Were Film Better Fifty Years Ago? (Yes, They Were)

Wow, still one a day--another Jesse Walker top ten movie list, this time for 1973.  I don't think we'll post one tomorrow, but eventually we'll get back to the 60s, 50s and so on.

The Perpetual Three-Dot Column (jessewalker.blogspot.com)

Okay, let's see his top ten:

1. F For Fake

2. The Long Goodbye

3. Badlands

4. The Last Detail

5. Charley Varrick

6. The Friends Of Eddie Coyle

7. Mean Streets

8. Paper Moon

9. Day For Night

10. Sleeper

Quite a list.  And mostly Hollywood.  Which makes sense, since the early 70s was a golden age of experimentation, even in the mainstream.  New ideas and styles (often influenced by the rest of world cinema), different types of stars, and no censorship had up-and-coming directors and writers doing some of their best work. (Though it's a bit surprising how many of these titles are crime films.)

F For Fake is by an old master, of course.  While some of these films represent the start of careers, F For Fake essentially meant the end of Orson Welles' career.  It got almost no attention at the time and had to be rediscovered. (I still wouldn't put it at #1, though I have friends who say it's his best.)

Robert Altman was on a tear in the first half of the 70s, and The Long Goodbye, his modern take on Philip Marlowe, is one of his best.

Badlands seemed to come out of nowhere from Terrence Malick, and it's possible he never surpassed it.

The Last Detail, directed by Hal Ashby, written by Robert Towne, is the sort of well-done character study that seems almost impossible to imagine being made today.

Charley Varrick is one of my favorite action movies from the era, though action then meant plenty of character development and great dialogue, not just lots of explosions.

The Friends Of Eddie Coyle is a pretty good, gritty, late-era Robert Mitchum film.

Mean Streets, from young filmmaker Martin Scorsese, shows promise, but the story doesn't hold together too well and has plenty of slack moments.

Paper Moon was yet another hit from Peter Bogdanovich.  His last for a while, actually, but who knew at the time he'd hit his peak?

Day For Night (French title translates to "American Night"--much better) is a charming film by Truffaut that is also deeply felt.

Sleeper is one of Woody Allen's funniest comedies and should probably be ranked higher.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11. Scenes From A Marriage

12. Don't Look Now

13. Wattstax

14. Serpico

15. Juvenile Court

16. Frank Film

17. High Plains Drifter

18. The Sting

19. My Name Is Nobody

20. Hell Up In Harlem

11 is good Bergman but not great Bergman.  12 is creepy in a way most films can't manage, but I still wouldn't call it a classic.  As for 13, what's not to like (assuming you like the music)? 14 is okay, but not the classic some consider it to be. 15 is another Frederick Wiseman doc that always seem to make it onto Jesse's lists--haven't seen it.

16 is a (good) short.  17 is good for Clint Eastwood, but overrated.  18 is delightful--should be in the top ten (even if it did win the Best Picture Oscar). Haven't seen 19, though I'd watch it if I had the chance. Haven't seen 20, though I did once meet Larry Cohen.

Other films that would make my top ten (or twenty):

American Graffiti (would make top five)

O Lucky Man! (would make top twenty)

Other films of the year that I liked:

Electra Glide In Blue, Enter The Dragon, Fantastic Planet, Heavy Traffic, Let The Good Times Roll, Love And Anarchy, The Mad Adventures Of Rabbi Jacob, The Paper Chase, That’ll Be The Day, The Three Musketeers

Of films of interest:

40 Carats, Bang The Drum Slowly, Battle For The Planet Of The Apes, Black Caesar, Blume In Love, Cahill U.S. Marshall, Charlotte’s Web, Cleopatra Jones, Coffy, The Day Of The Dolphin, The Devil In Miss Jones, Digby: The Biggest Dog In The World, Dillinger, Don’t Play Us Cheap, Emperor Of The North Pole, The Exorcist, Five On The Black Hand Side, Godspell, Godzilla Vs. Megalon, The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad, The Harrad Experiment, Harry In Your Pocket, The Homecoming, The Iceman Cometh, Jeremy, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, The Last American Hero, The Last Of Sheila, The Laughing Policeman, Live And Let Die, Lost Horizon, The Mack, Magnum Force, The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, Oklahoma Crude, Papillon, Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid, Save The Tiger, Scarecrow, Schlock, The Seven-Ups, Shaft In Africa, Sisters, Soylent Green, Superdad, The Thief Who Came To Dinner, Tom Sawyer, A Touch Of Class, Walking Tall, The Way We Were, Westworld, White Lightning, The Wicker Man, The World’s Greatest Athlete

Years Of Endearment

Jesse Walker has returned to 1983.  If I were a shallow critic, I'd say movies of the time were a reaction to Reagan (and Thatcher in England).  But those sorts of correlations are cheap.  Do you really think James L. Brooks wouldn't have made Terms Of Endearment (the big Oscar-winning film of the year) if Jimmy Carter were still in office?

Jesse, by the way, says Terms Of Endearment is "fine," but it doesn't make his list.  I say that's probably too kind.  But what made the list?

The Perpetual Three-Dot Column (jessewalker.blogspot.com)

1983 Top Ten:

1. Sans Soleil

2. Videodrome

3. The King Of Comedy

4. Tender Mercies

5. Zelig

6. Pauline At The Beach

7. The Meaning Of Life

8. El Sur

9. El Norte

10. A Christmas Story

I barely remember Sans Soleil, which is interesting, since it's a documentary about memory.

If you want to see a film about David Cronenberg's obsession with sex, violence, politics and technology, I don't know if you could do better than Videodrome. But I wouldn't say this is a great film. Certainly not top ten.

The King Of Comedy is fascinating and creepy (though not funny).  It's memorable, but I can't say that makes it good.

I found Tender Mercies boring.  I can't imagine watching it again.

The pseudo-documentary Zelig is an enjoyable oddity from Woody. I don't love it like I love his best comedies, but at the very least it's a highwire act he pulls off.

Pauline At The Beach is a Rohmer classic.

The Meaning Of Life is like a long, expensive TV episode of Monty Python and thus deserves its place in the top ten.

Haven't seen El Sur. El Norte I recall as being pretty good.

I liked A Christmas Story, though I don't quite see why people are calling it a classic.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11. A Nos Amours

12. John Cage

13. Carmen

14. Trading Places

15. Possibly In Michigan

16. The Store

17. Risky Business

18. Local Hero

19. Rockit

20. Smorgasbord

11 is fine. Haven't seen 12, 13 or 15 (who would have guessed Frederick Wiseman would have a new film out in 2023?).  14 would make my top ten, and really showed what Eddie Murphy could do. 15 is a short (that I saw for the first time this year). 17 would make my top ten or twenty, as would 18. 19 is a music video (we're at the height of music video mania in the early 80s). 20 is a weird Jerry Lewis film, and it sure was good to have him back.

:

Here are a few other films that would make my top ten:

Baby It's You 
The Fourth Man
Project A


Other films I enjoyed in 1983:

The Big Chill, Bill Cosby: Himself, Educating Rita, Koyaanisqatsi, Liquid Sky, Lianna, The Man With Two Brains, Max Dugan Returns, National Lampoon’s Vacation, The Outsiders, Return Of The Jedi, Reuben Reuben,  Rumble Fish, Strange Brew, Twilight Zone: The Movie (the second half), WarGames
 

Other films of interest:

All The Right Moves, And The Ship Sails On, Another Time Another Place, L’Argent, Bad Boys, Betrayal, Between Friends, Blue Thunder, Brainstorm, Breathless, Can She Bake A Cherry Pie?, Chained Heat, Christine, Class, Class Of 1984, Confidentially Yours, Cracking Up, Cross Creek, Curse Of The Pink Panther, Cujo, Curtains, D. C. Cab, Daniel, Danton, The Dead Zone, Deal Of The Century, Doctor Detroit, The Dresser, Easy Money, Eddie And The Cruisers, Eddie Macon’s Run, First Name: Carmen, Flashdance, Get Crazy, Good Guys Wear Black, Gorky Park, Hanna K, Heart Like A Wheel, The House On Sorority Row, The Hunger, Jaws 3-D, Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, Joysticks, Krull, Let’s Spend The Night Together, Lone Wolf McQaude, Losin’ It, Lovesick, Lucien Brouillard, The Man Who Loved Women, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Moon In The Gutter, Mr. Mom, My Breakfast With Blassie, Never Cry Wolf, Never Say Never Again, Nighthawks, Nostalghia, Octopussy, The Osterman Weekend, Phar Lap, The Pirates Of Penzance, The Ploughman’s Lunch, Private School, Psycho II, The Right Stuff, Romantic Comedy, Scarface, Sheer Madness, Silkwood, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Space Raiders, Spacehunter: Adventures In The Forbidden Zone, Spring Break, Star 80, Stacy’s Knights, The Star Chamber, Staying Alive, Still Smokin, The Sting II, Strange Invaders, Streamers, Stroker Ace, Sudden Impact, Superman III, The Survivors, Sweet Sixteen, Testament, A Time To Die, To Be Or Not To Be, Trenchcoat, Two Of A Kind, Uncommon Valor, Under Fire, Valley Girl, The Wicked Lady, The Wind In The Willows, Without A Trace, Yellowbeard, Yentl, Yor: The Hunter From The Future

Those Thrilling Days Of Yesteryear

If anyone is asking why Jesse Walker's top ten lists are coming one on top of another (assuming anyone is aware that we're up and running again), it's not that he's going that fast so much as I started behind.  So we've had three lists in three days.  I think it'll soon be down to one every two or three days, so enjoy it while you can.

Anyway, we're back to 1993.  Clinton was the new president and we were in-between communism and terrorism (not that we knew it).

Here's Jesse's top ten list for the year (The Perpetual Three-Dot Column (jessewalker.blogspot.com)):

1. Short Cuts

2. Groundhog Day

3. A Perfect World

4. The Nightmare Before Christmas

5. Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould

6. Latcho Drom

7. Fearless

8. Manhattan Murder Mystery

9. Dottie Gets Spanked

10. True Romance

A lot of Hollywood here, though not conventional Hollywood.  Or conventional Oscar bait. As Jesse notes, this was the year of Schindler's List., which doesn't make his top twenty.  I think it would make my top ten.

I should also note that I haven't seen most of these films since 1993, so I'm going on my original impressions.

As for Short Cuts, it may be Altman's last great film (though he made some decent ones after, and one of his biggest hits in Gosford Park).

Groundhog Day was a hit that has since come to be recognized as a classic (and the concept has been repeated so often the plot feels prophetic). I'm not quite sure if it's a classic, but it's at least pretty good. And certainly a good use of the Bill Murray characters.

I'm not sure if I get the adoration for A Perfect World, which is long and poorly shaped.  And I think Jesse's comments on it show, once again, how he likes Clint Eastwood too much. And why the hate for Costner?

The Nightmare Before Christmas is okay, but top ten?

I only saw the Glenn Gould film once, but it sticks in the mind.  It's quite something. And without it, we wouldn't know about steamed hams (22 Short Films About Springfield - Wikipedia).

Haven't seen Latcho Drom, though I'd like to.

The only thing I remember about Fearless is I've forgotten it.

It's hard to believe Woody Allen was going to do Manhattan Murder Mystery before he went with Annie Hall instead.  But then, 70s Woody probably could have made this work.  Though perhaps, not having seen it in 30 years, it holds up better than I recall.

Dottie Gets Spanked is a TV short from Todd Haynes I've never seen, though I'd like to.

True Romance is the first film that truly gave us the voice of Tarantino--aside from getting rid of some of the chronological games that Quentin loves, Tony Scott mostly shot the script as is. And I remember it as being very entertaining.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11. The Bed You Sleep In

12. Red Rock West

13. Mad Dog And Glory

14. The Scent Of Green Papaya

15. The Wrong Trousers

16. The Wonderful, Horrible Life Of Leni Riefenstahl

17. Body Snatchers

18. The Junky's Christmas

19. The Hour Of The Pig

20. Blue

12 is a well done modern noir. 13 is the Bill Murrary film from 1993 no one talks about.  It's different, but I can't say too much more than that. 14 isn't bad (and the director has a new film out now about French cooking that may be on Jesse's list in ten years). I don't approve it on the list due to its length, but 15 is a fun, Oscar-winning Wallace & Gromit short.  16 is a fine documentary, maybe should be top ten.  17 is an Abel Ferrara oddity. 20 is the first of the Three Colors trilogy, which are all pretty good. (Not to be confused with Derek Jarman's Blue the same year.)

Haven't seen 11, 18 (IMDb puts it in 1994) and 19 (though I remember discussing 19 with a law professor who was fighting for animal representation in court).

Other films that would make my top ten (or twenty):

A Bronx Tale

The Fugitive

King Of The Hill

Naked

The Remains Of The Day

Ruby In Paradise

Other films I enjoyed:

The Bride With White Hair, City Hunter, City On Fire, Crime Story, Dazed And Confused, Farewell My Concubine, Grumpy Old Men, Matinee, No More Mr. Nice Guy, Six Degrees Of Separation, Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey, What’s Love Got To Do With It


Other films of interest:

Addams Family Values, The Age Of Innocence, Aileen Wuornos: The Selling Of A Serial Killer, Alive, American Heart, Amongst Friends, Amos & Andrew, Another Stakeout, Arizona Dream, The Ballad Of Little Jo, Benny & Joon, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bodies Rest & Motion, Boxing Helena, Bruce Lee: The Curse Of The Dragon, Cannibal! The Musical, Carlito’s Way, CB4, The Cemetery Club, Cliffhanger, Coneheads, Cool Runnings, Cronos, The Crush, The Dark Half, Dave, Demolition Man, Dennis The Menace, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, Faraway So Close!, Fatal Instinct, The Firm, Flesh And Bone, For Love Or Money, Free Willy, Geronimo: An American Legend, Gettysburg, The Good Son, Gross Misconduct, Guilty As Sin, Hard Target, Heart And Souls, Heart Of Darkness, Hear No Evil, Heaven & Earth, Hexed, Hocus Pocus, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, Hot Shots! Part Deux, House Of Cards, The House Of The Spirits, Household Saints, In The Line Of Fire, Indecent Proposal, Indian Summer, Jack The Bear, The Joy Luck Club, Judgment Night, Jurassic Park, Kallifornia, Last Action Hero, Leprechaun, Life With Mikey, Little Buddha, Loaded Weapon 1, Lost In Yonkers, Love Bites, M. Butterfly, Made In America, Malice, Map Of The Human Heart, Menace II Society, The Meteor Man, Mi Vida Loca, Moving, Mr. Jones, Mr. Wonderful, Mrs. Doubtfire, Much Ado About Nothing, My Life, Nowhere To Run, Once A Cop, The Pelican Brief, Philadelphia, The Piano, The Pickle, Poetic Justice, Posse, The Program, Rising Sun, Robin Hood: Men In Tights, Romeo Is Bleeding, Rookie Of The Year, Rudy, The Sandlot, Searching For Bobby Fischer, The Secret Garden, Shadowlands, Sleepless In Seattle, So I Married An Axe Murderer, Sommersby, Son In Law, Son Of The Pink Panther, Sonatine, Sparrow, Splitting Heirs, Striking Distance, Super Mario Bros., Surf Ninjas, Swing Kids, The Thing Called Love, This Boy’s Life, The Three Musketeers, Tombstone, Undercover Blues, The Vanishing, The War Room, Wayne’s World 2, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wilder Napalm

These Films Will Be Able To Drink Next Year

 Okay, Jesse Walker's top ten movie list is now back to 2003:

The Perpetual Three-Dot Column (jessewalker.blogspot.com)

Here's his top ten:

1. The Wire (season 2)

2. Tarnation

3. The Saddest Music In The World

4. Osama

5. Lost In Translation

6. Saraband

7. Kill Bill: Vol. 1

8. Good Bye Lenin!

9. Looney Tunes: Back In Action

10. The Same River Twice

My biggest disagreement with Jesse is how TV shows keep popping up on his movie lists.  The Wire was a great show (even season 2), but it shouldn't be here.

I can see Tarnation and The Saddest Music In The World on this list.  Haven't seen Osama, Saraband or The Same River Twice. Jesse says the last is what The Big Chill was trying to be.  I thought that was Return Of The Secaucus Seven. (And I guess TBC won't make his 1983 list.)

It's Sofia Coppola's only big hit, but I don't get Lost In Translation. (If we're still doing this in ten years, we'll find out what Jesse thinks of Priscilla.)

While they have some cool set pieces, the Kill Bill films are far from my favorite Tarantino (and I like Volume 2 better).

Good Bye Lenin! is fine.  Looney Tunes is okay, but not much more.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11. The Triplets Of Belleville

12. Swimming Pool

13. The Agronomist

14. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring

15. A Mighty Wind

16. Capturing The Friedmans

17. All The Real Girls

18. Hurl

19. My Architect

20. Cunnilingus In North Korea

11 might make my top ten.  12, 14, 15, 19 are all worthy of the top twenty. Haven't seen 13, 17, 18 or 20. 16 is good, and I was recently thinking about it, since I saw Subject, a documentary that looks at what it's like to be a subject in a documentary.

Other films that would make my top ten (or twenty):

American Splendor

The Barbarian Invasions

Elephant

Oldboy

The Station Agent

The Wild Parrots Of Telegraph Hill

Other good films from the year:

Bright Young Things, Broadway: The Golden Age, Coffee And Cigarettes (parts of it), Dogville, Finding Nemo, The Five Obstructions, Freaky Friday, Girl With A Pearl Earring, Japanese Story, Kitchen Stories, Pieces Of April, School Of Rock, Sky High

Other films of note:

2 Fast 2 Furious, 21 Grams, Aileen: Life And Death Of A Serial Killer, Alex & Emma, American Wedding, Anger Management, Anything Else, Baadasssss!, Bad Santa, Basic, The Battle Of Shaker Heights, Battle Royale II, Big Fish. Breakfast With Hunter, Bringing Down The House, The Brown Bunny, Bruce Almighty, Bulletproof Monk, Calendar Girls, Casa De Los Babys, The Cat In The Hat, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, Cheaper By The Dozen, Code 46, The Company, The Cooler, The Core, D.E.B.S., Daddy Day Care, Danny Deckchair, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, Le Divorce, Down With Love, The Dreamers, Duplex, Elf, The Fog Of War, Freddy V. Jason, From Justin To Kelly, Ghosts Of The Abyss, Gigli, Grimm, Guru, The Haunted Mansion, The Hebrew Hammer, Holes, Hollywood Homicide, House Of 1000 Corpses, House Of Sand And Fog, How To Deal, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, Hulk, The Human Stain, Identity, In The Cut, The In-Laws, Intermission, Intolerable Cruelty, The Italian Job, Johnny English, Ju-on: The Grudge 2, Just Married, Kangaroo Jack, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life, The Last Samurai, The Last Supper, The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Levity, The Life Of David Gale, Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King, Love Actually, Madeleine, Malibu’s Most Wanted, Mambo Italiano, Masked And Anonymous, Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World, Matchstick Men, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Mayor Of The Sunset Strip, The Medallion, Melvin Goes To Dinner, The Missing, Monsieur Ibrahim, Mystic River, Northfork, Old School, Once Upon A Time In Mexico, Open Range, Open Water, Out Of Time, Owning Mahowny, Party Monster, Pauly Shore Is Dead, Paycheck, Peter Pan, Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl, Radio, The Real Cancun, The Reckoning, The Recruit, Robot Stories, The Room, Rugrats, Runaway Jury, Saw, Seabiscuit, Secondhand Lions, Shanghai Knights, The Singing Detective, The Sleeping Dictionary, Something’s Gotta Give, Spy Kids 3-D, The Statement, Stealing Rembrandt, Step Into Liquid, Stuck On You, S.W.A.T., Sylvia, Tears Of The Sun, Terminator 3, The Man Of The Year, Thirteen, Timeline, Touch & Go, Twentynine Palms, Under The Tuscan Sun, The United States Of Leland, Uptown Girls, Veronica Guerin, View From The Top, What A Girl Wants, Wonderland, The Yes Men, Young Adam

Ten Years After

Wake up, everyone!  This blog comes out of hibernation in the winter (that can't be right) to discuss my friend Jesse Walker's top ten movie lists.  Not for 2023, but looking back ten years, then twenty, then thirty and so on until they weren't making movies.  So please take some time off from opening gifts and give it a look.

Because I'm not sure how to do anything on this template anymore, I will simply print out Jesse's URL so you can go to the original:

https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-bakers-coven-i-havent-seen-enough.html

Here is his top ten for 2013:

1. Her

2. The Wind Rises

3. Computer Chess

4. Inside Llewyn Davis

5. Enemy

6. Ida

7. Stoker

8. The East

9. Orphan Black

10. The Wolf Of Wall Street

An interesting list, though I have some strong disagreements.  Such as #1.

I didn't like Her at all. I thought it took over two hours to tell a minor story that could have been handled in a short. While there were some interesting things in it, I thought very little of the script, which is why awarding Spike Jonze the Best Screenplay Oscar seemed to me one of the worst decisions the Academy ever made.

The Wind Rises is minor Miyazaki (not unlike his film out now), but still pretty good.

Computer Chess is an odd little film that few have seen.  It would make my top ten.

Inside Llewyn Davis has some great things in it: the sets and costumes, some of the acting, some of the dialogue.  But I'm still not sure if I get the point of showing a few depressing days in the life of a loser.

Enemy is another odd little film (not as little as Computer Chess, but perhaps odder) which I think has aged quite well.  Would probably make my top twenty.

Ida was a well-done depressing film. (And it was under 90 minutes.  If you're going to be depressing, don't overstay your welcome.) By the way, just because you can make your film in black and white doesn't mean you should.

To my surprise, I didn't see Stoker.

My biggest disagreement is with The East, which I thought was one of the most annoying films of the year.  Though my filmgoing experience was very exciting, since after the movie a fight almost broke out in the theatre (not over the film, though).

Orphan Black is a TV series, and thus shouldn't be on the list.

The Wolf Of Wall Street is sort of Scorsese transferring Goodfellas to the fiduciary world.  A bit overdone, but fun.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11. Before Midnight

12. The Americans

13. 12 Years A Slave

14. Snowpiercer

15. Mood Indigo

16. Frozen

17. Upstream Color

18. Twenty Feet From Stardom

19. American Reflexxx

20. Skinner Box Head

11 is the third in Linklater's Before trilogy.  I skipped it. Perhaps I should give it a chance.

12 is a TV series.

13 won the Oscar for Best Picture, and I recall is pretty good--one of the best films about the horrors of slavery--though I've never felt the need to revisit it, so I don't know how well it holds up.

14 I liked quite a bit.  A great concept, with built-in surprises. (As in The East, the politics are pretty silly, but I don't judge films by their politics--a good rule in general when it comes to Bong Joon Ho.)

Haven't seen 15 (though Michael Gondry, for all his shortcomings, often does interesting work).

16 is one of the hugest films ever to come from Disney, and Anna and Elsa are as important to their brand as almost any other characters, but let's forget that and remember it all started as a very entertaining cartoon.

17 would make my top ten.  There's good confusing and bad confusing, and this is the former.  No one can get more bang for the buck than Shane Carruth (who apparently has personal problems so won't be making more films).

18 was perhaps the most entertaining documentary of the year.

19 is a short.  20 is a GIF.  So it's come to this.

Other films that would make my top ten (or twenty):

American Hustle (people seemed to have turned on it, but I recall it as very entertaining)

AKA Doc Pomus

Dallas Buyer's Club (though flawed)

Enough Said

Gravity (another film people have turned on)

Happy People: A Year In The Taiga

In The House (Dans La Maison)

Monster's University (liked it better than the first one)

No

Our Nixon

Room 237

Rush

The Sapphires

Warm Bodies

Other films I liked:

Play Dead, Side Effects, Sound City, The Croods, The Way Way Back, Captain Phillips, Kill Your Darlings, Philomena, Saving Mr. Banks (though the flashbacks slowed the story down)

Other films of interest:

John Dies At The End, Oz The Great And Powerful, Olympus Has Fallen, Wrong, It's A Disaster, Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries And Mentors Of Ricky Jay, Now You See Me, 42, This Is The End, Epic, Blue Jasmine, We're The Millers, When Comedy Went To School, The World's End, Pacific Rim, Afternoon Delight, Bad Grandpa, All Is Lost, The Ackermonster Chronicles, The Hobbit: The Desolution Of Smaug (not bad considering the first film was just awful), Jack The Giant Killer, Thor 2, Dhoom 3, Wrong Cops, Struck By Lightning, Movie 43 (so disgusting it's almost worth seeing), The Last Stand, Parker, Bullet To The Head, Admission, Identity Thief, A Good Day To Die Hard, Gangster Squad, Snitch, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, Adventures Of Serial Buddies, Spring Breakers (though James Franco was something), Somebody Up There Likes Me, Gimme The Loot, The Place Beyond The Pines, Trance, Oblivion, Iron Man 3,  Pain And Gain, The Great Gatsby, Star Trek Into Darkness, Frances Ha, The Hangover III, Fast & Furious 6, The Iceman, The Internship, The Kings Of Summer, Man Of Steel, World War Z, Much Ado About Nothing, The Bling Ring, The Heat, The Lone Ranger, Despicable Me 2, Grown Ups 2, Crystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus, Red 2, The To Do List, Girl Most Likely, 2 Guns, The Spectacular Now, Europa Report, In A World...., Elysium, Prince Avalanche, Kick Ass 2, Lee Daniel's The Butler, R.I.P.D., After Earth, White House Down, Drinking Buddies, The Grandmaster, The Conjuring, The Family, Prisoner, Don Jon, Thanks For Sharing, Nebraska, A.C.O.D., Escape Plan, Percy Jackson 2, Last Vegas, Ender's Game, Hunger Games 2, The Counselor, The Call, Delivery Man, Broken City, Homefront, About Time, Anchorman 2, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, August: Osage County