SOME TOP TEN of 2014 Lists

[Chris Knipp]

(re-posted to correct an error in the title)

SOME TOP TEN of 2014 Lists

Early lists include Cahiers du Cinéma's, and John Waters', and the BFI's.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/cahiers.jpg (http://www.cahiersducinema.com/)

CAHIERS DU CINÉMA

Cahiers du Cinéma Top 10 Films (www.cahiersducinema.com/Top-Ten-2014.html) Of 2014
1. Bruno Dumont's Li'l Quinquin.
2. Jean-Luc Godard's Goodbye to Language.
3. Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin.
4. David Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars.
5. Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises.
6. Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac.
7. Xavier Dolan's Mommy.
8. Ira Sachs's Love Is Strange.
9. Alain Cavalier's Le Paradis.
10. Hong Sang-soo's Our Sunhi.

JOHN WATERS

John Waters’ Top 10 Films (https://artforum.com/inprint/issue=201410&id=49103) Of 2014 (see comments (https://artforum.com/inprint/issue=201410&id=49103))
1. Maps To The Stars
2. Charlie Victor Romeo
3. The Kidnapping Of Michel Houellebecq
4. The Smell Of Us
5. Gloria
6. Who Took Johnny
7. L'il Quinquin
8. Nymphomaniac: Vol. 1 and 2
9. Violette
10. The Films Of Joanna Hogg (Unrelated, Archipelago, Exhibition)

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/S&S.jpg (http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine)

SIGHT AND SOUND (the BFI, British Film Institute, list (http://www.bfi.org.uk/best-films-2014-all-the-votes/?utm_content=bufferfc0ce&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer#/?poll=combined&film=5397844715ab4); online 18 are given: see their colorful chart (http://www.bfi.org.uk/best-films-2014-all-the-votes/?utm_content=bufferfc0ce&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer#/?poll=combined&film=5397844715ab4))

1. Boyhood
2. Goodbye To Language 3D
3. Leviathan (tie)
3. Horse Money (tie)
5. Under The Skin
6. The Grand Budapest Hotel
7. Winter Sleep
8. The Tribe
9. Ida (tie)
9. Jauja (tie)
11. Mr. Turner (tie)
11. National Gallery (tie)
11. The Wolf Of Wall Street (tie)
11. Whiplash (tie)
15. The Duke Of Burgundy
16. Birdman (tie)
16. Two Days, One Night (tie)
18. Citizenfour (tie)
18. The Look Of Silence (tie)
18. The Wind Rises (tie)

[Johann]

(re-posted to correct an error in the title)

SOME TOP TEN of 2014 Lists

Early lists include Cahiers du Cinéma's, and John Waters', and the BFI's
JOHN WATERS

John Waters’ Top 10 Films Of 2014
1. Maps To The Stars
2. Charlie Victor Romeo
3. The Kidnapping Of Michel Houellebecq
4. The Smell Of Us
5. Gloria
6. Who Took Johnny
7. L’il Quinquin
8. Nymphomaniac: Vol. 1 and 2
9. Violette
10. The Films Of Joanna Hogg (“Unrelated,” “Archipelago,” “Exhibition”)


I would include Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street without hestitating. Asshats over there...

John Waters is a Pope. Don't discount his opinion.

[Chris Knipp]

I would include Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street without hestitating. Asshats over there...
John Waters is a Pope. Don't discount his opinion.

I don't discount John Waters' opinion. That's why I'm disappointed that I can't relate to his list this year as I have in previous years.

THE WOLF OF WALL STREET came out Christmas Day 2013. I saw it then, at Regal Union Square (in their biggest auditorium, packed that evening) and immediately wrote a review (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2608).

[Chris Knipp]

Here is a rough list I made up today. It's a work in progress. So many documentaries because they're all of interest to me but the actual best artistically is harder to pin down. P.s.: I'll wait to do my final version till I've caught up on other late releases like Ava DuVernay's Selma and J.C. Chandor's A Most Violent Year, Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Winter Sleep and Clint Eastwood's American Sniper. It appears Bruno Dumont's L’il Quinquin may be available streaming on Netflix.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/cck.gif (http://www.chrisknipp.com/)

CHRIS KNIPP'S ROUGH DRAFT 2014 MOVIE BEST LISTS


ENGLISH LANGUAGE:
Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh)
Blue Ruin
Calvary
Night Moves
Theory of Everything
Birdman
Listen Up Philip
Locke
The Drop
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
Cold in July
Palo Alto (Gia Coppola)

BEST FOREIGN:
Ida
We Are the Best!
Two Days, One Night
Bird People
Beloved Sisters
Saint Laurent (Bonello)
Stranger by the Lake
Leviathon
Nymphomaniac 1 & 2

BEST DOCUMENTARIES:
The Overnighters
Point and Shoot
The Internet's Own Boy
Seymour: An Introduction
Llyn Foulkes One Man Band
Citizenfour
Happy Valley
Life Itself
Tales of the Grim Sleeper
The Last of the Unjust (Lanzmann)
Particle Fever
Jodorovsky's Dune
The Missing Picture (Rithy Panh)
12 O'Clock Boys
The Kill Team
Rich Hill
Finding Vivian Meier
Red Army
National Gallery
The Green Prince

SHORTLISTED, BOTH CATEGORIES:
The Lego Movie
Fury
Inherent Vice
. . .

BEST FESTIVAL (AS YET) UNRELEASED:
'71 (Yann Demange) NYFF (coming Feb. 2015)
Hill of Freedom (Hong)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako NYFF) (coming Jan. 2015)
The Return to Homs (documentaryND/NF)
Eastern Boys (Robin Campillo, French RV)

OTHERS LIKE:
Boyhood​
The Grand Budapest Hotel
​Whiplash​
​Foxcatcher​
Under the Skin
Maps to the Stars

UNFORTUNATELY MISSED SO FAR:
Starred Up
Duke of Burgundy
Last Days in Vietnam
Winter Sleep
The Homesman

BEST LATE RELEASE:
A Summer's Tale (Eric Rohmer)

[Johann]

I wasn't saying YOU should discount Waters' opinion. You posted his list. I'm just pointing out to anybody that John Waters' cinematic opinion has value. More than people think.

The Wolf of Wall Street has been attacked a lot, and maybe doesn't belong on a list for 2014. My bad. What's the problem with Marty's last movie? The subject matter is obscene, yes, but the cinematic craft and moral storytelling are really really strong.

Foxcatcher, Under The Skin and Birdman have caught my attention.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/m.jpg (http://www.metacritic.com/browse/movies/score/metascore/year?sort=desc&view=condensed&year_selected=2014)

Metacritic bests.

I agree Foxcatcher, Under the Skin and Birdman would catch the attention.

Here are the METACRITIC 2014 films that got the best reviews, by their estimation (all with scores of 87 up). They list a lot of individual critic's ten-best lists here (http://www.metacritic.com/feature/film-critic-top-10-lists-best-movies-of-2014?page_comment=1). Take out documentaries and one animated film and the top features are:


BOYHOOD
LEVIATHON
SELMA
MR. TURNER
TOP FIVE
TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT
A SUMMER'S TALE
BIRDMAN OR (THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE)
IDA
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

I have to reserve judgment about SELMA and TOP FIVE, which I have not seen yet. Below is the list with the animation and all the documentaries. (Docs always score high with critics, probably because they find the information in them interesting in itself, and "real." I react that way myself. Only later I have to think what was really a remarkable film.) Below is the whole list. Stars by the ones you can watch at home in some form right now. Some are not out yet or will come to some regions later. Title, Metaceritic score, and release date are given below.


90-100
BOYHOOD - 100 - Jul 11, 2014
LEVIATHON - 99 - Dec 25, 2014
SELMA - 98 - Dec 25, 2014
VIRUNGA - 95 - Nov 7, 2014
MR. TURNER - -95 - Dec 19, 2014
TOP FIVE - 94 - Dec 12, 2014
TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT - 92 - Dec 24, 2014
*A SUMMER'S TALE - 91 - Jun 20, 2014
*RETURN TO HOMS - 90 - Jun 13, 2014
NATIONAL GALLERY - 90 - Nov 5, 2014
BIG MEN - 90 - Mar 14, 2014
THE OVERNIGHTERS - 90 - Oct 10, 2014

__________________________________________________ ____

87-89
BIRDMAN OR (THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE) - 89 - Oct 17, 2014
THE TALE OF PRINCESS KAGUYA - 89 - Oct 17, 2014
*Ida - 89 - May 2, 2014
Citizenfour - 88 - Oct 24, 2014
*The Grand Budapest Hotel - 88 - Mar 7, 2014
Whiplash - 87 - Oct 10, 2014
Last Days in Vietnam - 87 - Sep 5, 2014
*Level Five - 87 - Aug 15, 2014
Night Will Fall - 87 - Nov 21, 2014
Life Itself - 87 - Jul 4, 2014
*We Are the Best! - 87 - May 30, 2014
*Particle Fever - 87 - Mar 5, 2014
Manuscripts Don't Burn - 87 - Jun 13, 2014
The Babadook - 87 - Nov 28, 2014

I am looking up Virunga, Big Men, MSS Don't Burn, NIght Will Fall, and Level Five. (Top Five is the Chris Rock feature that has been highly spoken of.) These are documentaries, except Level Five (a rediscovered Chris Marker film).

VIRUNGA: A group of brave individuals risk their lives to save the last of the world's mountain gorillas; in the midst of renewed civil war and a scramble for Congo's natural resources.

BIG MEN: The film's central story follows a small group of American explorers at Dallas-based oil company Kosmos Energy. Between 2007 and 2011, with unprecedented, independent access, Big Men's two-person crew filmed inside the oil company as Kosmos and its partners discovered and developed the first commercial oil field in Ghana's history.

MANUSCRIPTS DON'T BURN: Summary: Clandestinely produced in disavowal of a 20-year filmmaking ban passed down by the Iranian authorities, the scathing Manuscripts Don’t Burn brings a whole new level of clarity and audacity to Mohommad Rasoulof’s already laudable career.

NIGHT WILL FALL: Researchers discover film footage from World War II that turns out to be a lost documentary shot by Alfred Hitchcock and Sidney Bernstein in 1945 about German concentration camps.

LEVEL FIVE: Receiving its first U.S. release, Chris Marker's 1997 film, Level Five, concerns Laura (Catherine Belkhodja), a computer, and an invisible interlocutor. Laura "inherits" a task: to finish writing a video game centered on the Battle of Okinawa—a tragedy practically unknown in the West that…

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/Imdb.jpg (http://www.imdb.com/search/title?year=2014,2014&title_type=feature&sort=moviemeter,asc)
IMDb most popular movies of 2014

Here are the top-rated 2014 movies on the Internet Movie Data-base. These are top box office hits too, but it's a list of popular online ratings:


1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014)
2. Interstellar (2014) (2014)
3. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
4. Horrible Bosses 2 (2014)
5. Dumb and Dumber To (2014)
6. Big Hero 6 (2014)
7. The Maze Runner (2014)
8. The Theory of Everything (2014)
9. Fury (2014)
10. Predestination (2014)
11. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
12. Gone Girl (2014)
13. Penguins of Madagascar (2014)

[Chris Knipp]

I made some more lists. (List for Indiewiere's end of year critics poll,2014.)

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/gh.jpg
God Help the Girl

You have to say something. I have seen all these films. In David Erlich's brilliant "25 Best Films of 2014: A Video Countdown Presented by Little White Lies" (http://vimeo.com/113355414) montage I have seen all but four of the films, and of those I guessed two. It's a nice list, and I was charmed to be reminded of Why Don't You Play in Hell, Godzilla, and Goodbye to Language, which all part of a mélange that's a fit celebration of the magic of film. But below is the set of lists I sent in to the Indiewire poll. Some of it makes sense. See the poll results

BEST FILM
You may vote for up to 10 films.
1. Mr. Turner
2. Night Moves
3. The Theory of Everything
4. Birdman
5. Listen Up Philip
6. Gone Girl
7. Nightcrawler
8. Calvary
9. Blue Ruin
10. Locke

BEST DIRECTOR
You have five votes. Remember to list both the director's name and the title of the film.
1. Mike Leigh (Mr. Turner)
2. Kelly Reichardt (Night Moves)
3. Lucas Moodysson (We Are the Best!)
4. Bertrand Bonmello (Saint Laurent)
5. Lars von Trier (Nymphomaniac 1 & 2)

BEST LEAD ACTRESS
You have five votes. Remember to list both the actress' name and the title of the film she appears in.
1. Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night)
2. Keira Knightley (Begin Again)
3. Scarlett Johansson (Under the Skin)
4. Shailene Woodley (The Fault in Our Stars)
5. Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)

BEST LEAD ACTOR
You have five votes. Remember to list both the actor's name and the title of the film he appears in.
1.Timothy Spall (Mr. Turner)
2. Josh Charles (Bird People)
3. Gaspard Ulliel (Saint Laurent)
4. Tom Hardy (Locke)
5. Jason Schwartzman (Listen Up Phlip)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
You have five votes. Remember to list both the actress' name and the title of the film she appears in.
1. Emma Stone (Bridman)
2. Kristen Stewart (Still Alive)
3. Rene Russo (Nightcrawler)
4. Carrie Coon (Gone Girl)
5. Agata Kulesza (Ida)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
You have five votes. Remember to list both the actor's name and the title of the film he appears in.
1. Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)
2. Charlie Cox (The Theory of Everything)
3. Edward Norton (Birdman)
4. Anton Yelchin (Only Lovers Left Alive)
5.

BEST DOCUMENTARY
You may vote for up to 10 films.
1. Return to Homs
2. The Overnighters
3. Llyn Foulkes One Man Band
4. Seymour: An Introduction
5 The Internets Own Boy.
6. Point and Shoot
7. Citizenfour
8. Red Army
9. Finding Vivian Meier
10. National Gallery

BEST FIRST FEATURE
You have five votes. You only need to list the title of the film.
1. Nightcrawler
2. Blue Ruin
3. Policeman
4. God Help the Girl
5. Palo Alto

BEST UNDISTRIBUTED FILM
You may vote for up to 10 films.
1. '71
2. Timbuktu
3. Hill of Freedom
4. Club Sandwich
5. Eastern Boys
6. The Dune (La dune)
7.Salvation Army (L'Armée du salut)
8. Trap Street
9. Our Sunhi
10.

BEST SCREENPLAY
You have five votes. You only need to list the title of the film.
1. Birdman
2. Gone Girl
3. Listen Up Philip
4. Nymphomaniac 1 & 2
5. The Drop

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE OR SOUNDTRACK
You have five votes. You only need to list the title of the film.
1. Cold in July
2. Bird People
3. Saint Laurent
4. Stranger by the Lake
5. Snoowpiercer

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
You have five votes. You only need to list the title of the film.
1. Mr. Turner
2. Timbuktu
3. Night Moves
4. Locke
5. Saint Laurent

BEST EDITING
You have five votes. You only need to list the title of the film.
1. Goodbye to Language (Adku au langage)
2. Lucy
3. Inherent Vice
4. Why Don't You Play in Hell
5. The Grand Budapest Hotel

[Chris Knipp]

David Erlich's list (from the video montage (http://vimeo.com/113355414) cited above).

25. Lucy
24. We Are the BEst
23. Timbuktu
22. Selma
21. Love Is Strange
20. Listen Up Philip
19. Godzilla
18. Starred Up
17. Why Don't You Play in Hell?
16. Mommy
15. The Babadook
14. Palo Alto
13. Ida
12. Goodbye to Language
11. Boyhood
10. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
9. Force Majeure
8. God Help the Girl
7. The Double
6. Only Lovers Left Alive
5. Gone Girl
4. Nymphomaniac
3. Under the Skin
2. Inherent Vice
1. The Grand Budapest Hotel

All have been discussed on this site except: Selma, Starred Up, Mommy, and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.

[Chris Knipp]

Some critics organization 2014 awards lists.

The New York Film Critics Circle awards (http://www.nyfcc.com/awards/)




2014 Awards

Best Picture
Boyhood

Best Director
Richard Linklater BOYHOOD

Best Screenplay
The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Actress
Marion Cotillard
THE IMMIGRANT, TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT

Best Actor
Timothy Spall MR. TURNER

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette BOYHOOD

Best Supporting Actor
J.K. Simmons WHIPLASH

Best Cinematographer
Darius Khondj THE IMMIGRANT

Best Animated Film
The LEGO Movie

Best Non-Fiction Film (Documentary)
Citizenfour

Best Foreign Film
Ida

Best First Film
Jennifer Kent THE BABADOOK

Special Award
Adrienne Mancia

The Los Angeles Film Critics Assoication awards (Sunday morning 7 Dec.) (In progress.)




Best Picture: Boyhood
Runner-up: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Director: Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
Runner-up: Wes Anderson, (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Best Actor: Tom Hardy (Locke)
Runner-up: Michael Keaton (Birdman)

Actress: Patricia Arquette, (Boyhood)
Runner-up: Julianne Moore (Still Alice)

Supporting actor: J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash”
Runner-up: Edward Norton, “Birdman”

Supporting actress: Agata Kulesza (Ida)
Runner-up: Rene Russo (Nightcrawler)

Screenplay: Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Runner-up: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo (Birdman)

Foreign-language film: Ida
Runner-up: Winter Sleep

Documentary/nonfiction film: Citizenfour
Runner-up: Life Itself

Best Supporting Actress
Agata Kulesza (Ida)
Runner-up: Rene Russo (Nightcrawler)

Best Supporting Actor
J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)
Runner-up: Edward Norton (Birdman)

Best Animation
The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Best Production Design
Adam Stockhausen (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Runner-up: Ondrej Nekvasil (Snowpiercer)

Best Music/Score
Jonny Greenwood (Inherent Vice)
Mica Levi (Under the Skin) (tie)

Best Film Editing
Sandra Adair (Boyhood)
Runner-up: Barney Pilling (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Career Achievement Award
Gena Rowlands

Special citation
Leonard Maltin

National Film Board of Review awards


Best Film
A Most Violent Year
[J. C. Chandor, release 31 Dec. 2014]

Best Director
Clint Eastwood – American Sniper

Best Actor (TIE)
Oscar Isaac – A Most Violent Year
Michael Keaton – Birdman

Best Actress: Julianne Moore – Still Alice

Best Supporting Actor
Edward Norton – Birdman

Best Supporting Actress
Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year

Best Original Screenplay
Phil Lord & Christopher Miller – The Lego Movie

Best Adapted Screenplay
Paul Thomas Anderson – Inherent Vice

Best Animated Feature
How to Train Your Dragon 2

Breakthrough Performance
Jack O’Connell – Starred Up & Unbroken

Best Directorial Debut
Gillian Robespierre – Obvious Child

Best Foreign Language Film
Wild Tales

Best Documentary
Life Itself

William K. Everson Film History Award
Scott Eyman

Best Ensemble
Fury

Spotlight Award
Chris Rock for writing, directing, and starring in – Top Five

NBR Freedom of Expression Award
Rosewater

NBR Freedom of Expression Award
Selma

Douglas Edwards Experimental/Independent Film/Video Award
Walter Reuben (The David Whiting Story)

Best Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki, (Birdman)
Runner-up: Dick Pope (Mr. Turner)

Top Films:American Sniper,Birdman, Boyhood, Fury, Gone Girl, The Imitation Game, Inherent Vice, The Lego Movi, Nightcrawler, Unbroken

Top 5 Foreign Language Films:Force Majeure,Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, Leviathan, Two Days, One Night, We Are the Best!

Top 5 Documentaries: Art and Craft, Jodorowsky’s Dune, Keep On Keepin’ On, The Kill Team, Last Days in Vietnam

Top 10 Independent Films: Blue Ruin,Locke, A Most Wanted Man, Mr. Turner, Obvious Child, The Skeleton Twins, Snowpiercer, Stand Clear of the Closing Doors., Starred Up
Still Alice


International Documentary Association best feature awards


Best Feature Award

Citizenfour (WINNER)
Director: Laura Poitras
RADiUS-TWC, Participant Media, and
HBO Documentary Films

Finding Vivian Maier
Directors: John Maloof, Charlie Siskel
Sundance Selects

Point and Shoot
Director: Marshall Curry
The Orchard

The Salt of the Earth
Directors: Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
Sony Pictures Classics

Tales of the Grim Sleeper
Director: Nick Broomfield
HBO and SKY ATLANTIC

[Chris Knipp]

OUT's 2014 ten best
The online gay magazine list ostensibly selects the important films from a gay p.o.v. ."A strong year for queer cinema," they say in their explanation (http://www.out.com/entertainment/movies/2014/12/09/best-films-2014-reflect-strong-year-queer-cinema).

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/out1.jpg


10. Boyhood
9. Godzilla
8. Love is Strange
7. Neighbors
6. The Immigrant
5. The Grand Budapest Hotel
4. Only Lovers Left Alive
3. Under the Skin
2. Stranger by the Lake
1. Dear White People
Honorable Mention: The Drop, Foxcatcher, Ida, Locke, Mommy, Of Horses and Men, Palo Alto, The Skeleton Twins, Venus in Fur, Wild.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/iw.jpg

Armond White's best list; Indiewire's "critics poll" list (as of 12 Dec.) White's lists are good for anyone who want's something completely off-the-wall and outside the mainstream. The Indiewiere pol will add perspective when the more mainstream, bigger critics' lists come along. Right now, I'm surprised to see The Immigrant, Noah, and The Double seeming to come up repeatedly. Being not an animation person I forgot The Lego Movie (which is good) and How to Train Your Dragon 2, which I could not have thought of because I missed it. The Grand Budapest Hotel is coming up over and over. Telling is the comment that it's the Wes Anderson movie for people who have not previously liked Wes Anderson. It was clear at the time that Under the Skin would have a cult following. That is translating into a high place on critics' polls. I'm also surprised to see Only Lovers Left Alive coming up a lot. This is a beautiful transelike film but it's lifeless, a snooze.

Indiewire "critics poll" (based on partial results)


1. The Grand Budapest Hotel
2. Under the Skin
3. Only Lovers Left Alive
4. Ida
5. The LEGO Movie
6. The Immigrant
7. Stranger by the Lake
8. Blue Ruin
9. The Raid 2: Berandal
10. Nymphomaniac: Volume I
11. Manakamana
12. Locke
13. The Missing Picture
14. The Double (2013)
15. Enemy
16. Edge of Tomorrow
17. Godzilla
18. Night Moves
19. We are the Best!
20. Chef
21. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
22. Noah
23. The Lunchbox
24. How to Train Your Dragon 2
25. Nymphomaniac: Volume II

Armond White's list.


1. 300: Rise of an Empire
2. Blended
3. Dormant Beauty
4. Jimmy P.
5. Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons
6. The LEGO Movie
7. Maladies
8. Palo Alto
9. Rob the Mob
10. Young and Beautiful (Jeune et jolie)

[Johann]

I love lists. What film buff doesn't? :)

Armond lists the 300 sequel as number 1? I'm running to buy the DVD...

[Chris Knipp]

Johann -- Armond White loves Zack Snyder and 300, and has all along. He also loves not Wes or Paul Thomas, but Paul W.S. Anderson. And he loves French films. Hence the presence of several new French films on his ten best list, lacking from others' lists, e.g. Ozon's Young and Beautiful, which others have forgotten. It might be possible to OD on lists, but at this point, I agree, the more the merrier. There is a sheer absurdity about the excess of them, but somehow a truth emerges. And this is where critics reveal their true natures.

[Chris Knipp]

The Guardian's schizo lists? Lists from Manohla Dargis and IMDb's CEO.

Indiewire has a blog piece (http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/the-guardian-names-under-the-skin-the-best-film-2014-plus-year-end-lists-from-manohla-dargia-imdb-ceo-col-needham-20141212) on 2014 best from the Guardian; Manohla Dargis of the NY Times; and the CEO of IMDb, Col Needham's list (which misspells one of his entries, Force Majeure.

Guardian list. This is based on UK 2014 releases. For US viewers, Nos. 4 & 6 don't count, and Leviathon may not have been seen by a majority of US critics yet (Christmas NYC release). I haven't made my final personal lists yet and would likely put Leviathon, which I saw at an early screening in NYC, in my Shortlist. It's impressive and I do admire Zvyagintsev.


No 10: Mr Turner
No 9: The Lego Movie
No 8: Ida
No 7: Two Days, One Night
No 6: 12 Years a Slave
No 5: Nightcrawler
No 4: Inside Llewyn Davis
No 3: Leviathan
No 2: Boyhood
No 1: Under the Skin


But then the Guardian has another list that corresponds to US releases. What?

The Guardian 10 Best Films Of 2014
1. Under The Skin
2. Boyhood
3. Inherent Vice
4. Whiplash
5. Leviathan
6. Two Days, One Night
7. Nightcrawler
8. Ida
9. The Grand Budapest Hotel
10. The Lego Movie


Manohla Dargis's list, alphabetical, unranked, except she puts Beyond the Lights first in her introduction, wondering why it hasn't "found its public" (a euphemism for selling tickets or getting good reviews? but its Metacritic rating is a strong 73%) and saying she "likes to think it's not racism." So if you don't like this schmaltzy effort you're a racist? Oh well. The Times critics seem to live in a kind of bubble. I'm also surprised to see Edge of Tomorrow (triumph of concept over artistic coherence?) coming up on lists.

American Sniper
Beyond The Lights
Birdman
Boyhood
The Dog
Edge Of Tomorrow
Gloria
Goodbye To Language
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Inherent Vice
Interstellar
Listen Up Philip
Manakmana
Manila In The Claws Of Light
The Missing Picture
National Gallery
Selma
Snowpiercer
Violette
Top Five

The IMDb founder and CEO Col Needham's list

1. Interstellar
2. Gone Girl
3. Birdman
4. Edge Of Tomorrow
5. The Imitation Game
6. The Theory Of Everything
7. Force Majeur
8. Whiplash
9. Two Days, One Night
10. Hyena

[Chris Knipp]

The two other NY Times main critics' lists for 2014

Stephen Holden's comments (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/14/movies/stephen-holdens-best-movies-2014.html?emc=edit_fm_20141212&nl=movies&nlid=22852861) accompanying his list are worth reading. He has a theme.

"The anxiety surrounding that myth of the hero informs four of my Top 10 movie choices:
Boyhood,
Foxcatcher,
Force Majeure and the Edward Snowden documentary
Citizenfour."
The rest of his list:
Mr. Turner
Two Days, One Night
The Salt of the Earth
Stand Clear of the Closing Doors
Ida
Only Lovers Left Alive
He adds: "There are so many more powerful 2014 films that address the male prerogative. They include Whiplash and the documentaries Stop at Nothing: The Lance Armstrong Story, Point and Shoot, and Happy Valley."


A.O. Scott's list. (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/14/movies/a-o-scotts-top-10-movies-2014-boyhood-and-more.html)

1. Boyhood
2. Ida
3. Citazen Four
4. Leviathon
5. Selma
6. Love Is Strange
7. We Are the Best!
8. Birdman (with mentions of Listen Up Philip and Mr. Turner)
9. Dear White People
10. The Babadook

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/AO.jpg

AlloCiné's "Best American Films of 2014"

This list (http://www.allocine.fr/film/meilleurs/pays-5002/decennie-2010/annee-2014/)is based on the online votes of French viewers and is similar to IMDb ratings. Mostly the critics rating is lower, but for Gone Girl, Dragons 2 and Boyhood the press rating is pretty high. The greatest discrepancy between the two is for The Fault in Our Stars. If you go to the overall AlloCiné list, Mommy is no. 1 over Intersteller, and the Wim WEnders Salgado doc Salt of the Earth becomes no. 5, the British Pride No. 6. Hicham Ayouch's French film Fièvres (Fevers) becomes no. 9. It tanked with critics. It concerns a lively teenage boy who revolutionizes the life of his slacker dad by going to live with him. Boyhood comes in tenth.

1. Interstellar
2. Dragons 2
3. Nos étoiles contraires (The Fault in Our Stars)
4. Gone Girl
5. Les Gardiens de la Galaxie
6. Boyhood
7. X-Men: Days of Future Past
8. Fury
9. Le Hobbit : la Bataille des Cinq Armées
10. The Normal Heart (TV)

[Chris Knipp]

Individual lists (various sources).

We had John Waters's ArtForum list earlier. Here are a few more from here (http://yearendlists.com/category/2014-movies/).

Eric Kohn: 10 Best Films of 2014 (as published by Indiewire)

1. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
2. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night – Ana Lily Amirpour
3. Manakamana – Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
5. Leviathan – Andrey Zvyagintsev
6. Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
7. Starred Up – David Mackenzie
8. Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch
9. The Double – Richard Ayoade
10. Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson

J. Hoberman: 10 Best Films of 2014 (as published by Artforum)




1. Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
2. Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
3. Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
4. The Americans (TV, FX) – various
5. Under the Skin – Jonathan Glazer
6. The Marx Brothers TV Collection (DVD) – various
7. Die Farbe – Sigmar Polke
8. Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho9.
9. Maps to the Stars – David Cronenberg
10. The Congress – Ari Folman

Amy Taubin (ArtForum)



1. Goodbye to Language 3D – Jean-Luc Godard
2. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
3. Whiplash – Damien Chazelle
4. Dreams are Colder than Death – Arthur Jafa
5. Tales of the Grim Sleeper – Nick Broomfield
6. Timbuktu – Abderrahmane Sissako
7. Level Five – Chris Marker
8. White God – Kornél Mundruczó
9. Stand Clear of the Closing Doors – Sam Fleischner
10. The Knick – Steven Soderbergh

David Edelstein: 19 Best Movies of 2014 [as published by New York Magazine’s Vuture (http://www.vulture.com/2014/12/best-movies-of-2014.html)]


1. Boyhood – Richard Linklater
2. Selma – Ava DuVernay
3. The Babadook – Jennifer Kent
4. Whiplash – Damien Chazelle
5. Tales of the Grim Sleeper – Nick Broomfield
6. Only Lovers Left Alive – Jim Jarmusch
7. Citizenfour – Laura Poitras
8. Mr. Turner – Mike Leigh
9. Two Days, One Night – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
10. The Immigrant – James Gray
11. The Overnighters – Jesse Moss
PLUS
The Homesman – Tommy Lee Jones
Rosewater – Jon Stewart
The Hunger Games: Monckinjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence
The Theory of Everything – James Marsh
The Imitation Game – Morten Tyldum
Love is Strange – Ira Sachs
Low Down – Jeff Preiss
Beyond the Hills – Cristian Mungiu

[Chris Knipp]

Film Comment poll

Film Comment is edited and published by Film Society of Lincoln Center. Poll of 100 critics sent out by the editors. All details online here (http://www.filmcomment.com/entry/20-best-films-of-2014).


1. Boyhood
2. Goodbye to Language
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel
4. Ida
5. Under the Skin
6. Stranger by the Lake
7. Citizenfour
8. Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance
9. Inherent Vice
10. The Immigrant
11. Two Days, One Night
12. Only Lovers Left Alive
13. Mr. Turner
14. Force Majeure
15. Norte, The End of History
16. Whiplash
17. Stray Dogs
18. National Gallery
19. Manakamana
20. Snowpiercer

[Chris Knipp]

Richard Brody's lists.

Brody edits and contributes to The New Yorker's thumbnail reviews at the front of the magazine. He's a formidable commentator and champion of the offbeat, the indie, and of Godard. His lists with his comments are here (http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/best-movies-2014?int-cid=mod-latest).


Best of 2014

1. “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (Wes Anderson)
2. “Thou Wast Mild and Lovely” (Josephine Decker)
3.-4. “Goodbye to Language” (Jean-Luc Godard)
3.-4. “The Last of the Unjust” (Claude Lanzmann)
5. “The Immigrant” (James Gray)
6. “American Sniper” (Clint Eastwood)
7. “Listen Up Philip” (Alex Ross Perry)
8. “Actress” (Robert Greene)
9. “Memphis” (Tim Sutton)
10. “Butter on the Latch” (Josephine Decker)

11.-20., in alphabetical order:
“Evolution of a Criminal” (Darius Clark Monroe)
“Gone Girl” (David Fincher)
“Happy Christmas” (Joe Swanberg)
“It Felt Like Love” (Eliza Hittman)
“Jimmy P.: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian” (Arnaud Desplechin)
“Life of Riley” (Alain Resnais)
“Magic in the Moonlight” (Woody Allen)
“Soft in the Head” (Nathan Silver)
“Story of My Death” (Albert Serra)
“Stranger by the Lake” (Alain Guiraudie)

21.-30., in alphabetical order
“Jealousy” (Philippe Garrel)
“Jersey Boys” (Clint Eastwood)
“Life Itself” (Steve James)
“Manakamana” (Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez)
“Marvin Seth and Stanley” (Stephen Gurewitz)
“The Missing Picture” (Rithy Panh)
“Selma” (Ava DuVernay)“Tip Top” (Serge Bozon)
“The Unknown Known” (Errol Morris)
“What Now? Remind Me” (Joaquim Pinto)
“One Day Pina Asked … ” (Chantal Akerman), which was released here this year but is from 1983; it would be eleventh in the top ten.

Best Actress: Marion Cotillard, “The Immigrant”; Gina Piersanti, “It Felt Like Love”; Brandy Burre, “Actress”; Emma Stone, “Magic in the Moonlight”; Rosamund Pike, “Gone Girl”

Best Actor: Ben Affleck, “Gone Girl”; Bradley Cooper, “American Sniper”; Benicio Del Toro, “Jimmy P.”; Jason Schwartzman, “Listen Up Philip”; Willis Earl Beal, “Memphis”; Vicenç Altaió, “Story of My Death”

Best Supporting Actress: Elisabeth Moss, “Listen Up Philip”; Sienna Miller, “American Sniper”; Giovanna Salimeni, “It Felt Like Love”; Reese Witherspoon, “Inherent Vice”

Best Supporting Actor: Robert Longstreet, “Thou Wast Mild and Lovely”; Joaquin Phoenix, “The Immigrant”; Theodore Bouloukos, “Soft in the Head”; Tony Revolori, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”

Best Cinematography: Ashley Connor, “Thou Wast Mild and Lovely” and “Butter on the Latch”; Sean Price Williams, “Listen Up Philip”; Fabrice Aragno, “Goodbye to Language”; Darius Khondji, “The Immigrant” and “Magic in the Moonlight”; Willy Kurant, “Jealousy”; Claire Mathon, “Stranger by the Lake”

Best Undistributed Films:
“Hill of Freedom” (Hong Sang-soo) [NYFF]
“Heaven Knows What” (Josh & Benny Safdie) [NYFF]
“Da Sweet Blood of Jesus” (Spike Lee)
“The Princess of France” (Matías Piñeiro) [NYFF]
“Journey to the West” (Tsai Ming-liang)“Uncertain Terms” (Nathan Silver)
“For the Plasma” (Bingham Bryant & Kyle Molzan)
“Wild Canaries” (Lawrence Michael Levine)
“Jauja” (Lisandro Alonso) [NYFF]
“Young Bodies Heal Quickly” (Andrew T. Betzer)
“La Fille du 14 Juillet” (“The Rendez-Vous of Déjà Vu”) (Antonin Peretjatko)
“Tonnerre” (Guillaume Brac) [R-V]
“La Bataille de Solférino” (“Age of Panic”) (Justine Triet) [R-V]

And there’s still a backlog of unreleased films by Hong Sang-soo, including “Nobody’s Daughter Haewon” and “Our Sunhi”

And the trailer for “Gaby Baby Doll” (Sophie Letourneur), which opens in France on December 17th, leaves something to anticipate eagerly.

The Negative Ten: Not the worst films of the year (far from it—some of these movies have significant merit) but the ones that occlude the view toward the year’s most accomplished and daringly original work; I mention them here to clear the field.
“Boyhood” (or, The Best Little Boy in the World)
“The Homesman”
“Mr. Turner”
“Inherent Vice”
“Citizenfour”
“Birdman”
“Whiplash”
“Under the Skin”
“Ida”
“The Babadook”

[Chris Knipp]

Metacritic's 2014 lists.

There are two. One is the top 2014 US-released movies "by score" -- the score they gave them based on reviews when they came out. The second is a ranking of movies that have so far come out highest in their collation of critics' annual 2014 best lists.

There's also a list, The 19 Worst Movies Of 2014, According To Rotten Tomatoes (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/11/worst-movies-2014-rotten-tomatoes_n_6303658.html) on Huffington Post. Nicolas Cage starred in two of the top ten.

1. Release date Metacritic high scorers (http://www.metacritic.com/browse/movies/score/metascore/year?sort=desc&view=condensed&year_selected=2014)(just the top 20)


1. Boyhood (100) July11
2. Leviathan (95) Dec. 25
3. Virunga (95) Nov. 7
4. Selma (95) Dec. 25
5. Mr. Turner (93) Dec. 19
6. Two Days, One Night (93) Dec. 24
7. A Summer's Tale (91) Jun. 20
8. National Gallery (90) Nov. 5
9. Big Men (90) Mar. 14
10. The Overnighters (90) Oct. 10
11. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (89) Oct. 17
12. The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (89) Oct. 17
13. Ida (89) May 2
14. Maidan (88) Dec. 12
15. Citizenfour (88) Oct. 24
16. The Grand Budapest Hotel (88) Mar. 7
17. Tales of the Grim Sleeper (88) Dec. 26
18. Whiplash (87) Oct. 10
19. Last Days in Vietnam (87) Sept 5
20. Life Itself (87) July. 4

2. Best list high scorers

Here are the movies mentioned most on critics' best lists according to the review aggregator's calculations (http://www.metacritic.com/feature/film-critic-top-10-lists-best-movies-of-2014), with their Metacritic rating indicating their original success in reviews. First is the Metacritic score, second the number of "points" for best-list mentions. Interesting to compare.


1. Boyhood 100 (48 points)
2. The Grand Budapest Hotel (88)(19 points)
3. Under the Skin (78); Goodbye to Language (71) (both 16 points)
5. Inherent Vice (88) (14 points)
6. Whiplash (87) (13 points)
7. Birdman (89) (13 points)
8. Selma (95) (11 points)
9. NIghtcrawler (76) (11 points)
10. Gone Girl (79) (9 points)
11. The Theory of Everything (72) (8 points)
12. Foxcatcher (83) (7 points)
More 7-pointers:
13. Only Lovers Left Alive (78)
14. Snowpiercer (84)
15. Citizenfour (88)
16. Ida (89)
17. American Sniper (66) (6 points)
And three more 6-pointers:
18. Intersteller (74)
19. Force Majeure (86)
20. Love Is Strange (83)

[Chris Knipp]

Late December 2014 releases. Coming Friday the 19th.

Big news is Mike Leigh's MR. TURNER comes out Friday. Also on a high level will be a late release of Eric Rohmer's 1992 WINTER, balancing the earlier this year late US release of his 1996 TALE OF SUMMER. Then we have the retreands, of the HOBBIT, NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM (for a last appearance of Robin Williams), and a black ANNIE. I have hopes for the new GAMBLER, starring Mark Wahlberg, but it's unlikely to match Karol Reisz's excellent one from the Seventies starring James Caan and written by James Toback. We have another NYFF film (besides MR. TURNER), Nick Broomfield's strong doc TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER, as well as a documentary called INSIDE THE MIND OF LEONARDO that is in 3D. There's something called LIFE ON AN ACTRESS: THE MUSICAL and a movie called (appropriately?) LOWLIFES, where troubled teens in a bootcamp situation clash with terrorists out to destroy a rural nuclear base. And there will be an Italian film, Andrea Pallaoro’s MEDEAS, an intimate family drama, which debuted at Venice, where Variety's Dennis Harvey called it "a primal tragedy rendered with exquisite imagery." The much anticipated THE IMITATION GAME, about Anal Turing and the Enigma code and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, the other Brit historical genius romance flick along with THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING, is already officially out, but I have not been able to see it. It is in San Francisco but not yet in the East Bay. Or Ridley Scott's poorly reviewed EXODUS (Metacritic 52%). Ceylan's Cannes film WINTER SLEEP is coming out in NYC.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/gm.jpg

[Chris Knipp]

David Denby (The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/2014-year-review-ten-best-movies-denby)) ten best of 2014..

His top choice is Ida. The rest in alphabetical order only:


Ida
American Sniper
A Most Violent Year
Birdman
Boyhood
Get On Up
Mr. Turner
National Gallery
Selma
Snowpiercer

Richard Corless (Time (http://time.com/3616154/top-10-best-movies-2014/)) ten best of 2014.


1. The Grand Budapest Hotel
2. Boyhood
3. The LEGO Movie
4. Lucy
5. Goodbye to Language
6. Jodorowsky’s Dune
7. Nightcrawler
8. Citizenfour
9. Wild Tales
10. Birdman

[Chris Knipp]

Rotten Tomatoes (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/top/bestofrt/?year=2014)' best list for 2014
They list 100. Here are their top 20. I don't quite understand the system. The "fresh" ratings is the percentage, and the number is how many reviews they considered.

1. 99% Boyhood (2014) 213
2. 98% Life Itself (2014) 166
3. 96% The LEGO Movie (2014) 201
4. 96% Whiplash (2014) 181
5. 99% Gloria (2014) 110
6. 95% Nightcrawler (2014) 192
7. 98% The Babadook (2014) 117
8. 99% Starred Up (2014) 90
9. 100% The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2014) 56
10. 98% Jodorowsky's Dune (2014) 99
11. 92% X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) 237
12. 99% The Missing Picture (2014) 74
13. 95% Snowpiercer (2014) 165
14. 92% The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) 228
15. 97% We Are the Best! (2014) 112
16. 91% Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes (2014) 243
17. 97% Love Is Strange (2014) 103
18. 97% Citizenfour (2014) 101
19. 96% Blue Ruin (2014) 115
20. 96% Ida (2014)

[Johann]

Many thanks for these lists Chris. They do provide a very potent barometer. People would do well to take notice.

Linklater's Boyhood sounds interesting, but I wonder how much of it is a blatant filmmaking stunt. Kubrick wanted to film a young boy's growth over the years, and some people still believe he actually did it, that we've just never seen the footage.
Is Linklater brilliant, or is he just doing something clever?

[Chris Knipp]

Exactly. As I pointed out in reviewing BOYHOOD, Truffaut did something similar (and I think more artistic) with his Antoine Doinel films, and Michael Apited in his "Up" doc series has taken a group of Brits from age seven up into their fifties and in sheer terms of exploring human lives that is the most extraordinary thing of its kind ever done. I think BOYHOOD is an interesting effort, but it is also a stunt. It's moving just to sit through two hours and see a boy grow up from 6 to 18, quite a remarkable period of change in a human being. But to me, it's a disappointing film. From the trailer, I expected more. This is another one of those years when the most popular films are ones I didn't like much. I am a big Wes Anderson fan by now (was not always) but GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL has a lot wrong with it in my view and is material he really isn't as much at home with as in American settings.

There will be more lists, some of the biggest group votes, and of course the Oscars, the highest profiles of those.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/iw.jpg

Results of the Indiewire (http://www.indiewire.com/survey/indiewire-2014-year-end-critics-poll/)poll.

I published my entry into this above (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3867-SOME-TOP-TEN-of-2014-Lists&p=32969#post32969). Now the votes have been collated, and they were pleased at the number of entries that were sent back. The link above will give you the actual number of votes for each line item. By the way, their success in a lot of polls already shows the astuteness of the New York Film Festival in premiering GONE GIRL, BIRDMAN, INHERENT VICE, LISTEN UP PHILIP, and CITIZENFOUR; as well in featuring in their Main Slate MR. TURNER, TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER, GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE, WHIPLASH and TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT. THE BABADOOK, OBVIOUS CHILD and DEAR WHITE PEOPLE were in this year's New Directors/New Films at Lincoln Center (and reviewed here) and THE IMMIGRANT was in 20013's NYFF. This also means there are only 3 films that won in this poll that I have not reviewed on Filmleaf.


Best Film
1. Boyhood
2. Under the Skin
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel
4. Birdman
5. Inherent Vice

Best Director
1. Richard Linklater, Boyhood
2. Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
3. Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman
4. Jonathan Glazer, Under the Skin
5. Jean-Luc Godard, Goodbye to Language

Best Lead Actress
1. Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night
2. Scarlett Johansson, Under the Skin
3. Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
4. Essie Davis, The Babadook
5. Marion Cotillard, The Immigrant

Best Lead Actor
1. Ralph Fiennes, The Grand Budapest Hotel
2. Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
3. Michael Keaton, Birdman
4. Timothy Spall, Mr. Turner
5. Joaquin Phoenix, Inherent Vice

Best Supporting Actress
1. Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
2. Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer
3. Elisabeth Moss, Listen Up Philip
4. Emma Stone, Birdman
5. Agata Kulesza, Ida

Best Supporting Actor
1. J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
2. Edward Norton, Birdman
3. Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
4. Josh Brolin, Inherent Vice
5. Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher

Best Documentary
1. Citizenfour
2. Life Itself
3. The Overnighters
4. Manakamana
5. Actress

Best First Feature
1. The Babadook
2. Nightcrawler
3. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
4. Obvious Child
5. Dear White People

Best Undistributed Film
1. Hill of Freedom
2. Journey to the West
3. The Wonders (2014)
4. From What Is Before
5. Blind (2014)

Best Screenplay
1. The Grand Budapest Hotel
2. Boyhood
3. Inherent Vice
4. Listen Up Philip
5. Birdman

Best Original Score or Soundtrack
1. Under the Skin
2. The Grand Budapest Hotel
3. Inherent Vice
4. Gone Girl
5. Birdman

Best Cinematography
1. Birdman
2. Mr. Turner
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel
4. The Immigrant
5. Under the Skin

Best Editing
1. Boyhood
2. Whiplash
3. Birdman
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel
5. Gone Girl

[Chris Knipp]

The European Film Awards.

As reported on The Playlist (http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/pawel-pawlikowskis-ida-wins-big-at-european-film-awards-20141215) Dec. 15.


EUROPEAN FILM 2014
IDA
Directed by: Paweł Pawlikowski
Written by: Paweł Pawlikowski & Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Produced by: Eric Abraham, Piotr Dzięcioł & Ewa Puszczyńska

EUROPEAN COMEDY 2014
THE MAFIA ONLY KILLS IN SUMMER (LA MAFIA UCCIDE SOLO D’ESTATE) by Pierfrancesco Diliberto

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY 2014 – Prix FIPRESCI
THE TRIBE (PLEMYA) by Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy

EUROPEAN DOCUMENTARY 2014
MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE by Marc Bauder

EUROPEAN ANIMATED FEATURE FILM 2014
THE ART OF HAPPINESS (L’ARTE DELLA FELICITÁ) by Alessandro Rak

EUROPEAN SHORT FILM 2014
THE CHICKEN by Una Gunjak

EUROPEAN DIRECTOR 2014
Paweł Pawlikowski for IDA

EUROPEAN ACTRESS 2014
Marion Cotillard in TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT (DEUX JOURS, UNE NUIT)

EUROPEAN ACTOR 2014
Timothy Spall in MR. TURNER

EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER 2014
Paweł Pawlikowski & Rebecca Lenkiewicz for IDA

EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER 2014 – Prix CARLO DI PALMA
Łukasz Żal & Ryszard Lenczewski for IDA

EUROPEAN EDITOR 2014
Justine Wright for LOCKE

EUROPEAN PRODUCTION DESIGNER 2014
Claus-Rudolf Amler for THE DARK VALLEY (DAS FINSTERE TAL)

EUROPEAN COSTUME DESIGNER 2014
Natascha Curtius-Noss for THE DARK VALLEY (DAS FINSTERE TAL)

EUROPEAN COMPOSER 2014
Mica Levi for UNDER THE SKIN

EUROPEAN SOUND DESIGNER 2014
Joakim Sundström for STARRED UP

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2014
Agnès Varda

EUROPEAN ACHIEVEMENT IN WORLD CINEMA 2014
Steve McQueen

EUROPEAN CO-PRODUCTION AWARD 2014 – Prix EURIMAGES
Ed Guiney

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD 2014 for Best European Film
IDA by Paweł Pawlikowski

[Chris Knipp]

Justin Chang, Chief Film Critic of Variety: his top ten plus ten.

He says Boyhood was easily his no. 1, but choosing the others was harder. I quote (selectively) from his explanations of the choices because they're illuminating and even where I don't agree he helps us understand why these movies are seen as special. I didn't quote about Foxcatcher because nothing can justify praise for it. Scarlett Johansson deserves comment, it was a remarkable year for her. What he says about Selma is what I expect from it though I haven't yet seen it. For the complete comments see here. (http://variety.com/2014/film/columns/justin-changs-top-10-films-of-2014-1201374182/) Next: the lists of Peter Debruge and Scott Foundas, Variety's other leading critics.

1. Boyhood. (Richard Linklater’s 12-year epic of childhood is a work of such patient, quietly unassuming mastery that it can be easy to overlook what an audacious gamble it represents. . . Linklater has transfigured the ordinary into the extraordinary .)

2. Under the Skin. (Nearly a decade after “Birth,” Jonathan Glazer emerged with another tour de force of suspense and alienation: Scene for scene, this hypnotic adaptation of Michel Faber’s surreal science-fiction novel abounded in the year’s most indelible sounds and images — a baby crying on a beach, a man’s body suspended in viscous darkness, the screeching siren call of Mica Levi’s score. As evidenced by her similarly otherworldly transformations in Her and Lucy, there may be no nervier American actress of the moment than Scarlett Johansson: The title could easily describe the cool, superhuman intelligence with which she strips the veneer off her own beauty.)

3. The Grand Budapest Hotel. (. . . Anderson at his most layered and Lubitschian: Watching it, we understand anew that beauty, wit and elegance of style are not meaningless indulgences, but rather the artist’s natural defenses against tyranny.)

4. Winter Sleep (. . .nothing short of Bergmanesque.)

5. Foxcatcher.

6. Bird People (. . .a wholly original work that turns a nondescript airport-adjacent hotel into a veritable playground of magical possibilities. . .)
.
7. Gone Girl (The most lacerating relationship movie in a year. . .)

8. Selma (You can feel the urgency in every moment, but what’s astonishing is not just the righteous anger but the exacting control with which Ava DuVernay directs it in her furiously incisive, politically savvy and emotionally overwhelming account. . .)

9. Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh has somehow evolved into one of our most unobtrusively great visual stylists)

10. Interstellar. (In some ways, Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending, heart-tugging, seat-rattling space epic makes a fitting bookend to Boyhood, elastic and playful in its consideration of time as a precious resource where Linklater’s film is grounded and linear. I don’t quite get the charges of rank sentimentalism that were hurled at Nolan’s genuinely awe-inspiring vision; few spectacles this year were more deeply enveloping than that of this wizardly filmmaker applying his rigorous intellect to the most unquantifiable of human phenomena.)

The next 10 (alphabetical order):
Birdman
Calvary
Force majeure
Goodbye to Language
Only Lovers Left Alive
Starred Up
Still Alice
Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang)
Two Days, One Night
We Are the Best!

[Chris Knipp]

Peter Debruge, Chief International Film Critic of Variety: His top ten plus ten.

Debruge is Variety's chief international corespondent as of this year and his choices reflect the European release and festival scene. Again I quoted where it seemed helpful. All his comments are here. (http://variety.com/2014/film/news/peter-debruges-top-10-films-of-2014-1201380922/)


1. Calvary (While so many of my critical colleagues were swept off their feet by 12 years in the life of an all-American boy [a commendable achievement, to be sure, yet somewhat lacking in structure and suspense], I found myself riveted by a single week in the life of a small-town Irish priest.)

2. The Grand Budapest Hotel. ([a] crafty bit of cinematic decoupage, which finds a nearly perfect application for Wes Anderson’s detail-oriented sensibility.)

3. Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). (Not since Being John Malkovich has a movie delved so completely into an actor’s subconscious. . .)

4. Love Is Strange.

5. Le Week-end.

6. While We’re Young. (Noah Baumbach; world-premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, but doesn’t actually open until 2015)

7. Li’l Quinquin. Here on the international festival circuit. . . the snobbish distinction made between big- and smallscreen fare ceases to exist. . . And the best film in Cannes turned out to be a French miniseries: Bruno Dumont’s curious, devilishly comedic "Li’l Quinquin," in which a series of ghastly small-town murders are seen through the eyes of a Tom Sawyer-like country boy and his friends, coming to U.S. theaters Jan. 2.

8. Force majeure. (. . .It’s a fascinating but potentially frustrating movie for American audiences, made up of long, slow scenes in which viewers are encouraged to question how they might behave under similar circumstances.)

9. War of Lies. Debuting only weeks ago at IDFA (the world’s top doc festival, based in Amsterdam), German director Matthias Bittner’s portrait of the Iraqi informant we’ve come to know as "Curveball" is just beginning what’s sure to be a long and fascinating life on the fest circuit. Reminiscent of The Impostor . . .)

10. Class Enemy. (In this gripping debut, Rok Bicek re-creates a story from his school, where a young woman’s suicide so incensed her classmates that they took it upon themselves to punish the teacher whom they deemed responsible.) Slovenia entry in Best Foreign Oscar competition but no US release.

The next 10 (in alphabetical order):
The Duke of Burgundy
Foxcatcher
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The Imitation Game
Leviathan
Locke
Selma
Starred Up
Stranger by the Lake
Whiplash

Best films lacking U.S. distribution: 100 Yen Love, 40-Love, Corn Island, The Fool, Gyeongju, The Harvest, Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, Parasyte: Part 1, Self Made, When Marnie Was There

[Chris Knipp]

Scott Foundas, another Chief Film Critic of Variety: top ten plus ten.

Foundas came to NYC from his native Florida in 2009. He works on Variety since last year. He is on the selection committee of the NYFF, and at times this is evident and his reviews for those films can feel like special pleading. (Chang's list included 7 current or former NYFF films, Debruge's, 5, Foundas', 11.) His reviews however are serious and very informative.

1. Goodbye to Language.
2. Citizenfour.
3. Winter Sleep.
4. Inherent Vice.
5. Foxcatcher.
6. The Immigrant.
7. Gone Girl.
8. Interstellar.
9. Selma.
10. American Sniper.

The next 10 (in alphabetical order):
Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ida
Listen Up Philip
Manakamana
Mr. Turner
Nymphomaniac Vols. 1 and 2
Two Days, One Night
Whiplash

Best films lacking U.S. distribution: Black Coal, Thin Ice, Blind, Charlie’s Country, Cracks in Concrete, Episode of the Sea, Five Star, The Kidnapping of Michel Houllebecq, Two Shots Fired, We Come as Friends, The Wonders

[Chris Knipp]

Friday 19 December 2014 releases in NYC (NY Times reviews).

This brings one of the most unique and beautiful movies of the year, Mike Leigh's Mr. Turner, an expansive sketch of England's greatest painter, played by Timothy Spall, who won the Best Actor prize at Cannes for his performance. Also notable is Nuri Bilge Ceylan's lengthy study of a provincial grouch that debuted at Cannes, Winter Sleep. I'd want to see that if I were in NYC (but this December, I'm not). The French indie film If You Don't, I Will was reviewed here in the Rendez-Vous last Feb. (see link). Bad Hair was reviewed as part of the 2014 SFIFF (link). I was not a fan of either. I'm still scratching my head over PT Anderson's Inherent Vice (NYFF). Mr. Turner (also NYFF) is pretty much my favorite English-language film of the year.

Here are the NY Times review titles for today.


Friday, December 19, 2014

'MR. TURNER' (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32820#post32820)
The Painter Was a Piece of Work, Too
By A. O. SCOTT
Mike Leigh's "Mr. Turner" is about the painter J. M. W. Turner, a 19th-century Englishman with big appetites.

Ian McKellen as Gandalf in
'THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES'
Bilbo Baggins in the Shadow of Bloodthirsty Hordes
By NICOLAS RAPOLD
Peter Jackson concludes his trilogy treatment of J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" with a film devoted to warfare and driven by greed.

Sun's Out on Another Tomorrow
'ANNIE'
By A. O. SCOTT
A remake of "Annie" stars a magnetic Quvenzhané Wallis, but even with her charisma, the film is a chaotic shambles.

Haluk Bilginer as the husband, landlord and writer Aydin, here amid the landscape of central Turkey in
'WINTER SLEEP'
Rocky Kingdom of a Man With Petty Cares
By MANOHLA DARGIS
Nuri Bilge Ceylan's "Winter Sleep" offers a portrait of a landlord, writer and husband in Turkey.

Mathieu Amalric and Emmanuelle Devos in
'IF YOU DON'T, I WILL' (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3681-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2014&p=31806#post31806)
The Bloom Is Off the Rose, the Cap Off the Toothpaste
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Sophie Fillières's "If You Don't, I Will" looks at an unhappy French couple (Emmanuelle Devos and Mathieu Amalric) living in too-close quarters.

Paul Schneider and Ashley Hinshaw in
'GOODBYE TO ALL THAT'
Stumbling Into Divorce
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
"Goodbye to All That" tracks an amiably self-centered guy (Paul Schneider) through a divorce and the perils of Internet dating.

Robin Williams in
'NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: SECRET OF THE TOMB'
A Final Quest for Immortality
By NICOLAS RAPOLD
"Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb," the final installment in this Ben Stiller franchise, features Ben Kingsley as a pharaoh and Robin Williams's last turn as Teddy Roosevelt.

The church, unfinished.
'SAGRADA: THE MYSTERY OF CREATION'
A Masterpiece Mired in Its Creator's Vision
By BEN KENIGSBERG
"Sagrada: The Mystery of Creation" is a documentary primer on a famous church that is still under construction more than 130 years after it was commissioned.

Peter Capaldi soliloquizes Leonardo da Vinci's notes.
INSIDE THE MIND OF LEONARDO IN 3D
Sculpting a Virtuoso's Imagination
By BEN KENIGSBERG
The biographical essay documentary "Inside the Mind of Leonardo in 3D" aims to illustrate Leonardo da Vinci's way of viewing the world.

Taylor Louderman and Xavier Cano in
'LIFE OF AN ACTRESS: THE MUSICAL'
Oh, for That Perfect Part (and a SAG Card)
By BEN KENIGSBERG
"Life of an Actress: The Musical" tells of three performers connected by their aspirations and their moneymaking jobs - at a diner.

A scene from the documentary film directed by Lesley Chilcott.
'A SMALL SECTION OF THE WORLD'
A Business Inspiration, From Bean to Cup
By NICOLAS RAPOLD
"A Small Section of the World" recounts the rise of a Costa Rican coffee company run by women.

A scene from
'SONG OF THE SEA'
Siblings in Survival Mode on Land and in Water
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
In "Song of the Sea," two siblings and Celtic folklore are at the center of an animated tale.

__________________

James Franco and Seth Rogen.
James Franco and Seth Rogen Talk About 'The Interview'
By DAVE ITZKOFF
A corporate hack and threats against movie theaters were "not something that we expected at all," said Mr. Rogen, who directed and stars the film.


A. O. SCOTT RECOMMENDS
Mr. Turner (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32820#post32820)
Mike Leigh’s “Mr. Turner" is about the painter J. M. W. Turner, a 19th-century Englishman with big appetites.

MANOHLA DARGIS RECOMMENDS
Inherent Vice (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32822#post32822)
“Inherent Vice," Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel, is a labyrinthine noir set in sunny Los Angeles, circa 1970.

STEPHEN HOLDEN RECOMMENDS
Pelo Malo (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3709-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32158#post32158)
In “Bad Hair," a Venezuelan boy’s ideas about his appearance add to his mother’s troubles.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/AV.jpg

AV Club's 20 best movies of 2014.

Compiled by their chief reviewers, Mike D'Angelo, A.A. Dowd, Jesse Hassenger, Ben Kenigsberg, Nick Schager, and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, who split up the task of writing paragraphs that explain why they think these movies are great, but not why they're in this order, other than for putting Boyhood first. I've surgically removed the comments, except for parts of Mike D'Angelo's on that interesting oddity, Bird People. It was D'Angelo's delight with Bird People at Cannes that brought it to my attention. I saw it twice at IFC Center. It was clear that Goodbye to Language, The Strange Little Cat and Under the Skin would be end-of-year hits with younger US critics. Listen Up Philip is no surprise, though I'm not exactly clear why National Gallery and Force Majeure appeal so much to this group. With this group, it's nice to see the Dardennes low-keyed film so high. Of course if you find these choices interesting you'll want to read the paragraphs that go with each of them here (http://www.avclub.com/article/20-best-movies-2014-213002).


20. Winter Sleep
19. Bird People
What does it mean to be truly free? Pascale Ferran’s intoxicating diptych Bird People asks that question by contrasting the experiences of an American businessman (Josh Charles) staying at an airport hotel in Paris and the young maid (Anaïs Demoustier) who cleans his room.. . .Few filmmakers would think to combine the mundane and the whimsical in quite this way, and fewer still could pull it off so beguilingly. [Mike D’Angelo]
18. Interstellar
17. The Missing Picture
16. God Help The Girl
15. Coherence
14. Listen Up Philip
13. Mr. Turner
12. National Gallery
11. Inherent Vice
10. Goodbye To Language 3D
9. Force Majeure
8. The Immigrant
7. The Strange Little Cat
6. The Grand Budapest Hotel
5. Under The Skin
4. Gone Girl
3. Whiplash
2. Two Days, One Night
1. Boyhood

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/Gg.jpg

The Golden Globe Awards: nominations.

The awards of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, given out in early January.

A select list of the nominations (omitting TV, special awards):

Best film, drama
Boyhood
Foxcatcher
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything

Best film, comedy or musical
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Into the Woods
Pride
St. Vincent

Best actress, comedy or musical
Amy Adams - Big Eyes
Emily Blunt - Into the Woods
Helen Mirren - The Hundred-Foot Journey
Julianne Moore - Maps to the Stars
Quvenzhané Wallis - Annie

Best supporting actor
Robert Duvall - The Judge
Ethan Hawke - Boyhood
Edward Norton - Birdman
Mark Ruffalo - Foxcatcher
JK Simmons - Whiplash

Best score
Alexandre Desplat - The Imitation Game
Johann Johannsson – The Theory of Everything
Trent Reznor – Gone Girl
Antonio Sanchez - Birdman
Hans Zimmer – Interstellar

Best song
Big Eyes – Big Eyes (Lana Del Ray)
Glory – Selma (John Legend, Common)
Mercy Is – Noah (Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye)
Opportunity – Annie
Yellow Flicker Beat – Hunger Games, Mockingjay Pt 1 (Lorde)

Best director
Wes Anderson - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ava Duvernay - Selma
David Fincher - Gone Girl
Alejandro González Iñárritu - Birdman
Richard Linklater - Boyhood

Best actor, drama
Steve Carell - Foxcatcher
Benedict Cumberbatch - The Imitation Game
Jake Gyllenhaal - Nightcrawler
David Oyelowo - Selma
Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything

Best supporting actress
Patricia Arquette - Boyhood
Jessica Chastain - A Most Violent Year
Keira Knightley - The Imitation Game
Emma Stone - Birdman
Meryl Streep - Into the Woods

Best actress, drama
Jennifer Aniston, Cake
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Best actor, comedy or musical
Ralph Fiennes - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Michael Keaton - Birdman
Bill Murray - St. Vincent
Joaquin Phoenix - Inherent Vice
Christoph Waltz - Big Eyes

Best animation
Big Hero 6
The Book of Life
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The LEGO Movie

Best screenplay
Wes Anderson - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Gillian Flynn - Gone Girl
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo - Birdman
Richard Linklater - Boyhood
Graham Moore - The Imitation Game

Best foreign language film
Force Majeure
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
Ida
Leviathan
Tangerines

[Chris Knipp]

Rex Reed's best and worst movies of the year.

The longtime film critic Rex Reed currently writes for The New York Observer.

Best.


1. THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
2. THE IMITATION GAME
3. BOYHOOD
4. UNBROKEN
5. STILL ALICE
6. THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
7. WHIPLASH
8. THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY
9. FOXCATCHER
10. LOVE IS STRANGE




Worst.


1. THE CONGRESS (Ari Folman)
2. FRANK
3. UNDER THE SKIN
4. BIRDMAN
5. TAMMY (Ben Falcone)
6. HORNS
7. EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS
8. INTERSTELLAR
9. GONE GIRL
10. INHERENT VICE

[Johann]

Rex has been around awhile. I remember his cameo in Richard Donner's Superman. I listen to his opinion.
I really have to see Grand Budapest Hotel. Monte Hellman is a Facebook friend, and he was raving about WINTER SLEEP, saying that time did not exist while he was watching it.

[Chris Knipp]

Yes, Winter Sleep is one to see, but it so far has only opened at the Quad and Lincoln Plaza Cinemas in NYC. This is why I usually like to be in NYC at this time of year: I can catch up on all the December qualifying releases. My 2014 Best List has little in common with Rex Reed's, but as I've said before, he's an entertaining writer, especially in his campy dissing, when it comes. I would run to see Budapest Hotel, or any Wes Anderson, but for me, it's a major disappointment, but not everything he does is of equal appeal, though as with the Coens, different ones appeal or turn off different people.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/cck.gif (http://www.chrisknipp.com/)

Adding L'il Quinquin to my best lists.

I've now reviewed Bruno Dumont's metaphysical comedy miniseries L'IL QUINQUIN (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3888-L-IL-QUINQUIN-(Bruno-Dumont-2014)&p=33111#post33111) and it completes my European ten best list. Note it is a miniseries, like Olivier Assayas' CARLOS (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2950-CARLOS-(Olivier-Assayas-2010)&p=25300#post25300), which I put at the top of my 2010 Best Foreign list.

This popped up on this thread already at the top of Cahiers du Cinéma's ten best list and on John Waters'. It's also on Variety's Peter Debruge's list and two or three other Variety critics' or English language European film reviewers' 2014 best lists and, what I didn't know before, it came out at the top of the European Critics' Poll at Cannes this year.

It was on Arte TV in France and shown simultaneously at some French cinemas, a new pattern for indie films that may spread to studio ones, witness the current case of THE INTERVIEW. Here L'IL QUINQUIN will be in some theaters and available VOD via Fandor (http://www.indiewire.com/article/exclusive-fandor-to-release-lil-quinquin-alongside-theatrical-run-20141210). A Fox Lorber release. Indiewire offered it to critics online this week and I took the bait. This is a fresh reboot for Dumont, and also a beautiful looking as well droll and thought-provoking film.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/Lil.jpg

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/m.jpg (http://www.metacritic.com/browse/movies/score/metascore/year?sort=desc&view=condensed&year_selected=2014)

Top rated films - last 90 days.

The Metacritc list of top rated films of 2014 has rearranged a bit as some more reviews have been counted in. Here it is now. This is different from what people put at the top of their best lists

BOYHOOD 100
VIRUNGA 95
MR. TURNER 95
TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT 91
A SUMMER'S TALE 91
LEVIATHAN 91
SELMA 91
BIG MEN 90
THE OVERNIGHTERS 90
IDA 90
BIRDMAN OR (THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE) 89
NATIONAL GALLERY 89
THE TALE OF PRINCESS KAGUYA 89
MAIDAN 88
CITIZENFOUR 88
THE GRAND BUDAPESST HOTEL 88
LAST DAYS IN VIETNAM 88
WHIPLASH 87
FORCE MAJEURE 87
LEVEL FIVE 87
WE ARE THE BEST 87
NIGHT WILL FALL 87
THE BABADOOK 87
PARTICLE FEVER 87
LIFE ITSELF 87

[Chris Knipp]

Peter Hargrove's "Top 10 Films of 2014 (http://www.ibrnews.com/?p=2774)" plus some bests.

Peter Hargrove, whom I met through Mitch Banks, sees a lot of films and knows a lot about the business, and he provides his mailing list with comprehensive NYC screening information. Click on his name above for his introduction.


Top 10 Films Of 2014

(460 Films)

Selma [UK/US]
Jodorowsky’s Dune [Documentary]
The Eternal Zero [Japan]
The Unknown Known [Documentary]
Dear White People
A Most Violent Year
Whiplash
Beloved Sisters [Germany]
Into The Woods
20,000 Days On Earth [UK] [Documentary]

J.C. Chandor (A Most Violent Year) – Best Director
Jeremy Renner (Kill The Messenger) – Best Actor
Tessa Thompson (Dear White People) – Best Actress
J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) – Best Supporting Actor
Jessica Chastain (A Most Violent Year) – Best Supporting Actress
Peter Landesman (Kill The Messenger) – Best Screenplay
Dick Pope (Mr. Turner) – Best Cinematography

[Chris Knipp]

January 2, 2015. 2014 releasing is done. But there are some important new films that just opened in New York. Well, one. Namely:

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/mvy.jpg (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2937898/)


A Most Violent Year

Release date: 31 December 2014 (NYC)
‎2hr 5min‎‎ - Rated R‎‎ - Action/Adventure/Suspense/Thriller/Drama‎
Director: J.C. Chandor - Cast: Jessica Chastain, Oscar Isaac, Albert Brooks, David Oyelowo, Alessandro Nivola
Set during the winter of 1981 -- statistically one of the most crime-ridden of New York City's history -- this drama follows the lives of an immigrant and his family as they attempt to capitalize on the American Dream, while the rampant violence, decay, and corruption of the day drag them in and threaten to destroy all they have built.
Metacritic rating: 84%. An A24 release. With MARGIN CALL (2011) and ALL IS LOST (2013) J.C. Chandor established himself as a brilliant young director, and this one is almost as well-reviewed as his last.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/Gg.jpg (http://deadline.com/2015/01/golden-globe-winners-2015-golden-globes-awards-winner-list-1201347359/)

The Golden Globe Awards: WINNERS.

The awards of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, given out Sunday, January 11, 2015.

A select list of the nominations (omitting TV, special awards) with the winners highlighted in red:

BEST FILM, DRAMA
WINNER: Boyhood
Foxcatcher
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything

BEST FILM, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Birdman
WINNER: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Into the Woods
Pride
St. Vincent

BEST ACTRESS, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
WINNER: Amy Adams - Big Eyes
Emily Blunt - Into the Woods
Helen Mirren - The Hundred-Foot Journey
Julianne Moore - Maps to the Stars
Quvenzhané Wallis - Annie

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Robert Duvall - The Judge
Ethan Hawke - Boyhood
Edward Norton - Birdman
Mark Ruffalo - Foxcatcher
WINNER: JK Simmons - Whiplash

BEST SCORE
Alexandre Desplat - The Imitation Game
WINNER: Johann Johannsson – The Theory of Everything
Trent Reznor – Gone Girl
Antonio Sanchez - Birdman
Hans Zimmer – Interstellar

BEST SONG
Big Eyes – Big Eyes (Lana Del Ray)
WINNER: Glory – Selma (John Legend, Common)
Mercy Is – Noah (Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye)
Opportunity – Annie
Yellow Flicker Beat – Hunger Games, Mockingjay Pt 1 (Lorde)

BEST DIRECTOR
Wes Anderson - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ava Duvernay - Selma
David Fincher - Gone Girl
Alejandro González Iñárritu - Birdman
WINNER: Richard Linklater - Boyhood

BEST ACTOR, DRAMAa
Steve Carell - Foxcatcher
Benedict Cumberbatch - The Imitation Game
Jake Gyllenhaal - Nightcrawler
David Oyelowo - Selma
WINNER: Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
WINNER: Patricia Arquette - Boyhood
Jessica Chastain - A Most Violent Year
Keira Knightley - The Imitation Game
Emma Stone - Birdman
Meryl Streep - Into the Woods

BEST ACTRESS, DRAMA
Jennifer Aniston, Cake
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
WINNER: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon, Wild

BEST ACTOR, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Ralph Fiennes - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Michael Keaton - Birdman
Bill Murray - St. Vincent
Joaquin Phoenix - Inherent Vice
Christoph Waltz - Big Eyes

BEST ANIMATION
Big Hero 6
The Book of Life
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The LEGO Movie

BEST SCREENPLAY
Wes Anderson - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Gillian Flynn - Gone Girl
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo - Birdman
Richard Linklater - Boyhood
Graham Moore - The Imitation Game

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMm
Force Majeure
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
Ida
WINNER: Leviathan
Tangerines

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/OSC1.jpg

The Oscars. Nominations.
Birdman and Boyhood lead, but Imitation Game and Grand Budapest Hotel provide serious competition. See New York Times article (http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/oscar-nominations-2015/?emc=edit_fm_20150116&nl=movies&nlid=22852861&_r=0). The "snubbing" of anyone non-white has been commented on; and of Selma. Selma got two noms but not the director or star.

The 87th Academy Awards will air on Sunday, February 22.


Best Picture
“American Sniper”
“Birdman”
“Boyhood”
“The Grand Budapest Hotel”
“The Imitation Game”
“Selma”
“The Theory of Everything”
“Whiplash”

Best Actor
Steve Carell, “Foxcatcher”
Bradley Cooper, “American Sniper”
Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Imitation Game”
Michael Keaton, “Birdman”
Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything”

Best Actress
Marion Cotillard, “Two Days, One Night”
Felicity Jones, “The Theory of Everything”
Julianne Moore, “Still Alice”
Rosamund Pike, “Gone Girl”
Reese Witherspoon, “Wild”

Best Supporting Actor
Robert Duvall, “The Judge”
Ethan Hawke, “Boyhood”
Edward Norton, “Birdman”
Mark Ruffalo, “Foxcatcher”
J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash”

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood”
Laura Dern, “Wild”
Keira Knightley, “The Imitation Game”
Emma Stone, “Birdman”
Meryl Streep, “Into the Woods”

Best Director
Alejandro González Iñárritu, “Birdman”
Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”
Bennett Miller, “Foxcatcher”
Wes Anderson, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Morten Tyldum, “The Imitation Game”

Best Animated Feature Film
“Big Hero 6″
“The Boxtrolls”
“How to Train Your Dragon 2″
“Song of the Sea”
“The Tale of the Princess Kaguya”

Best Adapted Screenplay
“American Sniper,” by Jason Hall
“The Imitation Game,” by Graham Moore
“Inherent Vice,” by Paul Thomas Anderson
“The Theory of Everything,” by Anthony McCarten
“Whiplash,” by Damien Chazelle

Best Original Screenplay
“Birdman,” by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr. & Armando Bo
“Boyhood,” by Richard Linklater
“Foxcatcher,” by E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman
“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” by Wes Anderson & Hugo Guinness
“Nightcrawler,” by Dan Gilroy

Best Cinematography
“Birdman,” Emmanuel Lubezki
“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Robert Yeoman
“Ida,” Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski
“Mr. Turner,” Dick Pope
“Unbroken,” Roger Deakins

Best Visual Effects
“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”
“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”
“Guardians of the Galaxy”
“Interstellar”
“X-Men: Days of Future Past”

Best Documentary Feature
“Citizenfour”
“Finding Vivian Maier”
“Last Days in Vietnam”
“The Salt of the Earth”
“Virunga”

Best Documentary Short Subject
“Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1″
“Joanna”
“Our Curse”
“The Reaper (La Parka)”
“White Earth”

Best Film Editing
“American Sniper,” Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach
“Boyhood,” Sandra Adair
“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Barney Pilling
“The Imitation Game,” William Goldenberg
“Whiplash,” Tom Cross

Best Original Song
“Everything Is Awesome,” from “The Lego Movie,” by Shawn Patterson
“Glory,” from “Selma, by John Stephens and Lonnie Lynn”
“Grateful,” from “Beyond the Lights,” by Diane Warren
“I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” from “Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me,” by Glen Campbell and Julian Raymond
“Lost Stars,” from “Begin Again,” by Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois

Best Production Design
“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Adam Stockhausen and Anna Pinnock
“The Imitation Game,” Maria Djurkovic and Tatiana Macdonald
“Interstellar,” Nathan Crowley and Gary Fettis
“Into the Woods,” Dennis Gassner and Anna Pinnock
“Mr. Turner,” Suzie Davies and Charlotte Watts

Best Live Action Short Film
“Aya”
“Boogaloo and Graham”
“Butter Lamp (La Lampe au Beurre de Yak)”
“Parvaneh”
“The Phone Call”

Best Animated Short Film
“The Bigger Picture”
“The Dam Keeper”
“Feast”
“Me and my Moulton”
“A Single Life”

Best Sound Editing
“American Sniper,” Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
“Birdman,” Martin Hernández and Aaron Glascock
“The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies,” Brent Burge and Jason Canovas
“Interstellar,” Richard King
“Unbroken,” Becky Sullivan and Andrew DeCristofaro

Best Sound Mixing
“American Sniper,” John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin
“Birdman,” Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and Thomas Varga
“Interstellar,” Gary A. Rizzo, Gregg Landaker and Mark Weingarten
“Unbroken,” Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and David Lee
“Whiplash,” Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley

Best Costume Design
“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Milena Canonero
“Inherent Vice,” Mark Bridges
“Into the Woods,” Colleen Atwood
“Maleficent,” Anna B. Sheppard and Jane Clive
“Mr. Turner,” Jacqueline Durran

Best Foreign Language Film
“Ida” (Poland)
“Leviathan” (Russia)
“Tangerines” (Estonia)
“Timbuktu” (Mauritania)
“Wild Tales” (Argentina)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
“Foxcatcher,” Bill Corso and Dennis Liddiard
“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier
“Guardians of the Galaxy,” Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou and David White

Best Original Score
“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Alexandre Desplat
“The Imitation Game,” Alexandre Desplat
“Interstellar,” Hans Zimmer
“Mr. Turner,” Gary Yershon
“The Theory of Everything,” Jóhann Jóhannsson

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/sag.png

Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards. 24 January 2015.

Does this mean I have to see CAKE? In sounds like torture.


Theatrical Motion Pictures

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
"Birdman" - (*WINNER)
"Boyhood"
"The Grand Budapest Hotel"
"The Imitation Game"
"The Theory of Everything"


Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Steve Carell - "Foxcatcher"
Benedict Cumberbatch - "The Imitation Game"
Jake Gyllenhaal - "Nightcrawler"
Michael Keaton - "Birdman"
Eddie Redmayne - "The Theory of Everything" - (*WINNER)


Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Jennifer Aniston - "Cake"
Felicity Jones - "The Theory of Everything"
Julianne Moore - "Still Alice" - (*WINNER)
Rosamund Pike - "Gone Girl"
Reese Witherspoon - "Wild"

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Robert Duvall - "The Judge"
Ethan Hawke - "Boyhood"
Edward Norton - "Birdman"
Mark Ruffalo - "Foxcatcher"
J.K. Simmons - "Whiplash" - (*WINNER)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Patricia Arquette - "Boyhood" - (*WINNER)
Kiera Knightley - "The Imitation Game"
Emma Stone - "Birdman"
Meryl Streep - "Into the Woods"
Naomi Watts - "St. Vincent"

[tabuno]

Sick again with my asthma flare out. It's 5 in the morning. Need to go to sleep. I'm pretty worn out trying not to spend money going to rapidly increasingly costly movies. I'm too stressed out trying to catch up with so many movies out there. I'm just going to publish what I saw. The nice part of 2014 was that I didn't see any disappointing or terrible films. Maybe there's hope yet.


1. Interstellar (2014). This moving includes an amazing emotive “long-distance” parent-child interactive relationship, with a dual storyline, ground breaking visual effects, and a solid scientific-based space exploration and personal survival of the human race theme. Interstellar is solid story telling with its dramatic, not overly stylish Hollywood gloss and glamour and Ann Hathaway’s under-stated surprisingly diminutive stand out performance. The overall direction and performances in this movie are introspective and authentic in their approach instead of big screen stereotypical theatrics to wow its audiences. Some might complain about the extended dialogue, but there really is a more satisfying exchange of relevant thoughtful ideas during this movie that are interspersed among amazing special effects that are leading edge for our literal time and space. What makes Interstellar so markedly ground breaking is director’s Christopher Nolan’s leap with this movie in its freshness and significantly different visual presentation, its tight editing and retention of the human relational importance while also presenting to dual track story outline in seamless and meaningful power way. [Reviewed 11/7/14]. 9/10.

2. Birdman (2014). Michael Keeton’s comedy-drama of an actor trying to make a comeback using a stage play. This is a wildly fantastical, surrealistic, and moving dramatic, comedy with echoes of Brazil (1985). [Reviewed 1/1/15]. 9/10.

3. Wild (2014). Reese Witherspoon’s (nominated for Best Actress Golden Globe) Character undertakes a long-distance trek. A compelling, engaging existential life experience, with some of the best use of flashbacks and storytelling in the tradition of Touching The Void (2003) and Lost In Translation (2003). [Reviewed 1/10/15]. 9/10.

4. The Signal (2014). Not be confused with The Arrival (1996), this superb sci fi thriller takes from a number of classic movies, some of their best elements to create a new look and perspective of the search for an electronic computer signal and strange encounter. This powerful emotive, immersive, and poignant movie is compelling and fresh in its portrayal. [Reviewed 12/19/14]. 10/10.

5. Miss Meadows (2014). Katie Holme’s executive producer and star in this truly remarkable black comedy offers an edgy sharp witty performance. As a proper, mysteriously petite, but lethal girl who is a substitute teacher by day and an upholder of community safety as a second voluntary role, Katie offers a unique portrait of acting in this romantic, mystery, crime, comedy. [Reviewed 12/8/14]. 9/10.

6. Magic in the Moonlight (2014). Woody Allen’s serio-comic, period, romance movie is superb in its photography, directing, and cerebrally witty dialogue and plot. This un-Woody movie demonstrates the wide range that Allen has developed in his ability to present to the audience an intelligent, engaging, somewhat mysterious romance film. [Reviewed 12/17/14]. 9/10.

7. Maleficent (2014). Unlike most animated features, even though of late, more and more of them are trending towards balance, Maleficent with Angela Jolie is offered up a script that allows for a much more layered performance, unusual for such an evil character. Along with Frozen (2013) and one can even imagine Brad Pitt in Interview with a Vampire (1995), or imagine Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada (2006) or Julia Roberts in Mirror, Mirror (2012). This animated movie also echoes the emotive and deep female bonding found in Brave (2012). This movie departs from the more visually dazzling sizzle approach found in Alice in Wonderland (2010) or say Oz the Great and Powerful (2013). What makes this animation feature so compelling is its sincerity and substantive nature wrapped up in an exciting entertaining meaningful package. [Reviewed 6/20/14]. 9/10.

8. 3 Days To Kill (2014). Kevin Costner reprises his imperfect, male character in yet another mystery thriller that his witty and serious, blending the black comedy to good effect in affecting a CIA operation with less emphasis on action than on characterization, relationships, and more straightforward fighting skills. [Reviewed 9/17/14]. 9/10.

9. The November Man (2014). Pierce Brosnan is handed another fabulous spy role and script in this raw, “simple,” but well executed, high tension espionage thriller. [8/27/14]. 9/10.

10. Edge of Tomorrow (2014). Tom Cruise heads this original use of time travel like Looper (2012) with also starred Emily Blunt, similar to the comedy Groundhog Day (1993) combined with action of the classic sci fi The Matrix (1999). Good pacing and plenty of action and a rather risky use of a drama/comedy blend that almost skewed the tone apart at times. [Reviewed 8/31/14]. 8/10.


Honorable Mention

The Bag Man (2014). John Cusack plays a hitman whose boss assigns him a pick up and delivery job involving a must not look in the bag prohibition. The job ends up a lot more difficult and craziness and violence ensues. Almost too odd and assortment of characters and mystery and violence, this movie has it appeal, but likely not for everybody. [1/22/15]. 8/10.

Barefoot (2014). Without breaking any new ground, this straight forward small movie plays it straight and simple to great effect. A man in a menial paying job at a mental hospitals find himself in the company of a new female patient who apparently killed her mother in this light comedy-drama that does force its acting performances on the audience. There is a seemingly natural rhythm in the way the characters are portrayed and the storyline remains finely balanced between embarrassing, funny moments and dramatic sadness about innocence, loss, misunderstanding, love, and redemption. [Reviewed 2/4/15]. 8/10.

Expendables 3 (2014). Many of our aging male action starts get nice screen time in this well-paced, supposedly ensemble action thriller. It’s Sylvester Stallone’s attempt at comparing old and new generations of action heroes. While his attempt doesn’t come off as smoothly as hoped, there is a feast of action and great on-screen action for our male stars, plenty of wry humor for an aging audience, and a great unexpected comic performance from one of our popular Spanish action actors. While a climax is unoriginally, there is a plentitude of martial art, shoot ‘em up shots. [Reviewed 8/16/14]. 8/10.

Into the Woods (2014). A quality musical with wonderful songs but one too many storylines, a few wooden scenes, and a distancing voice-over singing. Almost a top ten best film. [12/25/14]. 8/10.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014). Chris Pine finds himself in a decent contemporary, techy spy movie that begins weak and strengthens well once the action begins with a nice role for Jack Ryan’s wife played by Keira Knightly, and supporting Kevin Costner role, but doesn’t tap its full potential of bad guy Kenneth Branagh. [Reviewed 1/3/15]. 8/10.

John Wick (2014). Keanu Reeves plays a retired enforcer who seeks revenge for the death of his dog that his deceased wife purchased for him. A decent action thriller but a bit slow in some places but that offers a fascinating interplay between the two antagonists. [Reviewed 10/25/2014]. 8/10.

Lucy (2014). A martial arts movie that transforms itself into a sci fi movie about the hypothetical capacity of the human mind and its possible consequences. Containing the requisite amazing fight scenes, car chases, this movie attempts to include an existential treatise with action thrills. Missing though is an adequate focus on the emotive, humanistic elements to balance the movie. Close to the top ten. [Reviewed 7/25/14]. 8/10.

Rage (2014). Nicolas Cage stars in the dark, mystery thriller about the kidnapping of his daughter, a man with a violent past. This is a brooding, cerebral thriller, a more somber version of A History of Violence (2005). [Reviewed 9/27/14]. 8/10.

Taken 3 (2014). Liam Neeson gets another quality script to show off his assassin skills. There are nice new enhancements with the tender extended mourning sequences, chase scenes that both are intriguing, but overly manipulated, and a less than crisp martial art scenes along with black and white good/bad guys, with however, a decent presentation of some intelligent law enforcement in the form of Forest Whitaker. This third outing maintains the amperage of its predecessors. [Reviewed 1/25/15]. 8/10.

Unbroken (2014). Angelina Jolie directs this true life story of Olympian and World War II survivor with intensity and sustained power that unfortunately doesn’t rise to sufficiently dramatic levels. [Reviewed 1/3/15]. 8/10.

Good But Failed to Make the Grade

American Sniper (2014). Bradley Cooper’s decent portrayal of American sniper, Chris Kyle, somehow loses its crispness and intimacy in the cinematography and lack of focus on various characters such as the brother and Chris’s primary adversary. [Reviewed 1/18/15]. 7/10.

Gone Girl (2014). Understandably over-rated, this fascinating psychological crime thriller has at its core an extremely difficult subject matter and theme to capture. David Fincher was brave in his attempt, but he falls a bit short with his omission of the depicting a deeper awareness of the evolution of the intimate human relationships between the leading characters played by Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike. [Reviewed 10/31/14]. 7/10.

Maze Runner, The (2014). This The Hunger Games (2012), Cube (1997), Lord of the Flies (1990) based movie is taut with suspense, decent plot, but the ending is a cop out for a sequel. While the movie contains a nice effort towards breaking stereotypical plot and characterization, it doesn’t quite break out of the mold. [Reviewed 10/19/14]. 7/10.

Stretch (2014). Patrick Wilson offers up a competent, decent dry, witty performance in this comedic, action, thriller as a limo driver whose billionaire customer played by Chris Pine has Wilson’s character ending up in some rather weird and dangerous situations in order to get a huge tip to pay off a debt to some Russian crime syndicate. Entertaining, but by no means a classic. [Reviewed 11/15/14]. 7/10.

Winter’s Tale (2014). Colin Ferrell and Russell Crowe star in this fantasy period drama. A rather darker version of Time After Time (1979) without a consistent, engrossing relational theme throughout the movie or appealingly attractive occult component of say Constantine (2005). [Reviewed 12/27/14]. 7/10.

Disappointments

Terrible

Missed/Haven=t Seen Yet

Big Eyes (2014).
Boyhood (2014). [Watch on Amazon].
Foxcatcher (2014).
The Fury (2014). Brad Pitt is a tank leader towards the end of World War II.
The Great Budapest Hotel (2014).
The Imitation Game (2014).
Inherent Vice (2014).
Selma (2014).
Still Alice (2014).
The Theory of Everything (2014).

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/bft.jpg

2015 BAFTA Awards. Again this year the mainstream awards apples do not fall far from the conventional tree. Still I'm glad to see Eddie and Patricia again recognized. And for a British award it was only right that the Rising Star would be Jack O'Connell. For Best British it's good to see PRIDE, '71, and UNDER THE SKIN at least nominated.


BEST FILM
“Boyhood,” Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland (WINNER)
“Birdman,” Alejandro G. Inarritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole
“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson
“The Imitation Game,” Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman
“The Theory of Everything,” Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony Mccarten

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
“The Theory of Everything,” James Marsh, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony Mccarten (WINNER)
“’71,” Yann Demange, Angus Lamont, Robin Gutch, Gregory Burke
“The Imitation Game,” Morten Tyldum, Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman, Graham Moore
“Paddington,” Paul King, David Heyman
“Pride,” Matthew Warchus, David Livingstone, Stephen Beresford
“Under the Skin,” Jonathan Glazer, James Wilson, Nick Wechsler, Walter Campbell

LEADING ACTOR
Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything” (WINNER)
Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Imitation Game”
Jake Gyllenhaal, “Nightcrawler”
Michael Keaton, “Birdman”
Ralph Fiennes, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”

LEADING ACTRESS
Julianne Moore, “Still Alice” (WINNER)
Amy Adams, “Big Eyes”
Felicity Jones, “The Theory of Everything”
Reese Witherspoon, “Wild”
Rosamund Pike, “Gone Girl”

DIRECTOR
“Boyhood,” Richard Linklater (WINNER)
“Birdman,” Alejandro G. Inarritu
“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Wes Anderson
“The Theory of Everything,” James Marsh
“Whiplash,” Damien Chazelle

SUPPORTING ACTOR
J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash” (WINNER)
Edward Norton, “Birdman”
Ethan Hawke, “Boyhood”
Mark Ruffalo, “Foxcatcher”
Steve Carell, “Foxcatcher”

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood” (WINNER)
Emma Stone, “Birdman”
Imelda Staunton, “Pride”
Keira Knightley, “The Imitation Game”
Rene Russo, “Nightcrawler”

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Wes Anderson (WINNER)
“Birdman,” Alejandro G. Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr, Armando Bo
“Boyhood,” Richard Linklater
“Nightcrawler,” Dan Gilroy
“Whiplash,” Damien Chazelle

CINEMATOGRAPHY
“Birdman,” Emmanuel Lubezki (WINNER)
“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Robert Yeoman
“Ida,” Lukasz Zal, Ryzsard Lenczewski
“Interstellar,” Hoyte Van Hoytema
“Mr. Turner,” Dick Pope

ANIMATED FILM
“The Lego Movie,” Phil Lord, Christopher Miller (WINNER)
“Big Hero 6,” Don Hall, Chris Williams
“The Boxtrolls,” Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
“The Theory of Everything,” Anthony Mccarten (WINNER)
“American Sniper,” Jason Hall
“Gone Girl,” Gillian Flynn
“The Imitation Game,” Graham Moore
“Paddington,” Paul King

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
Stephen Beresford (Writer), David Livingstone (Producer), “Pride” (WINNER)
Elaine Constantine (Writer/Director), “Northern Soul”
Gregory Burke (Writer), Yann Demange (Director), “’71”
Hong Khaou (Writer/Director), “Lilting”
Paul Katis (Director/Producer), Andrew De Lotbiniere (Producer), “Kajaki: The True Story”

ORIGINAL MUSIC
“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Alexandre Desplat (WINNER)
“Birdman,” Antonio Sanchez
“Interstellar,” Hans Zimmer
“The Theory of Everything,” Johann Johannsson
“Under the Skin,” Mica Levi

DOCUMENTARY
“Citizenfour,” Laura Poitras (WINNER)
“20 Feet From Stardom,” Morgan Neville, Caitrin Rogers, Gil Friesen
“20,000 Days on Earth,” Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard
“Finding Vivian Maier,” John Maloof, Charlie Siskel
“Virunga,” Orlando Von Einsiedel, Joanna Natasegara

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
“Ida,” Pawel Pawlikowski, Eric Abraham, Piotr Dzieciol, Ewa Puszczynska (WINNER)
“Leviathan,” Andrey Zvyagintsev, Alexander Rodnyansky, Sergey Melkumov
“The Lunchbox,” Ritesh Batra, Arun Rangachari, Anurag Kashyap, Guneet Monga
“Trash,” Stephen Daldry, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Kris Thykier
“Two Days, One Night,” Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Denis Freyd

MAKE UP & HAIR
“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Frances Hannon (WINNER)
“Guardians of the Galaxy,” Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou, David White
“Into the Woods,” Peter Swords King, J. Roy Helland
“Mr. Turner,” Christine Blundell, Lesa Warrener
“The Theory of Everything,” Jan Sewell

COSTUME DESIGN
“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Milena Canonero (WINNER)
“The Imitation Game,” Sammy Sheldon Differ
“Into the Woods,” Colleen Atwood
“Mr. Turner,” Jacqueline Durran
“The Theory of Everything,” Steven Noble

PRODUCTION DESIGN
“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Adam Stockhausen, Anna Pinnock (WINNER)
“Big Eyes,” Rick Heinrichs, Shane Vieau
“The Imitation Game,” Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana Macdonald
“Interstellar,” Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis
“Mr. Turner,” Suzie Davies, Charlotte Watts

BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION
“The Bigger Picture,” Chris Hees, Daisy Jacobs, Jennifer Majka (WINNER)
“Monkey Love Experiments,” Ainslie Henderson, Cam Fraser, Will Anderson
“My Dad,” Marcus Armitage

EDITING
“Whiplash,” Tom Cross (WINNER)
“Birdman,” Douglas Crise, Stephen Mirrione
“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Barney Pilling
“The Imitation Game,” William Goldenberg
“Nightcrawler,” John Gilroy
“The Theory of Everything,” Jinx Godfrey

SOUND
“Whiplash,” Thomas Curley, Ben Wilkins, Craig Mann (WINNER)
“American Sniper,” Walt Martin, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, Alan Robert Murray, Bub Asman
“Birdman,” Thomas Varga, Martin Hernandez, Aaron Glascock, Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño
“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Wayne Lemmer, Christopher Scarabosio, Pawel Wdowczak
“The Imitation Game,” John Midgley, Lee Walpole, Stuart Hilliker, Martin Jensen

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
“Interstellar,” Paul Franklin, Scott Fisher, Andrew Lockley (WINNER)
“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Erik Winquist, Daniel Barrett
“Guardians of the Galaxy,” Stephane Ceretti, Paul Corbould, Jonathan Fawkner, Nicolas Aithadi
“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, R. Christopher White
“X-Men: Days of Future Past,” Richard Stammers, Anders Langlands, Tim Crosbie, Cameron Waldbauer

THE EE RISING STAR AWARD (VOTED FOR BY THE PUBLIC)
Jack O’Connell (WINNER)
Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Margot Robbie
Miles Teller
Shailene Woodley

[Chris Knipp]

And now for something completely different. Walter Chaw of Film Freak Central (http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/ffc/2015/01/ffcs-best-of-14.html) is an independent voice. See his detailed introduction (http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/ffc/2015/01/ffcs-best-of-14.html)to this best of 2014 list. Read his detailed comments for the interesting connections he draws.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/ffc.jpg


http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/wc.gif (http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/ffc/2015/01/ffcs-best-of-14.html)

25. The Guest (d. Adam Wingard)

24. The World of Kanako (d. Tetsuya Nakashima)

23. Foxcatcher (d. Bennett Miller)
Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, and Steve Carell in a kind of In Cold Blood by the director of Capote. It's an American Gothic cast in a brown study that covers the cult of masculinity in American culture in a tidy, beautiful parcel. There are so many things going on in the film that are lost in an almost-exclusive discussion of its performances. Time will out. Foxcatcher is an American masterpiece in that it tells truths about us, going so far as to end in a winter at Valley Forge.

22. Godzilla (d. Gareth Edwards)
A lot of people complained there wasn't enough Godzilla. I don't have a lot of respect for that argument. They missed the point: They were looking for Pacific Rim when it's actually Ozu's Gojira.

21. Starred Up (d. David Mackenzie)
I interviewed David Mackenzie once with Tilda Swinton for his L'atalante update Young Adam, then promptly lost sight of him for a little over a decade. Here he is with rising superstar Jack O'Connell in a performance so blistering that the film's otherwise mostly-standard prison drama is elevated into something strange and true. It has a lot to say about fathers and sons and I'm a sucker for that. Between this and '71 (slated for a 2015 release), O'Connell has earned the stardom that Angelina Jolie's misguided prestige piece Unbroken will give him.

20. Guardians of the Galaxy (d. James Gunn)
I saw this movie more times than any other this year. Six in the theatre alone. It wasn't planned, there were just more people I wanted to take with me. My son was the only constant through every viewing. This is his Star Wars. It's big, stupid, and fun. The girls are pretty in a taboo way, the boys have toys that light up and cover their face, and there's perhaps the first autistic superhero in a giant of a man who doesn't understand sarcasm or figures of speech. It has a great, AM Gold soundtrack, and it's vulnerable to getting pulled apart (Harlan Ellison hated Star Wars, after all, in a piece I couldn't bring myself to read for years) because it's a bit too long, doesn't have a narrative arc--is sloppy, really. I love it because it's an unapologetic, warm mess. Also, I enjoyed watching Chris Pratt turn into Harrison Ford during a Redbone song; it's not unlike that swooping shot running up to John Wayne in Stagecoach: Hey, there he is.

19. The Tale of Princess Kaguya (d. Isao Takahata)
Done in the same simple style as its contemporary Ernest and Celestine, Isao Takahata's picture demonstrates again that the Grave of the Fireflies director has a remarkable way with childhood. It's lyrical and melancholy, working as both allegory and mythology. This is what Into the Woods should have been (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, too), and it does it all in the tale of a poor older couple who discover a supernatural child in bamboo one day. They raise her, saddle her with their projections as parents do, and lose her as parents must. It works the way that fairy tales should--and there's a scene where Princess Kaguya flees a party in her honour that stands as perhaps the single best moment in cinema in 2014.

18. Only Lovers Left Alive (d. Jim Jarmusch)
Jim Jarmusch's effortlessly-cool vampire flick opens with a rapturous appreciation of vintage guitars and ends with a feeling of cozy, comfortable melancholy. It's about love, as so many of the films of 2014 were--a fascinating throughline emerging in everything from awards-bait garbage like The Theory of Everything to sleeper successes like Beyond the Lights. I want to mention, too, the new Annie, which deals with miscegenation in a really casual, bracing way. Annie's not a good movie, but it's brave. Kudos to Jamie Foxx, who, in 2014, fell in uncommented-upon love with Rose Byrne and gave a wonderful shout-out to Ralph Ellison in his portrayal of Electro in the deeply-underestimated The Amazing Spider-Man 2. But, Only Lovers Left Alive, yes--it has texture, almost; it's extraordinarily lush and detailed in creating its world. The picture's droll in the good sense of "droll," smart as hell, and plays like a T.S. Eliot poem. For all that, it features only the second-best Tilda Swinton performance this year.

17. Coherence (d. James Ward Byrkit)
A genuine mind-bender in a year of purported mind-benders, sometime Gore Verbinski collaborator James Ward Byrkit's modest little chamber piece is this year's +1 or Upstream Color. It's a brilliant sci-fi concept that, with no special effects to speak of and what must have been a miniscule budget, calls up the ghosts of cult flicks past with real verve. Scarier than it has any right to be, economical, incisive, fun, it ranks among the best debut films in a year of celebrated debuts. If nothing else, its cribbing of Cloverfield's "It was a good day" gave me the most delicious tingle.

16. Borgman (d. Alex van Warmerdam)

15. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (d. Matt Reeves)

14. Stranger by the Lake (L'inconnu du lac) (d. Alain Guiraudie)
A Rudy Metzger film on the surface, a Thomas Mann story underneath, it's about longing and carnality; uses Hitchcock correctly in a sentence; and is home to an absolutely haunted last twenty minutes that capture, ineffably, what Stephen King used to capture in his short stories. It's that feeling of the infernal crossing over into the mundane, but cheerfully--which, of course, makes it that much more horrible. It's about the body as a projection of the heart, until it's not, and the heart is well and truly deceived. Alain Guiraudie is one to watch.

13. A Field in England (d. Ben Wheatley)
A Kool-Aid acid trip of a journey into identity and the existential problems of history and masculinity. Absurd and ambitious in equal measure, frightening, and funny. And in its relationship to Vincent Ward's The Navigator, it posits itself as a kind of historical science-fiction. Ben Wheatley is as diverse as any filmmaker working today and with this film clears the path to his adaptation of J.G. Ballard's High Rise, a sort of vertical Snowpiercer with elements of Shivers. That's a match made in heaven.

12. Stray Dogs (d. Tsai Ming-liang)
Taiwanese grandmaster Tsai Ming-liang's second-best film after Goodbye Dragon Inn. It's a challenge, essentially, to the audience to reconfigure expectations, to do something they've been conditioned to do--in a very particular way--in a completely different way. Once the rhythm takes hold, Tsai starts the movie over again, holding shots well into perversity, and if you hang with it for long enough, you suddenly find yourself truly sutured into the saga of two children, their mother, and their father, living in abject poverty awash in torrents of rain. Symbolic and shambolic in equal measure, it's an experience at the movies that redefines the experience.

11. Darkness by Day (d. Martín De Salvo)

10. Edge of Tomorrow (d. Doug Liman)

9. The Strange Little Cat (Das merkwürdige Kätzchen) (d. Ramon Zürcher)
A brilliant debut that challenges the notion of sign/signifier while paying mad homage to Robert Bresson's cinema deconstructions. Plotless, it follows an absolutely ordinary family through its daily paces, while all around are these hints that the universe is subjective and apt, at any moment, to disintegrate on the strength or weakness of some mysterious cohesion. The picture suggests design, in other words, of the type that Tati would have imagined. Like Tati, the feeling that lingers is one of real delight at the potential of the cosmos to surprise. That it's affirming in its deconstructions makes it a rare bird indeed.

8. John Wick (d. Chad Stahelski)

7. We Are the Best! (Vi är bäst!) (d. Lukas Moodysson)
I've always liked Lukas Moodysson, but this is the first film of his that I've loved. It's so observant about adolescence, about those friends you used to have who you thought would be yours forever, about how everything means everything when you're a kid taking those first steps into a larger world. It's jubilant, celebratory of that pain, but not in any nugatory or exploitative sense. Rather, in the essaying of three young girls forming a punk band to protest gym class, We Are the Best! captures the exact temperature of bittersweetness. It's pure. A fight late in the film is resolved with a forced hug on public transportation; it's like any of any number of late nights spent drinking coffee at Denny's engaged in minuscule dramas we didn't know were just practice for the rest of our lives. Miraculous.

6. Winter Sleep (Kis uykusu) (d. Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylon's follow-up to his exceptional Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is an even more accomplished piece about pride and loneliness. It's about Mr. Aydın (Haluk Bilginer)--wealthy, disliked by everyone, and struggling in a quiet, internal way with that. Though it's been oft-described as Bergman-esque, I'd say it's more Chekhov than Strindberg, an intimate--sometimes suffocatingly so--portrait of a character who is the star of everyone's life but his own. Beautifully, meticulously shot, the picture beguiles and, like so many others of 2014, eventually coaxes a theme about the destructive, inescapable burden of masculinity. So good.

5. Force Majeure (Turist) (d. Ruben Östlund)

4. Blue Ruin (d. Jeremy Saulnier)

3. Two Days, One Night (Deux jours, une nuit) (ds. Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne)

2. Inherent Vice (d. Paul Thomas Anderson)

1. Under the Skin (d. Jonathan Glazer)

- See more at: http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/ffc/2015/01/ffcs-best-of-14.html#sthash.oiAUHXTc.dpuf