…And the Oscar goes to Birdman {Cue applause}. Yes the Oscars came and went last Sunday without a scandal, other than some of Neil Patrick Harris's poorly timed jokes. I mean really NPH hire a few writers, but still very little commotion. The Grand Budapest Hotel took home its fair share of early awards and then Birdman came in to sweep up a large portion of the rest, although Michael Keaton will have to wait for another career defining opportunity to take home the prize. All in all, it was a simple show, which makes sense considering this was a relatively simple year in cinema and while there were plenty of films that people adored, there wasn't the same kind of love that lived in films of years past. That doesn't mean there weren't a few great films, even a few masterpieces, just that the year didn't boast as many high caliber films as in past competitions. Nevertheless now that the Academy has announced their favorites it is time for the list that I know you all crave (and by crave I mean you all are nice enough to placate me by reading). As in years past, this list will be in three parts: Best Films, Best Performances, and Miscellaneous. Today we will cover the Best Films of 2014.
As I attempt to do each year, this list comes from watching enough films that I can have a fair assessment of good and bad. Two films that I did not see this year were Still Alice and Wild, which I doubt would have had any impact on the best film category, but might have had an impact on best performances. Last year I managed to make it through 85 films by January 20th, this year with a thesis to write and perform, I only managed 75 with an extra month, but still a fine number of films. There were movies that I really enjoyed such as Chef, X-Men, Captain America 2, A Walk Among the Tombstones, Top Five, Dear White People, & 22 Jump Street. Many of these films I will watch again, especially 22 Jump Street, which I found hilarious, but none of these made the list. There were really innovative films like The Lego Movie (Which got screwed by the Oscars), Obvious Child, Edge of Tomorrow, The Babadook, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and Only Lovers Left Alive, but like the other category, they also narrowly missed the list. Last year I had 13, this year I have 15, which while of lower quality from the films I saw last year, were still quite splendid. Let us begin.
15. Copenhagen Stars: Gethin Anthony & Frederikke Dahl Hansen.
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| Copenhagen |
As with the first movie of the 2013 list, It's a Disaster, most likely none of you have seen this film. It is a small film that had a very limited opening in October of 2014. It follows party boy William played by Gethin Anthony (Renly Baratheon on Game of Thrones) as he sleeps his way through Europe ending up in Copenhagen, Denmark. There he meets Effy played incredibly well by Hansen who helps him as he tries to find his long lost grandfather who turns out to be a former Nazi. The movie is a typical love story and if it weren't for the idiotic things that William does we would cheer for it all the way through, well both the idiotic nature of William and the fact that Effy is fourteen. William is 28. The film is uncomfortable to say the least and makes you question who really is the oldest and the youngest on the sliding scale of maturity. It is a small film in terms of budget and in terms of directing choices, but a thought provoking take on love without necessarily going into the boundaries of illegal love. Currently on Netflix.
14. The Fault in Our Stars Stars: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, and Laura Dern.
I really didn't want to see this movie and if my favorite young actress, Shailene Woodley hadn't been in it, I wouldn't have seen it. Also if friends hadn't introduced me to this weird invention called Redbox. I thoroughly enjoyed this film and while it remains solidly within the structure of a filmed young adult novel the screenplay allows its actors to explore rather than be confined. Elgort and Woodley were also in Divergent, which makes my list of worst films in 2014, but those performances are miles away from this film. Stars proves that you can do soapy sentimentality with heart and by heart I don't mean the type you find in a Hallmark card. This film's core is built with honesty, which makes some of its cliches ring true, if only for a moment. If anything, this is a film to showcase once again just how powerful Shailene Woodley can be no matter how many shitty Divergent films she might eventually star in.
13. The Theory of Everything Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, and David Thewlis.
There are three essentials dealing with The Theory of Everything that cannot be denied: Both Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones are outstanding and carry the movie, Stephen Hawking is an absolute genius, and Jane Wilde represents what is best about humanity. Unfortunately for the film, these are the only essentials that I can classify it with. As a whole, I found the writing to be scatterbrained and without measure. It is a beautiful story, which is why I did thoroughly enjoy it, but a lot of the film walked in similar step with another amazing story told in 2014 in Unbroken. What saves Everything and makes it Oscar worthy is its director James Marsh who took the skills he learned from directing the masterpiece documentary Man on Wire and excelled in working with his two brilliant actors.
12. Pride Stars: Ben Schnetzer, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, and Andrew Scott.
Pride is a little UK film that tells the true story of an unlikely alliance between London Gay activists in the 1980s and a small community of Welsh miners on strike. This is a cast movie if there has ever been one that gives each of its characters individual moments to shine. Bill Nighy is outstanding in the film because unlike almost every Bill Nighy character which is fun, frivolous, and huge in Pride he plays a mousy, timid, old man. The movie is fun, kind, and uplifting if not a tad bit too sentimental. For such a small film, Pride packs a big punch and doesn't fail to deliver. This is a crowd pleaser type of film and it certainly did the job amongst myself and my friends who watched it.
11. American Sniper Stars: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, and a fake baby.
The next two movies on my list fell victim to media coverage. In American Sniper, a mixture of Seth Rogan, Michael Moore, and Bill Maher along with reviews like 'American Sniper' Is Almost Too Dumb to Criticize by Rolling Stone left the movie with a less than stellar chance at an Oscar. This is too bad, because although I agree that the movie has a lot of issues, none more glaring that Bradley Cooper with a fake baby I entirely disagree with the many editorials written by some of the Hollywood elite. I did not find this movie as a shrine to the life of Chris Kyle, I also did not find it to be a disgraceful telling of the Iraq War told by a Republican Jingoistic director. Although I do not like the politics of Clint Eastwood I definitely think the man knows how to shoot war scenes. In both Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers, Eastwood executed the atrocities of war with the same reverence that he did in Sniper. The difference? Sniper isn't a war movie. It is a biopic of a soldier. A flawed, human, killing machine of a soldier. As I said when I left the theatre, "I think Chris Kyle may have been an American Hero, but thank god I never met him, because he's terrifying." Much in the same light as The Wolf of Wall Street what can we expect when a biopic is based on a book written by the subject. Of course there will be lies and half truths, but that doesn't take away from the story or from a career defining performance given by Bradley Cooper. This is a good movie that neither praises nor condemns war and does an adequate (not great), but adequate job of showing how PTSD can destroy a man.
10. Selma Stars: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tom Wilkinson
In the same vein as American Sniper, Selma fell prey to media problems dealing with the movie's attempts to portray the relationship between Dr. King and President Johnson. However, unlike in the case of American Sniper I do agree with the media. Selma is a good movie led by an extraordinary performance given by David Oyelowo who manages to capture the sincerity, the heart, and the demeanor of Dr. King without making him into a caricature. The movie tells a story that is incredibly important to our modern world and can be best summed up by Common (who is actually a good actor) after winning the Golden Globe for Best Song, "I am the hopeful black woman who was denied the right to vote, I am the caring white supporter killed on the front lines of freedom, I am the unarmed black kid who maybe needed a hand but instead was given a bullet, I am the two fallen police officers murdered in the line of duty, Selma has awakened my humanity." With this being said, I do believe the movie falls prey to two major issues. The first comes from the director and the second from the script. The director deals with a strong historical subject with maturity but runs into the issue of directing each line like it is "the most important line ever given," this is problematic for an audience because it doesn't allow them time for a catharsis. The other issue is the media one with the script. Normally I don't have a problem when a script decides to change history (because they do all the time), but in this case it was so unnecessary. Why did the writer feel it was important to turn LBJ into the opposition, the villain. There was already a villain. The South led by bigoted racist George Wallace. Director Ava DuVernay responded to this hubbub by saying, "Bottom line is folks should interrogate history," which I couldn't agree more. This is why I still really liked Selma, but the sections where LBJ is depicted as a racist, calling Dr. King the N-word, were hardly needed to tell the story.
9. CitizenFour Stars: Edward Snowden.
Despite a year packed with many interesting documentaries including The Overnighters, Virunga, Happy Valley, My Life in Dirty Pictures, and Finding Vivian Maier once I watched Citizen Four it was clear which film would win the Oscar. CitizenFour isn't really a documentary, because it isn't really a movie. The bulk of the film takes place in a hotel room and is an interview between Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian and Edward Snowden. Although the film doesn't technically take sides it is very apparent whose side director Laura Poitras is on. She would say she is on the side of the people, the government would probably say something different. One thing is clear. This is a film that every American needs to see. It is fascinating, horrifying, and sobering. As Rotten Tomatoes says, "Citizenfour transcends ideology to offer riveting, must-see cinema." I couldn't agree more.
8. Blue Ruin Stars: Macon Blair and Devin Ratray
If I say that I loved this movie, would that mean there is something wrong with me? Is it a perfect film? Definitely not. But for a movie that takes over 20 minutes for the lead character to say a word, for that to be incredibly thrilling is a feat within itself. Make no bones about it, this is a revenge thriller and the hero definitely isn't heroic. The movie is like a modern Hitchcock film mixed in with what we would classify as modern noir. Macon Blair is mesmerizing and terrifying. If you walked up to him on the street you might think he was a little cooky, but never would you think he would be capable of something like this. By using a main character who is nebbish instead of brash, the film lends the horrific nature of his crimes to the human nature of understanding why he commits them. This is a must see.
7. Snowpiercer Stars: Chris Evans, John Hurt, and Tilda Swinton.
In a year defined by innovative films it only makes sense that Snowpiercer would be so high on my list. This excerpt is taken from the review I wrote earlier this year, "Snowpiercer is one of the weirdest movies of the year, if not the decade. It is either brilliant or problematic or both. The plot is genuinely compelling and it is shot rather well considering it had a smaller budget (39 Mil). There are a lot of things happening in this movie, some of which has little to do with the actors and the story." Of the movies on my list both this one and the next were the films that I re-watched the most times. This film has moments of absolute brilliance highlighted by Tilda Swinton who could have only been funnier if she had been in more of the movie. The film is audacious in creating a completely mesmerizing world to play within. Although the contrivance of the plot could be seen by some to be unnecessary it allows for a fully developed script while still having subplots in the scifi, comedy, dramedy, and cult film genres. Snowpiercer manages to mix thought provoking insight with thought provoking dark comedy and it creates a cult classic in the process.
6. Guardians of the Galaxy Stars: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, and six words of Vin Diesel
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| Just Brilliant |
Many different year end movie lists steered clear of having a Marvel Comic book movie on their reviews, but I question if this was 1980 would The Empire Strikes Back have made a few lists. I use this reference because Guardians is more than a fun comic book movie it is a genre defining film. Guardians proves that just because it is a comic book movie, doesn't mean it has to be classified as one. It is equal parts Star Wars, comic book, and western. It is funny and sentimental. At first I kind of liked this film. After my sixth viewing it was clear my first opinion was wrong. This is one of the few comic books that I have read and I was pleased with how James Gunn managed to pack in the irrelevant nature of the crew without misplacing any of the characters. Chris Pratt is a big time star and Bradley Cooper is quite a funny voice actor. Guardians was a roller coaster ride and I enjoyed it enough to stay in my seat and go again. Also it doesn't hurt that the clip at the end, not the dancing Groot, but all the way at the end was one of the funniest references that has ever been put in a movie.
5. Nightcrawler Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo
I have watched horror movies that were less disturbing than Jake Gyllenhaal was in this movie. In terms of a lead performance, in a year with great performances, this one might be the standout. You would think a movie about freelance night crawlers wouldn't be that disturbing, which is exactly how I felt when I walked into the theatre. I was wrong. The character of Lou Bloom is on par with (this may be sacrilegious to say) Annie Wilkes in Misery, only in Nightcrawler Lou is the hero. The writer director Dan Gilroy does a great job of creating a grimy movie, while still keeping a slick fast moving thriller. Unfortunately it's ending is its downfall and if the LA police were based on real people then the LA cops would be the dumbest law enforcement agency on the planet. However, Gyllenhaal and to a lesser extent Russo do a fine job of keeping us interested through the far fetched ending.
4. Whiplash Stars: Miles Teller and JK Simmons
Who would have thought that one of the most intense movies of the year would be about jazz drumming, but with a drum roll so powerful that it leaves stains of blood on its head, Whiplash is most definitely that film. However to call Whiplash a film about drumming is to say that Equus is about horsemanship or My Fair Lady is about Cockney English. It certainly plays a part, but it is only the drum beat, not the crescendo. The movie is as much about theatre as it is about music. What is true art? Can a true artist be a good person? Does the end of the art itself justify the means it took to get it there? Notice I said the art itself and not the artist. Simmons, who has redefined what it takes to be a career actor has outdone all that have come before him with this role. He is simply exhilarating to watch. As he repeats, "not my tempo," to Miles Teller (Who gives another brilliant performance much like The Spectacular Now last year) he is doing more than speaking in drumming terms. He is telling the audience that their pulses must meet his tempo. And he succeeds. Simmons, as the demonic Terence Fletcher describes his teaching in a poignant moment to Teller, "I don't think people understood what it was I was doing at Shaffer. I wasn't there to conduct. Any fucking moron can wave his arms and keep people in tempo. I was there to pouch people beyond what's expected of them. I believe that is…an absolute necessity." He might be the worst teacher to ever set foot on screen, but can you argue with the results of his art?
3. Birdman Stars: Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, and Zach Galifianakis
The Oscar goes to Birdman and it was certainly well deserved. It is by far the best looking film of the year. The cinematography is fantastic merging the worlds of fantasy and real life without breaking the stride of a single roving shot. Keaton leads a great cast with fantastic performances by Emma Stone, Edward Norton, and in the surprise of the year, Zach Galifianakis who plays it straight. In Due Date, he showed The Hangover wasn't all he could do and he shines in Birdman. Although the number two movie on this list will most likely not be remembered for any where near the length of this film, unlike the millions of adoring fans and Oscar voters, I was left a little cold. There are many things that I enjoyed about the film and I cannot deny that it is funny and sad and misbegotten and dark, but I felt that it could have gone even further. We get a few glimpses into Keaton's broken psyche throughout the film before his drunken stupor breakdown. I wish that the film had done a Coffee and Cigarettes, where we lost the cigarettes in the end. Nit picky I know, but I'm a tough critic.
2. Gone Girl Stars: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Carrie Coon, Neil Patrick Harris, and Tyler Perry
On first viewing, this was my favorite night out at the movies of the year. Perhaps it is my love for David Fincher or for Trent Reznor's score or for Rosamund Pike as a psychotic genius or it could even have been for the first movie in years if not ever that Tyler Perry finally shows that he is in fact an actor. Any one of these reasons helped take an interesting B thriller into a Fincher masterpiece. To love a David Fincher movie is similar in loving a David Lynch movie, you sound like a sycophant when you do it. I was this way with Christopher Nolan until the mistake of the year, Interstellar. David Fincher has now taken over Nolan's position. Many of his movies are similar in beat and in plot twist, but where Gone Girl stands out comes from the twist, because unlike a standard twist centered movie, Fincher interweaves the twist with the plot so when it comes out, while shocking, it doesn't wait for the viewer to catch their breath. The film just continues like it is a standard thriller storyline. This gives us two story lines that interweave and lead to a conclusion which is as mesmerizing as it is inevitable. Ben Affleck holds his own, but this is a female driven movie and both Rosamund Pike and newcomer to the big screen Carrie Coon (Married to Tracey Letts) take hold of the plot and never let go. This was a compelling movie that I fell totally enthralled with and while it may not hold up in a second and third viewing, its first attempt will live with me for a long time to come. And isn't that what a great movie should do?
1. Boyhood Stars: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, & Ethan Hawke
I hate picking an Oscar movie as my favorite film, but this couldn't be avoided. Boyhood is a bonafide masterpiece and with any masterpiece most audiences will either love it or hate it. I loved it. As an artist I was drawn to the mere attempt at doing it by Richard Linklater. A 12 year project is a feat within itself, but what kept me watching the screen was a truly human story, one that reminded me of my own boyhood without the movie touching on almost any part of my own story. Rotten Tomatoes says, "Epic in technical scale but breathlessly intimate in narrative scope, Boyhood is a sprawling investigation of the human condition." A sprawling investigation of the human condition, I could not have put it better myself. Earlier in the films I said that Pride is a cast driven movie, Boyhood is even more than that. Many have said that this is a plotless movie, that while interesting, doesn't lead anywhere. I couldn't disagree more. As a cast driven film we not only watch as the story progresses on the timelines of these characters, but we watch as the timelines of these actor's real lives progress. Boyhood is an experiment in documenting human truth and even though the story is written from Linklater's mind, we still manage to find real truth in the character's portrayal of fiction. It is like through the telling of fiction these actors have portrayed fact. Boyhood is a movie that every dreamer should watch, some for the filmmaking feat, some for the story, some for the lives that were lived through the filming. In the end, this movie summed up for it's critics in the final line given by Patricia Arquette, "You know what I'm realizing? My life is just going to go. Like that. This series of milestones. Getting married, having kids, getting divorced. The time we thought you were dyslexic. When I taught you how to ride a bike. Getting divorced…again. Getting my masters degree, finally getting the job I wanted, sending Samantha off to college. Sending you off to college. You know what's next? Huh? It's my fucking funeral…I just thought there would be more." Critics would say that pretty much says it all, "I just thought there would be more," but then again critics of this movie are missing the point. The story isn't in where we are going, but in the journey that we took to get there and usually we wish there would be more in the big picture, but when we sit down and really think about it life is about the times we wanted more and the times we were given more. It's about the truth realized only after time has passed. Boyhood let's us discover this truth in the lives of its characters and if we listened close enough in the lives of ourselves. It's ok that we lament the ending, the movie is only echoing our own restlessness for life. Truly a masterpiece.
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| Keep Dreaming |
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