SAVAGE SCORECARD 2014-PART TWO: NUMBER 11

      Star ratings are often so terribly arbitrary.

With Part Two of my four part Savage Scorecard series, we now arrive at what I have entitled "Number 11," a selection of the films that are just nipping at the heels of my personal Top Ten Favorites Films of 2014. Typically, these films are the ones that I have awarded four stars. But this year, and especially with the overall quality being so high, there were a few films that I awarded three and a half stars but somehow they feel as if they should be housed somewhere in between the Honor Roll and The Top Ten--as if I awarded them three and three quarter stars or something to that effect.

The following seven features are films that I found to be excellent works in 2014, any of them I would be eager to see again as they all represented a creative vision that was either feverishly unique, enormously entertaining, deeply and honestly heartfelt, brazenly provocative or all of the above.

As always, I will post exactly where you can find the full reviews for each film in case you are interested.

SAVAGE SCORECARD 2014-PART TWO: NUMBER 11

1. "BEGIN AGAIN" Directed by John Carney

From the director of the indie/musical smash hit "Once" (2007) comes his latest film, another quasi-musical, and one that was sadly ignored during the Summer months of 2014 but for me, it was easily one of the year's most beguiling features. Mark Ruffalo stars as a Grammy award winning record producer now an unemployed alcoholic. Keira Knightley is richly enveloping and performs all of her own singing as a budding singer-songwriter attempting to find her musical way in New York City with her sense of artistic integrity intact. The fateful meeting of these two individuals inspires the both of them to join forces and create some beautiful music together in and around the neighborhoods of New York City, live and without overdubs, thus retaining the purity of the music itself and even soothing their troubled souls in the process. While the film is as light as a feather in regards to the scarcity of the plot, "Begin Again" succeeds wonderfully due to its commitment to presenting its themes about the power of creativity and art, the joys of community and collaboration as well as also existing as a dual story of personal redemption. And the songs, all written or co-written by Gregg Alexander, are folk/pop melodic gems that allow Director John Carney to again weave a poignant spell illustrating our intense relationship with the glory and connection of music itself.  
(Originally reviewed July 2014) 

2. "CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER" Directed by Anthony & Joe Russo

     Despite my superhero movie fatigue, when a great comic book themed film arrives, I am as excited as I have ever been and this second installment in the Captain America series, as well as the latest entry in the Marvel Comics film universe, is one of the very best. Dialing down the CGI pyrotechnics and infusing a palpable intensity via the aesthetics of a 1970's conspiracy thriller, "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" is a paranoid cinematic vision that smartly explores our culture's relationship with technology and our Government's over-reliance and over-reach in particular. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo utilize Captain America, now firmly transplanted from the 1940's into the 21st century, to hold up a sinister mirror to the Patriot Act and the NSA while also crafting a propulsively exciting pulse pounder in the process. And Chris Evans again gives a virtuous, vigorous, textured and sensitive performance in the titular role, the ultimate "man out of time."

     (Originally reviewed April 2014)  

3. "CHEF" Directed by Jon Favreau

     Jon Favreau fabulously returned to his independent film roots with this movie, one of the year's most soulfully entertaining releases. In a plot that shares some similarities with "Begin Again," Favreau (who also wrote the film) stars as a workaholic and disgraced four start chef who takes to the road with his young son in a food cart in order to re-connect with the culinary art that has sustained and enriched his life as well as the family his career has sidelined. "Chef" rolls to its own rapturous beat yet this cinematic party and food fest is also sumptuous and satiating for the spirit. The film is clearly Favreau's most personal statement in years, especially after toiling away on one big budget box office behemoth after another including "Elf" and of course, "Iron Man" (2008) and "Iron Man 2" (2010) and the overall effect is creatively invigorating.  

     (Originally reviewed May 2015) 

4. "DEAR WHITE PEOPLE" Directed by Justin Simien

      One of the boldest, most brazenly creative cinematic voices of 2014 was found in Justin Simien's debut feature film, a razor sharp toothed satire confronting race relations and racial identity in our so-called "post racial" American society yet filtered through the microcosm of an Ivy League college campus. In addition to serving as a brilliant antidote to the likes of "The Help" (2011) and similar themed films, "Dear White People" creates a collective of vibrantly drawn and fully three dimensional characters that hilariously and painfully illustrate the constant difficulties of existing as a black face in a predominantly white place. Simien has proven himself to be a born filmmaker whose directorial eye is as restlessly creative as his actual writing, which gave me some of 2014's finest, fastest dialogue this side of Aaron Sorkin. I am already anxiously awaiting to not only see this film again but to see exactly where this filmmaker will head next.

     (Originally reviewed October 2014)



5. "INTERSTELLAR" Directed by Christopher Nolan

I am convinced. For whatever reasons unbeknownst to everyone, I would suppose, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences just hates Christopher Nolan, despite the fact that he has helmed some of the most daring, inventive, creative and intelligent big budget features in many years. With "Interstellar," (and those controversial sound issues aside) Nolan has crafted his most ambitious yet also his darkest, coldest and most cynical film to date as he spins the intergalactic tale of an astronaut (played by Matthew McConaughey) who leaves his daughter behind on a rapidly ailing planet Earth to voyage through wormholes, black holes and all manner of astro-physical barriers of space and time itself in order to potentially save the world. This was a relentlessly grim film in which every character exists within some state of anguish and therefore, it does make for an experience that is not necessarily enjoyable as his past features. But that said, "Interstellar" is no less provocative, wrenching, and masterfully presented and executed.
(Originally reviewed November 2014)

6. "THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING" Directed by James Marsh

     The biographical drama centered around the life and marriage of theoretical physicist/author Stephen Hawking and Jane Wilde Hawking was a beautifully acted and presented film showcasing that even a film that is essentially a traditional prestige experience can also and most assuredly a first class motion picture that is fully deserving of any and all accolades it receives. Eddie Redmayne is absolutely astonishing as Stephen Hawking and it still amazes me with how he underwent a full physical transformation to perform the role as exquisitely as he achieved. Felicity Jones was Redmayne's unquestionable equal, and in what is essentially the less showier yet more difficult role as Jane Wilde Hawking. Jones perfectly conveyed the painful struggle of existing within the thankless role of the caretaker and how the strain of constantly placing the needs of your true love before yourself can potentially lead to a relationship's undoing. Additionally, I loved how Direcotr James Marsh refused to allow the character of Jane Wild Hawking to be swept into the background and he ensured that her own existential worldview carried equal weight and dramatic tension to Stephen Hawking's. "The Theory Of Everything" was refined, sophisticated, stylish, fragile and richly adult. 

     (Originally reviewed November 2014)

7. "UNDER THE SKIN" Directed by Jonathan Glazer

The year's most impenetrable film was also one of the year most hauntingly unforgettable. Scarlett Johansson gave her career best performance in a nearly dialogue free experience that cast her as an alien prowling Scotland to entice unsuspecting men with the promise of sex yet trapping them within an eerie black goo in order to harvest their skins. For science fiction horror film, plus existing as an exploration of lust and humanity itself, "Under The Skin" is a quietly terrifying film, a frigidly crystalline nightmare that was truly unlike any other film released in 2014. Its chillingly clinical approach brought it extremely close to the film universe of Stanley Kubrick yet remained a cinematic island that was completely foreign on its own terms.
(Originally reviewed April 2014)

Stay tuned for PART THREE where I take my gloves off one last time for the films that sit at the very bottom of my 2014 Savage Scorecard!