The Best of 2014 - My Year End Countdown (Almost)

It is a law.

All critics must have year end lists of the best / worst and everything to look forward to in the world of film...hopefully over the next three days you'll get a lot of that from me.

First up -- the best...

Now making this list every year is a challenge.

But because of the law that exists...it must be done.

The way I go about things is by flipping through the list of films that came out during the year and filing those to consider on either the Best or the Worst side of the ledger. From there I pare the list down to those films I really want to talk about.

This year...I'm going to do something differently...

This post - Will have all the almost made it films...you know the onest that made the "Best" side of the ledger...but when paring the list down to just 10, I have to make some fierce cuts.

I will say this about 2014. In my mind, it was a very good year for film...but not a great year. I had 3-5 films up near the top of my list and everything from as high as 4 - 25 or so...could be interchanged depending on what side of the bed I woke up on. Fair, no...but it is reality when compiling a list.

So here's some films that I think REALLY were exceptional...but they did not make my list. 

Made the list...but weren't in the final round of deliberations.

Bad Words
Captain America: Winter Soldier
The Railway Man
Neighbors
22 Jump St
How To Train Your Dragon 2
The Rover
Wish I Was Here
Begin Again
The Hundred-Foot Journey
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby
Citizenfour
Foxcatcher
Touch The Wall
Point and Shoot
Red Army
Top Five
Selma

You could do much worse than any of these films. From action blockbusters like Captain America: Winter Soldier to comedies like Bad Words (really underrated), 22 Jump St., Neighbors and Top Five.

Folks who don't normally watch Documentaries should check out Touch The Wall, Point and Shoot and Red Army. I'm a doc geek and those films stuck with me for very different reasons. One is a movie about being a swim champion, one about one man's just fighting with rebels, one about Edward Snowden, and the final about the amazing Russian Olympic hockey teams of the 80s. (think of it as what happened on the other side of the Miracle on Ice).

And the dramas....oh the dramas... The Railway Man, The Rover, Wish I was Here, Begin Again, The Hundred-Foot Journey, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, Foxcatcher and Selma. All of these
have a great time waiting for you at the movies and are splendid achievements in their own right. But they just didn't quite make the cut...

Stay tuned to the next post -- for the final films left off the list in more depth....