We Need More Science: Here Are the 10 Best Movies You Didn’t See This Year

You may have seen all the influences on writer/director Ana Lily Amirpour's feature before—elements of David Lynch, a bit of spaghetti western sauce, even a bit of Anne Rice's vampire novels—but you have never seen anything like A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. (Expand gallery to full screen to find out why we loved each film.)

Kino Lorber, Vice Films

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night Why We Loved It:

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

. A black-and-white flick about an vampire avenger known only as The Girl,

Amirpour's Farsi-language noir flick

isn't the kind of movie you watch—it's the kind of movie you live in. Its fictional town of Bad City may not exist, but you'll be so enamored with its characters—pimps, prostitutes, junkies, Romeos—you'll never want to leave. We didn't.

—Angela Watercutter

Kino Lorber, Vice Films

On the surface, writer/director Ira Sachs' Love Is Strange is just "modern love" tale, but it hits in places you may not even know you had.

Sony Pictures Classics

Love Is Strange

Why We Loved It: Ben (John Lithgow) is an artist. George (Alfred Molina) is a schoolteacher. They've been together for decades, but when they decide to actually get married everything goes sideways. The Catholic school where George teaches finds out about the marriage and fires him from his job, a move that leads the couple to lose their New York City apartment and force them to move in with friends and relatives. Awkwardness, warmth, laughs, and heartbreak follow. On the surface, writer/director Ira Sachs' (Keep the Lights On) latest is just "modern love" tale, but it hits in places you may not even know you had. —Angela Watercutter

Sony Pictures Classics

What's more hilarious than an abortion rom-com? Not much, it turns out. See: Obvious Child. Writer/director Gillian Robespierre's film is the freshest, funniest, most honest, contemporary comedy we've seen in years.

A24

Obvious Child

Why We Loved It:What's more hilarious than an abortion rom-com? Not much, it turns out. Though aspiring comedian Donna Stern (Jenny Slate), whose life choices are at the center of Obvious Child, is pretty funny herself. Writer/director Gillian Robespierre's film is the freshest, funniest, most honest, contemporary comedy I've seen in years, and the conversations between the female characters don't just pass the Bechdel test, they feel real and true to my own life. Their depiction made me hyper-aware of how conditioned I am to trying to identify with female replicants in Hollywood blockbusters. But Obvious Child is even more hilarious and moving than it is important. Watch it with a friend. —Caitlin Roper

A24

Only Lovers Left Alive is a languid, mysterious, moody ride that stars Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton as Adam and Eve, a couple of super-hot, super-undead lovers who have been together for centuries.

Sony Pictures Classics

Only Lovers Left Alive

Why We Loved It:Does everyone want to be, bite, and bone Tilda Swinton? Just, uh, asking for a friend. This hot, languid, mysterious, moody ride stars Tom Hiddleston and Swinton as Adam and Eve, a couple of super-hot, super-undead lovers who have been together for centuries. Adam and Eve are sick of it all, especially humans. They split their time between Detroit and Tangiers, and they manage to make both cities darkly alluring. It is actually impossible to take your eyes off Swinton in this role. Her confidence is mesmerizing. You should watch Only Lovers Left Alive sunk into some cushions, sipping or smoking whatever makes you feel really good, next to whoever you can't stop touching. It’s a slow building, titillating, thrumming, ride. Thanks, Jim Jarmusch, for making vampires sexy again—for adults. —Caitlin Roper

Sony Pictures Classics

Depending on who you ask, The Skeleton Twins is a funny drama, a dramedy, or a sad comedy. It doesn't really matter. It's brilliant.

Roadside Attractions

Skeleton Twins

Why We Loved It: From opposite coasts, two estranged twins try to kill themselves. That they’re played (beautifully) by two Saturday Night Live alums—Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader—complicates that premise, because they're still allowed to be their painfully funny selves. Depending on who you ask, The Skeleton Twins is a funny drama, a dramedy, or a sad comedy. It doesn't really matter. In a year that saw a comedian no less life-affirmingly hilarious than Robin Williams commit suicide, this small movie is a reminder comedy and tragedy are their own kind of intimate twins. —Jason Kehe

Roadside Attractions

If you're addicted to that surging sensation of fear and discomfort that comes with watching a well-executed horror movie, get your hands on The Babadook ASAFP.

IFC Films

The Babadook

Why We Loved It: If you're addicted to that surging sensation of fear and discomfort that comes with watching a well-executed horror movie, get your hands on this Australian nerve-twister ASAFP. The casting; the cold, sparse art direction; and the minimal use of lo-fi effects combine to make this one of the most claustrophobic and real feeling fright fests in memory. Director and writer Jennifer Kent creates an immersive experience for viewers by presenting them with characters, a single mother and her high maintenance son, they will alternately love and hate in equally powerful measures, making their emotional weight hit as hard as the terror you’ll experience at the inexorable Babadook. Sweet dreams. —Jordan Crucchiola

IFC Films

Everyone in The Drop is understated perfection, and even though no one really says a whole lot, the characters are so natural and richly developed you'll feel like you've been on the block with them forever.

Fox Searchlight

The Drop

Why We Loved It: What's not to love? It's Tom Hardy, James Gandolfini, and Noomi Rapace starring in a quiet crime drama that doubles as a dark yet touching love story. The Drop comes by way of Belgian director Michaël R. Roskam and writer Dennis Lehane, as in Gone, Baby, Gone, Mystic River, and Shutter Island. And in true Lehanian fashion, The Drop affects a deep, slow burn and revolves around a lineup of insular working-class locals who do what it takes to get by—whatever it takes. Everyone in this movie is understated perfection, and even though no one really says a whole lot, the characters are so natural and richly developed you'll feel like you've been on the block with them forever. —Jordan Crucchiola

Fox Searchlight

Whiplash is so passionate and intense you forget you're watching a movie about jazz starring two white dudes.

Sony Pictures Classics

Whiplash

Why We Loved It: For someone trying to get a friend to go with them to the movies this year, Whiplash was the hardest sell. ("It's about, uh, jazz drumming? No.") I should've skipped the jazz drumming bit and just said it was a furious examination of ambition and how far people will go in pursuit of greatness, despite never being able to define what greatness really is. (Sadly, you don't know this until after you see it.) Damien Chazelle wrote and directed a bloody fever dream of a film that draws you in from the first scene. The performances are spectacular. Miles Teller brings a youthful desperation to his role as an ascendant jazz drummer who's tempered by his ever-present charm and J.K. Simmons, who, is all unrestrained, seething rage. It's so passionate and intense you forget you're watching a movie about jazz starring two white dudes. —Brendan Klinkenberg

Sony Pictures Classics

Trying to explain what's so smart about this series of vignettes about people at the end of their ropes is like trying to explain math to a typewriter. Watching Wild Tales is the only way to really understand it.

Sony Pictures Classics

Wild Tales

Why We Loved It: Trying to explain what's so smart about this series of vignettes about people at the end of their ropes is like trying to explain math to a typewriter. Watching it is the only way to really understand it. Let's just say the first of these Wild Tales from writer/director Damián Szifrón involves a plane full of people who all find out they wronged the same individual: the guy flying the plane. And that's the most normal story here. (FYI, the pilot sends that jet hurtling towards Earth.) The rest we'll leave for you to enjoy. —Angela Watercutter

Sony Pictures Classics

Much like spiritual predecessor Teeth, Under the Skin, based on Michel Faber's 2000 novel about an alien who abducts men hitchhikers to collect their skin, was exceptional for how deftly it repulsed its male viewers.

A24

Under the Skin

Why We Loved It: Much like spiritual predecessor Teeth, this gorgeous art-horror flick, based on Michel Faber's 2000 novel about an alien who abducts men hitchhikers to collect their skin, was exceptional for how deftly it repulsed its male viewers. Not only was it about a mysterious "woman" literally hunting men (not so different from how men's rights activists view feminism), but that woman was played by Scarlett Johansson, an actress long objectified for dude-titillating roles. Here she gets to flip her fantasy image into a nightmare thriller that, by the end, becomes a chilling commentary on women and society. If you haven't yet summoned the courage to squirm through it, you've waited long enough. — Devon Maloney

A24

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night Why We Loved It:

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

. A black-and-white flick about an vampire avenger known only as The Girl,

Amirpour's Farsi-language noir flick

—Angela Watercutter

Kino Lorber, Vice Films

On the surface, writer/director Ira Sachs' Love Is Strange is just "modern love" tale, but it hits in places you may not even know you had.

Sony Pictures Classics

Sony Pictures Classics

A24

Sony Pictures Classics

Depending on who you ask, The Skeleton Twins is a funny drama, a dramedy, or a sad comedy. It doesn't really matter. It's brilliant.

Roadside Attractions

Roadside Attractions

If you're addicted to that surging sensation of fear and discomfort that comes with watching a well-executed horror movie, get your hands on The Babadook ASAFP.

IFC Films

IFC Films

Fox Searchlight

Whiplash is so passionate and intense you forget you're watching a movie about jazz starring two white dudes.

Sony Pictures Classics

Sony Pictures Classics

A24

Real talk: Around here, we see movies like it’s our job. Because, well, it’s kind of our job. But even we miss some gems sometimes. And for those of you who don’t consider going to see films your life’s work, it’s even harder to catch all the best movies in a given year. We’d like to help. We wracked our collective brain (we share one now, like Formics, NBD) and came up with some of our favorite non-blockbusters from 2014. Want to know what they are? Read on. (Expand the gallery to fullscreen for a full rundown of why we liked each film.)

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