Best films of 2014
It's a little early, I know, but this is my first draft, quite strong I admit, of a year that pleasantly surprised me, as it turned out, unexpectedly, to be one of the best of the last years.The list is in alphabetical order and includes all the movies I found rewarding , one way or another, this year.So far...
List activity
113 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
13 titles
- DirectorJohn Michael McDonaghStarsBrendan GleesonChris O'DowdKelly ReillyAfter he is threatened during a confession, a good-natured priest must battle the dark forces closing in around him.Perhaps the best movie of the year, it follows the Guard as its tragic counterpart, equally original and rich in ideas, emotions, and aesthetics.
- DirectorMichaël R. RoskamStarsTom HardyNoomi RapaceJames GandolfiniBob Saginowski finds himself at the center of a robbery gone awry and entwined in an investigation that digs deeply into the neighborhood's past where friends, families, and foes all work together to make a living--no matter the cost.This is a Tom Hardy year, one of many, I hope, to follow.And this is an excellent, subtle movie, with Hardy in one of his best roles so far, with an excellent cast, and a great Denis Lehan scenario, filmed pefectly, in low tones and high tension.
- DirectorPeter StricklandStarsSidse Babett KnudsenMonica SwinnChiara D'AnnaA woman who studies butterflies and moths tests the limits of her relationship with her lesbian lover.After Berberian Sound Studio, a new and astonishing take on the Italian film industry of the sixties, brilliantly directed, but with a minimal plot.The cinema of your dreams.
- DirectorJohn SlatteryStarsPhilip Seymour HoffmanChristina HendricksRichard JenkinsA blue collar worker tries to cover things up when his stepson is killed in a suspicious accident, but a local reporter senses that something's amiss.Underestimated, superb drama-comedy that keeps an excellent pace all the way.Fascinating and original.Too pity for the reviews!
- DirectorWes AndersonStarsRalph FiennesF. Murray AbrahamMathieu AmalricA 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.Wes is a personal favorite of mine, and Grand Budapest hotel doesn't disappoint, with its loving devotion to Old Europe, but, although I found out it reached more people than other movies of Wes, I was feeling that something was missing.Or perhaps the cartoonistic manipulation of the characters has started to feel a little repetitive in my view.Yet this is the cinema of Wes Anderson and I 'm still in love with it.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsMatthew McConaugheyAnne HathawayJessica ChastainWhen Earth becomes uninhabitable in the future, a farmer and ex-NASA pilot, Joseph Cooper, is tasked to pilot a spacecraft, along with a team of researchers, to find a new planet for humans.Perhaps the biggest surprise of the year, since I was never a Nolan fan;and yet Intersellar is one of the best sci-fi movies of the last decades, and even a film that redefines the genre.Deeply emotional too.
- DirectorDavid Gordon GreenStarsNicolas CageTye SheridanGary PoulterAn 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.I am a David Gordon Green fan and although I liked Prince Avalanche a bit more, this is one of his best films, wild and strong.And beautiful.
- DirectorDavid DobkinStarsRobert Downey Jr.Robert DuvallVera FarmigaBig-city lawyer Hank Palmer returns to his childhood home where his father, the town's judge, is suspected of murder. Hank sets out to discover the truth; along the way he reconnects with his estranged family.Another big surprise, as this is not the typical family drama one expects but a movie full of genuine feelings and powerful performances. Deserves to become a classic in the long run.
- DirectorSteven KnightStarsTom HardyOlivia ColmanRuth WilsonIvan 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.I first watched Locke on the big screen and felt that the scipt didn't go very far;but I discovered Hardy and after I watched-in a month-every movie of his(including some I had already watched, without acknowledging his presence then), and getting to the point to consider Hardy the first actor in my life I would be willing to watch any film he stars in, I came back to Locke to find that this is the most precious film of the year.I am a psychiatrist but I say:forget psychotherapy and go to see Locke.It has helped me a lot , and when I find difficulties of any kind I return to the acting of Hardy in this movie, let it slip in my skin and I become a better man.
- DirectorAbel FerraraStarsGérard DepardieuJacqueline BissetShanyn LeighMr. Devereaux is a powerful man. A man who handles billions of dollars every day. A man who controls the economic fate of nations. A man driven by a frenzied and unbridled sexual hunger. A man who dreamed of saving the world and who cannot save himself. A terrified man. A lost man.Another contender for the best movie of the year;unexpectedly, Ferrara makes his best film out of a subject that didn't promise a lot.Firm direction and anticomformism, without shouts, in a realistic, and at the same time, dreamy film, that is certainly a work of great art.
- DirectorYann DemangeStarsJack O'ConnellSam ReidSean HarrisIn 1971, a young and disoriented British soldier is accidentally abandoned by his unit following a riot on the deadly streets of Belfast.Hell on earth;tense and dark to the extreme, but perfectly executed.An experience, albeit a bleak one!
- DirectorDoug LimanStarsTom CruiseEmily BluntBill PaxtonA soldier fighting aliens gets to relive the same day over and over again, the day restarting every time he dies.beautiful,clever and fun
- DirectorAnton CorbijnStarsPhilip Seymour HoffmanRachel McAdamsDaniel BrühlA Chechen Muslim illegally immigrates to Hamburg, where he gets caught in the international war on terror.British style thriller with excellent pace