@obarth back! typing like he on a contract year coming for that 2015 poster of the year
@Sensitive Blake Griffin idk about all that breh .. first initial theater viewing i gave it a 7..ive since bumped it up as it's stuck with me. I'll see it again soon i told my girl she better cop it and nightcrawler for me for v day
i enjoyed it far more the 2nd viewing, I just realized how fukking brilliantly crafted the film is. And I'd argue the film contains one of the best death scenes in movie history. I went over to my friend's crib he hadn't seen the movie, the reactions on his face were fukking priceless, especially during that murder scene. Good cinematog, rosamund pike puts on a HELL of a performance. Well written, darkly funny at points. I liked it's soundtrack as well. Fincher is so god damn good. This list is really hard for me.
Nightcrawler, Gone Girl and Fury all were criticized for shaky endings but I had to give them props for being great the bulk of the way through. Plus I had no issues with the Nightcrawler or Gone Girl endings
Nightcrawler ended a little flat but I thought Gone Girl ending was fine, in the end she literally became amy the fictional book character, she had him under his thumb
It's not a perfect film, but fukk me this was the most enjoyable experience I've had at the theaters all year. Yeah, you could poke holes, some of it is implausible, but it drew me in and had me on the edge of my seat. Plus a great meditation on the costs of being great in your own eyes and the the eyes of others and really made me think of how nebulous "success" really is.
2) Nightcrawler
Another enjoyable movie experience. And I dunno what it is, but Lou Bloom is a character we've seen before. That lonely, sociopathic, dude who can't really forge meaningful relationships and is just sorta overall cringeworthy, but for me, those characters are always so goddamn compelling. This hit all the spots for me, even if its message about network news seemed slightly dated to me. I also loved the ending. I thought it was very fitting.
3) Jodorowsky's Dune
Damn brehs. This is one of those movies that inspires the fukk outta me. It actually came around a point last year when I was a bit adrift. I wanted to work in a particular field, and this movie and Jodorowsky's general outlook on life sorta inspired me. It sounds a little hokey typing it out, but you just gotta try to do something. Just try. It doesn't matter about success or money, the important thing is that you tried. And that's what his vision of Dune was about. He tried. It was good enough for him.
4) Blue Ruin
Another real great experience at the theater. Enjoyed the hell out of this. And I liked how the the main guy wasn't any sort of special ops, muscular dude. He was just a regular ass breh trying to avenge his parents. But at the end of the day, his whole mission was ultimately misguided and the last scenes sorta underscore the futility of revenge and the never ending cycle of violence.
5) Inherent Vice
PT Anderson having fun again. Funny, interesting, incomprehensible, rich. I really enjoy those dramas that go into America during the end of the 60s and that uncertain mood and feeling that was sorta being ushered into the grotty 70s e.g. (off the top of my head) Mad Men, Gimme Shelter, Withnail and I. That time period is so fascinating to me. Inherent Vice is right up there.
6) Obvious Child
My heartfelt choice. Hit home on a lot of levels. Another thing that I'm a sucker for? Characters who are drifting 20-something year olds in these odd and weird internet times, those sort of arrested development type of characters who have difficulty growing up and transitioning into a meaningful adulthood. I see that shyt all around, grown adults into YA fiction, nikkas into comic books, and actually what made me hip to this "young" pop culture landscape that surrounds us now is an AO Scott essay on the topic. I don't want to get into all that. But just where I'm at with my life, I could relate to Jenny Slate's character. Not to mention it was genuinely funny, strongly feminist, it handled the abortion topic nicely and Jenny Slate is my boo
7) Gone Girl
Not Fincher's greatest. But speaking of feminism this is another great showcase for the widening of feminism roles in Hollywood. I liked the movie when I first saw it, but an essay by Film Crit Hulk really opened my eyes to how feminist Amy's character was. Plus not to mention it's a very fun movie.
8) A Most Violent Year
The questionable decisions and moral quandaries that accumulation and capitalism can sometimes shove people into as well as a singular deep perspective from main character. Beautifully shot, NYC without being "NYC," awesome performance from Oscar Isaac, and a gangster movie without any real gangsters in it.
9) The Lego Movie/22 Jump Street
Lord and Miller the gawds. Meta, quirky, very funny both of them and were never too corny. About the most I laughed at the theaters all year. And Lego Movie was a rare kids movie that I actually found funny.
10) The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson is probably my favorite director if I'm being completely honest. So to have a film from him in the first place is always a treat. Enjoyable overall, but just didn't hit me in the gut like Rushmore, Moonrise Kingdom, Steve Zissou, or The Darjeeling Limited did (I guess almost all his other movies). I couldn't find much to latch onto in terms of resonance. But I saw it twice and it's his most critically acclaimed movie to date, so what do I know eh.
HM:
Apes
The Raid 2
Under the Skin
The Dog
Coherence
The Babadook
Frank
The One I Love
We Are The Best!
Edge of Tomorrow
Interstellar
Selma
Predestination
Noah
Ida
Top Five
The Dance of Reality
Alan Partridge
Top 10 (with trailers so you can at least have an idea of what the fukk I'm talking about)
1. The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya (Kaguyahime No Monogatari)
The (probably) last movie we're ever going to get from perfectionist Isao Takahata, the other master of Studio Ghibli. A classic Japanese fairytale is animated in story book style animation to give us one of the most visually striking anime movies of all time, but in true Ghibli fashion it's the amazing wondrous attention to detail that makes the movie shine and gives us something to feel blessed about round every corner, from it's gentle opening about a simple bamboo cutter discovering a princess born from a bamboo tree, to the color-pychedelic ending of the descent of the heavens to reclaim her.
2. The Lego Movie
I'm a hardcore Lego fanatic since childhood, before I outgrew the population-not-yet-1000 village I was born and raised in, my Lego play room was my portal to a world of imagination and dreams, and none of that boring, dreary real life stuff. So a Lego Movie was always gonna mean something to me, just like how the all-time classic video game Lego Island kept my face glued to a PC for nearly two entire years. And goddamn, did they pull it off. Filled to the brim with jokes so it almost reaches Airplane!/Naked Gun! levels of jokes-a-minute and all of them being hilarious, let it be visual jokes, wordplay, pop culture references, it was a perfect comical blend of nostalgia and modern sensibilities and Batman.
3. Under The Skin
Scarlett Johansson gets naked in a movie that blends Kubrickian filmmaking with the David Bowie cult classic The Man Who Fell To Earth. Now there's three things that can give me hard-on any time of the week. It's horrific in every sense of the word, a haunting piece of arthouse sci-fi horror boasting the best (and creepiest) soundtrack of the year, the best cinematography of the year and the two best visual effects of the year. It's not for everyone, and should that be the case, it's all on you.
4. To Kill A Man (Matar A Un Hombre)
A slow, pandering drama about a man whose family is constantly harassed by the criminals in their city. The police don't care for those who can't pay them so nothing is done. Slowly, slowly, he comes to the conclusion that the only way to make the terror stop, is to kill the man. Shot completely without sensation, it's probably the most realistic depiction of a man turning vigilante. There is no glory in the result, there are no gunfights and explosions, there is just a man who is afraid of another man, but is more afraid of what will happen if he does not act. Striking cinematography complement every scene of slow-burning dread. Killing a man has never felt so unrewarding.
5. The World Of Kanako (Kawaki)
Madness! Chaos! Violence!Drugs!Sex!YakuzaDubstepSuicideHighSchoolOutfitFetishes! The World Of Kanako is an off the wall funky pulp-revival thriller about a former cop whose daughter disappear, giving him an excuse to barge back into the life of his ex-wife. But when his sweetheart daughter turns out to be far less than innocent, an underworld cesspool opens up, and he plans to fully bask in it. The most ruthlessly edited movie in possible forever, with the average shot lasting probably shorter than a second, but all the way through remaining perfectly easy to follow, it's Pulp Fiction on Japanese crack. Gone Girl's Amy wouldn't last an hour in the world of Kanako, the insane personification of evil and the one true movie bytch of 2014. Also boasts the most non-sensically bad-ass opening credits of the year!
6. Kano
A Taiwanese movie about the 1931 KANO high school baseball team who pulled off the impossible by going from having never won a single game in the team's existence to compete at Koshien, the Japanese baseball championship that is the greatest accomplishment for any high school team, an act that single-handedly made baseball Taiwan's most popular sport. What set the team apart was that, being under Japan's occupation, the multiracial team consisted of Taiwanese, Japanese and Han Chinese players, something unheard of at the time. In many ways it's a traditional underdog story, told in a very Hollywood-ish way, but breaks out of the mold due to a ridiculous 180 minutes running time (!) that pulls off the nigh-impossible by creating a perfectly well-paced and captivating journey of young men with love for the game who discover they have the skill to become champions, if only they can muster up the will. Only in Asia can they tell epic sports tales like this.
7. The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson has been close, really close, to hitting the perfect mixture of his wacky off-beat style and a cinematic masterpiece for a while now, and while it lacks the layered maturity of Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel makes up for it by being about a hundred times funnier than even The Life Aquatic. Perfect acting by everyone involved (but special shout-out of course to Ralph Fiennes), it's the most entertaining movie of Anderson's career as well as featuring some of the best cinematography of his career, largely due to the intricate sets, off-spring of Wes' off-beat style. See how it's all connected? A cinematic joy.
8. Black Coal, Thin Ice (Bai Ri Yan Huo/literal title: Daylight Fireworks)
A modern day noir about a former cop who gets dragged back into the case that ended his career, but becomes entranced by the most important person of interest, the woman who shares a link to all the victims. Despite being a Chinese film, it borrows a lot from the South Korean wave, and not just the general themes and aesthetics, but the very heart and soul. It's atmospheric and twisty and psychological and outrageous and subtle. A strong showcase for actor Fan Liao, whose physical transformation and performance were nothing short of amazing, while director Yi'nan Diao earned himself an instant spot on my 'directors-to-watch' list.
9. Nightcrawler
Good satires are rare. Good media satires haven't been seen since Network (although Mad City is a guilty pleasure of mine), a good media satire that goes beyond that and also is an incredibly suspenseful thriller, that puts us onto something. No, the third act and ending isn't perfect, but Louis Bloom is one of the most memorable characters of 2014 in both writing and acting and proves once again (such as Drive before it, and fellow '14 movie John Wick) that small-budgeted niche movies built around a single star performance and a unique atmosphere are becoming a very interesting alternative to the overload of increasingly embarrassing blockbusters.
10. Winter Sleep (Kis Uykusu)
It's a three hour Turkish movie about a self-absorbed former theater actor who now spends his days running a hotel in Anatolia with his estranged trophy wife and his similarly self-absorbed sister constantly engaging in long-winded philosophical debates regarding human relations, inspired by the works of Chekhov. You probably know if this will appeal to you by that description. I thought it was captivating from beginning to end, especially the way it doesn't try to make a point but simply raise multiple and then letting you decide where you stand as each character is shown to be imperfect, flawed, but also sometimes right. It also looks fukking gorgeous, courtesy of director Ceylan whose early beginnings in photography certainly did him no wrong.
Honorable mention: What We Do In The Shadows
Because it took me ten minutes to decide whether it was going to be this one or Winter Sleep for the #10 spot. A laugh-out-loud comedy about old vampires struggling in modern society, hilarious and clever by a very talented duo (writing, acting and directing!).
Top 5 worst:
1. Dracula Untold, boring, uninspired drivel with a rushed plot, no heart and terrible visuals. A horrible start on Universal's Monster Avengers franchise shyt. 2. Transformers: Age Of Extinction, after four movies, do I really need to explain this one? 3. The Guest, how to start a movie intriguing but completely fukk it up along the way. Winner of the most blatant Drive rip-off of the year. At least Dan Stevens got to show off that he can (and deserves) to lead a movie. 4. The Interview, painfully unfunny outside of the unintentional comedy the Sony hack provided. That's seriously why I didn't put it at #1. 5. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I, nothing happens in this movie. Absolutely nothing. When they actually get an opportunity to have something happen, they shy away from it. Sooooo boring.
Dishonorable mention: Lucy, which was a bad movie for sure but I feel gets a bad rep on here because in all its stupidity it was actually entertaining all the way through. But it was still very bad.
Random 2014 Coli awards:
The Godzilla award for most embarrassingly disappointing blockbuster of the year: Godzilla
The Edge Of Tomorrow award for most surprisingly entertaining blockbuster of the year: Live. Die. Repeat.
The Predestination award for most randomly discussed movie of the year: Predestination
The @MartyMcFly award for emphasizing how much I hated The Amazing Spider-Man 2: The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The Babadook/John Wick award for biggest out of nowhere movie of the year: Two-way tie between The Babadook and John Wick
The Tom Hardy in The Drop and Locke award for acknowledging Tom Hardy's performances of the year: Tom Hardy in The Drop and Locke
The Tom Hardy ahead-of-schedule award for awarding Tom Hardy ahead of schedule: Mad Max: Fury Road
The Mad Max: Fury Road award for the trailer that was better than most movies of the year award: Mad Max Fury Road
The Shasta returns scene award for the shot of the year award: Shasta returns, Inherent Vice
The Ghost Vitruvius award for reminding everybody how goddamn great Ghost Vitruvius in The Lego Movie was: Ghost Vitruvius
The Thor 2 award for the '14 Marvel movie that most shamelessly copied the exact formula also used for Thor 2: Guardians Of The Galaxy
The Once Upon A Time In Shanghai/Kung Fu Killer award for the decent martial arts movies that didn't stand a chance in a world where The Raid 2 exists: Two-way tie between Once Upon A Time In Shanghai and Kung Fu Killer.
The Triumvirate award for the three movies that celebrated black excellence in all its forms, Selma, Dear White People, Girlhood
The CAC award for the whitest movie that I would've handed out if it wasn't for the fact I already acknowledged The Grand Budapest Hotel in my Top 10: -
And finally:
The @flyry award for most overrated movie of the year:
THREE-WAY TIE BETWEEN INTERSTELLAR, BIRDMAN AND WHIPLASH
Top 10 (with trailers so you can at least have an idea of what the fukk I'm talking about)
1. The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya (Kaguyahime No Monogatari)
The (probably) last movie we're ever going to get from perfectionist Isao Takahata, the other master of Studio Ghibli. A classic Japanese fairytale is animated in story book style animation to give us one of the most visually striking anime movies of all time, but in true Ghibli fashion it's the amazing wondrous attention to detail that makes the movie shine and gives us something to feel blessed about round every corner, from it's gentle opening about a simple bamboo cutter discovering a princess born from a bamboo tree, to the color-pychedelic ending of the descent of the heavens to reclaim her.
2. The Lego Movie
I'm a hardcore Lego fanatic since childhood, before I outgrew the population-not-yet-1000 village I was born and raised in, my Lego play room was my portal to a world of imagination and dreams, and none of that boring, dreary real life stuff. So a Lego Movie was always gonna mean something to me, just like how the all-time classic video game Lego Island kept my face glued to a PC for nearly two entire years. And goddamn, did they pull it off. Filled to the brim with jokes so it almost reaches Airplane!/Naked Gun! levels of jokes-a-minute and all of them being hilarious, let it be visual jokes, wordplay, pop culture references, it was a perfect comical blend of nostalgia and modern sensibilities and Batman.
3. Under The Skin
Scarlett Johansson gets naked in a movie that blends Kubrickian filmmaking with the David Bowie cult classic The Man Who Fell To Earth. Now there's three things that can give me hard-on any time of the week. It's horrific in every sense of the word, a haunting piece of arthouse sci-fi horror boasting the best (and creepiest) soundtrack of the year, the best cinematography of the year and the two best visual effects of the year. It's not for everyone, and should that be the case, it's all on you.
4. To Kill A Man (Matar A Un Hombre)
A slow, pandering drama about a man whose family is constantly harassed by the criminals in their city. The police don't care for those who can't pay them so nothing is done. Slowly, slowly, he comes to the conclusion that the only way to make the terror stop, is to kill the man. Shot completely without sensation, it's probably the most realistic depiction of a man turning vigilante. There is no glory in the result, there are no gunfights and explosions, there is just a man who is afraid of another man, but is more afraid of what will happen if he does not act. Striking cinematography complement every scene of slow-burning dread. Killing a man has never felt so unrewarding.
5. The World Of Kanako (Kawaki)
Madness! Chaos! Violence!Drugs!Sex!YakuzaDubstepSuicideHighSchoolOutfitFetishes! The World Of Kanako is an off the wall funky pulp-revival thriller about a former cop whose daughter disappear, giving him an excuse to barge back into the life of his ex-wife. But when his sweetheart daughter turns out to be far less than innocent, an underworld cesspool opens up, and he plans to fully bask in it. The most ruthlessly edited movie in possible forever, with the average shot lasting probably shorter than a second, but all the way through remaining perfectly easy to follow, it's Pulp Fiction on Japanese crack. Gone Girl's Amy wouldn't last an hour in the world of Kanako, the insane personification of evil and the one true movie bytch of 2014. Also boasts the most non-sensically bad-ass opening credits of the year!
6. Kano
A Taiwanese movie about the 1931 KANO high school baseball team who pulled off the impossible by going from having never won a single game in the team's existence to compete at Koshien, the Japanese baseball championship that is the greatest accomplishment for any high school team, an act that single-handedly made baseball Taiwan's most popular sport. What set the team apart was that, being under Japan's occupation, the multiracial team consisted of Taiwanese, Japanese and Han Chinese players, something unheard of at the time. In many ways it's a traditional underdog story, told in a very Hollywood-ish way, but breaks out of the mold due to a ridiculous 180 minutes running time (!) that pulls off the nigh-impossible by creating a perfectly well-paced and captivating journey of young men with love for the game who discover they have the skill to become champions, if only they can muster up the will. Only in Asia can they tell epic sports tales like this.
7. The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson has been close, really close, to hitting the perfect mixture of his wacky off-beat style and a cinematic masterpiece for a while now, and while it lacks the layered maturity of Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel makes up for it by being about a hundred times funnier than even The Life Aquatic. Perfect acting by everyone involved (but special shout-out of course to Ralph Fiennes), it's the most entertaining movie of Anderson's career as well as featuring some of the best cinematography of his career, largely due to the intricate sets, off-spring of Wes' off-beat style. See how it's all connected? A cinematic joy.
8. Black Coal, Thin Ice (Bai Ri Yan Huo/literal title: Daylight Fireworks)
A modern day noir about a former cop who gets dragged back into the case that ended his career, but becomes entranced by the most important person of interest, the woman who shares a link to all the victims. Despite being a Chinese film, it borrows a lot from the South Korean wave, and not just the general themes and aesthetics, but the very heart and soul. It's atmospheric and twisty and psychological and outrageous and subtle. A strong showcase for actor Fan Liao, whose physical transformation and performance were nothing short of amazing, while director Yi'nan Diao earned himself an instant spot on my 'directors-to-watch' list.
9. Nightcrawler
Good satires are rare. Good media satires haven't been seen since Network (although Mad City is a guilty pleasure of mine), a good media satire that goes beyond that and also is an incredibly suspenseful thriller, that puts us onto something. No, the third act and ending isn't perfect, but Louis Bloom is one of the most memorable characters of 2014 in both writing and acting and proves once again (such as Drive before it, and fellow '14 movie John Wick) that small-budgeted niche movies built around a single star performance and a unique atmosphere are becoming a very interesting alternative to the overload of increasingly embarrassing blockbusters.
10. Winter Sleep (Kis Uykusu)
It's a three hour Turkish movie about a self-absorbed former theater actor who now spends his days running a hotel in Anatolia with his estranged trophy wife and his similarly self-absorbed sister constantly engaging in long-winded philosophical debates regarding human relations, inspired by the works of Chekhov. You probably know if this will appeal to you by that description. I thought it was captivating from beginning to end, especially the way it doesn't try to make a point but simply raise multiple and then letting you decide where you stand as each character is shown to be imperfect, flawed, but also sometimes right. It also looks fukking gorgeous, courtesy of director Ceylan whose early beginnings in photography certainly did him no wrong.
Honorable mention: What We Do In The Shadows
Because it took me ten minutes to decide whether it was going to be this one or Winter Sleep for the #10 spot. A laugh-out-loud comedy about old vampires struggling in modern society, hilarious and clever by a very talented duo (writing, acting and directing!).
Top 5 worst:
1. Dracula Untold, boring, uninspired drivel with a rushed plot, no heart and terrible visuals. A horrible start on Universal's Monster Avengers franchise shyt. 2. Transformers: Age Of Extinction, after four movies, do I really need to explain this one? 3. The Guest, how to start a movie intriguing but completely fukk it up along the way. Winner of the most blatant Drive rip-off of the year. At least Dan Stevens got to show off that he can (and deserves) to lead a movie. 4. The Interview, painfully unfunny outside of the unintentional comedy the Sony hack provided. That's seriously why I didn't put it at #1. 5. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I, nothing happens in this movie. Absolutely nothing. When they actually get an opportunity to have something happen, they shy away from it. Sooooo boring.
Dishonorable mention: Lucy, which was a bad movie for sure but I feel gets a bad rep on here because in all its stupidity it was actually entertaining all the way through. But it was still very bad.
Random 2014 Coli awards:
The Godzilla award for most embarrassingly disappointing blockbuster of the year: Godzilla
The Edge Of Tomorrow award for most surprisingly entertaining blockbuster of the year: Live. Die. Repeat.
The Predestination award for most randomly discussed movie of the year: Predestination
The @MartyMcFly award for emphasizing how much I hated The Amazing Spider-Man 2: The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The Babadook/John Wick award for biggest out of nowhere movie of the year: Two-way tie between The Babadook and John Wick
The Tom Hardy in The Drop and Locke award for acknowledging Tom Hardy's performances of the year: Tom Hardy in The Drop and Locke
The Tom Hardy ahead-of-schedule award for awarding Tom Hardy ahead of schedule: Mad Max: Fury Road
The Mad Max: Fury Road award for the trailer that was better than most movies of the year award: Mad Max Fury Road
The Shasta returns scene award for the shot of the year award: Shasta returns, Inherent Vice
The Ghost Vitruvius award for reminding everybody how goddamn great Ghost Vitruvius in The Lego Movie was: Ghost Vitruvius
The Thor 2 award for the '14 Marvel movie that most shamelessly copied the exact formula also used for Thor 2: Guardians Of The Galaxy
The Once Upon A Time In Shanghai/Kung Fu Killer award for the decent martial arts movies that didn't stand a chance in a world where The Raid 2 exists: Two-way tie between Once Upon A Time In Shanghai and Kung Fu Killer.
The Triumvirate award for the three movies that celebrated black excellence in all its forms, Selma, Dear White People, Girlhood
The CAC award for the whitest movie that I would've handed out if it wasn't for the fact I already acknowledged The Grand Budapest Hotel in my Top 10: -
And finally:
The @flyry award for most overrated movie of the year:
THREE-WAY TIE BETWEEN INTERSTELLAR, BIRDMAN AND WHIPLASH
Top 10 (with trailers so you can at least have an idea of what the fukk I'm talking about)
1. The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya (Kaguyahime No Monogatari)
The (probably) last movie we're ever going to get from perfectionist Isao Takahata, the other master of Studio Ghibli. A classic Japanese fairytale is animated in story book style animation to give us one of the most visually striking anime movies of all time, but in true Ghibli fashion it's the amazing wondrous attention to detail that makes the movie shine and gives us something to feel blessed about round every corner, from it's gentle opening about a simple bamboo cutter discovering a princess born from a bamboo tree, to the color-pychedelic ending of the descent of the heavens to reclaim her.
2. The Lego Movie
I'm a hardcore Lego fanatic since childhood, before I outgrew the population-not-yet-1000 village I was born and raised in, my Lego play room was my portal to a world of imagination and dreams, and none of that boring, dreary real life stuff. So a Lego Movie was always gonna mean something to me, just like how the all-time classic video game Lego Island kept my face glued to a PC for nearly two entire years. And goddamn, did they pull it off. Filled to the brim with jokes so it almost reaches Airplane!/Naked Gun! levels of jokes-a-minute and all of them being hilarious, let it be visual jokes, wordplay, pop culture references, it was a perfect comical blend of nostalgia and modern sensibilities and Batman.
3. Under The Skin
Scarlett Johansson gets naked in a movie that blends Kubrickian filmmaking with the David Bowie cult classic The Man Who Fell To Earth. Now there's three things that can give me hard-on any time of the week. It's horrific in every sense of the word, a haunting piece of arthouse sci-fi horror boasting the best (and creepiest) soundtrack of the year, the best cinematography of the year and the two best visual effects of the year. It's not for everyone, and should that be the case, it's all on you.
4. To Kill A Man (Matar A Un Hombre)
A slow, pandering drama about a man whose family is constantly harassed by the criminals in their city. The police don't care for those who can't pay them so nothing is done. Slowly, slowly, he comes to the conclusion that the only way to make the terror stop, is to kill the man. Shot completely without sensation, it's probably the most realistic depiction of a man turning vigilante. There is no glory in the result, there are no gunfights and explosions, there is just a man who is afraid of another man, but is more afraid of what will happen if he does not act. Striking cinematography complement every scene of slow-burning dread. Killing a man has never felt so unrewarding.
5. The World Of Kanako (Kawaki)
Madness! Chaos! Violence!Drugs!Sex!YakuzaDubstepSuicideHighSchoolOutfitFetishes! The World Of Kanako is an off the wall funky pulp-revival thriller about a former cop whose daughter disappear, giving him an excuse to barge back into the life of his ex-wife. But when his sweetheart daughter turns out to be far less than innocent, an underworld cesspool opens up, and he plans to fully bask in it. The most ruthlessly edited movie in possible forever, with the average shot lasting probably shorter than a second, but all the way through remaining perfectly easy to follow, it's Pulp Fiction on Japanese crack. Gone Girl's Amy wouldn't last an hour in the world of Kanako, the insane personification of evil and the one true movie bytch of 2014. Also boasts the most non-sensically bad-ass opening credits of the year!
6. Kano
A Taiwanese movie about the 1931 KANO high school baseball team who pulled off the impossible by going from having never won a single game in the team's existence to compete at Koshien, the Japanese baseball championship that is the greatest accomplishment for any high school team, an act that single-handedly made baseball Taiwan's most popular sport. What set the team apart was that, being under Japan's occupation, the multiracial team consisted of Taiwanese, Japanese and Han Chinese players, something unheard of at the time. In many ways it's a traditional underdog story, told in a very Hollywood-ish way, but breaks out of the mold due to a ridiculous 180 minutes running time (!) that pulls off the nigh-impossible by creating a perfectly well-paced and captivating journey of young men with love for the game who discover they have the skill to become champions, if only they can muster up the will. Only in Asia can they tell epic sports tales like this.
7. The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson has been close, really close, to hitting the perfect mixture of his wacky off-beat style and a cinematic masterpiece for a while now, and while it lacks the layered maturity of Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel makes up for it by being about a hundred times funnier than even The Life Aquatic. Perfect acting by everyone involved (but special shout-out of course to Ralph Fiennes), it's the most entertaining movie of Anderson's career as well as featuring some of the best cinematography of his career, largely due to the intricate sets, off-spring of Wes' off-beat style. See how it's all connected? A cinematic joy.
8. Black Coal, Thin Ice (Bai Ri Yan Huo/literal title: Daylight Fireworks)
A modern day noir about a former cop who gets dragged back into the case that ended his career, but becomes entranced by the most important person of interest, the woman who shares a link to all the victims. Despite being a Chinese film, it borrows a lot from the South Korean wave, and not just the general themes and aesthetics, but the very heart and soul. It's atmospheric and twisty and psychological and outrageous and subtle. A strong showcase for actor Fan Liao, whose physical transformation and performance were nothing short of amazing, while director Yi'nan Diao earned himself an instant spot on my 'directors-to-watch' list.
9. Nightcrawler
Good satires are rare. Good media satires haven't been seen since Network (although Mad City is a guilty pleasure of mine), a good media satire that goes beyond that and also is an incredibly suspenseful thriller, that puts us onto something. No, the third act and ending isn't perfect, but Louis Bloom is one of the most memorable characters of 2014 in both writing and acting and proves once again (such as Drive before it, and fellow '14 movie John Wick) that small-budgeted niche movies built around a single star performance and a unique atmosphere are becoming a very interesting alternative to the overload of increasingly embarrassing blockbusters.
10. Winter Sleep (Kis Uykusu)
It's a three hour Turkish movie about a self-absorbed former theater actor who now spends his days running a hotel in Anatolia with his estranged trophy wife and his similarly self-absorbed sister constantly engaging in long-winded philosophical debates regarding human relations, inspired by the works of Chekhov. You probably know if this will appeal to you by that description. I thought it was captivating from beginning to end, especially the way it doesn't try to make a point but simply raise multiple and then letting you decide where you stand as each character is shown to be imperfect, flawed, but also sometimes right. It also looks fukking gorgeous, courtesy of director Ceylan whose early beginnings in photography certainly did him no wrong.
Honorable mention: What We Do In The Shadows
Because it took me ten minutes to decide whether it was going to be this one or Winter Sleep for the #10 spot. A laugh-out-loud comedy about old vampires struggling in modern society, hilarious and clever by a very talented duo (writing, acting and directing!).
Top 5 worst:
1. Dracula Untold, boring, uninspired drivel with a rushed plot, no heart and terrible visuals. A horrible start on Universal's Monster Avengers franchise shyt. 2. Transformers: Age Of Extinction, after four movies, do I really need to explain this one? 3. The Guest, how to start a movie intriguing but completely fukk it up along the way. Winner of the most blatant Drive rip-off of the year. At least Dan Stevens got to show off that he can (and deserves) to lead a movie. 4. The Interview, painfully unfunny outside of the unintentional comedy the Sony hack provided. That's seriously why I didn't put it at #1. 5. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I, nothing happens in this movie. Absolutely nothing. When they actually get an opportunity to have something happen, they shy away from it. Sooooo boring.
Dishonorable mention: Lucy, which was a bad movie for sure but I feel gets a bad rep on here because in all its stupidity it was actually entertaining all the way through. But it was still very bad.
Random 2014 Coli awards:
The Godzilla award for most embarrassingly disappointing blockbuster of the year: Godzilla
The Edge Of Tomorrow award for most surprisingly entertaining blockbuster of the year: Live. Die. Repeat.
The Predestination award for most randomly discussed movie of the year: Predestination
The @MartyMcFly award for emphasizing how much I hated The Amazing Spider-Man 2: The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The Babadook/John Wick award for biggest out of nowhere movie of the year: Two-way tie between The Babadook and John Wick
The Tom Hardy in The Drop and Locke award for acknowledging Tom Hardy's performances of the year: Tom Hardy in The Drop and Locke
The Tom Hardy ahead-of-schedule award for awarding Tom Hardy ahead of schedule: Mad Max: Fury Road
The Mad Max: Fury Road award for the trailer that was better than most movies of the year award: Mad Max Fury Road
The Shasta returns scene award for the shot of the year award: Shasta returns, Inherent Vice
The Ghost Vitruvius award for reminding everybody how goddamn great Ghost Vitruvius in The Lego Movie was: Ghost Vitruvius
The Thor 2 award for the '14 Marvel movie that most shamelessly copied the exact formula also used for Thor 2: Guardians Of The Galaxy
The Once Upon A Time In Shanghai/Kung Fu Killer award for the decent martial arts movies that didn't stand a chance in a world where The Raid 2 exists: Two-way tie between Once Upon A Time In Shanghai and Kung Fu Killer.
The Triumvirate award for the three movies that celebrated black excellence in all its forms, Selma, Dear White People, Girlhood
The CAC award for the whitest movie that I would've handed out if it wasn't for the fact I already acknowledged The Grand Budapest Hotel in my Top 10: -
And finally:
The @flyry award for most overrated movie of the year:
THREE-WAY TIE BETWEEN INTERSTELLAR, BIRDMAN AND WHIPLASH
and john wick should get sole ownership of the outta nowhere movie award. I heard about babadook like a year or 2 from my girl's bff's brother..he's one of those horror nuts
1. birdman
2. gone girl
3. guardians of the galaxy
4. days of future past
5. edge of tomorrow
6. interstellar
7. dawn of the planet of the apes
8. 22 jump street
9. the imitation game
10. snowpiercer
hm
lego movie
grand budapest
frank
john wick
fury
worst
under the skin
under the skin
under the skin
under the skin
under the skin
rewatchability plays heavily into my list. There are better films then Guardians and 22 jump street, but both of those movies are extremely entertaining to me, Guardians has an indescribable charm to the entire film, I sit there with a grin everytime I watch the film. Ranking days of future past that high may surprise some but I fukking love that movie, as you can see, my scifi bias shines through my list, and on that note, fukk under the skin.
1. birdman
2. gone girl
3. guardians of the galaxy
4. days of future past
5. edge of tomorrow
6. interstellar
7. dawn of the planet of the apes
8. 22 jump street
9. the imitation game
10. snowpiercer
hm
lego movie
grand budapest
frank
john wick
fury
worst
under the skin
under the skin
under the skin
under the skin
under the skin
rewatchability plays heavily into my list. There are better films then Guardians and 22 jump street, but both of those movies are extremely entertaining to me, Guardians has an indescribable charm to the entire film, I sit there with a grin everytime I watch the film. Ranking days of future past that high may surprise some but I fukking love that movie, as you can see, my scifi bias shines through my list, and on that note, fukk under the skin.
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.. first initial theater viewing i gave it a 7..ive since bumped it up as it's stuck with me. I'll see it again soon i told my girl she better cop it and nightcrawler for me for v day
in theaters this week. 
