I was looking back over this blog and I realized that I've seen relatively few movies this year. By my count, I saw *about* 24 movies in the theatre, plus a dozen or so On Demand/Netflix. That might seem like a lot to you, but during my movie-going heyday circa 2011-2012 (when I lived in Nashville and had a membership to the best theatre in existence) I saw almost double those numbers.
So here we are. I haven't seen Boyhood or Birdman yet, but I don't know when I will, so I'm going to go ahead and do my best of list. Overall, I found the films of 2014 to be less impressive and exciting than the films of 2013 and 2012, where I really agonized over which films were "the best" versus "my favorite". This year, the majority of the films I saw were undeniably good, but there were very few that punched me right in the gut the way Her, 12 Years a Slave, and Moonrise Kingdom did in previous years. Still, some of the movies on this list are remarkably creative. Here's how I would rank them:
11) Foxcatcher
The main emotion I felt during Foxcatcher, a film based on the true story of the relationship between rich weirdo John du Pont and Olympic gold winning wrestlers Mark and Dave Schultz, was a deep, gnawing lack of comfort. This discomfort can be attributed to Steve Carell's excellent performance as du Pont, a man who was beyond strange and beyond wealthy. Director Bennett Miller succeeds in maintaining such an eerie atmosphere for over 2 hours that the violent events at the conclusion of the film almost come as a relief.
10) Big Eyes
I haven't reviewed Tim Burton's Big Eyes yet since I saw it just yesterday, but I had to include it since it is a delightful little movie and a throwback to Burton's earlier films (think Ed Wood, not Alice in Wonderland) where he regularly tackled the politics of "polite society" and the pressures to conform. Amy Adams gives an understated performance as Margaret Keane, the woman behind the wildly popular (and very kitchsy) paintings of children with huge, sad eyes in the early 1960's. Although she did all the paintings herself, her domineering, narcissistic husband, Walter Keane, took credit for the paintings as they became increasingly profitable. Why did Margaret go along with these lies for so long? The film traces her relationship with Walter (she was a divorcee and single mother when she met him) from its romantic beginning to abusive end, revealing the reasons why she felt she could not stand up her husband. The one beef I have with the movie is that Christoph Waltz gives a bit of an over-the-top performance as Walter Keane. Waltz has made a career out of playing intelligent, gentlemanly sadists, which is exactly what Walter Keane was. But Waltz didn't need to turn him into a borderline-comic ogre. A little subtly would have been appropriate for the role.
9) The One I Love
How about a romantic dramedy with science-fiction elements? The One I Love makes the list for sheer creativity and wack-a-doodleness, along with fun performances by Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass. I can't say much lest I reveal one of about five plot twists, but the film centers on a married couple who spend the weekend at a vacation home in order to reconnect and heal old wounds. And then a bunch of weird, metaphysical shit goes down. If you can suspend your disbelief, The One I Love is a fun and creepy look at the struggle to accept our romantic partners as they truly are, not as they potentially could be.
8) Gone Girl
"Acidic", "razor wire", "twisted". These are a few of the phrases used to describe David Fincher's Gone Girl, as well as Gillian Flynn's novel. Indeed, the film is either difficult to watch or extremely pleasurable and exciting, depending on the sentimental value one attaches to the institution of marriage. A man who is a bit of a dope, and also a cheater (Ben Affleck in the role he was born to play!), marries a woman who seems to be super cool, but hides oceans of anger and resentment below her blonde beauty surface (Rosamund Pike, also perfectly cast). Gone Girl is not only well-acted and well-directed, but just flat-out entertaining.
7) The Fault in Our Stars
And here we have the opposite of Gone Girl: a love story that is so earnest and pure, yet somehow avoids being treacly. Teenagers Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters meet at a cancer support group for young adults. Hazel Grace, though fiercely intelligent, is basically running out the clock on her life, waiting for the inevitable day where the clusters of cancerous cells in her lungs will kill her. Gus seems to be out of the woods after losing a leg to bone cancer. They fall deeply in love--perhaps all the more deeply knowing that time is very precious. The Fault in Our Stars--both the film and the wonderful novel it's based on--could have been schmaltzy and sentimental. Instead, Hazel Grace's biting sarcasm and Gus' vacillations between youthful self-importance and helpless fear flesh out the characters beyond two-dimensional tragic figures and make us believe in their love.
6) Selma
Selma is undoubtedly a timely film. With the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner (and countless others) endlessly debated on the news and all around the Internet, seeing a cop gun down a young, black man for no reason early on in Selma is like a punch to the nose. Many Americans (mostly, but not limited to, white) desperately want to believe that racism is a thing of the past because if it is not something to be left to the history books, we might be complicit in it. Ironically, the only way to move forward towards harmonious race relations is to admit our part in the problem and figure out ways to change not only our laws and culture, but our personal prejudices and assumptions--which is exceedingly difficult for groups of people who benefit from racism (and other "isms").
Selma stares historical racism dead in the eye, but refuses to end on a cynical note. Notably, it tells the story of the march from Selma to Montgomery through the eyes of the people most affected by the march: black people. And not just Martin Luther King Jr., although he is certainly at the center of the story. Coretta Scott King, John Lewis, Annie Lee Cooper, James Bevel, and many other civil rights activists get their moment in the spotlight as well, giving depth and authenticity to this story. It's a story of a community coming together to fight for the simple right to be treated with dignity, as equals. And it subtly points out that the fight isn't over yet.
5) The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Grand Budapest Hotel is the film that shot Wes Anderson onto the shortlist of Oscar contenders for Best Director. Ironically, I don't think it's his best film (personally, I'd consider Rushmore and Moonrise Kingdom tied for best, but others may disagree). Still, it's fantastic to see this whimsical director finally get his due. Some complain that all Wes Anderson movies are the same, and I don't disagree. They are remarkably similar both in style (colorful, symmetrically framed) and theme (Daddy issues. Lots and lots of Daddy issues). But the man has a crystal clear vision and he pulls it off every time and has his fans (and, increasingly, more "mainstream" viewers) coming back for more.
The Grand Budapest Hotel centers on the adventures of M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes), a concierge of the titular hotel who moonlights as a gigolo to older women (he gives them the "boyfriend experience"). Fiennes makes this movie. His portrayal of M. Gustave, a man with impeccable manners, wit, and creativity, encapsulates the Wes Anderson universe perfectly--a universe we could only dream of living in, so instead we watch our dreams flicker to life for a couple hours in Anderson's candy-colored fantasies.
4) Nymphomaniac: Vols. 1 and 2
Easily the most controversial film on this list (Entertainment Weekly put Nymphomaniac on its "Worst of 2014" list), I just...I dunno, "loved" might be too strong a word...was intrigued and glued to the screen when I watched both parts of Lars von Trier's story of a self-described "nymphomaniac". Certain scenes really stood out to me: the scene where Joe (the main character, played by both Stacy Martin and Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her school friends renounce love by chanting "mea vulva, mea maxima vulva"; the scene where Joe seeks out the services of a "pain artist" and is given forty lashes while tied to a couch on Christmas Day; the troubling and also completely appropriate ending of the film. Plenty of people would consider Nymphomaniac (and, indeed, most of von Trier's work) and lot of pretentious hooey--and I wouldn't blame them at all! It is pretentious, and maybe the only reason I like his work is because so many people hate it. But where others see nothing but misogyny and bullshit, I--100% serious--see art. Call me crazy! I loved Nymphomaniac.
3) Snowpiercer
Where The One I Love has metaphysical craziness, Snowpiercer has spatial craziness. Taking place on a giant train that continuously circles the globe after the earth has frozen over in the wake of a man-made disaster, Snowpiercer was probably hands down the most creative and unique film film I saw this year. Using its cramped, dystopian setting as a lens to explore class conflict, director Bong Joon-Ho not only dazzles (and repulses) the audience's eyes with set-pieces and fight scenes as a group of rebels from the "foot" of the train tries to make it to the wealthy front of the train, he also makes us think about what it takes to keep the 1% living their lives of sinful comfort while the majority of the world's population eat bugs for dinner. Based on the graphic novel by Jacques Lob, Jean-Marc Rochette, and Benjamin Legrand, Snowpiercer is an entertaining, sickening, wild ride from start to finish.
2) Wild
Based on the memoir by Cheryl Strayed, Wild was so much more than I expected it to be. With a wonderful lead performance by Reese Witherspoon, I went into Wild thinking it was going to be a mildly gritty tale of girl power where sunny Reese would barely break a sweat. Instead, Wild is a love letter from a daughter to her mother as well as a story where a woman makes a choice to turn her life around in the least sentimental, most profound way possible. Strayed is an atheist who finds her soul on the Pacific Crest Trail. She's a feminist who craves the company of men. She's a loving daughter who becomes the very person her mother would not want her to be in the wake of her mother's death. Strayed represents the contradictions inherent in all of us, making this film relatable even to those who have never struggled with debilitating grief or hiked so much as a single mile. Watching Strayed find her own way out of the wilderness touched me very deeply.
1) Whiplash
There are a lot of great movies on this list--serious ones, goofy ones, and everything in between. But the best time I had at the theatre this year was when I saw Whiplash, a frenetic, intense little drama about the relationship between a talented young jazz drummer (Miles Teller) and his sadistic, abusive teacher (J.K. Simmons in the best performance of the year). Where most of the films on this list are big--big casts, big ideas, epic scope--Whiplash is small. Intimate, really. And it has something I really dig in movies: moral ambiguity. Was Fletcher (the teacher) right to push Andrew (the student) to the breaking point? Did his "unorthodox" techniques serve to help a young musician bloom? Is total and complete dedication to one's craft the price one must pay for art that transcends mediocrity? Director Damien Chazelle teases us by never committing to a side on any of these questions, instead letting the audience decide for themselves. The sexy jazz soundtrack adds to Whiplash's edgy, nervy atmosphere which builds, and builds, and builds to a climactic final scene that is the perfect close to a near-perfect movie.
He kind of looks like a Nosferatu, doesn't he?
Honorable mentions: The Babadook, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything, Nightcrawler
***
And some other superlatives!
Worst movie I saw (in the theatre) this year:
Tammy
Boy, I wanted to like this Melissa McCarthy comedy, but it just wasn't funny. McCarthy's titular character wasn't just a fuck-up; she appeared to be mentally ill. And the "heartwarming" relationship between Tammy and her alcoholic grandma (played gamely by Susan Sarandon) seemed forced and awkward.
Movie that made my cold, dead ovaries explode with love:
The Babadook
It makes sense that a movie that explores the ambiguity of motherhood would be the one to tug at my fallopian tubes. Essie Davis plays a single mom trying her best with troubled son Sam. Her trials only get worse when Sam discovers a terrifying book on his shelf about a mysterious character named "Mr. Babadook" who begins to pop up in real life.
Nicole Kidman's Fake Nose Award:
Nightcrawler
In honor of the false nose Kidman wore in The Hours to play plain Virginia Woolf, this award goes to a hot actor/actress who slums it as an uggo in service to his/her craft. Jake Gyllenhaal lost a bunch of weight to play the opportunistic freelance videographer Louis Bloom in the creepy film Nightcrawler. Gyllenhaal looks rangy, like a hungry dog, with buggy eyes that never blink. Way to go, Jake! Now you know how most people when they look in the mirror and *don't* see a sexy puppy dog looking back at them.
See what I mean? Sexy puppy.
That's all folks! I hope you continue to tune in all through 2015 for more damn good coffee!
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