The Weekend Warrior’s Top 25 Movies of 2014

With the year coming to a close—and what a year it was!—I’ve finalized my annual list of what I felt were the best movies of 2014. While there will be a number of familiar movies and titles you’ve probably been hearing about for months and some crossover with other Top 10 lists, I’d like to think that I’ve once again come up with a nice mix of big studio movies and small independents across a diversity of genres.

Mind you, I don’t pick my favorites based on commercial considerations, so just because a movie has made a lot of money and has proven popular among mainstream audiences doesn’t mean it connected with me the same way it has others or that I felt it worthy of this list. (Sorry The LEGO Movie and Captain America: The Winter Soldier!)

Sadly, I was not too thrilled with many of the foreign films I’ve seen this year compared to previous years, which is why only two or three made my list. Hopefully this doesn’t become a trend, but I dunno. I was just bored by so many of the foreign films I’ve seen that have been receiving raves everywhere else.  (One of my favorites, the Argentine film Wild Tales, isn’t being released until next year so it will probably be included in next year’s list.)

I will add that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s The Interview would probably have made this list, probably around #20 or so, but Sony’s decision to hold off on releasing it means that it can’t be included until whenever (if ever?) it is released theatrically. That’s fine, because there were plenty of other great comedies and dramas and action movies that make up this list and hopefully there are a few surprises in here, maybe even a few movies you missed over the past year that you’ll seek out. 

Just Missed the Top 25 i.e Honorable Mentions

A Most Wanted Man (Roadside Attraction)

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (20th Century Fox)

Oculus (Relativity Media)

Get On Up (Universal)

Enemy (A24)

Top 10 Docs of 2014

1. Life Itself (Magnolia)

2. Revenge of the Mekons (Music Box Films)

3. Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon (RADiUS-TWC)

4. CITIZENFOUR (RADiUS-TWC)

5. Mistaken for Strangers (Starz Digital Media)

6. Keep On Keepin’ On (RADiUS-TWC)

7. The Case Against 8 (HBO Films)

8. Red Army (Sony Pictures Classics)

9. Jodorowsky’s Dune (Sony Pictures Classics)

10. Maidentrip (First Run Features)

Favorite Albums of the Year

(or what I’ve been listening to while writing about all the movies above) 

Foo Fighters – Sonic Highways

Bob Mould – Beauty and Ruin 

OK Go – Hungry Ghosts

Pixies – Indie Cyndy

The Raveonettes – Pe’ahi

Royal Blood – Royal Blood

Tim Wheeler – Lost Domain 

I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to do a Terrible 25 this year, because most of the movies that made that list were small and esoteric movies, mostly forgettable, that few people have seen, but all of which are much worse than the usual suspects one might expect. Plus there’s one movie in there that may have made a couple of year-end Top 10 lists so I’m not sure if I want to drag that argument out again. We’ll see. But if I do put together a Terrible 25 list, it should appear sometime before the end of the year.

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