Top 10 Movies of the Year: 5 through 1

Here we go with the top five movies of the year. As you may have noticed, some of the films in this list might have technically opened in 2013, but really didn't get their wider release until this year. The top five features one of these types as well. Additionally, there is one film that won't receive a wider release until next year, but it's been touring the festival circuit all year. The general rule was it had to have one foot in 2014. So without further ado, here are the five best movies of the year (according to one dude).


5.  KUMIKO THE TREASURE HUNTER

One of the films I somehow managed to get into at Sundance back in January, Kumiko the Treasure Hunter immediately became one of my favorites of the year. Following the story of Kumiko (played by the awesome Rinko Kikuchi) as a Japanese woman who is just a little off, isolates herself from people, and decides to pick up and move to Minnesota in search for the treasure that Steve Buscemi's character buried in the movie Fargo. The film makers call it a true story based on a fictional story, and that is actually kind of interesting. Evidently, there has been an urban legend of a Japanese woman actually doing this, but no one seems to have any actual factual evidence that it did. Still, this film is both funny and heartbreaking all at once, and it is largely made great by a killer performance by Kikuchi. It gets a wider release in 2015, so look out for it.

Director: David Zellner (Goliath)

Starring: Rinko Kikuchi


4.  SNOWPIERCER

One of the more polarizing films of the year, Joon-ho Bong's first Western film either clicks for you or it doesn't, it seems. By no means a perfect movie, Bong's dystopian future on a perpetually moving train depicts class disparity at its worst. It goes between feeling epic and beautiful to dark and claustrophobic brilliantly. It does include some of his staple strange humor. And of course, it's only aided by the inclusion of two of my favorite actors - Chris Evans and Kang-ho Song.  It's weird and entertaining and at times really wants you to translate a meaning for yourself. It's also one of those films that clearly doesn't care about some plot holes. It's about something more than the little things, and either you buy into the premise from the start or you don't. It isn't trying to cater to the more logical film viewers in the audience, which is something I genuinely appreciate. It's telling that Snowpiercer is not even close to the best of Joon-ho Bong's films, but it's still great and makes my top five list. But be warned: it's not for everyone. If you can't get beyond "this plot is stupid" from the get-go, you'll miss everything he's saying. Which is a bit unfortunate that a lot of Western movie goers don't like those sort of surrealist stories anymore.

Director: Joon-ho Bong (Mother, The Host, Memoirs of a Murder)

Starring: Chris Evans, Kang-ho Song, Tilda Swinton, Ed Harris, John Hurt, Octavia Spencer



3. THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA

Famed Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata returns about a dozen years after his last film My Neighbors the Yamadas with a touching, gorgeous, and somewhat depressing tale. Based on the Japanese folk tale of a young girl born of bamboo and grows quickly into a beautiful princess, we see her quickly fall from fun-loving girl to subdued and controlled young lady. Her father forces her to behave a certain way against her will, to act more "lady-like," which sucks the life out of Kaguya. It's a beautiful and sad story filled with unique and powerful art. While not as hard to watch as Takahata's classic The Grave of the Fireflies, it's still a sad film with an ambiguous ending.

Director: Isao Takahata (The Grave of the Fireflies, Pom Poko, My Neighbors the Yamadas)

Starring: Chloe Grace Moretz, James Caan, Lucy Lui, Beau Bridges


2. THE SKELETON TWINS

Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig are two of the best SNL cast members in a long time, so it's easy to go into The Skeleton Twins expecting an outrageous comedy. While there are plenty of laughs and genuinely heartwarming moments, it's anything but. Hader and Wiig play estranged siblings reconnecting in the aftermath of one of their attempted suicides. As they struggle to establish a bond that was once very strong, we see them both unintentionally sabotaging themselves and their lives. The film meanders through touching moments of sibling bonding and the dark world of depression of people unhappy with their lives. Few films felt as honest to me as The Skeleton Twins, both in the way it handles its drama and in the way the siblings grow together and form a very natural relationship. Undoubtedly, it is Hader and Wiig who make this film, really being able to show off their acting range. Plus, there is one epic lip sync scene.

Director: Craig Johnson (True Adolescence)

Starring: Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Luke Wilson, Ty Burrell



1. BIRDMAN

I've gone into detail about why I love this movie elsewhere on the blog (it's not too far below), but everything about the film clicked for me. I loved the meta aspect of the film, with Michael Keaton basically playing an exaggerated form of Michael Keaton, and that the film is all shot to look like one continuous shot, resembling a play. Additionally, it's strange and dark humor was spot on, it's omnipresent drum added to the chaos, and the surreal moments of insanity keeps the film feeling fresh and gives it a strong forward momentum. Plus, you have to love the commentary about the state of the film industry and the stage. It's been a long time since a film has been nominated for all sorts of awards that I truly felt I understood the hype. Birdman is certainly deserving of it.

Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (21 Grams, Babel, Biutiful)

Starring: Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis, Naomi Watts




So that's it. The top ten films this year (according to some dude on the internet). Just to sum up, the list looks like this:

10. Godzilla

9. Ida

8. The LEGO Movie

7. Force Majeure

6. The One I Love

5. Kumiko the Treasure Hunter

4. Snowpiercer

3. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

2. The Skeleton Twins

1. Birdman


So. What's your list?

Top 10 Movies of the Year: 10 through 6.

2014 has been a pretty great year for films. The indie scene did some really interesting things. The foreign films have really been killing it. Even the blockbusters haven't been totally terrible (not that there hasn't been complete garbage *cough NINJA TURTLES*). It's about time to narrow down the list of Top 10 films this year. Worth noting, not all of these films saw a wide release in the US yet, but they've at least hit up some of the festival circuits.



10.  GODZILLA

After a disastrous and insulting take back in 1998, it was pretty clear from the getgo that Garth Edwards' Western take on Godzilla was going to be noticeably better. And hands down it was. But it was also a strange movie that was weirdly polarizing. Some fans loved its early Spielberg-like restraint, and others bemoaning the lack of monster action. (Although to be fair, there is about 40 minutes worth of monster action in the film.)  While lacking the substance and depth of the original Ishiro Honda film, Edwards attempts to mix pure entertainment value that Hollywood (and nerd fandom) demands with some semblance of depth and metaphor of the source material. It might be a little muddled and inconsistently paced, but the more you watch or think about it, the more you really start to notice how well crafted the film actually is. As a die hard Godzilla fan, I can't help but appreciate his effort. Some fans might have hoped for non-stop action like Pacific Rim, but I appreciated its restraint. Not perfect or how I'd have done things by any means, but I like it just a little bit more every time I watch it. It was also kind of nice to see Edwards mix elements of both the Showa and Heisei era Godzilla films, with the tone being more serious, but Godzilla playing the role of hero.

Director: Gareth Edwards (Monsters)

Starring: Bryan Cranston, David Strathairn, Aaron Taylor-Johnson



9.  IDA

Ida is a quiet and dark film following a young nun in Soviet run Poland who has no real family left except an aunt. Her superior tells her that she should visit her aunt before she takes her vows. There, she discovers a lifestyle she never knew. Yet as different and interesting as it may seem, her aunt battles depression as a result from it. The film depicts differing lifestyles without really promoting one over the other. (If anything, it almost suggests that both the complexity of city life and the simplicity of sisterhood are both kind of depressing.) No film this year utilized silence and stillness as effectively as this one. Be warned though, it's not a popcorn flick. It's pretty intense and you probably won't say anything for about an hour after you watch it.

Director:  Pawel Pawlikowski  (My Summer of Love)

Starring: Agata Trzebuchowksa, Agata Kulesza



8. THE LEGO MOVIE

Another surprise of the year, The LEGO Movie could have easily turned into an overdone product placement. Yet instead we got a fun, genuinely heartwarming, and extremely positive message about the importance of individualism and creativity. Part of the charm is the cast, in which Chris Pratt really began to emerge as the world's most charming man of all time, but also featuring a huge cast of awesome actors like Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, fellow Parks And Rec co-star Nick Offerman, and Will Ferrell. It's not just the story of an average man finding his place in a world of individualism; it's the story of a father and son coming together. Kudos to LEGO for giving us one of the best family-friendly films in the past decade. And of course, this is nothing to speak of the awesome soundtrack and incredibly unique visual style. There's also something to be said about a movie in which the protagonist saves the day without truly changing himself, instead saving the world by merely being truly himself and being comfortable with it.

Directors: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller (22 Jump Street, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs)

Starring: Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Morgan Freeman




7. FORCE MAJEURE

I was pretty much sold on the premise of the film alone. A family is at a ski resort on vacation, where controlled avalanches are common for safety reasons. One day at lunch, an avalanche heads toward them. Initially they don't seem worried because they know about controlled ones. But it starts to pick up steam and heads toward them. Just before it appears to hit them, the mother tries to protect her children while the father grabs his iPhone and runs away. In the end, it turns out it was controlled. No one was hurt. The rest of the film deals with their relationship struggling with the fact that when danger appeared imminent, the father just left. They wind up dragging their friends into it, and the stress itself grows like an avalanche. It would probably bore many people, but it does an incredible job with subtle humor and quiet drama.

Director: Ruben Ostlund  (Play)

Starring: Johannes Kuhkne, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Kristofer Hivju



6. THE ONE I LOVE

One of the nice things about The One I Love is how it marketed itself. Not quite the deceptive campaign Woody Allen pulled for Midnight in Paris, but you watch the trailer and the only thing it really gives away is the tone of the movie. Everything else within it is so weird and unexpected, it's really refreshing. You knew something strange was going to happen, but not that! It's a funny and engaging look on a dying relationship with top notch acting from Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass, who kills it with his subtle gestures.

Director:  Charlie McDowell  (debut feature film)

Starring:  Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss, Ted Danson




That's the bottom half of the top ten films I've seen in 2014. Some of them may be available online either on Netflix or Amazon On Demand, but some of them might still be only accessible at your nearby theaters. Either way, these are films you should definitely consider checking out.

And just to show how great a year it's been, here are five films that very nearly made the list, but just missed out.

EDGE OF TOMORROW

Groundhog Day meets Starship Troopers, this was one of the surprises of the year.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

One of Marvel's stronger efforts, it's one of the most fun and entertaining blockbusters in a while. (Even if I have no idea how Peter Quill is able to make cultural references to things he was way too young to know before he got abducted as a child.)

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON

A very well crafted film around the incredibly difficult dilemma of what to do if you find out the child you've been raising for years was actually switched at birth, and that your biological child is being raised by other parents.

FRANK

Making fun of indie hipster noise prog-rock bands. What can I say? I love making fun of them. Plus, Michael Fassbender is awesome.

WE ARE THE BEST

A Swedish-Danish film about a trio of young girls who want to start a punk rock band. It's like a less depressing, more all ages friendly SLC Punk (but maybe even a little bit better).