In 2014,
The Winter Olympics were held in Sochi, Russia;
Russia annexed Crimea;
The Catholic Church canonized Pope John Paul II;
The San Antonio Spurs won their fifth NBA championship;
ISIS declared itself a caliphate;
Monty Python performed together for the last time;
Riots occurred in Ferguson, Missouri following the death of Michael Brown;
Scotland voted against independence from the United Kingdom;
After a fifty year embargo, the US normalized relations with Cuba;
Jimmy Fallon debuted as host of The Tonight Show,
Chicago P.D, True Detective, Silicon Valley, Fargo, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Halt and Catch Fire, The Leftovers, Running Wild with Bear Grylls, Outlander, BoJack Horseman, Gotham, NCIS: New Orleans, Black-ish, How to Get Away with Murder, Star Wars Rebels, The Flash, and Jane the Virgin debuted on American television;
How I Met Your Mother, True Blood, Boardwalk Empire, Sons of Anarchy, and The Legend of Korra ended their initial runs;
General Hospital aired its 13,000th episode;
Juanita Moore, Phil Everly, Saul Zaents, Mae Young, Maximillian Schell, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ralph Kiner, Shirley Temple, Sid Caesar, Ralph Waite, Jim Fregosi, Viscera, Harold Ramis, Fred Phelps, Ralph Wilson, Mickey Rooney, The Ultimate Warrior, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Bob Hoskins, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., H.R. Geiger, Gordon Willis, Don Zimmer, Rik Mayall, Ruby Dee, Chuck Noll, Casey Kasem, Ton Gwynn, Eli Wallach, Meshach Taylor, Paul Mazursky, Louis Zamperini, Nadine Gordimer, Elaine Stritch, James Garner, Dick Smith, Robin Williams, Lauren Bacall, Jim Jeffords, Don Pardo, Richard Attenborough, Joan Rivers, Richard Kiel, Polly Bergen, Rob Bironas, Jan Hooks, Oscar de La Renta, Mike Nichols, Marion Barry, P.D. James, Bess Myerson, Joe Cocker, and Dick Dale died.
Maria (Juliette Binoche), an aging actress who made her name years ago as the young Sigrid in Maloja Snake, travels with her assistant, Valentine (Kristen Stewart) to visit the play’s author. Sadly, the author dies before she gets there, but she’s approached about revisiting the play as the older central character, Helen. She reluctantly accepts and a young American actress Jo-Anna Ellis (Chloe Grace Moretz) is cast opposite her as Sigrid.
As she prepares for the play, her relationship with Valentine mirrors the one central to Maloja Snake.
It’s another ponderous, beautiful film from Oliver Assayas. His movies are just artsy enough for my taste.
Stewart’s career has been fascinating, and one can never say enough about Juliette Bincohe’s work. The only weak spot is Moretz’s Ellis which seemed a little over the top.
This asks important questions about aging, the purpose of life, and how art connects us. I loved it.
9) Phoenix
Holocaust survivor Nelly Lenz (Nina Hoss) undergoes reconstructive surgery because of a bullet wound and returns to Berlin with her friend, Lene, to discover she has inherited a large sum of money.
Her friend wants to claim the money and move to Palestine, but Nelly insists on finding her husband Johnny first, despite Lene’s warnings Johnny may have betrayed her to the Nazis.
When she finds him at a nightclub, Johnny doesn’t recognize Nelly, but sees enough resemblance to suggest she pose as his presumed deceased wife to claim her inheritance.
Desiring to learn the truth of his involvement in her imprisonment, Nelly pretends to impersonate herself to gain access to Johnny.
This is a powerful and poignant film about how people respond to danger, the limits of love and trust, and the risk of placing faith in others. The final scene, when pianist Johnny accompanies the women he thinks is impersonating his wife in a cabaret number is heartbreaking. This film manages to do something increasingly rare, mine the wreckage of the Holocaust and find something original to say.
8) Top Five
Chris Rock directed and starred in this film and changed my assessment of him.
It’s a surprisingly sensitive depiction of the artist’s life, the juggling act between popularity, artistic integrity, and impostor syndrome.
It’s chock hull of amazing cameos of Rock’s real life buddies like Sanders, Seinfeld, and Whoopi.
The rest of the cast is equally amazing, including J.B Smoove, Gabrielle Union, Rosario Dawson, Leslie Jones, Taraji P Henson, Michael Che, Ben Vereen, and DMX.
The rap top fives is a fun hook.
It feels like it’s been slightly memory holed, but I loved it.
7) Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
As Viviane tries to divorce her husband Elisha, the rabbinical court and the power given her husband to hinder the process is infuriating.
The intricacies of divorce in other cultures are fascinating. It’s hard to imagine this way of life exists and is the norm in large portions of the world.
I’m not a big feminist, but I can see the injustice here.
6) Whiplash
Damien Chazelle’s feature length debut sizzles from start to finish, thanks to a career best performance from J.K. Simmons as Terrence Fletcher. He’s fully committed to the borderline cruel, hyper-focused music teacher who pushes Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller) to squeeze every ounce from his talent.
Fletcher is like a music school version of Bobby Knight and I loved every second of his menacing, self-righteous, performance. His mind games and motivational tactics are wonderful and his “Not my tempo” refrain lives in my head.
Teller parlayed his breakout role into a respectable career. Paul Reiser makes a delightful appearance on his path to renewed relevance as a character actor.
Chazelle’s films have oddly gotten worse (in my opinion) with each successive outing, but he had plenty of room to fall after this sensational debut and earned the right to experiment.
When scavenger Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) steals an orb from the planet Morag, Kree fanatic Ronan sends the assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana) to acquire the orb.
When she finds Quill on Xandar, they’re accosted by bounty hunters Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel).
After a brief skirmish, the group is arrested and thrown in jail where they meet Drax (Dave Bautista). He’s initially hostile, but when they promise him a chance to extract revenge on Ronan for killing his family, he helps them escape.
While negotiating to sell the orb to The Collector (Benicio del Toro), they discover it contains an Infinity Stone.
Ronan, with the help of Zamora’s sister Nebula (Karen Gillian), finds the group and uses the Infinity Stone to launch a war against the Nova Corp, leaving Quill and his rag-tag group of friends as the last line of defense.
Affable and charming, Chris Pratt is a less intimidating, less bulky version of The Rock.
Miraculously, Bradley Cooper manages to make an anthropomorphic raccoon the emotional center of the film, continuing his recent streak of successes.
Dave Bautista shows unexpected subtlety and demonstrates an impeccable sense of timing. There may not be many roles for a muscle-bound goofball, but if there are, he’s in the running for them.
It’s nice to see veteran actor Michael Rooker getting some much deserved attention as Yondu, and this film will go a long way to ensuring Karen Gillian is remembered as more than Amy Pond.
The first foray of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmic side of their catalog is a rousing success, and smartly positions itself as the spiritual lovechild of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series, subtly reinforcing this with its vintage soundtrack.
This is not art house cinema, although it certainly touches on genuinely emotional material with Quill’s parents, Drax’s family, Rocket’s existential pain, and Groot’s sacrifice, but the movie backgrounds these emotional arcs for escapist fun. True to their comic roots, Marvel is much more interested in producing entertainment than art. As long as the product is as good as this, I hope they continue.
Teenagers Hazel (Shaileene Woodley) and Gus (Ansel Elgort) bond over their respective cancer diagnoses. As their relationship blossoms, they meet the author of Hazel’s favorite book, Peter Van Houten (Willem Dafoe). Unfortunately, Van Houten is a belligerent drunk.
Based on the young adult novel by John Green, it’s sappy and over earnest without an ounce of cynicism, and I loved it.
Shaileene Woodley became a star, while Ansel Elgort was a busy leading man for a moment. Dafoe was as excellent as ever and Laura Dern gives a fine supporting role as Hazel’s mother.
It’s not for everyone, but I love a movie which makes me feel.
3) Paddington
When an earthquake destroys his home, a bear leaves deepest, darkest Peru, stowing away on a boat bound for London. The Browns discover him, name him Paddington (after the station where they found him), and adopt him into their family.
He attempts to find the explorer who met his parents years ago, while fending off an evil taxidermist, Millicent Clyde (Nicole Kidman).
It’s a lovely, sweet film. Like an all ages version of Amélie.
Nicole Kidman is great. Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Imelda Staunton, Michael Gambon, Peter Capaldi, Julie Walters, and Ben Whishaw round out the British cast and do a wonderful job or making what could have been a cynical cash grab into a an absolute delightful adaptation of Michael Bond’s beloved character.
2) Interstellar (2014)
In the not so distant future, a planet-wide blight has hurled humanity backwards into a semi-agrarian society.
Widowed former NASA astronaut Joseph “Coop” Cooper runs a farm with his daughter Murphy (Mackenzie Foy), son Tom, and father-in-law Donald (John Lithgow), but he still dreams of traveling to the stars.
Murphy believes a ghost is manipulating objects in her room. Coop is skeptical, but when he begrudgingly investigates, he realizes the “ghost” is using gravity to send a message with coordinates to a secret NASA installation where Coop’s former college professor, Dr. John Brand (Michael Caine), is leading a team searching for a solution to humanity’s existential crisis. After their meeting, Coop volunteers for a long mission into space, angering Murphy.
Years later, an adult Murphy (Jessica Chastain) works with Dr. Brand, while hopefully waiting to hear from her long missing father.
By film’s end, as the elderly Murphy (Ellen Burstyn) prepares for her next adventure in a world beyond, the two are finally, improbably reunited.
Christopher Nolan worked closely with physicist Kip Thorne to ensure scientific accuracy in everything from black holes, to tesseracts, to gravitational time dilation, but while the film’s devotion to authenticity is admirable, it soars because it uses this pristine, scientific narrative to explore a messy, human relationship.
Matthew McCounaughey continues his recent phenomenal run of quality films. Anne Hathaway’s subtle work as Dr. Brand’s daughter, Amelia, provides a compelling counter balance to Murphy’s devotion, demonstrating the danger and vulnerability of trust. And, in his eighties, Michael Caine continues his late career renaissance thanks to Christopher Nolan and his willingness to take less glamorous roles in his golden years.
The film’s only weak spot is Matt Damon as Dr. Hugh Mann. Damon does what he can, but the character is really just a plot device and the film bogs down when he’s in it.
Nolan’s name will always be associated with Batman, but this film will resonate for years to come. It’s an astounding achievement which renews our wonder at the beauty of science and harkens back to the oldest of fairy tales about the power and importance of love.
1) Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
Riggan Thompson (Michael Keaton) made a lot of money starring in a series of super hero movies as the titular Birdman. Tired of playing the same character, and wanting to be taken seriously as an artist, he mounts a Broadway adaptation of Raymond Carver’s short story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.”
He surrounds his production with his friends and family. His best friend and lawyer Jake (Zack Galifianakis) produces the project, his recovering addict daughter, Sam (Emma Stone) works as his personal assistant, and his girlfriend, Laura (Andrea Riseborough) costars.
When rehearsals go poorly, Riggan (who may have telekinetic powers) manipulates a light can to fall, injuring his male costar then replaces him with Mike Shiner (Ed Norton), an acclaimed method actor. Shiner’s talent raises the artistic value of the production, but his ego and attitude create tension.
As the premiere approaches, Riggan’s personal and professional life fall further into shambles. On opening night, heeding Shiner’s earlier plea for greater realism, Riggan brings a real gun onstage for his final dramatic scene, and, at the play’s climax, shoots himself in the head.
Fortunately, he survives the incident, only damaging his nose. He wakes up in the hospital to learn the play is a critical hit and his performance is hailed as a theatrical triumph of “super-realism” by the harsh theater critic who had pledged to destroy him.
The performances were universally excellent. Amy Ryan is superb as Riggan’s frustrated ex-wife, Emma Stone is wonderful, and Ed Norton deliciously parodies his own image as an overly neurotic actor.
I left the film in awe of its artistry and vision. Alejandro Iñarritu’s film, the lovechild of Raymond Carver and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, is a daring gamble which paid off handsomely.
Filmed as one uninterrupted shot, it feels unscripted like a documentary or a reality show and it’s drum heavy, jazz infused soundtrack keeps it alive and spontaneous.
Keaton’s history as Batman lends a credibility to the work it’s difficult to ignore, and my deeply personal response to the film is wrapped up in my attachment to his previous work. I grew up watching Mr. Mom (1983) and The Dream Team (1989). I was ten years old when Burton’s Batman premiered and, like so many other fifth graders, wore a Batman T-shirt at least once a week. So, seeing Keaton touch into his past and explore it so openly made it a much more personal, self-reflexive film for me.