Baumer's top 50 films of 2014/Panda's top 20 of 2014 pg 8/Numbers pg 14

[4815162342]

5. The Raid 2

 

 

 

The Raid: Redemption was an adrenaline-fueled non-stop action flick with a thin story that mainly served to explain why all that shit was going down in the apartment building of doom. The Raid 2 on the other hand is heavy on the story, laying down a tale of cops, criminals, double agents, filial jealousy, ambition, and more over a sprawling running time. It's much more operatic and big-minded in its scope and aims as it delves into what makes the main character Rama tick as he is conscripted into a secret police unit looking to infiltrate the big organized crime family and learn which of the local cops they've corrupted. We actually get a good sense of his character as well as the couple other main ones he interacts with as he becomes accepted by the criminals.

 

But don't think it's all drama, while pound for pound, The Raid 2 has less action than the jam-packed original, it takes its action up to 11, with several big setpieces and duels that more than match anything from the first film in energy, thrills, or sheer badassness. Gareth Evans is also a master of setting up the abilities and skills of characters. For example the actor who played Mad Dog in the first film returns in a minor role. He kicks a bunch of ass, but then is killed off, to illustrate just how skilled the main martial arts villain is. Touches like that really help build the film towards its bloody dynamic finale in the kitchen of the man pulling all the strings of the plot in the movie.

 

Nothing in the film is new per se, and sure you could argue that the main criminal plot has its share of cliches. But goddamn if it doesn't suck you in for an epic, entertaining, complete thrill of a ride.

[4815162342]

4. The Double

 

 

 

Like Enemy, The Double is a film about a weak, mild-mannered man whose encounters with a look-alike slowly threaten to consume and endanger his life. The similarities pretty much stop there, as the two are based on different novels and take dramatically different approaches to style and tone. Whereas Enemy embraced post-modern surrealism, The Double meshes a late 20th-century Eastern European(ish) setting with a Terry Gilliam-esque atmosphere of suffocating bureaucracy and mindless workers and officials behaving according to the script of how things are run and the dark humor that ensures. Simon is a smart, talented individual who only wants to be recognized for his efforts and catch the eye of a girl he has a crush on. When his double James, who is charismatic, outgoing, manipulative, and thoroughly incompetent in anything actually productive, comes along, Simon at first sees it as a chance for them to both get what they want. James however slowly undermines everything in a bid to essentially erase Simon from existence and merge the two lives into one he controls.

 

The pacing is slick and the film does a great job of foreshadowing a few things early on that pay off in a big way in the climax. The music by Andrew Hewitt is very evocative of Bernard Herrmann, which is always a plus. Jessie Eisenberg is fantastic as Simon/James and is able to play several shades of his general film persona to show a range of development and deterioration. The production design of the sets is wonderful, giving you a sense of the Soviet Union meets Gilliam's Brazil. It's a film that definitely soaks in while you watch and you can feel Simon's frustration with just how absurd things are around him and his inability to make any headway against it. A great little film.

[Dementeleus]

All the way up to #5? Dang....

[4815162342]

3. The Grand Budapest Hotel

 

 

 

Wes Anderson films have always had a love or hate vibe to them, though with this and Moonrise Kingdom it seems he's finally figuring out the right formula of whimsy, dark humor, absurdist elements, and sprawling character drama. The Grand Budapest Hotel is one lush production, with lavish sets and costumes that are incredibly detailed and designed. The titular Hotel definitely feels like a character of its own in the story, imposing and inviting at the same time. The costumes have the right balance between slightly not of this world while also seeming real and fit for use. Alexandre Desplat's score for the film is wonderful, playing a big role in the whimsical humor and mounting tension of its occasionally epic setpieces or foreboding criminal stalkings.

 

The massive ensemble cast is excellent. Ralph Fiennes is wonderfully funny and engaging as Gustave and he easily sells the humor with physical reactions and a nice deadpan delivery of one-liners. It would take too long to go through everyone else, so I'll sum it up by saying there's nary a weak link the ensemble, everyone contributing a good touch large role or small. The dialogue is snappy and to the point, sharp and funny. Anderson does a great job of filling humor into all sorts of places, from the classic pratfall to the downright macabre. It's a film that's impossible not to like or watch with a smile on your face, unless you don't have a funny bone in your whole body.

[4815162342]

All the way up to #5? Dang....

 

When I like a movie, I like a movie

[Alpha]

The Guest, Snowpiercer and The Raid 2 are all films I'll probably see for an action movie run-through.

[4815162342]

2. Locke

 

 

 

The Telemachos Award. Tele stanned for this movie longer and harder than most crazies do on this forum, but his hard work has paid off. Locke is essentially a one-man play transplanted into a moving car, and boy does it make it work. On paper, a man driving in a car to a hospital, having conversations over the phone and occasionally with the invisible imagined ghost of his deadbeat dad sounds like a boring slog of a film. But it works incredibly well for three reasons. First, Steven Knight's direction. Everything is meticulously staged and arranged to provide a constant momentum and flow of energy, each verbal encounter Locke has both drains and energizes him and the audience, as they see a man throw everything away out of a sense of duty and shame. Second, the camerawork. There's only so many ways you can film the inside of a car but the film uses them all and then some to hit all the angles and perspectives, from close-quarters intensity to a longer-shot brooding. Every shot is exactly the shot that is needed. Third, Tom Hardy. Bra-fucking-vo Tom, you did an amazing job. You made long discussions of concrete, construction design, and traffic arrangements interesting and engaging, which is a big feat in of itself. But even more, you really made Locke a living, breathing, flawed human being who is incredibly relatable and understandable. Of all the protagonists on this list, Ivan Locke is probably the most real of them all.

 

Plus, 98% of the time that talking to your dead father shit would just implode the movie. But you all made it actually pretty good.

[4815162342]

#1

 

 

The best movie of the year is the first film since Collateral in 2004 where the city of Los Angeles becomes a character in the story. Watching the film you really get the sense that this is a sprawling, devastating place full of life, death, success, and sordid truths. Dan Gilroy, younger brother of Tony, breaks out in a big way with this movie, expertly framing the city and the people it chews up and spits out against a classic tale of ambition and the lengths we will go to in order to secure our future and legacy, while also providing commentary on the growing exploitation of violence and suffering by the media in the bitter chase of the bottom line. While many of these themes are universal, like other films in this list Gilroy arranges it all against the idea of the American Dream and how it can easily be corrupted by those who are willing to bend and break society's rules if it serves their purpose.

 

Jake Gyllenhaal continues to amaze, giving one of his best, if not his best, performances as Lou Bloom, an amoral man drifting through life trying to make ends meet until he spots an opportunity as an on-scene cameraman selling footage of traumatic incidents to a local news station. Lou is simultaneously charismatic and repulsive. He presents a wide grin and cheery disposition to almost all of those he meets but under scrutiny the facade crumbles and the slimy, wormy, manipulative leech starts poking through. Gyllenhaal expertly depicts a man with nothing to lose and no personal life to sacrifice, so the character throws himself into his working, risking everything and the lives and careers of those he works with in order to build something for himself. Rene Russo is great as the ambitious yet desperate news station manager who thinks she can use Bloom to further her career, only to realize too late that he is the one in control of her career's fate. Riz Ahmed is a great find as Rick, a down-on-his-luck slacker who Bloom takes under his wing as his assistant. Rick slowly realizes his ambition and wants, but Ahmed is great at showing a character who figures what to do, but lacks the intelligence or creativity to achieve it against Lou's cunning and ruthlessness. I hope he gets more work in the future.

 

There were many great movies this year, but only one had it all. This was that film.

 

The End.

[Dementeleus]

2. Locke

 

 

 

The Telemachos Award. Tele stanned for this movie longer and harder than most crazies do on this forum, but his hard work has paid off. Locke is essentially a one-man play transplanted into a moving car, and boy does it make it work. On paper, a man driving in a car to a hospital, having conversations over the phone and occasionally with the invisible imagined ghost of his deadbeat dad sounds like a boring slog of a film. But it works incredibly well for three reasons. First, Steven Knight's direction. Everything is meticulously staged and arranged to provide a constant momentum and flow of energy, each verbal encounter Locke has both drains and energizes him and the audience, as they see a man throw everything away out of a sense of duty and shame. Second, the camerawork. There's only so many ways you can film the inside of a car but the film uses them all and then some to hit all the angles and perspectives, from close-quarters intensity to a longer-shot brooding. Every shot is exactly the shot that is needed. Third, Tom Hardy. Bra-fucking-vo Tom, you did an amazing job. You made long discussions of concrete, construction design, and traffic arrangements interesting and engaging, which is a big feat in of itself. But even more, you really made Locke a living, breathing, flawed human being who is incredibly relatable and understandable. Of all the protagonists on this list, Ivan Locke is probably the most real of them all.

 

Plus, 98% of the time that talking to your dead father shit would just implode the movie. But you all made it actually pretty good.

[Empire]

Great, surprising list.

[Sam]

All the fappings from Tele for No.2 were so loud that I couldn't even hear myself reading the No.1 write-up.

[chasmmi]

good list to read. quite a mix of blockbusters Oscar fayre and those little films that only a Tele could love

[chasmmi]

gonna start up my own when i get home tonight (great job again numbers both with writeups and soured of writeups)

although i am tempted to skip this one and join the hot new list tend of making a list thread with no films in it

[ChD]

Locke #2? I approve of this list.

[The Stingray]

The Guest, The Raid 2 and Nightcrawler in the Top 10 make this the best list yet.

[baumer]

 

#1

 

 

The best movie of the year is the first film since Collateral in 2004 where the city of Los Angeles becomes a character in the story. Watching the film you really get the sense that this is a sprawling, devastating place full of life, death, success, and sordid truths. Dan Gilroy, younger brother of Tony, breaks out in a big way with this movie, expertly framing the city and the people it chews up and spits out against a classic tale of ambition and the lengths we will go to in order to secure our future and legacy, while also providing commentary on the growing exploitation of violence and suffering by the media in the bitter chase of the bottom line. While many of these themes are universal, like other films in this list Gilroy arranges it all against the idea of the American Dream and how it can easily be corrupted by those who are willing to bend and break society's rules if it serves their purpose.

 

Jake Gyllenhaal continues to amaze, giving one of his best, if not his best, performances as Lou Bloom, an amoral man drifting through life trying to make ends meet until he spots an opportunity as an on-scene cameraman selling footage of traumatic incidents to a local news station. Lou is simultaneously charismatic and repulsive. He presents a wide grin and cheery disposition to almost all of those he meets but under scrutiny the facade crumbles and the slimy, wormy, manipulative leech starts poking through. Gyllenhaal expertly depicts a man with nothing to lose and no personal life to sacrifice, so the character throws himself into his working, risking everything and the lives and careers of those he works with in order to build something for himself. Rene Russo is great as the ambitious yet desperate news station manager who thinks she can use Bloom to further her career, only to realize too late that he is the one in control of her career's fate. Riz Ahmed is a great find as Rick, a down-on-his-luck slacker who Bloom takes under his wing as his assistant. Rick slowly realizes his ambition and wants, but Ahmed is great at showing a character who figures what to do, but lacks the intelligence or creativity to achieve it against Lou's cunning and ruthlessness. I hope he gets more work in the future.

 

There were many great movies this year, but only one had it all. This was that film.

 

The End.

 

 

 

[baumer]

You have an excellent voice Numbers.  I enjoyed all of your write ups even if I haven't seen about 10 movies on your list.

 

Great choice at number one.  IMHO Gyllenhal, if he is not the best actor working right now he is close.  But without a doubt he is the brashest and riskiest actor out there.  No one takes on more diverse roles than him.  I thought he and Hathaway were unfairly over looked for their work in Love and Other Drugs and he hasn't slowed down since then, taking on one different role after another.

 

Great work, Sir!

[4815162342]

Thanks for the likes and compliments. 2014 was a very good year for movies.

[chasmmi]

2014 was a very good year for movies.

that's for sure. after making my list of films watched i thinki counted about 12 that we guaranteed to make my top 5.

[Dementeleus]

The Guest, The Raid 2 and Nightcrawler in the Top 10 make this the best list yet.

 

But you haven't seen mine yet.