海角大神

In going back over the 250-some movies I saw in 2014, I am reminded that there was lots more chaff than wheat. What is surprising, though, is how, despite all the roadblocks facing gifted filmmakers in an ever more bottom-line industry, so much good work continues to be done.

But first, before notating my annual Top 10, I offer up my yearly preamble, complete with cavils and quibbles.

This was indubitably the Year of the Overrated. 鈥�Whiplash,鈥� about a jazz-drumming student and his martinet instructor, is a preposterous ode to tough love, or maybe tough hate, or maybe just tough luck. It鈥檚 鈥淔ull Metal Juilliard.鈥� 鈥�Birdman鈥� is a hit-and-miss backstage farce with magical realist pretensions presided over by a sodden thespian played by Michael Keaton in one of those seemingly vanityless performances that often wins Oscars. (Look, he鈥檚 not disguising his wrinkles or his hairline!) The film was simulated to look as though it was shot in one continuous take. I didn鈥檛 think this stunt was such a Big Wow.聽

Come to think of it, 2014 could also be called the Year of the Stunt. 鈥�Boyhood,鈥� which I somewhat overrated when it opened, is also a stunt 鈥� Richard Linklater dramatized a boy鈥檚 life in real time, over 12 years 鈥� but at least it鈥檚 a transcendent one. It movingly conveys the mysteriousness of time鈥檚 passage.

I鈥檓 glad that 鈥淏oyhood,鈥� certainly not a safe movie to make or market, is getting some traction with audiences. It鈥檚 becoming more and more difficult for good out-of-the-mainstream films to get the recognition they deserve. 聽

Critics can be a bulwark against the hype. They can champion worthy movies that don鈥檛 have the bucks to champion themselves. The ongoing glut of movie releases 鈥� often 20 or more new openings per week 鈥� has a lot to do with the fact that movies in the Digital Age, at least the non-studio movies, can be made far more cheaply and quickly than in the past. But most of these movies are in the theaters for only a week or so, to boost their online VOD (video on demand) presence or DVD sales, however dwindling. Amid this avalanche, it鈥檚 important to the future of the art of film that audiences know enough to seek out the movies that truly matter.聽

As opposed to many of the years since 9/11, the year 2014 in the movies did not reflect much real-world turmoil. The economic hardships so many Americans continue to face, the Grand Canyonesque chasm between rich and poor, was not a big ticket. (Even the new 鈥淎nnie鈥� reboot plays down the rich-poor angle.) Fallout from ongoing global wars was another non-starter this year. (鈥�Rosewater鈥� and 鈥淎merican Sniper,鈥� both less than first-rate, were exceptions, as was, of course, the Edward Snowden documentary 鈥�Citizenfour.鈥�)听

A big reason for this is that, in our hyperfast, plugged-in cyberworld, a movie intending to be 鈥渢imely鈥� stands little chance of matching the real deal. And anyway, after seeing 鈥淭he Interview,鈥� with Seth Rogen and James Franco playing goofballs primed by the CIA to assassinate North Korea鈥檚 Kim Jong-un, you may find yourself grateful Hollywood doesn鈥檛 get more 鈥減olitical.鈥澛�

Hollywood has largely reserved its socially conscious side for retro examinations of old anguishes. 鈥淯nbroken,鈥� a respectably staid biopic about World War II POW Louis Zamperini, inevitably suffers in comparison with 鈥淭he Bridge on the River Kwai.鈥� 鈥淪elma鈥� 鈥� finally 鈥� brings to the screen the life of Martin Luther King Jr., although the film is more worthy than wonderful. Some of the anguishes go back a lot further 鈥� to biblical times. I鈥檓 not sure we need a Second Coming of the biblical blockbuster genre, at least not as represented by 鈥�Noah,鈥� that daffy eco-epic, or 鈥�Exodus: Gods and Kings,鈥� which gave us a Red Sea tsunami any surfer could love.聽

The superhero/comic book franchises are still open for business. I am hoping against hope that the subtitle in 鈥�Transformers: Age of Extinction鈥� will be taken literally. I am happy that 鈥�Godzilla鈥� is apparently not in sequel mode. Robert Downey Jr., in 鈥�The Judge,鈥� manfully soldiered through a rare appearance not requiring encasement in an Iron Man body suit. Meanwhile, Denzel Washington, perhaps envious of the way Liam Neeson has been hogging the senior action star demographic, launched his own 鈥�Equalizer鈥� franchise. At least he doesn鈥檛 wear a spacesuit. This is more than I can say for Matthew McConaughey, who muscles through cosmic wormholes in 鈥�Interstellar,鈥� a movie that, for all its metababble, is essentially saying: 鈥淟ove is All You Need.鈥澛�

I am grateful that the foodie quotient in movies this year was a bit less annoying than usual. True, there was 鈥�The Lunchbox鈥� (a sweet trifle), 鈥�The Hundred-Foot Journey,鈥� and 鈥淐hef.鈥� (I passed on 鈥淟e Chef鈥� 鈥� I thought it would make me too hungry.) The funniest of the foodie movies was 鈥�The Trip to Italy,鈥� in which Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan, while performing peerless movie star impersonations, once again give short shrift to the sumptuous dishes placed before them.

It was a good year for eccentric British actors playing eccentric British geniuses 鈥� Benedict Cumberbatch in 鈥�The Imitation Game鈥� and Eddie Redmayne in 鈥�The Theory of Everything.鈥� It was a rather thin year for major female performances. This is another way of saying that major roles for women were scarce. For the most part, Hollywood still can鈥檛 figure out what to do with women other than make them adjuncts to the action, or, if it鈥檚 a comedy, make them as gross as the guys. 聽

I got a kick out of Eva Green鈥檚 rowdy cutthroat villainess in 鈥�300鈥� 鈥� more so than with Rosamund Pike鈥檚 freeze-dried praying mantis in 鈥�Gone Girl鈥� 鈥� but I suspect the female performances that will ultimately mean the most to audiences this year are Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl Strayed in 鈥�Wild鈥� and Julianne Moore as a linguistics professor with Alzheimer鈥檚 in 鈥�Still Alice.鈥� Real-world heroism trumps pulp-fiction high jinks every time.聽

The best female performance I saw all year came from Marion Cotillard as a hardscrabble Polish immigrant in 鈥�The Immigrant.鈥� Cotillard even took a leaf from the Meryl Streep playbook and learned Polish for the role. Streep, meanwhile, plays to the hilt a wicked witch in 鈥淚nto the Woods.鈥� I shudder to imagine how she prepared for it. 聽

My Top 10 movies for 2014, in descending order:

1. "Foxcatcher" 鈥撀燘ennett Miller鈥檚 true-crime drama about the depredations of a du Pont heir, played extraordinarily well by Steve Carell and costarring the equally amazing Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo, could easily have been sensationalized. Instead, it鈥檚 a deeply nuanced and deeply creepy meditation on the psychopathology of the ties that bind. It鈥檚 so powerfully observed that it becomes larger than itself 鈥� an American tragedy.

2. "Winter Sleep" 鈥� So many movies are glibly referred to as 鈥淐hekhovian鈥� that it鈥檚 a distinct pleasure to cite one that truly is. Nuri Bilge Ceylan鈥檚 Palme d鈥橭r winner at Cannes is an almost infinitely rich human drama set in the steppes of Turkey.聽

3. "Leviathan" 鈥� Set in a remote township, Andrey Zvyagintsev鈥檚 movie expands a local conflict between a car-shop owner and a corrupt mayor into a full-scale anatomization of Russian society.

4. "The Tale of Princess Kaguya" 鈥� This is a transcendent hand-drawn animated film by Studio Ghibli cofounder Isao Takahata, derived from Japanese folklore. It鈥檚 an epic of the imagination.

5. "The Immigrant" 鈥� Inexplicably dumped by its distributor, The Weinstein Company, James Gray鈥檚 flawed, operatic movie has some of the most powerful sequences of any film this year, with a fierce and luminescent performance from Marion Cotillard and re-creations of the Lower East Side that rival those in 鈥淭he Godfather II.鈥�

6. "We Are the Best!" 鈥� Lukas Moodysson鈥檚 intensely likable spree about three teenage Swedish girls who form an impromptu punk band is one of the happiest music movies ever made.聽

7. "Boyhood" 鈥� Richard Linklater鈥檚 12-years-in-the-making odyssey is a filmic experiment that pays off emotionally. The movie is saying that, in the end, what is fleeting is what stays with us.

8. "Child鈥檚 Pose" 鈥� Another astonishment from the Romanian renaissance, directed by Calin Peter Netzer, it features a world-class performance from Luminita Gheorghiu as a mother obsessed with redeeming the son who disdains her.

9. "National Gallery" 鈥� Frederick Wiseman鈥檚 documentary about the famed London museum is really about the experience of art in all its manifestations.

10. "The LEGO Movie" 鈥� Yes, you read that right. It鈥檚 insanely inventive, witty. The threat of world domination has never been so much fun.

Besides the films mentioned favorably in the preamble, here are some other worthies: 鈥�Night Moves,鈥� 鈥�Force Majeure,鈥� 鈥�The Last of the Unjust,鈥� 鈥�Diplomacy,鈥� 鈥淭wo Days, One Night,鈥� 鈥�The Humbling,鈥� 鈥�Life Itself,鈥� 鈥�The Babadook,鈥� 鈥�Love is Strange,鈥� 鈥�Finding Vivian Maier,鈥� 鈥淟ocke,鈥� 鈥�Ida,鈥� 鈥�The Grand Budapest Hotel,鈥� 鈥淢r. Turner,鈥� and 鈥�The Last Sentence.鈥澛�