I’m determined to get these 100 movies done in the next week or so. It’s getting so, so difficult though! 2014 was a particularly good year for movies and I was fully swept into the awards season by this year too. I went through my Letterboxd list to find all the 2014 movies I’d seen and started my preliminary list, telling myself to be much stricter this time around. I’ve ended up with 15, and it pains me so much to have to take 4 of these amazing movies off my list.
As always, you can see my other Top 100 Movies of the Decade posts here on the master page. This post brings me to the halfway point!
2014 Movies Watched: 94
Movies that just missed this list: Paddington, Interstellar, Nightcrawler, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Chef
#10 It Follows
Yeah, you bet your ass a horror movie made my top movies list! I can’t even pretend I don’t like horror movies anymore, I’ve fully embraced the genre. It Follows was the first horror movie to actually mess me up afterwards and leave me questioning my reality.
#9 The Grand Budapest Hotel
This my first Wes Anderson movie. I watched it about a year late after seeing so many other bloggers rave about it, and they were right too. What a crazy world I found myself in!
#8 The Lego Movie
It’s been 5/6 years Allie, are you still mad that the Oscars snubbed The Lego Movie? I am! It still hurts! It doesn’t matter that the sequel wasn’t as good, The Lego Movie was so original and so funny at the time! Everything’s not awesome.
#7 Kingsman: The Secret Service
The marketing team behind the first Kingman movie needed firing, because the trailers so missold the movie as a comedy for teens. It’s actually a comedy for everyone, and it’s hilarious. The sequel is just as good, and we’re getting a third this year and I cannot wait.
#6 Guardians of the Galaxy
I think GotG was the first Marvel movie I felt iffy about before seeing. There was no way I was going to miss it, but I wasn’t sold by the trailer. I ended up having a blast, though. Rocket remains as my all-time favourite MCU character, I think. I love that little trash panda.
#5 What We Do in the Shadows
Okay, if you haven’t seen this movie yet you need to right that wrong, now. I’ve come to realise that Taika Waititi is a legendary director, and he hasn’t created anything I haven’t liked yet. Not only does he co-direct this mockumentary about vampires trying to live their lives, he stars in it too. I’m yet to see the TV show but I’ve heard it’s good!
#4 Whiplash
I was blown away by Whiplash when I first saw it and I’m yet to find another movie with an ending as tense. I think I actually stopped breathing in those final few minutes. This is J.K. Simmons at his finest, and I doubt Miles Teller will ever be this good again.
#3 Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
It’s been too long since I saw Birdman last but it is so much more than a gimmick! The whole movie looks like it was shot in 1 long take and it’s so effective. I’m still salty it didn’t scoop up more awards.
#2 Gone Girl
One of my favourite cinema experiences will forever be watching Gone Girl, having never read the book, and witnessing that twist in a full screen. It was simply brilliant.
#1 Ex Machina
Criminally overlooked at the awards, there’s no way Ex Machina wasn’t getting my top spot for 2014. Deliciously dark, witty and stunning, it’s just a brilliant movie, end of. Also my introduction to 2 of my favourite Star Wars boys!
Nightcrawler was snubbed.
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It would have been my #11!
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I don’t like to admit this but the only movies I’ve seen on this list are The Lego Movie and Guardians of the Galaxy. 😳 Reading a bunch of lists like these has really made apparent how many great films I missed over the last 10 years. 😬
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Noooo way! To be honest that’s what I usually find when I read other blogger’s lists. So I’m glad I’m not alone!
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😂 We’re in this club together!
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No John Wick?! 😮
I guess that was before the series won you over.
I usually dislike Wes Anderson but I enjoyed Grand Budapest Hotel (along with Fantastic Mr. Fox).
The Lego Movie is a great choice as well.
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I know! Admittedly I haven’t watched the original John Wick since I loved the 3rd one, I’d probably rate it higher but at the time it was just alright!
I still need to see Fantastic Mr. Fox.
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Chapter 3 set a new standard for action in the series. 1 and 2 are amazing still but 3 is close to perfect. If I was doing a top 10 for each year, every John Wick would show up in their respective years.
Fantastic Mr. Fox works very well with Anderson’s pedantic framing and childlike sense of wonder and humour. Those are the same reasons I don’t generally like his live-action films but sometimes it works.
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Gone Girl is my favorite film of that year. It’s fucking insane and I love it.
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I wish I could wipe it from my memory and see it again for the first time!
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I think a lot of these were on my Top 10 list of that decade too! It was a great year.
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It’s been the hardest yet to cut down to 10!
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Love the It Follows pick, though I think it might actually be a 2015 release. 😛
Also down with GotG. Definitely top tier MCU, in my book. 😉
Lego Movie’s snub is definitely up there among the biggest snubs of the decade. That one’s still a mystery.
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It probably was! I’ve been going by the IMDB date for these though because it gets too confusing otherwise. So many movies are released in the UK so much later than everywhere else and I can’t cope with it, ha!
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2014 was a dynamite year of years. What We Do In The Shadows is one of my all-time favorites, and I’m so happy it caught on to the point that it has a show now.
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I really need to start watching that show!
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2014 and 2015 were such good movie years. I put down movies that I remembered from the last decade the most for my own special decade list and it was basically just 2014 and 2015 movies. 😀 I’m like.. what a year. Also it’s hard to think back to 2019 and think, most memorable or something, not enough time has passed. But anyway, I’d have Nightcrawler and Winter Soldier in the main list. Absolute favourites!
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Cutting 2014 and 2015 down to 10 movies each was the hardest thing ever! What a time to start being a movie blogger though eh 🙂
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