It’s hard to believe I’ve been doing my own brand of “awards” for seven years now. Perhaps because film awards seem to have grown increasingly irrelevant, but when you watch as many movies as I do per year it is nice to sit back and remember the finer moments of the past year, especially when we’re stuck in the doldrums of the early year releases, dealing with the likes of Jupiter Ascending, Taken 3, Blackhat and Seventh Son. So, as we are now only a few weeks away from the 87th Annual Academy Awards, it’s time to hand out the 2014 RopeofSilicon Movie Awards, looking back on a year that turned out to be much better than it initially appeared it may be.
A hard question I’m trying to answer is just what kind of year in movies was 2014? Like previous years, blockbusters came and went. A few managed to excite audience members — Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The LEGO Movie — while many others made money, but for the most part have been largely forgotten, and others downright loathed — The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, Transformers: Age of Extinction, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.
Where I’m happy there seems to be more passion this year are in many of the smaller films, or, at least, many of the films that don’t show up in the domestic top ten. I’m always happy to read comments when people talk about a movie like Starred Up as well as The Rover. The love for Nightcrawler is quite pleasing and while not everyone agrees, I find it rather amazing just how many top tens I’ve read that included many of the same films, namely Birdman, Whiplash, Boyhood, Gone Girl and The Grand Budapest Hotel. Does it seem like a better year for movies largely because there seems to be a greater consensus when it comes to what movies were actually good?
Movies such as Enemy or Under the Skin are making many top tens. These are challenging movies. Movies such as the single-setting feature Locke are inspiring discussion along with the shared joy of watching the tongue-in-cheek thriller The Guest. This is an exciting time for movie lovers and while studios aren’t quite there yet, the availability of these movies is becoming more accessible as streaming options are slowly becoming the norm.
Of course, blockbuster culture still reigns and each and every year they are the most talked about and most seen movies of the year. 2014 has the curious outlier in American Sniper worming its way into the top ten. Granted, pretty much all of its money was made in 2015, but it remains a 2014 release nonetheless. That said, here’s how the top of the box office looked this past year, both domestically and worldwide courtesy of Box-Office Mojo as of publication:
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To no surprise, those lists above have little in common with Edge of Tomorrow, I guess I’ll just have to settle with enjoying only one or two a year as there are so many other features that satisfy my particular cinematic taste buds.
With that said, here I give you one of the more fun aspects of this look back at the year that was, the annual poster collage featuring not only the films I consider the best, but a wide variety of the films from 2014, featuring just as many films that were overlooked as those that weren’t even given a second glance.
The Poster
Now click on through the following pages where you’ll find my picks for Best Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Score and Director along with my favorite quotes from 2014, favorite posters and a collection of montage videos from around the Internet.
