2014 in Film: Best, Worst, and More

Posted on December 29, 2014 at 4:20 pm

Copyright 2014 Paramount Pictures
Copyright 2014 Paramount Pictures

Ten is an arbitrary number, a year is an arbitrary span of time, and it makes no sense at all to try to rank movies that are so different in concept, genre, and aspiration. Nevertheless, as I always say when the topic of ten best lists comes up, they are, to quote Jan Struther, “indefensible but irresistible.” So, here I am, and here is my list. As usual, I have one at the top and then every other title on the list is tied for second place.

The best film of the year is “Selma,” brilliant in every category — as history, as drama, as biography, as advocacy. And it could not be more timely.

Runners-up:

Boyhood
Birdman
Guardians of the Galaxy
Life Itself
Belle
Dear White People
The Boxtrolls
The Book of Life
The Theory of Everything

Honorable Mention: Pride, Top Five, Rosewater, The Imitation Game, A Most Violent Year, Tracks, The LEGO Movie, Beyond the Lights, Begin Again, Snowpiercer, Wild, Whiplash, Only Lovers Left Alive, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Love is Strange, Gone Girl, Coherence, The One I Love, Believe Me, Under the Skin

Deserved a larger audience: Beyond the Lights, Edge of Tomorrow

Outstanding Documentaries: Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me, Finding Vivian Maier, Particle Fever, CitizenFour, 1971, The Unknown Known

A good year for grown-up romance: Words and Pictures, Begin Again, Beyond the Lights, Only Lovers Left Alive, Love is Strange

A great year for movies about food: Luscious meals were the real stars of the delicious Chef, Le Chef, 1000 Foot Journey, The Trip to Italy, and The Lunchbox

belle-posterBreakthrough performers: Chris Pratt, Rosamund Pike, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Ben Schnetzer (two films each), also Nelsan Ellis, Jack O’Connell, Jillian Bell

A great year for heroes who were smart: Big Hero 6, Theory of Everything, Interstellar, Imitation Game

A great year for animation: The LEGO Movie, The Boxtrolls, The Book of Life, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Penguins of Madagascar

Great live-action family films: Dolphin Tale 2, Muppets Most Wanted, and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

And the Hall of Shame, the year’s most excruciatingly, painfully bad films:

Blended, Left Behind, Irreplaceable, A Million Ways to Die in the West, The Other Woman, Transcendence, Sabotage, Tammy, Labor Day, Dumb and Dumber To, The Identical, Neighbors, The Nut Job, Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return, Third Person

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Commentary Critics Understanding Media and Pop Culture

Denzel Washington Turns 60

Posted on December 28, 2014 at 8:00 am

Happy 60th birthday to the man I consider the finest actor working in movies today, Denzel Washington. Genetta M. Adams assembled an impressive top ten list for The Root in honor of his 60th birthday. Many of my favorites are on the list, but I would also include Flight, Antwone Fisher (which he also directed), Inside Man, Out of Time, and one of his rare romances films, Mississippi Masala.

Up next: a remake of “The Magnificent Seven.” Can’t wait.

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Actors

Now That’s Funny: The Paley Center Visits Top TV Comedies

Posted on December 27, 2014 at 9:36 am

In case you missed the Paley Center special on TV comedy shows, you can watch it online. It is a lot of fun to go behind the scenes to hear the creators of “The Big Bang Theory,” “Mom,” “Modern Family,” “New Girl,” “Episodes,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Key and Peele,” and “The Mindy Project” talk about how the shows come together. I loved hearing the “Modern Family” writers talk about the episodes that come from their own lives. And it is very impressive to see how hard they work, from the initial idea to the last-minute changes during taping and how complicated each episode has to be.

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Comedy Television
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