2014 in film.

Top ten box-office films of 2014:

1. Transformers: Age of Extinction
2. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
3. Guardians of the Galaxy
4. Maleficent
5. The Hunger games: Mockingjay - Part 1
6. X-Men: Days of Future Past
7. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
8. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
9. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
10. Interstellar

What are your top three films for 2014? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be:

1. Goodbye to Language
2. Boyhood
3. Phoenix

What are some of the forgotten gems from the year? What is overrated? What did you discover at a young age and what did you discover later?

YEARS IN FILM • forum.chorus.fm

 

1. The Raid 2
2. Whiplash
3. Guardians of the Galaxy

4. Wild Tales
5. Nightcrawler
6. Gone Girl
7. Birdman
8. What We Do in the Shadows
9. The One I Love
10. Boyhood

Also love Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Interstellar, The Look of Silence, I Origins, Goodnight Mommy, When Marnie Was There, Wish I Was Here, Big Hero 6, The Amazing Spider Man 2, How to Train Your Dragon 2, 22 Jump Street, It Follows, Mommy, The Grand Budapest Hotel, X-Men: Days of Future Past, John Wick, Magical Girl, Force Majeure, Two Days, One Night, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and Edge of Tomorrow.

 

1. Gone Girl
2. Tusk
3. The Taking of Deborah Logan

 

1. Inherent Vice
2. John Wick
3. The Guest

 

Ex Machina
Whiplash
Wild Tales

HM: Grand Budapest Hotel, Interstellar, Gone Girl, Force Majeure, Inherent Vice, John Wick, The Duke of Burgundy, Paddington, The Homesman, It Follows, The Guest, Chef, Edge of Tomorrow

 

1. Nightcrawler
2. Whiplash
3. Gone Girl
4. Ex Machina
5. It Follows
6. The Imitation Game
7. Boyhood
8. John Wick
9. Creep
10. Birdman

 

1. Boyhood
2. Mr. Turner
3. Clouds of Sils Maria

 

2014 is the year our first child was born, so it marked a major shift in how or when or if I watched films. My wife and I pretty much completely stopped going to movies this year (and for years after) because we just didn't/don't have the time.

This is also probably around the time where we started watching more TV series than films.

1. Whiplash
2. Gone Girl
3. Birdman

Other standouts: Interstellar, Nightcrawler, Neighbors, American Sniper,

Films I've been meaning to watch: Foxcatcher, Boyhood, Ex Machina, The Grand Budapest Hotel, It Follows, John Wick

 

1. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
2. Inherent Vice
3. Gone Girl

 

1. The Guest
2. The Raid 2
3. Godzilla

The Guest is one of the most fun movies ever made and a complete joy to watch, probably my personal most rewatchable movie. Every time I get to show it to someone new I cherish it, it's a treasure. The Raid 2 is a huge expansion from the first movie in scope, which could have been a disaster, but the action sequences are even tighter and more virtuosic. It genuinely makes John Wick look like a kids movie. I'm still waiting for the collective critical reappraisal of Godzilla, the only one of the recent Godzilla movies to actually convey the scope of Godzilla in a way that feels important. The score also whips ass.

HMs: Gone Girl, Nightcrawler, A Most Violent Year, Ex Machina

 

Easily the year of the last decade or two with the clearest three, as all three of these are 5*/A+/potentially my favorites of the decade with a bullet.

1. Obvious Child
2. Boyhood
3. The LEGO Movie

Also like Beyond the Lights, Paddington, Ex Machina, John Wick, It Follows, What We Do in the Shadows

According to Letterboxd, the most popular movies that I haven't seen from 2014 are Nightcrawler, The Imitation Game, The Babadook, Mommy, and Fury.

 

1. It Follows
2. Boyhood
3. John Wick

 

1. Godzilla
2. John Wick
3. Big Hero 6

 

1. What We Do In The Shadows
2. Black Coal, Thin Ice
3. Little Forest

What We Do in the Shadows is one of my favourite comedies ever. I'm just always in the mood to watch it, there's never a bad time for it. Less than 90 minutes too!

Black Coal, Thin Ice is a fantastic neon noir from Diao Yi’nan, who made The Wild Goose Lake a few years ago. The film revolves around an investigation of some old murders, and the semi incompetent / semi corrupt Police force doing it, in a way perhaps similar to Memories of Murder. Despite the stylised colours, the violence in the film is realistic and completely un-glamorous. Minor spoilers (I guess...), but this clip is fantastic.

There's two Little Forest films, and the second one is in 2015 I guess, but I'm just including them both here. It's an idyllic, extremely slight film about a young woman who goes to live off the land where she grew up. Full of recipe and cookery scenes, there's barely a plot to it, just lovely little scenes and recipes.

Some good Irish (ish) films this year, including the charming and emotional animated film Song of the Sea, Ken Loach's film about Marxism and religion in Jimmy's Hall, starring Barry Ward, who is apparently not Aidan Gillen. Actually starring Aidan Gillen is Calvary, a slightly over-written film, but still great in parts about the potential murder of a priest and the loss of faith in humanity and God that brings.

From the UK, there's the optimistic Marvellous, about Neil Baldwin, which is a charming little story and performance from Toby Jones. Lilting is a good understated film about grief with Ben Whishaw and Cheng Pei Pei.

From Argentina, Wild Tales is a fantastic anthology of short stories about tense and blackly comic situations.

For European stuff, there's Ruben Östlund's Force Majeure, a deadpan comedy about a family in a skiing resort. There's Clouds of Sils Maria, an Olivier Assayas film with an excellent Binoche performance and a really poor Kristen Stewart one. Also French from Céline Sciamma is Girlhood, a coming of age film about a group of teeange girls, it has a fantastic moment where the group sing Rihanna's Diamonds that's extremely memorable, and should have been the music video. French Canadian, but Xavier Dolan's Mommy is a great film, that also incorporates popular music extremely well.

Phoenix is a Petzold film about a woman returning from a concentration camp, to find her husband doesn't recognise her, and wants her to pretend to be his (presumed) dead wife. Leviathan is an utterly bleak (are they ever anything else...?) Russian film about local corruption and the system trampling all over you. The Tribe is a fascinating Ukranian film, set in a deaf school, and with no subtitles, it's a fascinating exercise in sort of making your own narrative.

A couple of good horror films to finish, The Babadook, while the metaphor is on the nose, there's some great scenes of dread, and it's very fun to do The Babadook voice. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is an Iranian / Canadian super stylish vampire movie, and lots of fun.

Boyhood is a fascinating idea and document, but the early part of the film is significantly stronger than the latter part, and there are some really clunky moments (plus Mason grows up to a really irritating teen - like all of us I guess...)

 

Teenagers are the worst people in the world. It fits.

 

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel
2. Boyhood
3. It Follows

Honorable mentions:

Whiplash
Inherent Vice
Gone Girl
John Wick
Obvious Child
Ex Machina
Nightcrawler
22 Jump Street
What We Do in the Shadows
Edge of Tomorrow

Dishonorable mention to Birdman. To be fair, only saw it once, but hated it. Never understood the love.

22 Jump Street deserves credit as an extremely rare comedy sequel that is as good as the first.

Obvious Child should have made Jenny Slate bigger than she is.

Edge of Tomorrow isn't a "great" film, but it's one of the most pleasant surprises I can recall. I remember having no interest and basically getting dragged to the theater, but it turned out to be really entertaining.

 

I hated Birdman when I saw it in 2014 but rewatched it last year and loved it. Not really sure what changed but I found it really enjoyable.

 

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel
2. Ex Machina
3. Clouds of Sils Maria

Inherent Vicce and Whiplash were tough to leave out. 22 Jump Street is a rare excellent comedy sequel. Kingsman, Winter Soldier, John Wick, and Guardians are all solid action movies. They Came Together is great. Big Hero 6 is a really good animated movie.

 

1. The Guest
2. Nightcrawler
3. Ex Machina

 

1. Boyhood
2. It Follows
3. John Wick

Number 3 would have been Ex Machina before I remembered that scene in John Wick where he shoots through the roof of his car at the guy rolling over the top

 

1. Force Majeure
2. What We Do in the Shadows
3. Edge of tomorrow

God I love Tom in science fiction, his real-life dedication to believing in aliens is giving him an edge no else is touching.

This scene from Ex Machina

Don't think I've hated a movie more than Gone Girl, at this point unless Brad's taking his shirt off I'm not watching Fincher again.

George already said exactly how I feel about Boyhood and The Babadook, but I'd like to shout out Wild Tales again

 

mank was fantastic. your loss. baffling post.

 

Its about sending a message.

 

Gone Girl is so much worse than Mank.

 

1. Boyhood
2. Goodbye to Language
3. It Follows

strong year. Boyhood is a masterpiece. It Follows is A+ horror. Force Mejeure was close. One I haven’t seen mentioned that I really enjoyed was A Most Violent Year.