That Time Of The Year/Decade

This blog has been closed for years, but we open up in late December to publish and comment on my friend Jesse Walker's top ten picks.

He doesn't pick the best of this year, but of past years.  He goes over each decade ending with "4" this time around (because it's 2024).  So he starts with 2014.

https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2024/12/the-year-of-time-loops-its-december-so.html

Here is his top ten:

1.  Too Many Cooks

2.  Boyhood

3.  It Follows

4. The Leftovers

5. The Babadook

6.  The Grand Budapest Hotel

7.  When Marnie Was There

8.  Fargo

9.  The Infinite Man

10.  American Sniper

Looking at this list, it doesn't seem a very impressive year.

Too Many Cooks is a short that parodies TV opening credits and turns into analog horror.  Very well done, but, as Jesse knows, I don't think shorts--or material first shown on TV--should be included in top ten film lists. (Quentin Tarantino recently spoke to Joe Rogan about the difference between movies and TV.  I'm not sure if his distinction entirely holds, but I still feel they should be discussed separately.)

Boyhood was a fascinating experiment that worked--even made my top ten for the year--but I haven't felt the need to watch it since I saw it in the theatre.  Maybe I admire it more than I like it.

It Follows is one of those films I've been meaning to watch since it opened but haven't gotten around to.  I also haven't seen The Infinite Man, but I've never heard of that one.

The Leftovers is a TV series.  It's a fine series, but not a movie. (I think the second season--when they left the novel behind--is its best.) While we're at it, Fargo 2014 is a well-done TV series inspired by the Coen Brothers film.

The Babadook was a pretty good low-budget horror film from Australia.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is the apotheosis of the Wes Anderson style.  As such, it's a little too pleased with itself, but still fun.

When Marnie Was There is a fine animated feature from Japan. 

American Sniper was a huge hit directed by Clint Eastwood.  I don't know if it's that great, but after years of Hollywood churning out downer films about the American war machine, a film that was read (no matter the intentions) as triumphant and pro-American really hit the spot.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11.  The Tribe

12.  John Wick

13.  Nightcrawler

14.  Kumiko The Treasure Hunter

15.  Unedited Footage Of A Bear

16.  The Americans 2

17.  BoJack Horseman

18. Inherent Vice

19. Peaky Blinders 2

20. The LEGO Movie

11 is a film starring deaf actors.  There are no subtitles and they speak in Ukrainian sign language.  I thought the whole thing was ridiculous, but at least it was different.

12 is probably the best of a flawed series--the concept of a secret underworld is fun, but the protagonist's invincibility gets tiresome even in this first go-round.

13 would make my top ten.

Didn't see 14.

15 is something vaguely along the lines of Too Many Cooks, but not as good.

16, 17 and 19 are TV shows.

18's title should be "Incoherent Mess"--not sure if Paul Thomas Anderson or Thomas Pynchon is more to blame.

20 was better--and more touching--than expected.

Here are films Jesse didn't include that would make my top 20.

Blue Ruin

The Book Of Life

Edge Of Tomorrow (best action film of the 21st century)

Guardians Of The Galaxy

Ida

The One I Love

Snowpiercer

Song Of The Sea

Other films I liked:

Birdman, The Wind Rises, Jodorowsky’s Dune, Captain American: The Winter Soldier, Finding Vivian Maier, Only Lovers Left Alive, Chef, Calvary, We Are The Best, PK, Enemy, Under The Skin, Frank, Gone Girl

Other films of note:  Ernest & Celestine, Cheap Thrills, Draft Day, X-Men: Days Of Future Past, Chinese Puzzle, 22 Jump Street, Supermensch: The Legend Of Shep Gordon, Chaplin Of The Mountains, Life Itself, Mood Indigo, Lucy, Land Ho!, The Rover, The Dog, What If, A Trip To Italy, Life Of Crime, Are You Here, Let’s Be Cops, The Maze Runner, Whiplash, Harmontown, Fury, Interstellar, Listen Up Philip, The Imitation Game, Top Five, Walk Of Shame, Magician: The Astonishing Life And Work Of Orson Welles, Wild, Mr. Turner, Force Majeure, Annie, Why Don’t You Play In Hell?, Into The Woods, The Interview, Leviathan, Two Days One Night, Predestination, The Monuments Men, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, About Last Night, 3 Days To Kill, Non-Stop, Ride Along, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Bad Words, Veronica Mars, Sparks, Divergent, Muppets Most Wanted, Rob The Mob, Robocop, Joe, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sabotage, The Double, God’s Pocket, Neighbors, Need For Speed, Transcendence, 300: Rise Of An Empire, Cold In July, A Million Ways To Die In The West, The Grand Seduction, Trust Me, Jersey Boys, The Other Woman, Million Dollar Arm, They Came Together, Obvious Child, How To Train Your Dragon 2, Begin Again, Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, Blended, A Man Most Wanted, I Origins, Wish I Was Here, Magic In The Moonlight, Get On Up, The Hundred-Foot Journey, Rich Hill, Maleficent, Starred Up, The Drop, The Skeleton Twins, This Where I Leave You, The Equalizer, A Walk Among The Tombstones, Men, Women & Children, St. Vincent, Guiseppe Makes A Movie, Dear White People, Big Hero 6, Foxcatcher, The Giver, The Theory Of Everything, The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 1, Horrible Bosses 2, No No: A Dockumentary, Winter's Tale, The Legend Of Hercules, That Awkward Moment, Aftermath, The Judge, The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies, Exodus: Gods And Kings, The Gambler, Big Eyes, Selma, Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb, A Most Violent Year, Rio 2, Pompeii, Moms' Night Out