1. Mad Max: Fury Road
The teaser trailer for this film came out in late 2014, and needless to say, I was pumped. The style and look felt completely fresh. And after seeing the film, I was not disappointed. These days, special effects don’t do anything to “wow” you. That is, until George Miller melts your face off with a guitar-strapped masked man chained to a monster truck and shooting fire out the end. Just read that sentence again. This is exactly what action movies should be. Memorable characters, jaw dropping stunts, and no time wasted. Charlize Theron’s Furiosa was praised upon release, and deservedly so. She’s the real hero of the film, with the titular Max (Tom Hardy) playing second fiddle. This is an incredible achievement in film making, one which was rewarded by 6 Oscar wins. You’ll want to watch this one over and over.
2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Star Wars conversation surrounding these new films has been nothing short of hilarious. The routine goes something like this: near universal critical and audience praise upon the film's release, followed by those very same people drastically walking back their initial enthusiasm. The Force Awakens has been endlessly picked apart, and I won't resuscitate any of those arguments here. I have it so high on my 2015 list because JJ Abrams succeeded in bringing back the magic of Star Wars to our lives. I felt it in the theaters in 2015, and I felt it when I re-watched it before The Last Jedi in 2017. This is a movie I will watch over and over. To me, it has a little Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade feel to it. There's nothing new to speak of, but the formula works so well that when it's done correctly, it's joyful. It was a wonderful close to Han Solo's story, and an effective introduction to new characters Finn, Rey, and Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren and Rey, when all is said and done, may be the best two characters in all of Star Wars (gasp!).
3. The Hateful Eight
Quentin Tarantino indulges at every single turn in this 3-hour long western. If you’re not a fan of “Tarantino dialogue”, you will hate this movie. It’s long, deliberate, and slow, but in the very best kind of way. Each conversation builds the tension between ruthless killers and liars, all culminating in a twist filled ending. I watched this movie and The Revenant back to back, and that one felt at least an hour longer despite a shorter run time. Where The Revenant feels labored, Hateful Eight masterfully builds tension and keeps you engaged.
4. Sicario
This film is a great example of the language of film. It’s mood and storytelling is told through its visuals. This is a violent, complicated film about the US border with Mexico. The scenery is striking, with the vast dark of the Mexican desert eliciting dread at every turn. Emily Blunt is amazing in her role as an FBI agent drawn into the thorny politics of the war on drugs and immigration. She plays her role with power and an undercurrent of vulnerability. She’s effectively the only woman amongst an agency of men, and her strength is different and in ways more effective than theirs. It’s the best performance of her career, not to mention the solid work of Benecio Del Toro and Josh Brolin. Director Denis Villeneuve will show up several times in my top tens- and he’s inching towards Fincher and Nolan’s “automatic watch” category.
5. Creed
One Christmas break (back when I had such a thing) my family decided to watch the first five Rocky movies in a row. As I went through the 6 Rocky films, my thoughts went something like this: 1. This is incredible! I love you Rocky! ADDRIAAAAAN!! 2. OK, this one is pretty much exactly the same story as the first one but still good I guess. 3. Why are Rocky and Apollo Creed running shirtless on the beach together? Why is this in slow motion? Wait now they're jumping and hugging?!?! What is this movie?! 4. Is there any part of this movie that isn't montage? I guess it's fun to watch a movie where we beat the Russians? Was this the first movie to talk about PED's? Did they really have to kill off Apollo Creed to get Rocky mad at this Russian? 5. Why is Rocky's kid such a horrible actor? Is he worse than Tommy Gunn? No, Tommy Gunn is worse. Is this the worst Rocky movie ever or just the worst movie ever?. 6. (Doesn't even see it due to scarring from Rocky 5).
What a roller coaster. Despite all this, I still had high hopes for this movie because of the talented director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan (I wanted to yell "WHERE'S WALLACE" at the screen but I didn't). Creed ends up being possibly the best film in the entire series. It's got some great acting, most improbably by Sylvester Stallone, reprising the role that made him famous. It's strange to see such a serious and incredible drama that is technically a sequel to one of the least serious and cheesiest "dramas" of all-time (Rocky 5). Creed has the emotional stakes and intensity that come with any boxing film, with the Creed-Rocky history adding layers to the characters that mean something. Whatever you want to call this reviving of the franchise (Reboot? Soft Reboot? Sea-boot?), it has been a success, and should be a blueprint for others that would like to do so.
6. Inside Out
Pixar did it again- it made an emotionally resonant story out of some computer generated characters. I shouldn't be surprised at this point, they've been doing it since the 90's. Inside Out is a comical and wonderful trip into the mind of a child, in such a way that it rings true with everyone. Physical manifestations of our emotions was a brilliant premise that was executed with all the laughs and all the feels.
7. Spectre
I'm a big fan of the James Bond series (see here and here), and I really liked Spectre. Daniel Craig's Bond films have all felt fresh in one way or another. But this one feels like it's "settling in". Any Bond fan knows that basically every movie for the series first 30 years followed the same simple formula. And we loved them for it! Sometimes you just want to settle in and watch the familiar. But after Skyfall set the bar so high, a drop was bound to happen. It's a solid time, and not much more. Vintage Bond.
8. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
At some point, Tom Cruise is going to be too old to play action heroes. But it's not here. This 5th entry in the franchise hits all the right notes to make a solid action movie. Cruise always makes for an excellent time, he's still as bankable as ever.
9. Spotlight
For the second straight year, the Oscar winner for Best Picture comes in at number 9 on my list. I really loved Spotlight. It's a well-acted, well-directed movie of an important event in American history. However, it doesn’t do anything new. And that may be why it’s been somewhat forgettable in my mind. Solid, but not much more.
10. The Martian
Did Matt Damon make a cameo in Interstellar knowing that he would be in this role and it would confuse everyone? Maybe. But The Martian stands on its own right. It feels less serious than Interstellar, but serious enough to make the last 20 minutes very intense.
Honorable Mention:
Jurassic World
The Intern
The Big Short
Daddy's Home
Spy
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Sunday, January 21, 2018
Top 10 of 2014
Since signing up for MoviePass, my love for going to the movies has been rekindled. It had always been there, but now that I can see as many as I want for $9.99 a month, I've found myself seeing just about everything that catches my interest. It has also revived my interest in doing some more writing on this page. My #nerdrage led me to write about the new Star Wars in December, which made me look through my old posts and realize I hadn't done a top 10 list since 2013. So before I started putting together a list for 2017, I decided to go back and fill in the gaps.
Putting together a top 10 list years later is probably the best way to do so, although the interest will likely have waned (I fully expect no one to read this, and a couple of people to read the 2017 list). Bill Simmons once had a half-baked idea to award the Oscars 5 years later. So this year, we'd be handing out the Oscars for movies from 2013. Although no one would watch the ceremony or care, it would be a much more honest way to determine the best movies of the year. Time allows us to re-watch films, sometimes again and again, and let things sink in. I'll give you a couple of examples. The first time I watched Blade Runner, I was a freshman enrolled in Film Lecture at the University of Arkansas. I was expecting a cool Sci-Fi action film with Harrison Ford. Instead, I was confused and bored by the plodding, strange neo-noir with a weird soundtrack. However, I gave it another shot a few years later and absolutely loved it. I was moved by the Roy Batty character, and appreciated the look of the film even more. Another example is the movie Swingers. I had always heard this was a great low-budget comedy that launched Vince Vaughn's career. I watched this one for the first time as a college junior and was bored to tears. After giving it another chance when I'd had a few years out of college, it completely clicked. Swingers is a movie about love and career in the awkward stage right out of college. Until I had experienced that, I couldn't connect with the film at all. Point being, neither of these movies would have made any top 10 list had I ranked them after one viewing, but they are two of my favorites now.
But I digress. Here's my top 10 of 2014. Had I written this in January 2015, it likely would have looked slightly different. These are the films that have stuck with me over the years, and left the strongest impression.
1. Interstellar
Christopher Nolan is batting a perfect 1.000. I've loved every movie he's ever made (save for his independent debut Following, which I've never seen), and Interstellar is another incredible entry to the Nolan canon. Released in the middle of the Matthew McConaussaince, the film is an incredible science fiction and father-daughter tale. The Hans Zimmer score is burned into my brain as one of the best of all time. The acting is top notch, it's not overly science-y when it's explaining things, and has real emotional stakes. This is how you make a science fiction film.
2. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Having watched the entire Apes trilogy this summer, I can confirm that this is my favorite of the three. Which is saying a lot, because these Apes movies are so much better than I ever thought they could be. In this film, Caesar is no longer an ape in a lab, but a bona fide military leader. Andy Serkis' motion capture work gives nuance and emotion to a CGI animal that I had no idea could be possible. The titles of these movies make no sense (why is there a Rise before a Dawn?), but they’ve managed to be one of the best trilogies this decade.
3. X-Men: Days of Future Past
This iteration (somehow) successfully merged the early 2000’s X-Men movies with the new cast of the semi-reboot First Class. This is my favorite movie of the franchise, with the time travel and the 70’s vibes all meshing so well. I had such a bad taste in my mouth after the horrific X-Men 3 that it was really nice to allow that cast to finish up in an actual good movie. But the scene of the film (and maybe of all 2014) was Quicksilver taking out an entire room of bad guys in slow motion. I could watch that over and over.
4. Gone Girl
I love David Fincher. His style is exceptionally unique and effective at telling a story. Gone Girl is probably a lower tier Fincher movie, which tells you how deep his IMDB page is. It’s a twisting drama that was expertly placed on film from the best-selling novel. Ben Affleck was perfect casting because our feelings about his character are basically the same as how we feel about Ben himself: is he a jerk? Is he a smart dumb guy or a dumb smart guy? Do I trust him? And so on. Just perfect.
5. Edge of Tomorrow
The most underrated movie of 2014 was an awesome mix of Groundhog Day and The Terminator. The premise is Tom Cruise essentially living the same moment over and over in order to beat the bad guys. The execution is what’s important here, as director Doug Liman mixes action and comedy perfectly. And even though Emily Blunt is still too young to play Cruise’s love interest, it’s more believable than about half the movies he’s done this decade.
6. Guardians of the Galaxy
I saw this movie at a group outing at the drive-in, fully expecting to be bored to tears. At the time, I was in the middle of a full on Marvel boycott. I had felt that they had become tiresome, predictable, and boring. So to say that this movie caught me by surprise was an understatement. I could be wrong, but it appears to me that it was around this time that Marvel decided to drop any pretense of taking itself seriously, which means two things. One, almost all of these Marvel movies are going to be fun and entertaining. Two, very few are going to be memorable. This one ended up in the memorable category, due to its killer soundtrack and comedy.
7. The Grand Budapest Hotel
It's a Wes Anderson movie. It's quirky. It's funny. It has memorable characters. What else do you need to know?
8. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
The conclusion to the epic, albeit unnecessary, "Hobbit" "trilogy". I put both of those in quotation marks because it's not really a trilogy of movies about JRR Tolkien's classic novel, but an attempt to make prequels to the Lord of the Rings. Which is fine! It's just not what I was hoping for. The Hobbit is my favorite book of all time, and Lord of the Rings are my favorite films of all time. So my anticipation for these movies was great. But when the story would deviate from Bilbo and our main story on to other things, my interest would dip. I can't help but feel like there's an excellent 3.5 hour Hobbit movie buried within this trilogy of movies (I may or may not own a bootleg called "The Tolkien edit"). Battle of the Five Armies is a fine end, with some memorable Bilbo scenes, and some over the top action. My biggest complaint with these movies has nothing to do with the writing or story, but the decision to make the main two Orcs CGI. They proved in Lord of the Rings that good ol' fashioned makeup can make incredible movie monsters. Going back to watch those movies today, 15 years later (!), they are still just as scary and just as believable. But the CGI orcs in The Hobbit just look awkward and way less scary. I'm not sure if it was cost, or Peter Jackson feeling like his vision couldn't be realized, but I was disappointed in the decision.
9. Birdman: or The Unexpected Virture of Ignorance
The Oscar winner for Best Picture comes in at number 9 on my list. Birdman was a thoughtful, well-acted movie with a very unique score and cinematography. But this is a great example of time giving better perspective. I loved this one at the time, but have felt little to no desire to re-watch. This movie is excellent, but not the best movie of the year.
10. Nightcrawler
Nightcrawler is one of my all-time favorite movie theater experiences. The film is incredibly dark, and our lead is Jake Gyllenhaal playing an unhinged wannabe news reporter. He lies, cheats, steals, and assaults his way to the "top" of the breaking news report game. His character is so strange, and so weird, I couldn't help but laugh. My friends were laughing too. But that's where it stopped. The entire theater must have thought we were a band of psychopaths, because the humor was lost on everyone else. My wife constantly nudges me when I'm too loud in movies (which is all the time), and if we had been dating at this point she may have walked out. It was magnificent.
Honorable Mention:
Neighbors
The Lego Movie
The Imitation Game
John Wick
Big Hero 6
Dumb and Dumber To
Kingsman: The Secret Service
Putting together a top 10 list years later is probably the best way to do so, although the interest will likely have waned (I fully expect no one to read this, and a couple of people to read the 2017 list). Bill Simmons once had a half-baked idea to award the Oscars 5 years later. So this year, we'd be handing out the Oscars for movies from 2013. Although no one would watch the ceremony or care, it would be a much more honest way to determine the best movies of the year. Time allows us to re-watch films, sometimes again and again, and let things sink in. I'll give you a couple of examples. The first time I watched Blade Runner, I was a freshman enrolled in Film Lecture at the University of Arkansas. I was expecting a cool Sci-Fi action film with Harrison Ford. Instead, I was confused and bored by the plodding, strange neo-noir with a weird soundtrack. However, I gave it another shot a few years later and absolutely loved it. I was moved by the Roy Batty character, and appreciated the look of the film even more. Another example is the movie Swingers. I had always heard this was a great low-budget comedy that launched Vince Vaughn's career. I watched this one for the first time as a college junior and was bored to tears. After giving it another chance when I'd had a few years out of college, it completely clicked. Swingers is a movie about love and career in the awkward stage right out of college. Until I had experienced that, I couldn't connect with the film at all. Point being, neither of these movies would have made any top 10 list had I ranked them after one viewing, but they are two of my favorites now.
But I digress. Here's my top 10 of 2014. Had I written this in January 2015, it likely would have looked slightly different. These are the films that have stuck with me over the years, and left the strongest impression.
1. Interstellar
Christopher Nolan is batting a perfect 1.000. I've loved every movie he's ever made (save for his independent debut Following, which I've never seen), and Interstellar is another incredible entry to the Nolan canon. Released in the middle of the Matthew McConaussaince, the film is an incredible science fiction and father-daughter tale. The Hans Zimmer score is burned into my brain as one of the best of all time. The acting is top notch, it's not overly science-y when it's explaining things, and has real emotional stakes. This is how you make a science fiction film.
2. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Having watched the entire Apes trilogy this summer, I can confirm that this is my favorite of the three. Which is saying a lot, because these Apes movies are so much better than I ever thought they could be. In this film, Caesar is no longer an ape in a lab, but a bona fide military leader. Andy Serkis' motion capture work gives nuance and emotion to a CGI animal that I had no idea could be possible. The titles of these movies make no sense (why is there a Rise before a Dawn?), but they’ve managed to be one of the best trilogies this decade.
3. X-Men: Days of Future Past
This iteration (somehow) successfully merged the early 2000’s X-Men movies with the new cast of the semi-reboot First Class. This is my favorite movie of the franchise, with the time travel and the 70’s vibes all meshing so well. I had such a bad taste in my mouth after the horrific X-Men 3 that it was really nice to allow that cast to finish up in an actual good movie. But the scene of the film (and maybe of all 2014) was Quicksilver taking out an entire room of bad guys in slow motion. I could watch that over and over.
4. Gone Girl
I love David Fincher. His style is exceptionally unique and effective at telling a story. Gone Girl is probably a lower tier Fincher movie, which tells you how deep his IMDB page is. It’s a twisting drama that was expertly placed on film from the best-selling novel. Ben Affleck was perfect casting because our feelings about his character are basically the same as how we feel about Ben himself: is he a jerk? Is he a smart dumb guy or a dumb smart guy? Do I trust him? And so on. Just perfect.
5. Edge of Tomorrow
The most underrated movie of 2014 was an awesome mix of Groundhog Day and The Terminator. The premise is Tom Cruise essentially living the same moment over and over in order to beat the bad guys. The execution is what’s important here, as director Doug Liman mixes action and comedy perfectly. And even though Emily Blunt is still too young to play Cruise’s love interest, it’s more believable than about half the movies he’s done this decade.
6. Guardians of the Galaxy
I saw this movie at a group outing at the drive-in, fully expecting to be bored to tears. At the time, I was in the middle of a full on Marvel boycott. I had felt that they had become tiresome, predictable, and boring. So to say that this movie caught me by surprise was an understatement. I could be wrong, but it appears to me that it was around this time that Marvel decided to drop any pretense of taking itself seriously, which means two things. One, almost all of these Marvel movies are going to be fun and entertaining. Two, very few are going to be memorable. This one ended up in the memorable category, due to its killer soundtrack and comedy.
7. The Grand Budapest Hotel
It's a Wes Anderson movie. It's quirky. It's funny. It has memorable characters. What else do you need to know?
8. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
The conclusion to the epic, albeit unnecessary, "Hobbit" "trilogy". I put both of those in quotation marks because it's not really a trilogy of movies about JRR Tolkien's classic novel, but an attempt to make prequels to the Lord of the Rings. Which is fine! It's just not what I was hoping for. The Hobbit is my favorite book of all time, and Lord of the Rings are my favorite films of all time. So my anticipation for these movies was great. But when the story would deviate from Bilbo and our main story on to other things, my interest would dip. I can't help but feel like there's an excellent 3.5 hour Hobbit movie buried within this trilogy of movies (I may or may not own a bootleg called "The Tolkien edit"). Battle of the Five Armies is a fine end, with some memorable Bilbo scenes, and some over the top action. My biggest complaint with these movies has nothing to do with the writing or story, but the decision to make the main two Orcs CGI. They proved in Lord of the Rings that good ol' fashioned makeup can make incredible movie monsters. Going back to watch those movies today, 15 years later (!), they are still just as scary and just as believable. But the CGI orcs in The Hobbit just look awkward and way less scary. I'm not sure if it was cost, or Peter Jackson feeling like his vision couldn't be realized, but I was disappointed in the decision.
9. Birdman: or The Unexpected Virture of Ignorance
The Oscar winner for Best Picture comes in at number 9 on my list. Birdman was a thoughtful, well-acted movie with a very unique score and cinematography. But this is a great example of time giving better perspective. I loved this one at the time, but have felt little to no desire to re-watch. This movie is excellent, but not the best movie of the year.
10. Nightcrawler
Nightcrawler is one of my all-time favorite movie theater experiences. The film is incredibly dark, and our lead is Jake Gyllenhaal playing an unhinged wannabe news reporter. He lies, cheats, steals, and assaults his way to the "top" of the breaking news report game. His character is so strange, and so weird, I couldn't help but laugh. My friends were laughing too. But that's where it stopped. The entire theater must have thought we were a band of psychopaths, because the humor was lost on everyone else. My wife constantly nudges me when I'm too loud in movies (which is all the time), and if we had been dating at this point she may have walked out. It was magnificent.
Honorable Mention:
Neighbors
The Lego Movie
The Imitation Game
John Wick
Big Hero 6
Dumb and Dumber To
Kingsman: The Secret Service
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