The Grand Budapest Hotel
1)
Force Majeure Ruben Östlund blew the roof off with his bravura black comedy about what it means to be a man, a woman, and/or/always a fallible human being.
2)
The Grand Budapest Hotel Grand is the right word, all right. Also: antic, slapstick, humanistic, and terribly, tenderly sorrowful.
3)
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) A technical wowzer about wrestling with demons. It's criminal Antonio Sanchez's score was disqualified from the Oscar race.
Snowpiercer
4)
Snowpiercer A fierce, slyly ecclesiastical edge-of-seater. All action movies should aspire to Bong Joon-ho's ambition of vision.
5)
Inherent Vice Paul Thomas Anderson's shaggy-dog story – deliciously nutty, deceptively dark – is just a (bong) ripping good time.
6)
Mr. Turner An endurance movie at nearly 3 hours, crafted around a legendary landscape painter who mostly talks in grunts. Bowled me over.
7)
A Most Violent Year Big ups to J.C. Chandor for making a tightly coiled thriller about ...
heating oil. A stealth stunner.
8)
We Are the Best! Baby punk rock girls in Eighties Sweden come of age and music. When I grow up, I wanna be this ballsy.
9)
The Immigrant A moving painting from a challenging filmmaker, that master of mood, James Gray. (Never heard of him? Ask the French.)
10)
Guardians of the Galaxy Space may be infinite, but this Marvel ode to oddballs and misfits beats a fast path to the universal pleasure center.
Near Misses
The Trip to Italy,
Obvious Child,
A Most Wanted Man,
God Help the Girl,
No No: A Dockumentary
Most Overrated
Foxcatcher,
Whiplash,
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Most Underrated
A Most Wanted Man,
Mr. Peabody & Sherman,
Into the Woods
Wild Card
CGI made real so many imaginary best friends: Groot, Baymax, Toothless, TARS, Mr. Peabody. I want them all.
Acting Kudos (Male)
Timothy Spall (
Mr. Turner), Chadwick Boseman (
Get on Up), Ralph Fiennes (
The Grand Budapest Hotel), Tom Hardy (
Locke), Brendan Gleeson (
Calvary)
Acting Kudos (Female)
Marion Cotillard (
The Immigrant), Tilda Swinton (
Snowpiercer), Jenny Slate (
Obvious Child), Essie Davis (
The Babadook), Emily Blunt (
Edge of Tomorrow, Into the Woods)
Best Director
Alejandro González Iñárritu (
Birdman), Ruben Östlund (
Force Majeure), Wes Anderson (
The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Best Original Screenplay
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson),
A Most Violent Year (J.C. Chandor),
Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo)
Best Adapted Screenplay
Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson),
Obvious Child (Gillian Robespierre, Karen Maine, Elisabeth Holm),
Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho and Kelly Masterson)
Worst Film
There were shittier movies, sure, but was there ever a more dunderheaded, desperate flail for profundity from an establishment-preapproved filmmaker as Jason Reitman with
Men, Women, & Children?
Read Kimberley Jones' further thoughts on the year in film.
