Saturday, February 17, 2024

Picks of 2014

Despite not caring for critical and popular favourites like Birdman, Whiplash, John Wick and Gone Girl, 2014 was still a very strong year for your host: it was a great mix of domestic and international releases; a healthy balance of mainstream and independent titles; incredible directorial debuts from Jennifer Kent, Dan Gilroy and Ana Lily Amirpour. Even Wes Anderson made a film that I enjoyed. Crazy!

'71 (Yann Demange)

 Alléluia (Fabrice Du Welz)

As Above, So Below (John Erick Dowdle)

The Babadook (Jennifer Kent)

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves)

The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland)

Frank (Lenny Abrahamson)

The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour)

Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn)

The Guest (Adam Wingard)

It Follows (David Robert Mitchell)

Kingsman: The Secret Service (Matthew Vaughn)

The Lego Movie ( Phil Lord & Christopher Miller) 

Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)

Paddington (Paul King)

The Purge: Anarchy (James DeMonaco) 

The Raid 2 (Gareth Evans)

The Rover (David Michôd)

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller)

Spring (Aaron Moorhead & Justin Benson)

Starry Eyes (Kevin Kolsch & Dennis Widmyer)

The Taking of Deborah Logan (Alan Robitel)

What We Do In the Shadows (Taika Waititi & Jemaine Clement)

Wild Tales (Damián Szifron)

Wolf Creek 2 (Greg McLean)

Revisiting It Follows last month was a reminder how I still don't own what's arguably the best film soundtrack of the 2010s:

Disasterpeace  - Title
It Follows OST, 2014
 

3 comments:

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Strong year. I'd definitely have John Wick in my faves over a Wes Anderson movie tho 😄

Least favourite movie of 2014 would be Boyhood, purely because I found the main kid so annoying. A pity because I was really enjoying Linklater's run from School Of Rock onwards. In hindsight, it'd be Tape onwards but I didn't see that until recently.

Spartan said...

Haven’t seen Boyhood, but if you like early Linklater, I’d recommend Spring as it’s essentially Before Sunrise meets H.P. Lovecraft.

Really never got the love for John Wick. Came across as a typical STV actioner banking on Keanu Reeves’s meme buzz at the time.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Re: Spring, intrigued by that comparison + the trailer. Will investigate 🙏