We’ve already discussed the best features of 2014 in our survey, but here we present a selection of individual critics’ lists, which bring a few new names and titles to the forefront. For more lists and year-in-reviewing, we suggest a visit to the complete 50 Days, Fifty Lists collection.
[Note: Titles in bold on first mention only.]
Michael Atkinson
1. Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa)
2. Manakamana (Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez)
3. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)
4. Closed Curtain (Jafar Panahi)
5. Heli (Amat Escalante)
6. Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
7. Manuscripts Don’t Burn (Mohammad Rasoulof)
8. Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
9. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras)
10. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
Sean Axmaker
1. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
2. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
4. The Immigrant (James Gray)
5. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
6. Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski)
7. The Babadook (Jennifer Kent)
8. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
9. Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt)
10. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho)
Miriam Bale
1. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
2. Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg)
3. The Tale of Princess Kaguya (Isao Takahata)
4. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
5. Belle (Amma Asante)
6. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)
7. Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry)
8. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
9. Jealousy (Philippe Garrel)
Chuck Bowen
1. Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh)
2. The Immigrant (James Gray)
3. Cheap Thrills (E.L. Katz)
4. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
5. Life of Riley (Alain Resnais)
6. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
7. Low Down (Jeff Preiss)
8. Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie)
9. National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman)
10. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
Adam Cook
1. Journey to the West (Tsai Ming-liang)
2. The Tale of Princess Kaguya (Isao Takahata)
3. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
5. Jealousy (Philippe Garrel)
6. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
7. Pompeii (Paul W.S. Anderson)
8. Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 2 (Johnnie To)
9. Jersey Boys (Clint Eastwood)
10. Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara)
Jordan Cronk
1. Story of My Death (Albert Serra)
2. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)
3. Norte, the End of History (Lav Diaz)
4. Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang)
5. Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie)
6. Closed Curtain (Jafar Panahi)
7. What Now? Remind Me (Joaquim Pinto)
8. Life of Riley (Alain Resnais)
9. The Last of the Unjust (Claude Lanzmann)
10. A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness (Ben Rivers and Ben Russell)
Brian Darr
1. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)
2. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras)
3. Interstellar (Christopher Nolan)
4. Vic + Flo Saw A Bear (Denis Côté)
5. The Immigrant (James Gray)
6. Abuse of Weakness (Catherine Breillat)
7. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
8. The Dance of Reality (Alejandro Jodorowsky)
9. Manakamana (Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez)
10. Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-Liang)
David Ehrenstein
1. Love Is Strange (Ira Sachs)
2. The Imitation Game (Morten Tyldum)
3. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)
4. Finding Vivian Maier (Charles Siskel, John Maloof)
5. Dear White People (Justin Simien)
6. Still Alice (Wash Westmoreland, Richard Glatzer)
7. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
8. The David Whiting Story or The Cesar Romero Joke (Walter Reuben)
9. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho)
10. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
Steven Erickson
1. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
2. What Now? Remind Me (Joaquim Pinto)
3. Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt)
4. Actress (Robert Greene)
5. Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang)
6. The King of Escape (Alain Guiraudie)
7. The Immigrant (James Gray)
8. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)
9. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
10. Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
Jaime Grijalba
1. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho)
2. Interstellar (Christopher Nolan)
3. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)
4. Why Don’t You Play in Hell? (Sion Sono)
5. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
6. Guilty of Romance (Sion Sono)
7. The Dance of Reality (Alejandro Jodorowsky)
8. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
9. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
10. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
Pam Grady
1. Locke (Steven Knight)
2. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
4. Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski)
5. Frank (Lenny Abrahamson)
6. The Way He Looks (Daniel Ribeiro)
7. Jodorowsky’s Dune (Frank Pavich)
8. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
9. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
10. Cold in July (Jim Mickle)
Tomas Hachard
1. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
2. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
3. Two Days, One Night (Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne)
4. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
5. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
6. Norte, the End of History (Lav Diaz)
7. Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry)
8. We Are the Best! (Lukas Moodysson)
9. Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski)
10. It Felt like Love (Eliza Hittman)
Brandon Harris
[in no order of preference other than top film]
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
Heli (Amat Escalante)
The Immigrant (James Gray)
Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Land Ho! (Martha Stephens and Aaron Katz)
Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
Enemy (Denis Villeneuve)
Goodbye to All That (Angus MacLachlan)
Dennis Harvey
[in no order of preference]
Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
The Dance of Reality (Alejandro Jodorowsky)
Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller)
Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski)
Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Like Father, Like Son (Hirokazu Koreeda)
Love Is Strange (Ira Sachs)
Omar (Hany Abu-Assad)
Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho)
Eugene Hernandez
1. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras)
2. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. Love Is Strange (Ira Sachs)
4. Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie)
5. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
6. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
7. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon Ho)
8. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour)
9. Manakamana (Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez)
10. Selma (Ava DuVernay)
Ehsan Khoshbakht
1. Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako)
2. Goodbye to Language 3D (Jean-Luc Godard)
3. Ida (Paweł Pawlikowski)
4. Locke (Steven Knight)
5. Stations of the Cross (Dietrich Brüggemann)
6. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
7. Life of Riley (Alain Resnais)
8. Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
9 and 10. Fish & Cat (Shahram Mokri) + Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
[The original list featured: 1. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese), a 2013 film for U.S. writers.]
Steven Jenkins
1. Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie)
2. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
3. Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski)
4. 20,000 Days on Earth (Ian Forsyth and Jane Pollard)
5. Jodorowsky’s Dune (Frank Pavich)
6. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
7. Nymphomaniac (Lars von Trier)
8. Pulp: A Film About Life, Death and Supermarkets (Florian Habicht)
9. Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier)
10. The Dance of Reality (Alejandro Jodorowsky)
Tarah Judah
1. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour)
2. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
3. Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski)
4. Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
5. Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
6. The Babadook (Jennifer Kent)
7. Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg)
8. Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier)
9. John Wick (Chad Stahelski)
10. Starred Up (David Mackenzie)
Jonathan Kiefer
[in alphabetical order]
1. Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier)
2. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
3. Calvary (John Michael McDonagh)
4. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
5. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
6. Happy Christmas (Joe Swanberg)
7. Land Ho! (Aaron Katz and Martha Stephens)
8. Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry)
9. Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt)
10. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
Jay Kuehner
1. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)
2. A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness (Ben Russell and Ben Rivers)
3. Jealousy (Philippe Garrel)
4. The Strange Little Cat (Ramon Zürcher)
5. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
6. Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski)
7. Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne)
8. Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
9. Story of My Death (Albert Serra)
10. Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie)
11. Like Father, Like Son (Kore-Eda Hirokazu)
Cody Lang
1. Our Sunhi (Hong Sang-soo)
2. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)
3. Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry)
4. Journey to the West (Tsai Ming-Liang)
5. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
6. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho)
7. Enemy (Denis Villeneuve)
8. The Immigrant (James Gray)
9. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
10. Falcon Rising (Ernie Barbarash)
Kevin B. Lee
1. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)
2. The Strange Little Cat (Ramon Zürcher)
3. What Now? Remind Me (Joaquim Pinto)
4. The Missing Picture (Rithy Panh)
5. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras)
6. Dear White People (Justin Simien)
7. Policeman (Nadav Lapid)
8. The Dance of Reality (Alejandro Jodorowsky)
9. Vic + Flo Saw a Bear (Denis Côté)
10. Bad Hair (Mariana Rondón)
Michael Pattison
1. Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang)
2. Leviathan (Andrei Zvyagintsev)
3. Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
4. National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman)
5. Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh)
6. Starred Up (David Mackenzie)
7. Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (Declan Lowney)
8. Story of My Death (Albert Serra)
9. Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier)
10. Exhibition (Joanna Hogg)
Jonathan Rosenbaum
1. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)
2. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras)
3. Level Five (Chris Marker)
4. Locke (Steven Knight)
5. Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang)
6. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho)
7. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
8. Words and Pictures (Fred Schepisi)
9. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
10. Fading Gigolo (John Turturro)
Shade Rupe
1. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
2. The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears (Bruno Forzani, Hélène Cattet)
3. John Wick (Chad Stahelski)
4. Love Is Strange (Ira Sachs)
5. The Dance of Reality (Alejandro Jodorowsky)
6. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
7. Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
8. Queen & Country (John Boorman)
Nick Schager
1. Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh)
2. National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman)
3. Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
4. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
5. A Field in England (Ben Wheatley)
6. Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
7. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
8. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
9. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
10. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour)
Adam Schartoff
1. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
2. Love is Strange (Ira Sachs)
3. Little Feet (Alexandre Rockwell)
4. Evolution of a Criminal (Darius Monroe)
5. Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
6. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho)
7. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
8. Happy Valley (Amir Bar-Lev)
9. Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller)
10. Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier)
Anna Tatarska
1. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
2. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
4. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
5. Ida (Paweł Pawlikowski)
6. Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn)
7. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
8. Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie)
9. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
10. Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry)
Ella Taylor
1. Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
2. Leviathan (Andrey Zviagintsev)
3. Gloria (Sebastián Lelio)
4. Bethlehem (Yuval Adler)
5. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
6. Gett (Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz)
7. Foxcatcher (Bennet MIller)
8. We are the Best! (Lukas Moodysson)
9. The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (Isao Takahata)
10. The Last Sentence (Jan Troell)
Michael Tully
1. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
2. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
3. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
4. Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski)
5. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
6. Manakamana (Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez)
7. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras)
8. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
9. The Immigrant (James Gray)
10. Stop the Pounding Heart (Roberto Minervini)
