Nick's Top 25 Movies of 2014

Belatedly bringing up the rear on this site’s list-making, I won’t clutter the works with ancillary lists or complicated introductions. I’ll leave it at this: 2014 was an embarrassment of riches for great films (some of which aren’t on this list) and now that mid-January of 2015 is here, you’ve got a greater chance to see more of them.

25. Noah

God bless Darren Aronofsky for not pandering to demands for porridge from certain corners of the Christian community. Out with the gentle white-bearded savior, in with a drunken, troubled ark builder and challenging, philosophical, and ultimately affirming visions of wrath, grace and faith. The creation sequence is a mesmerizing achievement.

24. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

A sequel that shoves the Marvel movies’ in-the-wings debate of freedom versus fear front and center without losing sight of its duty to entertain. More paranoiac than patriotic, “Soldier” crisply evokes post-Watergate dramas of the 1970s, delivers beats that feel brutally lethal, and thrillingly razes the MCU to the ground.

23. The Interview

Headlines strained to politicize a film in which James Franco boasts of “stink dick.” It’s simply a crass, caustic comedy that dares take a point of view about not letting culture brainwash the best out of us — whether it involves human rights or celebrity hairpieces. Randall Park is pointed perfection.

22. Snowpiercer

The first English-language outing from South Korea’s Bong Joon-ho is an allegorical rebel-uprising action extravaganza aboard a train rattling around an apocalyptic Earth. More whiz-bang than wisdom here, but this wildly inventive ride offers an indelible sauna car brawl, a creative cross-car shootout, devilish cynicism, and see-it-to-believe it production design.

21. The Skeleton Twins

As estranged siblings Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig flamboyantly pantomime “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now,” their goofy dance scene builds palpable tension. They walk a line between triumph and toxicity. What seems like renewed affection leaves them very much at arm’s length. Like the film, it’s laughter without phony catharsis.

20. The Babadook

Jennifer Kent’s horror film boasts a commanding turn from Essie Davis and expert sound-and-fury boogeyman frights expected of a top-hatted, claw-handed Gorey-esque spindleshanks named Mister Babadook. What provides resonance is “The Babadook’s” metaphor for the quiet everyday struggle of depression and the heavy asterisk hung next to its “happy” ending.

19. Inherent Vice

Another era-specific treatise from Paul Thomas Anderson about how progress swallows people whole, but one with unexpectedly delightful detours into freewheeling, breezy filmmaking and a lovable, loosey-goosey turn from the typically clenched Joaquin Phoenix. Witty, wise and ambitious, it might fall just shy of stoned immaculate, but it’s awfully close.

18. Guardians of the Galaxy

As a bright, splashy space-opera counterpoint to “Winter Soldier,” this is pure jubilance — bottled, carbonated, shaken and sprayed. A favorite near-throwaway moment of 2014: Drax (Dave Bautista) gets laid out but immediately springs upright and charges back into battle. Plus, the dirtiest joke you’ll ever hear in a Marvel movie.

17. Interstellar

At first glance, Christopher Nolan’s ambitions seemed to outpace him — an immersive larger-than-life spectacle that struggled for resonance. But a second viewing reveals a bittersweet rumination on the perils of parenting when you’re a roaming child at heart, rendering it the most boldly downbeat science-fiction odyssey since “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence.”

16. Love is Strange

John Lithgow and Alfred Molina play a married gay couple who unexpectedly find themselves living separately after a lifetime together. Their lived-in love story is tender, subtle and sneakily powerful — not because of any social agenda but an emotional one that stuns with relatable aches of what absence truly means.

15. The LEGO Movie

What could have easily carried water for a toy company instead carries audiences of any age off on a loop-de-loop, rat-a-tat adventure that deconstructs and celebrates the hero’s journey. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller thoughtfully bridge anything-goes and rigid-instruction approaches to LEGO play. And William Shakespeare does the Worm. Spaceship!

14. Life Itself

Disagreement is the beauty of criticism and life. Without it, the world would be insufferable. For Roger Ebert, an affinity for dissent fomented friendship with foes, the late-blooming love of family, and the fortitude to not let disease pillage his passion. Illuminating, humorous and respectful … like any great eulogy.

13. Two Days, One Night

Marion Cotillard trekking door-to-door convincing colleagues to forgo bonuses so she keeps her job sounds tedious. But this wholly riveting moral fable surprises, and Cotillard’s radiant performance embraces resignation and renewal but never resentment, which is crucial. No finger-wagging, just respect for those treading shark-infested waters just to get by.

12. A Most Violent Year

You’ve seen this story before, but rarely so tightly coiled. J.C. Chandor’s tale of early-’80s racketeering evokes a chilling time of transition in America’s soul. This arctic air and erosive wind sweep up Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain (amazingly nuanced) in the compromises they make to persuade themselves they’re uncompromised.

11. Foxcatcher

The onscreen violence is brief. The offscreen violence is savage. Like Bennett Miller’s “Capote” before it, what could have been a rote recitation of true-crime details becomes a barbaric ideological cage match of American ambition, class, control and power. Persistent and unnerving, with three expertly calibrated performances at its center.

10. Cheap Thrills

An invigorating B-movie premise: Destitute pals perform socially unacceptable stunts for quick money. But the evil escalation triggers nervous laughter and worries — not what would you do, but what could be done to you. An astonishing finale shines a stark, harsh light on the battered, bloody face of American-dream desperation.

9. The Boxtrolls

Laika’s latest is an impish, inventive grotesquerie, but also satirical, sweet and sanguine in a way that speaks to, not down to, kids. A film unafraid to scratch itself on prickly edges of childhood angst, taking blunderbuss aim at the corruption of imagination and championing the beauty in everyday things.

8. A Most Wanted Man

A tough, terse, twisty adaptation of John LeCarre’s novel with a perfect ending. Notwithstanding Philip Seymour Hoffman’s death, this would still be one of his most mammoth, complex performances. With it, we can’t help but think about all the unseen wonders and gifts on which the world will miss out.

7. Locke

An astounding exploration of one man’s choices and consequences, buoyed by a judicious, flawless script that illustrates the emotional semantics of words and the brilliance of Tom Hardy — alone in a car, conversing via Bluetooth and as far out on a wire without a net as an actor can be.

6. Under the Skin

Is there any actress on a more impressive run than Scarlett Johansson? By turns a macabre and sympathetic alien, Johansson mournfully anchors Jonathan Glazer’s artfully composed chilly, existential science-fiction opus. Backed by composer Mica Levi’s haunting threnody, the film builds to a horrifying conclusion about the full measures of mankind.

5. Whiplash

Damien Chazelle’s scorching two-hander follows a jazz drummer (Miles Teller) and his sadistic instructor (J.K. Simmons). Amid Simmons’ titanic big-boss bluster, “Whiplash” controversially suggests fascism may be beneficial. It propels an exhilarating accelerando to 2014’s best ending — a heart-racing collision between formidable foes cut off at just the right beat.

4. Nightcrawler

A merciless satire with Jake Gyllenhaal as a vile Buzzfeed-generation Travis Bickle. “Nightcrawler” understands how media herds us into isolated pens of fear, how “viewer discretion advised” has become a dare. There are lots of Lou Blooms. If we’re not cautious, we’ll become his prey … or, worse, his employees.

3. The Grand Budapest Hotel

Ralph Fiennes’ career-best work and Wes Anderson’s signature idiosyncratic whims pepper this spry art caper … but only up to a pessimistic and bitter, but often true, point: We rarely see the world’s truly insidious evils coming. It’s a tart center to a sweet treat, with an unforgettably sharp aftertaste.

2. Selma

An enlightening, enraging drama that purports to be neither an authoritative MLK biopic (despite David Oyelowo’s electricity) nor a back-patting concession to how far we’ve come. Instead, “Selma” lingers on hope, fear, indifference and skepticism. We may overcome, it suggests, but long and hard is the road out of hell.

1. Boyhood

No trite coming-of-age moments. No clue as to when things change or for how long. Instead, Richard Linklater’s deceptively simple but deeply felt vision of childhood is the one we all share — ephemeral moments that become eternal memories, the way our parents’ perspectives and perceptions slowly, and deeply imprint upon us. This is lovely, generous, hearty slice-of-life filmmaking at its finest, free of moments that feel fabricated and full of sensitive acting from Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke. The latter two bravely face the mistakes they’ve made in raising their son, while the boy aims to shatter the patterns that handcuffed his parents. Whether he succeeds is another movie altogether. “Boyhood” is by no means a cruel depiction of time’s inexorable march, but it does force us to reflect on the youth from which we were all once so eager to skitter away. It’s also a gentle reminder that we, and those we love, can contain multitudes, and that if we embrace those multitudes rather than eliminate them, we won’t miss out on life, no matter the stage.