Marc Savlov's Top 10 List

1)

Boyhood Richard Linklater's soulful, cinematic masterwork is utterly sui generis, and it's almost certainly more timeless than childhood itself.

2)

Only Lovers Left Alive Bela Lugosi is dead but this dreamy portrait of eternal love in a jugular vein is louche, alive, and biting.

3)

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night Speaking of lovelorn nosferatu in Iran, Sheila Vand vamps like a spook-show pro in Ana Lily Amirpour's feature debut.

4)

Citizenfour Far from what the NSA presumably deciphered, this brief encounter with Edward Snowden cusping on infamy is all-new intel.

5)

The Babadook Knock-knock. Who's there? Doesn't matter: Your mother's going mad and Slender Man is in the armoire.

6)

Snowpiercer Bong Joon-ho's stateside debut adapts a French graphic novel into pure cinematic kineticism. (Humanity, sadly, fails to adapt at all.)

7)

The Imitation Game Sherlock's Benedict Cumberbatch is thrillingly enigmatic in this near-flawless depiction of a deeply flawed individual.

8)

Jodorowsky's Dune You must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. "Aargh, you pulled my funding at the last minute! Damn you, Hollywood!"

9)

We Are the Best! Three chords, three 13-year-olds, and the pre-riot grrrl truth go bang in Stockholm, '82. One from the heart.

10)

Why Don't You Play in Hell? Shion Sono returns with a goofy, gory love letter to Japanese genre cinema that's even wilder than Guitar Wolf.

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Near Misses

Force Majeure, Birdman, Obvious Child, Last Days in Vietnam, The Blue Room

Most Overrated

Chef, Foxcatcher, The Raid 2

Most Underrated

Cold in July, The Rover, John Wick

Wild Card

Saddest Austin Film Community News of 2014: Corey Mitchell, 47, co-founder of Housecore Horror Film Festival, passes away mere hours after the festival's conclusion.

Acting Kudos (Male)

Timothy Spall (Mr. Turner), J.K. Simmons (Whiplash), Seizô Fukumoto (Uzumasa Limelight), Don Johnson (Cold in July), Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)

Acting Kudos (Female)

Tilda Swinton (Snowpiercer), Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl), Jenny Slate (Obvious Child), Scarlett Johansson (Under the Skin), Mira Barkhammar (We Are the Best!)

Best Director

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

Best Original Screenplay

Locke (Steven Knight), Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy), The Lego Movie (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho and Kelly Masterson), Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson), Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn)

Worst Film

Director Peter Chelsom's deadly affirmation, Hector and the Search for Happiness. Simon Pegg touched me and made me cry, but in a bad way.

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Read Marc Savlov's "Top 5 Soundtracks and Original Scores of 2014.".