So, it’s that time of the year again. It’s time to look back on the previous year in cinema, this medium that is so near and dear to our hearts. It’s time to look at the successes, the failures, and the mediocrity. We need to evaluate acting, grade storytelling, and assess technical achievements. We need to discuss the significance of this year’s films in the wider context of cinema history, and we need to carefully analyze the philosophical and narrative meaning of the year’s most well-loved movies.
But you know, we really don’t have time for that. So instead, here’s a series of vastly simplified lists of our writer’s top movies of 2014. Important note: no one is claiming these are the objectively best films of the year, but merely that they are our favorites. Also, for my list, we start at 10 and then work down to my favorite film at the number one spot.
But you know, we really don’t have time for that. So instead, here’s a series of vastly simplified lists of our writer’s top movies of 2014. Important note: no one is claiming these are the objectively best films of the year, but merely that they are our favorites. Also, for my list, we start at 10 and then work down to my favorite film at the number one spot.
10. Inherent Vice
But I do know that I love you, and I know that if you love me too, what a wonderful world this would be.
As I detailed in my review, Inherent Vice is much different than I was expecting. Instead of being a goofy period comedy, it’s actually a subtle spoof of Film Noir films with a dose of subtle stoner comedy. Now, while I do feel like much of the film went over my head because I’m not a stoner, Film Noir is one of my favorite genres, and I very much appreciate Paul Thomas Anderson’s affectionate parody. In addition, I simply love the eccentric little world that Anderson has crafted out of 1970 Los Angeles. Every single character is a certifiable Cloudcuckoolander, from Joaquin Phoenix’s hippie stoner private detective Doc to missing musician Owen Wilson to Joanna Newsom’s distinctly unreliable and flaky hippie narrator. The narrative makes about as much sense as Doc’s drugged-out consciousness, and the film runs on a sort of dream-logic, never quite making complete logical sense, but in my opinion the film is all the better for it. Many have criticized Anderson’s latest work as valuing style over substance, but that is the one thing about the film that does make logical sense. What’s important about the film is not the plot but the bizarre and colorful little world that Anderson has crafted out of Film Noir and 1970s Los Angeles. And that’s a world I want to see more of in the future.
9. Guardians of the Galaxy
What a bunch of a-holes.
This film deserves mention on my list simply because it is the first film that Marvel has made that is (in my opinion) actually good rather than merely being entertaining. The main reason for this is that it is their first film that does not take itself too seriously. All the past Marvel movies have always managed to feel overly serious, yet at the same time possessing characters that by their very nature are extremely campy. They tried to get the best of both worlds (the fun of the original comic books with the seriousness of films such as The Dark Knight) and got the worst of both. Guardians, though, is the first film which fully admits how ridiculous it is. Not only that, it revels in it. It is completely aware of its own absurdity and has fun with it. Yes, one of the main characters is a talking raccoon voiced by Bradley Cooper. He’s also a pyromaniac and has someone steal a guy’s prosthetic leg for shits and giggles. The film’s soundtrack is made up of 70s pop songs. And Vince Diesel voices a humanoid tree. It also helps that, despite its own claims, it’s really more of a space opera film than a superhero film. In the end, Guardians of the Galaxy is a beacon showing what Marvel can do when they’re at their finest, and I can only hope their future releases live up to it.
8. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Once upon a time there lived a bamboo cutter. On the mountain he would cut bamboo to make all manner of things. One day he saw light shining from a bamboo stalk…
Studio Ghibli’s newest offering deserves notice on this list purely for its visual innovations. For many years now, the Studio has refined a style defined by extremely simple human characters and extremely lush and detailed backgrounds, producing a style which has been widely emulated in the anime community. This film throws all of that completely out the window and instead creates a style based off ancient Japanese paintings as well as watercolors. It’s absolutely stunning and gorgeous, and highly unique; the only comparable film I've ever seen is The Secret of Kells, which is based off of ancient Celtic art. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya also returns Studio Ghibli to their classic fairytale stories, which they have tended to move away from recently. Telling an ancient story of a bamboo cutter who finds a divine child and raises her as his own, Princess Kaguya is a classic Ghibli story, this time acting as an allegory for the trials and triumphs of fatherhood. It’s a beautiful story that will be remembered as one of Ghibli’s finest for years to come.
*Note: The Wind Rises would have been on my list, but I’m going by its original Japanese release date (2013), as well as by the fact that it was considered at last year’s Academy Awards.*
7. Only Lovers Left Alive
Much like Inherent Vice, this is a film more about feeling and atmosphere than about plot. The story of Adam and Eve, two ancient vampires, most of the movie consists of them just sitting around doing very little. But oh, they just seem like the coolest people to hang out with. Watching them lounge around in Detroit or Tangiers, casually referencing people like Christopher Marlow and Nikola Tesla, is just cool. They seem like the sort of people that it would be great to just sit around and shoot the breeze with, maybe watch TV and then listen to some music. Oh, and the music! A haunting mixture of electronica and Middle Eastern strings supposedly composed by Adam, it lends the film a sort of hypnotic aspect which draws you in, and it even sorts of becomes another character with its richness and depth. Anchored by Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston’s fantastic acting, Only Lovers Left Alive is a film of half-felt emotion and seductive sound, which really feels more like a hang-out session with some really cool friends rather than a story, but oh what a great hanging out it would be. Also, props to this film for actually making vampires cool again.
6. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Face it Dad! You’re doing this because you’re scared to death, like the rest of us, that you don’t matter. And you know what? You’re right- you don’t!
Birdman first off deserves enormous praise for the sheer technical skill required to make it. I mean, the film looks like it was a single shot. This would be physically impossible, and in fact the film is made up of hundreds of shots like every other film. But the fact that they made it look like one seamless shot is in many ways even more amazing, considering the filmmakers actually had to edit the colors within and between shots to make them continuous. Seriously, if this film doesn’t win the Oscar for best cinematography than I’ll eat my own socks. But it’s not just the technical aspects that are fantastic, but the acting as well. Michael Keaton and Edward Norton, especially, are downright amazing. And just to illustrate how amazing it is, it was released in mid-October and the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Cambridge is still playing it. Seriously, if you haven’t seen Birdman yet, than you’ve been seriously wasting the last three months.
5. Ida
Your real name is Ida Lebenstein. They never told you? You’re a Jew.
I think I’m beginning to sense a theme here. Directed by acclaimed Polish filmmaker Paweł Pawlikowski, Ida is yet another film which puts style over substance, and which yet again is better off for it. The story of a young girl about to take her vows and join a nunnery who finds out she’s actually Jewish, the film is absolutely haunting. I can think of no other word to describe it. Even over half a year later and after seeing it multiple times, Ida continues to haunt me. That lost, vanished world of 1960s communist Poland, shot in gorgeous black and white, continues to tug at my imagination. The vales of mist in the dark forests and the shadowed alleys of the even darker crumbling cities keep following me. Ida and her aunt Wanda keep recurring in my dreamspace, their quest and journey replaying endlessly in my mind. And I know that the siren call of this completely and utterly beautiful film will continue to exert its influence on my imagination for a long time to come.
4. X-Men: Days of Future Past
What's the last thing you remember?
This is the X-Men film that we’ve been waiting a decade for. The first and second films in the series (in 2000 and 2003, respectively) are fantastic and some of the best superhero films ever, while the conclusion in 2006 was distinctly disappointing. Since that time, other superheroes have reigned supreme, but now the X-Men are back, and with a vengeance. Uniting the cast of the recent First Class film with the their older counterparts we know and love, Days of Future Past has everything that we wanted in an X-Men film, and it’s better than ever. It’s dark, it’s violent, it’s stepped in themes of intolerance and prejudice, and its kick-ass. Every member of its massive cast gets at least one bad-ass moment, and it’s frankly awesome to see so many characters on screen working together. This is the film that Marvel wishes it could make. Stand aside Avengers, the X-Men are back.
3. Calvary
There's no point in killing a bad priest. But killing a good one, that would be a shock.
Probably the most unknown film on this list, Calvary was created by Irish director John Michael McDonough. The story of a priest called Father James, the film is an extraordinary character study and exploration of the themes of sin and forgiveness. Firmly rooted in the Catholic faith in both narrative content and thematic topics, Calvary is really the story of one man. But this one man is absolutely enrapturing. I was completely and utterly engrossed with Father James as he went about his week in service of the Lord and his parish, while grappling with the knowledge that he might be murdered on the following Sunday. A modern allegory for the story of Christ, Calvary is one of those films, and Father James one of those characters, that other films should look up to and hope to learn from. Never did I think that I could be so enchanted by a simple priest.
2. The Grand Budapest Hotel
Why do you want to be a lobby boy?
Who wouldn’t, at the Grand Budapest sir.
Who wouldn’t, at the Grand Budapest sir.
Wes Anderson’s latest masterpiece, The Grand Budapest Hotel continues the evolution of his extremely distinctive style, featuring garish colors, stilted dialogue, and numerous symmetrical shots. But what really sets this film apart from his previous works is the new subject matter. Most of Anderson’s works, from The Royal Tenenbaums to Moonrise Kingdom, tend to focus around dysfunctional and eccentric families. While this is not a negative in and of itself, the fact of the matter is that many of Anderson’s films feel very similar not only because they look so much alike but also because they deal with highly similar subject matter. The Grand Budapest Hotel, by contrast, throws that theme out the window and instead is a goofy and off-the-wall caper film featuring flights from the authorities, pursuit by shadowy criminals, and gunfights and sled chases. He also infuses into the film a distinct feeling of nostalgia for the past, and a melancholy that many characters seemed to have been born in the wrong time and would have been more at home in an earlier era. All of this combines with his trademark visuals, huge cast, and fantastic writing and acting to produce a movie which is at once whimsical, sentimental, and just plain fun. I am extremely happy that Wes Anderson will finally get an Oscar (although I’m still annoyed that Ralph Fiennes wasn’t nominated for Best Actor).
1. Interstellar
We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars, now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt.
The reason I love Interstellar is because it is a film of grand ideas. It is a film about the enormity of space, the endless depths of time, and our minuscule place amongst all of it. It is a return to the vast science fiction movies of yesteryear, films like 2001 which challenged our conceptions and dared us to move away from the safety of our tiny blue planet and carve a place for ourselves in the vastness of the cosmos. There hasn’t been a film like this in many years, and cinema and has been worse off for it. But Christopher Nolan has resurrected the space epic with a vengeance, and it shows just what we’ve been missing. Interstellar is a perfect example of the power of the cinema to make us wonder, to inspire our imagination. Once again, we have a film that aspires to heights unattainable on Earth. Finally, we have a film which inspires us to reach for the stars.
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