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”
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks