Best movies of the first half of 2014

[Chris Knipp]

Six month assessment of 2014

I'd get to see more mainstream releases but I spend a lot of time at festivals and film series. This list includes only movies I have seen, of course. This is a sketch, not a final statement. I'll give unreleased favorites later. The best is yet to come, presumably. Notable have been: IDA, SNOWPIERCER, WE ARE THE BEST!, NIGHT MOVES, , RETURN TO HOMS, LLYN FOULKES ONE MAN BAND. I also liked PALO ALTO. BEGIN AGAIN and CHEF were very enjoyable. We'll see if the flavor lasts.

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Good more or less mainstream pictures:
1. Snowpiercer
2. The Lego Movie
3. Chef
4. Begin Again

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Good art or foreign films:
1. A Summer's Tale*
2. Ida***
3. We Are the Best!
4. Night Moves
5. Young and Beautiful
6. Michael Kohlhaas
7. Ernest & Célestine
8, Palo Alto
9. Stranger by the Lake
10. The French Minister
11. Blue Ruin
12. Joe
13. Locke

Good documentaries:
1. Return to Homs
2. Lynn Foulkes One Man Band
3. The Internet's Own Boy
4. Particle Fever
5. Life Itself
Also informative documentaries:
Jodorovsky's Dune
12 O'clock Boys
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
Finding Vivian Maier**
Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq
Tim's Vermeer
Code Black

Critical raves from some others:
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Metacritic 88%)
Ilo Ilo (Metacritic 87%)
Stand Clear of the Closing Doors (Metacritic 86%)
Under the Skin (Metacritic 78%)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Metacritic 77%)
The Immigrant (Metacritic 76%)
Obvious Child (Metacritic 75%)

Controversial:
Nymphomaniac I & II
__________________
*A Summer's Tale is a 1996 Eric Rohmer film. It was just finally released in the US, but you could have seen it on video in the Nineties.
**See my review comparing the two Vivian Maier documentaries. This isn't my favorite of the two but it's the only one with a US theatrical release.
***Actually this is a money-maker and has taken in 15 times as much as Blur Ruin at the box office.

[Chris Knipp]

Unfortunately the opening of the much-touted Linklater one, Boyhood, shot over 12 years with the same actors, is greatly delayed for Bay Area residents. It opened last week in New York but comes two weeks later here. Everyone loves it, but Armond White predictably has debunked it. It needs debunking, no doubt. Nonetheless each time I watch the trailer I get a lump in my throat. Seeing people actually grow up or grow older is moving in itself. How much credit a director deserves for recording it is debatable. (You see I'm already writing my review. That can happen, when a film has gotten a tremendous amount of press.) Boyhood has already been so showered with praise one could choke on it. Metacritic rating 99%. I have seen the new Woody Allen flick, Magic in the Moonlight. It is, surprise surprise, about a man who has a beautiful young woman half his age fall in love with him, rejecting a younger, nicer, richer man for him. It's a suave and beautiful movie with a terrific cast, but it makes no sense -- except to Woody. Venus in Fur should be good -- Polanski directing his wife with Matthieu Amalric. It's an artificial theatrical exercise -- I saw it on Broadway -- but it's very clever and fits Polanski's talents to a T. These are some good immediate prospects.

[Chris Knipp]

Correction: Boyhood opens tomorrow in San Francisco and Linklater will be at both the Embarcadero and Sundance Kabuki theaters for Q&A's. But it will be delayed a week for those across the Bay.

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[Chris Knipp]

So much junk, so little time. . .

The NY Times is tireless of late in presenting some Friday coverage of all the week's many releases in the city of New York. Some of them you might like to see. Some you will see. Most you needen't care about. But there are so many to sift through it's daunting. And I remember a time when there were only two to four movies in New York you heard about, but often one of them was important. Less was more. Below is the Times's listing of its movie reviews for Friday, 18 July 2014. I have edited out the reviewers' names and minor details. The first five, from SEX TAPE through I ORIGINS, are those deemed of major interest (or simply are wide releases) and are written about by the paper's three main critics, A.O Scott, Manohla Dargis and Stephen Holden. The rest get shorter reviews by part-timers. Note: some of these, such as FANNY and ALIVE INSIDE, may be more worth seein hat the top-listed SEX TAPE and THE PURGE: ANARCHY. Note also that nowadays documentaries, which once were few and not much seen, make up part of every week's releases.

Movies Update
Friday, July 18, 2014

'SEX TAPE'
Oops! Pushed the Wrong Button: Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz star as a married couple who scramble to keep their homemade erotic video private in "Sex Tape."
'WISH I WAS HERE'
For a Struggling Actor, New Roles
"Wish I Was Here" looks at a middle-class family forced to change its ways by the costly illness of its patriarch.
'MOOD INDIGO'
In "Mood Indigo," Audrey Tautou and Romain Duris star in a whimsical love story adapted from the French novel "L'Écume des Jours."
'THE PURGE: ANARCHY'
In "The Purge: Anarchy," Americans are again asked to spend a night running amok and killing.
'I ORIGINS'
Mike Cahill's "I Origins" is a sci-fi romance about two genetic researchers and a mysterious woman who sees things more spiritually than scientifically.
'DOUBLE PLAY'
Duet for Directors, in a Conversational Key: The film directors Richard Linklater and James Benning chat about their shared interests in the documentary "Double Play."
'PLANES: FIRE & RESCUE'
In "Planes: Fire & Rescue" a crop-dusting plane embarks on a second career as a firefighter.
'K MISSING KINGS'
Color Wars Tinged by Surreal Hysteria: In "K Missing Kings," based on a Japanese anime series, clansmen bearing the colors of their king do battle with similar groups of rivals.
'FANNY'
Marius, his father and the sailmaker who marries the pregnant title character fuel "Fanny," the middle film of a trilogy.
'AFTERMATH'
It's All Over, but the Dying: In "Aftermath," by Peter Engert, a cellar-bound gang of desperate survivors tries to cope after a global nuclear catastrophe.
'VIDEO GAMES: THE MOVIE'
A Long and Winding History of Gaming: In "Video Games: The Movie," dozens of celebrities and game developers, among others, explore the history and impact of video games on society.
'PERSECUTED'
"Persecuted" finds a television evangelist holding out against a vaguely defined piece of legislation.
'AMONG RAVENS'
A Family Gathers, and So Does the Dysfunction: In "Among Ravens," relatives and their problems gather at a Fourth of July getaway.
'A FIVE STAR LIFE'
Long on Travel, but Short on Satisfaction: In "A Five Star Life," a hotel critic's job sends her around the world, and she ends up questioning her decisions.
'ALIVE INSIDE'
Music is used to care for the aging in a documentary by Michael Rossato-Bennett.
'HUMPTY SHARMA KI DULHANIA'
A bride-to-be travels to New Delhi to search for a dress and finds herself a new suitor in "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania."

[Chris Knipp]

U.S. consensus(es) of what's been best so far.

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Indiewire has compiled a list of the 50 "best-reviewed" movies so far. For it go here. (http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/the-best-films-of-2014-so-far-20140602)
The top ten are, in order:

BOYHOOD
IDA
ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
UNDER THE SKIN
BLUE RUIN
THE WIND RISES
LIFE ITSELF
NYMPHOMANIAC (I)
STRANGER BY THE LAKE.

That's their group, obviously. I sort of like having BLUE RUIN, NYMPHOMANIAC, AND STRANGER BY THE LAKE there. The Metacritic list (http://www.metacritic.com/browse/movies/score/metascore/year?sort=desc&view=condensed&year_selected=2014)is different and has some fest films not seen yet in their top ten:

BOYHOOD
MR. TURNER
THE OVERNIGHTERS
A SUMMER'S TALE,
FOXCATCHER
RETURN TO HOMS (YES!)
BIG MEN (?)
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
LOVE IS STRANGE
LIFE ITSELF

Obviously, it's no longer the first half of 2014. Where's WE ARE THE BEST!?