Once again this year, our loyal and esteemed listeners answered our call and kindly submitted their own text and audio 'Picks of 2014' lists: it was our pleasure to feature them all on our recent "epic-size" review of the year special.
The featured lists are reproduced below for posterity, presented in the same order in which they were read out on the show -- i.e. on a "first come, first served" basis.
Daniel Sardella
10. Blue Ruin
9. The Drop
8. Locke
7. Nightcrawler
6. The Dance of Reality
5. The Grand Budapest Hotel
4. The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears
3. Jodorowsky’s Dune
2. Under the Skin
1. Boyhood
Hazel Howard
IMPORTANT: I only watched 12 films... sums up my year! (After Mummy, Wife and Work duties the little opportunity to watch films I has saw me only manage to watch these 12)
12) Guardians of the Galaxy – Worst Film by default
11) Non-Stop – Biggest Disappointment by default
10) Her
9) Captain America: The Winter Soldier
8) How To Train Your Dragon 2
7) Boyhood
6) Edge of Tomorrow
5) Amazing Spider-Man 2
4) Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
3) The Lego Movie
2) X-Men: Days of Future Past
1) Gone Girl
Biggest Pleasant Surprises: Gone Girl, The Lego Movie, Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Edge of Tomorrow.
Wilson
Top Ten 2014 – based on UK Release dates.
10) BOYHOOD
9) GONE GIRL
8) GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
7) THE IMMIGRANT
6) CALVARY
5) MAPS TO THE STARS
4) MR TURNER
3) UNDER THE SKIN
2) 12 YEARS A SLAVE
1) INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
Biggest disappointment – BOYHOOD, despite being on my top ten of the year, I was under the impression it was going to be the greatest film of the year and I found it, merely, good.
Most pleasant surprise – was the raft of intelligent and well crafted political films to come out of the UK – ’71, JIMMY’S HALL and PRIDE being notable examples.
Worst film I saw this year – LONE SURVIVOR. The mixture of hoorah militarism, the forced rap induction and the really dubious politics made this the most painful film viewing of the year. Despised every second of it.
Mark C
Based on UK cinema release dates
1.Pride
2. Starred Up
3. Nightcrawler
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel
5. '71
6. Jimmy’s Hall
7. Svengali
Don May (of Synapse Films)
Well (ahem) Synapse's CURTAINS, PROM NIGHT and DEMONS and DEMONS 2 Blus! ;) The other six, well... hmm... I'll have to think about it.
Sandy Richardson
1. Sorcerer (Official Blu-ray release)
2. Under the Skin
3. Interstellar
4. The Raid 2
5. Jodorowsky's Dune (Documentary)
Francisco Duarte Pedro
1. Mommy (Canada)
2. Lil' Quinquin (France)
3. The Wolf at the Door (Brazil)
4. Force Majeure (Sweden)
5. Wild Tales (Argentina)
6. Ida (Poland)
7. Futuro Beach (Brazil)
8. Under the Skin (USA)
9. The Babadook (Australia)
10. The Sand Dollars (Dominican Republic)
Vincent Pereira
My favorite film of 2014: David Gordon Green's JOE.
Natasha Grabham
Films released in UK cinemas in 2014
1. The Wolf of Wall Street
2. Her
3. Calvary
4. Gone Girl
5.Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
6. The Raid 2
7. X Men: Days of Future Past
8. The Grand Budapest Hotel
9. Interstellar
10. The Wind Rises
Honourable mentions: American Hustle, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Lego Movie and We are the best!
Todd S. Gallows
1. Gone Girl
2. Boyhood
3. Nightcrawler
4. Birdman
5. Borgman
6. The Grand Budapest Hotel
7. The Babadook
8. The Drop
9. What We Do in the Shadows
10. The One I Love
While I'm at it, I might as well do my bottom 10 again, too.
8,355. They Came Together
8,356. Tusk
8,357. Behaving Badly
8,358. Men, Women, and Children
8,359. Foxcatcher
8,360. I, Frankenstein
8,361. Left Behind
8,362. Transcendence
8,363. Not Cool
8,364. God's Not Dead
Mark Lucas
I don't think I saw 10 movies this year and there's a few more I'd like to see but here's my incomplete list anyway. A lot of arthouse and independent films again.
1. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
2. Edge of Tomorrow
3. Interstellar
4. The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
5. Godzilla
6. The Lego Movie
7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
8. Transformers: Age of Extinction
Colin McGuigan
The films which impressed me most on their theatrical release here in Greece were
1. The Two Faces of January
2. '71
As for BD releases:
3. The Killers (Arrow)
4. The Naked City (Arrow)
5. Ace in the Hole (Eureka)
6. South of St Louis (Olive)
Daeron
1. Boyhood
2. The Raid 2
3. Gone Girl
4. Her
5. The Grand Budapest Hotel
6. Veronica Mars
7. The Lego Movie
8. Under the Skin
9. Horns
10. Godzilla
Kirsty Grabham
2014 UK cinema releases
1. Under the Skin
2. Her
3. Gone Girl
4. We are the Best!
5. Calvary
6. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
7. The Wind Rises
8. Nymphomaniac Parts 1 and 2
9. Guardians of the Galaxy
10. Stranger by the Lake
Honourable mentions: Interstellar, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, X Men: Days of Future Past, Inside Llewyn Davis and The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Tristan
I didn't see any new 2014 releases this year. I don't go to the cinema anymore, which saddens me. Even in the so-called "art-house" cinema here in town, they only play the absolutely most mainstream pictures. Which is pathetic because I do live in a big city. Everything I truly want to see, it never plays here, & I have to wait until it's been released to BD or DVD, or is available on one of the streaming services.
This year, I discovered a wealth of LGBT-themed films, most of which are foreign language. Most of which, I'd never heard of. Four of them alone come from Israel. IMHO, most are in the 3.5-5 star range. (I decided to list only 15 here.) Even the ones that made me angry for one reason or another were excellent.
Top tier
The Bubble (2006)
Out In The Dark (2012)
Time To Leave (2005)
Laurence Anyways (2012)
Undertow (2009)
Honorable mentions
Heartbeats (2010)
I Killed My Mother (2009)
Weekend (2011)
Keep The Lights On (2012)
Yossi & Jagger (2002)
Yossi (2012) – The sequel to Yossi & Jagger
Stranger By The Lake (2013)
Lianna (1983) (This is one of John Sayles earliest films, & I finally got around to watching it this year.)
Come Undone (2000)
The Sex Of The Angels (2012)
Free Fall (2013)
Romeos (2011)
Black Gloves
UK theatrical releases
1. Under the Skin
2. Calvary
3. We Are the Best!
4. Nightcrawler
5. Interstellar
6. Maps to the Stars
7. The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears
8. The Double
9. Nymphomaniac: Volume 1
10. The Borderlands
Biggest disappointment: Godzilla
Best TV show: True Detective
Biggest surprise: Nightcrawler
Ben Robinson
2014 UK releases
1. Dallas Buyers Club
2. The Grand Budapest Hotel
3. Her
4. Interstellar
5. Guardians of the Galaxy
6. Gone Girl
7. American Hustle
8. Inside Llewyn Davis
9. Nightcrawler
10. The Golden Cage
Biggest disappointment: The Wind Rises
Biggest surprise: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Worst film: WolfCop
Aman Fida
UK theatrical or straight to DVD in 2014
1. The Raid 2
2. Guardians of the Galaxy
3. Boyhood
4. Dallas Buyers Club
5. Northern Soul
6. 12 Years a Slave
7. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
8. The Wolf of Wall Street
9. Starred Up
10. The Lego Movie
Most pleasant surprise: Godzilla
Biggest disappointment: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Worst movie: Starry Eyes
Vanessa Vinci
US theatrical releases
Under the Skin
Birdman
Gone Girl
What We Do in the Shadows
Only Lovers Left Alive
The Babadook
Snowpiercer
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Calvary
The Zero Theorem
Runners Up: The Grand Budhapest Hotel, Edge of Tomorrow, The LEGO Movie, Maleficent
My biggest surprise was What We Do In the Shadows, the vampire horror-comedy from New Zealand that was the funniest movie I saw all year and a spoof movie as good as the Cornetto trilogy.
Biggest disappointments are Boyhood which I wanted to love so badly, but ended up being just alright, slightly boring and with a terribly colorless lead kid, and Sin City 2 which took the smokey, hyper-reality of the first movie and just flattened everything about it. I love Eva Green but even she couldn’t save that dreary, incoherent mess.
Worst movie of the year was Bobcat Goldthwait’s found footage bigfoot movie Willow Creek. It’s a found footage movie where the footage found means nothing, shows nothing, explains nothing except how stupid and irritating the two leads are. There is literally a twenty minute unbroken shot of them talking in a tent while someone outside makes footstep noises. Building tension and leading to a big scary flash of reveal, right? Wrong. Cut to them waking up the next morning, alive and unharmed. 80 minutes that felt like 3 hours.
Cevin Moore
1. The Grand Budapest Hotel
2. The Raid 2
3. Under The Skin
4. The Zero Theorem
5. Trailer Park Boys: Don't Legalize It
6. Video Nasties: Draconian Days
7. The Lego Movie
8. Blue Ruin
9. Guardians Of The Galaxy
10. Cold In July
Worst Movie: The Sacrament. I've been a fan of Ti West's other works, but this lacks both the imagination or flair of anything he's done before. A lazy TV dramatisation of the Jonestown massacre with all names changed to protect the innocent.
Biggest disappointment: Transcendence. A Sci-Fi about the end of the Internet and Wally Pfister's directorial debut, how could it fail? By being a lame re-tread of The Lawnmower Man with flashier FX, and still the same bizarre grasp of computers that Hollywood still seems to have even though everyone has one now.
BobaFett
Criteria: Official release date or festival release date in case I have seen a film at a festival
1. The Grand Budapest Hotel
2. Boyhood
3. Jack
4. Nightcrawler
5. It Follows
6. The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears
7. Butter on the Latch
8. What We Do in the Shadows
9. Under the Skin
10. Guardians of the Galaxy
My biggest disappointment of the year was The Battle of the Five Armies. I didn't have high expectations after the first two Hobbit films, but I didn't expect it to be this lame either. IMHO it's the worst of all six Middle-earth films. Basically most of it is one extended action sequence with too much CGI and too much silliness in it. That's not enough to carry a movie. Too me, what was once fascinating about the world of Middle-earth has mostly been lost here.
The most pleasant surprise definitely was Nightcrawler. I actually hadn't read anything about it in advance: it suddenly appeared at the cinema and reading the comments at Letterboxd got me interested in it. Must be the best directorial debut in years! The mood, the acting and the scathing media satire form a very pleasing experience.
The worst film of the year I have seen was the Mo brothers' Killers. If a psychological thriller fails to create characters with convincing psychology... it just fails. It is dark and very violent, but that alone is not enough. It's too long as well. I really liked the very last moment though (without giving it away ;)).
Alan H
10) The Babadook
9) The Guest
8) Edge of Tomorrow
7) Cold In July
6) Blue Ruin
5) Nightcrawler
4) What We Do In The Shadows
3) The Raid 2
2) The Wolf of Wall Street
1) The Grand Budapest Hotel
Most Pleasant Surprises: Wolf Creek 2, The Lego Movie, Purge: Anarchy, Robocop (remake) and Get Santa.
Biggest disappointments: Inside Llewyn Davis, The Box Trolls, Enemy, Lucy.
Worst Films: Sabotage and Jersy Boys
Best TV: Inside No9.
Erik
I don’t remember what I wrote last year as the “viewing criteria” – basically it’s just titles I’ve watched in 2014, be it in theaters, on Blu-ray, or the very odd iTunes flick. I don’t follow any particular criteria, everything goes until the list is due.
Here goes:
In no particular order...
BOYHOOD
INHERENT VICE
BIRDMAN
SNOWPIERCER
JODOROWSKY’S DUNE
THE IMITATION GAME
THE WIND RISES
EDGE OF TOMORROW
BEGIN AGAIN
THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA
Honorable Mentions: SELMA, THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING, WHIPLASH, STILL ALICE, CAKE, DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY, DEAD SNOW 2, THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, WILD, KILL THE MESSENGER, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, BLOOD TIES, THE HOMESMAN, THE IMMIGRANT, TWO DAYS ONE NIGHT, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, FORCE MAJEURE, VERONICA MARS, AMNESIA, X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, THE RAID 2, LUCY, A MOST VIOLENT YEAR, GONE GIRL, CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA, THE DROP, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2, ST. VINCENT, BIG HERO 6, JOHN WICK, UNDER THE SKIN, NIGHTCRAWLER, AMERICAN SNIPER, UNBROKEN, CHEF, GUI LA aka COMING HOME, IN ORDER OF DISAPPEARANCE.
Biggest Disappointment Of An Anticipated And Supposedly Great Film: INTERSTELLAR and GODZILLA.
Biggest Would Have Been Good If The Third Act Worked Film: NON-STOP.
Even Nolan’s DP Can’t Make A Decent Film Award / Worst Of The Year: TRANSCENDENCE.
Like last year's collated listeners' list, the rankings below represent the films most popular among the lists submitted by the Movie Matters podcast listeners. The system used to compile the list is simply to apply a numerical count to the number of occasions a specific title is included on a list regardless of ranking.
Without further ado, they are...
Listeners' Fave Films:
1=) The Grand Budapest Hotel x10
1=) Under the Skin x10
3=) Boyhood x8
3=) Gone Girl x8
5) Nightcrawler x7
6) The Raid 2 x6
=7) Calvary x5
=7) Guardians of the Galaxy x5
=7) Her x5
=7) Interstellar x5
=7) The Lego Movie x5
Runners-Up:
=12) The Babadook x4
=12) Dawn of the Planet of the Apes x4
=12) Edge of Tomorrow x4
=12) What We Do in the Shadows x4
Listeners' Most Pleasant Surprises:
Gone Girl x1
Amazing Spider-Man 2 x1
Edge of Tomorrow x1
’71 x1
Jimmy’s Hall x1
Pride x1
The Grand Budapest Hotel x1
Godzilla x1
What We Do In the Shadows x1
Wolf Creek 2 x1
Purge: Anarchy x1
Robocop (remake) x1
Get Santa x1
Listeners' Biggest Disappointments:
Boyhood x2
Godzilla x2
Non-Stop x 2
The Wind Rises x1
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom x1
Sin City 2 x1
Transcendence x1
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies x1
Inside Llewyn Davis x1
The Box Trolls x1
Enemy x1
Lucy x1
Interstellar x1
Listeners' Worst Films:
Transcendence x2
Guardians of the Galaxy x1
Lone Survivor x1
They Came Together x1
Tusk x1
Behaving Badly x1
Men, Women, and Children x1
Foxcatcher x1
I, Frankenstein x1
Left Behind x1
Not Cool x1
God's Not Dead x1
WolfCop x1
Starry Eyes x1
Willow Creek x1
The Sacrament x1
Killers x1
Sabotage x1
Jersey Boys x1
Listeners' Best TV Shows:
True Detective x1
Inside No. 9 x1
