Steve Davis' Top 10 List

1)

Boyhood Richard Linklater's gutsy 12-years-a-movie experiment pays off in so many rich and rewarding ways.

2)

Whiplash A mesmerizing showdown of male egos in which insults and drumsticks are the weapons of choice.

3)

The Lego Movie Everything is AWESOME about this surprisingly smart and funny movie that sets a new bar for animated films.

4)

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) A dark, fantastic comedy that soars with an imagination challenging the traditional boundaries of cinema.

5)

The Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson's most accessible effort to date, a movie that looks so delicious you could just eat it up.

6)

Gone Girl Holy. Crap. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? repackaged as a taut and gripping till-death-do-you-part thriller.

7)

Jodorowsky's Dune A must-see documentary for film buffs about the greatest movie never made.

8)

The Babadook The rare contemporary horror film that's truly scary, one that taps into the frightening power of the maternal instinct.

9)

Begin Again A movie-with-music about starting over that's sweet without sugarcoating the emotions that give it heart.

10)

The Trip to Italy A buddy movie without a high concept, one you should watch with that BFF who can make you laugh.

---

Near Misses

Wild, Only Lovers Left Alive, Force Majeure, Finding Vivian Maier, Guardians of the Galaxy

Most Overrated

Foxcatcher, Nightcrawler, Edge of Tomorrow

Most Underrated

The Fault in Our Stars, The Skeleton Twins, Hellion

Wild Card

The Year in Which Many Young Actors Turned the Corner: Miles Teller, Channing Tatum, Eddie Redmayne, Ansel Elgort, and Tom Hardy, to name a few.

Acting Kudos (Male)

Bill Hader (The Skeleton Twins), Tom Hardy (Locke), Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher), Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything), Miles Teller (Whiplash)

Acting Kudos (Female)

Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl), Jenny Slate (Obvious Child), Tilda Swinton (Snowpiercer), Shailene Woodley (The Fault in Our Stars), Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)

Best Director

Richard Linklater (Boyhood), Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman), Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Best Original Screenplay

The Lego Movie (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller), Whiplash (Damien Chazelle), Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)

Best Adapted Screenplay

The Fault in Our Stars (Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber), Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn), Wild (Nick Hornby)

Worst Film

Lars von Trier's fraudulent Nymphomaniac: Vol. I and II – misogynistic porn masquerading as sexual liberation. God help us if there's a Volume III.