THE TEN BEST FILMS OF 2014 -----Interstellar, Leviathan, Selma, Force Majeure and Ida lead the way Well, I have finally taken the plunge. Over the course of 2014 I managed to see 238 feature-length films in theaters (including the 52 I saw at the Tribeca Film Festival back in April), most of which Lucille also attended. I saw several others on DVD and screeners, bring the grand total to over 250. Generally it was a solid year for film, though as always it were the independents and foreign language releases that brought it to prominence. As always I have a Top Ten with a 10th place tie, meaning it is a Top 11. In view of all that has come at years end, I am unable at this time to provide my usual capsule review of each, but will do so at a later date. For now, I offer up the list (Top 11) and the ten films that I thought were strong enough to make my Honorable Mention scroll. I did of course like a number of other films quite a bit, but I restricted the number on that second list to ten: 1. Interstellar (USA; Christoper Nolan) 2. Leviathan (Russia; Andrey Zvyagintsev) 3. Selma (USA; Ava DuVernay) 4. Force Majeure (Sweden; Ruben Ostlund) 5. Ida (Poland; Pawel Pawlikowski) 6. Boyhood (USA; Richard Linklater) 7. Winter Sleep (Turkey; Nuri Bilge Ceylan) 8. Pride (UK; Stephen Breresford) 9. The Grand Budapest Hotel (USA; Wes Anderson) 10. The Imitation Game (UK; Morten Tyldum) Keep on Keepin On (USA; Alan Hicks) -tie- Honorable Mention (in no particular order) Stranger by the Lake (Canada/French) Bad Hair (Venuzuela) Whiplash (USA) Mr. Turner (UK) Calvary (Ireland) Under The Skin (UK) Belle (USA) The Immigrant (USA) Two Days One Night (France) Stand Clear of Closing Doors (USA)
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 15:16:53 +0000