Thursday, January 15, 2015

Best Films of 2014 -- A Critical Consensus

Since Movie City News didn't appear to be doing its annual tally of professional movie critics' top 10 lists, I decided to do it myself. Of course, then it turned out they did do it -- they just didn't post it on their home page for some strange reason. But whatever, mine is more complete, using every list from both MCN and Metacritics. I used MCN's tallying method: 10 points for every #1 film, 9 points for every #2 film, etc. For alphabetical lists, I gave each movie 5.5 points (the average of 1 to 10). Only ten films were allowed for each list -- in the event of "ties" (a lot of critics do this, which I've never understood), I gave the two tied films equal points and then continued doling out the points the same as if there hadn't been a tie. So, for example, if two movies were tied for the #2 spot on a list, I'd give them both nine points and then give the #3 film seven points, and so on down the line, giving zero points to the #10 film.

The big winner here was no surprise, but what was surprising was just how many damn points that damn Linklater film got (1,370.5, compared to the 855.5 points earned by the second place winner). The most interesting race was for the bronze medal, for which Birdman and Under the Skin were neck and neck the entire time, until finally it was an exact tie, before Birdman shot ahead with a 10-point bomb dropped by the very last list I tallied.

All in all, 270 films were mentioned. So, basically, every movie from last year made some critic's list... but not The Best Offer. WTF, critics?

1.   Boyhood – 1,370.5
2.   The Grand Budapest Hotel – 855.5
3.   Birdman – 634
4.   Under the Skin – 624
5.   Whiplash – 542
6.   Selma – 422
7.   Ida – 403.5
8.   Inherent Vice – 367
9.   Gone Girl – 359.5
10. Nightcrawler – 322
11. Only Lovers Left Alive – 291
12. Goodbye to Language – 256
13. Two Days, One Night – 255
14. Mr. Turner – 232
15. Force Majeure – 222
16. Snowpiercer – 213
17. Citizenfour – 211
18. The Immigrant – 208.5
19. Foxcatcher – 201.5
20. The Lego Movie – 201
21. Guardians of the Galaxy – 184
22. Winter Sleep – 147
23. Leviathan – 145.5
24. Calvary – 140.5
25. The Babadook – 139
26. Interstellar – 135.5
27. Love Is Strange – 132
29. We Are the Best! – 130.5
30. The Theory of Everything – 125.5
31. The Imitation Game – 116
32. Life Itself – 104.5
      Listen Up Philip – 104.5
34. Locke – 103.5
35. American Sniper – 90.5
36. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – 88.5
37. Stranger by the Lake – 88
39. A Most Violent Year – 87.5
40. Wild – 83
41. Edge of Tomorrow – 80
42. Blue Ruin – 66
43. Mommy – 61
44. Stray Dogs – 56
45. Manakamana – 55.5
46. Norte, the End of History – 48.5
47. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – 47
48. Maps to the Stars – 45.5
      The Overnighters – 45.5
50. Dear White People – 45

The Raid 2 – 43.5
The Homesman – 43
Jodorowsky’s Dune – 43
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya – 40
The Dance of Reality – 39.5
Nymphomaniac – 39
The Strange Little Cat – 39
Obvious Child – 38
12 Years a Slave – 36.5
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night – 35.5
Starred Up – 35
Get on Up – 33
God Help the Girl – 33
A Most Wanted Man – 32
Wild Tales – 32
The Wind Rises – 31
Jealousy – 30
The Last of the Unjust – 30
L’il Quinquin – 30
National Gallery – 29.5
Night Moves – 27.5
Beyond the Lights – 26
The Missing Picture – 25.5
Actress – 25
Frank – 24.5
Belle – 23.5
Joe – 23
Unbroken – 22
What Now? Remind Me – 22
The Wolf of Wall Street – 22
Inside Llewyn Davis – 21
Level Five – 21
Chef – 20.5
Lucy – 20.5
The Double – 19
A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness – 19
Tales of the Grim Sleeper – 19
Closed Curtain – 18.5
The Lunchbox – 18.5
The Drop – 18
Enemy – 18
Horse Money – 18
It Felt Like Love – 18
Land Ho ! – 18
The Tribe – 18
Vic + Flo Saw a Bear – 18
The Guest – 17
Last Days in Vietnam – 17
Muppets Most Wanted – 17
The Rover – 17
Top Five – 17
The Congress – 16.5
Fury – 16.5
Godzilla – 16.5
Still Alice – 16.5
John Wick – 16
Abuse of Weakness – 15
Into the Woods – 15
Like Father, Like Son – 15
Story of My Death – 15
Cheap Thrills – 14
Journey to the West – 14
Violette – 14
Mood Indigo – 13.5
Stand Clear of the Closing Doors – 13.5
Venus in Fur – 13.5
Bird People – 13
Jauja – 13
Beloved Sisters – 12
Big Eyes – 12
The Fault in Our Stars – 12
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 – 12
Keep On Keepin’ On – 12
Le Week-End – 12
X-Men: Days of Future Past – 12
Maidan – 12
Cold in July – 11
Kids for Cash – 11
The One I Love – 11
Pride – 11
20,000 Days on Earth – 11
The Battered Bastards of Baseball – 10
Begin Again – 10
Buzzard – 10
Ellie Lumme – 10
Jimmy P. – 10
Northern Light – 10
Thou Wast Mild and Lovely – 10
Amour Fou – 9
Breathe In – 9
Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari – 9
Coherence – 9
Life of Riley – 9
Manuscripts Don’t Burn – 9
Rambleras – 9
Red Army – 9
The Retrieval – 9
The Salt of the Earth – 9
The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears – 9
Gloria – 8
Hard to Be a God – 8
How to Train Your Dragon 2 – 8
Lesson of the Evil – 8
Memphis – 8
Miss Julie – 8
Noah – 8
See You Next Tuesday – 8
The Skeleton Twins – 8
St. Vincent – 8
Timbuktu – 8
Alan Partridge – 7
Bethlehem – 7
Big Hero 6 – 7
The Blue Room – 7
The Boxtrolls – 7
Das Spektrum Europas – 7
Dreams Are Colder Than Death – 7
Finding Vivian Maier – 7
Her – 7
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – 7
Phoenix – 7
The Selfish Giant – 7
Song of the Sea – 7
Third Person – 7
The Two Faces of January – 7
The Unknown Known – 7
Why Don’t You Play in Hell? – 7
Exhibition – 6.5
Omar – 6.5
The Duke of Burgundy – 6
A Field in England – 6
Farbe – 6
Heli – 6
Hill of Freedom – 6
My Name Is Salt – 6
Saint Laurent – 6
Thursday Til Sunday – 6
The Case Against 8 – 5.5
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them – 5.5
Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen – 5.5
Happy Christmas – 5.5
Laggies – 5.5
Gett – 5
Guilty of Romance – 5
The Kindergarten Teacher – 5
Mistaken for Strangers – 5
Out in the Night – 5
Over the Garden Wall – 5
Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets – 5
Revenge of the Mekons – 5
Rich Hill – 5
22 Jump Street – 5
The Way He Looks – 5
While We’re Young – 5
Neighbors – 4.5
Nothing Bad Can Happen – 4.5
Antarctica – 4
Breakfast with Curtis – 4
Diplomacy – 4
The Great Invisible – 4
Happy Valley – 4
Jersey Boys – 4
Low Down – 4
Policeman – 4
Pompeii – 4
They Came Together – 4
What If... – 4
Bjork Biophilia Live – 3
Child’s Pose – 3
The David Whiting Story or the Cesar Romero Joke – 3
Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 2 – 3
Hateship Loveship – 3
Ilo Ilo – 3
The Kill Team – 3
Patema Inverted – 3
The Princess of France – 3
Proxy – 3
Queen & Country – 3
She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry – 3
The Trip to Italy – 3
What We Do in the Shadows – 3
White God – 3
Words and Pictures – 3
Zero Motivation – 3
Above and Below the Minhocao – 2
The Amazing Catfish – 2
Clouds of Sils Maria – 2
Everyday – 2
The Galapagos Affair – 2
The Interview – 2
Last Weekend – 2
Le Paradis – 2
Thy Womb – 2
War of Lies – 2
August Winds – 1
Bad Hair – 1
The Better Angels – 1
Big Men – 1
The Book of Life – 1
Butter on the Latch – 1
Class Enemy – 1
Draft Day – 1
Ernest and Celestine – 1
Fading Gigolo – 1
The Gambler – 1
Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me – 1
Heaven Knows What – 1
Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons – 1
The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq – 1
The Last Sentence – 1
Magic in the Moonlight – 1
Our Sunhi – 1
Paddington – 1
Particle Fever – 1
Rob the Mob – 1
The Secret Trial 5 – 1
Stop the Pounding Heart – 1
A Summer’s Tale – 1
Tip Top – 1
Transformers: Age of Extinction – 1
Welcome to New York – 1
Witching and Bitching – 1

Of course, results are sullied a bit by the inability of some critics to agree on the definition of a 2014 movie. Most of them limited it to films that were released theatrically during the year, but some included festival films that won't play in theaters until 2015, if ever. And then there are the British folks who included some 2013 films (like 12 Years a Slave and The Wolf of Wall Street), presumably because they didn't play in the UK until 2014. *Sigh* Why do I bother?