Friday, December 26, 2014

Top Ten Films of 2014 (Group Post)

David Davidson
  1. Horse Money (Pedro Costa)
  2. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras)
  3. Nymphomaniac: Vol. I and II (Lars von Trier)
  4. Wild (Jean-Marc Vallée)
  5. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves)
  6. Sagro GRA (Gianfranco Rosi)
  7. Cutaway (Kazik Radwanski)
  8. San Siro (Yuri Ancarani)
  9. Red Capriccio (Blake Williams)
  10. I Used to Be Darker (Matt Porterfield)
Honorable Mentions: Every Monday (Meelad Moaphi), Une idée de grandeur (Vincent Biron), Señoritas (Lina Rodriguez), In Her Place (Albert Shin).
***
Candice Beaith
  1. Horns (Alexandre Aja)
  2. Wild (Jean-Marc Vallée)
  3. RuPaul’s Drag Race - Season Seven Trailer
  4. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves)
  5. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
  6. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (Isao Takahata)
  7. White Bird in a Blizzard (Gregg Araki)
  8. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
  9. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras)
  10. Cutaway (Kazik Radwanski)
***
Rob Trench
  1. Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard)
  2. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
  3. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
  4. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras)
  5. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
  6. Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu
  7. Wild (Jean-Marc Vallée)
  8. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
  9. Deux jours, une nuit (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
  10. The Guest (Adam Wingard)
Honorable Mentions: Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy), Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry), The Overnighters (Jesse Moss), Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund), Boyhood (Richard Linklater), Mommy (Xavier Dolan), John Wick (Chad Stahelski and David Leitch), A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Roy Andersson), Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn), Gone Girl (David Fincher).
***
Mark Cira
  1. Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
  2. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
  3. Starred Up (David Mackenzie)
  4. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho)
  5. Birdman (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)
  6. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
  7. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
  8. Wild (Jean-Marc Vallée)
  9. The Dance of Reality (Alejandro Jodorowsky)
  10. Haemoo (Sung Bo Shim)
Top Documentary: Citizen Four (Laura Poitras)
Honorable Mentions: Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg), Like Father, Like Son (Hirokazu Koreeda), The Immigrant (James Gray), Whiplash (Damien Chazelle).
***
Samuel Adelaar
  1. Horse Money (Pedro Costa) – One of the most complex cinematic treatments of history I’ve come across. Cinema of stasis.
  2. Two Days One Night (Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne) – The film is so vital because it shows the affective costs of living under conditions of precarity. It’s also great in that it imagines happiness as social solidarity, rather than material gain. One idea of what preconditions class consciousness is geographical proximity. In light of this, it’s interesting that Sandra’s itinerary shows the geographic dislocation between herself and her coworkers.
  3. The Immigrant (James Gray) – Melodrama.
  4. Black Coal, Thin Ice (Diao Yinan) – “I found it breath-taking, formally.” Chock full of as many dynamic cinematic events as say The Terrorizers.
  5. Metabolism (Corneliu Porumboiu) – A film about making films among the likes of Irma Vep and Beware of a Holy Whore.
  6. Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara) – Better than Pasolini.
  7. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso) – At times as inscrutable as the sea lion that appears at the film’s end. Pulls off that old-world, European tone epitomized by Manoel de Oliveira’s movies.
  8. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard) – To bridge the impossible divide between the self and the other maybe we should go beyond human sapience and look to animal sentience?
  9. From What is Before (Lav Diaz) – A brutal illustration of the lack of reflection between the concerns of the state and those of the people.
  10. From The Notebook of… (Robert Beavers) – Singular rhythms, in terms of editing and camera movement.
***
Nicholas Little
  1. Nymphomaniac: Vol. I and II (Lars von Trier)
  2. Noah (Darren Aronofsky)
  3. Interstellar (Christopher Nolan)
  4. Godzilla (Gareth Edwards)
  5. Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn)
  6. Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman)
  7. Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
  8. Dawn of the Planet of The Apes (Matt Reeves)
  9. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
  10. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
***
Alan Jones
  1. No Flex Zone (Solange and Julez)
  2. A Most Wanted Man (Anton Corbijn)
  3. Drake lint rolls his pants sitting courtside: Brooklyn Nets at Toronto Raptors, Game 2
  4. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
  5. The trailer for Dragon Blade
  6. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
  7. The first half of Interstellar.
  8. Mommy (Xavier Dolan)
  9. (tie) Nymphomaniac and Don't Tell My Wife I Buttfucked the Babysitter 13
  10. Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
***
Will Sloan
  1. Tales of the Grim Sleeper (Nick Broomfield)
  2. Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry)
  3. Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang)
  4. Last of the Unjust (Claude Lanzman)
  5. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
  6. The Babadook (Jennifer Kent)
  7. Life Itself (Steve James)
  8. Like Father, Like Son (Hirokazu Koreeda)
  9. Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara)
  10. The Dance of Reality (Alejandro Jodorowsky)
***
Cody Lang
  1. Our Sunhi (Hong Sang-soo)
  2. Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
  3. Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard)
  4. Jealousy (Philippe Garrel)
  5. Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry)
  6. The Immigrant (James Gray)
  7. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho)
  8. Journey to the West (Tsai Ming-Liang)
  9. Jersey Boys (Clint Eastwood)
  10. Enemy (Denis Villeneuve)
***
Matthew Stein
  1. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
  2. Heaven Knows What (Joshua and Ben Safdie)
  3. Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie)
  4. Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier)
  5. Princess of France (Matías Piñeiro)
  6. Hill of Freedom (Hong Sang-soo)
  7. Listen Up Phillip (Alex Ross Perry)
  8. Actress (Robert Greene)
  9. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
  10. The Immigrant (James Gray)
Honorable Mentions: Top Five, Boyhood and P'tit Quinquin and then Interstellar for being such a pleasurable cinema going experience.
***
Lev Lewis
  1. Horse Money (Pedro Costa)  
  2. Phoenix (Christian Petzold)
  3. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson) 
  4. The Homesman (Tommy Lee Jones)  
  5. Journey to the West (Tsai Ming-liang) 
  6. P'tit Quinquin (Bruno Dumont) 
  7. Princess of France (Matías Piñeiro)
  8. Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait (Wiam Simav Bedirxan, Usama Muhammad) 
  9. Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard) 
  10. Hill of Freedom (Hong Sang-soo) 

Missed: Selma, American Sniper, A Most Violent Year, Leviathan, Winter Sleep, White God and more.
***
John Semley
  1. Nymphomaniac: Vol. I and II (Lars von Trier)
  2. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
  3. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
  4. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras)
  5. Listen up Philip (Alex Ross Perry)
  6. Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
  7. The Immigrant (James Gray)
  8. The Guest (Adam Wingard)
  9. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
  10. Locke (Steven Knight)
***
Jason Tyrone
  1. Interstellar (Christopher Nolan)
  2. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
  3. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
  4. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
  5. Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn)
  6. Captain America: Winter Soldier (Russo Brothers)
  7. X Men: Days of Future Past (Bryan Singer)
  8. Fury (David Ayer)
  9. The Lego Movie (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller)
  10. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves)
Honorable mention: Star Wars: Episode VII Trailer looped into a 90 minute movie.
***
Ryan Krahn
  1. River of Fundament (Mathew Barney)
  2. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
  3. Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne )
  4. Amour Fou (Jessica Hausner)
  5. The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland)
  6. Nymphomaniac Vols. 1 and 2 (Lars von Trier)
  7. Phoenix (Christian Petzold)
  8. Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara)
  9. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
  10. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras)
***
Blake Williams
  1. Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard)
  2. Not And Or (Simon Payne)
  3. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
  4. Journey to the West (Tsai Ming-liang)
  5. Horse Money (Pedro Costa)
  6. Phoenix (Christian Petzold)
  7. Pan (Anton Ginzburg)
  8. Blanket Statement #2: It's All or Nothing (Jodie Mack)
  9. National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman)
  10. P'tit Quinquin (Bruno Dumont)
***
Carrie Reese
  1. Adieu au Langage 3D (JL Godard)
  2. Too Much Johnson (Orson Welles)
  3. Mommy (Xavier Dolan)
  4. Nymphomaniac Vol. 1 (Lars von Trier)
  5. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
  6. Venus in Fur (Roman Polanski)
  7. Jodorowsky’s Dune (Frank Pavich)
  8. Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski)
  9. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
  10. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
***
Pavan Moondi
  1. Obvious Child (Gillian Robespierre)
  2. Heaven Knows What (Joshua and Benny Safdie) 
  3. The One I Love (Charlie McDowell)
  4. Happy Christmas (Joe Swanberg)
  5. They Came Together (David Wain)
  6. Welcome to Me (Shira Piven)
  7. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
  8. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
  9. While We’re Young (Noah Baumbach)
  10. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
***
Noah Taylor
  1. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
  2. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
  3. Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn)
  4. The Lego Movie (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller)
  5. Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier)
  6. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
  7. Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller)
  8. Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
  9. Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman)
  10. Dom Hemingway (Richard Shepard)
***
Sofia Bohdanowicz
In no particular order:
  1. Spectrum Reverse Spectrum (Margaret Honda)
  2. Journey to the West (Tsai Ming-liang)
  3. To Be Here (Ute Aurand )
  4. From the Notebook of... (Robert Beavers)
  5. The Princess of France (Matías Piñeiro)
  6. Adieu au Langage 3D (JL Godard)
  7. Señoritas (Lina Rodriguez)
  8. Heaven Knows What (Joshua and Ben Safdie)
  9. Off White Tulips (Aykan Safoglu)
  10. Life in a Fishbowl (Baldvin Zophoníasson)
***
Leslie Supnet
  1. The Public Slaw (Winston Hacking and Andrew Zuckerman)
  2. Day is Done (Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstructions #2 -#32) (Mike Kelley)
  3. Fausto and Emilio (Nora Sweeney)
  4. Off-White Tulips (Aykan Safoglu)
  5. LA Rising - FM (Walter Vargas)
  6. From Deep (Brett Kashmere)
  7. Activated Memory 1 (Sabrina Ratté)
  8. My Name is Oona (Gunvor Nelson)
  9. Edmazinbiiget (Christian Chapman with collaborators Caroline Monnet, Sebastian Aubin, Marja Bål Nango and Nathan Young)
  10. Three Minute Hells (Amy Halpern)
***
Mitch Ariel
  1. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
  2. Mommy (Xavier Dolan)
  3. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
  4. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (Isao Takahata)
  5. Tu dors Nicole (Stéphane Lafleur)
  6. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras)
  7. Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard)
  8. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho)
  9. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
  10. Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
***
Joe Ciaravino
  1. Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
  2. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
  3. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)  
  4. The Immigrant (James Gray)
  5. Life Itself (Steve James)
  6. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
  7. Interstellar (Christopher Nolan)
  8. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras)
  9. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
  10. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)

***
Peter Merriman
  • Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman)
  • The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
  • Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
  • Nymphomaniac: Vol. II (Lars von Trier) 
  • Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho)
  • Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie) 
  • They Came Together (David Wain)
  • Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)

***
Sean Rogers
Five new-ish films, and five older ones, from my year of moviegoing, downloading, and streaming.
  • Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard) – The best new film released in Toronto.
  • Hard to Be a God (Aleksey German) – The best new film not released in Toronto (seen via TPB [RIP]).
  • Too Much Johnson (Orson Welles) – The best old film “officially” released online (downloaded via filmpreservation.org).
  • Journey to the West (Tsai Ming-liang) – The best new film “officially” released online (streamed via Arte France).
  • Jauja (Lisandro Alonso) – The best film at TIFF (other than the Godard).
  • The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga (Jessica Oreck) – The best film at Hot Docs.
  • Les statues meurent aussi (Alain Resnais, Chris Marker, and Ghislain Cloque) – A favorite from Images.
  • Stemple Pass (James Benning) – A favorite from Pleasure Dome.
  • For My Crushed Right Eye (Toshio Matsumoto) – A favorite from Early Monthly Segments.
  • California Split (Robert Altman)  A favorite from Cinematheque.
***
Chris Kennedy
  1. Maidan ­(Sergei Loznitsa) - An absolutely stunning document of the Ukrainian revolution in Maidan square, made even more incredible by Loznitsa’s choice to never move the camera during a shot (save once). At times, this choice creates an epic timeless feel to the protests that reminds us of the romantic vision of collectivism. Other times, it mirrors the chaos that one must feel when one can’t see what’s on the other side of the barricade.
  2. Provenance (Amie Seigal) - Seigal’s installation traces the furniture designed by Le Courbusier from the auction house back to the Indian city where they were built. It's a beautifully paced and non-didactic look at scarcity, cultural difference and the import that we give to objects.
  3. Brule le Mer (Maki Berchache and Nathalie Nambot)- A film about migrancy made by a Tunisian migrant and filmmakers from the French microlab L'abominable, combining a powerful story with a strong formal beauty (the film is shot on 16mm and super 8). Designed around the moving premise that "the country of [one's] dreams [changes from the country you're travelling towards to] the country left behind.”
  4. Far From (Barbara Sternberg) - Sternberg's latest is structured intentionally like a piece of music and as such, creates a lovely unfolding of theme and variation over the course of 15 minutes. This musical lyricism and the textured changes of the overlapping optically printed images beautifully models memory's recall.
  5. Sea of Vapours ­(Sylvia Schedelbauer) - Sea of Vapours represents a shift from her more historically motivated work to a more present-tense dream logic, employing her signature strobe towards a more sensuous sublime.
  6. Slut Walk: ­Anatomy of a Protest ­(Wendy Coburn) - An extremely disturbing attempt to make sense of the presence of undercover agents provocateurs at the 2011 inaugural Slut Walk. Tracking a group of over-the-top protestors, Coburn discovers that they are likely cops, trying to spin the media message their way. A piece that will grow in prominence beyond its gallery debut (rumour has it said cops took a gander in its final week). It's a disturbing local picture released during a really bad time for cops to be looking like brutes with a tin-ear towards sexual harrassment.
  7. Off-White Tulips ­(Aykan Safoglu) - Safoglu’s narration of James Baldwin’s fondness for Istanbul manages the tricky feat of finding a connection with a famous historical figure in a way
    that avoids feeling self-serving and instead reveals how those connections help us make meaning out of our own life.
  8. Cassette Memories: Volume III (Aki Onda) - I relistened to this CD a few times this year and was struck by how cinematic its structure is. Inspired by Jodorowsky, the sounds recorded years ago in Mexico ­develop into images that are both concrete and mythical.
  9. Leaves of Grass (Geoffrey Farmer) - Thousands of images from 50 years of LIFE magazine are glued to as many grass stems and assembled in a dense timeline along a table 150' long. Not a film, but this sculpture, which debuted at Documenta and is on display at the national gallery, has much to say about temporal change, juxtaposition and the interplay between two and three dimensions. A homage to Arthur Lipsett?
  10. Main Hall (Philipp Fleischmann) and Brouillard (Alexandre Larose) - Two films that celebrated the latent possibilities of celluloid filmmaking: ­Main Hall with its beautiful transference of an instant into the unfolding of time; and Brouillard with its stunning Seurat-like pointillism created by multiple superimpositions (especially when shown on the 35mm colour reversal original).
Bonus: The Red Balloon (Albert Lamorisse)
This film has played incessantly in my house over the last year and a half to entertain my young son, so much so that every frame and sound is memorized and every balloon encountered on the street is a source of joy.
***
Eastern Yoo
  1. A Most Wanted Man (Anton Corbijn)
  2. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
  3. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho)
  4. The Immigrant (James Gray)
  5. The One I Love (Charlie McDowell)
  6. Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski)
  7. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
  8. Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman)
  9. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
  10. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
***
Tobin Dalrymple
  1. Birdman (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)
  2. Interstellar (Christopher Nolan)
  3. Fury (David Ayer)
  4. Ukraine is Not a Brothel (Kitty Green)
  5. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
  6. The Writer with No Hands (William Westaway)
  7. John Wick (David Leitch and Chad Stahelski)
  8. Mommy (Xavier Dolan)
  9. Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn)
  10. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
***
Calum Marsh
  1. Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry)
  2. Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard)
  3. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
  4. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
  5. Two Days One Night (Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne)
  6. The Strange Little Cat (Ramon Zürcher)
  7. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
  8. Norte, the End of History (Lav Diaz)
  9. The Immigrant (James Gray)
  10. John Wick (David Leitch and Chad Stahelski)
***

Adam Nayman 
Ten favourite performances of 2014.
  • Hong Chau, Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
  • Marion Cotillard, The Immigrant (James Gray)
  • Arielle Holmes, Heaven Knows What (Joshua and Ben Safdie)
  • Nina Hoss, Phoenix (Christian Petzold)
  • Tom Hardy, Locke (Steven Knight)
  • Scarlett Johansson, Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
  • Tyler Perry, Gone Girl (David Fincher)
  • Joaquin Phoenix, The Immigrant (James Gray)
  • Bernard Pruvost, P'tit Quinquin (Bruno Dumont)
  • Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller)
***
Mark Barber 
  1. Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
  2. The Tribe (Miroslav Slaboshpitsky)
  3. Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie)
  4. Mommy (Xavier Dolan)
  5. Birdman (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)
  6. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso)
  7. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
  8. La Sapienza (Eugène Green)
  9. Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard)
  10. The Guest (Adam Wingard)
***
Ben Harrison 
  1. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
  2. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras)
  3. Journey To The West (Tsai Ming-liang)
  4. The Tribe (Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy)
  5. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
  6. Hill of Freedom (Hong Sang-soo)
  7. La Salada (Martin Hsu)
  8. Love in the Time of Civil War (Rodrigue Jean)
  9. The Raid 2: Barendal (Gareth Evans)
  10. Heartbeat (Andrea Dorfman)
***
Adam Cook (Vancouver)
  1. Journey To The West (Tsai Ming-liang)
  2. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (Isao Takahata)
  3. Adieu au langage (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 and Pasolini (Abel Ferrara)
***
Kurt Walker (Vancouver)
  1. Jersey Boys (Clint Eastwood)
  2. Horse Money (Pedro Costa)
  3. Pompeii (Paul W.S. Anderson)
  4. NM (Alexandre Galmard)
  5. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
  6. I Used to Be Darker (Matt Porterfield)
  7. Here’s to the Future! (Gina Telaroli)
  8. Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara)
  9. Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard)
  10. Fathers and Sons (Wang Bing)
***
Neil Bahadur (Vancouver)
  1. Horse Money (Pedro Costa)
  2. Pompeii (Paul W.S. Anderson)
  3. Kommunisten (Jean-Marie Straub)
  4. Dumb and Dumber To (the Farrelly brothers)
  5. Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara)
  6. Don’t Go Breaking my Heart 2 (Johnnie To)
  7. Songs from the North (Soon Mi-Yoo)
  8. From What is Before (Lav Diaz)
  9. The Homesman (Tommy Lee Jones)
  10. Jersey Boys (Clint Eastwood)
Retrospective: Northwest Passage, The Vilalge, Stamboat Round the Bend, Something Wild, Napoleon, Peggy Sue Got Married, Starman, Shopping, Gentleman Jim, The Stranger’s Return. They Died with their Boots On, Uncertain Glory, The Big Trail, Band of Angels, Thunderbolt, Princess of Yang-Kwei Fei,Assault on Precinct 13.
***
Ethaniel Vestby (Montreal)
  1. Horse Money (Pedro Costa)
  2. Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard)
  3. The Immigrant (James Gray)
  4. Welcome to New York (Abel Ferrara)
  5. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
  6. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
  7. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso)
  8. Jersey Boys (Clint Eastwood)
  9. Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry)
  10. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
***
Erin Elizabeth
  1. In the Crosswind (Martti Helde)
  2. The Keeping Room (Daniel Barber)
  3. Phoenix (Christian Petzold)
  4. Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard)
  5. The Guest (Adam Wingard)
  6. What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi)
  7. Mommy (Xavier Dolan)
  8. The Tribe (Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy)
  9. The Intruder (Shariff Korver)
  10. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
***
Natasha Blair
In no particular order.
  1. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
  2. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
  3. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
  4. Enemy (Denis Villeneuve)
  5. National Gallery (Frederick. Wiseman)
  6. Life Itself (Steve James)
  7. Nymphomaniac (Lars von Trier)
  8. Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg)
  9. Coherence (James Ward Byrkit)
  10. Mommy (Xavier Dolan)
***
Adriana Floridia 
  1. Two Days One Night (Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne)
  2. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
  3. Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu
  4. Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry)
  5. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
  6. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
  7. Mommy (Xavier Dolan)
  8. Palo Alto (Gia Coppola)
  9. Obvious Child (Gillian Robespierre)
  10. Mood Indigo (Michel Gondry)
***
Julia Cooper
  1. Girlhood (Céline Sciamma)
  2. It Felt Like Love (Eliza Hittman)
  3. Nymphomaniac: Vol. I and II (Lars von Trier)
  4. Veronica Mars (Rob Thomas)
  5. Obvious Child (Gillian Robespierre)
  6. Mommy (Xavier Dolan)
  7. We are the Best! (Lukas Moodysson) 
  8. Ilo Ilo (Anthony Chen)
  9. Locke (Steven Knight)
  10. Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt)
***
Moen Mohamed
  1. P'tit Quinquin (Bruno Dumont)
  2. Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
  3. Horse Money (Pedro Costa)
  4. Amour fou (Jessica Hausner)
  5. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
  6. Black Coal, Thin Ice (Diao Yinan)
  7. Phoenix (Christian Petzold)
  8. Alive (Jung-bum Park)  
  9. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
  10. The Tribe (Miroslav Slaboshpitsky)
***
Thomas Loree
  1. La danza de la realidad (Alejandro Jodorowsky)
  2. Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard)
  3. The Old Man of Belém (Manoel de Oliveira)
  4. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso)
  5. Welcome to NY and Pasolini (Abel Ferrara)
  6. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho)
  7. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
  8. Journey To The West (Tsai Ming-liang)
  9. Magic in the Moonlight (Woody Allen)
  10. Inspector George Gently: Season 6 (4 episodes directed by Nicholas Renton, Bill Anderson, Tim Whitby and Ben Bolt)
Addendum: Calvary (John Michael McDonagh), A Most Wanted Man (Anton Corbijn), La Sapienza (Eugène Green), Agatha Christie’s Poirot: Curtain (Hettie Macdonald).

Needs a Distributor: Rob Ford crack video.
***
Lars Aumueller

  • Boyhood (Richard Linklater) 
  • Enemy (Denis Villeneuve) 
  • Life Itself (Steve James) 
  • Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy) 
  • Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho) 
  • The Dance of Reality (Alejandro Jodorowsky) 
  • The Immigrant (James Gray) 
  • The Raid 2 (Gareth Evans) 
  • The Trip to Italy (Michael Winterbottom) 
  • Whitey: United States of America vs. James J. Bulger (Joe Berlinger)
***
Sam Tunningley
  1. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
  2. Journey to the West (Tsai Ming-liang)
  3. Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt)
  4. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso)
  5. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
  6. Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang)
  7. Hard To Be A God (Aleksei German)
  8. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
  9. Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry)
  10. Concerning Violence (Göran Olsson)
Honorable Mentions: Dumb and Dumber To (Peter and Bobby Farrelly), Nymphomaniac (Lars von Trier), Closed Curtain (Jafar Panahi), Too Many Cooks (Caspar Kelly), The Joy of Man's Desiring (Denis Côté), They Came Together (David Wain), Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund), Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch), The Immigrant (James Gray).
***
Brian St. Denis
  1. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
  2. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
  3. Listen up Philip (Alex Ross Perry)
  4. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
  5. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
  6. The Immigrant (James Gray)           
  7. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras)
  8. The Double (Richard Ayoade)
  9. Godzilla (Gareth Edwards)
  10. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
***
Soufian Jalili
  1. Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
  2. Omar (Hany Abu-Assad)
  3. A Most Wanted Man (Anton Corbijn)
  4. Enemy (Denis Villeneuve)
  5. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
  6. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
  7. Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu
  8. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
  9. The Missing Picture (Rithy Panh)
  10. Two Days One Night (Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne) 
    ***
Spencer Everhart
  • Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard) 
  • Costa Da Morte (Lois Patiño) 
  • Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund) 
  • The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson) 
  • Hit 2 Pass (Kurt Walker) 
  • Horse Money (Pedro Costa) 
  • The Immigrant (James Gray) 
  • Jauja (Lisandro Alonso) 
  • Jersey Boys (Clint Eastwood) 
  • Journey To The West (Tsai Ming-liang) 
  • Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry) 
  • Phoenix (Christian Petzold) 
  • The Princess Of France (Matías Piñeiro) 
  • The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya (Isao Takahata) 
  • Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
***
Alyson Caillaud-Jones
In alphabetical order.
  1. Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard)
  2. Broad City (Ilana Glazer, Abbi Jacobson)
  3. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras)
  4. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
  5. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
  6. The Immigrant (James Gray)
  7. Listen up Philip (Alex Ross Perry)
  8. Obvious Child (Gillian Robespierre)
  9. Tom at the Farm (Xavier Dolan)
  10. True Detective (Nic Pizzolatto)
***
James McNally
  1. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
  2. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
  3. Actress (Robert Greene)
  4. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
  5. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
  6. The Overnighters (Jesse Moss)
  7. Mommy (Xavier Dolan)
  8. We Are The Best! (Lukas Moodysson)
  9. Song of the Sea (Tomm Moore)
  10. Rich Hill (Tracy Droz Tragos, Andrew Droz Palermo)
***
Andrew Smart
  1. Journey to the West (Tsai Ming-liang)
  2. Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie)
  3. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
  4. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
  5. Actress (Robert Greene)
  6. Listen up Philip (Alex Ross Perry)
  7. Dear White People (Justin Simien)
  8. The Babadook (Jennifer Kent)
  9. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho)
  10. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
***
Leora Heilbronn 
  1. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
  2. Selma (Ava DuVernay)
  3. The Raid 2: Barendal (Gareth Evans)
  4. The Lego Movie (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller)
  5. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho)
  6. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
  7. Love is Strange (Ira Sachs)
  8. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
  9. Calvary (John Michael McDonagh)
  10. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
***
Shahbaz Kh
  1. Two Days, One Night (Jean-Luc and Pierre Dardenne)
  2. Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg)
  3. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
  4. Wild Tales (Damian Szifron)
  5. La Sapienza (Eugene Green)
  6. A Field in England (Ben Wheatley)
  7. Leviathan (Andrei Zvyagintsev)
  8. Jutra (Marie-Josee Saint-Pierre)
  9. Dance of Reality (Alejandro Jodorowski)
  10. Tokyo Tribe (Sion Sono)
***
Ryan MacDuff (Montreal)
  1. The Immigrant (James Gray) 
  2. Adieu au Langage 3D (Jean-Luc Godard) 
  3. Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry) 
  4. Horse Money (Pedro Costa) 
  5. Heaven Knows What (Josh and Ben Safdie) 
  6. Actress (Robert Greene) 
  7. See You Next Tuesday (Drew Tobia) 
  8. Boyhood (Richard Linklater) 
  9. Pasolini (Abel Ferrara)
  10. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)  
Honorable Mentions: The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson), Two Days One Night (the Dardennes brothers), Unfriended (Leo Gabriadze), Gone Girl (David Fincher).
***
Courtney Small
  1. Mommy (Xavier Dolan)
  2. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
  3. The Overnighters (Jesse Moss)
  4. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
  5. Dear White People (Justin Simien)
  6. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson
  7. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
  8. Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
  9. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
  10. What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi)
***
Angelo Muredda
  1. National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman) 
  2. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson) 
  3. Gone Girl (David Fincher) 
  4. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
  5. The Immigrant (James Gray) 
  6. Nymphomaniac (Lars von Trier) 
  7. Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard)
  8. Manakamana (Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez) 
  9. John Wick (Chad Stahelski and David Leitch) 
  10. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (Isao Takahata)
***
Kurt Halfyard
  1. Leviathan (Andrei Zvyagintsev)
  2. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
  3. Enemy (Denis Villeneuve)
  4. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho)
  5. The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland)
  6. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
  7. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
  8. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
  9. Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere (Dave Jannetta)
  10. (All tied) 1001 Grams (Bent Hamer), Calvary (John Michael McDonagh), The One I Love (Charlie McDowell)
Notable Absences: Inherent Vice, Wetlands, White God, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.
***
Corey Pierce
  1. Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu
  2. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
  3. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
  4. How To Train Your Dragon 2 (Dean DeBlois)
  5. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
  6. Men: Days of Future Past (Bryan Singer)
  7. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
  8. Top Five (Chris Rock)
  9. An Honest Liar (Tyler Measom, Justin Weinstein)
  10. They Came Together (David Wain)
Honourable Mentions: Love is Strange, The Lego Movie, The Last Five Years, I Am Big Bird, Edge of Tomorrow, Inherent Vice.
***
Peter Kuplowsky
  1. Noah (Darren Aronofsky)
  2. Enemy (Denis Villeneuve)
  3. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
  4. I Am A Knife With Legs (Bennett Jones)
  5. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
  6. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
  7. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
  8. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho)
  9. Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn)
  10. The Hagiography of Vincent Price (Michael Lane)
***
Daniel Goodbaum
  • The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson) – A couple of new tricks in this one.
  • Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch) – Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai was the first film I saw at the Bloor Cinema. I think I like the 'easy' Jarmusch films.
  • My installation TVCITY STREET STYLE (Dan Goodbaum) – What if Laura Mulvey decided to make a street fashion city symphony? 
  • Cosplay Fetish Battle Drones (Gregg Golding)I knew the director Gregg Golding in highschool, when he made some very Todd Solonz-y short films. This feature, like Gregg's shorts, has an aggressive, rapey sexuality. It's a Power Rangers spoof!
  • Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard) – Very tolerable length, and a few good laughs. Really gets at the age-old question 'what if Hitler had killed 6 million WORDS?'
  • Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer) – Fuck your male gaze.
  • My Colonoscopy – A lot of so-called cinephiles have never had a colonoscopy. I question their relationship to the cinematic apparatus.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

It is still very interesting to see these Tops because a lot of these movies are not in France yet. I am expecting Pedro Costa's or JM Vallée's films, and I do not know "Citizenfour", "Cutaway", "San Siro", "Force majeure", "Starred up", "Tales of the grim sleeper"... I have no idea what these movies are dealing with, yet I hope they will come to France.
Also quite happy to see that my own personal number 1 is quoted in some tops of your friends :)