The Best (and Worst) of 2014

I adore that moment when I truly fall in love with a movie that I'm watching. With Birdman it was within first five minutes when Riggan 'makes' the reflector hit the shitty actor in his play. The atmosphere of the film, its astounding visual side, energetic beat of the score, the effortless humor, the wonderful acting - it's all right there. It's not just a movie, it's a wild, surreal, beautiful, breathtaking experience and a great study of the mind of an artist and the challenges he faces in the world. Hell, not just an artist - all of us. Wanting to be someone, to have our dreams come true, to be relevant. What do we want? How can we be happy? How can we be free? Birdman asks all of those questions without ever coming across as preachy. It's just an incredible ride, from start to finish, and the finest movie I've seen in years.


Michael Keaton's wonderfully meta performance in Birdman is as great as the movie itself. He's funny, tragic, difficult, relatable, all at the same time. Keaton can make you laugh both at Riggan and with him and he can make you feel so sorry for him only to root for him in the next scene. It's not an easy character to like but we like him, because we get to know him. And the scenes where he messes up are interwined with the scenes where he manages to fix things, like the lovely moment where he gives courage to fellow actress. You want everything to work out for him in the end and perhaps, perhaps it did.



Norton has managed to do the impossible - he was better than J.K. Simmons for me. His hilarious turn as method actor Mike Shiner is amazing to watch. You almost sense Norton is poking fun at himself as well as other actors but it never comes off as mean spirited. And I will never stop laughing at that fight scene he has with Keaton, while wearing just underwear and getting smacked with a newspaper.

2014 was the year of:Keira Knightley, who delivered 3 wonderful, natural, inspiring performances in Begin Again, Laggies and The Imitation Game
Brokeback Mountain Award for the Most Important Movie of the Year:Pride
Best Ensemble:Birdman (2. Pride 3. Gone Girl 4. Foxcatcher 5. The Imitation Game)
Best director:Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu, Birdman (2. David Fincher, Gone Girl 3. Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher 4. Damien Chazelle, Whiplash 5. Jonathan Glazer, Under the Skin)
Best adapted screenplay:Gone Girl(2. Obvious Child 3. Whiplash 4. The Normal Heart 5. Enemy)
Best original screenplay: Birdman (2. The Skeleton Twins 3. Pride) 
Best music:Gone Girl (2. Birdman 3. Interstellar 4. Under the Skin 5.The Imitation Game 6. Calvary 7.The Theory of Everything 8. Only Lovers Left Alive 9. The Guest 10. Guardians of the Galaxy)
Best original song:Lost Stars, Begin Again
Best track:Mountains, Interstellar(2. A Normal Family, The Theory of Everything 3. Running, The Imitation Game 4. Technically Missing, Gone Girl 5. No Time for Caution (movie version), Interstellar) (more)
Best Sound: Interstellar (2. The Guest 3. Whiplash)
Best costumes:  The Imitation Game (2. The Grand Budapest Hotel 3. Gone Girl)
Best production design:Birdman(2. The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Best cinematography:Birdman (2. Gone Girl 3.The Guest 4. The Imitation Game 5.Under the Skin 6. Enemy 7. Only Lovers Left Alive 8. Nightcrawler 9. Calvary 10. Wild)
Best editing:Whiplash (2. Gone Girl 3. Enemy 4. Nightcrawler 5. The Guest)
Best visual effects:Guardians of the Galaxy (2. Birdman) 
Biggest Disappointment:Interstellar (2. Boyhood 3. Selma)
Worst Performance by an Actress:Emily Ratajkowski, Gone Girl
Worst Performance by an Actor: Christoph Waltz, Big Eyes
Most Overhyped:Boyhood (2. Selma 3. Interstellar)
Worst Movie of the Year:Nymphomaniac, part 2
Underrated:  The Guest (2. The Skeleton Twins 3. Laggies 4. Pride 5. Begin Again)
Best Scene of the year:Dan and Gretta listen to music, Begin Again (2. The ending, Whiplash 3. Technically Missing, Gone Girl 4. The Flight, Birdman 5. the docking of spinning Endurance, Interstellar 6. Mountains, Interstellar 7. Enigma Works, The Imitation Game 8. The murder, Gone Girl 9. The ending, Interstellar 10. The interview, Foxcatcher) (more here)
Funniest scene:The fight, Neighbors (2. The tiger situation, The Interview 3. Drunken stand up, Obvious Child 4. Fuck off, I went to Metallica concert!, The Judge 5.Tom Cruise's dying screams, Edge of Tomorrow 6. The fight, Birdman)
"You Never Can Tell" award for the best dance scene:Dominic Cooper in Pride
The most I cried during the movie:Because my dad promised me, Interstellar (2. We are Groot, Guardians of the Galaxy 3. The Final March, Pride 4. The Wedding, The Normal Heart 5. Milo and Maggie in the end, The Skeleton Twins)
The most shocking scene;The Murder, Foxcatcher (2. Tusk reveal, Tusk 3. Amy kills Desi, Gone Girl 4. The ending, Enemy 5. The fact that McConaughey wasn't shirtless for one second, Interstellar)
Best Kiss: Emma Stone and Edward Norton, Birdman
Best Fight:Riggan and Mike, Birdman (2. Neighbors 3. The Guest 4. John Wick 5. Gone Girl 6. The Interview)
Best Chemistry:Dan and Gretta, Begin Again (2. David and Anna, The Guest 3. Chris Pratt and everyone and everything, Guardians of the Galaxy 4. Amy and Nick, Gone Girl)
Best Quotes:   You're anything but invisible. You're big. And you're kind of a great mess, like a candle burning on both ends, but it's beautiful. No amount of booze or weed or attitude is gonna hide that, Birdman (2. I'm the cunt you married, Gone Girl 3. Because my dad promised me, Interstellar 4. There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job', Whiplash 5. That’s what I love about music. Even the most banal scenes are suddenly invested with so much meaning, you know? All these banalities, they suddenly turn into these beautiful effervescent pearls.From music. I've got to say, as I've gotten older, these pearls are just...becoming increasingly more and more rare to me. This moment is a pearl, Gretta. All this has been a pearl, Begin Again 6. I was fucking Game, Gone Girl 7. Do you know, this morning I was on a train that went through a city that wouldn't exist if it wasn't for you. I bought a ticket from a man who would likely be dead if it wasn't for you. I read up, on my work, a whole field of scientific inquiry that only exists because of you. Now, if you wish you could have been normal... I can promise you I do not. The world is an infinitely better place precisely because you weren't, The Imitation Game 8. Popularity is the slutty little cousin of prestige, Birdman 9. Sometimes it is the people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine, The Imitation Game 10. I told him that bitch was as blind as a bat!, The Interview 11. You two are the most fucked up people I've ever met and I specialize in fucked up, Gone Girl 12. Everyone wants Atticus Finch until there's a dead hooker in the bath tub, The Judge 13. Do I look like a double rainbow to you?, Whiplash 14. There should be no boundaries to human endeavor. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there's life, there is hope, The Theory of Everything
Best Line deliveries:  No way baby, I'm it!, Gone Girl (2. Next time you should cut deeper, The Skeleton Twins 3. SKYLARK!!! KIM!!!, The Interview)
Best comedy performance of the year: Rose Byrne, Neighbors (2. Jenny Slate, Obvious Child 3. Randall Park, The Interview 4. James Franco, The Interview)
Best performance under 20 minutes of screentime: Natalie Dormer, The Riot Club (2. Laura Dern, Wild 3. Lyndsay Duncan, Birdman 4. Matthew Goode, The Imitation Game 5. Alex Lawther, The Imitation Game 6. Lola Kirke, Gone Girl)
Sweetest scene of the year: Gretta running after Dan to hold him, Begin Again (2. The ending, Pride 3. Max taking Donna to the clinic, Obvious Child 4. Milo rescuing Maggie, The Skeleton Twins 5. Joan helping Alan in their final scene together, The Imitation Game)
Best Opening:  Gone Girl
Best Ending:Whiplash (2. Interstellar 3. Gone Girl 4. Birdman 5. Pride 6. Enemy 7. The Imitation Game 8. Obvious Child 9. The Skeleton Twins 10. The Judge)
The Lisbeth Salander favorite hero award goes to: Anna, The Guest(2. 9/10 people in Pride 3. John Wick, John Wick 4. Dave and Aaron, The Interview 5. Full Metal Bitch, Edge of Tomorrow 6. Star Lord, Guardians of the Galaxy)
The Joker favorite villain award goes to:Amy Elliott Dunne, Gone Girl (2. David, The Guest 3. Fletcher, Whiplash 4. Lou Bloom, Nightcrawler)
The Fly award for the single most disgusting thing in a movie goes to: Mr. Tusk, Tusk
Pussy Wagon travel in style award goes to:The van, Pride (2. Star Lord's ship, Guardians of the Galaxy)
Uggie's award for the best dog goes to:Kim Jong Un,The Interview
Tub Scene award for the hottest sexy scene of the year goes to:The opening credits of Begin Again and pretty much every time Mark Ruffalo was in the scene
"I blacked out for a moment there' reaction for the hottest character of the year goes to:Dan, Begin Again (2. David, The Guest)
"Am I high or did it actually happen?" question for the most ridiculous movie moment goes to: The bookshelf scene in Interstellar, pretty much the entire Interstellar, actually.
The Jar Jar binks facepalm gesture statute for the most annoying character of the year goes to:Ellie Kemper's characterin Laggies (2. every guy in The Riot Club)
The shirt with the scarlet H letter for the Hypocrite of the year goes to:  Sony for all that mess with The Interview
Flaming dog poo and eternal shame goes to: John Carney for not bringing Dan and Gretta together in the end, Begin Again (2. Calvary for the dog scene 3. Babadook for the dog scene and participating in that awful horror cliche 4. the release of Interstellar soundtrack without the docking music and then with different version of it)
Lars Von Trier award for the biggest piece of misogynistic shit goes to:the movie industry for the lack of roles for women as varied as roles for men (2. David Fincher for whitewashing every single male character in Gone Girl 3. Lars von Trier for Nymphomaniac)
Tree of Life bucket of coffee award for the most boring movie of the year goes to:Selma (2. Boyhood 3. The Immigrant 4. Calvary 5. Interstellar)