2014 IN FILM

Of the 800+ titles I saw this year, these were my most favourite. A Top 30 & many many honorables. Also, my 2014 film ballot at the Wandering Image, highlighting the year's best in film by category.




30.          INTERSTELLAR

29.

THE TALE OF PRINCESS KAGUYA

28.           WINTER SLEEP

.

27.     TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT

.

26.    STRANGER BY THE LAKE

.

25.
  THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

.

24.               TIMBUKTU

.

23.                LAND HO!

.

22.        DORMANT BEAUTY

.

21.    THE DANCE OF REALITY

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20.      A FIELD IN ENGLAND

19.                MEMPHIS

18.              THE RAID 2

.
          EDGE OF TOMORROW

17. [LIVE. DIE. REPEAT.]

.

16.          THE BABADOOK

.

15.     ROCKS IN MY POCKETS

.
                      

14.            MR. TURNER

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13.         THE NAKED ROOM

.

12.  THE STRANGE LITTLE CAT

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11.         THE CONGRESS

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10.        LISTEN UP PHILIP

.

9.   ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE

.

8. GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE 3D

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7.            INHERENT VICE

.

6.                  HIMIZU

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5.             SNOWPIERCER

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4.              MANAKAMANA

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3.             STRAY DOGS

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2.           THE IMMIGRANT

.

1.          UNDER THE SKIN

*****

 ALSO ESSENTIAL. NOT RANKED.

(the other titles of 2014 I loved that could've placed)

A SPELL 

TO WARD OF DARKNESS

.

WHITE BIRD IN A BLIZZARD

SELMA

COHERENCE

SONG OF THE SEA

EVOLUTION OF A CRIMINAL

A GIRL
WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT

WETLANDS

BLIND DETECTIVE

HOUSEBOUND

WHY DON'T YOU PLAY IN HELL?

JOURNEY TO THE WEST:

CONQUERING DEMONS

20,000 DAYS ON EARTH

THE VANQUISHING
OF THE WITCH BABA YAGA

THE BOXTROLLS

TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER

POLICEMAN השוטר

THE GUEST

ABUSE OF WEAKNESS

IN BLOOM

JIMMY P.: PSYCHOTHERAPY

OF A PLAINS INDIAN

WITCHING & BITCHING

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST

CHEAP THRILLS

WE ARE THE BEST

BLUE RUIN

ACTRESS

NIGHT MOVES

SHORT PEACE

LOCKE

STARRED UP

ENEMY

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON

LOVE IS STRANGE

NATIONAL GALLERY

VISITORS

JODOROWSKY'S DUNE

OCULUS

GODZILLA

COLD IN JULY

RIGOR MORTIS

JEALOUSY

 

.

.

WATERMARK

A WALK
AMONG THE TOMBSTONES

CALVARY

HORSES OF GOD

THE KINGDOM
OF DREAMS AND MADNESS

THE PERSISTENCE OF VISION

MICHAEL KOHLHAAS: 

AGE OF UPRISING

NON-STOP

OPEN WINDOWS

THEY CAME TOGETHER

A MOST VIOLENT YEAR

WHITEWASH

CANOPY

R100

BEYOND OUTRAGE

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2

THE DOG

FORCE MAJEURE

ZERO MOTIVATION

BEYOND THE LIGHTS

IDA

THE RETRIEVAL

D IS FOR DELOUSED

[ABCs OF DEATH 2]

.

THE UNKNOWN KNOWN

A MOST WANTED MAN

THE ROVER

BOYHOOD

THE BIGGER PICTURE

.

THE DAM KEEPER

.

AT THE DEVIL'S DOOR

MAD GOD: PART 1

.

THE YOUNG ONES

MOEBIUS

 ****

recap
2014

1. UNDER THE SKIN (Glazer)
2. THE IMMIGRANT (Grey)
3. STRAY DOGS (Ming-liang)
4. MANAKAMANA (Spray,Velez)
5. SNOWPIERCER (Bong Joon-ho)
6. HIMIZU (Sono)
7. INHERENT VICE (p.t. Anderson)
8. GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE 3D (Godard)
9. ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE (Jarmusch)
10. LISTEN UP PHILIP (A.Ross Perry)
11. THE CONGRESS (Folman)
12. STRANGE LITTLE CAT (Zurcher)
13. EL CUARTO DESNUDO (Nuria Ibanez)
14. MR. TURNER (Leigh)
15. ROCKS IN MY POCKETS (Baumane)
16. THE BABADOOK (Jennifer Kent)
17. ALL YOU NEED IS KILL (Liman)
18. THE RAID 2: BERANDAL (Gareth Evans)
19. MEMPHIS (Sutton)
20. FIELD IN ENGLAND (Wheatley)
21. DANCE OF REALITY (Jodorwosky)
22. DORMANT BEAUTY (Bellochio)
23. LAND HO! (Evan Katz)
24. TIMBUKTU (Sissako)
25. GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (Wes Anderson)
26. STRANGER BY THE LAKE (Guiraudie)
27. TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT (Dardenne bros)
28. WINTER SLEEP (N.Bilge Cylan)
29. TALE OF PRINCESS KAGUYA (Takahata)
30. INTERSTELLAR (Nolan)

RUNNER-UP:
SPELL TO WARD OFF DARKNESS (Rivers/Russell), WHITE BIRD IN A BLIZZARD (Araki), SELMA (Ava Duvernay), COHERENCE (J. Ward Byrkit), SONG OF THE SEA (T.Moore), EVOLUTION OF A CRIMINAL (D.Clark Monroe), GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE (Ana Lily Amirpour), WETLANDS (Wnendt), BLIND DETECTIVE (To), HOUSEBOUND (G.Johnstone), WHY DON'T YOU PLAY IN HELL? (Sono), CONQUERING DEMONS (Chow), 20000 DAYS ON EARTH (I. Forsyth/Pollard), VANQUISHING OF BABA YAGA (Oreck), BOXTROLLS (Annabele/Stacchi), TALES OF GRIM SLEEPER (Broomfield), POLICEMAN (Lapid), THE GUEST (Wingard), ABUSE OF WEAKNESS (Breillat), IN BLOOM (Ekvtimishvili), JIMMY P (Desplechin), WITCHING & BITCHING (de la Iglesia), X-MEN DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (Singer), CHEAP THRILLS (E.L. Katz), WE ARE THE BEST (Moodyson), BLUE RUIN (Saulnier), ACTRESS (R.Greene), NIGHT MOVES (Kelly Reichardt), SHORT PEACE (lots of dudes), LOCKE (S.Knight), STARRED UP (Mackenzie), ENEMY (Villenueve), LIKE FATHER LIKE SON (Koreeda), LOVE IS STRANGE (I.Sachs), NATIONAL GALLERY (Wiseman), VISITORS (Reggio), JODOROWSKY'S DUNE (Pavich), OCULUS (Flanagan), GODZILLA (G.Edwards), COLD IN JULY (Mickle), RIGOR MORTIS (Juno Mak), JEALOUSY (Garrel), WATERMARK (Jennifer Baichwal), WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES (Frank), CALVARY (J. Michael McDonagh), HORSES OF GOD (Ayouch), KINGDOM OF DREAMS & MADNESS (Mami Sunada), PERSISTENCE OF VISION (Schreck), MICHAEL KOHLHAAS (des Pallières), NON-STOP (Collet-Serra), OPEN WINDOWS (Vigalando), THEY CAME TOGETHER (Wain), MOST VIOLENT YEAR (Chandor), WHITEWASH (Hoss-Desmarais), CANOPY (A.Wilson), R100 (Matsumoto), BEYOND OUTRAGE (Kitano), HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 (DeBlois), THE DOG (Allison Berg), FORCE MAJEURE (Ostlund), ZERO MOTIVATION (Talya Levie), BEYOND THE LIGHTS (Gina Prince-Bythewood), IDA (Pawlikowski), THE RETRIEVAL (Eska), D IS FOR DELOUSED (R.Morgan), THE UNKNOWN KNOWN (E.Morris), A MOST WANTED MAN (Corbijn), THE ROVER (Michod), BOYHOOD (Linklater), THE BIGGER PICTURE (Daisy Jacobs), THE DAM KEEPER (Tsutsumi), AT THE DEVIL'S DOOR (N.McCarthy), MAD GOD PT 1 (Tippett), THE YOUNG ONES (J. Paltrow), MOEBIUS (Kim ki-duk)

KUMIKO, TREASURE HUNTER (Zellner) 2015 release

THE TRIBE (Slaboshpitsky) 2015 release
JOURNEY TO THE WEST (Ming-liang) 2015 release
THE GREEN INFERNO (Eli Roth) 2015 release
LIFE & MIND 

          OF MARK DEFRIEST (London) 2015 release 
(festival films I loved that got no 2014 theatrical release & no distribution deal. 12/19/14)

SELMA (DuVernay), NORTE THE END OF HISTORY (Lav Diaz), BIG EYES (Burton), TIMBUKTU (Sissako), ALAN PARTRIDGE: ALPHA PAPA (Lowney), TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER (Broomfield), CITIZEN FOUR (Poitras), EXHIBITION (Hogg), TOP FIVE (Chris Rock), ELENA (Petra Costa), ILO ILO (Chen), THOU WAST MILD & LOVELY (Josephine Decker), NE ME QUITTE PAS (Niels van Koevorden), STORY OF MY DEATH (Serra), LAST OF THE UNJUST (Lanzmann), FIFI HOWLS FROM HAPPINESS (Mitra Farahani), SABBATICAL (Brandon Colvin), BEYOND THE LIGHTS (Prince-Bythewood), SUMMER OF BLOOD (Onur Tukel), WHAT NOW? REMIND ME (Joaquim Pinto), SALT OF THE EARTH (Wenders), BUTTER ON THE LATCH (Josephine Decker), CONCERNING VIOLENCE (Göran Olsson), PURGATORIO (Pau Teixidor), THE STRANGE LITTLE CAT (Ramon Zürcher), LIFE OF RILEY (Resnais), MAGICIAN: LIFE & WORK OF ORSON WELLES (Workman), THE GREEN PRINCE (Nadav Schirman), AMERICAN SNIPER (Eastwood), FINDING FELA (Gibney), THE OVERNIGHTERS (Jesse Moss), THE GAMBLER (Wyatt), RUDDERLESS (William H. Macy), MISSION BLUE (Robert Nixon), A THOUSAND TIMES GOOD NIGHT (Erik Poppe), MAY IN THE SUMMER (Dabis), SEE YOU NEXT TUESDAY (Drew Tobia), OUT OF PRINT (Julia Marchese), A LETTER TO MOMO (Hiroyuki Okiura), PIG (Henry Barrial), LUCKY THEM (Megan Griffiths), THE ONE I LOVE (Charlie McDowell), GEBO & THE SHADOW (de Oliveira), VIC + FLO SAW A BEAR (Denis Côté), ALIVE INSIDE (Michael Rossato-Bennett), THE HOMESMAN (Tommy Lee Jones), STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING DOORS (Sam Fleischner), MOMMY (Xavier Dolan)








(I want to hear what everybody's favorite films of 2014 were. please post 'em below)