10 Great Overlooked Films from 2014

Have you noticed there are more movies than ever coming out each week? There were over 600 major releases that opened last year, and with the ease of digital distribution and streaming network that number is only going to increase. So there's simply no way anybody can catch them all. It's simply not possible.

The "Overlooked" list is always a tough balancing act for me. Last year I left off a criminally underseen indie like Short Term 12 because it ended up at the top of my "Best" chart, and that problem has reared its ugly head again. Why should I put great movies like Frank or God Help the Girl here when I have them so high elsewhere? And as is the case every single year, there are more than enough films deserving of your attention that sadly got lost in the tidal wave of big-budget sequels and franchises. So here are just 10 of them you may have missed that are definitely worth your time.

The One I Love (review here)
Director: Charlie McDowell
Cast: Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss, Ted Danson


Film Clip: 'The One I Love' by WSJ Live

The Skeleton Twins (review here)
Director: Craig Johnson
Cast: Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Luke Wilson, Ty Burrell


Kristen Wiig is Mad at Bill Hader in THE SKELETON TWINS Clip ('Wow') by The Seven Sees

Enemy (review here)
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Sarah Gadon, Melanie Laurent, Isabella Rossellini


Enemy - Clip 2 by Flixgr

Joe (review here)
Director: David Gordon Green
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Tye Sheridan


Joe Movie CLIP - Trouble (2014) - Nicolas Cage, Tye Sheridan Drama HD by Trailer 2014

Cold in July (review here)
Director: Jim Mickle
Cast: Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard, Don Johnson, Vinessa Shaw


Cold In July - Clip: Beat Down by Dread Central

Fort Bliss (review here)
Claudia Myers
Cast: Michelle Monaghan, Ron Livingston

Keep On Keepin' On
Director: Alan Hicks
Cast: Clark Terry, Justin Kauflin


Film Clip: 'Keep on Keepin' On' by WSJ Live

Force Majeure
Director: Ruben Ostlund
Cast: Johannes Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli


Film Clip: 'Force Majeure' by WSJ Live

The Babadook (review here)
Director: Jennifer Kent
Cast: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman

THE BABADOOK Movie CLIP - The Book (2014) - Horror Movie HD by Horror Movie Trailers

The Book of Life (review here)
Director: Jorge Gutierrez
Cast: Channing Tatum, Zoe Saldana, Diego Luna, Ron Perlman, Ice Cube, Kate del Castillo


The Book Of Life - Clip - Land Of The Remembered by MyMovies_International

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Richard Linklater's 'Boyhood' Named Best Film by New York Film Critics Circle

Just because the New York Film Critics Circle feels the need to be the first awards out of the gate each year doesn't mean they hold sway over the Oscar race. In fact, they absolutely don't if last year's three honors for American Hustle are anything to go by. This year they are again first in line to reveal their winners, and it's Richard Linklater's coming-of-age drama Boyhood leading the pack with three wins.

Boyhood won for Best Director, Best Film, plus a victory for Patricia Arquette in the Best Supporting Actress category. Best Actress went to Marion Cotillard for the divisive (and mostly forgotten) period drama, The Immigrant, while Timothy Spall won Best Actor for Mr. Turner. Unsurprisingly, The Lego Movie won for Best Animated Feature, while Best First Feature Award went to Jennifer Kent for her inventive horror, The Babadook. If there's one category where a win might actually be a prelude to further victories, it's the Best Supporting Actor award which went to J.K. Simmons for Whiplash. Full list of winners is below:

Best Film
Boyhood

Best Actor
Timothy Spall, Mr. Turner

Best Actress
Marion Cotillard, The Immigrant; Two Days, One Night

Best Director
Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Best Supporting Actor
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

Best Foreign Language Film
Ida (Poland, dir. Pawel Pawlikowski)

Best Animated Film
The Lego Movie (dirs. Phil Lord, Christopher Miller)

Best Screenplay 
The Grand Budapest Hotel (dir. Wes Anderson)

Special Award
Adrienne Mencia

Best Cinematography
Darius Khondji, The Immigrant 

Best First Film 
Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook

Best Non-fiction Film (Documentary)
Citizenfour (dir. Laura Poitras)

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VFF Review: 'The Babadook' Directed by Jennifer Kent

Being a mother is hard enough; being a widow with an unruly child is downright torturous. In Jennifer Kent's thrilling and wryly comical horror The Babadook, the pain of motherhood is manifest in the form of a demonic creature sprung forth from a child's storybook. Set in a small Australian suburb, over-burdened mother and care worker Amelia (Essie Davis) is struggling to balance work with watching over her troubled 6-year-old son Samuel (Noah Wiseman). Born on the same day his father was killed in an accident, Samuel has never celebrated a birthday at the right time, just one of many ways his mother tries to distance herself from the terrible memory.

Already in distress, Amelia's life gets worse when the disturbed and distressed child begins acting out over a monster he believes lives in his room. Known as The Babadook, this seemingly imaginary creature has the boy arming himself with weapons to fight back, leading to understandable problems at school. When he gets kicked out, the stressed-out Amelia begins to spiral further, dismissing her son's cries about the Babadook. But when a mysterious book named after the creature shows up on the bookshelf, and she makes the mistake of reading from it, the horrifying events it foretells spook her into a state of constant paranoia.

An assured, Polanski-esque debut by Kent, The Babadook explores the anxieties of single parenthood and the inability to overcome tremendous grief.  The tension she's able to build from this dark fairy tale escalates at a feverish pace, while the ambiguous nature of it keeps us on our toes. Is the Babadook really a supernatural presence to be feared? Or is there something else going on that Amelia, and perhaps even Samuel, are unwilling or unable to accept? The Babadook himself isn't especially terrifying, in fact Kent has a sense of humor about many of his dastardly appearances, but that only serves to make him all the more terrifying. The real horror comes from watching the eroding psyche of Amelia and Samuel, who we come to empathize with, and how the Babadook corrodes what had been a nurturing mother/son bond. When the winking, wry tone fades the film loses much of its steam but at no point does Kent fall back on pedestrian shocks. Save those for the low-budget "found footage" flicks that clutter up multiplexes on opening weekend. Conjuring up frights by putting truly sympathetic characters through the psychological wringer, The Babadook is one of the best the genre has to offer and Kent a fresh voice to keep an ear out for.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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Chilling New Trailer for Sundance Horror 'The Babadook'

Horror movies aren't generally what I hit film festivals for, but the praise at Sundance for The Babadook was hard to ignore. Directed by Jennifer Kent, the Kickstarter-funded thriller won praise not only for being legitimately original, which is a rarity in the genre nowadays, but also for being genuinely scary, also a rare occurrence. With the film headed to Fantastic Fest followed by a theatrical run later this year, a new trailer has been released to show you The Babadook shook so many up. Here's the synopsis:

Six years after the violent death of her husband, Amelia (Essie Davis) is at a loss. She struggles to discipline her 'out of control' 6-year-old, Samuel (Noah Wiseman), a son she finds impossible to love. Samuel's dreams are plagued by a sinister monster he believes is coming to kill them both.

When a disturbing storybook called 'The Babadook' turns up at their house, Samuel is convinced that 'The Babadook' is the creature he's been dreaming about. His hallucinations spiral out of control and as he becomes more unpredictable and violent, Amelia is genuinely frightened by her son's behavior.

But when Amelia begins to see glimpses of a sinister presence all around her, it slowly dawns on her that the thing Samuel has been warning her about may be real.

The Babadook opens in the UK on October 24th with a US date possibly in November.  

 
The Babadook (2014) - Trailer #2 - [HD] by Terrorama

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