![\"under\"](\"http:\/\/smugfilm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/under.jpg\")
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An honorable mention.<\/em><\/p>\n Ah yes, December. The month in which we all gather round the fireplace with a warm glass of wassail, cozy up to our loved ones, and talk about how many movies we regretted spending thirteen bucks on over the last twelve months.<\/p>\n Just kidding\u2014I was actually pretty impressed with 2014 overall as far as new releases went. Of the 103 movies I watched this year\u201426 of which came out this year\u2014I found that I enjoyed most of the new releases. I only actively disliked about one of them, Gone Girl). So, whereas 2013 was a year of \u2018meh\u2019 for me<\/a>, I’d say 2014 was a year of three-star or higher films\u2014a good solid year.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n As you already know, I adored the sheer amount of surrealist films<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>that came out this year, including Under The Skin<\/a>. I would definitely recommend all the ones I\u2019ve listed here<\/a>. Heck, I’ll even throw Birdman<\/a> in there as it certainly had a dreamy feel and its surrealistic moments.<\/span><\/p>\n As far as comedies go, Alan Partridge<\/a> gets my notable mention nod as one of the best dark comedy films I’ve seen in a while. I was also a big fan of Frank<\/a>, which was somewhere in between a comedy and drama. You can read my full review of it here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n This year also brought about some really great and notable documentaries, such as\u00a0The Dog<\/a> (about John Wojtowicz, the inspiration for Dog Day Afternoon<\/a>) and the charming music documentary Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets<\/a>. The Dog is a fantastic portrait of 1970s New York in a lot of ways, and the Pulp documentary shined a similarly positive light on the people of Sheffield, England.<\/span><\/p>\n I’d also give a shout out to newcomers Charlie McDowell’s surrealist The One I Love<\/a> and Jon Stewart’s Rosewater<\/a>, both of which were\u00a0solidly\u00a0 enjoyable. I’ll also give a nod to Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler<\/a>\u2014which I reviewed a few weeks ago<\/a>\u2014and Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook<\/a>, both of which I liked, but to a lesser extent.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Then there were some real stinkers\u2014such as the trashy non-thriller Gone Girl<\/a>, or the similarly flat and boring The Immigrant<\/a>. While not nearly as bad, I’ll also throw The Theory of Everything<\/a> in there just because it was so blandly formulaic.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n And so, without further ado, and in honor of there having been more good films than bad this year, here are my top five picks for 2014:<\/span><\/p>\n 5. The Grand Budapest Hotel<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n In some ways I’m the anti-Wes Anderson fan\u2014the movies of his I really like tend to be the ones that the \u2018real fans\u2019 see as his minor works. But whatever, y\u2019all are missing out. Grand Budapest is charming, visually brilliant, and one of his very best. Not to mention, Ralph Finnes and Tony Revolori are engaging and have great chemistry.<\/span><\/p>\n Anderson’s always been more interested in style than emotion, and with\u00a0Grand Budapest especially, the whole movie feels like a beautiful dollhouse\u00a0unfolding in front of you. But what makes this one stand out from the others for me is the untold story at the peripherals, the story behind the character Zero that is told, indirectly, throughout.<\/span><\/p>\n The narrative is of a white girl listening to the story of a white man reading the book of another white man who’s telling a tale he heard from Zero Moustafa, the hotel’s owner, about another white man. And at the heart of it, it\u2019s a fairly inconsequential story about these white characters fussing over inheritance and opulence. However, throughout the film, Anderson feeds you these tidbits of information about Zero’s life as a war refugee, and as an immigrant and a non-white face in a dismissive and overbearing European setting. His love story is really the only source of emotion in the film\u2014the only other competition is perhaps Gustave H.’s (Finnes) love for his duty and women. You can’t help but leave the film seeing Gustave’s story as a frivolous hollow whodunit, and Zero’s story\u2014though brushed aside by all other characters\u2014as far more interesting.<\/span><\/p>\n 4. They Came Together\u00a0<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n There’s a great scene in the television show Stella<\/a> (RIP) where David Wain, Michael Ian Black, and Michael Showalter stand on tables in a conference room and proudly list all of the great things that have come out of America. The list is absurd, going from “Chicken Tikka Masala” to “Ass” to “Harry Potter”, and ending with Showalter proudly declaring “Then I say something.”<\/span><\/p>\n That, my friends, is the beautiful essence of They Came Together.<\/span><\/p>\n There’s just something so hilarious to me about standing outside of yourself, commenting on the situation while still continuing to blindly conform to the expectations of the situation. Now, that might be an over-analysis, but I feel it needs to be said considering the bafflingly chilly reception this movie received. Granted, I went into it already a huge fan of David Wain\u2014I adore The Baxter<\/a>, Wet Hot American Summer<\/a> is a classic, and The Ten<\/a> is underrated. They Came Together fits in the vein of all three\u2014a markedly hilarious and near perfect satire of romantic comedies. With Amy Poehler as the perfectly flawed do-gooder and Paul Rudd as a prince charming in disguise, the film manages to lampoon every single romantic comedy trope from the “I don’t know what we’re doing” Notebook<\/a>-like kisses in the rain, to the idle Manhattanite chatter-over-dinner of a Woody Allen flick. It’s laugh out loud from start to finish, and haters don\u2019t know shit.<\/span><\/p>\n 3. <\/b>Dear White People<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n What a great, well-rounded film! This year really was great for new directors, and Justin Simien’s Dear White People did not disappoint. Probably the only ‘college’ themed movie in the last twenty years I’ve ever liked, Dear White People is akin to a beautifully articulated debate speech\u2014Simien manages to call out detrimental\u00a0white bullshit by showing its’ emotional impact in a truly compassionate and fair way.<\/span><\/p>\n Following the lives of four black students in an Ivy League college, Dear White People manages to completely conform to multiple College Movie archetypes while still keeping each character\u2014such as the jock, the activist, the nerd, etc.\u2014really well rounded and multi-dimensional. It\u2019s genuinely funny and enjoyable, while also being able to hammer home an important and serious message about white privilege and social pressures surrounding race. Dear White People has a great style as well, capturing the genre\u2019s look but adding its own unique twist. I found it all to be really refreshing\u2014we need more of this sort of fresh intelligent screenwriting and filmmaking.<\/span><\/p>\n 2. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n Speaking of first time directors, Ana Lily Amirpour takes the cake for best new director of the year. This is one of the most unique and individualistic movies I’ve seen in ages\u2014think somewhere in between\u00a0Let The Right One In<\/a> and Only<\/a>\u00a0Lovers Left Alive<\/a>, except better than both of them.<\/span><\/p>\n The movie revolves around Arash, a hardworking young man with a 50\u2019s greaser-esque flare and a deadbeat father, and The Girl, a mysterious and predatory vampire stalking the streets of Bad City, Iran.\u00a0 The movie switches between both characters perspectives and\u00a0flawlessly merges them as the two inevitably meet.<\/span><\/p>\n A Girl Walks Home is exquisitely shot\u2014each scene looks like a page from a beautifully-illustrated graphic novel. I’m sure the comic nod was intentional, as Amirpour clearly wears her influences on her sleeves\u2014the movie is a spaghetti western mixed with new wave mixed with horror mixed with an indie pop soundtrack to top it all off. Yet, the movie itself is fairly straight forward\u2014a series of beautiful moments in time with characters who can draw you in with simple yet compelling stares. Can’t wait to see what Amirpour comes up with next.<\/span><\/p>\n 1. Jodorowsky’s Dune<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n I can’t tell you guys how much I loved Jodorowsky’s Dune.\u00a0<\/span>I. CAN’T. TELL. YOU.<\/p>\n Okay, I’ll try.<\/span><\/p>\n Look, here’s the thing\u2014most of the movies I’ve listed so far have been\u00a0 movies\u00a0with strong convictions and points of view\u2014because\u00a0that’s both how I like my men and how I like my movies. But seriously\u2014those do tend to be the movies that speak to me and inspire me the most in my own\u00a0life, and Jodorowsky’s Dune is like the pinnacle of this principle for me; this documentary, at\u00a0its core, is really a portrait of belief.<\/span><\/p>\n Here you have somebody who so fervently believes in his own visions and messages that even failure could not stop this larger-than-life project. When you spend all of your energy and time on a project for a stretch of years, spend two million dollars on the pre-production alone, manage to recruit “spiritual warriors” such as Moebius, Pink Floyd, Mick Jagger, Orson Welles, Salvador Dal\u00ed, and H.R. Giger to name a few, at that point, even if the project never comes to fruition, you can’t possibly end with nothing. And Jodorowsky most certainly did not\u2014in fact, he ended with a phonebook-sized tome of beautiful storyboards, long-lasting power teams of designers who went on to make the best sci-fi films of our time, and, years later,\u00a0this fabulous\u00a0documentary. Not to mention, his newest movie Dance Of Reality<\/a>, <\/b>which was a product of\u00a0him being reunited\u00a0with his old\u00a0 producer for this documentary.<\/span><\/p>\n Looking back, Alejandro Jodoworsky realized that the production of this film turned his own life into his own Holy Mountain journey\u2014after struggling desperately to arrive at the\u00a0top he realized the true accomplishment was in the journey.\u00a0If that doesn’t make you want to get out there and create something, anything, I don’t know what will. That’s the beauty of Jodoworsky’s Dune.<\/span><\/p>\n And so with that, I bid 2014 adieu, and welcome the coming year on a bit of a high note. Don\u2019t let me down, 2015!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An honorable mention.<\/em><\/p>\n Ah yes, December. The month in which we all gather round the fireplace with a warm glass of wassail, cozy up to our loved ones, and talk about how many movies we regretted spending thirteen bucks on over the last twelve months.<\/p>\n Just kidding\u2014I was actually pretty impressed with 2014 overall as far as new releases went. Of the 103 movies I watched this year\u201426 of which came out this year\u2014I found that I enjoyed most of the new releases. I only actively disliked about one of them, Gone Girl). So, whereas 2013 was a year of \u2018meh\u2019 for me<\/a>, I’d say 2014 was a year of three-star or higher films\u2014a good solid year.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1272],"tags":[4545,4546,594,104,185,4548,4549],"class_list":["post-5811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allposts","category-jennaslists","tag-best-films-of-2014","tag-best-movies-of-2014","tag-jenna-ipcar","tag-smug-film-2","tag-smugfilm","tag-top-5-films-of-2014","tag-top-5-movies-of-2014"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5811"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5831,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5811\/revisions\/5831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"grand\"](\"http:\/\/smugfilm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/grand.jpg\")
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