Top 10 Movies of 2014

10. A MOST WANTED MAN

Phillip Seymour Hoffman's death hit the film world harder than probably anyone else's this past year.  It was very much our pleasure though that he gave us this one last great leading performance to remember him by.  He perfectly embodies the Le Carre model of spy: not a suave, sophisticated Bond-esque jet setter, but a man who speaks rarely so as not to give away information and is able to blend into a crowd rather than stand out in it.  Le Carre's novels now have a proven track record as cinematic gold (The Constant Gardener and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy are just two great examples), and that trend continues here.  Anton Corbijn (The American) knows how to balance complex stories with rich, interesting characters.  And the ending is a killer.


9. FRANK

Frank was mostly sold on the basis of Michael Fassbender, and while he is terrific despite almost never seeing his face, the film's success is just as dependent on the leading performance of Domnhall Gleeson, who is becoming a very reliable actor in his own right.  It's kind of a horrifying concept to base a film around: to be passionate about something and want success more than anything, then to meet someone who has all the talent and realize that you'll never have that success.  Conventionally, Fassbender's character Frank serves as a great analysis of mental illness, but Gleeson's character serves as the flip side of that coin, and how external factors can affect one's mental health as well.  In addition, the film is side-splittingly funny.


8. THE CONGRESS

I've always been a fan of science fiction that goes beyond just showing new spaceships and laser weapons and instead tries to take the current sociopolitical context of our world, stretch it to its limits, and see what that can tell us.  The Congress creates a fully realized world that seems like a somewhat natural progression from our world today based on our continued dehumanization due to technology.  The world building here is excellent, and the use of animation as if that is the real way we see the world works very well in stark contrast to the drabness of the "live action" world we see at the beginning.




7. THE DROP

Tom Hardy has created an incredibly diverse set of performances across his still burgeoning career, but Bob Saginowski might be his best performance yet.  Hardy evokes an early De Niro, bringing life and empathy to a character despite maybe not having much going on between the ears.  He perfectly balances the menace and innocence that the role calls for.  Dennis Lehane's work has provided the basis for some great work over the past decade or so (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, not to mention his work on The Wire), and you can add another one to the list here.  The crime genre has so many entries that its hard to find something truly unique, but I found this one to be endearing all the same.


6. THE ROVER

David Michod's stark neo-western is not for the faint of heart.   It paints a cruel, harsh world where the laws that once dictated human morality are gone.  The exploration of what morality means when only you are left to judge yourself is a pretty fascinating concept to me, and well explored in this movie.  Guy Pearce gives a stellar, often silent performance as a man tortured by guilt for many unexpected reasons, but the best part of The Rover is Robert Pattinson, who continues to prove here alongside his recent Cronenberg work that he's a serious actor to be reckoned with.  His scene of singing in the car definitely ranks among my favorite single scenes of the year.



5. THE HOMESMAN

I was completely floored by this one, expecting something more classical and romanticized, but instead getting something deep and thoughtful and in some ways more akin to a psychological horror movie.  The film really delves into some interesting gender political issues centered around the subjugation of women in the Old West, and the contrast of the women being transported against Mary Bee Cuddy's own personal struggle is heartbreaking to watch.  The ending is just as heartbreaking, and the film held quite a few surprises for me on its way there.




4. CALVARY

John Michael McDonagh's first film, The Guard, understandably came with a bit of skepticism.  His brother Martin had just made In Bruges with Brendan Gleeson, could he deliver something anywhere near as good, or was he just getting his brother's leftovers?  It turns out both brothers had the goods, and now with his second film, brother John takes a giant leap forward.  The brothers both have a pretty masterful way of balancing dark comedy and heavy drama, and Calvary might get that balance best.  Gleeson shines in one of his best performances, but every small role is excellently written and perfectly cast.  On a pure surface level, the concept of "what can a good priest do in a bad world?" may sound tedious and boring, but McDonagh and Gleeson have delivered a terrific morality play that is insanely watchable.

3. OBVIOUS CHILD

A truly star-making film, not just for Jenny Slate, but for the writer/director Gillian Robespierre (this is her first feature film).  Obvious Child tackles some heavy subject matter, but it manages to do it with such grace and charm that what could feel like a high-wire act of balancing taboo with comedy instead just seems to work as one cohesive piece.  It's proof that moral and political issues can work on screen without feeling preachy if they are handled through character first rather than just being forced onto the audience.





2. NIGHTCRAWLER

The best film about the dark side of "The American Dream" since There Will Be Blood.  Like the previous entry in this list, I am astonished to see such an excellent piece of work from a first-time director.  It seems like more than half his job was done for him, however, when he cast Jake Gyllenhaal, who gives my favorite performance of the year from any film.  Lou Bloom is fascinating not only as a character but also as a microcosm of American ambition, where tenacity and resourcefulness are much more highly valued than intelligence and empathy.




1. THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

2014 was a great year for comedy, but nothing made me laugh harder than Wes Anderson's latest.  He has created an entirely new world for his little caper to play out in, allowing his already idiosyncratic nature to go absolutely insane creating every last bit we see on screen from whole cloth.  The cast is a veritable galaxy of stars, led by the amazing Ralph Fiennes, and everyone contributes at least one great moment.  It was a huge surprise for such a funny movie to have scenes as fun as a Bond-esque ski chase and a hotel shootout.  In a world of big budget films acquiring talented directors to fulfill a corporate vision, it's always a delight to see Anderson just go off and make his own version of that kind of movie instead. With one film, Anderson has done better world and character building than a whole slew of Marvel superhero movies.


Here is a link to all of the 2014 movies I saw, roughly ranked: http://letterboxd.com/greenleaf1/list/2014-movies-ranked/

2014 Awards

DIRECTOR

• Wes Anderson, THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL*
• Dan Gilroy, NIGHTCRAWLER
• Tommy Lee Jones, THE HOMESMAN
• David Michod, THE ROVER
• Gillian Robespierre, OBVIOUS CHILD

ACTOR

• Ralph Fiennes as M. Gustave, THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
• Brendan Gleeson as Father James, CALVARY
• Jake Gyllenhaal as Louis Bloom, NIGHTCRAWLER*
• Tom Hardy as Bob Saginowski, THE DROP
• Philip Seymour Hoffman as Günther Bachmann, A MOST WANTED MAN

ACTRESS

• Scarlett Johansson as ?, UNDER THE SKIN
• Keira Knightley as Gretta James, BEGIN AGAIN
• Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Noni, BEYOND THE LIGHTS
• Hilary Swank as Mary Bee Cuddy, THE HOMESMAN
• Jenny Slate as Donna Stern, OBVIOUS CHILD*

SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Michael Fassbender as Frank Sidebottom, FRANK
• Shia LaBeouf as Bible, FURY
• Edward Norton as Mike Shiner, BIRDMAN
• Robert Pattinson as Rey, THE ROVER*
• Matthias Schoenaerts as Eric Deeds, THE DROP

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Rachel McAdams as Annabel Richter, A MOST WANTED MAN
• Rene Russo as Nina Romina, NIGHTCRAWLER*
• Tilda Swinton as Mason, SNOWPIERCER
• Melanie Thierry as Bainsley, THE ZERO THEOREM
• Katherine Waterston as Shasta Fay Hepworth, INHERENT VICE

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• BEYOND THE LIGHTS
• CALVARY
• THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL*
• NIGHTCRAWLER
• THE ROVER

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• THE DROP
• FRANK
• THE HOMESMAN
• A MOST WANTED MAN
• OBVIOUS CHILD*

DOCUMENTARY

• THE BALLAD OF SHOVELS AND ROPE
• CITIZENFOUR*
• DINOSAUR 13
• FED UP
• HARMONTOWN
• AN HONEST LIAR
• JODOROWSKY’S DUNE
• LIFE ITSELF
• MISTAKEN FOR STRANGERS
• SHOWRUNNERS

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

• IDA*
• OF HORSES AND MEN
• STRANGER BY THE LAKE
• THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA
• TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT

MUSIC

• BEGIN AGAIN*
• BIRDMAN
• FRANK
• THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
• INTERSTELLAR

SOUND

• BEGIN AGAIN
• EDGE OF TOMORROW
• FURY*
• NOAH
• WHIPLASH

HAIR & MAKEUP

• FOXCATCHER*
• THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
• INHERENT VICE
• SNOWPIERCER
• THE ZERO THEOREM

VISUAL EFFECTS

• DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
• EDGE OF TOMORROW
• INTERSTELLAR*
• NOAH
• UNDER THE SKIN

PRODUCTION DESIGN

• THE DOUBLE
• THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL*
• A MOST WANTED MAN
• SNOWPIERCER
• THE ZERO THEOREM

EDITING

• EDGE OF TOMORROW*
• FURY
• THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
• NIGHTCRAWLER
• OBVIOUS CHILD

CINEMATOGRAPHY

• THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
• IDA
• INHERENT VICE
• NIGHTCRAWLER*
• UNDER THE SKIN

10 OLDER MOVIES SEEN FOR THE FIRST TIME

1. FITZCARRALDO (Werner Herzog)
2. SECRETS & LIES (Mike Leigh)
3. A SUMMER'S TALE (Eric Rohmer)
4. THE BIG SLEEP (Howard Hawks)
5. THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (Orson Welles)
6. WHEN HARRY MET SALLY (Rob Reiner)
7. HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE (Hayao Miyazaki)
8. A FACE IN THE CROWD (Elia Kazan)
9. CODE UNKNOWN (Michael Haneke)
10. PAPER MOON (Peter Bogdanovich)

Favorite Movies of 2014 - Honorable Mentions

In Alphabetical Order:

2015 Most Anticipated Films (and 2014's List Revisited)

1. STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS (J.J. Abrams)
2. THE HATEFUL EIGHT (Quentin Tarantino)
3. THE MARTIAN (Ridley Scott)
4. MIDNIGHT SPECIAL (Jeff Nichols)
5. TRIPLE NINE (John Hillcoat)
6. BLACK MASS (Scott Cooper)
7. UNTITLED TOM HANKS/COLD WAR THRILLER PROJECT (Steven Spielberg)
8. SICARIO (Denis Villeneuve)
9. 99 HOMES (Ramin Bahrani)
10. THE REVENANT (Alejandro G. Inarritu)
11. THE LOBSTER (Yorgos Lanthimos)
12. EX MACHINA (Alex Garland)
13. GOING CLEAR: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE PRISON OF BELIEF (Alex Gibney)
14. MAPS TO THE STARS (David Cronenberg)
15. TOMORROWLAND (Brad Bird)

Here was 2014's list and my grades for each (or reasons for not seeing):

1. THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (Wes Anderson) - A+
2. INHERENT VICE (Paul Thomas Anderson) - A-
3. FOXCATCHER (Bennett Miller) - B+
4. THE MONUMENTS MEN (George Clooney) - D
5. CALVARY (John Michael McDonagh) - A+
6. NIGHT MOVES (Kelly Reichardt) - A-
7. INTERSTELLAR (Christopher Nolan) - C-
8. MIDNIGHT SPECIAL (Jeff Nichols) - N/A
• Will be released in Fall 2015
9. A MOST WANTED MAN (Anton Corbijn) - A
10. NYMPHOMANIAC (Lars von Trier) - B+
11. ENEMY (Denis Villeneuve) - A-
12. MOJAVE (William Monahan) - N/A
• Still no release date, otherwise it'd be on my 2015 list
13. ANIMAL RESCUE (Michael R. Roskam) - A
• Renamed to THE DROP
14. THE DOUBLE (Richard Ayoade) - A-
15. UNDER THE SKIN (Jonathan Glazer) - A-
16. 99 HOMES (Ramin Bahrani) - N/A
• Will be released in early 2015
17. THE HOBBIT: THERE AND BACK AGAIN (Peter Jackson) - C-
• Renamed to THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES
18. X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (Bryan Singer) - C
19. ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE (Jim Jarmusch) - B
20. TUSK (Kevin Smith) - B

My Favorite TV: 2013-2014

Here are my votes for the best television of the last year  (shows eligible only if vast majority of season takes place between July 2013 and June 2014):

* denotes winner

BEST DRAMA SERIES:
BREAKING BAD
GAME OF THRONES
*HANNIBAL
THE NEWSROOM
TRUE DETECTIVE

BEST COMEDY SERIES:
@MIDNIGHT
COMMUNITY
GIRLS
*LOUIE
REVIEW

BEST DRAMA EPISODE:
*Ozymandias, BREAKING BAD
Mizumono, HANNIBAL
Waterloo, MAD MEN
Who Goes There, TRUE DETECTIVE
The Secret Fate of All Life, TRUE DETECTIVE

BEST COMEDY EPISODE:
Elevator: Part 4, LOUIE
*Pamela: Part 3, LOUIE
Geothermal Escapism, COMMUNITY
Mouth Cancer Gig, MARON
Meeseeks and Destroy, RICK AND MORTY

BEST ACTOR, DRAMA:
Bryan Cranston, BREAKING BAD
Hugh Dancy, HANNIBAL
Mads Mikkelsen, HANNIBAL
*Matthew McConaughey, TRUE DETECTIVE
Woody Harrelson, TRUE DETECTIVE

BEST ACTRESS, DRAMA
Anna Gunn, BREAKING BAD
Diane Kruger, THE BRIDGE
*Allison Tolman, FARGO
Elizabeth Moss, MAD MEN
Emily Mortimer, THE NEWSROOM

BEST ACTOR, COMEDY
Andy Samberg, BROOKLYN NINE-NINE
Scott Aukerman, COMEDY BANG! BANG!
Louis CK, LOUIE
*Andy Daly, REVIEW
Thomas Middleditch, SILICON VALLEY

BEST ACTRESS, COMEDY
Alison Brie, COMMUNITY
Lena Dunham, GIRLS
Jessica St. Clair, PLAYING HOUSE
*Lennon Parham, PLAYING HOUSE
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, VEEP

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA
Aaron Paul, BREAKING BAD
*Dean Norris, BREAKING BAD
Peter Dinklage, GAME OF THRONES
Rory McCann, GAME OF THRONES
Laurence Fishburne, HANNIBAL

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA
*Betsy Brandt, BREAKING BAD
Gwendoline Christie, GAME OF THRONES
Maisie Williams, GAME OF THRONES
Christina Hendricks, MAD MEN
Michelle Monaghan, TRUE DETECTIVE

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, COMEDY
Andre Braugher, BROOKLYN NINE-NINE
Adam Driver, GIRLS
Keegan-Michael Key, PLAYING HOUSE
*TJ Miller, SILICON VALLEY
Timothy C. Simons, VEEP

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, COMEDY
*Chelsea Peretti, BROOKLYN NINE-NINE
Stephanie Beatriz, BROOKLYN NINE-NINE
Nina Conti, FAMILY TREE
Zosia Mamet, GIRLS
Anna Chlumsky, VEEP

BEST GUEST ACTOR, DRAMA
Michael Bowen, BREAKING BAD
Robert Forster, BREAKING BAD
Ciaran Hinds, GAME OF THRONES
*Pedro Pascal, GAME OF THRONES
Hamish Linklater, THE NEWSROOM

BEST GUEST ACTRESS, DRAMA
Diana Rigg, GAME OF THRONES
Gillian Anderson, HANNIBAL
Alicia Witt, JUSTIFIED
*Jane Fonda, THE NEWSROOM
Marcia Gay Harden, THE NEWSROOM

BEST GUEST ACTOR, COMEDY
Paul F. Tompkins, COMEDY BANG! BANG!
Jonathan Banks, COMMUNITY
Andrew Rannells, GIRLS
*Charles Grodin, LOUIE
Christopher Evan Welch, SILICON VALLEY

BEST GUEST ACTRESS, COMEDY
June Squibb, GIRLS
*Ellen Burstyn, LOUIE
Eszter Balint, LOUIE

Pamela Adlon, LOUIE
Ursula Parker, LOUIE

Nominations (Wins):

9 (3) BREAKING BAD
9 (4) LOUIE
8 (1) GAME OF THRONES
6 GIRLS
6 (1) HANNIBAL
6 (1) TRUE DETECTIVE
5 (1) THE NEWSROOM
4 (1) BROOKLYN NINE-NINE
4 COMMUNITY
3 MAD MEN
3 (1) PLAYING HOUSE
3 (1) SILICON VALLEY
3 VEEP
2 COMEDY BANG! BANG!
2 (1) REVIEW
1 @MIDNIGHT
1 THE BRIDGE
1 FAMILY TREE
1 (1) FARGO
1 JUSTIFIED
1 MARON
1 RICK AND MORTY

It took watching 23 Bond films twice to realize that I kinda like Bond...

A couple years ago I decided to fill a cinematic void and watch all of the Bond movies in chronological order.  I came away from that experience largely thinking of the series as pretty bad with some real highlights mixed in, mostly in the Connery/Craig eras.  After buying the blu-ray set for cheap last year, it sat on my shelf for a while as I didn't have much desire to dig into such a big collection again, but the new podcast "James Bonding" reinvigorated my interest (Matt Mira of Nerdist and Matt Gourley of Superego both discovered each other's love of all things Bond, and decided to start a podcast talking about each entry).  I think "James Bonding"'s decision to alternate between chronological and reverse-chronological order (Dr. No, Skyfall, From Russia With Love, Quantum of Solace, and so on...) helped me get into the mind of the series by alternatively examining its roots with how far (and sometimes how not far at all) the series has come.

As you'll notice below, I gave about as many bad ratings as good ones, but I was, for the most part, able to enjoy elements of all the movies.  And even though I finished by going through all the Roger Moore movies which left a bad taste in my mouth, I enjoyed the other Bonds significantly more, to the point where I'm sure I will revisit movies from every other Bond at some point in the future, not just Daniel Craig.

Here's a list of my overall rankings of the Bond films, along with a favorite highlight from each one:

1. CASINO ROYALE: A
Favorite Moment: B&W opening

2. SKYFALL: A-
Favorite Moment: Silva single-take first scene

3. THUNDERBALL: A-
Favorite Moment: Jet pack!!!

4. QUANTUM OF SOLACE: B+
Favorite Moment: Ending in Russia

5. DR. NO: B
Favorite Moment: "The name is Bond....James Bond" becomes instant legend.

6. ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE: B
Favorite Moment: "We have all the time in the world."

7. LICENCE TO KILL: B
Favorite Moment: The cold open.  Based on The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan was also a fan.

8. GOLDFINGER: B-
Favorite Moment: "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!"

9. TOMORROW NEVER DIES: B-
Favorite Moment: Dr. Kaufman

10. GOLDENEYE: B-
Favorite Moment: 007/006 team up

11. THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN: B-
Favorite Moment: The ridiculous Nick Nack fight scene at the end of the movie.

12. OCTOPUSSY: B-
Favorite Moment: Bond commands a tiger to sit.....and it does.

13. A VIEW TO A KILL: C
Favorite Moment: Christopher Walken as a Nazi experiment gone wrong

14. MOONRAKER: C
Favorite Moment: "You missed, Mr. Bond." "Did I?"

15. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE: C-
Favorite Moment: Red kills "Bond"

16. YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE: D+
Favorite Moment: "Japanese" Bond is good for a laugh.

17. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME: D+
Favorite Moment: Bond kills Stromberg

18. DIE ANOTHER DAY: D
Favorite Moment: Bond's North Korean capture (a surprising moment of realism before two hours of nonsense).

19. FOR YOUR EYES ONLY: D
Favorite Moment: "Well, you get your clothes on, and I'll buy you an ice cream."

20. LIVE AND LET DIE: D-
Favorite Moment: "Whose funeral is it?"  "Yours"

21. THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS: D-
Favorite Moment: John Rhys-Davies classes up the joint

22. THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH: F
Favorite Moment: The return of Valentin.

23. DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER: F
Favorite Moment: Honestly, nothing, this movie is terrible.

Top 10 Movies of 2013

This year has been a bit of a slog to get through at times, and I was worried that this list would be pretty underwhelming to put together, but luckily over the past few months, I've seen enough movies that at least a decent amount finally started to stand out, enough to make this top ten and a decent list of honorable mentions.

I saw 142 movies that were released in 2013, if you're curious the list of all of them is located here: http://www.imdb.com/list/HZoBdROJHkA/

And without further ado, my top ten list of 2013:

1. INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS

Joel and Ethan Coen, my favorite living filmmakers, have done it again.  What at first might seem like strange subject material, the early 1960's New York folk music scene before Bob Dylan showed up, serves as a perfect metaphor for the artistic process, and what happens when, no matter how hard you try and how much talent you have, you just can't find your audience.  Oscar Isaac, who made a strong impression in limited screen time a few years ago in DRIVE, plants his flag firmly here, and I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of him in the years to come.  It's no secret to my friends that I'm 100% behind the recent re-emergence of folk music in the mainstream (hell, the lead singer of my favorite band, Scott Avett, auditioned for the role of Llewyn Davis), but you don't need to be in order to enjoy the music in the film or the film itself.

2. BEFORE MIDNIGHT

This series of films will almost certainly go down in film history as one of the greatest romances ever put to celluloid, and I can only hope that every 9 years we're treated to another glimpse in at the lives of Jesse and Celine to see what they've been up to in the meantime.  BEFORE MIDNIGHT keeps the series intact, this time focusing on the stresses that marriage, children, and careers can put on a relationship, and while the first two films for the most part maintain a romantic, almost fairy-tale-like point of view, MIDNIGHT isn't afraid to show the uglier moments either.




3. HER

Spike Jonze made an early career out of adapting the screenplays of the brilliant screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, but we are clearly better off that he decided to strike out on his own.  HER is an expertly crafted film, and Jonze makes the believable creation of a plausible near future in which the events of this film can take place look easy.  The balance of beautiful imagery, a funny yet poignant script, and stellar performances makes HER one of my favorite movies of the year.  Scarlett Johansson is a revelation here, showing just what is possible in a voice-only performance, but the real kudos belong to Joaquin Phoenix, who sells this world and Theodore Twombly so well that we completely forget that he is the only man in the room for a good portion of the film's running time.  The level of difficulty on his performance couldn't be higher, and Phoenix pulls it off, making it look effortless.

4. PRISONERS

Few films can so expertly balance harrowing family drama with Hitchcockian thriller the way that PRISONERS does.  This film is most certainly not for the faint of heart, but if you can stomach it, what you'll get is an almost Shakespearean morality play combined with a riveting twisty-turny police procedural, shouldered by two near-career-best performances from Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal.  Denis Villeneuve was smart to bring Roger Deakins aboard as director of photography (as would anyone making any movie), and the film finds a certain level of beauty in its cloudy, rain-drenched darkness.  The final cut to black will drive you crazy with its brilliant ambiguity.



5. AMERICAN HUSTLE

After THE FIGHTER and SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK which created interesting characters but had little regard for the greater thematic (and moral) implications of its characters' actions, it's refreshing to see David O. Russell balance those interesting characters with a story that better serves them.  AMERICAN HUSTLE may bear a few resemblances to con movies you've seen before, but it's clear pretty early on that this is more a movie about relationships, whether it's romantic or just friendship.  You may forget to look for deeper meaning while watching though, because the script, sold perfectly by the biggest and certainly most famous cast of the year, is so damn funny.  Louis CK's ice fishing story is not just a great structural story device, it's also the funniest thing I saw in a movie this year.


6. OUT OF THE FURNACE

I seem to find myself in the minority on this movie.  While I won't disagree that OUT OF THE FURNACE treads similar narrative territory to any number of revenge thrillers made in the past, for me it is more about how the story is told than the exact beat-for-beat narrative.  In most films like this, the inciting incident would happen about 15 minutes in, and violent revenge would play out in the subsequent 105 minutes, but by taking the time to let us get to know these characters before some sort of manufactured plot can kick in (including a length prison detour that, if not accounting for theme/character development, could've been cut altogether, much to the detriment of the finished film), Scott Cooper elevates this standard crime drama to one of the best films of the year.


7. SHORT TERM 12

Brie Larson heads one of the best casts of the year in this drama about young social workers and the children they look after.  The brilliance of the film is its ability to walk a fine line between compelling drama and issue film.  SHORT TERM 12 succeeds and not being too preachy, but at the same time you'd have to have a hard heart not to walk away feeling something for the kids who are put through this every day.






8. DRINKING BUDDIES

2013 was the year of my introduction to Joe Swanberg.  DRINKING BUDDIES (as well as another film, ALL THE LIGHT IN THE SKY, which barely missed my honorable mentions list) is a slight but satisfying tale of two friends who might want to be something more if not for their current spouses.  By letting the film play out in a highly improvisational style, we get a film that sidesteps the traditional landmines of a film like this (guy gets girl, guy loses girl, guy gets girl back, etc.) and instead plays out in a way that much more closely resembles real life.  Jake Johnson and Olivia Wilde have made a name for themselves so far in more traditional/populist TV (The New Girl and House, M.D.), but Swanberg pulls out their best, and Ron Livingston and Anna Kendrick do an excellent job as well.


9. 12 YEARS A SLAVE

Steve McQueen brings his art house sensibilities to this Hollywood issue film to satisfying results.  Most of McQueen's success is due to his spot-on casting of Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northrup.  Ejiofor effortlessly exudes the intelligence and compassion that the role demands, allowing the viewer to be satisfied with this portrait of one man's struggles rather than a blanket statement about slavery itself.  The excellent script by Mequon-native John Ridley aims to not only highlight Northrup, but also to show his captors as slaves of a different sort to time and circumstance.




10. CAPTAIN PHILLIPS

Paul Greengrass has made a career out of successfully balancing political themes with engaging action/drama, and CAPTAIN PHILLIPS may be his most successful film to date on those terms.  Greengrass finds some incredible non-actors (most notably Barkhad Abdi, the most unlikely of Oscar candidates this year) to provide real humanity to the piracy problem off the African coast, but the real star of the show is (no big surprise) Tom Hanks, who gives what may be the best performance of his career, and this is truly saying something.  Phillips is certainly a capable captain and a true hero, but Hanks still manages to find the underlying humanity in the character, most especially in a final scene that is too amazing to even attempt to describe here.