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

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By comparison, my Top 10 of 2013 when I did my much less well advertised and attended countdown for that year:

 

10. Upstream Color

9. Prisoners

8. Blue Jasmine

7. Gravity

6. Act of Killing

5. Her

4. Side Effects

3. Rush

2. All is Lost

1. Nebraska

 

 

All is Lost has since become my top film of that year.

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#1

 

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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.

 

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Amazing! love your top 2 placements!

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Time for some analysis:

38. Interstellar

 

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Can't say I'm surprised, but disappointed...

 

37. The LEGO Movie

 

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...

 

36. The Theory of Everything
 
Uh...
 

 

 

35. 22 Jump Street

 

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Excuse me...

 

 

34. Unbroken

 

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Congrats, twice in a row you put a really average/shitty movie next to a genius Lord/Miller movie in the wrong order. So proud of you.

 

Will analyze more later.

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20) Bad Words: The funniest films perhaps of the year.  Funny from start to finish and a terrific film from start to end.  Jason Bateman stars in and directs this film about a fish out of water in which he plays a very smart 40 year old who finds a loop hole that lets him into a spelling contest for 11 year olds.  The reason he's doing this is revealed at the end and it's a good one, worth the wait.  The story is nice, the humour is raw and X-rated in some ways and it's fast, furious and raw.  It's one of the best scripts of the year.

 

The word,'Floccinaucinihilipilification' means the action or habit of estimating something as worthless.

 

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19) A Most Wanted Man:   If there was ever a film to see just for the acting, this is it.While the film ultimately hangs  on Hoffman’s central performance, which is very bedraggled, distrusting, downbeat, world-weary and depressed by the milieu in which he finds himself. The whole story does have a very paranoid, cynical, post-9/11 portrait of a world where everyone seems to be double-crossing everybody at every turn and nobody trusts each other.  In the case of this, it is about a world of paranoia and suspicion and characters trying to uncover each other’s motives and desires as much as the motives of the people they are trying to track down.  I was mesmerized by the performances and the level of paranoia in the film.  Like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, this moves slow but it does so for a reason.  It takes it's time to tell the whole story and not just some of it.

 

Trivia:  The last completed film of Philip Seymour Hoffman.

 

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18) Unbroken:  The gut wrenching true story of a man who went through more hell than any one person deserves.  Angelina Jolie has found an incredibly powerful story and she has told it well.  By the end of the film, my emotions were spent.  I felt happy for Jack that he was home but the journey he goes on to get there is truly harrowing.  It's a terrific story of courage, survival and redemption.  Angelina might have the best direction this year.  I hope she gets nominated.  The film is just a notch below the ten best imo but her skills behind the camera are evident.  Jack O'Connell is unbelievably terrific in here as the main character and I hope he gets nominated as well.  The reason this rates a 9 instead of a 9.5 is that even though the movie is 2.5 hours long, it just felt like they cut the ending too short.  Something was missing and that that is disappointing.  But overall, a terrific film and an exhausting experience.

 

Trivia:  Universal Studios bought the rights to the story of Louis Zamperini in 1957 in the hope of developing it for Tony Curtis. In later years, Nicolas Cage expressed an interest. The project finally got the green light after Laura Hillenbrand's 2010 book about Zamperini became a best-seller.

 

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huh unbroken has the exact same placement on my list. 

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I'm not gonna critique anymore because eh, but my big flat what would be directed at The Double being at #4

 

It was an enjoyable list to read however

 

We've established that this year you and I went on markedly divergent paths

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Especially evident in your choice for #42.

 

Most popular pick of mine was Captain America: The Winter Soldier at #18 with 13 likes. People seemed to think that was a good spot for it.

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Most popular pick of mine was Captain America: The Winter Soldier at #18 with 13 likes. People seemed to think that was a good spot for it.

I mean, I don't disagree with that one for sure. The more I think about it, CA2 might be a more all-around solid movie than Guardians (though Guardians reaches higher heights).

 

It's also one of the highest grossing sooooo

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So I started my list in here a while ago and I never got around to finishing so I figured I'd just give you my top ten

10. How to Train Your Dragon 2

9. Edge of Tomorrow

8. X-Men: Days of Future Past

7. Guardians of the Galaxy

6. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

5. The Hobbit:The Battle of the Five Armies

4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

3. Mockingjay Part 1

2. Interstellar

1. The Fault in Our Stars

Originally I was planning on putting Interstellar at the top spot, but here a few months into 2015 I find that The Fault on Our Stars is the film that I deep down have the desire to return to even though I've already watched it more times than any of these other films.

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