#40
Thin Ice
Dir. Jill Sprecher
Any movie about Wisconsin is good in my book, but especially Thin Ice. It's a solid little neo-noir comedy with a touch of Hitchcockian flair. There are some good performances all around from some of the best character actors in the biz and maybe it's just me, but I fell for the twist at the end, hook, line, and sinker.
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#39
Liberal Arts
Dir. Josh Radnor
Josh Radnor is mostly known as the lead on How I Met Your Mother, but over the last few years he has really began to make a name for himself as a successful writer/director/star on the silver screen. His sophomore feature, Liberal Arts, shows his evolution as a filmmaker. While it's a pretty basic romantic comedy, for someone currently experiencing college, this is a good representation of what life is like now, and what it will be like once you get out. It perfectly shows what happens when those two worlds collide.
#38
Ted
Dir. Seth MacFarlane
Usually for a comedy to impress me, it has to be outside the box. Ted is actually not that outside the box (it's a straight comedy film), but it sure is unique. If you watch Family Guy than you know the type of humor Seth MacFarlane brings to the table. I'm a fan of the show, so I enjoyed his feature film debut. If you don't like the show, then I understand if you don't feel the same as I do about the movie.
#37
Miss Bala
Dir. Gerardo Naranjo
Sometimes there are places you never want to go and never want to see and sometimes film helps to take you to those places, but keeps you at a distance. That’s exactly what Miss Bala does. This Mexican film takes you right into the heart of the drug cartel and all the corruption it brings. It’s a gripping film, that is also quite frightening at times. It’s some heavy stuff, but very enjoyable nonetheless.
#36
Chronicle
Dir. Josh Trank
Found footage is everywhere these days. You can blame Paranormal Activity for that. Still, Chronicle is not only a different look at that genre, but also the superhero genre. Unlike other heroes where we somewhat know how things are going to turn out, here we have completely unknown characters with unknown origins and the found footage approach makes it like we are seeing everything first hand. The movie is pretty exciting and all the young actors give tremendous performances, especially Dane DeHaan, who you can expect to see a lot of over the next few years.
#35
Lawless
Dir. John Hillcoat
If I consider myself to be an expert on any genre of film, it would have to be gangster films. I’ve seen a lot of them (including a few this year) and, to me, Lawless is decent enough. I wasn’t completely blown away by it, but I still think it was good enough in my mind to rank it ahead of 65 other movies I saw. I think John Hillcoat is one of the most underrated directors working today, even after films like The Road and The Proposition, and with this he has finally gotten a movie with a more mainstream cast and a more accessible story. Tom Hardy is the one that really shines here and if he isn’t the breakout actor of the year, I don’t know who is.
#34
Dredd
Dir. Pete Travis
I have never seen the original Judge Dredd starring Sly Stallone, nor have I ever read the comics, so I never had any intention of seeing this. It was the surprisingly overwhelming positive reviews that convinced me that maybe I should give it a try. I’m glad I did. What I got was a pretty ballsy action flick that’s as thrilling as it is brutal. I think I made the mistake of watching the film in 2D because there were some beautiful special effects that I could tell were meant for 3D. Still, Dredd turns out to be one of the best action films is recent memory (although it falls down this list because of comparisons to a very similar action film, which appears much later on this list).
#33
End of Watch
Dir. David Ayer
Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña give fantastic performances in this gritty, found footage police drama. Training Day writer David Ayer obviously has a knack for realistic crime stories set in Los Angeles and shows off his directing skills here. I mentioned earlier that the found footage genre is starting to wear itself thin, but at least End of Watch is a fresh take, like Chronicle, and focuses on something other than ghosts and demons.
#32
Kill List
Dir. Ben Wheatley
Kill List is a movie I don’t want to say much about with the fear that I may give something away. What I will say is British director Ben Wheatley has crafted something unlike anything I saw this year. An experiment in genre that shouldn’t be ignored, but be warned: it’s ridiculously brutal.
#31
Magic Mike
Dir. Steven Soderbergh
Ok, I know what you are thinking, but you've got to let me explain. Steven Soderbergh is one of my favorite filmmakers and I've seen (and enjoyed) just about all his work. Even I wondered what he was thinking when this film was announced. I never intended to give it a chance, but I caved. And to my surprise, I liked it? I will say that while the story revolves around the world of male stripping, the stripping is actually a very minimal part of the film. It's a dramedy that reminds me a bit of P.T. Anderson's Boogie Nights, which takes an interesting look at a world we never thought we'd explore on film. I thought the actors were adequate (although McConaughey steals the show), but it's really Soderbergh's direction that shines here. I don't know, I guess it's weird that I liked this, but whatever.
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