2014 in Review -- Movies

Looking back at my movie watching in 2014, my numbers continued to slip. I watched 77 movies, down 5 from the year before. That's still more than one movie a week, which I'm sure is a far higher average than most people, though it's less than half what I managed in the apparently entertainment-packed 2010.

As for my top 10 favorites of the year... as always, I'm behind on some Oscar contenders, and thus will likely be making updates at a later date.

For now, the list stands thus:

1. Boyhood
2. Birdman
3. Bad Words
4. Into the Woods
5. They Came Together
6. X-Men: Days of Future Past
7. Jodorowsky's Dune
8. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
9. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
10. Guardians of the Galaxy

Boyhood, which I hedged as an A- in my original review, I would now consider a straight A. It's a simply astonishing feat of filmmaking, and over time I saw its lack of traditional narrative as more of a virtue than a handicap. At this point, I'm truly rooting for Boyhood to win this year's Best Picture Oscar. Not only did I think it was the best film of the year, but a win would also be an apology to Richard Linklater for not even nominating the superb Before Midnight last year. It's rare that a "make-up Oscar" happens to coincide with another worthy nomination. Don't mess it up, Academy.
Birdman, which I originally thought of as a B+, has now stepped up to an A-. It just so perfectly captures the type of lunacy you encounter working in the theater. There's another movie about theater that's in my top 100 -- Noises Off -- yet even I would acknowledge it's a fairly fluffy bit of filmmaking, and far less effective than the play on which its based. If I can find room to lovelovelove that movie, surely I'd sold short Birdman, which has exceptional performances and a staggering degree of technical difficulty in its looks-like-one-take approach.

This year, the A- films extend much farther down my list than usual at this point. I suppose you could interpret that to mean 2014 was a "good movie year," with a number of truly great films, even if I haven't yet found a new entry great enough for my all-time Top 100.

Yes, I thought Guardians of the Galaxy was the third best superhero movie of the year. I feel X-Men had stronger acting than its genre brethren, and I thought The Winter Solder had the more compelling story of the two Marvel Studios movies. As I said at the time (before Honest Trailers said it more humorously), I thought Guardians hewed a bit too closely to the formula established in The Avengers.

There are a lot of highly anticipated blockbusters coming in 2015. Here's hoping at least some of them live up to the hype, for another great movie year.

Updated (6-3-2015):
1. Whiplash
2. Boyhood
3. Big Hero 6
4. Still Alice
5. Birdman
6. Bad Words
7. Into the Woods
8. They Came Together
9. The Normal Heart
10. X-Men: Days of Future Past