year, Selma, The Immigrant.
