Top 15 Films of 2014

I set no rules for myself when drafting my list of the best films of the year. Only to stay true to the movies that I loved. With that in mind, it’s always fun when the movies on this annual list are so wildly different from one another. A lot of great films were released in 2014, and these were my 15 favorite. Enjoy!

15. Force Majeure

dir. by Ruben Östlund

This Swedish film is about a family ski trip gone awry, but not for the reasons we might expect. There is no (fatal) cataclysmic event in the film, no terrorist takeover, no bombs or guns. Instead, the main enemy in Force Majeure is fleeting morality. How would you respond to a moment of great duress? Would you fend for yourself, or protect those you love? Honest, hilarious and ceaselessly absorbing, Force Majeure was surely one of the finest foreign films of the year.

14. Foxcatcher

dir. by Bennett Miller

Foxcatcher is a supremely bleak interpretation of power, greed, and male dominance. At the core of the film are three astounding performances, each impressive for their own unique reasons. This isn’t a film that’s necessarily easy to love, but I so appreciate it’s unwillingness to compromise. No film from 2014 was more accepting of its own dread.

13. Blue Ruin

dir. by Jeremy Saulnier

Made for just $500,000 (funded in part through Kickstarter), Blue Ruin takes a common theme (the revenge thriller) and flips it on its head by avoiding clichés and removing loyalty for any of its characters. No one is safe in Jeremy Saulnier’s film, and the result is a tense yet gorgeous-looking country crime flick. Blue Ruin is proof of the strength of independent, low budget filmmaking.

12. Gone Girl

dir. by David Fincher

David Fincher is one of the few modern filmmakers who make very good films out of very commercial material. Gone Girl was one of the most hyped flicks of the year, and Fincher delivered one hell of a fucked-up shocking thriller. The cast is universally excellent, but it really is Rosamund Pike’s show. Imagine if the Academy had the balls to give her the Oscar.

11. Under the Skin

dir. by Jonathan Glazer

Nothing in Under the Skin plays out how we expect it to. Scarlett Johansson’s stoic yet captivating performance, Mica Levi’s eerie score, Johnnie Burn’s complex sound design, Daniel Landin’s fluid photography – they all make Under the Skin one of the best, most odd films released in years. Much like “Its” victims trapped and sinking in black goo, Under the Skin sucks you in and dares you to try and break free.

10. American Sniper

dir. by Clint Eastwood

Walking into American Sniper, I half expected a BROO-HA-HA version of Chris Kyle’s famed story as a Navy SEAL. Instead, I discovered an introspective drama that is as concerned with the battles in a war zone, as it is with the battles at home. Bradley Cooper delivers a career-best performance as the tortured Chris, while Sienna Miller gives a devastating and revelatory turn as Chris’ wife, Taya. American Sniper is precisely the kind of war movie America needs right now.

9. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him/Her

dir. by Ned Benson

I loved no cinematic couple more last year than Eleanor Rigby (Jessica Chastain) and her estranged husband, Conner (James McAvoy). Benson made two films to flesh this combative love story out, one told from the perspective of Eleanor, and the other from Conner’s. If forced to choose, I’m more drawn to Her, simply due to Chastain’s hauntingly magnetic performance. But all told, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby knows that love isn’t easy, and I remain enamored with its pain.  

8. Nightcrawler

dir. by Dan Gilroy

Nightcrawler gave us the most depraved character of the year, the merciless, intelligent, gaunt demon of the night, Lou Bloom. Watching Jake Gyllenhaal slither his way through this movie made for a goddamn exciting experience. The actor clearly went all in here, capitalizing on Gilroy’s ferocious script. And the film’s closing showdown outside of a Chinese restaurant was one of the best set pieces of 2014. Nightcrawler is a film that relishes in showing us the darkest aspects of human nature. Enjoy the ride.

7. Two Days, One Night

dir. by Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne

Watching a woman spend a weekend fighting to save her job isn’t necessarily the most captivating material for a film. But with Two Days, One Night, the Dardenne brothers demonstrate that any idea can be one worth telling. Much of the strength of the film rests on Marion Cotillard, who yet again proves that no other living actress is capable of tapping into internal anguish as well as her. Two Days, One Night also contains one of the most realistic depictions of clinical depression that I’ve ever seen. How Cotillard isn’t the front runner for Best Actress this year is utterly baffling.

6. A Most Violent Year

dir. by J.C. Chandor

Although set in 1981, A Most Violent Year has a vivid rawness to it that so effortlessly evokes the ‘70s golden era of American film. The film tells the tale of a man trying to keep his business (and thereby, his entire life) afloat while everything crumbles around him. What struck me most about A Most Violent Year is its lack of sensationalism. Guns in the film, for example, are treated how you and I might handle a gun. We’d be cautious of it, afraid. The characters in A Most Violent Year are aware of the weapon’s real power, not the cartoon appeal it is given in action films. This is a deeply personal, slow-brew thriller that I couldn’t take my eyes off of. Oscar Isaac has never been better, and Jessica Chastain does something we haven’t seen her do yet. Her Anna is threatening and fierce, wholly determined and ruthlessly unapologetic. The common maxim states that behind every great man, there is a great woman. A Most Violent Year utilizes this idea to electrifying results.

5. Enemy

dir. by Denis Villeneuve

Enemy is a film that challenges you to pick it apart, knowing all well that there are no clear answers. When a college professor discovers that an actor looks identical to him, both men’s lives are forever altered. What’s real, what’s false? What is a memory, and what is actually happening? Nearly every line of dialogue in this film could be interpreted to mean something different. Enemy may not make much conventional sense, but bending the rules of cinema rarely feels this good.

4. Interstellar

dir. by Christopher Nolan

Interstellar is the best big film I’ve seen in years. As I said in my review, Christopher Nolan makes big and bold and beautiful movies, and Interstellar is his grandest blockbuster yet. I loved everything about it, from its massive scope to its intimate family dynamics. The budget of Interstellar is nearly equal to the combined budgets of every other film on this list, yet, somehow, Nolan’s film remains deeply personal.

3. Birdman

dir. by Alejandro González Iñárritu

Birdman is a great many things. A lacerating portrayal of ego and fame, a monumental technical achievement, and, most joyfully, a film that features the finest work of Michael Keaton’s career. Keaton gave the performance of the year as Riggan Thomson, a former action movie superstar hoping to be taken seriously by directing a Raymond Carver play on Broadway. Birdman is unrelenting in its style, and completely willing to own its absurdity. The film is arguably the most fun I had at the movies in 2014, which is something I never thought I’d say about an Iñárritu film.

2. Whiplash

dir. by Damien Chazelle

It took me three separate trips to the theater to just barely get the electrifying power of Whiplash out of my system. Cut and scored at a breakneck pace, the film immerses us in its musically thrilling but emotionally nightmarish world. No amount of praise (including an Oscar) is unwarranted for J.K. Simmons’ towering work as music conductor Terence Fletcher. To say Fletcher is a “teacher from hell,” doesn’t do him enough justice. Really, it feels like this guy created hell, and loves finding other people to drag into it.

Much has been made about the final 15 minutes of Whiplash, and that’s for good reason. They are, in no uncertain terms, the most compelling consecutive 15 minutes of any film released in 2014. Another thing to consider: most any other film would keep going and give us a cushioned ending. Not Whiplash. It cuts out at its peak, making us beg for more.

1. Boyhood

Dir. by Richard Linklater

Richard Linklater’s films are rarely about anything. If you value cinema as an escapist medium, then Linklater’s films won’t work for you. Rarely do his movies contain anything sensational. Instead, the conflicts presented in his work are real to life. Dazed and Confused is essentially about trying to find the party, any party. The Before trilogy is 290 minutes of two people talking about love, and rarely acting on it. Tape is about memory, Slacker is about whatever.

Boyhood is about growing up. That’s it. Growing up from the perspective of a boy, but also growing from an absent father to a dependable dad; from a hopelessly confused mother to an independent middle aged woman. The film is about the small things in life that we rarely pay attention to (and that hardly any filmmakers choose to depict). And that is precisely why I love it. Boyhood is a window in time. A slice of life, 12 years in the making. It’s also one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, from this or any year. A work of art I’ll be indebted to forever.

More Best Of 2014 Posts
Top 15 Female Performances of 2014
Top 10 Male Performances of 2014
Top 10 "Background" Performances of 2014
Top 10 "Rotten" Films of 2014