The Best Movies of 2014 (So Far)

Dare we say that, so far, 2014 has been an exceptional year for movies? Undoubtedly yes.

So what if the overall box office was down a whopping 40% this past weekend compared to last year’s 4th of July numbers? Looking at what’s new in theaters, this weekend’s competition wasn’t exactly superior. Though Deliver Us From Evil is better than its domestic gross and critical consensus imply, Transformers: Age of Extinction and Tammy, the weekend’s top two earners, represent the worst of 2014’s cinematic slate, and, thus, are best forgotten from this point forward.

There’s been too much excellence in theaters and on VOD this year. Justifying the undying cliche “something for everyone,” the last six months have contributed terrific films to all conceivable genres. If you’re one of the few remaining rom-com fans out there, the Jenny Slate-led indie Obvious Child is the best of its funny/cutesy kind in years; if you’re into weird midnight-movie fare, Under the Skin and Enemy combine A-list talent (Scarlett Johansson and Jake Gyllenhaal, respectively) with dark and hauntingly strange stories of lost identity; for action lovers, Snowpiercer is the wonderfully insane antidote to those brain-numbing Autobots. And that’s not even mentioning hilarious comedies like Neighbors and top-tier superhero flicks like X-Men: Days of Future Past.

See what we mean? To further drive home the point, here’s our official list of The Best Movies of the Year (So Far).

Director: Gareth Edwards
Stars: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, Bryan Cranston

It's easy to understand why so many people complained about Godzilla when it opened in May. Coming from the indie scene, director Gareth Edwards brought that mentality to a surefire Hollywood blockbuster with mixed results.

Hoping to make a character-powered drama that also featured a skyscraper-tall monster, Edwards hinged the movie's human narrative on young Army man Ford Brody, a harmful decision since actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson's leading-man game is robotic at best. But with that atypically heartfelt and emotional handle on summer spectacle, Edwards also harkened back to the more patient days of Steven Spielberg blockbuster cinema, particularly Jaws; though Godzilla's CGI design was, and still is, awe-inspiring, Edwards bravely kept the beast unseen, save for a few quick, well-timed glimpses, until Godzilla's monstrous final act.

For moviegoers who appreciate skillful direction and intelligence with their buckets of overpriced popcorn, the lack of Godzilla in Edwards' Godzilla was equally refreshing and reassuring. Yet those admirers were mostly spoken over by people who don't have time for such thought and care in their blockbuster films—you know, the same people who turned Transformers: Age of Extinction into the year's biggest movie so far.

See what happens when we're given nice things? —Matt Barone

Director: Mike Flanagan
Stars: Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, Rory Cochrane, Katee Sackhoff, James Lafferty

It's a minor miracle that Oculus received such a big, widespread theatrical release in April. Typically, horror films as thoughtfully made and artistically ambitious as writer-director Mike Flanagan's sophomore feature are relegated to VOD and/or smaller art-house cinemas. But thanks to super-producer Jason Blum (Insidious, Sinister, The Purge), who snatched up the film's distribution rights at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, Oculus defied the odds.

And, unsurprisingly, audiences were mostly confused. Rather than just another cookie-cutter Hollywood horror film, Flanagan's progressive Oculus—about a haunted mirror that destroys a once-loving family over decades—pushes the genre's boundaries in ways serious horror fans wish more films would. First and foremost, it's character-driven, spending enough time with its emotionally tortured protagonists, brother and sister duo Kaylie (Karen Gillan) and Tim (Brenton Thwaites) to make its wildest conceit all the more impactful. That conceit is Flanagan's intricately executed dueling of realities, with the past repeating itself directly alongside the present—it's a risky supernatural trick that Flanagan tightly maneuvers around.

It's been a middling year for mainstream horror so far; Oculus, however, is evidence that the independent scene's as vibrant and imaginative as ever—even if films of this kind are ultimately better served outside of multiplex chains. —Matt Barone

Director: Eugenio Mira
Elijah Wood, Kerry Bishe, John Cusack, Tamsin Egerton, Alex Winter, Allen Leech

Speed with a piano? It's a concept that shouldn't work, yet it's one that's terrifically pulled off by director Eugenio Mira and screenwriter Damien Chazelle in Grand Piano, a first-class example of sustained single-location suspense. Elijah Wood plays Tom Selznick, a concert pianist wunderkind stricken by disabling stage fright. Looking to avenge a disastrous performance years prior, Selznick mans up and gets ready to stroke the keys in front a packed opera house. But there's a note written in his music book: "Play one wrong note and you die."

From there, Grand Piano works overtime emulating old-school Brian De Palma thrillers and succeeds wholeheartedly, wringing maximum tension out of its seemingly goofy premise by continually finding ways to turn an enclosed venue into an expanding chamber of horrors. The cumulative result is B-movie absurdity skillfully elevated into grade-A fun. —Matt Barone

Director: Katrin Gebbe
Stars: Julius Feldmeier, Sascha Alexander Gersak, Annika Kuhl, Swantje Kohlhof

Written and directed by German first-timer Katrin Gebbe, Nothing Bad Can Happen fictionalizes an incident in her native country she discovered on the Internet, which converged thematically with the book she was reading at the time, Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Idiot. Nothing Bad Can Happen is The Idiot channeled through Christianity. Tore (Julius Feldmeier), a warm, upbeat, and skinny teenage drifter, is part of the Jesus Freaks, a counter-culture Christian movement in Hamburg that's part headbanger's ball and part prayer circle. He’s convinced that by loving Jesus, he’s impervious to any earthbound suffering: “What can man do to me?” he asks at one point, unaware of what’s about to happen. Later, he inquires: “Why should we live if we can’t believe in the goodness?”

Because, sadly, some people just aren’t good at all. Tore learns this the hard way after a chance encounter with Benno (Sascha Alexander Gersak), a husband and stepfather of two who provides Tore with a sanctuary when one of Tore’s fellow Jesus Freaks commits a sin in front of him. Using Benno's young son's tent as his outside bedroom, Tore lives on the family's land and slowly integrates himself into their daily routines, even striking up an affectionate and potentially romantic relationship with the teenage daughter, Sanny (Swantje Kohlhof). It doesn't take long, however, for Benno's true colors to emerge. Deep down, he's a sadist, and in Tore's disabling kindness and dedication to honoring Jesus' pacifist ways, Benno quickly figures out that he's able to easily abuse his new friend, both physically and emotionally. And Tore, in true Jesus Freak fashion, believes that Benno is his ultimate challenge from the man upstairs.

Gebbe's an audacious, confrontational talent, and Nothing Bad Can Happen doesn't shy away from its increasingly horrific imagery. It's so skillfully made that it'd be a crime to overlook Gebbe's superb debut for fear of your own psychological discomfort.

At the Cannes Film Festival in May 2013, Nothing Bad Can Happen had a polarizing impact amongst the press members in attendance. Around three-quarters of those watching its first industry screening walked out, perhaps not ready to embrace Gebbe's assaultive drama. Variety's subsequent review suggested that it be given a special new Cannes award: “Palme d'Horreur.” Though those Cannes walk-outs seem a bit undeserved, Nothing Bad Can Happen justifies Variety's clever distinction. Gebbe has constructed a horror film about the complications of faith besieged by humanity's worst impulses, but in a such an artistically sound and audacious way that prestige is completely warranted. —Matt Barone

Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Stars: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Emily VanCamp, Hayley Atwell, Robert Redford, Samuel L. Jackson

If you tune out all the mind-numbing action sequences of the film's third act, The Winter Soldier is a superhero movie with some real smarts. Without sacrificing continuity after The Avengers, the film follows the Cap as he tries to defeat an elusive Soviet agent, the Winter Soldier, and take down the Hydra regime that's infiltrated the U.S. government. Yes, rather than simply offering up two hours and 16 minutes of grade-A Chris Evans beefcake, the movie uses Steve Rogers' acclimation to the post-9/11 world as an outlet for political and social commentary. If the Bourne movies and The Avengers had a love child, this would be their beautiful baby. —Tara Aquino

Director: Steven Knight
Stars: Tom Hardy

Locke is the epitome of cinematic minimalism. Tom Hardy plays Ivan Locke, a construction manager who gets into the driver's seat of his BMW the night before he's supposed to oversee the biggest concrete pour in Europe's history. But that's the last thing on Locke's mind. As his wife and teenage son call him on the BMW's dashboard phone system, Locke heads down the M5 motorway en route to London, where an older woman he had a one-night stand with is about to give birth to their out-of-wedlock baby. And for nearly 85 minutes straight, Knight's cameras remain inside the car and focus on Locke as he battles through a whirlwind of emotions and comes to terms with the awful way he's about to rip his family apart, not to mention put his successful career in jeopardy.

Indeed, Locke is simply Tom Hardy in a car, and it's amazingly captivating and intense. Behind the camera, writer-director Steven Knight does a fine job adding unforeseen dimensions and raw energy to his single, claustrophobic location. But let's not get it twisted—Tom Hardy is the film's undeniable MVP. —Matt Barone

Director: Josh Boone
Stars: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Laura Dern, Sam Trammell, Nat Wolff, Willem Dafoe, Mike Birbiglia, Lotte Verbeek

While you're writing this off as a remake of A Walk to Remember, realize that you've already purchased a box of tissues and are in the theater. How did you get here? Why is your popcorn soggy? Is that—are those tears? Yep!

The Fault in Our Stars, starring young Hollywood's finest, Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, is a heartbreaking tale of two purportedly star crossed teenagers in love. Oh, and they also happen to suffer from terminal cancer. Through it, they discover that love won't heal the entire world, not everyone will remember you, but you can make a difference in one person, and that's all that really matters.

If you have a heart, this movie will move you. If you're a cynical grump, Ansel Elgort's overeager loverboy character Gus will probably creep you out. —Hope Schreiber

Director: Lars von Trier
Stars: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater, Jamie Bell, Uma Thurman, Willem Dafoe, Mia Goth, Sophie, Kennedy Clark, Connie Nielsen, Michaël Pas, Jean-Marc Barr, Udo Kier

This film does not try to turn you on. It's the kind of movie where, if it does make you feel something in your happy place, you'll start questioning your humanity entirely. Broken up into two movies (clocking in at about four hours total), Nymphomaniac is one long therapy session that's as clinical as they come. A bruised and beaten sex addict named Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) recounts her erotic adventures to a seemingly asexual man (Stellan Skarsgard) who nurses her back to health. She begins with details about discovering her sexuality as a child, gets on about her sexcapades as a teen, and traces her obsession with sadomasochism. Interspersed in their conversation are flashbacks to each traumatic instance, presented as cold and as exposed as the fluorescent lighting in an operating room.

You don't enjoy this movie; you experience it. And just like for Joe, it's an experience that's hard to shake. —Tara Aquino

Director: Alex van Warmerdam
Stars: Jan Bijvoet, Hadewych Minis, Jeroen Perceval, Alex van Warmerdam, Tom Dewispelaere, Sara Hjort Ditlevsen, Elve Lijbaart, Dirkje van der Pijl

Borgman, Dutch filmmaker Alex van Warmerdam's deconstruction of the "home invasion" horror/thriller sub-genre, defies categorization. All at once, it's a psychological horror film, a black comedy, a searing domestic drama, and mesmerizing fever dream. There's even an elaborate double-murder sequence that's up there with the most disturbing and confidently staged on-screen homicides. Van Warmerdam doesn't let you get a grasp on where Borgman's going or what in the cinema god's name his impenetrable film is; meaning, it's not for those who don't enjoy working their brains while watching movies.

Cinephiles who enter Borgman with an open mind, however, will be rewarded by an engrossing kind of disorientation and an exposure to one of the weirdest movies I've ever seen. That's a compliment of the highest order. —Matt Barone

Director: Bryan Singer
Stars: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, Omar Sy, Evan Peters

First and only complaint: this movie needs more Kitty Pryde. Seriously? You're just going to have her mentally transport Wolverine to the past to save the world from the world war Mystique may or may not start and not give her any credit, i.e. more screen time? That's bull. But we digress.

Aside from Peter Dinklage's groovy '60s haircut and Quicksilver's hilarious appearance, what makes this film so entertaining is the palpable chemistry between it's A-list actors. Without the obvious camaraderie between James McAvoy as Professor X, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, and Nicholas Hoult as Beast, the film could've easily slipped into mediocrity. But the X-Men are a team after all, and these impressive performances don't let you forget that. —Tara Aquino

Director: Gillian Robespierre
Stars: Jenny Slate, Jake Lacy, Gaby Hoffman, Richard Kind, David Cross, Polly Draper, Paul Briganti

If there's one thing that's super obvious about the film, it's this: This is Jenny Slate's star-maker. The ubiquitous comedian, who's proven herself with supporting roles on Parks and Recreation and Kroll Show, stars here as a twenty-something who finds herself at a crossroads in her life after a one-night stand leaves her pregnant. No, her life isn't ruined and this doesn't turn into a Lifetime movie. Rather, thanks in large part to writer-director Gillian Robespierre's brilliantly hilarious script, the film is as a weightless, as fun, and as comforting as your favorite classic rom-com. —Tara Aquino

Director: Richard Ayoade
Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Mia Wasikowska, Wallace Shawn, Noah Taylor, Yasmin Paige, James Fox

A loose adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 1846 novella, Richard Ayoade's sophomore feature—the follow-up to his 2010 debut Submarine—is the best Terry Gilliam movie (i.e., Brazil, 12 Monkeys) the former Monty Python member never made. Funny, surreal, and impressively otherworldly without any sci-fi visual trickery, The Double places viewers into a heightened reality that can be described as an urbanized remodeling of the industrial setting seen in David Lynch's Eraserhead (1977), right down to the constant horns that blare from off-camera, as if Ayoade's film takes place in the town neighboring Eraserhead's location.

The script, co-written by Ayoade and Avi Korine, is a shrewd comedy of epic fails experienced by Simon James (Jesse Eisenberg, his neurotic drollness utilized perfectly here). He's a cubicle dweller who wouldn't be out of place in Office Space; his co-workers rarely acknowledge his existence, beginning with the security guard who makes him sign in everyday and acts like he's never seen Simon before, even though Simon's worked there for five years. Par for the course, there's a pretty girl in his office (played by Mia Wasikowska) whom Simon adores but can't be bothered by his awkward attempts at conversation. His lack of identity takes a wild turn when new employee James Simon (also Eisenberg) shows up one day looking like Simon's clone, because, well, in a way, he is.

The British accents of Simon's colleagues imply that The Double takes place somewhere in England, but, really, who cares? Though it resembles our reality, the world in which Simon aimlessly drifts around feels not of this universe, in the best ways. The streets are fog-cloaked and eerily vacant at all times. The commercials and shows Simon watches on his rinky-dink television have the aesthetics of brainwash propaganda made in the 1980s. The office building where he works is part factory and part prison-like nest of long-running bars and corridors. If not for the sharp, purposely mean-spirited comedy, The Double would qualify as an existentialist horror flick. —Matt Barone

Directors: Philip Lord and Chris Miller
Stars: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Amber Stevens, Jillian Bell, Wyatt Russell, Nick Offerman

If the idea of a 21 Jump Street sequel seemed gratuitous to you, you have a lot in common with directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller and their screenwriters. Meta almost to a fault, 22 Jump Street never lets you forget that it's yet another Hollywood sequel adhering to your expectations. Including purposefully transparent jokes about "red herrings," "meet-cutes," and other self-aware references, it's borderline O.D. with its wink-wink humor, but, damn, if stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill don't completely sell every joke, whether undeniably effective or slightly off-base.

Bringing their character Jenko and Schmidt to college, Tatum and Hill carry 22 Jump Street with their improved chemistry; Tatum, in particular, has evolved into an imposing yet lovably gentle comedic force—he's Biff Tannen with a heart of gold. Wisely, Lord and Miller also give co-star Ice Cube more to do this time, and O'Shea kills it. Even at its most aggressively meta, 22 Jump Street remains easily watchable and endearingly goofy thanks to its A+ cast, all of whom make this unlikely sequel feel like it was the most enjoyable film to make this summer, save for Neighbors. —Matt Barone

Director: Doug Liman
Stars: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson

It's a shame that this film got completely overshadowed by The Fault in Our Stars during its opening weekend because damn is this fun. Edge of Tomorrow is a reminder of how summer blockbusters should be: filled with Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, and action sequences and set pieces that actually look pretty damn cool.

Adapted from the Japanese novel All You Need Is Kill, the story follows inexperienced officer Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) who finds himself in a neverending time loop during an apocalyptic war against an alien race. The world's only chance for survival, he must team up with decorated war hero Sgt. Vrataski (Emily Blunt) to blow up the evil alien boss. Once Cage and Vrataski meet, it's difficult not to get sucked into the spectacle of it all, and you cannot get enough of seeing the two together. It's no wonder that this movie has been called the best video game movie that isn't based on a video game. It's just as addictive. —Tara Aquino

Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
Stars: Agata Trzebuchowska, Agata Kulesza, Joanna Kulig, Dawid Ogrodnik, Adam Szyskowski, Jerzy Trela

Before giving herself up to God, Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska), a nun-to-be in 1960s Poland, must first come to terms with whom the person she's sacrificing actually is. Upon visiting her sole relative, Wanda (Agata Kulesza), Anna discovers a family secret that's directly connected to the Nazi occupation. As Wanda's truth unravels, the weight of the Holocaust settles itself around Anna, who realizes the realities of postwar Communism.

An unsentimental and contemplative film, Ida is both a historical portrait and a character study painted with same kind of care and precision given to classic works of art. You have to admire it from a distance, sure, but it's undeniably one of the most beautiful films of the year. —Tara Aquino

Director: E.L. Katz
Stars: Pat Healy, Ethan Embry, David Koechner, Sara Paxton

The Academy Awards committee should introduce a "Sickest Satire" category in this movie's honor.

Directed and co-written by rookie E.L. Katz, Cheap Thrills is cinematic cynicism at its finest. Indie film stalwart Pat Healy stars as Craig, a blue-collar guy facing eviction and suddenly jobless who's desperate to provide for his wife and their newborn son. One night, while drinking alone in a bar, he runs into an old friend, Vince (Ethan Embry), who's in a similar financial hole but who's also a criminal. Together, they succumb to the twisted and sadistic whims of a rich couple (David Koechner and Sara Paxton) who get off on watching have-nots degrade themselves for money.

Through a series of increasingly vile dares, Craig and Vince accumulate cash while sinking deeper into a reprehensible abyss, which Katz pitches as an everyman thriller of errors, mounting violence, and madcap unpredictability. Before you know it, Cheap Thrills locks you in its vice grip and never stops tightening its hold. You'll laugh, you'll cringe, and you'll want to shake E.L. Katz' hand once the film's final shot brilliantly encapsulates Cheap Thrills' overall theme. —Matt Barone

Director: Jim Mickle
Stars: Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard, Don Johnson, Vinessa Shaw, Wyatt Russell, Nick Damici

Fueled by a John-Carpenter-esque score, Cold in July is pure throwback bliss, channeling the man's-man action films of the 1980s and twisting along with its unpredictable and corpse-riddled plot. Without giving anything away, here's a brief set-up: Hall plays Richard Dane, a small-town East Texas husband and father who runs a rinky-dink picture frame shop; one night, an intruder breaks into his home, prompting the Richard to grab a handgun and, by accident, shoot the guy dead. He becomes a local hero, but his moment of glory doesn't last long. The deceased intruder's father, Ben Russell (Sam Shepard), is fresh out of prison and looking for bloody vengeance. From there, Cold in July's narrative never goes where you expect it to, see-sawing between genres (from thriller to comedy, back to thriller again and touching upon horror, and so on) and giving Hall, Shepard, and a hilariously free-wheeling Don Johnson plenty of rich material.

Having been a Jim Mickle fan since Mulberry Street, I must say, I didn't see Cold in July's genre-subverting excellence coming. It's nothing like his previous movies, but, at the same time, it's of a similar breed, never shying away from its brutality and including one of the most horrific images I've seen in a long time (presented via a grainy VHS transfer, no less, which makes it all the more unsettling). It's a remarkable piece of midnight-dark entertainment. —Matt Barone

Director: Steve James

Midway into the documentary Life itself, which shares the same name as the late film reviewer's 2011 memoir, Roger Ebert's longtime friend and Life Itself executive producer Martin Scorsese recounts one of the darkest times in his life. It was the early 1980s, around the time that Raging Bull premiered, and Scorsese was in bad shape. His third marriage had recently ended and he was succumbing to drugs. The forces left the filmmaker in a deep, intense depression. Near tears, Scorsese recalls how one random phone call changed everything. He'd been give word that world-famous critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel wanted to invite him to the Toronto International Film Festival to receive a special tribute, honoring the superior films he'd made up until that point, including Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull.

And just like that, Scorsese felt alive again. His existence was validated. "That night changed it," says Scorsese in Life Itself, overcome with emotion, "and it started my life again.

Granted an amazing amount of up-close-and-personal access by Ebert and his wife, Chaz, director Steve James (Hoop Dreams) spends much of the film alongside Ebert in the hospital rooms he occupied when surgery in 2003 for a cancerous salivary gland took away his ability to talk or and papillary thyroid cancer hindered his walking. Despite those ailments, the Roger Ebert seen in Life Itself is in incredibly high spirits. One moment, he's sonning the director for trying to crack a one-liner, typing into his laptop's digitally generated voice system, "I'll tell the jokes here, James." The next, he's bravely allowing James to film a nurse sticking a suction tube through his neck area. Ebert is in visible pain, but James captures it all. The director mentions that Ebert sent him an email later that night that led with "Great stuff!" and expressed how happy he was that the film's eventual viewers would get to see something that no one normally gets to witness.

Near the end of Life Itself, as Ebert's condition worsens, he sends James another email. "This is not only your film," he writes. Indeed, it's not—it's a film for all people, whether you're a cinephile or just someone who simply appreciates, well, life itself. —Matt Barone

Director: Lukas Moodysson
Stars: Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin, Liv LeMoyne, Mattias Wiberg, Jonathan Salomonsson, David Dencik, Charlie Falk

Anyone who's ever experienced the kind of teen angst that has you turning to Warped Tour moshpits for relief will appreciate We Are the Best! About three misfit teens who start an all-girl punk band in 1980s Stockholm, We Are the Best! captures the brutality of youth for those who don't fit in. Raw, edgy, and upbeat, the coming-of-age flick bursts at the seams with the kind of energy fit for a movie that showcases a bunch of pubescent kids running around in the world trying to figure themselves out. —Tara Aquino

Director: Denis Villeneuve
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Sarah Gadon, Melanie Laurent, Isabella Rossellini

The first time you watch Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve's Enemy, you're left bewildered. A puzzle piece not unlike David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, it's oblique, creepy, and punctuated by abnormally large spiders that show up randomly and crawl into your nightmares. That first viewing is a sensory experience, in which the overpowering mood Villeneuve sets gives star Jake Gyllenhaal free reign to give his best, most complicated performance yet. Gyllenhaal plays two characters: an introverted and unhappy college professor and his suave doppelgänger, a struggling thespian who spends more time womanizing than he does acting.

The second time through Enemy, though, is the revelatory one, and the film's mystifying nature clarifies itself with each viewing after that. The more you sit with Gyllenhaal's weirdest movie since Donnie Darko, the clearer its themes become. Through visual disorientation, a fractured reality, and that creepy-crawly imagery, Enemy provides a dark and fascinating look at man's fear of commitment and domestication. —Matt Barone

Director: Wes Anderson
Stars: Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Edward Norton, Mathieu Amalric, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Léa Seydoux, Jeff Goldblum, Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Tony Revolori

Wes Anderson can truly do no wrong. Look at the cast he gathers. Some of the greatest actors of our time star in The Grand Budapest Hotel alongside of some of our most enjoyable comedic actors (uh, Bill Murray, anyone?). It's kind of like you won't find the biggest Wes Anderson fans in the audience, they're actually in the cast.

Based on the works of the Austrian writer, Stefan Zweig, Ralph Fiennes stars as the concierge who has to prove his innocence in a murder case with the help of a lobby boy, played by Tony Revolori. It's a gripping (and super symmetrical) tale of a man trying to save his hotel, and the bonds people make with those they trust. —Hope Schreiber

Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Stars: Macon Blair, Devin Ratray, Amy Hargreaves, Kevin Kolack, Eve Plumb

There's a scene more than halfway into the excellent Blue Ruin that includes my favorite line of dialogue in any 2014 movie so far. The film's main character, Dwight (Macon Blair) has just been saved for a lonely, helpless execution by his old friend, an ex-military grunt named Ben (Devin Ratray, the actor formerly known as "Buzz" from Home Alone-remember him?). Looking at the guy who's just had half of his face blown off, Dwight, both bewildered and morbidly curious, mutters, "His head?" To which Ben, who's killed before and knows too well how it looks and what it feels like, replies, simply, "That's what bullets do."

It's such a smart, precise, and multi-layered line, courtesy of Blue Ruin's writer and director, Jeremy Saulnier. A lean, mean film that has a classic revenge premise but is decidedly anti-revenge, Blue Ruin presents violence as a destroyer. Dwight, an aimless and grungy drifter coping with his life's fallout following his parents' murders, is out for blood, seeking fatal vengeance against the man who he believes offed his mom and dad. But Dwight is no badass. He's a one-time nice guy driven to despair. Thus, when it's time for him to confront his parents' killer, he doesn't have a plan.

Much of the credit for the character's impressiveness goes to Blair, for whom Saulnier wrote the part, and it shows. Blue Ruin thrives on their sharp chemistry as actor and director. From start to finish, Blair exudes a tremendous amount of soulfulness and vulnerability, giving Blue Ruin's quieter moments a deep resonance and its many bursts of grisly carnage a devastating truthfulness.

They say revenge is a dish best served cold. In Blue Ruin, it tastes bittersweet. —Matt Barone

Director: Gareth Huw Evans
Stars: Iko Uwais, Arifin Putra, Oka Antara, Tio Pakusadewo, Alex Abbad, Julie Estelle, Ryuhei Matsuda, Kenichi Endo, Kazuki Kitamura

Nearly two-and-a-half-hours' worth of adrenaline, dizzyingly choreographed fights, and more brutal nihilism than Rust Cohle with two six-packs in him, The Raid 2 pushes the action genre to levels other filmmakers never attempt, and with a smaller budget.

Like its predecessor, The Raid: Redemption (2012), Evans' follow-up is an aesthetics first, narrative second attraction, but the filmmaker is definitely maturing as a storyteller. Picking up immediately after Redemption, The Raid 2 sends rookie cop Rama (Iko Uwais, who deserves to be a worldwide, A-list action star by now) undercover in prison to infiltrate a powerful, ruthless crime ring, and, further echoing its Internal Affairs/The Departed influences, he gets in way too deep.

A sprawling crime saga with numerous key characters, twists, and complicated relationships, The Raid 2 shows that Evans has the desire to be seen as more than a grandmaster of eye-bashing action. —Matt Barone

Director: Nicholas Stoller
Stars: Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, Dave Franco, Ike Barinholtz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jerrod Carmichael, Lisa Kudrow, Carla Gallo

Neighbors is the funniest movie of the year so far. There's no question about it. It's okay to admit you were a little skeptical of the movie before you fell in love with it. Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne play parents trying to stay young by mingling with the new frat next door, led by Zac Efron of all people, only to find themselves at war with the incessant party animals? Sounds pretty hit or miss. However, naysayers are proven wrong when they realize it's chock full of original jokes, trippy Enter the Void-like party scenes, and a version of Zefron that erases your memory of High School Musical. Bro down to bow down? We see you, Zac. —Tara Aquino

Director: Richard Linklater
Stars: Ellar Coltrane, Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette, Lorelei Linklater

It's not often that critics can say a movie's "not like anything you've seen before" and truly mean it. That's absolutely the case with Richard Linklater's Boyhood, though, and, for the love of the cinema gods, make all efforts to see it as quickly as possible.

Boyhood's backstory is just as superlative as its on-screen narrative. Back in 2002, Linklater (director of Dazed and Confused and the Ethan Hawke/Julie Delpy Before Sunrise trilogy) started shooting the film with Hawke, Patricia Arquette, his daughter Lorelei Linklater, and then 6-year-old Ellar Coltrane; then, every year for the next 12 years, Linklater reassembled the same cast to continue Boyhood's story of Coltrane's Mason and his seemingly mundane coming-of-age. Due to his mother's multiple divorces, Mason repeatedly changes school and moves to new towns within his native home-state of Texas, becoming a man as he sees an abusive stepfather be terrible, looks up to his pop-culture-savvy older sister, and finds love and heartbreak of his own.

Nothing extraordinary happens in the nearly three-hour-long Boyhood, just all of life's commonalities, and that's precisely what makes Linklater's film so monumental. You see Coltrane evolve from a little boy to well-rounded 18-year-old, as well as chart Ethan Hawke's facial hair evolution. The overall experience is incredibly immersive—Coltrane's growth and Linklater's tenderly captured reality gradually envelop you in a marriage of Mason's journey and your own personal memories of childhood and innocence lost. —Matt Barone

Director: Jonathan Glazer
Stars: Scarlett Johansson

Aggressively oblique, Under the Skinfeels just as alien as its protagonist, a woman named "Laura" who's not actually a woman. Played by a mesmerizing, better-than-ever Johansson, Laura is an alien inhabiting the body of a stunning woman. She speaks with an English accent and drives around Glasgow, Scotland, in an inconspicuous white van luring men to something that's certainly death but also a strange kind of erotic transference.

That's the cut-and-dry plot synopsis, but there's nothing at all cut-and-dry about Glazer's cinematic sensibilities. The film kicks off with the a motorcyclist picking a dead female body up off the side of a highway in Scotland. Inside a glowing all-white room, the corpse is undressed by a lookalike (Johansson), who wears the dead girl's clothes and sets off on her way to abducting horny dudes.

Under the Skin's weirdness moves into overdrive once she brings the first gentleman back home. (What's really weird? The men are all non-professional actors. They're just regular dudes that Johannson actually picked them up.) Leading him upstairs, she slowly, seductively walks into an all-black room that's endlessly long—staged in slow-motion by Glazer, and accompanied by the film's omnipresent blend of heartbeat bass and shrieking violins, the man gradually sinks into the pitch-black floor as he's following her. And then she leaves to obtain the next sucker.

From there, Under the Skin's real narrative intentions come to light: What happens when a villain suddenly gains a conscience? As straightforward as that may sound, trust—Under the Skin is wall-to-wall bonkers. Scenes with little action and zero words go on longer than you'd expect, to at times frustrating lengths. The sound design immediately taps into the hallucinogenic, orchestral unease heard in movies like The Shining and never alternates tones. Even the alien mythology is, at best, perplexing—a late-game revelation about the nature of her being only makes you scratch your head even harder right before the end credits roll. That's all surely how Glazer wants it, too. Under the Skin creeps into the mind rich from its first images and lingers. —Matt Barone

Director: Jim Jarmusch
Stars: Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Anton Yelchin, Mia Wasikowska, Jeffrey Wright

Imagine yourself sitting alone in a dimply lit room with a glass of scotch in your hand. To fill the silence, you get up, pull out your favorite rock album on vinyl, and set the needle on your record player. The sound engulfs the space and blankets your bones. What you're feeling right now is exactly how this movie makes you feel.

Directed by Jim Jarmusch, Only Lovers Left Alive is a love story about centuries-old vampires who are worlds apart, Adam (Tom Hiddleston) in the graveyard that is Detroit and Eve (Tilda Swinton) in the exotic heaven that is Tangiers, and reunite to reignite their romance. Just like a drum solo in the middle of mellow song, Eve's sister Ava shows up in their lives, disrupting the peaceful rhythm they've kept for years.

Hiddleston and Swinton turn in captivating performances, but it's Jarmusch's self-possessed filmmaking, Yorick Le Saux's stunning cinematography, and Jozef van Wissem's bold musical direction that make this film a feast for your senses. —Tara Aquino

Director: Matt Reeves
Stars: Jason Clarke, Andy Serkis, Keri Russell, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Kirk Acevedo, Toby Kebbell, Judy Greer, Nick Thurston

This is what all summer movies should be like.

Matt Reeves, who previously directed Cloverfield and the excellent horror remake Let Me In, is at the helm of a long-intelligent franchise, a Planet of the Apes brand that, after having been tarnished by Tim Burton and his embarrassingly idiotic 2001 reboot, was given new life with 2011's unexpectedly stellar summer hit Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Sans James Franco, Reeves had a strong foundation to work with for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, bringing back performance-capture king Andy Serkis' evolved ape Caesar 10 years after Simian flu wiped out all humans except the few with natural-born immunity. But Reeves and company have exceeded all expectations—believe it, Dawn will go down as one of the greatest movie sequels of all time.

Which might sound like hyperbole, yes…until you see the film this weekend. Then, you'll understand why that's the opposite of a reach. Largely set within the Caesar-led ape community, Dawn is an emotionally charged character piece in which the characters also happen to be motion-captured, computer-rendered animals. The beauty of the Apes franchise, though, is that the animals are no different from the humans, and vice versa; now that he has a family, including a teenage son named Blue Eyes, Caesar's no longer an ape grappling with humanity—he's a father and a protector, and Reeves devotes plenty of time to establishing Caesar's human-like troubles. Reeves pays similar attention to Caesar's rebellious righthand man, Koba (played brilliantly by Toby Kebbell), an ape whose seething dislike for humans comes from a life spent being tortured and tested upon by them before the collapse.

A complex character with justifiable motivations and shades of empathy, Koba isn't exactly a villain, nor are any of the film's flesh-and-blood survivors, who inadvertently disrupt the apes' woodland existence and trigger a "Can these two communities love together peacefully?" conflict.

All of this talk about emotions and characters isn't what you'd expect from a big summer movie, is it? An art-house drama disguised as FX-heavy escapism, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is as visually remarkable as it is narratively sound. Serkis and his fellow Ape actors are at peak authenticity, while WETA Digital—Peter Jackson's effects company responsible for bringing Apesto life—raise the bar for big-screen pageantry. —Matt Barone

Director: Bong Joon-Ho
Stars: Chris Evans, Kang-ho Song, Go Ah-sung, Jamie Bell, Alison Pill, John Hurt, Tilda Swinton, Octavia Spencer, Ed Harris

Based on Jacques Lob’s comic book, which ran from 1984 through 2000, Joon-Ho’s film is a 125-minute excursion into madcap dystopia, equal parts supercharged sci-fi/action movie, visually insane director’s showcase, and star-studded oddity. And it’s seriously badass. Set in 2031, after chemical warfare has left the planet frozen and the amount of living humans desperately minimal, Snowpiercer unfolds like one giant set-piece. The apocalypse’s survivors are stuffed into the eponymous train, a massive locomotive that zooms around the icy landscape on a path to nowhere. In its front section, the rich and privileged live luxuriously, eating high-end sushi, partying like drunken Manhattanites on New Year’s Eve, and constantly under the protection of armed guards and soldiers. Why the security? Because the train’s other three sections house its prisoners, its sick inhabitants, and tail's dirty, mistreated have-nots.

Once Evans and his crew engage in brutal combat, Snowpiercer’s lunacy kicks into full gear, and the ensuing film is less about cohesion and more for those who enjoy loudly saying “Damn!” while watching a movie. The film’s tone dizzyingly shifts to the point of bewilderment, volleying back and forth from gritty realism to hyper-stylized violence and vibrantly staged yet dark comedy, sometimes the latter two happening at the same time.

Tilda Swinton has some of the film’s best lines: “My friend, you suffer from the misplaced optimism of the doomed,” she says in one scene, relishing the wild material she’s been given. Elsewhere, Chris Evans keeps a straight face and his maintains his character’s steeliness as he delivers three sentences you’ll never hear in a Marvel movie: “You know what I hate about myself? I know what people taste like. I know that babies taste best.” That, keep in mind, coming in the same movie where he’s lodging an ax into dudes’ skulls. Chris Evans, much like Tilda Swinton and Bong Joon-Ho, understands that not all movies need to be tidy. In Snowpiercer’s case, the filmmakers’ sense of messy ambition is a badge of honor. —Matt Barone

Director: Philip Lord and Chris Miller
Stars: Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Charlie Day, Alison Brie, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Cobie Smulders, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson

When the idea of a "LEGO Movie" first hit the internet, most people were confused. Would it be a tutorial? Would it be poorly animated LEGO people just living the life? No. Instead, the film was this: a seriously deep lesson on how you can be awesome if you're yourself, and you try your hardest. And it wasn't poorly animated.

Anyone who's ever played a LEGO video game can attest to the weirdly enjoyable experience. It should be bad. It should just be a pretty easy buck to earn from children of the middle class, who's parents have a little extra cash and little less love to throw around. "Oh, LEGO Harry Potter? That's good, safe, clean fun where we don't have to watch you and mommy can drink until you finish the game!"

But The LEGO Movie is actually fantastic. It has all your favorite characters, because LEGO has the rights to them (Batman, Wonderwoman, the Lord of the Rings wizard, Shaq) and even features the classic LEGO pieces you grew up playing with. That is to say, it proves to be a nostalgic adventure for the older crowd forced to take their children and the adult-kids who never really grew up.

The LEGO Movie is hilarious in an entirely earnest way that's hard to explain. Considering it's led by Chris Pratt of Parks and Recreation fame, allow us to explain it this way: it's the Andy Dwyer of movies. It has jokes for the adults in the audience, but never jokes that would make kids feel bad about not being able to catch on, and it provides an inspirational message at the end. Be who you are, and people will love you. —Hope Schreiber