The Best Movies of 2014 Pt. II

Thank you to all the readers who made it through Part I.  Welcome to Part II where we count down the best acting performances of the year.  I think it is fair to say that 2014 was the year of the actor, but unfortunately not the year of the actress.  Although there are amazing female actresses in Hollywood, screenwriters just don't write as many interesting female leads as they write male leads.  Hopefully this trend can change, because actresses like Shailene Woodley, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Marion Cotillard, Carie Coon, and Rosamund Pike prove that all good female parts don't go to Meryl Streep.  We have a lot of great actresses some which made this list and others such as Elizabeth Moss, Jenny Slate, Laura Dern, and Reese Witherspoon who did not.  

As for the men, this was one of the hottest contested best actor debates in recent memory.  Beyond the controversy of who actually won the award there were about 10 actors who deserved to be nominated.  In my list I bring up performances such as Miles Teller and Jack O'Connell and leave off names like Benedict Cumberbatch.  

Extra note:  I have not seen Wild, Still Alice, Two Days One Night, and Mr. Turner.  So to the talented actors like Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Julianne Moore, and Timothy Spahl, I apologize.  Here is the list starting with Number 30.

Bill Nighy in Pride

30.  Bill Nighy in Pride

One reviewer called Bill Nighy's performance "taciturn shyness," which I believe is very apt.  Nighy turns in the most subtle performance on his career by playing his most human character.  He manages to be funny and naive while still maintaining the gravitas that goes along with his career. Nighy Interview

29.  Essie Davis in The Babadook

I am not a huge fan of horror films but to deny Essie Davis accolades would be a travesty.  Davis plays a mother dealing an erratic son who is preoccupied by an imaginary monster.  After reading a terrifying storybook, Mister Babadook, the monster is anything but imaginary.  Davis manages to transcend regular horror cliches to deliver an honest mother stuck in extraordinary circumstances.  

28.  Steve Carell in Foxcatcher 

In Foxcatcher, Steve Carell proves that he isn't a one trick pony by playing the psychotic schizophrenic John Du Pont.  Beyond his nose, which goes along to distinguish the once boss of The Office, Carell excels in the moments of genuine terror by emphasizing the minute.  He is one scary, crazy SOB in this film.  

27.  Agata Trzebuchowska in Ida

Although I did not fall head over heals for this movie, I was struck by a performance similar to that of Macon Blair in Blue Ruin and the lead of Copenhagen.  Trzebuchowska plays the timid lead and she succeeds in her attempts to be small and yet likable.  She holds the screen audience captive as she creates a story of love, despair, and grief all in the face of belief.  This is enough to give her a space on the list, but more that this talent is the fact that she isn't an actress.  She was spotted in a cafe by the producer and hired on look alone.  Ida Trailer

26.  Tom Hardy in The Drop

R.I.P. James Gandolfini

Most people would put Hardy on this list for his performance in Locke this year, but I wasn't impacted the same way the critics were.  I, instead, found him delightful in the final James Gandolfini film, The Drop.  Hardy plays a barkeep, a quiet loner searching for companionship and for trust.  Hardy shows that he is more than a bulky villain by playing a weakling with a hidden dark side.  

25.  Brendan Gleeson in Calvary

My friend Alex Doser told me to watch both Calvary & The Babadook this year and while I wasn't blown away by the films, I was enthralled by both films lead character.  Gleeson plays an Irish priest who watches his livelihood and his morality slip away after receiving a death threat.  Gleeson's measured performance allows a slow moving movie to have depth and turns an ordinary script into a morality play dealing with one man's life.  

24.  Jack O'Connell in Starred Up

O'Connell made waves this year by starring in the blockbuster Unbroken, but he shows his considerable acting talent in two other british films '71 and here in Starred Up.  The entire movie takes place within a UK prison and deals with O'Connell who has recently been moved to the prison.  The film is difficult to watch and realistically violent, but O'Connell shows that he isn't just another pretty face.  I would hate to meet this character on the street.  Starred Up Trailer

23.  Shailene Woodley in The Fault in Our Stars

Woodley is perhaps the best young actress in Hollywood today.  In Stars, she captures screen magic by holding an implausible, by engrossing script together.  Both Woodley and her screen counterpart Elgort shine in a sentimental piece with real heart.  As one reviewer wrote, "She is a fully realized young woman who's more than just the sum of her symptoms."  

22.  Frederikke Dahl Hansen in Copenhagen 

I love this performance and it took me hours to figure out why.  I believe that it comes from her wise yet tremendously vulnerable portrayal of a 14-year-old searching for life and love.  There are shades of Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation and in one very affective and provocative karaoke scene, Hansen masks her inhibitions by being extremely open and awkward (in the best of ways).   Karaoke Scene

21.  Ethan Hawke in Boyhood

Much like the rest of the cast, although Boyhood only took a few weeks a year, it still shows great strength to play the same character for over a decade, but Hawke excels much in the same way he does in the Before Sunset trilogy.  At one point in the film, Hawke says to his son "life doesn't have bumpers," and neither do the characters in this film, they have rough edges and awkward character traits which make them uneasy protagonists, but Hawke takes these edges and uses sandpaper of the soul to produce am entirely honest and human performance.  

20.  Mark Ruffalo in Foxcatcher

Who would have ever thought that the love interest in 13 Going On 30 would be a hollywood heartthrob and more importantly an incredibly talented actor ten years later?  We saw a brief glimpse of talent in the film The Last Castle and then again in Zodiac, but it wasn't until recently that Mark Ruffalo took his spot in the sunshine.  In Foxcatcher both he and Channing Tatum play brothers convincingly, but it isn't their love for each other that makes them a force on the screen.  it is Ruffalo's collected and reserved order that makes the pairing work.  Alongside the cute indie music film Begin Again, this was a good year to be Mark Ruffalo.  

19.  Miles Teller in Whiplash

As part of the second leg of my favorite young actors trio (Shailene Woodley and Brie Larson) Teller shines once again when he is given actual material to work with.  This year also gave us The Awkward Moment and Two Night Stand, but more importantly it gave us Teller as the lead in Whiplash.  He is superb as the young wannabe jazz drummer.  Teller supplies the other half of a whirlwind performance duo with JK Simmons as he pounds the drums as if his life depended on it.  

18.  Gugu Mbatha-Raw in Beyond the Lights/Belle

After ten years of bouncing around british drama, Mbatha-Raw had a very nice coming out party here in america.  Not only was she captivating in the Victorian race drama Belle, but even more so in the music love story Beyond the Lights.  Although both films were small on the national scale that doesn't diminish the acting potential that Raw shows.  In her best moments on screen Raw excels ironically as her last name suggests with raw emotion.  Although stuck in two strict worlds, victorian England and a rigid "artistic" music scene, she gives the screen graceful eloquence without falling into the cliche. The Power of Belle

17.  Macon Blair in Blue Ruin  

If I said Macon Blair and you said, "who," I would completely understand.  His ten year career boasts not a single film you've ever heard of, unless you saw 2007's Murder Party (also directed by Jeremy Saulnier director of Blue Ruin aka his best friend).  Blair is perfect in the lead role of Dwight.  He is emblematic of the "everyman" assassin, the character trait of a regular guy going to extreme lengths, but where Blair differs is in his skiddish, scared, timid reaction to his own atrocities.  Blair doesn't blend in with the stereotype, he stands out in such a way that we can never really cheer for his acts of vengeance all the way completely understanding his thought process.  "I Killed Him" Scene

16.  Edward Norton in Birdman

Norton shines in Birdman as he plays, well, Edward Norton.  The part, similar to the role given to his counterpart Michael Keaton, posits all the worst forms of the stereotypes generally associated with Edward Norton.  But he truly shines in his moments on a broadway balcony with Emma Stone.  It is here that we see the guttural truths hidden behind both the character he plays and perhaps the man he is in actuality.  Even though Keaton walks through times square in his underpants, he isn't the only actor in the film who is naked.  

15.  Marion Cotillard in The Immigrant

Nominated by the Academy for Two Days, One Night, I am sure she shines, but the movie I saw her in was the tossed away gem of the year, The Immigrant.  Supported on both sides by a really genuine version of Joaquin Phoenix and a passable Jeremy Renner, Cotillard plays Ewa, a Polish immigrant thrust into prostitution in 20's Manhattan while trying to get back to her sister stuck in detention on Ellis Island.  As usual, Cotillard steals scenes with a tenacity only marred by a sharp fragility.  She takes what is a simple pretty film and turns it into something beautiful.    

14.  Andy Serkis in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes isn't an action film.  Actually it's a film about sign language until it later turns into an action movie.  One of these days the Academy will wise up and create a motion capture Oscar so Andy Serkis can sweep up.  No one does this better and what Serkis brings to Dawn is humanity so eagerly missing in many of his human counterparts.  I don't like Planet of the Apes movies, but I really liked this one and it is entirely due to Serkis.  The Making of...

13.  Rene Russo in Nightcrawler

If you were wondering if Rene Russo still has "it" look no further than a night out with Jake Gyllenhaal at a mexican restaurant in Nightcrawler.  After a self imposed exile for the past eight years (other than a small part in the Thor films) she returns in Nightcrawler with the same dry wit, the same cool as a cucumber persona, but here she is turned into a reluctant accomplice of sorts.  She succeeds so well in this role because she doesn't steer towards stereotype when that is easily on her horizon.  Instead she portrays the media with dark necessity, like a lioness who hasn't eaten in days.  

12.  Carrie Coon in Gone Girl

Other than the actors in the best actor category this was by far the biggest snub of 2014.  The newcomer to the screen (having appeared on broadway for years) is captivating as Ben Affleck's sister in Gone Girl.  She is loving, supportive, hilarious, and smart.  She reacts with spitfire precision and quick, but foundational observations.  Although she may not be the "girl" everyone talks about when they see Gone Girl she is hardly stuck in the background.  Move over Meryl Streep, you know you were bad in Into the Woods, give up your spot to someone with real talent…at least this year.  

11.  Patricia Arquette in Boyhood

I could copy and paste what I said about Ethan Hawke here because Patricia Arquette does it the same, only she out performs her male counterpart.  Arquette is a driving force in my movie of the year who not only let's us in on the tumultuous ups and downs of the characters life, but let's us watch her age on screen, a faux pas for the majority of females in film.  Thank you Patricia Arquette for your grace and for your honesty.  

10.  Tilda Swinton in Only Lovers Left Alive/Snowpiercer

It is disturbing to know that Tilda Swinton has only ever been nominated for one Academy Award (thank goodness she won) for Michael Clayton.  Swinton is the epitome of eloquent reverence for a time forgotten, almost like she's gone back in time and taken back all the good male roles that could've gone to women.  I would go so far as to say move over Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton is the modern version of a Hepburn.  In Snowpiercer, she was hysterical, owning every second of screen time she was given, but it was in Only Lovers Left Alive where she plays a centuries old vampire that she truly shines (forgive the double entendre).  Swinton, who plays Eve sells romance with commonplace understanding as if we all should understand the necessity for everlasting love, but she does so in a trance-like state, like a jazz song that inhabits your whole body when you listen to it.  I wait on baited breathe for the 2016 Hail, Caesar which will combine Clooney with Swinton once more.  Tilda Swinton Interview

9.  Kiera Knightley in The Imitation Game

I'm as shocked as anyone else to find Knightley as far up on my list as she happens to be.  I was also shocked to learn that she can sing (although her fake playing the guitar in Begin Again is super distracting).  However getting her out of victorian period clothing and sticking her into WWII drab suits her really well.  I did not fall in love with either Benny Cumbo or the film as a whole, but I was ensorcelled by Knightley's performance.  She play's Joan Clarke with quite confidence and honest frivolity creating a character who matches her wits with her kind personality.  I was very impressed. 

8.  David Oyelowo in Selma

David Oyelowo should have been nominated for best actor.  There I said it, strike me down if you must.  Oyelowo does the impossible in Selma, a british actor playing one of the most important men of the 21st century and he cannot fall into an impression or else be marked as uncaring and irrelevant.  The latter description does not come close to describing Oyelowo.  Instead he brings voice to a new generation in such a need for the words of Dr. King, but without an understanding of it.  Not only does Oyelowo do an impeccable job of matching Dr. King's tempo and ferocity, but dives deeper to find his compassion and his suffering.  Selma will live long after this year of films, but not because of a director or a controversy or a song or a speech, but because a new generation has heard Dr. King's essence again and longs to hear it more.  

7.  Felicity Jones in The Theory of Everything 

"I thought Felicity Jones was me," said Jane Hawking after watching the actress portray her on film.  That pretty much sums up the accomplishment that Felicity Jones has been able to produce.  I did not think I was going to like The Theory of Everything as much as I did and while Eddie Redmayne stands out for his performance, Felicity Jones is right there behind him.  Jones portrays a confident resilience to whatever obstacle thrown in her way and what makes her even more intriguing to watch is that she never stops being a crowd pleaser.  As an affair begins in the film (one which subsequently ends due to Hawking's restraint) we cheer for Jones and yet feel her subtle attempts to hold her family together.  A superb performance of the portrayal of an outstanding woman.  Felicity and Jane

6.  Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything

Beyond the charisma and the kindness that Redmayne lends to Stephen Hawking, his ability to hold an audience even while he loses the ability to speak; speaks volumes to his level of commitment to the part.  In the same way that Andy Serkis molds his body to perform his characters, Redmayne takes it one step further to portray the humanity of a man who is losing his physical characteristics to act like a man.  It is simply astounding and while I would not have given him the Oscar for Best Actor, I cannot argue with the choice.  

5.  Michael Keaton in Birdman

God it must take balls to do that.  Tabitha: "He's a Hollywood clown in a lycra bird suit."  Mike: "Yes, he is, but he's going out on that stage and risking everything."  To call Birdman ambitious or to call Michael Keaton brave for playing himself would be the understatements of the year.  Keaton is brave for playing himself, but he isn't at the same time, because Riggan Thomson may follow a similar path to that of Keaton, but he is certainly a different man.  Keaton is spectacular as Thompson and exposes a side of himself that we have never seen before.  In the past he was funny or he was wise or he was mature, but here he is anything but (we do laugh, but it is at him usually rather than with him).  As the sports radio host Tony Kornheiser said, "When he walks through times square in his underwear, that's the moment, the moment when you realize that not everyone can be an actor."  My hat is off to you Mr. Keaton.  You have exposed the raw underbelly of the tortured soul of an actor.  It was painful, but it was also a joy to witness.  

4.  Bradley Cooper in American Sniper

Damn that fake baby.  Bradley Cooper is simply stellar as Chris Kyle in American Sniper, and in a way he is hardly recognizable.  A long distance has certainly passed between The Hangover goofball and the Wedding Crashers jackass.  He carries this film on his back.  It is tense, gripping, and vivid to see the war through his eyes.  I don't care if you like the film, you cannot deny the performance of Cooper.  As he goes through his battles, both professional and private, he does so with such a sense of broken human morality that we can both hate him, love him, idolize him, and weep for him all at the same time.

3.  Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl

The final three performances on this list are three of the creepiest, most disturbing characters that I've seen on film since Ralph Fiennes played Amon Goeth in Schindler's List.  We start off with Rosamund Pike who makes batshit crazy look so beautiful.  She's dazzling, deadly, depraved, and downright deranged.  This is a performance that we will talk about for years and I sincerely believe if AFI redid their best villains list, she would be on it.  She has versatility, whether she's is subtle, innocent, and sweet or psychopathic, detached, and unmoved.  Of any recent villain, she is one of the most strategic we have ever seen wielding emotion like an iron fist.  And for those who loved the work that went into Charlize Theron playing the lead in Monster, Pike did the same thing, only she put on the weight and lost it again in a matter of ten days.  Pike produces a role that will be used as a standard bearer for years for actresses trying to play pure evil.  Oscars Interview

2.  JK Simmons in Whiplash

Beyond the fact that I love JK Simmons the man, this wasn't one of those Oscars that goes to a seasoned veteran because of his service.  It goes to someone who gives a tour de force performance as a jazz instructor searching for art as any means necessary.  Every performance is usually based in a single scene that can exemplify everything that goes into putting the character together.  Look no further than "not quite my tempo" to find Simmons at his best, only for Simmons he than uses that foundational moment as the beginning of his crescendo which lasts the rest of the movie.  The reason Simmons gives such a brilliant performance comes at the end of the night when you leave the theatre and say, "wow that guy is horrible and insane…but he was right, wasn't he?"  Simmons takes over Fletcher and believes meticulously every second of his mantra. "There are no two words in the English language more harmful that good job."  Well.  Great Job then Mr. Simmons.   Not Quite My Tempo

1.  Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler

If you had told me at the beginning of the year that I was going to praise Jake Gyllenhaal for a performance I would have told you, "you're insane."  A handsome actor in his own right other than a few glimpses in Brokeback Mountain and Zodiac, I never thought of Gyllenhaal as a good actor.  I was wrong.  In Nightcrawler, Gyllenhaal takes his few moments from Zodiac and in essence becomes the killer.  I have never walked out of a theatre and been more terrified of a protagonist than I did with Nightcrawler.  As I said with Rene Russo, look at the scene where he takes her out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant and you'll get what I mean.  Gyllenhaal is three parts De Niro in this film, with Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy, and The Fan all wrapped up into one tightly wound ball ready to explode.  He plays one of the best sociopaths we have ever seen on film using regurgitations of website entrepreneurial bullshit to sell his web of lies over the course of two hours.  He is tactical, precise, and exactly the type of guy you never want to meet at any point, ever.  With his weight loss, which makes his eyes sick into his skull, and his brilliant performance it is beautiful to watch an actor so perfectly set in the driver's seat.  Nightcrawler Trailer