I Speak in Movies: JQ's Top Ten Movies of 2014

10 

“Gone Girl” is great entertainment. It’s hilarious at times, suspenseful often, and toys with the husband-missing wife trope. Rosamund Pike, who I wasn’t too familiar with, deserves best actress consideration for her performance as Amy Dunne. There’s a collected cool, lower and slower cadence to her voice that seems fitted for Hollywood’s golden years. Even at times when the violence was excessive, there’s never a point where I wasn’t aware that director David Fincher was just having fun with his audience. SPOILER ALERT By the film’s end I was really hoping those two crazy cats, Nick (played by Ben Affleck- hey did you hear he’s making a comeback?) and Amy Dunne, make their marriage work. Besides who can really blame Amy for how she treated her schlub husband anyway? In the perverse world Fincher created, she’s a character to root for.  

9 

Ugh, there’s a part of me that really wonders why I enjoyed this movie so much. I understand the main criticism: Eastwood shouldn’t depoliticize intensely complicated wars and distill it into one man’s struggle without questioning the United States’ motivations for being in Iraq or Afghanistan, especially considering the ultimate failure of the Bush Doctrine of War. It also pains me to know that some scenes in “American Sniper” will surely have the tobacco-chewing hicks from, say, the Deep South hollering their Confederate war cries when Kyle kills terrorists. Although a lot of the criticisms of this film are spot on, they’re still exaggerated. Many liberal critics are blasting “American Sniper” for being a movie that it is not.

It’s a human story, powerfully performed by Bradley Cooper, about one man who is exceptionally talented at killing people for a cause he believed to be just. At the movie’s outset, writer Jason Hall working from Chris Kyle’s autobiography established that in life there are sheep, sheepdogs, and wolves, and Kyle certainly won’t be a sheep. We, like Bradley Cooper’s Kyle, are left to wonder, well, what is he: a sheepdog or a wolf? After 9/11 he is confident that he is a sheepdog protecting innocent people, but as the movie progresses and his kill total rises, Kyle is not so sure anymore. Anyone who is old enough to remember the past fifteen years knows that this too has been the journey of many Americans since we—President Bush, Congress, and the American people—have started supporting these wars. To say this film is depoliticized is just plain wrong.

Cooper’s performance is fantastic in the same sense of Matthew McConaughey’s role in “Dallas Buyer’s Club.” It is emotionally powerful, but, boy, their bodies look REALLY different! I am wearied by the fact that physical transformation seems to be the quickest way to winning an Oscar. In that case, I really should have gotten that golden statue after my first year at BU.

Eastwood, in his best work since “Hereafter,” also gives us a very suspenseful and well-made picture. He breaks away from his typical monochromatic style—although he can’t help himself sometimes, like in the airfield scenes in the Middle East—and gives us a visually terrifying warzone where danger seems to lurk around every door or alleyway. Despite the sandstorm scene seeming like an outtake from “Call of Duty”, and Kyle’s wife only existing to tell the audience how much he has changed, it’s a tense a movie and a fast 132 minutes. Too bad Eastwood doesn’t follow up this up with a “Sands of Iowa Jima”-esque sequel.

8

Don’t get me wrong, since I am as big of a Cumberbitch as the next guy, but how about that Keira Knightley? I have now long maintained that she is one of the most iconic actresses for the millennial generation. She is fantastic in this film as well.

“The Imitation Game” is a conflation of “A Beautiful Mind” and “Moneyball.” It’s a true story about a genius, Alan Turing, who can crack almost every code put in front of him except how to interact with people. Said genius also tries to convince non-geniuses that, you know, sometimes you need to trust statistics in order to do what’s best, in this case for the Allied cause in World War Two. The Imitation Game is at its finest when it shows the Turing Machine trying to crack the Nazi Enigma code, which most people deemed impossible to break on a daily basis. Similarly to how I felt when I watched the “Theory of Everything,” I was most fascinated by the scenes showing me just how smart Turing truly was instead of his personal story, which wasn’t as compelling.

SPOILER ALERT Despite what I wrote in the last sentence, “The Imitation Game” leaves you with two powerful messages. First, harsh discrimination against gay people is an aspect of the world’s past and present that we haven’t properly dealt with yet. Secondly, all those war movies you think you’re watching about individual heroics on the battlefield is really just a numbers game for the strategists not risking their lives on the front. “The Imitation Game” works so well because it’s a rare movie about how Johnny Pencil Pusher not John Wayne really wins wars. Even today, as unmanned drones kill combatants around the world, the futility of war seems more obvious than ever.

7 

“Selma” is the point where this list really makes a jump. As much as I enjoyed the “The Imitation Game,” the next seven movies are much, much better. What stuck with me most was how Director Ava DuVernay shows the Civil Rights movement to be what it was: a sometimes fractured movement made up of real people who rallied around not one cause but a set causes, which resulted in progress for all people. I did not expect “Selma’s” scope to be so large. We see a Dr. King constantly political jockeying with President Lyndon B. Johnson, played wonderfully by Tom Wilkinson, who then spars with Governor George Wallace, the person in charge of those who harm the protesters in Selma.

DuVernay and David Oyelowo give us not the Martin Luther King Jr. of legend, but a man with real flaws and who takes real risks in fighting for the cause of Civil Rights. King Jr. endangers his own life and personal comfort to continue fighting for his convictions; however, “Selma” is also aware that it was not just one man who waged this fight. By the time Dr. King arrives in Alabama, there are thousands of people who have been risking their lives everyday while the outside world pays little attention to their struggles. Dr. King’s importance rests not only with his leadership skills but also his celebrity. He attracts attention to a cause the people of Selma have been fighting for years.

I will include my friend Jeff’s statement from Facebook, which I found quite inspiring and spot on when assessing the timeliness of a movie like “Selma.” His words are below with a couple of edits.

 If you see “Selma” and don't see the connection between people being upset about the protests for black lives matter and LBJ ordering MLK to obey the law and not march to Montgomery then your missing the point of “Selma.”

Every news outlet’s headlines read "celebrations, protests on MLK day." The protests are a celebration of MLK day. Probably the most significant way to celebrate MLK day. It is not to be juxtaposed with "celebrations." The people protesting embody what MLK wanted. People need to understand that King's dream has not been realized. Progress is not completion. I am thankful for those who protested today, even after you tell me it lengthened your commute.

It's crazy how many people love and respect MLK but cast disapproval on the ‪#‎blacklivesmatter protest movement. Do you think he wouldn't be there!?

6 

“Laggies” written by Andrea Seigel and directed by Lynn Shelton is the type of movie that could have been directed by a man with a Seth Rogen-type lead, and, frankly, would have been a lot worse. In Rogen's stead is Keira Knightley as Megan, a twenty-something-year-old women who is overeducated, even as she is unwilling to act like her peers. I could imagine this being the type of movie that I watch ten years from now and wonder how I ever liked it; yet, being someone who is also a twenty-something, I can suspend my disbelief for an admittedly cheesy but comical plot because Knightley’s character is so relatable.

Like many millennials before me, it’s been tough coming to terms with the idea of adulthood. I watch my Facebook newsfeed—an already dated device—fill up with babies, engagements, weddings, graduations, and new jobs, and can’t help but wonder what is the meaning of this all? Why is growing up so linear and similar for most people? Shelton and Knightley in “Laggies,” like an inefficient acupuncturist, are able to poke at these pressure points but not really find any definitive soothing mechanism. For a Brit, Knightley channels all the appropriate emotions and humor through a nasally American accent. Knightley’s least publicized roles, like her quirky turn in “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World,” get right to the heart of what it means to live in our world today.  

5 

Justin Simien’s “Dear White People” is a strong directorial and writing debut. It focuses on a rebellious biracial Ivy League student named Sam White who runs to be president of the African American House. Tessa Thompson, who plays the young Sam, is superb and the breakout star of the year. Thompson, Simien, and editor Phillip Bartell give us one of 2015’s more unique, strong-willed, and attractive characters on the big screen. The world Tessa inhabits, though, isn’t as black and white as it seems (see what I did there?).

What is most fascinating about this film is that it ponders ideas of race and privilege in a nuanced way. Looking at reviews of this film, I was surprised to see that it wasn’t well received by audiences in some circles (probably white circles--looking at you Academy). It’s a controversial picture that dissects what it’s like being black in America from multiple point of views using only black protagonists who have no assistance from white heros—sorry, abolitionist Brad Pitt. This film is definitely worth a re-watch since not everyone is quite who they seem to be and is flawed in the process of trying to figure it all out.

The ending is a crowd pleaser too, depending on what type of crowd you’re with. In a time where Hollywood embraces movies about race on obviously horrendous topics like slavery or Jim Crow, it’s nice to see a movie that holds a mirror to the present day. This might just be one of the more important films of the decade.

4

I saw “Interstellar” in the best conditions possible at the Jordan’s IMAX theater in Reading, Massachusetts. The screen was predictably enormous, the sound system incredible, and the butt-kickahs (“That’s right butt-kickahs”), a vibrating sound-seat mechanism, impactful. I watched “Interstellar” the way in which it was supposed to be viewed. During the scenes flying through different types of worlds, in a small way it felt like I was a part of the adventure. When the scene went from visually rocky and loud to the absolute silence of space, I felt the dissonance of the experiences and the relief.

On a visceral level, it is was one of the most imaginative and visually astonishing movies I’ve ever seen. It’s so rare in a movie that grand that I am not constantly questioning how realistic each scene looks. Many people take this for granted in Christopher Nolan movies.  I was also moved by the film’s simple themes of empathy and love. It poses the question of why do humans take action for or against anything, which doesn’t directly impact them on a personal level. Our collective apathy toward climate change is a strong undercurrent for this movie. Nolan also plays with time and space in a way that I haven’t experienced at the movie theater before. It certainly helps to have Hans Zimmer providing a score for the film. My strongest and belated suggestion to you, do not see this movie on a television.

3

What is it with Jake Gyllenhaal thrillers? “Nightcrawler,” like last year’s “Prisoners,” is incredible and brings us a disturbing character named Lou Bloom, who will do whatever it takes to be successful.  In some ways “Nightcrawler” is a perverted form of The Great Gatsby in the sense that Bloom transforms traditional notions of what it takes to be successful in America to terrifyingly amoral lengths in order to become someone who matters.

Bloom is a voyeuristic cameraman who films accidents, robberies, and murders in order to sell the footage to the local news. There’s a lot of suspense involving Bloom racing his car through the city night trying to be the first one on the scene; this tension increases because I was never quite sure how unethical Bloom would become in the interest of being the best at what he does.

Gyllenhaal should have won the Academy Award for best actor this year, but he isn’t even nominated. He creates a unique character through unflinching facial ticks and a fast-paced intensity. Even when there is little action, Bloom’s negotiation tactics are charged as he takes advantage of those who are not willing to be as dishonest or devoid of emotion as him.

Director and writer Dan Gilroy’s world, created in the dark streets of Los Angeles lit up only by traffic lights and headlamps, is a world in which Bloom thrives. Gilroy provides some of the most stress-filled scenes of year, as Bloom becomes extraordinarily efficient arriving at crime scenes. The third act of “Nightcrawler” is absolutely fantastic in this sense. If you’re looking for a tense thriller, this should be the movie you watch.

2 

For whatever reason I went into “Whiplash” expecting that I would dislike it. Within the first five minutes I knew I was wrong. Some of the best movies this year have featured new and relatively unknown writer-directors, which can’t be a coincidence. Like “Nightcrawler” and “Dear White People” there’s an immediate sense that auteur Damien Chazelle deeply knows the world he is creating and the direction of his film. Chazelle, similar to the hardnosed teacher Fletcher, played by J.K. Simmons, knows the timing he needs to maintain in order to create one of 2014’s best films.

Chazelle unshackles actor Miles Teller from his typical tween dweeb roles and casts him as a tenacious and talented back up drummer named Andrew. Simmons’ Fletcher finds Andrew practicing in the dark in one of the classrooms and picks him to join his big band jazz ensemble. Similar to a drill sergeant, Simmons berates his musicians in order to win all the major competitions they enter and to get the most of his students. Simmons should win the Oscar for best actor in a supporting role, as he brings an intensity and excitement that one wouldn’t expect in a movie about an aspiring jazz musician.

Andrew practices on his drum set in order to be one of the best musicians in the world, despite Simmons’ constant reminders that he just isn’t that good and can’t keep pace correctly. As Andrew’s obsession with drumming becomes unhealthy, pounding on the drums as his hands bleed and sweat drips down his body, he is nearly wrecked by Fletcher’s unwavering dissatisfaction. I expected, even hoped, that Fletcher would recognize Andrew to be exactly the student he was searching for, but Chazelle wisely never allows Fletcher to show his hand.

As a high school history teacher, Fletcher’s belief that the phrase “good job” are the two most dangerous words in the English language really resonated with me. My entire adult life as an educator has been presenting both a positive and a negative when giving feedback. Although I consistently try to hold my students to high expectations, there is still an implicit message that I think they are doing a “good job” despite the amount of work that still needs to be done. Fletcher reminds Teller that Charlie Parker only became “Bird” when his teacher nearly decapitated him with a cymbal and demanded that he get better. Fletcher believes that if Parker had been told good job, he never would have come close to knowing his true potential. After being amazed by the power of Simmons’ performance and thinking about my best teachers, I couldn’t help but be a little more demanding the next day at school. “Whiplash” is definitely a movie that will stick with me for a long time.

1

Anyone who knows me knows that Richard Linklater is one of my favorites. Unlike many other directors, Linklater has a unique ability to show life as it is within a two to three hour frame. “Boyhood” is a celebration of all Linklater’s work, which happens to have spanned from his time filming “School of Rock” until today. As I’m sure many of you know, for the first time in cinematic history we view a character, Mason played by Ellar Coltrane, age over the course of twelve years within the span of one movie. Filming every summer since 2002, Linklater and editor Sandra Adair provide a series of episodes that show a boy named Mason growing up in suburban Texas.

Although this idea admittedly would be impressive no matter the director, fans of movies should feel satisfied that an artist such as Linklater is the first to accomplish such a feat. There is no plot beyond Linklater trying to capture key moments in life, which inform the process of how we become adults. Viewers who grew up or lived during the formative years of Mason’s life will surely enjoy the pop cultural references that defined the early 2000s. I understand why a lot of people wouldn’t like this film—although I think less of them for it—since at times “Boyhood” slows down to let the characters within the film contemplate their own purpose in the world and the meaning of living.

As I stood outside Eccles Theater in Park City, Utah, freezing and trying to bum tickets to see this film, I expected to be moved by the story of someone’s boyhood, but I did not anticipate this movie to be such a profound examination of the American family. “Boyhood” is strengthened by Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette’s strong performances, which are both joyful and heart wrenching to watch as we can easily relate their sacrifices and growth to that of our own parents or ourselves. As Mason enters college—spoiler alert! He goes to college—we are left on a note, which captures the essence of a cheesy college discussion about the meaning of life; those who are in on the joke know that this happens often in college, yet the strength of Linklater’s “Boyhood” rests in the fact that he hasn’t stopped asking the same questions that confound 18 year-old Mason and neither have we. 

Honorable Mentions

Noah – Visually spectacular. Aronofsky takes the idea of a pre-Noah’s flood world to the extreme. At times I felt like I was watching a movie with Lord of the Rings as a source not the Old Testament.

Begin Again - Keira Knightley and Bruce Banner crush it. Many of the musical scenes were awesome.

Captain America – If I were to write a thesis to get me into graduate school for film studies, I would focus on the sophistication of the Marvel Universe in interpreting American Foreign Policy. Cap’n fits the bill.

The Amazing Spiderman 2 – That ending, wow! The entire airplane subplot instantly eliminated this movie from my Top 10 list. Also, I’m kind of disappointed we won’t get to see Marc Webb’s vision for the Sinister Six play out.

22 Jump Street – Simply a great comedy but all the gay jokes in these bromance movies will surely be dated, like the yellow face of Mickey Rooney’s Mr. Yunioshi in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

Birdman – Edward Norton was incredible. I can root for Michael Keaton’s comeback, although I think his performance was just fine. The tracking shots definitely cool, but kind of gimmicky.

Edge of Tomorrow – I really wanted to squeeze this movie onto my Top 10 list, but despite my constant rearranging I just couldn’t make it work. It’s a fantastic Sci-Fi Action flick. I also am continually impressed by Emily Blunt, and predict big happenings in her future. 

Now...

If I picked the Oscar winners based on the nominations provided by the Academy.

Best Actor

Michael Keaton, "Birdman"

Best Supporting Actor

J.K. Simmons, "Whiplash" 

Best Actress

Julianne Moore, "Still Alice"

Best Supporting Actress

Patricia Arquette, "Boyhood"

Best Adapted Screenplay

"Whiplash" Written by Damien Chazelle

Best Original Screenplay

"Nightcrawler" Written by Dan Gilroy

Cinematography

"The Grand Budapest Hotel" Roger Yeoman

Visual Effects

“Interstellar” Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter and Scott Fisher 

Costumes

"Into the Woods" Colleen Atwood

Director 

"Boyhood" Richard Linklater

Best Picture

"Boyhood"