Top ten films of 2014 are an eclectic mix of little gems
There are no themes or trends to make note of in my favorite films of 2014. Having now seen most of the year-end contenders, I humbly offer up a mixed bag of little gems that ought to put some sparkle in your Netflix queue.
BOYHOOD
The evolution of lives and stories in real time is not something the movies often do. Which is why Richard Linklater’s audacious experiment is so refreshing. Linklater shot a scripted film over a period of 12 years, allowing his cast—including his child protagonists—to age naturally onscreen. Nothing much remarkable occurs as the narrative evolves, but it makes for a bold, moving and utterly mesmerizing moviegoing experience.
IDA
This Polish drama is a small miracle of economic storytelling, emotional complexity and scope. Co-written and directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, it’s both an intimate, mostly two-character drama, and an unsparing, unsentimentalized look back on two decades of Polish history, as told over the course of a few days in the life of a young woman. It’s everything we want a film to be—focused, beautifully composed, surprising, and powerful.
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
Eddie Redmayne is terrific at every stage of the life of Stephen Hawking—from vigorous young Cambridge graduate student to wheelchair-bound physics icon—in this smart, tender and funny biographical drama from James Marsh. Felicity Jones is equally formidable as Jane Hawking in a film that celebrates tenacity—in life, love and ideas.
JODOROWSKY’S DUNE
“The greatest science fiction movie never made” would have cemented the reputation of one of the most engaging nutball visionaries ever to emerge in the annals of cinema. If only Alejandro Jodorowsky’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune had been made. But Frank Pavich’s irresistible documentary, complete with dazzling concept drawings and paintings, and commentary by dapper 84-year-old Jodorowsky himself, is as close as we’ll ever get.
BIRDMAN
Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s backstage black comedy is a dark, often scathingly funny, meditation on pop culture, celebrity, and the battle between art considered serious and substantial, and the philistine popularity of the movies. It’s a stylish affair with fine performances from stars Michael Keaton, Edward Norton and Emma Stone.
FINDING VIVIAN MAIER
John Maloof bought some miscellaneous boxes at an estate auction, and stumbled into one of the greatest discoveries in 20th Century photography, the previously unknown but amazingly prolific work of amateur street photographer and lifelong nanny Vivian Maier. Maloof’s engrossing documentary exposes her work to the light of day at last, along with the mystery shrouding the artist herself.
INTO THE WOODS
Stephen Sondheim’s hit Broadway musical, a fairy-tale mashup for grown-ups, is capably directed by Rob Marshall into a savvy piece of moviemaking. The mood is dark and lush, and actors not known for their singing handle Sondheim’s witty songs with entertaining gusto, among them Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Johnny Depp, and especially Chris Pine.
TIM’S VERMEER
Was the meticulous 17th Century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer “a geek who used technology?” Modern-day engineer Tim Jenison wants to know in this engrossing, audacious doc from magicians Penn and Teller, in which Jenison sets out to paint his own Vermeer to prove that early artists might have used optical machines like camera obscura to help them replicate realistic images.
PRIDE
A clutch of hip young gay and lesbian activists from London and the working-class denizens of a remote Welsh coal-mining village made history together with a show of solidarity during Britain’s lengthy Mineworkers Strike of 1984. Their story is dramatized with plenty of heart, humor and verve in Matthew Warchus’ crowd-pleasing valentine to diversity.
THE INVISIBLE WOMAN
(OK, this was released at the end of 2013, but I didn’t see it in time for last year’s Top Ten.) In addition to giving a marvelously subtle performance as the charismatic Charles Dickens, director Ralph Fiennes delivers a shrewdly observed portrait of the relationship between the middle-aged author and his teenage actress mistress, and between the artist and his public.
Honorable Mention: Gloria, Women On Top, Cavalry, Force Majeure, The Imitation Game.
PHOTO: A grown-up Ellar Coltrane and Ethan Hawke star in Richard Linklater’s experimental ‘Boyhood.’
