Another year in the books. A lot of good, a lot of bad, and a lot of whatever. Found myself watching less from other years due to my TV critic gig (100 titles or so viewed in theaters), something I’ll look to strongly rectify in 2015. Once again, TIFF was marvelous, not only did the festival produce a number of films seen in my top ten, and some truly great memories (everyone once in their life must witness an Abel Ferrara Q & A), but the cinephile camaraderie present at the festival was at an all-time high for me. Not many cinematic regrets in 2014 save for the fact that I skipped Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 2 and It Follows during TIFF in favor of more sleep. All in all, I got away pretty clean. But before I unveil my list for 2014, let’s take a look back at my favorites from 2013.
1. Under the Skin
2. Bastards
3. Upstream Color
4. Inside Llewyn Davis
5. The Immigrant
6. The Wolf of Wall Street
7. Drug War
8. Before Midnight
9. Jealousy
10. Stranger by the Lake
11. Manakamana
12. Our Sunhi
13. 12 Years a Slave
14. Closed Curtain
15. A Touch of Sin
16. At Berkeley
17. Side Effects
18. The White Reindeer
19. I Used to Be Darker
20. Her
21. The Strange Little Cat
22. This Is Martin Bonner
23. The Conjuring
24. Bullet to the Head
25. The Counselor
Now, for my 2014 favorites (list based on international premiere dates). Click on highlighted titles for fun stuff when applicable.
Honorable mention:
Force Majeure
Welcome to New York
Citizenfour
Edge of Tomorrow
Still Alice
John Wick
Lucy
Black Coal, Thin Ice
Eden
Step Up: All In
Snowpiercer
Beyond the Lights
Love Is Strange
Foxcatcher
The Babadook
Whiplash
Life Itself
Journey to the West
serene cinema 