Chris Knipp's 2014 MOVIE BEST LISTS

[Chris Knipp]

TIMOTHY SPALL IN MR. TURNER

CHRIS KNIPP'S 2014 MOVIE BEST LISTS

BEST ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILMS:
MR. TURNER (Mike Leigh)
BLUE RUIN (Jeremy Saulnier)
CALVARY ( John Michael McDonagh)
NIGHT MOVES (Kelly Reichardt)
THEORY OF EVERYTHING (James Marsh)
BIRDMAN (Alessandro G. Innaritu)
LISTEN UP PHILIP (Alex Ross Perry)
LOCKE (Steven Knight)
THE DROP (Michaël R. Roskam)
NIGHTCRAWLER (Dan Gilroy)
COLD IN JULY ( Jim Mickle)
PALO ALTO (Gia Coppola)


ANAÏS DEMOUSTIER IN BIRD PEOPLE

BEST FOREIGN FILMS:
IDA (Pawel Pawlikowski)
WE ARE THE BEST! (Lucas Moodysson)
TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT (Jean-Pierre, Luc Dardenne)
BIRD PEOPLE (Pascale Ferran)
BELOVED SISTERS ( Dominik Graf)
SAINT LAURENT (Bertrand Bonello)
STRANGER BY THE LAKE (Alain Guiraudie)
LEVIATHAN (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
NYMPHOMANIAC 1 & 2 (Lars von Trier)
L'IL QUINQUIN (Bruno Dumont)


JAY REINKE IN THE OVERNIGHTERS

BEST DOCUMENTARIES:
THE OVERNIGHTERS (Jesse Moss)
POINT AND SHOOT (Marshall Curry)
THE INTERNET'S OWN BOY (Brian Knappenberger)
SEYMOUR: AN INTRODUCTION (Ethan Hawke)
LLYN FOULKES ONE MAN BAND (Tamar Halpern, Chris Quilty)
CITIZENFOUR (Laura Poitras)
FINDING VIVIAN MEIER/THE VIVIAN MEIER MYSTERY
PARTICLE FEVER (Mark Levinson)
JODOROVSKY'S DUNE (Frank Pavich)
LIFE ITSELF (Steve James)
TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER (Nick Broomfield)
THE LAST OF THE UNJUST (Claude Lanzmann)
THE MISSING PICTURE (Rithy Panh)
12 O'CLOCK BOYS (Lotfy Nathan)
THE KILL TEAM (Dan Krauss)
RICH HILL ( Andrew Droz Palermo, Tracy Droz Tragos)
HAPPY VALLEY (mir Bar-Lev)
RED ARMY ( Gabe Polsky)
NATIONAL GALLERY (Frederick Wiseman)
THE GREEN PRINCE (Nadav Schirman)

SHORTLISTED, BOTH CATEGORIES:
THE LEGO MOVIE (Phil Lord, Christopher Miller)
FURY (David Ayer)
INHERENT VICE (Paul Thomas Anderson)
LAST DAYS OF VIETNAM (Rory Kennedy)
. . .

KIRILL EMELYANOV, OLIVIER RABOURDIN IN EASTERN BOYS

(SOME) BEST FESTIVAL UNRELEASED:
'71 (Yann Demange) NYFF (coming Feb. 2015)
HILL OF FREEDOM (Hong Sang-soo)
TIMBUKTU (Abderrahmane Sissako NYFF) (coming Jan. 2015)
THE RETURN TO HOMS (documentaryND/NF)
EASTERN BOYS (Robin Campillo, French RV) (Feb. 2015 release)

OTHERS LIKE:
BOYHOOD (Richard Linklater)
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (Wes Anderson)
WHIPLASH (Damien Chazelle)
​FOXCATCHER (Bennett Miller)
UNDER THE SKIN (Jonathan Glazer)
MAPS TO THE STARS (David Cronenberg)

UNFORTUNATELY HAVE MISSED:
LAST DAYS IN VIETNAM (Rory Kennedy)
WINTER SLEEP (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
THE HOMESMAN (Tommy Lee Jones)

BEST LATE RELEASE:
A SUMMER'S TALE (Eric Rohmer)

BEST ANIMATION:
THE LEGO MOVIE ( Phil Lord, Christopher Miller)

[oscar jubis]

I've watched a lot of movies during the past month; almost two per day. It's amazing how many good films are there to watch. I've said that before. It's an embarrassment of riches. Is that phrase appropriate? I used to keep better track of things, like lists of films. I made one for 2014 and I don't know where it is. There are so many titles on the lists above that I have not watched. I can see that in the past I would have responded to a film like Blue Ruin, the way I responded to Blood Simple. I just watched The Homesman, directed, co-written and starring Tommy Lee Jones. He used many of the same crew that worked in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, his directorial debut. I hope he makes another film like them. I love these movies. They are westerns that would not have been made during the heyday of the genre because the lives of Mexicans or women did not take center stage, as they do here. I could spend a lot of time discussing what makes this film a western and what makes it something else. One of the extra features on the Blu Ray disc does precisely that. I like Locke a lot. I told myself 3 years ago that I must watch Mr. Turner and I have yet to do it. I just received my dvd of Bird People which few have seen and you list. It sounds so interesting to me. Maybe I can find that 2014 list. I'm sure I listed the Dardenne film, and Timbuktu also.