Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: 2014 in films and TV-series

1/01/2015

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Best of 2014

1. Boyhood - Richard Linklater

2. The Look of Silence - Joshua Oppenheimer

3. The Grand Budapest Hotel - Wes Anderson

4. Looking season 1 - Michael Lannan, creator

5. Calvary - John Michael McDonagh

6. Godzilla - Gareth Edwards

7. Magic in the Moonlight - Woody Allen

8. Nightcrawler - Dan Gilroy

9. Interstellar - Christopher Nolan

10. The Equalizer - Antoine Fuqua

Worst of 2014

1. The Monuments Men - George Clooney

2. Mr. Peabody & Sherman - Rob Minkoff

Other reviewed titles:

A Most Wanted Man
Dumb and Dumber To
The Expendables 3
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Lego Movie
Love Is Strange
Non-Stop
Sabotage
The Salvation
Sex Tape
Speed Walking/Kapgang
True Detective season 1
The Two Faces of January
X-Men: Days of Future Past

Notes:

This is only a first draft of Film Excess' 2014 lists, because I have only seen and reviewed 26 2014 titles so far, which is far from enough to compile an accurate list. A more comprehensive list will appear on the blog by the end of June. This preliminary list does, however, feature some of the films of the year that have generally been recognized as the best of the year, namely Boyhood and The Grand Budapest Hotel. The third pristine masterpiece of the year (found by me so far) is the less seen Danish-American-Indonese documentary The Look of Silence.
Behind these incredible films, 2014 gave us an awesome new TV-series in Looking, a kaiju smasher for the history books in Godzilla; Irish John Michael McDonagh moved up in the European - and world - director ranks with his great Calvary; Woody Allen charmed with a typical show of gentle force in Magic in the Moonlight; Dan Gilroy flashed an eerie contemporary story in Nightcrawler; Christopher Nolan bested last year's star-cruiser Gravity (in quality) with his vast Interstellar; and Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington gave us an irresistible vengeance thriller guilty pleasure in The Equalizer. Out of the list are other great films such as the western The Salvation, the airborne thriller Non-Stop, the animation The Lego Movie and Danish coming-of-age Speed Walking, besides a slew of other good films. 2014 has already been a joyous film year, and one with very few bad films found so far. But they will surely appear as I venture boldly further down into the year's cavern.

Perhaps the next, more elaborate 2014 lists will include some of these titles from my 2014 watch-list, which I literally can't wait to watch:
The Overnighters, Obvious Child, The Babadook, Alive Inside, The Skeleton Twins, Life Itself, Dead Snow 2: Red Vs. Dead, What We Do in the Shadows, Cesar Chavez, They Came Together, The Way He Looks, Kelly & Cal, We'll Never Have Paris, Zero Motivation, Rob the Mob, Walk of Shame, Grace of Monaco, Mr. Turner, The Fault in Our Stars, Force Majeure, The Homesman, Mommy, Maps to the Stars, Kick, Tammy, Hector and the Search for Happiness, Birdman, The Imitation Game, St. Vincent, The Humbling, Before I Go to Sleep, While We're Young, The Good Lie, Tusk, This Is Where I Leave You, I Am Ali, Citizenfour, Serena, Sex Ed, Selma, Annie, Unbroken, The Interview and Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.

- Happy New Year!

Other years in best and worst lists:

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess
2012 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess

Please, make a comment on Film Excess' 2014 lists
What have been your best and worst 2014 movie experiences?
What has surprised positively and what has disappointed you?
Any movie or TV-series that needs to be on Film Excess' watch-list?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (14-24)

1/01/2015

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

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