My Top-Ten Favorite 2014 films

I'll repeat my comment from last year's top-ten that this is not a Best-Of list, because I think it's silly to rank art. These are just the films I watched and liked most, and that I felt were fine exemplars of their respective genres. Some are life-changing works of art. Some are fluffier bits of entertainment. So it goes.

I make no assurances of nor apologies for the moral content of these films - that's a conversation for another day. Do your research, and to thine own conscience be true. 

10. Lucy

9. Calvary
8. Marvellous 
7. The Lego Movie
6. Frank
5. Foxcatcher
4. Chef
3. The Trip to Italy
2. Holbrook/Twain: An American Odyssey
1. The Good Lie

Other 2014 films that I enjoyed:

Guardians of the Galaxy; Ping Pong Summer; The One I Love; 22 Jump Street; The Grand Budapest Hotel; Nightcrawler; Edge of Tomorrow; Fury; The Fault in Our Stars; Dawn of the Planet of the Apes; Blue Ruin; The Drop; Starred Up; Son of a Gun; God Help the Girl; Pride; Boyhood; In a World

2014 films I haven't seen, but am excited to watch.

Birdman; Gone Girl; Big Hero 6; Interstellar; John Wick; The Imitation Game

And then, just for jollies, some good, slightly-older films I didn't see 'til this year:

Snowpiercer (2013); Man on Wire (2008); Starred Up (2013); This is Martin Bonner (2013); A Late Quartet (2009); Felony (2013); Sin Nombre (2009); The East (2013); Joe (2013); Under the Skin (2013); Wetlands* (2013) 

*Please do not watch Wetlands. It is the most transgressive piece of filmmaking I've ever seen... It just happens to also be one of the most wildly-inventive, with something powerful to say about the human condition. But don't watch it, because you'll inevitably think less of me as a person if you do. Seriously. Like, for reals.