The Fink 50 of 2015

In retrospect, 2015 was a good year for film. I had been cynical last year reflecting on the year end as few films really “wow-ed” me: some of this, perhaps is my fault. Despite 2015 becoming a record year for consumption fueled by amongst more access including a healthy dose of the film festivals like Tribeca, Montclair and TIFF - and my very own - the Buffalo International Film Festival. (On a side note: programing a festival is an entirely different beast - I did however, exhausted and perhaps a little hung over, get to watch an hour of Rouzbeh Noori’s beautiful The Philosopher King on a Sunday morning at the North Park with a popcorn and soda - it was pure cinematic bliss).

Making this list is a difficult undertaking primarily because I admit I haven’t seen EVERYTHING. I closed out this year having recorded 306 films in theaters - including private screenings and a whole host of other screenings of course on VOD and via screener links. My system surely is flawed and has changed from my posting in the Film Stage’s top 50 calculus a bit (mainly because I caught up with Anomalisa, The Look of Silence and Heaven Knows What after the fact). Another admission is that the 306 count includes carryovers (on January 1st of last year I started with Force Majore and American Sniper - this year includes some repertory pictures in the mix)

There’s of course films I’m on the fence about - does Mommy, a film that opened in the US earlier this year after it opened elsewhere in the world count? Yes - although I had the chance to see it a few times in Toronto, the last during its theatrical run in November 2014 and I skipped it to see Map to the Stars, which was on my runners up last year. For this reason I’m withholding Cemetery of Splendor till next year, when Strand Releasing will open it in the US.

So many difficult decisions went into this list. Overall what kind of thesis should be read into 2015 - what have we learned from this years? I’m not sure what we can politically read into quite an epic year - bursting with great ideas. Perhaps in the spirit of Black Lives Matter, an overarching theme of holding institutional accountable can be read between Spotlight, In Jackson Heights, Killing Them Safely, The Big Short and Chi-Raq? Even that’s a stretch.

I’m not sure what historians will say - perhaps, like I tell my film students - it takes time to diagnose a movement. The cinema has, and always will be a place for filmmakers to take us on psychological and emotional journeys - last year it was Boyhood (a film I saw twice - and after suffering the loss of grandmother in the months between the film’s opening weekend in New York City and a screening at a second run movie theater in Buffalo - I found the picture to be all the more profound and moving - - Boyhood to me remains the great masterpiece of the 2010s). The films of this year’s Fink 50 - again not everything out - represent a personal bias. These are the films have struck me in the moment and in the case of the Hateful Eight upon a second viewing. The Hateful Eight is like a rich meal - full of deep flavors and nuance - I very much want to see it a third time, an absolute rarity for me.

Largely this list is top heavy with the masters - Haynes, Wiseman, Tarantino, and Lee - along with new masters, filmmakers who have made work that I’ve enjoyed but they’ve now arrived at that next level - in my book, 2015 was a breakout year for Lenny Abrahmason, Tom McCarthy, and Xavier Dolan.

Here’s the best of my journeys - including links to my full reviews, where available:

10.- Shaun the Sheep (Mark Burton and Richard Starzak) - It’s been a great year for stop motion animation - between Shaun The Sheep and the beautiful Anomalisa. Shaun The Sheep is simply the most delightful film you’ll find on this list, really the most delightful film of the year with a wonderful and simple story told largely with no dialogue (or shall I say no intelligible dialogue). For what it’s worth, it holds up next to any of the classics of the silent era: masterfully crafted and very funny - it offers a gentle societal critique as a flock of sheep rush to the city to save their caretaker from his role as a hipster hair stylist. 

9.- What Happened Miss Simone? (Liz Garbus)

Constructing a moving portrait of Nina Simone, her triumphs, strengths, and weaknesses - filmmaker Liz Garbus constructs a frank, honest and soulful tribute with the participation of her estate. Employing archival materials with a few talking head interviews, the film is largely told though Simone’s own words highlighting interviews from her early performances to her more political period and eventually to her self-imposed exile in Liberia. Riveting and heartbreaking, What Happened Miss Simone is as informative and as comprehensive as its dense 100-minute running time can allow for. 

8.- Carol (Todd Haynes) 

Like his Far From Heaven, Todd Haynes’ latest harkens back to the work of Douglas Sirk. Set in the 1950s - Carol is a masterful work of subtly with flawless performances and truly beautiful cinematography by Edward Lachman (working on Super 16MM). A tender, sweet and heartbreaking romance as Carol (Cate Blanchett) struggles to keep her family together while Rooney Mara’s Terese struggles in a way to find her voice. Told in letters, subtle looks and not-so-subtle showdown with heterosexual lovers - Carol is a powerful melodrama.

7.- Room (Lenny Abrahmson) 

Free from the manipulation that a Hollywood picture might offer, Room is a masterfully crafted and wrenching portrait of Ma (Brie Larson) and Jack (Jacob Tremblay), both giving affecting performances as a mother and son imprisoned in a small room. Carefully constructed by director Lenny Abrahamson, the room is the entire world for Ma and Jack until they are (spoilers!) liberated in a stunning escape. What follows is just as brilliant. Adapted by Emma Donohue from her novel, Room is a triumph and a tearjerker, confidently directed and masterfully acted.

6.- In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman) 

Mapping citizen engagement on film is - shall we say - not quite a sexy issue. In Jackson Heights, the latest from master documentarian Fredrick Wiseman is a sweeping, engaging three hour picture: chronicling macro details of a largely immigrant community from the local councilman’s call center to the struggle of independent business owners in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood (as they stand up to the BID), to other civic engagements. A study of time and place (I’m a sucker for these movies, obviously) - In Jackson Heights is a beautifully optimistic and privileged look, masterfully crafted by Wiseman - it’s more a meditation than hard a call to action.   

5.- The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino)

Having seen the 70MM roadshow version twice - I can’t wait to go again: QT has crafted a dense chess game, using Ultra Pannavision (a format that’s going to look awful truth be told, on those new unmasked screens AMC and Regal are installing in their new locations). Still, I’m guessing (and shutter to think) that The Hateful Eight will hold up on pan-and-scan VHS. Samuel L. Jackson is worth the price of admission alone. QT fans won’t be let down by the mix of violence and irony - coupled with an unprecedented craftsmanship, The Hateful Eight is one of the entertaining nights at the movies you’ll have this year.

4.- Son of Saul (Laszlo Nemes) 

Just when you think there’s little else to say about the Holocaust comes a film that approaches the material from a new direction: Son of Saul allows us to walk in the shoes of a prisoner, living the horror, drama, camaraderie, and moral ambiguity first hand. A stunning debut feature (currently screening in 35MM), Nemes resurrects the academy ratio - shooting at a single focal length, providing the kind of tunnel vision used to go about one’s day in this terror. 

3.- Spotlight (Tom McCarthy)

Moving with the precision of a swiss timepiece, rarely do we see a film that’s so effective. Spotlight is a journalism thriller that plays it straight, avoiding self-righteous speeches and subplots - it’s about solid boots on the ground, investigative journalism from the Spotlight team (played by Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Brian d’Arcy and led by Michael Keaton) and their fearless editors (John Slattery and Live Schreiber). A brilliant picture that works almost flawlessly on every single level, Spotlight is an engaging investigation celebrating the difficult work that must be done when our institutions fail us.

2.- Mommy (Xavier Dolan)

Xavier Dolan’s Mommy is a curious picture, one arriving in the U.S. in the typically dead zone of early winter, yet no other film has stayed with me in the same way. An emotional gut punch, Mommy continually breaks all of the cinematic rules, challenging its audience with a square frame similar to that of an iPhone held vertically while shooting. Dolan employs frequent collaborator Anne Dorval as Diana, a mother who breaks her son (Antoine-Oliver Pilon) free after he’s committed in light of the passage of a fictional Canadian law. The road ahead is painful, bittersweet, and powerful as the mother dreams of a future for her son, only to have those dreams crushed. Dolan is simultaneously in and out of control of his narrative, a frantic call to action mashing up pop culture, desire, youth obnoxiousness, and mental illness. With a constantly moving camera by André Turpin, Mommy is unforgettable experience

1.- Chi-Raq (Spike Lee) 

Spike Lee’s best picture in years, Chi-Raq is a timely call to action. Opening to a Chicago embroiled in controversy, Lee’s stated objective is to save lives on Chicago’s Southside, a fiery cry against gun violence and a system that protects gang members while women and children are caught in the cross fire. A modern-day adaption of Lysistrata, Chi-Raq is lively and often hilarious; it has the spunk of some of his best and most political work, such as Do the Right Thing. With a cast that includes Nick Cannon, Wesley Snipes, Angela Bassett, Samuel L. Jackson, John Cusack, Jennifer Hudson, and Teyonah Parris in a break-out role as the story’s heroine, its lively performances are as transcendent as the film is ambitious. Rarely does a work achieve so much, and its stakes couldn’t be higher.

The Fink 50:

11.- The Look of Silence

12.- Anomalisa 

13.- The Big Short

14.- Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief

15.- The Russian Woodpecker

16.- Tangerine

17.- Black Panthers: Vangaurd of a Revolution

18.- Brooklyn

19.- The End of the Tour

20.- Clouds of Sils Maria

21.- Transfatty Lives

22 - Sicario

23.- Miss You Already

24.- The Martian

25.- Listen to Me Marlon

26.- Killing Them Safely (aka Tom Swift & His Electric Rifle)

27.- Diary of a Teenage Girl

28.- Trumbo

29.-This Changes Everything

30.-Welcome to Leith

31.- Steve Jobs

32.- The Best of Enemies 

33.- Goodnight Mommy

34.- Inside Out

35.-Call Me Lucky

36.-The Connection

38.-Mad Max: Fury Road

39.-Da Sweet Blood of Jesus

40.-Trainwreck

41.-99 Homes

42.-Youth

43.-Democrats

44.-Irrational Man

45.-3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets

46.-The Gift

48.-Ex Machina

49.-Paddington

50.-Girlhood

Runners up (in alphabetical order): All Things Must Pass, Amy, Bridge of Spies, Broken Horses, A Courtship, Cartel Land, Casa Grande, Creed, Dope, The Duke of Burgundy, Far From The Maddening Crowd, Gett: The Trail of Vivian Anslem, Hitchcock/Truffaut, How to Dance in Ohio, The Hunting Ground, In My Father’s House,  I’ll See You In My Dreams, Infinity Polar Bear, Iris, It Follows, Jafar Panahi’s Taxi, La Ultima Pelicula, Love & Mercy, Love 3D, Man From Reno, Merchants of Doubt, Mistress America, Mustang, Peace Officer, She’s Lost Control, Southpaw, Spy, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Tu Dors Nichole, The Walk, The Wolfpack, Wild Tales

The Bottom 20: FINK ON FILMS worst films of 2015

Bad movies ought to be avoided at all costs - one typically doesn’t seek them out despite the obvious (hey how bad can Fantastic Four really be?). As I always caution, it’s disingenuous to think any movie started off with the intention to be bad - perhaps all of these movies should inspire some kind of documentary about creative visions, egos, and intervention gone awry. Perhaps the only filmmaker to have claimed he hoped to make a truly awful movie (and succeeded) was Tommy Wiseau. Making a film requires an abundance of ambition, sometimes it requires more than the budget or mental bandwidth of the filmmakers allows.

With that said - here’s 20 films that left me scratching my head (links to full reviews included for select films) - bad movies do happen to go people, one I critically left off this list -  The Adderall Diaries, an awful James Franco vehicle that A24 will release next year. You’ve been warned.

20 - The Fantastic Four (Josh Trank)

My theory is Josh Trank’s ambition - to create a character driven action film like his debut feature Chronicle (for the record I enjoyed that one) wasn’t matched by his producers. For every  Colin Trevorrow and Ryan Coolgler (filmmakers that cut their teeth on smaller budgets and have found studio success) there’s a Josh Trank. But he alone shouldn’t be blamed, circumstances of the production aside - what remains is a bland affair. A rare dialogue driven action film, the material seems to devoid of any kind of edge down the cheese special effects that follow in its underwhelming third act. It’s a shame - here’s a film that I would be curious to see a director’s cut of.

19.-  Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon)

Something about this movie just rubbed me the wrong way - a teen comedy that attempts to have it both ways, the film is the story of Greg (Thomas Mann) - the “Me” of the title and frankly the least interesting one in the bunch. Suffering from the same issue another that Paper Towns suffered from - Me and Earl and the Dying Girl ultimately has less going for it despite a decent premise and a few laughs. It’s heart simply put doesn’t seem to be in the right place.

18.- Truth (James Vanderbilt)

Overshadowed (and rightfully so) by Spotlight, Truth, in 20 years might be misremembered as that cheap knock-off that was out around the same time. (Truth actually dropped first, although both were at TIFF this year). Here’s a film that will provide fuel for those wackos that believe all non-secular media is too liberal - all while trying to vindicate a Mary Mapes (who provides the source material for Vanderbilt’s screenplay - she’s played here by Cate Blanchett). Unauthorized by CBS - Robert Redford has no choice but to impersonate Dan Rather, in a film that feels like its impersonating a better journalistic thriller. Bland and unnecessary, Truth is an odd beast, watching it I didn’t feel sympathy for those whose careers were ruined by shoddy reporting - I felt embarrassed - especially when Topher Grace’s Mike Smith blasts Viacom in a self-righteous speech. Full of big, artificial moments, Truth, truth be told, is a train wreck.

17.- The Boy Next Door (Rob Cohen)

If only this picture didn’t take itself so seriously - Rob Cohen is the wrong man to tackle Barbara Curry’s script - they should have hired Tommy Wiseau. If anything it could have offered some unique product placement for his brand of underwear. What would be cringe enduring had its lead Ryan Guzman looked like he was of high school age is pretty much one of those erotic thrillers you’d find on HBO at 3AM back in the day. Elevated slightly by Jennifer Lopez, this low budget affair (complete with digital grain from a bumped ISO - they saved some money on lighting!) at least knows what it is. A $4 million dollar film that could have gone theatrical or to VOD (part of the Bloomhouse model) it’s at least unintentionally funny - imagine what would have happened with low stakes and increased freedom - why not hire Tommy Wiseau to make it glorious?

16.-Max (Boaz Yakin)

Far be it for me to take aim at a film about a hero dog, suffering from PTSD after returning from Afghanistan. Given to the little brother of a Marine killed in a bomb blast (Josh Wiggins) - the two learn to heal after the tragedy in this important, patriotic coming of age drama. Yeah, but that’s not this movie. Throw in a bizarre plot point about drug dealing and a kidnapping, Max left me thinking “WTF”. A bait-and-switch of a family picture - Max is not at all what it promises to be, it’s far weirder and less genuine. It’s a shame, really, given what the film had been advertised to be and what it ultimately became, given the harrowing premise, Max was not the sensitive character study I was expecting at all.

15.-The Loft (Erik Van Looy)

Apart from Michael Haneke’s Funny Games, I’ll never understand what the exact motivation (besides a paycheck and of course the chance to prove yourself) of a filmmaker wishing to remake their film in the US. Perhaps one day I’ll get to interview Erik Van Looy and I’ll ask him. Based on his 2008 picture - The Loft (shot in 2011 and dropped by Universal Pictures) is actually the SECOND remake of his original - you’d think they’d get it right. Awfully sexist with little redemption the film forgets to given us someone to root for - everyone is unlikable. That doesn’t necessarily make a bad movie - Hateful Eight is a great one and everyone is..um…hateful. Visually quite stylish, The Loft is a morality tale wrapped in a non-linear who-done-it thriller that never quite gave us a reason to care - I hated every one of these sexist pigs.

14.- Welcome to Me (Shira Piven)

An odd film that tries to have it both ways, Shira Piven and screenwriter Eliot Laurence never quite hit the right rhythm or tone: a drama with a few laughs or a comedy with a lot of drama - it never quite commits or decides where to go. Quirky, sure - but it provides no pleasure watching the destruction of Kristin Wiig’s Alice - an unstable women who overnight wins the Mega-Millions and proceeds to bankroll her empire. This particular film is painful - with some refinement this picture could have been quite brilliant - with no shortage of talent here (the film co-stars Tim Robins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Loretta Devine, Joan Cusack, and Wes Bentley) - the lackluster direction just didn’t work for me.

13.- Get Hard (Etan Cohen)

Lackluster - although one knows what they’re expecting walking in. I chuckled a few times, surely - but the thing I recall the most, rather interestingly is how proper projection really does matter. The exhibitor started the film in the wrong aspect ratio and switched it over to a stretched image without rebooting the projector (rather than incurring the wrath of a theatre full of patrons). The results were disastrous - comedy, like drama is all about framing and one-off element like aspect ratio really matters. Technical issues aside - Get Hard is a vulgar affair lacking the kind of refinement of frequent Will Ferrell collaborator Adam McKay who would have infused the material with more interesting politics than director Etan Cohen does. Kevin Hart - when he works for me, he works for me - here and in a film we’ll get to in a bit - he didn’t.

12.- Mortdecai (David Koepp)

Directed by David Koepp, this globe trotting stashed detective (played by Johnny Depp) never has enough fun as it thinks its having - a fish out of water and past his prime this misfire never delivers the goods. Jeff Goldbloom, Olivia Munn and Paul Bethany co-star along with Gwyneth Paltrow as Mrs. Mordecai. 

(review)

11- Live From New York (Bao Nguyen)

A slight exploration of the Saturday Night Live dynasty - Boa Nguyen’s Live From New York is about as effective as an SNL compilation DVD found in the bargain bin at Target. We visit with failure faces and talking heads - each is more nostalgic than insightful as the material is presented to us in “chapters”. Pop culture observers and the socially aware will be bored out of their mind.

(review) 

10.- The Lazarus Effect (David Gelb)

A contained horror film using the failure trope of containing researchers playing God in a lab while awful stuff happens - The Lazarus Effect is a minor entry into this genre. Mark Duplass, Oliva Wild and Sarah Bolger star in this unremarkable effort from director David Gelb - known best for his masterful documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi.    

9.- Hitman: Agent 47 (Aleksander Bach)

A sequel no one asked for filled with frenetic action that looks slick but there’s little else going on under the surface. Worse than Fantastic Four, Hitman: Agent 47 is a disposable, globally focused-group consumer product.   

8.- Freeheld (Peter Sollett)

Timely if painfully vanilla - good intentions and a bland pain-by-numbers script fail to connect despite the presence of Julianne Moore and Ellen Page as Laurel Hester and Stacie Andree - civil rights pioneers. The mechanism of social advocacy (even if Hester and Andree were reluctant advocates) is explored via a performance that’s way over the top - Steve Carell plays Steven Goldstein, founder of Garden State Equality. Freehold could have been a great film - surely the story is inspirational but the material never quite transcends the beyond the quality of a made for TV movie.

7.-The D-Train (Jarred Paul and Andrew Mogel)

A baffling recipient of a wide release this summer via IFC Films (the byproduct of a bidding war gone horribly wrong in Park City, I suppose), The D-Train stars Jack Black, the chairman of his high school’s alumni committee who convinces commercial TV actor Oliver Lawless (James Marsden) to come back to a reunion following a drug filled sexually explicit evening. The premise isn’t so bad - in fact it made me nostalgic for the earlier work of black (School of Rock and Orange County come to mind first). The D-Train is quite a train wreck - often we can’t help but look at it even in its most absurd moments. Goodwill and nostalgia do not a movie make. 

6.-Thought Crimes (Erin Lee Carr)

Running thin even at 82 minutes, this portrait of Gilberto Valle aka the NYPD’s Cannibal Cop, the material never seems to justify a feature length treatment - nor is Valle all that interesting. A sick bastard, sure - Carr immaturely continues to juxtapose the sorted details of Valle’s imagination with shots of him cooking and eating. Chalking it up to being one of those wacky “only in New York” stories - this documentary about a man who fantasies about cannibalism left a bad taste in my mouth.

(review)  

5.-Green Inferno (Eli Roth)

Eli Roth would likely be proud to end up on this list (not that he cares) - he’s a tough nut to crack. Often his film are by their nature repulsive and sexist (yet he seem personable in interviews) filled with gruesome toucher imagery. I knew what I was getting into here - yet the heart is missing. What strikes me as false isn’t the cannibalism so much as it is the relationships at the core of this film. We need a reason to care or we need to have fun - as a horror flick this one is quite light on both.

4.-Bleeding Heart (Diane Bell)

Suffering from performances, direction and writing that each lack nuance, Bleeding Heart takes subject matter deserving of mature, thoughtful treatment and distorts reality into a series of soap opera clichés. Written and directed by Diane Bell, this lifetime original movie-style drama stars Jessica Biel as May, a yoga instructor living with boyfriend Dex (Edi Gathegi). Biel seeks to find her biological sister which leads her to Shiva (Zosia Mamet), a rather fitting name for a sex worker pimped out by boyfriend Cody (Joe Anderson). Bell’s heavy handed screenplay constrains the material, devoid of raw emotion, Bleeding Heart is full of predictable moments and conventions.

(review)

3.-Rock the Kasbah (Barry Levinson) 

Sleezy and unlikable - a departure from Bill Murray’s lovable performance in last year’s St. Vincnet, Rock the Kasbah finds Murray as a down on his luck talent agent  roaming around Afghanistan. The third act finds him producing (for his own self-interests) the career of a young Pasture girl Saliam (Leem Lubany) who finds her way onto Afghan Star and finds her voice. If only the film could find it’s voice:  Barry Levinson’s film is never clear as to what it’s intentions are; an interesting film can and has been made of unlikable characters, but any chance of that is squandered at every time here. Played for laughs it simply doesn’t work, and it’s never coherent enough to explore the economies of war. Also baffling is Merci (Kate Hudson) – why would such a smart actress allow herself to play such a one-dimensional role as part of a sexist fantasy?

(review) 

2.- The Wedding Ringer (Jay Lavender)

A comedy existing in its own upper-middle class bubble, The Wedding Ringer is a pathetic and doll comedy that’s DOA - Kevin Hart plays Bic Mitchum, a kind of friend for hire - I won’t call him a whore, but he’s a whore. Hired to play best man to Doug (Josh Gad), a workaholic with no friends marrying the spoiled, bitch and one-dimensional Gretchen (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting) the film offers of redeeming values with comedy that shows verses tells. A failing grade in screenwriting class and a failing grade at your multiplex - the film is simply an intellectual human rights violation, unfit for consumption.

(review)

1.- Digging for Fire (Joe Swanberg)

Life is too short, although apparently not short enough for Joe Swanberg. Digging For Fire is a miserable experience - 85 minutes quite frankly with idiots whom I don’t care very much about. Arrested Development (also an acquired taste) gave us a reason to care - here Swanberg’s lackluster direction bends and winds its way through conversations that go nowhere. This would be fine if the film actually had some direction - Swanberg has made this kind of film before (often on a shoestring budget). You’d think he would have gotten it out of his system (Drinking Buddies showed promise that he could transcend the kind of film he kept remaking) but this painfully bland picture inserts a lame McGuffin that grows into an even lamer metaphor for growing up. Not only did I stop caring about 30 minutes in, at around the 55 minutes mark I decided I had enough and that my evening would be better spent elsewhere. Regal’s first look pre-show ad program is more engaging and interesting than this picture. What the hell were Jake Johnson (the film’s co-writer), Brie Larson(!), Sam Rockwell, Mike Birbiglia, Sam Elliott, Anna Kendrick, Chris Messina, Jane Adams, Ron Livingston, Melanie Lynskey and Jenny Slade thinking?

The Fink 50: the best films of 2014

**Editors note: since this list ran on December 31st over at The Film Stage I have caught up with six 2014 releases that otherwise had not been considered - they were all thankfully good but no game changers amongst them. I can firmly stay I stand by my top 10. With that said I must acknowledge or embarrassingly confess that last year one did get away - The Broken Circle Breakdown. The film has had a great run including a much-deserved Oscar nomination, I haven’t included it on this list but it certainly deserves notice, in any year.

And while this list aims to organize this year’s best, that idea is somewhat lucid. Many critics included David McKenzie’s Starred Up, which I had seen in 2013 at the Toronto International Film Festival. It had been included on last year’s Fink 50. Under the rules of this logical - Eden, which played at TIFF and the New York Film Festival, and will also screen at Sundance this month, may find its way onto 2015 top ten lists. So be it: of course if we’re being fair the most fun I had in a movie theater this year was seeing Purple Rain in 35MM at the Alamo Drafthouse in Yonkers (and a rare pristine print no less - not one of the pink-faded AGFA prints that I’m used to). So how was 2014 in the grand scheme of things?

While it’s unfair to get all Chicken Little, sure the box office was down but the sky is not falling, at least not cinematically. This year produced far less masterpieces than years past in my humble opinion: I’m not exactly sure what it is, perhaps blame it on the fact I’m a year older and thus crankier with age. The standout, a reoccurring headliner on these year-end lists is without a doubt Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, a new American classic, the kind of film that comes around once every five years, and one that my admiration has only grown for upon a second viewing. Removed from my initial viewing by a few difficult months, I found second viewing to be even an even more mesmerizing and emotional experience than my initial screening. Memory is a powerful thing, Boyhood, like the other excellent pictures gracing my list make a space for us to live within the frame. This is no truer for Boyhood than it is for Ava DuVernay’s Selma, a gripping work of immediacy evoking contemporary civil rights issues currently playing out in American streets today Ferguson and Staten Island; Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s beautiful meditation Winter Sleep; and Mike Leigh’s odd and fascinating Mr. Turner with Timothy Spall giving the performance of the year.

2014 has produced several very good films, some I admit I have missed due to distribution quirks that are designed to separate the best of the bunch for a while until the major releases run their course. Others have languished between festival runs, while well-reviewed pictures came, went and are waiting in limbo to be released and discovered. Besides those challenges, I remain convinced some masterpieces are never seen, rejected by the gatekeepers and tastemakers, relegated perhaps to local and regional film festivals and uploaded by their creators to YouTube and Vimeo - thinking about such things is akin to thinking if we are alone in the universe: it can keep you up at night. 

In 2014 I had seen 274 films, staring with August Osage County and ending with Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (I know, not proud of either one of these titles), plus in the first two days of 2014 I had seen three additional titles released in 2014. What’s missing? I regret that I did not see A Most Violent Year and Still Alice due to the way the films had been released. Oh well. 

The Fink 50 (in descending order):

Top Ten

1.- Boyhood (Richard Linklater) 

A revolutionary, ambitious masterpiece that frequently resists an episodic structure. A single film that despite the 12-year duration of production unfolds simply as life does: there are no transitions, the only clues as to what year we have are Linklater’s subtle soundtrack choices. Haunting in its details, Boyhood is very simply the story of Mason (Ellar Coltrane) living moment to moment, often moving through Texas with his mother who hasn’t quite figured things out (Patrica Arquette) and occasionally bratty sister (Lorelei Linklater). Ethan Hawk beautifully plays the wayward father, himself in flux as he matures from musician to actuary. Often Mason does not understand the context of each moment which is partly why I believe the film’s impact grows more profound upon subsequent viewings. A masterpiece in any year, Boyhood represents above all the very best in American independent filmmaking: strong storytelling often presenting conflict or danger as Mason experiments with drugs, drinking, sex and ultimately heartbreak. Leaving him on the same ambiguous note it found him some 12 years and 165 minutes later, Boyhood is a sublime, exhilarating, and emotional cinematic experience, and a new classic.

2.- The Congress (Ari Folman)

A rather brilliant and exciting commentary on celebrity, youth culture, and movie-making, The Congress is an essay on identity and persona wrapped in a sci-fi adventure. Robin Wright plays herself, an aging actress who agrees to give up her craft to sell her brand to a big studio, who scans her into a database. Some years later she’s invited to a futuristic congress, the film shifts modes from live action to hand-drawn animation. One of the year’s most ambitious films, The Congress is a visual and intellectual feat: entertaining and engrossing throughout, densely packed, it delivers on the ambition it presents in the first act, and then some.

3.- Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh)

A biopic doesn’t quite describe Mike Leigh’s brilliant Mr. Turner fronted by a career-best performance by Timothy Spall as legendary British painter J.M.W. Turner. Leigh’s first digitally shot film (shot by long-time collaborator Dick Pope) the haunting opening scene captures perfectly a landscape painting of a mid-career Turner with a performance that is truly strange. Leigh, known for his improvisational style allows the viewer to enter this space as a fly on the wall, witnessing the quirks of Turner as embodied by Spall: the performance is fascinating recalling his work in Leigh’s Life is Sweet. Establishing and breaking rhythms, like J.M.W. Turner the film refuses to compromise, engrossing and immersive - it’s both beautiful and at times challenging. 

4.- Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

A beautiful and haunting meditation on life, religion, duty, and honor set in central Anatolia - Aydin (Haluk Bilginer), a man of great creative energy who reluctantly manages his family’s assets with sister Necla (Demet Akbag), while playing a quasi-father figure to his young wife Nihal (Melisa Sozen). Filled with beautiful performances, Winter Sleep, running over three hours takes its time, unfolding slowly and often in long takes. It’s not uncommon for a conversation to unfold at the pace it would in real life, not in movie-time. Liberated from artificial drama the film essentially draws us in to a dysfunctional, flawed household as Aydin balances his duties, responsibilities and ambitions as he enters his later years, like Nihal he still has not found himself. Captivating from frame one, Winter Sleep is worth the commitment required to experience it.

5.- Selma (Ava DuVernay)

If 2014 is considered the “year of outrage” - the 2015 wide release date for Selma arrives far too late. A visceral frontline examination of Martin Luther King’s civil rights marches in Selma, met with extreme violence including murder as Alabama’s good ol’ boys fight to maintain status quo prior to LBJ’s intervention and the passage of the Voter Rights Act. Undoubtably this film will provoke conversations within a current context (one early moment seems eerily Eric Garner’s final moments) and Ava DuVernay’s direction ads a sense of immediacy to Paul Webb’s script. Raw, it also presents Martin Luther King Jr (David Oyelowo), George Wallace (Tim Roth), and LBJ (Tom Wilkinson) as complex men, each with their own motivations and ideals of justice.

6.- Citizenfour (Laura Poitras)

An essential movie for 2014 - Laura Poitras is granted a privileged perspective, remaining mostly objective as she becomes a participant in history. Invited by “CitizenFour”, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, to Hong Kong where he debriefs with Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald and others regarding the trove of documents chronicling domestic surveillance, Poitras completes a trilogy about the US post-9/11. The result is a compelling and timely documentary attempting to add transparency and featuring crusaders including William Binney, the film is claustrophobic yet critical. Poitras, despite becoming a player in this saga, has crafted a remarkable, chilling picture, risking her freedom and security to do so. Taking an often transparent approach by include email correspondence between all parties, Poitras exposes both the risks and the duties she and Greenwald have to their source including the behind the scenes sausage-making as Snowden, both the man and his data are crafted into a news package for the mainstream media.

7.- Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)

Recalling PTA’s earlier work, Inherent Vice is a brilliant ensemble fronted by “Doc” (Joaquin Phoenix) a down on his luck unlicensed private detective on a mission. A twisted plot need not be explained here (after all, isn’t it best to go in cold?) yields unless surprises and rewards along the way in a film thats all about mood, atmosphere and attitude. Delightful, dark and twisted - vintage Paul Thomas Anderson to its core recalling the lighter moments of Boogie Nights with several new twists.

8.- The Rover (David Michod)

A cold blooded, powerful and moral thriller staring Guy Peirce and (a virtually unrecognizable) Robert Pattinson as travelers traversing an apcoypitic landscape in rural Australia. A bleak and compelling nightmare lensed by Natasha Braier, The Rover is a chillingly sparse picture, cementing David Michod as a new master.

9.- Wetlands (David Wnendt)

The grossest gross-out comedy of the year, and one of the rare films I’ve seen that has truly shocked me. Adapted from Charlotte Roche’s novel by David Wnendt, Wetlands is one of the year’s best (and not be confused with the 2011 French-Canadian masterpiece of the same name), no subject is taboo in this picture including sex, hygiene, gender, and identity. Fronted by Carla Juri as Helen, a young women with chronic anal fissures and heroine who answers questions we might be afraid to ask without a filthy mind and an open heart. Love is a battlefield, and Wetlands is a coming-of-age story that’s opening credits alone I suspect would shock (and delight) John Waters.

10.- Eden (Mia Hansen-Love)

Aiming to capture a moment in time, the development of French touch music, a genre of EDM Mia Hansen-Love has crafted a brilliant, sweeping epic with the spirit of the New Wave. A psychological study of music creation, influenced by the globe-trotting lifestyle of Paul (Felix de Givry) through his ups and downs as he bounces between Paris and New York. Eden is richly textured, exciting filmmaking with excellent performances.

(links to Full Reviews, where available)

11. - Finding Fela 

12. - Victor Charlie Romeo 3D 

13. - Goodbye to Language 3D 

14. - Moebis

15. - Map to the Stars

16. - The Grand Budapest Hotel

17. - Nightcrawler

18. - The Lego Movie

19. - National Gallery

20. - Gone Girl

21. - Abuse of Weakness

22. - Haemoo

23. - Interstellar

24. - The Wind Rises

25. - Under the Skin

26.-  Zero Motivation

27.-  Nymophomaniac: Vol. I

28.-  Omar

29.- The Immigrant

30.- Birdman

31.- Force Majeure

32.- Ida

33.- The Newburgh Sting

34.- Two Days, One Night

35.- Kill the Messenger

36.- Beyond the Lights

37.- Rosewater

38.- Virunga 

39.- Tales from the Grim Sleeper

40.- Snowpiercer

41.- Stop the Pounding Heart

42.- American Sniper

43.- St. Vincent

44.- X + Y

45.- The Good Lie

46.- The Dog

47. - The Babadook

48. - High Society

49. - PK

50.- Hector & The Search for Happiness

John Fink writes at TheFilmStage and FinkOnFilms and tweets @finkjohnj

Fink on Films: The 20 Worst of 2014

Remaining quite cranky in my annual list of the top 10 films over at The Film Stage, I was surprised to find very few films I actually hated. 2014…maybe…kind of…sort of….wasn’t so bad after all cinematically. For some personal reasons the year was less than stellar, providing all the more reason to look forward to 2015. It also begs the question: am I coloring the year? I’m not so sure, on this list there’s one obvious picture that stands out, on the very opposite end of the spectrum from CitizenFour and Selma and that is Let’s Be Cops. Released just as the Ferguson police department was raging war on its citizens for demanding answers and accountability, it couldn’t have come at a worse time. Police brutality in any comedy is rarely funny, against the backdrop of Ferguson it seemed downright inappropriate. End of Watch, one of the best films about policing ever made - it certainly was not. 

Others on this list earn a place for downright insulting your intelligence and wasting your time - on the bottom of the charts is a comedy that seemed to lack laughs - seeing it its opening night in a multiplex it was met with an award silence for much of its 100 minute running time - the film was so bad I begged friends via Facebook to buy me a drink or five to forget about it (that was after I wrote a scathing review). Why remember it? Perhaps I can save you from the same mistake I made. Others just simply didn’t work, and there is certainly a pattern here: the list, at its core includes unfunny comedies (again subjective), action movies with little to no character development that don’t give us a real reason to care, dramas that miss the mark and to be fair a dull documentary. Along the way you’ll also encounter (or hopefully when searching for something to watch on TV - steer clear of) a feature length commercial, an extended cut that wrecks the momentum of its original, and plenty of movies that just aren’t very much fun. A new years resolution I’ll be aiming for is to see less bad movies: often they are not possible to ignore - sometimes I’m astonished something so baffling has been made and has graced a local movie screen. Sometimes I’m proven wrong by a truly absorbing experience (I have given positive reviews to faith-based pictures before - including 2014’s Gimme Shelter). 

Agree with me, hate me? Feel free to leave a comment.

And now, in the words of (the tragically and disturbingly still above ground) Casey Kasem - on with the countdown:

20.- The Maze Runner (Wes Bell) Slick looking but ultimately boring - truth be told it commits the ultimate sin that you’ll find frequently on this list - I can’t remember what the hell happened.

19.- When the Game Stands Tall (Thomas Carter) The message trumps entertainment in this Texas sports drama that ultimately forgets to have fun - Varsity Blues this is not.

18.-Deliver us From Evil (Scott Derrickson) I imagine the real life story is insanely more interesting than Derrickson’s film that invents and takes liberties - including a deadly beating that didn’t happen in real life. If the NYPD ever decides to stop whining about Bill DeBlasio, Patrick Lynch should pick his next fight with this movie. (Full Review)

17.-Intramural (Andrew Disney) An unfunny sports comedy that unlike When the Game Stands Tall is having too much fun without stopping to let us in on the joke. Perhaps it requires either being drunk or high, therefore the lone Alamo Drafthouse outpost in Colorado is the only theater that legally should be showing it. (Full Review)

16.-The Face of Love (Arie Posin) One of two talent-filled features that simply falls flat this year - staring Annette Bening as a women stalking a man (Ed Harris) who resembles her late husband (Robin Williams and Jess Weixler also co-star). Transitioning from earnest to creepy and into melodrama cliché all within a scene is quite a unique failure - perhaps the only filmmakers that could pull off such a feat successfully are Mike Leigh and Tyler Perry.

15.- Left Behind (Vic Armstrong) I imagine the entire budget of this film went towards its cast (including Nicolas Cage, Chad Michael Murray, Jordin Sparks and Lea Thompson), a low-rent affair from the get-go (gosh that music score! Smooth jazz - come on, this isn’t a 90s made for TV picture, or is it?) - it never delivers instead growing offensive. Truly a dangerous picture rather than an inclusive faith-based work.

14.- Dumb and Dumber To (Bobby & Peter Farrelly) Not without a few laughs, but it certainly doesn’t live up to the original. Granted, we know what we’re getting and some moments have a kind of sweetness that’s broken up by frequent sexism that quite frankly made me cringe. It’s got a lot of “humor” or attempts at humor that instead inspire the opposite reaction - and I’m no prude, perhaps I’m overthinking this one.

13.-Horrible Bosses 2 (Sean Anders) What promise Sean Anders’ first feature, Never Been Thawed, presented to us. While I’ve been a fan of some of his work since then (including the delightful She’s Out of My League), Horrible Bosses forces laughs. A comedy sequel is difficult to pull off: how do you keep it fresh (the backbone of comedy) while keeping the character and spirit of the original in tact? Here’s a textbook example of what not to do.

12.- I, Frankenstein (Stuart Beattie) Another film I don’t remember very much of. (I actually had a horrible viewing experience - - yes, I’m calling you at National Amusements Concourse Plaza Multiplex in the Bronx, never again!) Aaron Eckhart whom you may remember as a cold hearted bastard in the great indie In The Company of Men, 17 years ago, does something with a Frankenstien - the action is frantic and the visuals are dark (and I saw it in 2D - again - screw you Concourse Plaza Multiplex). I don’t think I missed a masterpiece here.

11.-Legend of Hercules (Renny Harlin) A bland origin story of Hercules (and one of two Hercules pictures out this year) staring Kellan Lutz whom Hollywood is still trying to make happen. B-grade movie that again I don’t remember very much of.

10.- Pompeii (Paul WS Anderson) Noticing a trend here? I should stop wasting my money on these kinds of films - I did recall the 3D was pretty good here - the story, not so much.

9.- Meet the Mormons (Blair Treu) A slickly produced commercial for the Mormon faith that oddly felt of out of place in a commercial multiplex. If its a “commercial”, it’s awfully curious that its producer, Intellectual Reserve, an arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints opted to keep it behind an exhibitors paywall. I (well MoviePass, let’s be honest) payed $10.50 to watch a commercial. While some stories are quite interesting others are less than extraordinary, preaching to the converted - literally. (Full Review)

8.- Third Person (Paul Haggis) Playing as a parody of a pretentious art house film - Paul Haggis’ Third Person is not without ambition, although once the gig is up (and the audience gets ahead of its narrator fairly quickly) it grows into a tiresome and often unintentionally hilarious misfire. It’s unfortunate given the talent involved including writer-director Haggis, Liam Neeson, Maria Bello, Mila Kunis, Kim Basinger, Adrien Brody, Oliva Wild and James Franco - but what looks good on paper doesn’t always translate to screen. It’s 137 minute running time doesn’t help matters either.

7.- Step Up: All In (Trish Sie) So this happened, in 3D. While the dance numbers are passively exciting in spades, the script is quite paint-by-the-numbers. There’s not excuse to phone it in. (Full Review)

6.-Citizen Koch (Carl Deal & Tia Lessin) A weak documentary that follows activists looking to unseat Wisconsin governor Scott Walker while telling us too little about the brothers Koch, industrial magnates whom collect objects of power. The problem is Citizen Koch isn’t doing anything that MSNBC and NPR haven’t done more effectively recently: it provides very little new information about David and Charles Koch or “Astroturf” grassroots organizations like Citizens United. I suspect the reasons real PBS didn’t air it is because MSNBC - especially Rachel Maddow and Chris Haynes - had beat them to it.

5.- Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues: Super-Sized R-Rated Version (Adam McKay) Why fix what wasn’t broken? This version, extended by 24 minutes returns painfully unfunny bits that were luckily scrapped from the film’s very funny PG-13 rated version. These “unrated” or “extended cuts” seem like a bait-and-switch of sorts: comedy should be efficient. I imagine a lot of trial and error goes on in the Judd Apatow factory but this version is downright unwatchable returning jokes that likely bombed in front of a test audience. Motivated by a cheap profit and made possible thanks to digital cinema, I hope this idea is never repeated again. (Full Review)

4.- That Awkward Moment (Tom Gormican) Zac Efron, Miles Teller, and Michael B. Jordan try so hard to make a terrible script work, but when it’s lacking engaging, realistic characters and substance you can only get so far. The dialogue — made up mostly of quick one-liners, some likely improvised — wear out their welcome quick, while providing zero background information on these guys, apart from the fact that they went to college together. And when all else fails: cue the music and lets build it into a montage. (Full Review)

3.- The Other Women (Nick Cassavetes) Unfunny and disturbingly anti-feminist: not a single independent women to be had in this picture that tires very hard for laughs. Cameron Diaz stars as a high-powered attorney who discovers her boyfriend is cheating on her…with his wife - played by a manic Leslie Mann. Mann, a talented actress is truly scary here as a women who must be suffering from an undiagnosed bipolar disorder that crosses the line away from the intended light comedy. A truly awful picture, and a miracle in its own right: a film with three female leads that manages to flunk the Bechdel Test. 

2.-Let’s Be Cops (Luke Greenfield) A film that was truly unhelpful to the dialogue started around its release, the film hit theaters right as Ferguson, MO was searching for answers. Here our “heros” pretend to be cops illustrating attitudes society holds towards the police in general: while this could be helpful - heck even a Jackass style film about pretend cops could be helpful, it’s a cop out. (Not to be confused with Kevin Smith’s worst feature of the same name) Going for cheap laughs verses intelligent social commentary it may very well be the wrong film at the wrong time, but I doubt in any circumstance it would be considered funny.   

1.-Sex Tape (Jake Kasdan) I hope the Sony hacks eventually reveal how this awful picture came into being: perhaps on paper it looked good - Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, and Jake Kasden…something interesting might happen, right? Not with a DOA script by Kate Angelo, Segel and Nick Stoller full of comedy tropes and borrowed elements (it also knows nothing about pornography, technology, intimacy, the list could go on). It’s a comedy so broad that perhaps its for no one, save for a chuckle or two I think I could sue Sony Pictures for falsely marketing this as a comedy. I can safely say I’d rather get punched in the nuts then have to watch this picture again. (Full Review)

John Fink writes at Fink on Films and at The Film Stage - and tweets @finkjohnj