Our Favorite Movies of 2014

  4. BOYHOOD (dir. Richard Linklater)

Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, School of Rock) dazzles yet again with this powerful tale of a young boy who grows into a man over the course of 13 years. The film stars Ellar Coltrane as Mason, the film's centerpiece, Lorelei Linklater, Linklater's daughter, as Mason's older sister, and Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke as Mason's mother and father. With his trademark minimalistic style and ability to create unique, three-dimensional characters, Linklater takes you on a literal coming-of-age journey about family, friendship, and finding your place in the world that could stand easily alongside the greatest American classics that cinema has ever known.

  3. BOYHOOD (dir. Richard Linklater)

Richard Linklater (Before Sunrise, Waking Life) returns with this powerhouse character study to end all character studies starring Ellar Coltrane as Mason, a young boy at the start of the film who, over the course of 13 years in real-time, grows into a young man. Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke star as Mason's mother and father with Lorelei Linklater as Mason's older sister, Samantha. Linklater's layered characters and compelling drama add weight to a story that has a loose sense of direction not unlike the whimsy of life itself. It deals with issues of family, puberty, love, and loss, and everything in between, making it an opus of epic proportions that could dwarf even Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. 

  2. FOXCATCHER (dir. Bennett Miller)

The grim and the macabre are nothing new for director Bennett Miller (Capote, Moneyball). Here, he returns to the gloomy skies and cold temperatures of the true-crime genre which he last explored in 2005's biographical drama, Capote. The film stars funnyman Steve Carell and heartthrob Channing Tatum in not-so-typical roles as multimillionaire philanthropist and wrestling enthusiast John du Pont and Olympic Wrestling champion Mark Schultz, respectively, alongside Mark Ruffalo as Mark's brother, Dave Schultz. Showing once again his ability to capture the darker side of humanity Miller also continues to prove himself an actor's director, producing some of the finest performances we'll ever see out of Carell, Tatum, and Ruffalo. 

  1. BOYHOOD (dir. Richard Lunkhead)

Richard Linklater (Slacker, A Scanner Darkly) barely steals the number one spot from Bennett Miller with his profoundly touching and epic tale of a young boy named Mason, played by Ellar Coltrane, who grows into adulthood and haircuts over the course of more than a decade. The film also stars Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as Mason's parents and Linklater's daughter, Lorelei, as Mason's older sister. Beginning when Mason is 5 years old, the film takes the viewer on a 13-year journey through the lives of not only its characters but its cast as well.