Decade Rewind: The Best Movies of 2014

As the 2010’s have officially come to an end, I will be looking back at each cinematic year to give a personal decade retrospective of the best movies and performances of each year. I will break down my Top 10 movies of each year, along with my favorite performances from that year. I will also be listing my favorite’s from each genre, like Best Animated Movie and Best Action Movie, as well as best of the technical aspects, like Best Cinematography and Best Screenplay. This will all culminate into my picks for the best movies and performances of the decade.

*Rankings of movies and performances are numbered from 1-5, with 1 being the best movie/performance.

*Gifs for each category are not specifically of the “winners” of each category, just one of the nominees.

THE YEAR: 2014

2014 was a great year for movies and for myself. With my mini, one sentence reviews becoming relatively popular, I decided to start a Facebook page specifically for them called One Sentence Reviews. It got pretty popular and was the beginning of me making top five lists, talking movies, and, of course, writing reviews.

As for the movies themselves, I loved going to the movies in 2014. This was such an exciting year for movies which didn’t feature a ton of older directors, but really solidified some directors, like Wes Anderson, Bennett Miller, and Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu as true masters of the craft, while shining new light on voices like Damien Chazelle. It was also an extraordinary year for acting. Actors like Michael Keaton, Keanu Reeves had career resurgences, Shailene Woodley, Channing Tatum, Miles Teller, and Bill Hader surprised ya with impressive dramatic turns, and character actors like JK Simmons, Ralph Fiennes, and Rosamund Pike got there moments to shine. Here are my picks for the best movies and performances of 2014.

BEST PICTURE

WHIPLASH (Damien Chazelle)
INTERSTELLAR (Christopher Nolan)
GONE GIRL (David Fincher)
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (Wes Anderson)
BIRDMAN OR (THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE) (Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu)
THE SKELTON TWINS (Craig Johnson)
BOYHOOD (Richard Linklater)
THE LEGO MOVIE (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller)
JOHN WICK (Chad Stahelski, David Leitch)
FOXCATCHER (Bennett Miller)