The Best Films of 2014

It’s been one hell of a year in film. Even though 2014 ain’t quite done yet, we’re giving you an early Christmas present with our list of the top twenty films of the year. Our team of crack writers each sent in their picks, which have been assembled into the list you’re about to read.

A big thanks to everyone who contributed: Alex Casey, Beatrix Coles, Dominic Corry, Adam Fresco, Matt Glasby, Giles Hardie, Jodie Hart, Leonie Hayden, Rebecca Barry Hill, Liam Maguren, Daniel Rutledge, Paul Scantlebury, Tony Stamp, Aaron Yap – and yours truly, Flicks Editor Steve Newall. Yeah, I just thanked myself, but why are you still reading this anyway? Get stuck in to the countdown below – and when you’re done, tell us what we got right or wrong. Mostly right, though, right?

Pulp: A Film About Life, Death and Supermarkets

“It [fame] just didn’t agree with me. It was like a nut allergy.” -JARVIS COCKER

WE SAID: “This onscreen marriage of simpatico souls had me grinning from its opening minutes and still beaming long after the film ended.” (Read full review)

YOU SAID: “The most enjoyable concert movie since Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense.”

Why Don’t You Play in Hell?

“Sasaki, use the nunchakus!” -HIRATA (HIROKI HASEGAWA)

WE SAID: ” Any complaints are soon forgotten as all the players converge for the final blood-soaked act.” (Read full review)

YOU SAID: “In Sono’s world, too much is never enough, and nothing exceeds like excess.”

Housebound

“The closed mind is the worst defense against the paranormal, Kylie. What are you gonna do against a hostile spirit? Are you just gonna crack jokes?” -AMOS (GLEN-PAUL WARU)

WE SAID: “Lives up to the hype, a haunted house mystery with the DNA of an Amblin movie in its propulsive storytelling.” (Read full review)

YOU SAID: “There’s not a moment when the pace lags, the story takes several completely unexpected twists and turns, and it’s just….hilarious!”

The Raid 2: Berandal

“Bring back the ball.” -BASEBALL BAT MAN (VERY TRI YULISMAN)

WE SAID: “As with his previous film, [director Gareth Evans] pushes this one to its limits – of acting, pacing, audience buy-in – without overstepping them.” (Read full review)

YOU SAID: “When an opening scene of a Indonesian style execution silences a hyped up audience… you know you’re in for one wild bloody ride.”

The Skeleton Twins

“I’m tired of you acting like you’re the healthy one and I’m your special needs kid.” -MILO (BILL HADER)

WE SAID: “He [Hader] and Wiig have abundant chemistry, making the scenes where they relax into their sibling friendship a joy to watch.” (Read full review)

YOU SAID: “Excellently written, performed and acted and even the distraction of a restless, texting imbecile next to me couldn’t take anything away from this little gem.”

Only Lovers Left Alive

“Please, feel free to piss in my garden.” -ADAM (TOM HIDDLESTON)

WE SAID: “Sometimes it feels like a gorgeous music video for the best band ever – Hiddleston, Swinton and John Hurt on drums. And you don’t get much cooler than that…” (Read full review)

YOU SAID: “Sublime movie with perfect casting… oh to be so chic and urbane when disconsolate.”

Calvary

“I think she’s bipolar, or lactose intolerant, one of the two.” -JACK BRENNAN (CHRIS O’DOWD)

WE SAID: “When it’s over, you’ll find a contemplative hush has descended on the audience: a cinema turned, briefly, into a church.” (Read full review)

YOU SAID: “Holy crap was it darker than I expected.”

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

“I always think ape better than human. I see now how much like them we are.” -CAESAR (ANDY SERKIS)

WE SAID: “Soaring above its predecessor and staking a claim to be one of the best big budget films of the year.” (Read full review)

YOU SAID: “Good discussion and thought provoking movie, no poo flinging around here, well worth the watch.”

The LEGO Movie

“Let’s take extra care to follow the instructions or you’ll be put to sleep, and don’t forget Taco Tuesday’s coming next week.” -PRESIDENT BUSINESS (WILL FERRELL)

WE SAID: “So joyously creative, so continuously hilarious and so hyper-aware of what it means to play with LEGO that future product-based movies of its ilk should use it as a template.” (Read full review)

YOU SAID: “I think it spoke to the 5 year olds in all of us.”

Gone Girl

“You two are the most f*cked up people I’ve ever met and I deal with f*cked up people for a living.” -TANNER BOLT (TYLER PERRY)

WE SAID: “This superior thriller arrives at a time when Hollywood mostly seems to have forgotten how to make ‘em.” (Read full review)

YOU SAID: “Wow I was wrong to take Grandma.”

It Follows

“Never go anywhere with only one exit.” -HUGH (JAKE WEARY)

WE SAID: “It Follows is its own sublimely executed, sharp-eyed thing, and I can’t wait to see it again.” (Read full review)

YOU SAID: “Combining fear of sexually transmitted diseases with a thing that behaves like something from a bad dream makes It Follows feel like something you are more likely to experience, albeit from the safety of your own nightmares.”

Under the Skin

“I have a place about 30 minutes away. Will you come with me there?” -LAURA (SCARLETT JOHANSSON)

WE SAID: “The extraordinary imagery and sound design are haunting, and the end result is both ugly and heartbreakingly beautiful. A masterpiece.” (Read full review)

YOU SAID: “Mainstream audiences are going to hate this movie.”

Guardians of the Galaxy

“I’m pretty sure the answer is: ‘I am Groot’.” -PETER QUILL (CHRIS PRATT)

WE SAID: “An exciting thrill-ride that strikes a brilliant balance between jaw-dropping space scenes, anarchic wit and bountiful belly laughs.” (Read full review)

YOU SAID: “Guardians is more than spectacular action-packed Sci-Fi fun. It’s a masterpiece and Marvel’s most entertaining film since The Avengers.”

The Grand Budapest Hotel

“The plot thickens, as they say. Why, by the way? Is it a soup metaphor?” -M. GUSTAVE (RALPH FIENNES)

WE SAID: “Fiennes makes full use of the character’s ambiguity in class, legality, manners and sexuality, aided by whip-smart dialogue and a welcome eagerness to ham things up when required.” (Read full review)

YOU SAID: “My sides still hurt.”

Inside Llewyn Davis

“If it was never new, and it never gets old, then it’s a folk song.” -LLEWYN DAVIS (OSCAR ISAAC)

WE SAID: “Pure Coens and at the same time, unlike anything they’ve made: it’s a beautiful, unassuming, rewarding ache of a movie.” (Read full review)

YOU SAID: “Who would have thought I’d ever like a Justin Timberlake song?”

Nightcrawler

“I feel like grabbing you by your ears right now and screaming, “I’m not f*cking interested!” Instead, I’m going to drive home and do some accounting.” -LOU BLOOM (JAKE GYLLENHAAL)

WE SAID: “An ambulance-chasing amateur newshound who’s one part Travis Bickle, one part Gollum, [Gyllenhaal’s] the spooky centre of Dan Gilroy’s compelling thriller, haunting witching-hour LA like a sad alien.” (Read full review)

YOU SAID: “The fun is in how dark will it go, and watching the stakes continually getting raised.”

Her

“Sometimes I think I have felt everything I’m ever gonna feel. And from here on out, I’m not gonna feel anything new. Just lesser versions of what I’ve already felt.” -THEODORE (JOAQUIN PHOENIX)

WE SAID: “A winningly unique ROM-com boasting achingly human joy and melancholy.”
(Read full review)

YOU SAID: “Spike Jonze’s provocative and unconventional futuristic romance joins the canon of love story greats.”

Whiplash

“Oh my dear God – are you one of those single tear people?” -TERENCE FLETCHER (J.K. SIMMONS)

WE SAID: “As a stress-inducing exercise in cinematic asphyxiation, Whiplash is this year’s Gravity.” (Read full review)

YOU SAID: “The favorite film of the year. A must see. I almost felt my heart bursting out.”

Interstellar

“I have a cue light I can use to show you when I’m joking, if you like.” -TARS (BILL IRWIN)

WE SAID: “Where Interstellar eclipses Nolan’s creativity as seen onscreen previously is in the sense of awe, wonder and spectacle he’s able to conjure on this trip into the unknown.” (Read full review)

YOU SAID: “A roller coaster ride of heart pounding action sequences, human emotion and brain stimulating astrophysics. An A+ neural experience.”

Boyhood

“My life is just going to go like that. This series of milestones” -MOM (PATRICIA ARQUETTE)

WE SAID: Boyhood is a staggering cinematic achievement, all the more so in how readily you’ll lose yourself in this broadly sketched tale of a life rather than pick apart how it has been uniquely assembled. For twelve years Richard Linklater has been shooting episodically, striking gold all over the place in the process – most notably in the form of Ellar Coltrane, whose lead performance as Mason is what this ambitious project hinges upon.

Following Mason from childhood through adolescence, Boyhood doesn’t just capture this young man’s physical and personal growth, but that of the key figures that orbit him: separated parents (Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke); sister (Lorelei Linklater); and first love (Zoe Graham). While Arquette’s performance is a standout, Linklater conjures emotive, naturalistic performances from all his cast, so as the film works its magic and the years pass by, one can’t help but be captivated by the lives unfolding onscreen.

That’s all the more impressive with Boyhood, for the most part, avoiding making the obvious dramatic moves we’re conditioned to expect in film. One might anticipate seeing Mason’s emotional highs and lows unfold in traditional fashion, but more often than not these pivotal moments take place offscreen, the audience left to ponder the ripples they leave on Mason and his family across time. That this forward momentum is conveyed more through the years’ contemporary music and the physical changes of Boyhood’s cast is another contributing factor to the film’s unforced feeling as it moves along at a pace of its own. Linklater casts a spell that defies you to not be moved, and captures the incredible complexity, richness and emotion of every one of our unique lives in the process.

YOU SAID: “Brilliant”; “Monumental”; “Unique”; “Typical artyfarty blabla, new age”.