Admittedly, there are a ton of films I still need to catch up on, that could have greatly changed this list. GONE GIRL. INTERSTELLAR. JOHN WICK. BIRDMAN. WHIPLASH. ANd that's just naming a scant few. That said, I saw a lot of movies too. So many in fact, that I couldn't whittle it all down to just 10 titles. As a critic, and a fan, this is an amazingly fortunate predicament to be in. Even more amazing, is that most of the titles are homegrown, American made product, that came shining through after what felt like years and years of drouth. So proliferate and good was our output here in the USA, it was the first time in...hmmm...maybe 20 years, where I had to consciously set aside time to check out fare from foreign lands. It was also a dmaned fine year for not just American films, but American horror films, which made an insanely fine show of things, and I'm still catching up. Genre titles still on my stack include STARRY EYES, LATE PHASES, and THE GUEST.
But, I stopped dilly dallying, and finally pulled my thumb out, because January is here, and time marches on.
So without further adieu (cue drum roll) here are the Years Best According To Me. I doubled up, and went 20 deep. Sue me!
if pictures are are worth a thousand words, then movies are worth a million...So there you have it. Bring on 2015!!!
~Sean Smithson
I liked Lucy quite a bit, it's funny it got such mixed reviews. I didn't care for Under The Skin as well as you did, however, just too slow for me, though I enjoyed parts of it. I also enjoyed Nightcrawler, Enemy, and Prisoners. Cheap Thrills was also quite different and better than I expected. The same is true for Edge of Tomorrow--way better than I was expecting. All in all I thought it was a good year for movies. I would also recommend Snowpiercer and the TV series, True Detective.
ReplyDeleteHI El Vox, thanks for the comment!
DeleteUnder The Skin reminded me of Jess Franco in a weird way, and it's style over substance/art house leanings were good for genre film in general methinks. It was out of the box, and in context of Johansen's other work this year, formed a nice kind of triptych IMO.
But I totally get how it didn't fly with everyone either.
Like your blog too El Vox! Nice struff there! Putting it on our list!
This was a great and revealing doc if you have not seen it--one of the best of the year for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXr-2hwTk58
ReplyDeleteNice! I've not seen this one, will DEF check it out! Thx El Vox!
DeleteBlue Ruin was amazing. I'm a huge Joe hill fan and a Daniel Radcliffe fan so Horns was a delightful treat for me. I just barely finished watching Cold in July like ten minutes ago and that movie shreds! Michael C. Hall is awesome.
ReplyDeleteSome of my favorite films of 2014 that didn't make your list: The Lego Movie, Tusk, X-Men Days of Future Past, Boyhood, Gone Girl and Foxcatcher. I have a lot of catching up to do as well though. Gonna watch The Guest, Whiplash and The Drop in the next couple days.