2014 Top 30 Best Films of the Year
by claydav | created - 09 Nov 2014 | updated - 23 Jan 2015 | PublicA work in progress now that the good film season has started - updated weekly through the end of the year... Some titles have dates other than 2014, but these are based on films whose original release date in the greatest city in America (New York City) was 2014...I will add a descriptive analysis as time proceeds...
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1. Whiplash (2014)
R | 106 min | Drama, Music
A promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential.
Director: Damien Chazelle | Stars: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Melissa Benoist, Paul Reiser
Votes: 988,469 | Gross: $13.09M
2. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
R | 119 min | Comedy, Drama
A washed-up superhero actor attempts to revive his fading career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway production.
Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Stars: Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough
Votes: 666,389 | Gross: $42.34M
3. Boyhood (I) (2014)
R | 165 min | Drama
The life of Mason, from early childhood to his arrival at college.
Director: Richard Linklater | Stars: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Elijah Smith
Votes: 367,098 | Gross: $25.38M
4. Life Itself (2014)
R | 121 min | Documentary, Biography
The life and career of the renowned film critic and social commentator, Roger Ebert.
Director: Steve James | Stars: Roger Ebert, Chaz Ebert, Gene Siskel, Martin Scorsese
Votes: 16,248 | Gross: $0.81M
5. 7 Boxes (2012)
TV-14 | 105 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama
Víctor receives an unusual proposal, to carry 7 boxes of unknown content through the Market Number 4 but things get complicated along the way.
Directors: Juan Carlos Maneglia, Tana Schémbori | Stars: Celso Franco, Víctor Sosa, Lali Gonzalez, Nico García Hume
Votes: 6,114
6. Ida (2013)
PG-13 | 82 min | Drama
A novice nun about to take her vows uncovers a family secret dating back to the German occupation.
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski | Stars: Agata Kulesza, Agata Trzebuchowska, Dawid Ogrodnik, Jerzy Trela
Votes: 60,685 | Gross: $3.83M
7. Locke (2013)
R | 85 min | Drama
Ivan Locke, a dedicated family man and successful construction manager, receives a phone call on the eve of the biggest challenge of his career that sets in motion a series of events that threaten his carefully cultivated existence.
Director: Steven Knight | Stars: Tom Hardy, Olivia Colman, Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott
Votes: 159,538 | Gross: $1.36M
8. The Babadook (2014)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book titled "Mister Babadook" manifests in their home.
Director: Jennifer Kent | Stars: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall, Hayley McElhinney
Votes: 247,149 | Gross: $0.92M
9. Wild (I) (2014)
R | 115 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
A chronicle of one woman's 1,100-mile solo hike undertaken as a way to recover from a recent personal tragedy.
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée | Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Gaby Hoffmann, Michiel Huisman
Votes: 138,804 | Gross: $37.88M
10. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
R | 99 min | Adventure, Comedy, Crime
A writer encounters the owner of an aging high-class hotel, who tells him of his early years serving as a lobby boy in the hotel's glorious years under an exceptional concierge.
Director: Wes Anderson | Stars: Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody
Votes: 886,143 | Gross: $59.10M
11. Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
R | 123 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A depressed musician reunites with his lover. However, their romance, which has already endured several centuries, is disrupted by the arrival of her uncontrollable younger sister.
Director: Jim Jarmusch | Stars: Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska, John Hurt
Votes: 108,121 | Gross: $1.88M
12. The Imitation Game (2014)
PG-13 | 114 min | Biography, Drama, Thriller
During World War II, the English mathematical genius Alan Turing tries to crack the German Enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians while attempting to come to terms with his troubled private life.
Director: Morten Tyldum | Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Allen Leech
Votes: 824,633 | Gross: $91.13M
13. Gone Girl (2014)
R | 149 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
With his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry
Votes: 1,066,788 | Gross: $167.77M
14. The Lunchbox (2013)
PG | 104 min | Drama, Romance
A mistaken delivery in Mumbai's famously efficient lunchbox delivery system connects a young housewife to an older man in the dusk of his life as they build a fantasy world together through notes in the lunchbox.
Director: Ritesh Batra | Stars: Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Lillete Dubey
Votes: 60,836 | Gross: $4.23M
15. Leviathan (2014)
R | 140 min | Crime, Drama
In a Russian coastal town, Kolya is forced to fight the corrupt mayor when he is told that his house will be demolished. He recruits a lawyer friend to help, but the man's arrival brings further misfortune for Kolya and his family.
Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev | Stars: Aleksey Serebryakov, Elena Lyadova, Roman Madyanov, Vladimir Vdovichenkov
Votes: 56,898 | Gross: $1.09M
16. Cold in July (2014)
R | 109 min | Crime, Thriller
When a protective father meets a murderous ex-con, both need to deviate from the path they are on as they soon find themselves entangled in a downwards spiral of lies and violence while having to confront their own inner psyche.
Director: Jim Mickle | Stars: Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard, Don Johnson, Vinessa Shaw
Votes: 37,617 | Gross: $0.41M
17. Blue Ruin (2013)
R | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A mysterious outsider's quiet life is turned upside down when he returns to his childhood home to carry out an act of vengeance. Proving himself an amateur assassin, he winds up in a brutal fight to protect his estranged family.
Director: Jeremy Saulnier | Stars: Macon Blair, Devin Ratray, Amy Hargreaves, Kevin Kolack
Votes: 78,840 | Gross: $0.26M
18. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama, Horror, Romance
In the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire.
Director: Ana Lily Amirpour | Stars: Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Marshall Manesh, Mozhan Navabi
Votes: 38,613
19. Force Majeure (2014)
R | 120 min | Comedy, Drama
A family vacationing in the French Alps is confronted with a devastating avalanche.
Director: Ruben Östlund | Stars: Johannes Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Clara Wettergren, Vincent Wettergren
Votes: 67,074 | Gross: $1.36M
20. Calvary (2014)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
After he is threatened during a confession, a good-natured priest must battle the dark forces closing in around him.
Director: John Michael McDonagh | Stars: Brendan Gleeson, Chris O'Dowd, Kelly Reilly, Aidan Gillen
Votes: 64,316 | Gross: $3.59M
21. Mr. Turner (2014)
R | 150 min | Biography, Drama, History
An exploration of the last quarter century of the great, if eccentric, British painter J.M.W. Turner's life.
Director: Mike Leigh | Stars: Timothy Spall, Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey
Votes: 27,165 | Gross: $3.96M
22. Dear White People (2014)
R | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The lives of four black students at an Ivy League college.
Director: Justin Simien | Stars: Tyler James Williams, Tessa Thompson, Kyle Gallner, Teyonah Parris
Votes: 26,564 | Gross: $4.40M
23. Nightcrawler (2014)
R | 117 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
When Louis Bloom, a con man desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.
Director: Dan Gilroy | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton, Riz Ahmed
Votes: 604,275 | Gross: $32.38M
24. Under the Skin (I) (2013)
R | 108 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A mysterious young woman seduces lonely men in the evening hours in Scotland. However, events lead her to begin a process of self-discovery.
Director: Jonathan Glazer | Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, Lynsey Taylor Mackay, Dougie McConnell
Votes: 158,126 | Gross: $2.61M
25. Selma (2014)
PG-13 | 128 min | Biography, Drama, History
A chronicle of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.
Director: Ava DuVernay | Stars: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Wilkinson
Votes: 95,445 | Gross: $52.08M
26. Le Week-End (2013)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A British couple return to Paris many years after their honeymoon there in an attempt to rejuvenate their marriage.
Director: Roger Michell | Stars: Lindsay Duncan, Jim Broadbent, Jeff Goldblum, Igor Gotesman
Votes: 8,689 | Gross: $2.22M
27. The Wind Rises (2013)
PG-13 | 126 min | Animation, Biography, Drama
Jiro Horikoshi studies assiduously to fulfill his aim of becoming an aeronautical engineer. As WWII begins, fighter aircraft designed by him end up getting used by the Japanese Empire against its foes.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki | Stars: Hideaki Anno, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Miori Takimoto, Masahiko Nishimura
Votes: 98,674 | Gross: $5.21M
28. We Are the Best! (2013)
Not Rated | 102 min | Drama, Music
Three girls in 1980s Stockholm decide to form a punk band -- despite not having any instruments and being told by everyone that punk is dead.
Director: Lukas Moodysson | Stars: Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin, Liv LeMoyne, Johan Liljemark
Votes: 11,320 | Gross: $0.18M
29. The Immigrant (2013)
R | 120 min | Drama, Romance
In 1921, an innocent immigrant woman is tricked into a life of burlesque and vaudeville until a dazzling magician tries to save her and reunite her with her sister who is being held in the confines of Ellis Island.
Director: James Gray | Stars: Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Renner, Dagmara Dominczyk
Votes: 33,771 | Gross: $2.01M
30. Land Ho! (2014)
R | 95 min | Adventure, Comedy
A pair of former brothers-in-law embark on a road trip through Iceland.
Directors: Aaron Katz, Martha Stephens | Stars: Earl Lynn Nelson, Paul Eenhoorn, Daníel Gylfason, Þrúður Kristjánsdóttir
Votes: 2,684 | Gross: $0.73M
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