Favourite Movies of 2014

[Hanley!]

Now that it's 2015, I was curious to see what people's favourite movie releases have been over the past year.

In my own opinion, 2013 was a fairly miserable for movies. I didn't go to the cinema often, and was usually disappointed when I did. But 2014 made up for it. We went to see loads of movies over the course of the year, and I ended up enjoying the vast majority of them.

I'm including my own top 10 below, but obviously this is just my own opinion and is also restricted to the movies that I've seen. I watched a lot of new releases in 2014, but there are many I still want to see. This includes a number of films that have yet to be released in Ireland such as Whiplash, Foxcatcher, John Wick and particularly The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.

(I'm dying to see that film and there's not even an announced release date for here yet ... argh).

Ye don't have to go into the detail that I'm going into below obviously. I was just having this conversation with a bunch of my mates last night and thought it'd be fun to jot down a list.


10) Bushi no Kondate

The English name of this film is A Tale of Samurai Cooking: A True Love Story. I just saw this over the weekend, but it was released last year in most Western countries. It's a story about the marriage between a kitchen samurai intent on abandoning his duties and becoming a warrior, and a female chef who teaches him to embrace his duties. It's far from perfect, but it's charming and quaint with beautiful scenery and costume design. It also features a lot of delicious-looking food so I was glad I had a dinner reservation for afterwards!

09) The Fault In Our Stars

I loved this book, and I rate John Green highly as an author in general. I've liked everything I've read of his. He has a way of taking serious events and emotions and portraying them honestly without making them overly melodramatic. Unfortunately, the film didn't really share this skill which is why I didn't rank it higher on the list. The acting performances here were very good for the most part, and the story is still compelling. But some of the magic was gone.

08) The Lego Movie

It wasn't my favourite animated film of the year, but The Lego movie was highly entertaining nonetheless and started the year off with a bang. The referential humour really worked here and the cast was stellar. Will Arnett stole the show as Batman, but Chris Pratt, Morgan Freeman, Alison Brie and Liam Neeson were all great. The twist at the end seemed to make or break the film for people, but I was definitely into it. I thought it made the moral of the story a lot more resonant.

07) Nightcrawler

Jake Gyllenhaal is a creepy bastard! This was one of the finest acting performances of the year. It's rare that I can watch a movie with no truly sympathetic characters and be so compelled. The film is just fascinating in that you can't help but want to see how far this guy will go. This was beautifully shot too, and explores some of the seedier aspects of our media that are very relevant today.

06) How to Train Your Dragon 2

The first How to Train Your Dragon movie caught me by surprise. I'm a big fan of animated films, but Dreamworks Animation hadn't done much worthwhile since the first Shrek movie at that point. Now the sequel has surprised me again, by being even better. Rather than just being a cash-in, it seems like they're going for a proper trilogy narrative here, focused on Hiccup growing up and taking his place in society. This was touching, funny and featured some gorgeous animation.

05) Veronica Mars

I was a big fan of the Veronica Mars show. The first two seasons were incredible, but it lost its way a bit in the third season and ended terribly. So I was cautiously optimistic when this movie was announced and the money was raised on Kickstarter. And it's awesome. A simple story, but an enjoyable one. The spunky banter is still there in spades and the action is really well done, particularly given the small budget. This is a smart film that can be enjoyed by fans of the show and newcomers alike.

04) The Wind Rises

A very different kind of animated film, and one of the most recent films by Studio Ghibli. It was released in 2013 in Japan, but the rest of us only got it over the past year so I figure it still counts. This was the final film by acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki and is a fictionalized biopic of Jiro Horikoshi, designer of fighter airplanes used by the Empire of Japan during World War 2. It's an ambitious film about following your dreams and the compromises that can come along with it. I'd really recommend it.

03) Boyhood

This is a film that everybody's been talking about for the last six months. The concept was really intriguing: the movie was recorded over the course of 12 years so you get to see actors aging for real and you watch a young boy growing up right in front of your eyes. Awesomely directed with some brilliant performances (I'd love to see Ethan Hawke get a Best Supporting Actor nod). Linklater created something special here. Now I'm looking forward to seeing if another filmmaker may try this same technique and apply it to a more conventional narrative.

02) Calvary

Very few of you will probably have seen this. It's an Irish film about a Catholic priest living in a remote parish. At the start of the film, an unseen man enters the confessional and threatens to kill the priest in a week, as punishment for the sins of abusive clergymen. The rest of the film takes place over the following week; as he goes about his usual routine we see that certain people have started to resent the church for a variety of reasons, and how that effects this genuinely kind-hearted priest. Meanwhile the audience is trying to figure out who threatened him in the first place. This is intriguing, insightful, darkly hilarious ... it's like very little I've seen.

01) Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Fucking hell. I loved this film. I really wanted to see it for the longest time, but it was released late over here so we only got around to it last night. It was everything that I was hoping for. The film appeared to be done in one long take, and while I was worried that this might come across as gimmicky, it only added to the story. It helped to demonstrate Keaton's fragmented psyche as days flew by without any kind of pause, and the crazy stuff happening inside his head was not separated from the events that were actually happening. It also seemed fitting for a movie about the production of a play, where just one wrong move could ruin the entire production. This film was hilarious, weird and still very dramatic. Powerhouse performances from everyone involved. I'll be amazed if it doesn't clean up during award season.

[Matteo]

I have not seen many 2014 films. In fact, I did not see many films last year at all. However, we do agree on two choices, and I will elaborate on them below. Here is my top five of 2014, in no particular order:


The Rover - David Michod



A chillingly elemental and minimalist slice of Australian filmmaking. It failed to resonate with audiences because it is so deceptively simple - it is no way near as thematically complex as Michod's previous work, Animal Kingdom, and this is precisely why Cannes were largely underwhelmed with it. It is a masterful exercise in mood and atmosphere, and, consequently, a remarkably straightforward film. It's also impeccably photographed, and one of the few Australian films of the last few years that was shot on 35mm photochemical film. And that is precisely what you needed to capture the stark, unforgiving, yet oddly alluring outback of the Australian outback. It's really beautiful.



The Grand Budapest Hotel - Wes Anderson



I am hardly a fan of Anderson's work, but this has to be one of the most technically well-crafted American films of the last ten years. From the the vibrant, vivid colours to the flawless composition and framing to the perceptive and detailed art design, and all the way down to the the witty, fast-paced screenplay, and beautiful cinematography. It also has an extremely impressive cast, lead by the criminally overlooked Ralph Fiennes.



Whiplash - Damien Chazelle



This is truly an intense, fervent slice of filmmaking. It transforms jazz into a ruthless bloodsport. The towering screen presence of Teller and Simmons place aside, this film has to be one of the best, purely from an editorial standpoint, in quite some time. This is how you build a sense of inexorable anxiety and strain - each cut just nervously adding to the next. So often throughout the viewing it felt like you were behind the drums, in Andrew's position, anxiously playing whilst Fletcher was stalking each and every auditory note, ready to pounce in vexation if you blundered. And the use of sound was impeccable - who would've thought jazz music could be so fanatical and daunting when placed in this context? A masterpiece, for sure.



Boyhood - Richard Linklater



This is when experimentation pays off. It's a restrained, careful, and human work, never becoming too exploitive with its 12-year concept nor coming across as overly-gimmicky and showy. It's a difficult film to dislike because it has so much scope - everyone can relate to this film on some level, and it never becomes too extravagant, conceptually, and this is why I think it has resonated with such a mass audience. I wouldn't put this up there as a favourite and I don't even think it's Linklater's best, but there's no denying it's a wonderful film - it has the humanity of an Ozu film and a very European-orientated sensibility, as the pacing and overall structure of the film felt rather reminiscent to something Ingmar Bergman would have conjured up.



Nightcrawler - Dan Gilroy



This is one of the most uncompromisingly salient American films of recent times. Not only a shatteringly insightful look into the ostensibly questionable merit of contemporary journalism, but, on a much larger level, an aggressive denunciation of the corporatist, capitalist model. It's a work that fundamentally demonstrates how unprincipled our system has become, and how we can grant enterprise and opportunities to businesses that run on depraved and venal convictions. Moreover, Jake Gyllenhaal delivers one of the most impressive and focused performances of the last few years. Elswit's beautiful nighttime photography and Gilroy's slick writing, direction, and pacing are all noteworthy points, too. It's also a remarkably edited feature. An instantly recommendable film, if not for its radical political subtext and postulations but for its sheer intensity and drama. A great work, and this century's Ace in the Hole.


I always enjoyed those two notable science fiction films in 2014, Interstellar and Edge of Tomorrow. Smaller-scale productions like Joe and Blue Ruin were rather good, too. The Babadook was also up there for contention - one of the more fresh and original horror works of the last decade.

[UTK]

I forgot most of the films I've seen this year, but one that stuck with me was Grand Budapest Hotel. Wes Anderson's best movie yet.

[Hanley!]

I've really wanted to watch The Grand Budapest Hotel, but we somehow just missed it in theatres. I've been meaning to pick it up on DVD. It looks really good.

I'll probably be seeing Whiplash in the cinema before January ends, it's just not out here yet.

[SortaCreative]

I've really wanted to watch The Grand Budapest Hotel, but we somehow just missed it in theatres. I've been meaning to pick it up on DVD. It looks really good.

I'll probably be seeing Whiplash in the cinema before January ends, it's just not out here yet.

What's a DVD?

[Everlong]

I'm still working on catching up on some movies that I wanted to see last year (on the list: Birdman, Imitation Game, Theory of Everything, Nightcrawler, among others). However, my favorites from last year that I have seen:

Boyhood - The only one that I'd give a 10/10 and label it an instant masterpiece. Absolutely phenomenal film and I can't even imagine how difficult it was to make.

Interstellar - This is the best pure sci fi film that's come out in a long, long time. Not the best movie that Nolan has made, but one that's definitely going go to down as a movie that helped breathe life back into the genre. Sci fi has become more about the action than the science and thought experiments. While there's some legitimate criticism you can make about the science in this movie, there's no doubt that it really makes you think and question what you know about this world, which is what good science fiction should aspire to do.

The Grand Budapest Hotel - Just saw this one, and while I don't think it was QUITE as strong as Boyhood, it was a ridiculously charming movie and I loved every minute of it. It was weird to see Ralph Fiennes playing a protagonist, haha. Super strong cast in this one, lots of fun moments, BEAUTIFUL cinematography and design. I'm with @Matteo I can't believe that Fiennes isn't getting more attention for his work in this movie. He was a show stealer.

The Lego Movie - Easily the best animated movie of the year IMO, I think this was the biggest Oscar snub of them all. Still definitely intend to add this one to my DVD collection. Hadn't laughed that much at a movie in the theater in ages.

[JDD]

2014 was an amazing year for movies imo. Saw so much good shit that ill probably forget some, but here's my favorites in no order.

Edge of Tomorrow
This one was great. Its a shame it didnt to well in the box office. One of the best action/sci-fi movies in a very long time. It took a concept that should have gotten stale after the first 10 minutes and made a very entertaining movie. IIRC @prophet shares my love for this movie.

The Grand Budapest Hotel
Fantastic film. Im a huge Wes Anderson fan and this was him at his best. I would rank only Moonrise Kingdom higher than this one. Im glad to see it getting a lot of love during awards season.

Boyhood
An instant classic. A movie that hit me hard emotionally at some points and one of the few films I could actually say I can relate to. It's 3 hours, but it goes by so fast.

American Sniper
Technically saw it in 2015 but whatever. Bradley Cooper gave the best performance of his career in this one and definitely deserved the Oscar nomination. It's also Clint Eastwood's best film in a while.

Birdman
This movie had it all. Great performances, great directing, fantastic editing and a great script. This should walk away with at least the best director award at the Oscars.

Guardians of the Galaxy
This movie was just fun. Most fun I had in the theaters for a long time. I really had no complaints about this movie. Definatley Marvel's best.

Whiplash
Best movie of the year. Im so happy J.K Simmons is finally getting the attention he desert vest and hopefully he walks sway with an Oscar. I can give this a 10/10 easily. Miles Tellers performance was also fantastic but Simmons steals the show.

I still haven't seen Nightcrawler, The Theory of Everything, The Imitation Game and some others.

[Daz]

Off the top of my head;

Boyhood
Birdman
Foxcatcher
Whiplash
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Guardians of the Galaxy
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Veronica Mars

There's still a handful of "big" movies from 2014 I haven't seen yet, so I'd imagine one or two of those would get added to the list eventually.

[Everlong]

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Was this really in 2014? Feels so long ago I'd add this to my list too then.