10. Foxcatcher
Director Bennett Miller’s third feature film is a fine movie, if a bit slow going and aimless at times, but what make Foxcatcher so memorable are the fantastic performances at its core. Steve Carell is visually unrecognizable as John du Pont, imbuing him with a disturbingly calm demeanor masking a lot of issues, psychological and otherwise. Mark Ruffalo is just as good as Dave Schultz, conveying worlds of emotion with little dialogue. Criminally overlooked, though, is Channing Tatum’s powerhouse performance as Mark Schultz, a brute of a man desperately trying to step out from his brother’s shadow but never quite able to find the words to do so. Like Ruffalo, Tatum is able to show us so much about Mark with just physicality and body language. Those three performances make Foxcatcher a worthy addition to Miller’s impressive filmography and a haunting, disturbing film to sit through.
9. The Wind Rises
Hayao Miyazaki's swan song (kind of) is unlike anything he's done before, but at the same time it's exactly what we expect from the Japanese animation master. The world he creates here isn't one where cat buses roam the countryside or where witches deliver packages or where spirits let off steam in bathhouses, but it's no less fantastical. Rather, it follows Jiro Horikoshi, the creator of the Zero plane used by Japan during WWII. In Jiro's eyes—and Miyazaki's—his planes are living, breathing, fantastical creatures, sputtering and whirring and growling with real acapella sound effects and soaring across fields of grass and endless oceans. It’s a film only Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli could make.
*I’m counting this for 2014 because it had its wide theatrical release this past year, even though it was technically considered a 2013 release by the Oscars.*
*I’m counting this for 2014 because it had its wide theatrical release this past year, even though it was technically considered a 2013 release by the Oscars.*
8. Interstellar
Gravity (my top film of 2013) showed us the sheer wonder (and horror) of humankind traversing into space with some of the most impressive visuals ever put on film. Christopher Nolan’s space opera, then, shows us what space travel means: how it affects the astronauts and their families back on Earth, and what traveling deeper into the infinite black says about the human species as a whole and as individuals. The result is stunning: visually arresting, stacked with great performances, and simply beautiful. I was riveted for the entire movie by both what I was seeing and how everything was falling into place and fitting together like a jigsaw puzzle. It’s the blockbuster version of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Does its reach exceed its grasp? Sure, but what would you expect in a movie dealing with nothing less than our place in the cosmos, dimensions beyond our own, and the very nature of human existence?
7. Snowpiercer
Snowpiercer builds a terrifying world that unfolds before us; as Chris Evans and his gang move farther up the train, they meet an ever more colorful cast of characters led by Tilda Swinton, who gives a simply ridiculous performance Mason, like a demented Margaret Thatcher drenched in arrogance and cruelty. And as they traverse closer to the engine, we learn more and more about the nature of the world, who built the train, and how humanity got there in the first place. Throw in some insane bloody violence, very non-American storytelling techniques, and some ruminations on the human will to survive, and you’ve got the best and most stylish science fiction movie of the year.
6. The Grand Budapest Hotel
Freeing himself from the confines of his usual themes—family struggles, growing older—Wes Anderson makes a caper film as finely crafted as anything he's done so far. Meticulous tableaus tastefully adorned in pastels suddenly give way to spurts of surprisingly graphic violence, only to switch again to a genuinely silly chase scene down a ski slope. Ralph Fiennes gives one of the year's best performances as Gustave H., the hotel manager who’s always tidy and curt and civil, even in the face of cruelty and ridiculousness. The Grand Budapest Hotel is Wes Anderson at his most unabashedly fun.
5. Birdman
Birdman is a lot of things. It’s a glimpse at the creative process and the immense amount of work that goes into putting on a stage production. It’s a surprisingly critical look at the state of the blockbuster movie industry and the glut of CGI-laden explosion orgies that get pumped out every summer. It’s the thundering return of Michael Keaton to the spotlight with an Oscar-worthy performance. But, maybe more than anything, Birdman is a cinematic experience unlike anything this year. If there was any production feat to rival that of Boyhood’s 12-year creation, it's Birdman's seemingly continuous single take for the duration of the film. It's so compelling to watch, and it works not just as a show-off-y gimmick. In a movie about a production of a Broadway play, seeing the action unfold in real time before our eyes couldn’t fit any better.
4. Whiplash
What does it take to achieve greatness? Is pushing past comfort zones to produce the next great creative force justified, even if fifty other prodigies get torn down in the aftermath? A dark, stomach-churning look inside a prestigious music conservatory and the relationship between an aspiring jazz drummer and his brutal, abusive mentor, Whiplash rides on the electric chemistry between Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons, who finally gets the role he’s deserved for his entire career. And that’s to say nothing of newcomer Damien Chazelle’s fantastic direction, creating more tension and discomfort than any other movie I’ve seen this year—in a movie about a jazz drummer, no less. Oh, and it also has the best ending I’ve seen in a long, long time, a third act that had me literally on the edge of my seat with my heart in my throat and my insides in knots.
3. The Lego Movie
If there were an award for Best Movie No One Expected To Be This Good, The Lego Movie would win by a landslide. A perfectly mediocre movie about one of the most popular toys in the world, with this many licensed properties and this much star power behind it, would still have been a hit. And yet Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s creation is nothing short of spectacular. Every single aspect of The Lego Movie is filled with joy and creativity: the characters, the stellar voice acting, the unbelievably meticulous world building (pun definitely intended) and attention to detail. The Lego Movie is by far the most fun I had at the movies this year, and it stands as one of my favorite animated movies ever.
2. Only Lovers Left Alive
Tired orangey streetlights illuminate dark, twisting, hilly alleyways in the desert city of Tangiers as Eve strolls from bar to bar, twang-y lutes playing in the background. Detroit at night is shrouded in a blanket of pitch black, and Adam’s house, where he covertly makes slow, sexy post-rock records, is a collection of scattered relics of music technology of the past century. Jim Jarmusch’s moody tale of immortal vampires in love doesn’t have any special-effects-laden action sequences, or any mind-bending plot twists, or even any steamy sex scenes. No, Only Lovers Left Alive just follows Adam and Eve around, and we see a glimpse into the pair’s little world: what a love hundreds of years old looks and feels like, how two beings that have existed for so long interact with the world, and how they see each other and humanity. And, more than anything, Only Lovers Left Alive is a love story, sensual and dark and lazy and fascinating, beautifully realized with gorgeous cinematography and incredible music and brought to life with two stellar lead performances in Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston. It’s the most quietly unique movie of the year.
1. Boyhood
Boyhood is unquestionably the most ambitious movie of the year, its 12-year production crazy to even think about. (Richard Linklater had no way of knowing that an offhand remark about Roger Clemens or about how there would never be another Star Wars movie would have made a good joke five, ten years later.) But Boyhood is the best movie of the year because the finished product makes the incredible production worth it. Unfolding like a series of vignettes that bleed into each other, the story of Mason Jr. and his family is so powerful because of how real it is. It’s the most accurate and powerful snapshot of American life in the 2000s because it’s not a snapshot—it’s a photo album. There are no clear demarcations from year to year; the movie just happens. And as the film progresses, Boyhood becomes not just the story of a boy growing up into a young adult. It's about a sister who goes through phases in looks and attitudes. It's about a rebellious father who learns that he, too, needs to grow up. It's about a single mother who jumps from husband to husband while trying to savor each and every moment with her kids, who are growing up way too fast. Boyhood is about life, how the moments that we remember are the ones in the interstitial space, and that message resonates in a way only a film like this can make it. Boyhood is an incredible achievement, unlike anything we’ve seen before, and one that will be remembered for years to come.
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