The PDC Picks the Top Films of 2014

Mae's Picks

5. Snowpiercer - This is the first English-language feature film for director Bong Joon-ho. And you know what? He gets it right. The production value, a re-envisioned take on already-used themes, and fantastic execution and performances by Chris Evans, Octavia Spencer, and Tilda Swinton, among many others, makes this movie really stand out. It's dark, it has fantastic themes, and keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout. Watching Snowpiercer is essentially like being on a thrilling ride you never want to get off of. As the passengers, who are the last of humankind and are placed in a class system on the train that makes a complete turn around the earth every year, grow tired of being mistreated, they plan to take over the train one car at a time. This literal look at society's economical system is in heavy play here and Bong Joon-ho's direction takes center stage in a suspenseful epic that deserves to be seen and gives us something to think about.

4. Gone Girl - One of the best adapted screenplays of the year (probably because Gillian Flynn, the author of the novel, was the one who adapted the script), Gone Girl is chock-full of powerful acting, a crazy plot, and just the right balance between drama and insanity. Flynn writes with a deft hand and layers the story with proverbial stereotypes about certain gender notions and exceptionally memorable characters. Rosamund Pike's monologue about the "cool girl" is so popular, and for good reason, and her portrayal of Amy is nothing like we've seen from the actress before. Ben Affleck is the accused husband whose life hangs in the balance between normal life and prison (mostly due to the media's twist and portrayal on the proceedings, which plays a large part in the film). I could go on and on with all the great things to say about this film, but just know this: It's excellently done. Also, did I mention the entire "Cool Girl" speech, already?

3. X-Men: Days of Future Past - We can never forget Brett Ratner's turn in the director's chair for the doomed X3, but now with Days of Future Past, we kind of can. Finally! The excellence that was X-Men: First Class and the wonderful first two X-Men films combine worlds in a time travel mash-up that was exciting and more than fulfilling for longtime fans of the movies and comic books alike. For one thing, Bryan Singer is back in the director's chair and the fluidity with which he directs what could have been a complicated plot (what with flip-flopping timelines and all) could have ended in disaster in anyone else's hands. Plus, spoiler alert, every X-Man (and woman!) makes a reappearance in a spectacular fashion. A definite example of how superhero films should be done.

2. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) - What is there to really say about Birdman that hasn't already been said? Most of the time, critics don't agree on everything, but when they do, there's reason to, and this film is definitely reason to. One of the reasons to love it is that the story pretty much, and ironically, mirrors Michael Keaton's career and rehabilitates it all in one go. The ensemble cast is fantastic, it's a cohesive story, and director Alejandro Inarritu gets technically creative when it comes to the style and oh, yeah, the entire film looks like it's entirely one shot. Which is just awesome. That is all.

1, Selma- A lot of people won't see Selma until January 9, but believe me when I tell you that if you see this film and manage not to like it, then... well, you won't like it, but that in and of itself would be a tragedy. This film couldn't have come at a better time and director Ava DuVernay takes great care to make this film, first and foremost, about Martin Luther King, Jr. Everything else is just an extension of him and only serves to make the film that much better. It's powerful, will probably make you bawl like a baby (bring tissues!), and will leave a great impact on you like no other film will this year. Selma is also backed by a strong cast (David Oyelowo as MLK is outstanding) and really steps up to the plate. The best picture of the year!

Julian's Picks

I don’t see as many films as the rest of the crew but I get out there and you know why

5. The Raid 2- Imagine this whole paragraph with this Sean Bean’s face the whole time you’re reading this.

ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY VIEW THE RAID 2.

The Raid 2 is like pure martial arts film life. It breathes in pure awesome. Where the first film The Raid is like what if some one took late 80s beat’em up video games, bosses and all this one was like a perfect upgrade. With perfect mix of films like Infernal Affairs and Donny Brasco with martial arts classics like the Big Boss or Fist of Legend the Raid 2 had it all. Had me catching the shaolin holy ghost in the theater when I saw it. Every fight is money and also such great new remember able characters like Bat-man and Hammer Girl along with their friend curved knife dude had everyone on the edge of their seat. I go around telling people all the time that they need to fix their life if they haven’t seen The Raid 2.

4. Dear White People- Man I loved the idea of this movie from the title alone. 2014 had been a very weird year for race relations in the United States. For a many just looking at the film’s title and trailer they probably thought this film was about Black people telling white people how they are wrong and really folks are wrong. It’s very much more about generation dealing with race in the country now when it’s supposed to be so post racial. I don’t know, I feel this film a lot. I ended up talking about race a lot this year in many different type of situations and a lot of the issues raised here were needed to be explored in the mainstream. The film also gave me one of my favorite reaction gifs

and Tessa Thompson is fine as all outdoors.

3. Interstellar- This movie is my jam y’all. IT HAS TWO ROBOTS!!!! TARS and CASE all damn day folks. 

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I know this film gets flack from some, I probably love it the most out of our crew here. The movie has Proto-Culture in it! I loved the science in it. The real science fiction explored in it. I loved the whole four-dimensional tesseract part; talk of singularities and the theory of relativity in use.

2. Lego Movie- Lego Movie is my jam. It has Batman in it just stunting on everyone. Holding it down like he does in his Lego games. This joint had my dude Chris Pratt aka The Star-Lord out there being awesome building bunk couches. Being a master builder and all. The film basically has the opposite message of The Incredibles, where in everyone is special in their own way. Which does make everyone the same yet amazing at that same time. I also love how they have that play at the end with something that seems innocuous but really plays with Emmitt (Chris Pratt’s Lego alter ego) basically meeting Judeo Christian God and Jesus with the kid and Will Ferrell. Ferrell created the world and wants strict rules where in his son wants the Lego world to be more forgiving and peaceful. Yeah I saw all that when I was watching it and I’m not even close to religious. I just know stories.

1. Top Five- Chris Rock man, Chris Rock. See I always liked his movies. Head of state was enjoyable. I Think I Love My Wife I swear by but this, Top Five is next level. It’s true what everyone is saying it is Rock’s Annie Hall. It’s a great film basically just about people talking in NYC but from a completely black experience. I love how the film deals with fame, especially urban fame and some of the stuff a person has to deal with. It deals with pressures and the way people view you that really struck a cord. The use of hip hop as a constant topic of a person’s top five favorite emcees is perfect way to really tap into a lot of peoples’ life. Also the whole interview that becomes a date I really connected to in this. A TON! Top Five had me like

Rocky's Picks

5. TIE 22 JUMP STREET/VERONICA MARS- Let’s start with a couple of movies that had big expectations this year: Veronica Mars, which needed to simultaneously please the Marshmallows that helped fund it and people new to the show in order to draw in additional audiences; and 22 Jump Street, which had to prove that the original film starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill wasn’t a fluke success. And I think both of them succeeded quite admirably—I couldn’t stop smiling during the former and I couldn’t stop laughing during the latter. Veronica Mars, as I talked about during my Best Trailers of 2014 and Best Kisses of 2014 posts, picked up exactly where the show had left off so many years ago, channeling the right wry and cynical tone while still letting a bit of hope (Logan and Veronica forever!) peep through. And 22 Jump Street continued to poke fun at youth culture, this time mocking the absurdity of college and allowing Tatum and Hill to further their weird sibling rivalry charm. (Let’s hope that the Jump Street/Men in Black crossover hinted at in the Sony email leaks never comes to fruition, because I would shake my fist in prolonged rage.) Overall, though, two of the films that gave me the most smiles this year.

4. TIE: ERNEST & CELESTINE/THE BOXTROLLS- In a year that saw huge success for animated films The LEGO Movie and Big Hero 6, and following last year’s mega-obnoxious-it-will-never-go-away mania of Frozen, I would rather watch Ernest & Celestine or The Boxtrolls. The former is a beautiful (and I mean that both visually and thematically) French-Belgian film about a friendship between a mouse and a bear; they’re not supposed to get along, but they realize their differences from the others of their species make them more attuned to each other than anyone else. The movie was originally released in 2012 but only made its way stateside this year, and please find it and watch it (the subtitled version!). You won’t regret it. The same goes for The Boxtrolls, the latest film from Laika; it underperformed when released this fall, but it’s such a weird, bizarre, gleeful little film that I’ve been recommending it to anyone and everyone. It’s about classicism and creativity and, well, cheese, but all of its disparate elements come together into something great.

3. GONE GIRL- What else is there to say about Gone Girl? I won’t write you a thinkpiece; all I’ll say is that Amazing Amy is my favorite villain of the year. Her cruelty gives me joy. And any time I get the opportunity to smugly say “That’s marriage” to someone, well, I’ll take it!

2. FOXCATCHER- I listed Foxcatcher as my most underrated movie of the year in our staff post, and I stand by that claim. Of the more than 150 movies I saw this year, this is probably the one I can’t stop thinking about—the story that makes me the angriest at American sports culture, social structure, and inherited wealth. All of the performances are great, and in a year packed with male competitors, it’s disappointing that Steve Carrell, Channing Tatum, and Mark Ruffalo might get forgotten for their work here (and they absolutely shouldn’t). The methodical stillness of the filmmaking is unshakably eerie. And while I hear the critique (which fellow PDC-er Travis Hopson has made to me) that director Bennett Miller doesn’t really add anything to the story with his film, I disagree; I think the mystery of the narrative, and the abruptness with which Miller moves between subplots and how he chooses to end the film, speak for themselves. There’s a moral decay to Foxcatcher that is simultaneously enthralling and repellant, and it’s going to stay on my mind for a long time. 

1. BIRDMAN OR (THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE)- Masterful is how I would describe Birdman—director Alejandro González Iñárritu; cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki; composer Antonio Sanchez; the ensemble led by Michael Keaton and including great work from Edward Norton, Emma Stone, and Zach Galifianakis. Everyone here is in top form; every scene works; every criticism of cinema and theater and fame hits exactly where it needs to hit; every sneer from Norton lands perfectly; every narrated line from Birdman himself has impact. That voice! Who doesn’t love the Keaton-as-Birdman voice? It’s a twisty-turny film, and the ending won’t work for everyone, and the play within the movie structure has its moments of exceeding meta-ness—but I couldn’t take my eyes off any second of it. Birdman is unforgettable, and it’s my favorite movie of the year.


John's Picks

5. Foxcatcher- The ‘Based on a True Story’ film starring Steve Carrell and Channing Tatum chronicles the story of John du Pont and his relationship with the Schultz brothers during their time working with Du Pont’s Team Foxcatcher wrestling camp. The flick had a ton of buzz a while back but has since taken a back seat to films like Boyhood and Birdman. While the prosthetics used on Tatum and Carrell are a bit distracting I can’t find another flaw with the film. The performances are great and the story has this subdued quality that really grips you by the arm and makes you pay attention. Honestly, if I were to watch a scene out of context I’d think the film lacked any semblance of energy, but the entire film in context? Simply gripping. Carrel’s Du Pont is equal parts sad, weird, and ominious and Ruffalo brings that overly likeable persona he adds to each of his characters making the whole film that much more tragic (Sorry Channing, you were good but those two stole the show).

4. Guardians of the Galaxy- I wonder if this was what it was like to see Star Wars in a theater back in 1977? Guardians brings us to a whole new world full of such fun and wonder that it’s amazing there was any trepidation about the film being too out there. Hindsight is 20/20, I would never have guessed a film starring a talking raccoon and anthropomorphic tree would be one of the best of the year either. Calling a film “the total package” is, like most review tropes, overused and under deserved most of the time. Not here, nope, this is the definition. Chris Pratt brings more laughs than you could possibly expect, the action scenes are top notch…I haven’t seen such great sci-fi dogfighting choreography since Return of the Jedi, the story and writing are so good that you find yourself empathizing with the pain felt by that same talking Raccoon in a bar scene, and if you didn’t cry during the hyper-emotional “We are Groot” conclusion…well then I think you need to see a psychiatrist.

3. The Raid 2- Given how overly-verbose I was when talking about last years The Raid: Redemption it surprises me to have so little to say about the best martial arts movie of the last decade (taking the honors from its predecessor). The simple fact is you don’t need a lot of words to explain why this film is in my top of 2014 list. It surpassed the original. Point made.

2. The Imitation Game- Benedict Cumberbatch’s role as Alan Turing, the British born cryptographer who broke the Nazi’s enigma code and created the first computer while doing it, is both captivating and heart-breaking. Cumberbatch is at his best in the role pulling out that persona of an anti-social genius that has become his calling card. Some have criticized the film for just that, Cumberbatch playing the same old role, and in some sense they are right but he does it so well how can you blame him. Extra points to the filmmakers for making the film about his work and not the tragic conclusion to the story. It’s not that I think that angle shouldn’t be covered, quite the opposite, the way they used it as a final punch to the story made the impact that much more heartbreaking.

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier- How could it not be #1? I’m in the minority that I absolutely loved Captain America: The First Avenger, but the follow up left me among the masses in our mutual love for Cap. The Russo brothers deliver an amazing piece of filmmaking, comic-book or not. Their use of practical effects and shying away from the big flashy CGI of most comic book films brings this movie right down to eye level adding a layer to it that I don’t think we’ve seen yet in the Marvel Universe. The far reaching impact on the Marvel universe at large is obvious but it’s the personal story and in your face blood and sweat action that brings Cap back to #1 and cements The Winter Soldier as my #1 film of the year.