SAVAGE SCORECARD 2014-PART FOUR: MY TOP TEN FAVORITE FILMS OF 2014

At last, we reach the top.

As always, please take my picks with that grain of salt as through the hundreds of films that are actually released within the year, I have seen only a small fraction of those films. These are solely my opinions and please always do take them as such. Now, and so as to not waste any more time, here they are...

SAVAGE SCORECARD 2014-PART FOUR: MY TOP TEN FAVORITE FILMS OF 2014

10. "TUSK" Directed by Kevin Smith

I know the placement of this particular film at such a high point upon my personal listings of my favorite films of the year may strike all of you as deeply bizarre, especially as it happens to be a film I am certain that none of you would even try to see no matter how highly I recommend it. I wouldn't blame you either and if I am unable to convince you, I completely understand as it truly is a deeply disturbing and, at times, stomach churning film in its unrepentant grotesqueness. That being said, "Tusk" is easily the most haunting film I saw in 2014 and I was completely unable to shake it off, even after having seen it as far back as September. If you really want to take a huge cinematic risk, the I can at least tell you that "Tusk" is unlike anything you will ever see.

"Tusk" is Writer/Director Kevin Smith's most accomplished and fearless film, and the sheer audacity of his madhouse creativity not only completely rejuvenated his filmmaking career, it made for a film that held me tightly in its nightmarish grasp from beginning to end. As yet another stylistic change from his comedic films, "Tusk" weaves the grim fable of Wallace Bryant (Justin Long), a podcaster infamously known for his cruel mockery of viral video participants, who travels to Canada to interview his next subject and finds himself trapped inside of a mansion belonging to the insane Howard Howe (a defiantly unnerving Michael Parks), who plans to torture and ultimately transform Wallace into a walrus. For me, "Tusk" worked tremendously as the ultimate "midnight movie" where Smith's loquacious, ribald and literary writing style again proved him to be one of the movies' most idiosyncratic voices and his directorial skills also proved him to be a cunning stylist within the horror genre. But what worked for me the very best was how Smith utilized the film to work as a meditation over our sense of humanity and repugnant inhumanity in the 21st century in regards to the internet and social media. His specialized cultural commentary essentially becomes a stark warning for us to truly take a moment and think about what we are indeed releasing into the world through the internet and how our own impulsive vitriol just may come back to bite us in ways we could not possibly have imagined. Like I said, there's no way for me to really convince you to see this film and that's fine. I just know that "Tusk" worked me over!  
(Originally reviewed September 2014)

9. "HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2" Directed by Dean DeBlois

For me, this was the year's best sequel, a gloriously animated and beautifully executed second installment to the wondrous 2010 film. Picking up five years after the first film, "How To Train Your Dragon 2" continues the adventures of the now 20 year old Viking named Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) and his faithful, sleek, black skinned and feline eyed dragon Toothless as they battle against a maniacal dragon hunter who is obsessed with capturing every dragon in order to exert complete domination. For all of the action and outstanding sequences of dragons in flight, this film is no mere repeat of the original. Like the best sequels, Director Dean DeBlois ensures that his story broadens and deepens, unveiling a surprising depth and even an emotional wallop as the simultaneous journeys of Hiccup and Toothless from youngsters into greater maturity and responsibility is fraught with rising conflict and transformative pain. And still, at the core of the film is their friendship, so majestically presented and so purely representative of all wonderful friendships between humans and beloved animals. DeBlois has not simply created a sequel. He has created an equal.

(Originally reviewed June 2014)

8. "THE LUNCHBOX" Directed by Ritesh Batra

What a beautiful film this was! Set in modern day Mumbai, "The Lunchbox" centers around the romantic and spiritual connection between a sad, lonely housewife (played by Nmrat Kaur) whose daily lunches, lovingly prepared to woo back her inattentive husband, are mistakenly received by a melancholic government accountant (the great Irrfan Khan) readying himself for retirement. Director Ritesh Batra, in his debut feature film, takes a romantic comedy conceit and transforms it into a deeply mature, perceptive, empathetic and often mouthwatering slice of life film that speaks to the grander themes of inter-connectivity as well as a pointed cultural critique about the roles of women as they relate to inter-personal relationships and marriage, especially when the marriage is failing and a real spiritual connection and understanding lies elsewhere. Please do not allow the possibility of subtitles sway you as "The Lunchbox" is a film of great charm, terrific performances, smart adult romance and a richly warm look into the heart of human nature.
(Originally reviewed April 2014)

7. "LIFE ITSELF" Directed by Steve James

How it truly broke my heart that this excellent documentary about the legendary Pulitzer Prize wining Chicago film critic, celebrated writer and one of my life long heroes did not receive an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary, for who loved the movies more than the late, great Roger Ebert? Regardless, from the director of the classic documentary "Hoop Dreams" (1994), comes a beautifully executed documentary that not only celebrates the life of Roger Ebert but also unflinchingly presents to us his final days, showing all of us precisely how one chooses to live a life, especially when one is soon to die. James includes everything that we would wish to see in a film that I feel even Ebert himself would praise highly. We see his career in journalism and television as the film also functions as a documentary about his longtime film criticism sparring partner, the late, great Gene Siskel. But, most importantly, "Life Itself" gave us one of the most touching love stories of the year as we witness Ebert's marriage to the wondrous Chaz Hammelsmith Ebert and how they maneuvered, lived and loved through Roger Ebert's battles with cancer. A powerfully moving tribute to one of cinema's greatest champions.
(Originally reviewed October 2014)

6. "WILD" Directed by Jean-Marc Vallee

Reese Witherspoon proved herself to be a powerhouse with her starring role in "Wild," the autobiographical story of Cheryl Strayed who embarked upon a 1000 mile solo trek across the Pacific Coast Trail in order to reassemble her life after the death of her Mother (a strong Laura Dern), the implosion of her marriage and a deep descent into promiscuous sex and drug addiction. I loved how Director Jean-Marc Vallee structured this film of personal redemption in a mostly non-linear fashion, allowing us to move forwards and backwards in time with each step of Strayed's journey. It felt as if we were inside her head as well as walking within her shoes, with each moment bringing us closer to spiritual deliverance. To that end, "Wild" functioned especially powerfully as a tale of female empowerment and as a cultural commentary of sexual violence, whether enacted or threatened but always so palpably real, and as if the unforgiving natural world were not enough to deal with. Gorgeously filmed, heroically acted, majestically humane.  
(Originally reviewed December 2014)

5. "SELMA" Directed by Ava DuVernay

There is not even one conceivable word I could hear to explain just how David Oyelowo's Master Class performance as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was not nominated for an Oscar. Within Director Ava DuVernay's stirring, sobering drama, Oyelowo was handled what is essentially an impossible task--taking an iconic figure of human history, bringing him downwards from the pedestal to make him so recognizably human, both virtuous and flawed. As for the film as a whole, which dramatizes a few months in 1965, depicting the events and situation that led to Dr. King's march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama and the creation of the Voting Rights Act, "Selma" is not a dusty history lesson but a riveting "what is past is prologue" narrative that brings the word of 50 years ago right up to the minute in 21st century America. DuVernay has given us a provocative meditation on what it takes to create, build and maintain a grass roots non-violent protest movement, messages that are tremendously needed at this point in time when speaking truth to power feels insurmountable yet is more crucially needed than ever. "Selma" is a searing, slow burn of a film that proves that the Civil Rights Movement never ended. The Civil Rights Movement is NOW.
(Originally reviewed January 2015)

4. "THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL" Directed by Wes Anderson

The finest and most wondrous film of Wes Anderson's career arrived very early in 2014 and remained within my personal top five for the entirety of the year as it was a stupendously executed and unapologetically singular vision that was unlike anything else released in the year. Magically spanning four different time periods, but mostly taking place in the mythical Eastern European land of Zubrowka circa 1932, "The Grand Budapest Hotel" concerns the adventures of a masterful concierge (a fantastic Ralph Finnes) and his trusty Lobby Boy in training (Tony Revlori) as they are thrust into a wild murder mystery which allows Anderson to take his trademark meticulous visual style and weave a cinematic universe unlike any he has previously created and to his most sumptuous degree. Additionally, Anderson has written one of the year's finest screenplays as the movie is just a joy to listen to as it literary cadences proved themselves to be an antidote to the perfunctory dialogue that makes up most movies these days.

But for those who may have wondered if this film is just too much of a fantasia to be taken seriously, I strongly disagree and I feel that Anderson, as always, provides his phantasmagorical dollhouse movies with a true, rich emotional core that grounds the proceedings and gives them a deep emotional weight that lingers. "The Grand Budapest Hotel" is a melancholic and romantic film about the past, cherished friendships and loves, as well as the art of stories and storytelling the kind of which transcends time itself yet always leaves a profound mark upon those who experience the stories being told.

"The Grand Budapest Hotel" is a film that felt to be so unfiltered in its presentation and was made with complete disregard for anything potential detractors may have to say about it as well, thus making for a cinematic experience that was so blissfully pure and so artistically liberated. "The Grand Budapest Hotel" feels like Wes Anderson is just getting started!
(Originally reviewed March 2014)

3. "BIRDMAN (OR THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE)" Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Now here was a film that also felt to be created, and therefore existed, within its own universe and even more powerfully than "The Grand Budapest Hotel," made for a cinematic experience that felt like an impossible high wire act that was somehow occurring right before our eyes. Is this story of hopeful artistic redemption for a former comic book move star re-inventing himself 20 years after his heyday with a risky Broadway play that he is writing, directing and starring in himself,

"Birdman" explores the dueling notions of personal ambition, precarious egos, mounting anxiety and fears of failure within the figure of Riggan Thomson (an electrifying Michael Keaton), making the film a simultaneously exhilarating and harrowing theater of the mind that Inarritu presents within a series of  unbroken long takes that makes the film seem as if it is one, unedited two-hour shot. Completely unconventional and propelled by supremely virtuoso filmmaking, "Birdman" was one of 2014's most breathtaking experiences.
(Originally reviewed November 2014)

2. "WHIPLASH" Directed by Damien Chazelle

Speaking of breathtaking, "Whiplash" the breakout feature film from Writer/Director Damien Chazelle, was a film presented at such a fever pitch intensity that I swear I forgot to breathe for much of its running time. There was no action film sequence or CGI explosion in any film this year that contained nearly as much brutal force and fury as anything presented in this film, a power struggle between a young drummer and student (a blistering Miles Teller) and his music conservatory instructor/conductor (a titanic J.K. Simmons).

Now there has been some criticism launched against the film from some members of the jazz community complaining about certain inauthentic moments from the ferocious music school scenes to even how the drums themselves are placed on the drum kit. To that, I vehemently disagree and blow it all out of the water as "Whiplash" is not a documentary and frankly, this film is not about jazz at all,  just like, say..."The Social Network" (2010) is not about Facebook. "Whiplash" is a film about power and control, about the cycle of abuse, about the pursuit of genius at all costs and even when there are no guarantees whatsoever that genius can ever be found or attained. "Whiplash" is a film of physical and psychological exhaustion and exhilaration and it hits and feels like a fist in the face.

In fact, for quite some time, I really felt this to be a tie with my pick for Number 1, as in any other year, "Whiplash" would be the movie of the year. But even so, and with the gnashing teeth of "Whiplash" biting at its heels, there can be only one.
(Originally reviewed November 2014)

1. "BOYHOOD" Directed by Richard Linklater

And this one is THE ONE!

"Boyhood," Writer/Director Richard Linklater's masterpiece is not simply a seamless, beautiful motion picture experience. It is truly one of the only films that I have maybe seen within my lifetime that extends from existing as a slice of life film, by existing as a movie that encapsulates precisely what it means to be alive.

Yes, by now, we have all heard of how Linklater conceived and shot the film in piecemeal over a twelve year period. But beyond that mammoth effort, and during which he also created and directed eight other films, what makes "Boyhood" such a staggeringly exquisite film is how Linklater has helmed an experience that transcends age, race, culture and even time itself as it explores so perceptively how do we become who we become and how we ruminate over the courses of our own lives as we watch the lives of the fictional Mason Evans Jr. (performed with graceful naturalness by Ellar Colrane) and his family unfold in an unforced, fully organic fashion.

And what a risky film "Boyhood" happens to be as well. I mean--who would have thought that a three hour film that exists without even the semblance of a plot would even be watchable. But Linklater, brilliantly capturing the essence of life as it is lived, realizes that our life journeys do not come equipped with a plot, any prefabricated narratives or hyperbolic dramas. Life begins and flows onwards through one moment to the next, one experience to the next until it ceases to be. What we make of that time is our own and to that end, Linklater made a film that could have easily existed through several other titles like "Motherhood," "Fatherhood," "Adulthood," Sisterhood" and so on because we experience how intertwined all of these characters are and how all of their choices affect each other continuous growth and development, especially Mason's.

This was the film that I just did not wish to end. This was the film where the three hours flew by and I could have easily taken three more hours. It is philosophically profound to a near cosmic level while also floating along as languid as a Summer's breeze. It is a highly accessible, identifiable and enormously entertaining film that reaches out to embrace you and I feel that it demands compete reciprocation from the viewer because it is rare to find a film so lovingly pure as this one.

This is why "Boyhood" is my favorite film of 2014.
(Originally reviewed August 2014)

There you have it! And now, let's see what 2015 will have to offer!