Though I have left you for a few days, I would never do it without leaving some presents. And what’s more fun than to play with, critique, respond to, and disagree with, than a best-of list? They are, are they not, the very lifeblood of the contemporary internet.
Anyway, this list was supposed to happen back in January, when its subject would have made sense, but scheduling was a beast. And I knew this day was coming, so why not hold if off as a little divertissement for my self-imposed week of exile? So anyway, a propos of nothing, and whittled down from a list of features and shorts 1003 titles long, here’s my list of:
The 50 Best Films of 2010-2014
(in alphabetical order, with links to my original reviews)
–12 Years a Slave (McQueen, USA/UK, 2013)
–The Act of Killing (Oppenheimer et al, Denmark/Norway/UK, 2012)
–All Is Lost (Chandor, USA, 2013)
–At Berkeley (Wiseman, USA, 2013)
–The Babadook (Kent, Australia, 2014)
–Before Midnight (Linklater, USA/Greece, 2013)
–Black Coal, Thin Ice [aka 白日焰火] (Diao, China, 2014)
–Blue Valentine (Cianfrance, USA, 2010)
–Boyhood (Linklater, USA, 2014)
–Certified Copy [aka Copie conforme] (Kiarostami, France/Italy/Belgium, 2010)
–Cloud Atlas (Tykwer & The Wachwoskis, Germany/USA/Hong Kong/ Singapore, 2012)
–Day & Night (Newton, USA, 2010)
–The Deep Blue Sea (Davies, UK/USA, 2011)
–The Eagleman Stag (Please, UK, 2011)
–Edge of Tomorrow (Liman, USA/Canada, 2014)
–Elena [aka Елена] (Zvyagintsev, Russia, 2011)
–Goodbye to Language [aka Adieu au langage] (Godard, Switzerland/France, 2014)
–The Grand Budapest Hotel (Anderson, USA/Germany/UK, 2014)
–Gravity (Cuarón, USA/UK, 2013)
–Haywire (Soderbergh, USA/Ireland, 2011)
–Holy Motors (Carax, France/Germany, 2012)
–Hugo (Scorsese, USA, 2011)
–The Illusionist [aka L’illusionniste] (Chomet, France/UK, 2010)
–It’s Such a Beautiful Day (Hertzfeldt, 2012, USA)
–The Last of the Unjust [aka Le dernier des injustes] (Lanzmann, France/ Austria, 2013)
–Lincoln (Spielberg, 2012, USA)
–The Loneliest Planet (Loktev, 2011, USA/Germany)
–The Look of Silence (Oppenheimer, Denmark/Norway/UK, 2014)
–The Lords of Salem (Zombie, USA/UK/Canada, 2012)
–The Missing Picture [aka L’image manquante] (Panh, Cambodia/France, 2013)
–Mr. Turner (Leigh, UK/France/Germany, 2014)
–National Gallery (Wiseman, France/USA/UK, 2014)
–Nostalgia for the Light [aka Nostalgia de la luz] (Guzmán, France/Germany/ Chile/Spain/USA, 2010)
–Once Upon a Time in Anatolia [aka Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da] (Ceylan, Turkey/Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2011)
–Oslo, 31 August (Trier, Norway, 2011)
–Pina (Wenders, Germany/France/UK, 2011)
–The Raid [aka Serbuan maut] (Evans, Indonesia/USA/France, 2011)
–Rango (Verbinski, USA, 2011)
–Rhino Season [aka فصل کرگدن] (Ghobadi, Iran/Iraq/Turkey, 2012)
–A Separation [aka جدایی نادر از سیمین] (Farhadi, Iran, 2011)
–Snowpiercer (Bong, South Korea/Czech Republic/USA/France, 2013)
–Southwest [aka Sudoeste] (Nunes, Brazil, 2011)
–Tabu (Gomes, Portugal/Germany/Brazil/France/Spain, 2012)
–The Tale of the Princess Kaguya [aka かぐや姫の物語] (Takahata, Japan, 2013)
–This Is Not a Film [akaاین فیلم نیست] (Panahi & Mirtahmasb, Iran, 2011)
–Timbuktu (Sissako, France/Mauritania, 2014)
–The Tree of Life (Malick, USA, 2011)
–Tuesday, After Christmas [aka Marţi, după Crăciun] (Muntean, Romania, 2010)
–The Turin Horse [aka A Torinói ló] (Tarr & Hrantizky, Hungary/France/ Germany/Switzerland/USA, 2011)
–Under the Skin (Glazer, UK/USA/Switzerland, 2013)
And – why not? – its opposite number:
The 10 Worst Films of 2010-2014
–Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (Mitchell, USA, 2010)
-The Atlas Shrugged trilogy (Johansson and Putch and Manera, USA, 2011-’14)
–Birdemic: Shock and Terror (Nguyen, USA, 2010)
–The Devil Inside (Bell, USA, 2012)
–Foodfight! (Kasanoff, USA, 2012)
–Hop (Hill, USA, 2011)
–Insidious: Chapter 2 (Wan, USA/Canada, 2013)
–The Last Airbender (Shyamalan, USA, 2010)
–Marmaduke (Dey, USA, 2010)
–Movie 43 (Omnibus, USA, 2013)