The 10 Best Movies of 2014
Another year come and gone, boy it passed by so quickly. As working in the film industry is about noticing trends in financial success, one think I took notice, and if you did as well, this was a good year for indie fare. Such movies, like “Dear White People,” (which did come to Seattle…to one theater…for three days…and has yet to be on the rental shelves around here…), “Snowpeircer,” “Last Lovers Left Alive,” “The Congress” (which is probably the closest any of us will get to a Ralph Bakshi movie, so get on it surrealists), “Obvious Child,” “Boyhood,” “Whiplash,” “Selma;” it was the year for the small production and, considering the nominated films for the Golden Globes are small indie films, it’s a good year for those small people that we ignore so often to get their name out into the lime-light. But there were just as much that made it’s way into the major screens that got their just deserves, thankfully that this year wasn’t like last year when 20+ big budget movies financially failed domestically.
Why is that?
Because there were actual movies that were worth seeing this year.
Not all, but some that got people to get out of their homes and gravitate to the theater to see them.
But instead of pandering to the demands and the opinions of everyone else just to keep some “critic cred,” I’m going to list off the films that left the most impression on me all year, an impression that still stuck with me even through all the other countless flicks that I saw.
Starting out this list is a movie that will no doubt make nobody’s list.
To describe this movie would be describing it as such to why it made the impression it did.
Imagine hearing that this cook who use to work at this extravagant restaurant everyone heard and left and went to work for this small, yet quaint cafe. So you seek out this cook and ask him to make you something. He sits you down and he bakes you an apple pie in a rather unique pie dish; it’s a familiar and traditional recipe that looks and smells appetizing despite hoping for something new to try from the cook. Regardless, you take some bites and find that, indeed, it tastes like a traditional apple pie, but it has flavor to it, so you keep eating until you get half-way through the pie where you can see what’s inside: thick and lush apple slices, brown sugar, the whip cream on the top oozing into the pie slices.
There’s nothing to hide, it is an apple pie and you know there are no surprises, but dang it, you keep eating, still hungry though you’ve more than had your fill. By the time you’ve already finished the pie, you pay the cook his tip and leave the quaint cafe, you quell on the flavor; yes it tasted like apple pie, but the aftertaste is still on your tongue, even by the time you get home, you find yourself wanting to make a pie of your own.
A strange allegory for this movie, but it’s the best I could think of it. Indeed, it’s familiar narrative and characters are what keep it from going any higher on this list, but what puts it on this list is it’s likable cast that play off each other, the glorious detail put into filming all the amazing dishes, all supervised and created by Kogi Korean BBQ restaurateur Roy Choi, and a pleasing soundtrack make this meal more mouth-watering for a return trip to that cafe than most feel-good comedies in recent memory.
You know what “Divergent” and “The Hunger Games” have in common? They all exploit the lowest common denominator by offering the illusion of integrity and deep thought, but are all fluff and flutter that showcase attractive young men who are there to bring in the young female demographic who wouldn’t care to come otherwise and a “strong” female protagonist who has everyone roll over for her to get what she wants all while taking the credit for doing it.
So how is it this movie is treated like one of those?
Well okay, it hits the typical romantic drama cliches you’d expect to see as well as pulling the drag-shoot out on moments you think it’s gonna play out as usual but throws a curveball in certain places you least expect it to, but for a teenage drama, it has one defining feature that makes it stand out above the more recent popular teen romances:
John Green, YouTube star and the author of the book, does not think his audience is stupid.
And thanks to a grounded, yet stunningly natural performance from Shailene Woodley, giving perhaps the best performance I’ve seen this year, one so good I’ve been seeing petitions being set up to get the 23 year-old actress an Oscar nomination (I’d hate to be the one to break it to them but that ain’t gonna happen), it’s charming wit and presentation of young people in a way that, well, feels identifiable without having to stoop so low to please everyone.
Of course, it’s not without it’s problems, but these problems rate rather low compared to the snore-fest that was “Mockingjay Part 1” and the dullness that was “Divergent,” this is a Young Adult story that breathes some life to the genre. Here’s hoping it takes the genre somewhere different that treats the viewers like how teens should be treated; not as gullible sheep but intelligent minds that have as much potential if you give them a shot.
And no, I didn't cry, what do you take me for?
Also, if any movie needed "All the Young Dudes," it should have been this one.
There’s this quote I read from TIME magazine critic Richard Corliss where he asked “Is John Green a bigger star than Tom Cruise?” With an opening weekend of $48 million compared to “Edge of Tomorrow’s” $20 million opening weekend, one could see why that thought would come about. But not even John Green and weepy cancer patients couldn’t kick as much ass as this smart science-fiction action movie.
The premise you ask? Aliens have invaded and there is a planned battalion assault on the beaches of France in advanced battle suits to fight them back. Tom Cruise plays a public affairs officer with no combat experience forced into combat under the claim he is a deserter, where he dies on the beach from the failed beach invasion after taking out one of the larger aliens. But instead of dying, he wakes up the day before the invasion where everyone seems to have been re-set and yet only he is aware of the looping. Taking advantage of this with the only other person who will believe him, Cruise uses the re-loops to train harder and better to find a way to end this war.
I’ve heard people use the phrase “a video game movie” to describe this film, while I can see why they would use that description, when I describe this movie to people who haven’t seen it, my description is “It’s “Starship Troopers” meets “Groundhog Day” except Tom Cruise gets beat up a lot.” And I do mean A LOT, to a point that when he is killed, it’s comical. He gets hit by a truck, he gets shot at, he rolls under a truck and is crushed by the tires, a ship lands on him, something explodes in his face, all that’s missing is a falling anvil gag.
But dark humor and creative narrative aside, this is a satisfying action movie that managed to slip by the general summer movie line-up based on a lead who is more than willing to break his smug, tough-guy persona to play a weasly wimp. So please, if there’s a sequel, can we at least have ONE scene where an anvil falls on Tom Cruise’s head?
Please?
Pretty please?
It’s common to see documentaries that come out about the making of a big movie that changed the film industry, they’re everywhere. There exist documentaries on “Jaws,” “Star Wars,” and “Psycho” to name a few. But this documentary is different, detailing the incredible scale and imagination of one man for what would potentially out-do “2001: A Space Odyssey” in terms of Science-Fiction and special effects.
This was the ambition of film-maker Alejandro Jodorowsky and his goal to make a film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s “Dune.” Pre-production began in 1975 with Alejandro pulling together names that would be immortalized in the future. H.R. Giger designed the sets, Chris Foss designed the space-ships and Jean Giraud drew storyboards and concept art for the characters. The music was created by prog rock groups Pink Floyd and Magma and the cast starred the likes of Salvador Dali, Mick Jagger, David Carradine, Gloria Swanson and Orson Welles as Baron Harkonnen (under the promise of being fed by the chef of this restaurant he loved going to of course.)
And now you’re wondering “holy crap! This movie sounds amazing! Why haven’t I heard of it?!”
You haven’t heard of it because this movie was never made.
Sad to say, but this is a documentary about the greatest movie that never saw the light of day or even went into production.
By 1976, Alejandro had already burned through $5 million of the $15 million budget and considering the 800 pages that composed the screenplay (which would have resulted in a movie over 14 hours), the studio pulled it’s money back and everyone working on the film couldn’t go any further, moving on to other things.
But what I take from this documentary that left such an impact was Alejandro’s passion. Even years later, when being asked about this movie that never happened, he has this big smile on his face as he recalls the ideas he had for this movie, the lengths he went to get the actors he wanted and how thrilled he was to see the visuals created by the creative team for the effects. He is so passionate about this movie, you feel for his pain when he had to shut it all down.
Thankfully for him and us, we can see what this mad genius had in mind 40 years ago.
I didn’t even know about this movie from trailers or any of that sort like most movies. I saw this movie sitting on the DVD rental shelf for the past three months whenever I would pass by it to go to the employees break room. There was the image of a man, looking determined and pissed off, what was this? So naturally, I finally caved into my curiosity and rented it and gave it a watch.
Not only did I not expect what I saw, but what I did genuinely left a great impression on me.
The reason why?
Simplicity.
This is a movie where Tom Hardy is driving to a hospital and he juggles phone call after phone call from his boss, his wife, his sons and the woman giving birth to his son from an one night stand he had months before. There are no flashbacks, no cut-aways to other locations, it’s all Tom Hardy, sitting in a car, trying to keep it together while trying to be there for this woman he had sex with once.
From that description, it sounds boring, but actually, it’s surprisingly not. What could have been a dull pretentious endeavor, becomes an exercise in delivering a brutal performance with only a guy in a car, the voices who calls him and the emotion he displays during his drive; frustration while he tries to coach a co-worker for an important construction project, turmoil from having to explain to his wife about the affair, his sons begging him to come home and the conversations he imagines having with the father who abandoned him years ago. All of it is help with a fantastic performance by Tom Hardy, finally his chance to stand in the spot light after years of standing on the sideline. While Reese Witherspoon gave a fantastic turn in “Wild,” the brutal one-man-show simplicity of Tom Hardy sitting in his car, voicing his sorrows and frustrations, it’s the one time I have to joint he critics in saying, it’s one hell of a tour-de-force performance.
And to think, all done with a few camera angles in a car. Reminds me of my own student film where I made a comedy with just me playing two characters in one car, which is probably why I enjoyed this film greatly.
Goes to show what happens when a DVD sitting on a rental shelf for months catches your eye.
For me, it brought back some happy memories of editing together that student film that got so many chuckles from the lines “You’re not making any sense.” “That’s a band from Korea.”
I even remember showing that student film to a house guest once and they asked me if I was going to do an entire movie like that. I laughed and said “it’s just not possible.”
Thank you for proving me wrong Steven Knight.
As someone who has done intern work for television production before for a reality show (ask yourself why a couple trying to sell a house would need to be coached on what to say if they’re supposed to be “real people?”), the concept of fabricating reality for ratings, this hits close to home in some respects for me.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays an amateur videographer who begins to record car crashes, police chases and crime scenes to sell them off to a local news station that perverts the facts to make a good story to put on the evening news.
Gyllenhaal’s character is truly despicable; the definition of entertainment in the medium, especially in this day in age where the question of integrity demands to be brought to light. Gyllenhaal’s performance channels, in some weird ways, the fixation of Travis Bickle and the crazed maniacal nature of Rupert Pupkin; a maniac willing to shove anyone aside, even use the death of his colleagues for a news story.
This is a performance most leading men in Hollywood would kill for, a chance to play a sociopath where he indulges in a career where he doesn’t care about police procedure, he doesn’t care about witness protection, he doesn’t care about your rights. He’s even willing to move the bodies of victims, enter the house of a murdered couple and withhold police evidence to get footage of the police chase after he locates them. He is purely unethical and sadly, in the industry of news media, where ethics are called into question, it’s the unethical ones that get far.
It’s perhaps one of the most polarizing portrayals of news media, elevated by a superb performance by Jake Gyllenhaal, fantastic editing that made me jealous and a tight script with enough technical jargon to bring me back to standing behind the editors and watching them work with the footage I was involved in.
Whether you’re a professional news cameraman filming an arrest and putting it out onto the news or some schmuck with a cell phone that records the same arrest and call it police brutality and puts it on Tumblr, this movie’s message is clear:
Leave your morals at the door. Ethics are a joke.
Now that's scary.
This year gave us an eclectic variety of Christian-related movies.
“Son of God,” “God’s Not Dead,” “Heaven is For Real,” “Exodus: Gods and Kings”
and you know what they all had in common?
Audiences didn't gravitate to these films and critics were exceptionally harsh, calling them dull and boring (this is true in the case of "Son of God," snore*)
But then Darren Aronofsky pulls a fast one and gives us a movie that changes up the original story to present a genuine surprising yet audacious film adaptation of a story that was only, ooh, 4 pages in the bible?
But what does Aronofsky do differently with this story?
He made Noah flawed.
And that is why this movie has received so much controversy.
There has always been violence in the bible, there has always been sexual misconduct in the bible and there has always been a presentation of good vs evil in the bible, but what it lacks inside it’s pages that has to be left up to the readers (a demand that has, in worst cases, caused people to misinterpret what it says and pervert the message of love for hate) is humanity's ability to error.
And yet, Aronofsky seems to be well aware of this and he manages to respectfully and creatively blend together both the religious text but also give a rather fresh spin on the tale that never feels insulting to religion (despite what some religious groups say, I never had a problem with it). Heck, it had possibly the most outstanding presentation of the creation story that blends in evolution in a time lapse. It’s a visually stunning sequence that shows both respect for the material and ambition to take the story and give it a visual update.
Acting is great with special praise going to Russell Crowe is good as the stoic Noah, but he excels when he begins to go crazy near the end, making him more human and identifiable as a human being rather than a name on text.
And out of all the religious films from this year, Darren Aronofsky was the only one who had the balls to change it up and add a sense of error where most religious films try to make their protagonists as perfect as possible.
And for any of you atheist readers out there, I actually recommended this film to the pastor from my church and he came back saying he enjoyed the movie.
I’m genuinely trying to imagine how the process for producing this film went…
Regency Producers: “All right, Mr. Iñárritu, what have you brought to us today?”
Alejandro González Iñárritu: “Well, I have this story about an alcoholic trying to recapture some former glory from his early days.”
Regency Producers: “Well that’s interesting Mr. Iñárritu, but it just doesn’t sound profitable to us.”
Alejandro González Iñárritu: “Dang it!”
-months later-
Regency Producers: “All right, what have you got for us this time?”
Alejandro González Iñárritu: “Okay, so I want to make a movie about a failed actor of a big franchise trying to recapture his glory in one constant tracking shot, I call it “The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance.”
Regency Producers: “Well that’s very fascinating, but it still doesn’t grab us, but better luck next time.”
Alejandro González Iñárritu: “Fudge-nuggets!”
-more months later-
Regency Producers: “Sigh* what have you got for us this time dude?”
Alejandro González Iñárritu: “It’s a movie with a superhero-“
Regency Producers: “Here’s $18 million, have it ready to show it at Venice and then for a wide release by October.”
Alejandro González Iñárritu: “Sweet!”
In either way, I’d be one to place my bets on Michael Keaton getting an Oscar this year.
Even now as I write out my last choices for Best of the Year, I still feel, from the bottom of my heart, that no matter how I rank these two, they will always be my #1 pick for the best film I saw this year, a major contrast from last year where I didn’t have a “Best Of” list because I had become so cynical, which is what makes the choices that more personal to me to actually FIND not one, but TWO movies that I felt were well and deserving to be called Best of 2014.
But I’ve delayed this long enough, unless you’ve already skipped ahead or you know me and you figured it out already, let’s proceed with…
Are you even surprised? Admit it, you were expecting this movie to be on here. And why not? This movie was awesome.
In a summer full of by-the-numbers summer movies with big special effects and cartoony characters but little emotional resonance for any of them, writer and director James Gunn and co-writer Nicole Perlman decided to cut the crap and outright make a movie that had one thing that “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” “Transformers 4,” “Captain America: Winter Soldier,” “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” and “Godzilla” lacked: fun.
Pure, unbridled, no bars and nothing to hold it back fun.
And that fun came from the fact that the movie had nothing to hide.
It had cliches that have been done a million times, it had big explosions, it had big action, but it also had the brainpower for the main characters to even acknowledge it’s own ridiculousness and cliches. Examples?
“So this orb’s got a real shiny blue suitcase, Ark of the Covenant, Maltese Falcon sorta vibe. What is it?”
“Well now I’m standing. Happy? We’re all standing now. Buncha jackasses, standing in a circle.”
“We’re just like Kevin Bacon.”
Or, to but it more simply in the words of Time Magazine, “it’s a movie that pokes fun at itself Han Solo-Style and it invites the audience in on the fun.”
And hot damn is it fun!
The cast is fantastic, Chris Pratt excelling as the likable thief with a heart of gold, Bradley Cooper bringing life, and huge laughs, as Rocket Raccoon, Vin Diesel, with only 3-4 lines of dialogue, manages to make a CGI tree creature the most likable and quotable character of 2014, Dave Bausita finally gets his chance to step into the limelight of stardom and show off his comic timing as a character who takes metaphors and jokes literally and Zoe Saldana fits in like puzzle piece to play the straight woman among the likable cast of obscure comic characters.
For a large expansive alien world, a soundtrack comprised of pop hits from the 1970’s kept us from feeling too far away from home with the tunes of Blue Swede, 10cc, The Jackson 5, Redbone and Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell to help us feel welcome in the alien worlds of this space opera. Said soundtrack, by the way, hit #1 on the Billboard 200 charts in the summer of 2014 and stayed there for nearly 11 consecutive weeks, keeping modern pop stars like Rihanna, Drake, Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj off the top spot. Heck, check Billboard’s Year End lists, “Awesome Mix Vol. 1” ranks #19 on the Top Billboard 200 Albums and #7 on Top Digital Albums and was certified Gold eight weeks after it’s release, eventually finding a release on vinyl and a limited release on cassette tape. As of December 2014, it has sold 890,000 copies, making it the second best-selling soundtrack album behind "Frozen."
Now that’s amazing.
So amazing it inspired me to spend the rest of the year creating my own mix tapes (well more like playlists and Compilation CDs for family) as well as inspired to compile a list of my own choices for songs for the sequel and send it to James Gunn’s twitter (he responded, by the way, by saying “he’ll think about it.” My chances look really slim…)
Well, truth be told, as much as I love this movie, it’s staying power seems to diminish slightly with each repeat viewing. While I still love the movie every time I watch it, the enthusiasm I had when I saw this film back in the theaters dies down with each viewing as I know every joke, every visual cue and every easter egg to look out for. It’s still a fantastic movie that felt like a refreshing breath of fresh air to see it after a summer of uninspired and receptive summer fare, but rewatchabilty seems to lessen it’s impact.
And the funny thing, I was going to put it on my #1 spot, until another rematch on Christmas Eve with this movie and a rewatch of my #1 choice made me switch these two up with the official choice.
I remember back in 2012, I had heard about this movie called “Moonrise Kingdom.” It had an impressive cast, but I didn’t care to see it because I was less than impressed with the director’s previous effort “Fantastic Mr. Fox” (but then again, I saw it in an airplane, not the best movie-watching experience to say the least). So I begrudgingly saw the movie in a packed theater with an overweight man taking up two seats on my right and a guy on my right with a bag of his own home-made popcorn that he brought from home with so much greasy butter that it’s stench was burning my nostrils with it’s awful smell.
And yet, despite these conditions, “Moonrise Kingdom” genuinely surprised me. It was the movie I didn’t expect to love as much as I did. A movie so good, I made the bold choice to place it at #1 for my choice for best movie of 2012.
So when the news came out for this new film, I knew I wasn’t going to waste this chance and saw it once I found out where it was playing (not too far off this time) and in a quiet theater with only a few people, I sat there, a wide smile on my face in gleeful expectation for more witty humor, distinctive visual flair and a cast of actors who look like they’re having the time of their lives.
Once again, Mr. Anderson, you’ve deeply impressed me.
Lavish visuals that somehow manage to use every warm color imaginable, music that is lovingly whimsical and eccentric and a cast so large, every time I’ve watched this with my father (who received the movie in his Christmas stocking, can’t imagine who got him that) who has continued to come under the assumption Joe Don Baker is in this film yet IMDB says otherwise. Special praise goes to Ralph Fiennes for taking a change of pace to play a more eccentric and flamboyant character rather than his typical stern roles. If there was anyone who could give some competition for Best Actor against Michael Keaton this year, my bet would most certainly go to Ralph Fiennes.
The choice of sets is stunningly gorgeous and Anderson’s attention to detail continues to impress me yet again on this larger scale with so many actors that you’d think it would be overwhelming, and yet, they all play off one another wonderfully.
This is a movie I could watch again and again and always pick up something new that I failed to notice last time and darling, that’s the best kind of movie.
The kind of movie where you notice details that you didn’t the last time, the kind of movie where you can appreciate every single performance from every big name actor that Anderson pulled together to be in this beautiful movie.
Every.
Lovely.
Detail.
It’s like the greatest cake ever made and Anderson is giving you a box of spoons, telling you to “dig in.”
And if you were the unlucky ones, you said “no thanks” and just walked away from the best cake you’ll ever eat.
No doubt people will disagree with me, but for me, every time I’ve stay down to rewatch this film, I’ve never felt bored, I’ve never felt disengaged, I’ve never wanted to stop watching and watch something else. It’s a stunning piece of art from a man with a unique, albeit strange vision.
Congratulations Mr. Wes Anderson, you’ve made my #1 spot for Best Movie of the Year yet again.
