This past year saw the release of a lot of movies (though the most press went to the one that almost wasn't released.). As usual, these films ran the gamut from those trying to help us face reality to those trying to help us escape it. It saw a surge in low budget, poorly made religious based films that very jumped on by an eager niche audiences, and two big budget Biblical epics that the very same people were dismissing as blasphemy before even seeing them.
What it did not see was one, or two to three, universally accepted "this is it" movies that were universally the frontrunners for best picture. There was no 12 Years A Slave, or even a Gravity. That is not to say there were not great films, opinion was just very divided and there was no clear standout that everyone seems to agree on.
But that's ok: this article isn't about what other people thought were the best films of 2014, it's about the ones that I thought were the best.In fact, it's not even meant to be definitive; it's a personal perspective on the a year at the movies as whole, and the selections that best represent how art effected me. I may change my mind about some of these over time (I still have not had a chance to see Foxcatcher or Selma), but that's the nature of art, and of the passage of time.
So those that want to tell me I'm wrong, please try to remember that you are an idiot. I cannot be wrong about what I liked the best. If it doesn't mesh with what you liked, make your own list, baring in mind that you probably didn't see half of what I did last year. Still, I only speak for myself, but in the end, that works out fine, because above all others, my own opinion has earned my most sincere and everlasting respect.
1. DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
In all honesty, the mere presence of chimpanzees on horseback firing machine guns is enough to make this a contender for Best Picture of 2014, but on top of that, the film is a brilliantly crafted and profound socio-political commentary on the polarizing devision in America today, and drama worthy of comparison to Shakespeare, particularly in the powerful portrayal of the tragic villain, Koba, a former lab animal who has every reason to distrust humans and want them driven away, even if his methods go way too far.
It is at once beautifully simple in its storytelling and intricately complex, resisting the urge to play anyone as 100 percent right or wrong. The humans and apes alike are acting out of a desire to preserve their own survival and that of their society, and ignorance and fear from extremists on both sides keeps getting in the way. But even the extremists are portrayed with a sense of sympathy. Dawn of the Planet of The Apes does its 1960's predecessor proud, using a science fiction premise to mirror the problems facing society today. Andy Serkis gives a mesmerizing performance: if you think this all comes down to the effects, watch the special features. If Gravity and Avatar can win Oscars for Best Cinematography despite the fact that most of the work was done in post production and involved the addition of visual effects, then there is no reason that Serkis and Tobey Kebbell can not and should get well deserved acting nods for their work here. I would like to see any of the acting front runners get as much out of an entire monologue as Kebbell did out of the words "human work."
Inspiring, disturbing, moving and exciting, this has everything a great movie needs, and director Matt Reeves expertly mixes all of the ingredients until the result is nothing short of perfection.
Also, there are chimpanzees on horseback firing machine guns.
2. NOAH
I can see clearly now, the rain is gone.
I know what you're thinking: he chose NOAH? But . . . but . . . it didn't follow the book! Which book? The King James Bible does not have exclusive claim to the story of Noah (though I understand he will be a theme park character now that Disney has purchased the rights to the King James Bible.). This is a story that has been passed down in many, wildly different forms in many, wildly different religions for generations since stories were first told. Every religions has a different idea of angels: why can't they be portrayed like The Fallen, seen here (who are referenced in the non canonical Book of Noah.). Yes, the filmmaker has put his own spin on the story. That's what art is! Most importantly, this isn't just a movie about Noah's journey on the ark: it's about our journey through life.Darren Arronofsky's edgy and daring epic may have ruffled some feathers, but it gave me wings. For me, it was a profound spiritual experience that made me look inside myself in way few movies have ever done. It dared to delve into subject matter deeply relevento those today who try to follow a God that they often don't understand and sometimes become angry with, and to say that faith and open mind and an open heart must go hand in hand, or you may end up doing the wrong thing for the right reason.
Russell Crowe's Noah is at once broodingly distant and lovably paternal, and he is matched by the raw emotion of Jennifer Connelly, both of whom give their best performances in years (though one has to wonder when she is going to learn that she's got to stop marrying this guy because he always ends up hearing voices.). But the performance and characterization that resonated most with me was Logan Lerman as Ham, Noah's dissillusioned son who is suddenly losing everything he has been raised to believe he should want and asked to not only accept but embrace that fact.
The movie is filled with breathtaking visual imagery (the Cain and Abel sequence is pure artistic brilliance) and heavy themes and emotions. I readily acknowledge that it is not a film for everyone. But it was film for ME, and it's become a part of me, and I make no apologies or qualifiers for putting it on my list.
3. UNBROKEN
Making it to the finish line is always a victory.
Angelina Jolie may have underwhelmed me in the tepid and uninspired Maleficient, but my longtime crush was rekindled to the brightest it has been in many years with this spectacular directorial triumph that echoes David Lean and Spielberg's Empire Of The Sun.
Louis Zamperini (Jack O'Connell), a young Italian American runner, competes in the Berlin Olympics, knowing he won't medal, but looking ahead four years to the next Olympics, set for Tokyo. And he does find himself in Japan at that time, but not as an athlete, but as a prisoner of war.
The inspiring true story of a young man's survival under almost unbearably brutal circumstances, Unbroken is sincere, unflinching, old fashioned filmmaking with a Norman Rockwell like love of Americana mixed with modern liberal sensibility, and not in terms of adding profanity (the movie stays within PG-13 boundaries, and the lack of F- words surprisingly takes away nothing from the sense of reality. Rather, it comes in asking the question of how torture and starvation of prisoners can possibly be justified, and the idea that forgiveness and peace can lift us up through difficult times better than revenge.
4. (tie) THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL and MUPPETS MOST WANTED
Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.I am not easily pleased when it comes to comedy on the big screen.
Wes Anderson's latest is eccentric and goofy even for him, but is delightfully unique and combines French farce with bold, indie filmmaking, and classic Blake Edwards. Ralph Fiennes is cast gloriously against type and definitively proves that The Avengers (not to be confused with Marvel's The Avengers) did not fail because he can't do comedy. This is the most entranced and transported I have been by a comedy since The Hudsucker Proxy.
Muppets Most Wanted had a tough act to follow after the last film, but it does so but being its own movie and going for its own style, its own songs, and its own brand new addition to the Muppet cast, in the form of Constantine, the "Evillen Froggen" who masquerades as Kermit. I can watch this film again and again and never stop laughing, enjoying the story, and feeling a very real sense of joy. And that is what I call comedy.
5. A MOST VIOLENT YEARThe art of our necessities is strange,
And can make vile things precious.
If you are the kind of person who left There Will be Blood feeling ripped off because it wasn't Gangs of New York, you won't like this movie. Writer/director J.C. Chandor is not trying to channel Tarantino here: he's going more for Sidney Lumet by way of King Lear. There is no endless parade of exploding heads; this movie takes place in a world where hijacking trucks and beating up the drivers, breaking into a house with a baseball bat or purchasing a gun for self defense is considered violence. It's a little place I like to call "the actual planet we live on," circa 1981. The endlessly underrated Oscar Isaac stars as Abel Morales, an immigrant businessman who is far from totally legit, but isn't Michael Corleone, either. As he tries to expand his business, he faces obstacle after obstacle, including attacks by competitors and criminal investigators dying to find evidence against him. His wife (Jessica Chastain) is the daughter of a man who basically was a Corleone, and the two of them are living in that shadow. The threat of violence, and the temptation to use it as a solution, loom over Abel as tries to dig himself out of his hole and just gets deeper and deeper. In an age when the terms "in your face" and "over the top" are worn as a badge of honor, this beautifully understated and subtle, but always involving film, is a welcome change of pace.
6. GONE GIRL Take my wife. Please.
David Fincher and writer Gillian Flynn weave an intricate and disturbing tale in the finest tradition of Alfred Hitchcock. Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) is trapped in an unhappy marriage, but find himself even more trapped when his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) vanishes, and everyone suspects that he is the man responsible. As layer after layer is peeled away, new secrets are revealed, and neither Nick or Amy are who they seem to be. If you don't know the twist by now, I'm assuming that you don't care, but while
I am trying to avoid stating it outright, read on at your own risk. Gone Girl can be seen as misogonystic, or empoweringly feministic, depending on who you talk to, but it's really a story about marriage and relationships, and the methods and weapons we used to control one another. It's the dark side of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and much like that film, it doesn't take place in the real world, it takes place inside a movie, where people do the kinds of things they would only do in a movie. The mistake being made by detractors is to assume that it is trying to do more than this when it is actually embracing that very concept: as Nick sits on the stage of a TV talk show hosted by Sela Ward, a.k.a. Helen Kimble from The Fugitive, and declares "I didn't kill my wife", if you can't recognize that this is a story about storytelling, it's not the failing of the director or of the movie.
7. CHEFToo many cooks spoil the superhero.
15 years ago, I was working in theatre, teaching acting to kids and putting on small productions. It was a great job when I started, but by the end, no matter how I wanted to try new things and push myself and the students to create original works of art, the mandate was clear: play it safe, follow the routine. I couldn't do that, and I left. The same thing happened again six years after that running the entertainment in a spectacular theme restaurant. Don't progress, don't excel, give them the same old crap.
Jon Favreau's return to smaller, less commercial fare after two Iron Man films and Cowboy & Aliens
certainly appeals most to artistic types who have been in this position, but it's a great movie nonetheless, and a wondering coming of age story for a father and son who discover themselves by discovering each other. Favreau the actor hasn't been this good since Swingers, and Favreau the director, who blazed new trails and helped create the MARVEL mold with the first Iron Man and was unfortunately stifled into making the second one a two hour commercial for The Avengers (and not a even a particular good one) is clearly having a blast doing his own thing. A little bit of sincerity goes a long way, and all the ingredients come together to create a wonderful feel good film that sends the clear message: be true to yourself, even if you have to take some time to find out exactly who that is first.
8. THE HOMESMAN
Not since Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven have I been more disappointed that I did not get the western I went to the theater expecting to see. And not since Unforgiven have I found myself realizing after giving it some thought that what I got was far better, and hauntingly profound.
Tomm Lee Jones excels both in front of the camera and behind it in this bleak and painfully honestly look at life on the plains, examining the issue of mental illness in a manner that is as shockingly forthright as it is is likely to be lost on much of its audience. This movie raises some fascinating questions on just what exactly it means to be sane, who gets to decide what meets that standard, and most memorably, who, if anyone, will be there to show compassion to the compassionate.
9. THE EQUALIZER
Taxi Driver meets The A-Team.
Just when I havecompletely written off director Antione Fuqua for the cookie cutter Olympus Has Fallen, he reteams with Training Day star and Hollywood legend Denzel Washington to make quite possibly the best TV based movie since The Fugitive.
Washintgton takes over the role of McCall, made famous by Edward Woodward. McCall is a man with a mysterious past who knows how to get things done when no one else can, but these days he's trying to play nice, working at a thinly disguised version of Home Depot and reading books. But when a young prostitute (played by Chloe Grace Moretz) ends up in the hospital, he decides somebody has to do something, and the gloves come off. Extremely brutal but thoroughly involving, a big past of why this film work so well is that the script is fiercely intelligent and not a single character is wasted. Another reason is Washington himself, who is at the top of his game.
10. THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
Is this seat taken?
Honorable Mentions: American Sniper, Belle, Big Eyes, Big Hero 6, Edge of Tomorrow, Fury, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies, How To Train Your Dragon 2, Insterllar, X-Men: Days of Future Past
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