20. "Kill List" (Ben Wheatley, 2011) - Rarely has there been a horror movie as unrelentingly bleak as this one; it's not just scary, it's downright frightening. The logline is a bit pat: a hitman is sent on a mysterious series of missions, but Mr. Wheatley brings a genuinely nasty, unsettling pathos to the whole affair. This is perhaps to be expected from the man who brought us "Sightseers", in which the the accidental impalement of a dog on a knitting needle is the least disturbing scene of the film.
18. "Birdman" (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, 2014) - Yep, sometimes the Academy gets it right. Mostly it doesn't, as "The Artist" and "Argo" can attest, but in rewarding this ambitious, complex meditation on art and life, it regained in small part its place in the public consciousness. The picture itself is a wonder; the faux-one take gimmick gives the sensation of breathless urgency and the cast manages to not only work as a cohesive whole but also stand out on an individual level (who thought Emma Stone had it in her?).
17. "The White Ribbon" (Michael Haneke, 2010) - Michael Haneke is not known for his easy, spiritually uplifting tendencies, but this picture takes the term "psychologically devastating" to new heights.16. "12 Years a Slave" (Steve McQueen, 2013) - It was frustrating to watch the release of Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained" back in 2012, knowing that the jokey, masturbatory "Southern" was probably the most culturally relevant film about slavery. This is obviously not Tarantino's fault, but the fact that a film that prominently featured a Rick Ross song was pop cinema's representation of this country's greatest crime was difficult to swallow. Fortunately, Steve McQueen (of "Shame" and "Hunger" fame) heard the call and came roaring back with this titanic picture, which will endure not only as the definitive slavery picture, but one of the best films to win the Academy Award in recent memory.
15. "I Saw the Devil" (Kim jee-woon, 2010) - One of the best, most brutal revenge movies ever put to film. Twisty, tough, and bloody beyond description, it's probably best to say as little as possible about this one; going in cold is probably the best way to see it.
14. "Ida" (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2014) - Quiet, complex, and deeply humanistic, "Ida" feels both like a relic from the era of Bresson and Rossellini and a transmission from a brighter cinematic future. Timeless in every sense of the word.
13. "Holy Motors" (Leos Carax, 2012) - Completely nuts and completely brilliant. Leos Carax has made a name for himself making lush, artistically exuberant explorations of love and cinema, but "Holy Motors" handily shatters any previous ceilings for lushness and artistic exuberance. As star Denis Lavant assumes a dozen different identities during a single limo ride through Paris, it feels not like he is a traveler, but a fighter for the heart and soul of the movies themselves. One can imagine Carax feels the same about himself.
11. "A Most Violent Year" (J.C. Chandor, 2014) - Another tale exploration of the American capitalist's psyche; this tale of a semi-legitimate entrepreneur and his wife (Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain) can pass muster with the finest American crime sagas.10."Prisoners" (Denis Villeneuve, 2013) - Noir-y, dark, and uncompromising, both thematically and stylistically, "Prisoners is a deeply felt, vital exploration of masculinity and grief in uncertain times.
9. "Inside Llewyn Davis" (Coen Bros., 2013) - Just one of two excellent films about mediocre musicians to come out in the last few years (the other being Lenny Abrahamson's hilarious "Frank"), the Coen Bros.' luminous film is the ultimate portrait of the self-defeating man.8. "Stoker" (Park chan-wook, 2013) - Every filmmaker owes Alfred Hitchcock something (how could they not?), but Mr. Park takes his love for the Master of Suspense, to dizzying heights. The themes of love, life, death, and sex that boiled just under the surface of Hitch's films come exploding onto the screen in a swirling pastiche as brilliant as it is bloody (i.e., very).
7. "The Guard" (John Michael McDonagh, 2011) - The bad guys wax philosophical and the good guys do drugs and rob corpses in this revisionist Irish buddy cop movie. Beneath all the pitch-perfect witticisms and generic transformations lies a somber and melancholic rumination on the nature of honor and virtue in a dishonorable and virtue-free world.6. "The Double" (Richard Ayoade, 2013) - Loosely based on a Dostoevsky short story about a man meeting his doppelganger, "The Double" takes its themes of identity and self-worth and amps them up to heightened and expressionistic levels not seen this side of Terry Gilliam. This is a wonderful, wonderful film with some of the best cinematography (by Erik Wilson) on this list.
5. "Rust and Bone" (Jacques Audiard, 2012) - It's a testament to Mr. Audiard's capabilities as a director that he was able to transcend this ridiculous logline: an orca trainer for SeaWorld is maimed by one of her animals, only to fall in love with a hulking bare-knuckle boxer. Both lead characters are flawed, selfish, complex beings ; as their mercurial relationship progresses, we are drawn closer to their struggle for love and redemption that they desperately seek. It's a beautiful, powerful film that will undoubtedly stand as one of the greatest screen romances of the last few years. Bonus points for the fantastic use of a Springsteen song.3 & 4. "The Place Beyond the Pines" (Derek Cianfrance, 2013) & "Blue Valentine" (2010) - I'm kind of cheating here, but it feels unfair to exclude either of these tremendous pictures. One imagines that if the American New Wave of the 60's and 70's had survived to this day, these are the kind of pictures that would continue to be made one a regular basis. One is a small, heart-shattering divorce drama, and the other is a sweeping crime epic that spans generations, but they share the same DNA; every frame feels like it was ripped from the delicate fiber of reality and spliced onto the film. The results are two towering examples of what American cinema can be.
2. "Elena" (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2012) - The best films manage to make small, intimate stories feel broad and epic in scope, and that is what the spectacular "Elena" does. A comment on human nature as much as it is one on Russian society, this is a genuinely breathtaking film for the ages.1. "The Tree of Life" (Terrence Malick, 2011) - It can be easy to forget in age of poor Terrence Malick impersonators (including Malick himself - see "To the Wonder", or rather, don't) what a colossal achievement this is. It's a film so achingly genuine that its world is not just believable, it feels like one we have once inhabited. But perhaps the three most appropriate words are these: go see it.
Most Miserable Excuse for a Feature-Length Film: "Dracula Untold" (Gary Shore, 2013) - Big Hollywood movies are easy to hate, especially the garden-variety, special effects laden action tentpoles that rule the multiplexes now. They're generally formulaic, bloated, lowest-common-denominator affairs that defy and appeals to authenticity or intellect. This is to be expected. However, rarely are they as aggressively, insultingly shitty as "Dracula Untold", Universal's inaugural entry in its Marvel-esque Monster Universe. There is absolutely nothing here to like, love, or admire here. There is no excuse to say "yeah, that movie was bad, but _______ was well done", because absolutely nothing was well done. It's not even really a film, it's a deadly, cancerous pustule oozing philistinism and idiocy at 24 frames per second. You might be tempted to watch this, because how bad could it be? The answer is, sadly, extremely fucking bad. If you really want an experience comparable to watching Dracula Untold, you could drink a quart of battery acid and headbutt Michael Bay until you black out, but it's really not worth it.
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