Best of 2014
by bigloada | created - 04 Jun 2014 | updated - 02 Oct 2019 | PublicSome movies I liked that came out this year.
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1. Under the Skin (I) (2013)
R | 108 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A mysterious young woman seduces lonely men in the evening hours in Scotland. However, events lead her to begin a process of self-discovery.
Director: Jonathan Glazer | Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, Lynsey Taylor Mackay, Dougie McConnell
Votes: 158,167 | Gross: $2.61M
The film critic David Ehrlich has tweeted that the film feels like it wasn’t even made by humans, and I’d go further, to say that the movie dehumanizes its leading woman and attempts, disconcertingly, to dehumanize its audience. http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2014/04/under_the_skin_starring_scarlett_johansson_reviewed.html
2. Stranger by the Lake (2013)
Not Rated | 100 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
Summertime. A cruising spot for men, tucked away on the shores of a lake. Franck falls in love with Michel, an attractive, potent and lethally dangerous man. Franck knows this but wants to live out his passion anyway.
Director: Alain Guiraudie | Stars: Pierre Deladonchamps, Christophe Paou, Patrick d'Assumçao, Jérôme Chappatte
Votes: 15,910 | Gross: $0.32M
3. Force Majeure (2014)
R | 120 min | Comedy, Drama
A family vacationing in the French Alps is confronted with a devastating avalanche.
Director: Ruben Östlund | Stars: Johannes Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Clara Wettergren, Vincent Wettergren
Votes: 67,103 | Gross: $1.36M
Ostlund is a gifted creator of malignant ambience, which he masterfully uses to keep his audience wound tight and unsure whether the payoff in catastrophe will be physical, emotional or both. He bathes us in pervasive unease (electric toothbrushes play a recurring role) rendered all the more sinister by a snowy backdrop of breathtaking blues and grays. http://www.npr.org/2014/10/24/358050035/in-force-majeure-society-crumbles-under-an-avalanche
4. Inherent Vice (2014)
R | 148 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
In 1970, drug-fueled Los Angeles private investigator Larry "Doc" Sportello investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston
Votes: 110,700 | Gross: $8.11M
Phoenix finds another beat in his teen-man persona. It’s rarely the same thing with him. Everything brilliant about him here is throwaway stuff: The look of nausea on his face as Brolin fellates a frozen, chocolate-covered banana. His humming and singing in reaction to important details. This is a straight-man part that Phoenix plays more or less in exclamation points and yoga poses. http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/paul-thomas-anderson-inherent-vice-review/
5. A Master Builder (2013)
Not Rated | 130 min | Drama
A successful, ego-maniacal architect who has spent a lifetime bullying his wife, employees and mistresses wants to make peace as his life approaches its final act.
Director: Jonathan Demme | Stars: Wallace Shawn, Julie Hagerty, Larry Pine, Lisa Joyce
Votes: 1,049 | Gross: $0.05M
6. Ida (2013)
PG-13 | 82 min | Drama
A novice nun about to take her vows uncovers a family secret dating back to the German occupation.
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski | Stars: Agata Kulesza, Agata Trzebuchowska, Dawid Ogrodnik, Jerzy Trela
Votes: 60,690 | Gross: $3.83M
7. Obvious Child (2014)
R | 84 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A twenty-something comedienne's unplanned pregnancy forces her to confront the realities of independent womanhood for the first time.
Director: Gillian Robespierre | Stars: Jenny Slate, Jake Lacy, Gaby Hoffmann, Gabe Liedman
Votes: 26,334 | Gross: $3.12M
Donna is pregnant with her new beau’s baby, and has no intention of keeping it. Obvious Child handles the topic of abortion with a refreshing matter-of-factness. While Donna worries about telling Max what she’s decided to do, she has no major doubts about the decision. That makes the film casually but fundamentally progressive—so modern in its attitudes about reproductive rights that it feels little need to justify or even address them. http://www.avclub.com/review/jenny-slate-shows-new-shades-funny-charming-obviou-205311
8. Nightcrawler (2014)
R | 117 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
When Louis Bloom, a con man desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.
Director: Dan Gilroy | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton, Riz Ahmed
Votes: 604,462 | Gross: $32.38M
9. Listen Up Philip (2014)
Not Rated | 108 min | Comedy, Drama
When a self-obsessed novelist (Jason Schwartzman) has problems with his novel and his girlfriend (Elisabeth Moss), he seeks refuge in his mentor's cottage where the peace and quiet allow him to focus on his favorite subject - himself.
Director: Alex Ross Perry | Stars: Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Jonathan Pryce, Krysten Ritter
Votes: 6,970 | Gross: $0.14M
10. Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013)
Not Rated | 117 min | Drama
A self-diagnosed nymphomaniac recounts her erotic experiences to the man who saved her after a beating.
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Shia LaBeouf
Votes: 131,508 | Gross: $0.79M
11. National Gallery (2014)
Not Rated | 180 min | Documentary
A documentary that goes inside one of the great museums of the world: The National Gallery in London.
Director: Frederick Wiseman | Stars: Leanne Benjamin, Kausikan Rajeshkumar, Jo Shapcott, Edward Watson
Votes: 1,653 | Gross: $0.10M
12. Blue Ruin (2013)
R | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A mysterious outsider's quiet life is turned upside down when he returns to his childhood home to carry out an act of vengeance. Proving himself an amateur assassin, he winds up in a brutal fight to protect his estranged family.
Director: Jeremy Saulnier | Stars: Macon Blair, Devin Ratray, Amy Hargreaves, Kevin Kolack
Votes: 78,856 | Gross: $0.26M
Despite those thin characterizations, Blue Ruin succeeds on the strength of Saulnier's skill at slowly escalating the tension, even with a would-be action protagonist who is almost comically inept. The movies like to make Everyman into Superman, imagining that righteous fury can do things like turn a mild-mannered architect into a precision instrument of death. But Dwight is the everyman as flawed engineer of his own downfall. http://www.npr.org/2014/04/24/306442690/in-blue-ruin-revenge-is-not-served-cool?ft=1&f=1045
13. We Are the Best! (2013)
Not Rated | 102 min | Drama, Music
Three girls in 1980s Stockholm decide to form a punk band -- despite not having any instruments and being told by everyone that punk is dead.
Director: Lukas Moodysson | Stars: Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin, Liv LeMoyne, Johan Liljemark
Votes: 11,322 | Gross: $0.18M
14. Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)
R | 124 min | Drama
A film star comes face-to-face with an uncomfortable reflection of herself while starring in a revival of the play that launched her career.
Director: Olivier Assayas | Stars: Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, Chloë Grace Moretz, Lars Eidinger
Votes: 31,206 | Gross: $1.81M
15. The Babadook (2014)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book titled "Mister Babadook" manifests in their home.
Director: Jennifer Kent | Stars: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall, Hayley McElhinney
Votes: 247,186 | Gross: $0.92M
The brilliance of “The Babadook,” beyond Ms. Kent’s skillful deployment of the tried-and-true visual and aural techniques of movie horror, lies in its interlocking ambiguities. For a long time, you’re not sure if the Babadook is a supernatural or a psychological phenomenon. Once you’ve started to figure that out — or to decide that you’re too freaked out for it to matter — another, more disturbing question starts to arise. Maybe the monster is all in someone’s head, but if so, whose? Sam’s? Amelia’s? Yours? http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/28/movies/in-the-babadook-a-frightfully-unwelcome-guest.html
16. Mommy (I) (2014)
R | 139 min | Drama
A widowed single mother, raising her violent son alone, finds new hope when a mysterious neighbor inserts herself into their household.
Director: Xavier Dolan | Stars: Anne Dorval, Antoine Olivier Pilon, Suzanne Clément, Patrick Huard
Votes: 61,815 | Gross: $3.49M
17. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
PG-13 | 113 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A soldier fighting aliens gets to relive the same day over and over again, the day restarting every time he dies.
Director: Doug Liman | Stars: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson
Votes: 736,625 | Gross: $100.21M
18. Chef (2014)
R | 114 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
A head chef quits his restaurant job and buys a food truck in an effort to reclaim his creative promise, while piecing back together his estranged family.
Director: Jon Favreau | Stars: Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Dustin Hoffman
Votes: 231,673 | Gross: $31.42M
19. Winter Sleep (2014)
Not Rated | 196 min | Drama
A hotel owner and landlord in a remote Turkish village deals with conflicts within his family and a tenant behind on his rent.
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan | Stars: Haluk Bilginer, Melisa Sözen, Demet Akbag, Ayberk Pekcan
Votes: 55,559 | Gross: $0.17M
20. The Skeleton Twins (2014)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Having both coincidentally cheated death on the same day, estranged twins reunite with the possibility of mending their relationship.
Director: Craig Johnson | Stars: Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Luke Wilson, Ty Burrell
Votes: 44,852 | Gross: $5.28M
21. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
R | 99 min | Adventure, Comedy, Crime
A writer encounters the owner of an aging high-class hotel, who tells him of his early years serving as a lobby boy in the hotel's glorious years under an exceptional concierge.
Director: Wes Anderson | Stars: Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody
Votes: 886,338 | Gross: $59.10M
Hitler and Stalin don’t exist in this kingdom of make-believe, but sudden eruptions of violence and the offhand mention of tragic happenings point toward a profound darkness just outside the frame. Mr. Anderson is no realist. This movie makes a marvelous mockery of history, turning its horrors into a series of graceful jokes and mischievous gestures. You can call this escapism if you like. You can also think of it as revenge. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/07/movies/wes-andersons-grand-budapest-hotel-is-a-complex-caper.html
22. Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
R | 123 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A depressed musician reunites with his lover. However, their romance, which has already endured several centuries, is disrupted by the arrival of her uncontrollable younger sister.
Director: Jim Jarmusch | Stars: Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska, John Hurt
Votes: 108,133 | Gross: $1.88M
With their leather-bound volumes, their extraordinary collection of musical instruments, their walls covered with portraits of artists and writers across the centuries, Adam and Eve are like custodians of culture who have no one to pass it along to. They have adjusted to the world of airplanes and iPhones – Eve has an Apple, of course – and high-tech audio equipment (where Jarmusch found all that ‘80s gear for Adam’s home studio I have no idea), but they come to it with a historical background that marks them as permanent outsiders. http://www.salon.com/2014/04/10/only_lovers_left_alive_jim_jarmuschs_boho_vampire_rhapsody/
23. Two Days, One Night (2014)
PG-13 | 95 min | Drama
Liège, Belgium. Sandra is a factory worker who discovers that her workmates have opted for a EUR1,000 bonus in exchange for her dismissal. She has only a weekend to convince her colleagues to give up their bonuses in order to keep her job.
Directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne | Stars: Marion Cotillard, Fabrizio Rongione, Catherine Salée, Baptiste Sornin
Votes: 50,532 | Gross: $1.44M
24. Norte, the End of History (2013)
TV-MA | 250 min | Crime, Drama
An embittered law student commits a brutal double murder; a family man takes the fall and is forced into a harsh prison sentence; a mother and her two children wander the countryside looking for some kind of redemption.
Director: Lav Diaz | Stars: Sid Lucero, Angeli Bayani, Archie Alemania, Soliman Cruz
Votes: 2,285
25. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
R | 119 min | Comedy, Drama
A washed-up superhero actor attempts to revive his fading career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway production.
Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Stars: Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough
Votes: 666,456 | Gross: $42.34M
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman is so good, so profoundly entertaining, so confident that it makes you wonder whether the other Iñárritu — the director of such weighty magazine spreads as 21 Grams, Babel, and Biutiful — was a fraud all along. http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/birdman-michael-keaton-superhero-industry/
26. The One I Love (2014)
R | 91 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A troubled couple vacate to a beautiful getaway, but bizarre circumstances further complicate their situation.
Director: Charlie McDowell | Stars: Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss, Ted Danson, Kiana Cason
Votes: 43,511 | Gross: $0.51M
27. Frank (II) (2014)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
Jon, a young wanna-be musician, discovers he's bitten off more than he can chew when he joins an eccentric pop band led by the mysterious and enigmatic Frank.
Director: Lenny Abrahamson | Stars: Michael Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Moira Brooker
Votes: 82,367 | Gross: $0.64M
28. Coherence (2013)
Not Rated | 89 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Strange things begin to happen when a group of friends gather for a dinner party on an evening when a comet is passing overhead.
Director: James Ward Byrkit | Stars: Emily Baldoni, Maury Sterling, Nicholas Brendon, Elizabeth Gracen
Votes: 145,858 | Gross: $0.07M
29. Locke (2013)
R | 85 min | Drama
Ivan Locke, a dedicated family man and successful construction manager, receives a phone call on the eve of the biggest challenge of his career that sets in motion a series of events that threaten his carefully cultivated existence.
Director: Steven Knight | Stars: Tom Hardy, Olivia Colman, Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott
Votes: 159,561 | Gross: $1.36M
30. 22 Jump Street (2014)
R | 112 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
After making their way through high school (twice), big changes are in store for officers Schmidt and Jenko when they go deep undercover at a local college.
Directors: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller | Stars: Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Ice Cube, Nick Offerman
Votes: 405,984 | Gross: $191.72M
31. The Guest (I) (2014)
R | 100 min | Action, Mystery, Thriller
A soldier introduces himself to the Peterson family, claiming to be a friend of their son who died in action. After the young man is welcomed into their home, a series of accidental deaths seem to be connected to his presence.
Director: Adam Wingard | Stars: Dan Stevens, Sheila Kelley, Maika Monroe, Joel David Moore
Votes: 106,865 | Gross: $0.32M
32. Fury (2014)
R | 134 min | Action, Drama, War
A grizzled tank commander makes tough decisions as he and his crew fight their way across Germany in April, 1945.
Director: David Ayer | Stars: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña
Votes: 546,976 | Gross: $85.82M
33. Starred Up (2013)
Not Rated | 106 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Eric Love, 19, is locked up in prison. On his first day, he assaults another inmate and several guards. He's offered group therapy and his dad, an inmate as well, tries to talk sense into him. Can he be rehabilitated?
Director: David Mackenzie | Stars: Jack O'Connell, Ben Mendelsohn, Rupert Friend, Sam Spruell
Votes: 48,677 | Gross: $0.03M
34. Top Five (2014)
R | 102 min | Comedy, Romance
A comedian tries to make it as a serious actor when his reality television star fiancée talks him into broadcasting their wedding on her television show.
Director: Chris Rock | Stars: Chris Rock, Rosario Dawson, Gabrielle Union, Kevin Hart
Votes: 27,640 | Gross: $25.28M
35. Jodorowsky's Dune (2013)
PG-13 | 90 min | Documentary
The story of cult film director Alejandro Jodorowsky's ambitious but ultimately doomed film adaptation of the seminal science fiction novel.
Director: Frank Pavich | Stars: Alejandro Jodorowsky, Michel Seydoux, H.R. Giger, Chris Foss
Votes: 27,551 | Gross: $0.65M
36. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
PG-13 | 121 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
A group of intergalactic criminals must pull together to stop a fanatical warrior with plans to purge the universe.
Director: James Gunn | Stars: Chris Pratt, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana
Votes: 1,273,023 | Gross: $333.18M
37. Joe (I) (2013)
R | 117 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
An ex-con, who is the unlikeliest of role models, meets a 15-year-old boy and is faced with the choice of redemption or ruin.
Director: David Gordon Green | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Tye Sheridan, Gary Poulter, Ronnie Gene Blevins
Votes: 51,193 | Gross: $0.37M
38. The Immigrant (2013)
R | 120 min | Drama, Romance
In 1921, an innocent immigrant woman is tricked into a life of burlesque and vaudeville until a dazzling magician tries to save her and reunite her with her sister who is being held in the confines of Ellis Island.
Director: James Gray | Stars: Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Renner, Dagmara Dominczyk
Votes: 33,776 | Gross: $2.01M
39. They Came Together (2014)
R | 83 min | Comedy, Romance
Molly owns a quaint little sweet shop. Joel works for a gigantic candy company threatening to shut her down. How they meet, fall in love, break up and get back together is hilariously recounted in this rom-com spoof.
Director: David Wain | Stars: Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Cobie Smulders
Votes: 24,494
They Came Together’s best moments occur in throwaway visual gags that puncture the glossy surface of rom-com idealization. As Molly and Joel frolic in a pile of autumn leaves, the camera pulls back to reveal a dead body lying unnoticed nearby. Joel’s dream of opening an independent coffee shop called “Cup of Joel” finally comes true—in the form of a pathetic sidewalk concession with a single drip-coffee machine and flimsy Sharpie-on-cardboard sign. And in even weirder, if generally less successful, moments, Wain and Showalter abandon the pretense of plot entirely to dive down rabbit holes of Dadaist absurdity. http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2014/06/they_came_together_starring_paul_rudd_and_amy_poehler_reviewed.html
40. The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz (2014)
Not Rated | 105 min | Documentary, Biography, Crime
The story of programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz, who took his own life at the age of 26.
Director: Brian Knappenberger | Stars: Aaron Swartz, Tim Berners-Lee, Cindy Cohn, Gabriella Coleman
Votes: 18,038 | Gross: $0.05M
41. Dear White People (2014)
R | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The lives of four black students at an Ivy League college.
Director: Justin Simien | Stars: Tyler James Williams, Tessa Thompson, Kyle Gallner, Teyonah Parris
Votes: 26,565 | Gross: $4.40M
42. Land Ho! (2014)
R | 95 min | Adventure, Comedy
A pair of former brothers-in-law embark on a road trip through Iceland.
Directors: Aaron Katz, Martha Stephens | Stars: Earl Lynn Nelson, Paul Eenhoorn, Daníel Gylfason, Þrúður Kristjánsdóttir
Votes: 2,684 | Gross: $0.73M
43. The Double (2013)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
The unenviable life of a government-agency clerk takes a horrific turn with the arrival of a new co-worker who is both his exact physical double and his opposite otherwise--he's a confident, charismatic ladies' man.
Director: Richard Ayoade | Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Mia Wasikowska, Wallace Shawn, Noah Taylor
Votes: 53,023 | Gross: $0.20M
44. Life Itself (2014)
R | 121 min | Documentary, Biography
The life and career of the renowned film critic and social commentator, Roger Ebert.
Director: Steve James | Stars: Roger Ebert, Chaz Ebert, Gene Siskel, Martin Scorsese
Votes: 16,250 | Gross: $0.81M
45. Life of Crime (2013)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Crime
Two common criminals get more than they bargained for after kidnapping the wife of a corrupt real-estate developer who shows no interest in paying the $1 million dollar ransom for her safe return.
Director: Daniel Schechter | Stars: Jennifer Aniston, Yasiin Bey, Isla Fisher, Will Forte
Votes: 20,211 | Gross: $0.26M
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