50 Best Films of 2014 - #30 - #21

On to the next ten, my #30 through #21 favorite films from 2014...

30. The Fault in Our Stars

I have made no secret of the fact that I am a big fan of this film, from the glowing review I wrote when I saw it in the theater last summer to the fact that I included Shailene Woodley in my personal choices for Best Actress of the year recently. I refuse to pretend the tears I shed from this story and the performances that carried it never fell from my eyes. A gut wrenching yet beautiful movie.

29. Selma

An expertly made biopic that nearly avoided all of the traditional tropes that make me roll my eyes at these types of films, Selma gets right what a movie like Unbroken got so, so wrong. Getting punched hurts, unless you get hit every two minutes for two straight hours, which was essentially the narrative of the latter. Eventually you are desensitized to the brutality and you just quit on the experience, where as in Selma, when it hits, it hits hard because it knows just when to land the blows. This is a pretty great and important film.

28. Finding Vivian Maier

A truly fascinating documentary about a eccentric and mysterious nanny who lived a secret, brilliant life as an absolutely amazing photographer. Despite her incredible artistic vision with the camera, she never showed a single picture to anyone, and her massive and breathtaking collection was finally discovered after she passed away. Not only does this film cover her life and her jaw dropping talent, but it asks a pretty important question as well: if someone goes to great lengths to hide something while they are alive, is it fair to show the world after they are dead? Or should privacy extend beyond the length of our lives?

27. Edge of Tomorrow

Easily one of the best surprises of 2014 for me, Doug Liman's Edge of Tomorrow seemed like a turd when I first saw the trailer, but after catching wind of a whole lot of positive word of mouth I gave it a shot. I'm glad I did. A smart, exciting and fun summer blockbuster, and say what you want about Tom Cruise but no one else could play a role like this so damn well. His personal life and religious beliefs aside, Cruise is still an outstanding talent and he demonstrated that again here, and the chemistry with Emily Blunt didn't hurt matters either.

26. John Wick

An action film starring Keanu Reeves titled John Wick? Well, this is obviously going to be terrible. The premise is what? His dog is killed so he gets revenge? You've gotta be kidding me, what a train wreck...

Much like Edge of Tomorrow, this is another example of why I shouldn't judge a work before I see it. John Wick is smart, intense, ultra-violent fun, and that silly premise about the dog makes total sense when framed inside the narrative. Not only does it make sense, it actually strongly resonated emotionally. Sure, if this was real life I would be disgusted with the type of killing spree he goes on as a result of a pet dying, but this isn't real life. This is a movie, an escape from reality, and inside this world I was rooting for John throughout.

25. The Guest

The Guest is a wonderful blend of neo-noir modern cinema and a completely ridiculous yet fun horror film from the 1980's. Carried by an incredibly charismatic lead performance from Dan Stevens and the perfectly executed vision of director Adam Wingard, this was one bad ass, tasty treat. Oh, and that last act Halloween school dance set piece with a brilliantly utilized fog machine? Absolutely amazing.

24. X-Men: Days of Future Past

I was pessimistic about how this film would turn out, what with the massive cast and ambitious to a fault sounding premise. I anticipated a jumbled, messy narrative. I was wrong. The latest X-Men installment was not only top notch superhero comic book fun, what impressed me the most about this movie was the patience it showed to make sure it told a story first, with the action and the special effects taking a back seat when they needed to. Thanks to this extremely impressive effort, I have no pessimism whatsoever about the follow up due out next year. Bring it on.

23. Calvary

Prior to seeing Calvary, I had heard it was a "dark comedy". This may be true, but I think a much more fair label would be a dark, meaningful drama with some comedy bits sprinkled in to ease the tension and lighten the mood. What Calvary does extremely well is explore the unfortunately twisted and uncomfortable relationship society has with the Catholic church thanks to the many documented cases of abuse, and also the tense nature of the role faith in general plays in our lives today. It's a shame that we have to be cautious of a man of the cloth, but given the track record, how could we not?

22. Enemy

What if you saw your exact double? Not just a person who resembles you, literally your exact twin that has no relation to you in any genetic sense. What would you do? 

I will tell you what you should do: watch Enemy immediately. Beware though, this doesn't play like a traditional film and the ending is both terrifying and utterly confounding.

21. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

2013 was a down year for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sure, I had some fun with Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World, and neither were terrible films by any means, but after the high that was the first Avengers, they certainly felt like somewhat silly and underwhelming let downs. Well, the good news is 2014 turned out to be a banner year for the studio, with Captain America: The Winter Soldier coming first and being just so flat out awesome. After I saw it, I declared it was the best movie yet from the MCU and I stand by that...sort of. At that time it was, but (spoiler alert for the future of this list) a different 2014 release went above and beyond and soared straight to the top.

Next up, I will enter the top 20 of 2014. The image above is from an extraordinary little gem that I never saw coming.

Calvary Review

"I first tasted semen when I was 7 years old."

Right off the bat, the very first piece of dialogue and I was taken aback by the film Calvary. I entered the cinema excited at how little I knew about what I was about to see, such a rare treat to be almost entirely in the dark when it comes to plot, tone, hell even the cast was a mystery to me. The only information I had prior the the dimming of the lights around me was the largely positive critical reception of the film and a simple label that had been applied to it in advance by someone I know: dark comedy.

While the film has plenty of comedic bits and silly moments, I personally would not consider it a dark comedy. Due to this label, I entered the theater expecting to laugh and I did, but those laughs were wrapped tightly inside a moving, meaningful narrative exploring the current rocky relationship society has with faith and the Catholic Church.

That quote at the top is heard inside a confessional, an unseen man uttering the words not to incite laughter but rather as a demonstration of the suffering he has faced throughout his life as he has dealt with being repeatedly raped by a priest as a child. We hear his anger and the emotional toll such a thing has taken on his mind as he announces to the priest hearing his confession that he will kill him in exactly seven days, not because he is the man guilty of such awful sins but actually quite the opposite. His irrational logic is that there is no point in killing a bad priest. To really make a statement, a good priest has to die.

The film serves as an effective and compelling whodunit mystery, as the priest explores the town he calls home and converses with different members of the community, and it is clear that one of these men was inside that confessional making that vengeful promise to commit murder in one weeks time, but really it isn't about that. We, the audience, are not made aware of who the man is, but the priest makes it clear very early on that he knows exactly who it is and thus for him the last week of his life serves as a search for peace and understanding in case the threat is carried forth.

He could easily run as no one is stopping him, find a new place to safely call home, but perhaps he feels as a representative of the church he owes it to the man to meet him face to face, as the very thing he devoted his entire life to has unfortunately caused so much pain with their inexplicable sexually deviant actions behind closed doors. The priest, Father James, is played so beautifully and effortlessly by Brendan Gleeson, surely one of the finer performances I have witnessed from 2014 even though very little of it is over-the-top or begging for attention. He doesn't need to beg, he commands it with his presence and while he often times maintains the stoic and calming demeanor expected of a man in his position, the level of nuance and the subtle ways he demonstrates his struggles and fears as he lives out the final days of his life are what makes Gleeson so remarkable here.

Calvary is also a brilliantly photographed picture as well, stunning to look at with the rolling green landscapes of Ireland serving as a backdrop. Cinematographer Larry Smith delivers a very different texture than his previous beautiful to look at film Only God Forgives, proving that his eye does not require a neon, surreal palette to wow an audience as he elevates dull tones and a gloomy atmosphere to something that feels as if it glows throughout every frame. At times even just a white room with a cross on the wall feels like a wondrous aesthetic, inspired in its simplicity.

One of my favorite sequences in the picture is when Father James comes across a little girl walking down the road and he initiates conversation with her, a completely innocent example of small talk that is pleasant and safe, as any dialogue between a man of the cloth and a young child should be. The girls father pulls up in his car and is furious as he could not locate the young girl, and rather than be thankful that she was in the presence of a trustworthy pillar of the community that a priest should be, he obviously and immediately suspects foul play without actually saying. The cold glare of this man towards Father James is haunting and a hard pill to swallow because we know he is good, that his intentions are safe and pure, and yet it is also hard to blame the pessimism of a father. The actions by some in the Catholic Church, men whom were trusted by children, by parents, by friends and family, have caused not only the victims but the innocent members of the clergy to suffer.

Calvary stunned me with its powerful narrative and the final act of the film is quite the memorable and perfectly crafted achievement. I had no idea what to expect as I took my seat the other night, but it certainly wasn't the film I ended up witnessing.



4.5/5