Birdman is easily the best long-take, metanarrative film about a washed up former comic-book movie star ever made. (Expand gallery to full screen to find out why we loved each film.) Fox Searchlight
Why We Loved It: This is easily the best long-take, metanarrative film about a washed up former comic-book movie star ever made. Yes, that's a small field, but between former Batman Michael Keaton's performance as the aforementioned movie star Riggan and Alejandro González Iñárritu's excellent direction, Birdman was the coolest brain-bender that came out this year. It takes you in and leaves you cringing and holding your breath until the final frame. Second-hand superheroes never looked so good. —Angela Watercutter
Big Hero 6 won us over with a smart story, fantastic characters, and the best animated robot this side of WALL-E. Walt Disney Animation Studios
Big Hero 6
Why We Loved It: Look, 2014 was a good year for animation. I loved Book of Life, The Boxtrolls, and How to Train Your Dragon 2. But Big hero 6 wasn't just my favorite animated film of the year, it was my favorite film overall. There’s something that only animation nerds get about these movies—they are insanely hard to make. It’s incredible how much artistry is brought to bear on each frame, each a magical victory. But the truth is, you don't have to appreciate any of that to love Big hero 6. It’s just a damn good action adventure buddy movie set against the dazzling mashup city of San Fransokyo. You’ll fall in love with Baymax, the inflatable robot heart of the film. It’ll suck you in and make you cry and laugh and cry again. Like all the best films, you won’t want it to end. —Caitlin Roper
Everything—including The Lego Movie—is awesome. Warner Bros.
The Lego Movie
Why We Loved It: The relentlessly cheerful theme song is right: everything is awesome, especially when this animated adventure is joyfully smashing franchises together with the non-canonical enthusiasm of a child tossing Batman and Wonder Woman into their pirate ship playset. Despite its inevitably corporate origins, The Lego Movie is surprisingly anti-establishment, insisting that happiness comes from following our hearts rather than following the rules, and extolling the remix joys of coloring outside the lines and rebuilding the world around the possibilities of our imaginations, not the limits imposed by our fears. —Laura Hudson
What director Richard Linklater and his remarkable cast achieved in Boyhood is much more than just a cinematic stunt. It's an emotionally rich, pitch-perfect tale of self-discovery. IFC
Boyhood
Why We Loved It: The elevator pitch seems like a gimmick: shoot a film over 11 years using the same actors, and watch them age as we go. But what director Richard Linklater and his remarkable cast achieved in Boyhood is much more than just a cinematic stunt. It's an emotionally rich, pitch-perfect tale of self-discovery. And since the story spans a decade, the film keeps a brisk pace over its nearly three-hour runtime. Bonus: It shows a side of Texas rarely seen on the big screen. —Michael Calore
Although comparisons to videogames tend to be pejorative in the world of movies, that's exactly what makes Edge of Tomorrow so compelling. Warner Bros.
Edge of Tomorrow/Live. Die. Repeat.
Why We Loved It: Although comparisons to videogames tend to be pejorative in the world of movies, that's exactly what makes this Tom Cruise action flick so compelling. During an alien invasion of Earth, a cowardly public relations officer (Cruise) finds himself reliving the same apocalyptic day over and over every time he dies, just like Mario falling down a pit. It's a nightmare scenario, but one that slowly transforms him into the perfect soldier, and one who might just be able to save the world if he can put every foot right. Despite Cruise's top billing, the real star here is Emily Blunt as the ass-kicking war hero Sergeant Rita Vrataski, who mentors the hapless officer and is generally better and more interesting than him in every way. Next time, just let the lady lead. —Laura Hudson
Dear Steve Carell and Channing Tatum: We always knew you had it in you. Foxcatcher just proved it. Sony Pictures Classics
Foxcatcher
Why We Loved It: Dear Steve Carell and Channing Tatum: We always knew you had it in you. In director Bennett Miller's stark based-on-a-true-story movie about eccentric millionaire John du Pont (Carell) and his wrestling star Mark Schultz (Tatum) we got to see two fantastic actors finally dig deep in truly challenging roles. Carell's is a creepy, overbearing man who can buy whatever he wants, even Olympic athletes. Tatum's is an Olympic athlete who can take that abuse to get where he wants to go—to a point. They both went for the gold in Foxcatcher. And they both won. Big time. —Angela Watercutter
Ahead of its release, Guardians of the Galaxy looked like a big risk for the increasingly-conservative Marvel Studios: the characters and concept were unknown, the cast had no stars, and it was a movie set in space, separated from the world of the Avengers. Once audiences had a chance to see it, all those doubts went out the window. Marvel Studios
Guardians of the Galaxy
Why We Loved It: Ahead of its release, Guardians of the Galaxy looked like a big risk for the increasingly-conservative Marvel Studios: the characters and concept were unknown to all but the comic book faithful, the cast had familiar faces but no stars, and it was a movie set in space, separated from the world of the Avengers by a galaxy or two. Once audiences had a chance to see the movie, though, all those doubts went out the window. Guardians was funny, exciting, and filled with performances that were charming and potentially career-making; the visuals were arresting, and the scope was unlike anything since Star Wars… and then, of course, there was that soundtrack. In a year of movies that clearly strained to be Summer Franchise Material, here was one that made the whole thing look effortlessly fun. —Graeme McMillan
The Imitation Game is the movie we wish Alan Turing were alive to see. The Weinstein Company
Why We Loved It: Alan Turing is one of the most important characters in computer science history. But thanks to the secrecy of the program he worked on breaking the German Enigma code during World War II and the fact he was gay he's also someone whose importance nearly got wiped away. (He was prosecuted for indecency after the war and eventually committed suicide.) Director Morten Tyldum's movie, and Benedict Cumberbatch's performance in it as Turing, brings the mathematician's work to light brilliantly. The Imitation Game is the movie we wish Turning could watch just to show him his legacy wasn't lost to time. —Angela Watercutter
As cold and desolate as much of Interstellar's setting is, Nolan’s tale of love and redemption and dreaming is warm, meditative, and ultimately as fulfilling as the connection between father and daughter. Paramount Pictures
Interstellar
Why We Loved It: To be honest, the trailers for Interstellar left me unmoved. They seemed at once sterile and melodramatic, and I didn’t think that “Christopher Nolan meets a wormhole” would yield much more than an icy travelogue. Then I saw it, and was seized from frame one. My reservations about Nolan’s work—unemotional, cerebral—fell away like our doomed near-future Earth from the astronauts' view in their spaceship; for nearly three hours I did little more than watch and marvel and think (and maybe hold back tears once or twice). What I didn’t do was look at my watch. As cold and desolate as much of its setting is, Nolan’s tale of love and redemption and dreaming is warm, meditative, and ultimately as fulfilling as the connection between father and daughter. —Peter Rubin
Nightcrawler let Jake Gyllenhaal crank the Creep Factor up to 11. Open Road Films
Nightcrawler
Why We Loved It: Lou Bloom has what it takes to get to the top. The top, in this case, is the cutthroat freelance TV news business, where “if it bleeds, it leads.” Bloom has the work ethic, nerve, and intensity needed to film a bloody crime scene and immediately turn it over to the highest bidder without blinking one of his bugged-out eyes. It's creepy to watch—thank a taut, near-maniacal Jake Gyllenhaal for that—but it also shows just how "good" Bloom is at getting the job done. The resulting ride is gripping, distortive, and bleakly hilarious. It’s the best descent into madness you could ask for, a nihilistic satire handmade for 2014. —Brendan Klinkenberg
X-Men: Days of Future Past acted as a corrective, one that effectively deleted everything that infuriated us about 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand with that age-old, failsafe narrative device: time travel. 20th Century Fox
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Why We Loved It: The latest entry in the X-Men film anthology acted as a corrective, one that effectively deleted everything that infuriated us about 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand with that age-old, failsafe narrative device: time travel. Mix in Peter Dinklage as a megalomaniacal, eugenicist military robotics contractor, not one but both sets perfect of Xavier/Magneto actors (Patrick Stewart/Ian McKellen and James McAvoy/Michael Fassbender), Jennifer Lawrence and a handful of gnarly vintage haircuts, and you’ve got a superhero movie more than worthy of its place on this list. —Devon Maloney
Andy Serkis' performance-capture work in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was incredible. 20th Century Fox
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Why We Loved It: So, I really didn't expect this to be that good. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was OK, but when it was announced its sequel would have a new director in Matt Reeves, the movie seemed a little doomed. (Not that Reeves is a bad director, but changing directors mid-stream usually doesn't bode well.) I was wrong. Dawn's story hit me in the gut, and Andy Serkis' performance-capture work as ape leader Caesar was second-to-none. See you guys at opening night for the sequel. —Angela Watercutter
Director Bong Joon-ho’s disturbing dystopian tale, an examination of class issues set within a never-stopping train carrying the last survivors of the human race, messed with our heads in ways both wonderful and violent. Radius/TWC
Why We Loved It: Director Bong Joon-ho’s disturbing dystopian tale, an examination of class issues set within a never-stopping train carrying the last survivors of the human race, messed with our heads in ways both wonderful and violent. We weren’t the only ones. Nearly every critic weighed in with their two cents, but the observation that best sums up our views comes from The New Inquiry’s Aaron Bady: “Snowpiercer is a truly chilling dystopia, then, because its world is fully self-contained, and sufficient. But the most insane thing about it is that it makes sense. And it crystallizes something frightening about the psychic geography of late capitalism. … Instead of giving us something to want, they give us something to fear, hate, and kill. And so, we eat ourselves.” — Devon Maloney
If we had to sum up the Year in Movies for 2014 in one word it would be “surprising.” Not that any particular film had a twist we weren’t expecting—though some did—but rather many of the best flicks we saw this year weren’t the ones we were expecting to love as much as we did. The Lego Movie—essentially a two-hour commercial for building blocks and Batman—turned out to be, yes, awesome. Richard Linklater dropped a movie he’d been working on largely unbeknownst to anyone for more than a decade with Boyhood. X-Men: Days of Future Past saved the franchise in the wake of many duds. Guardians of the Galaxy proved the great Marvel superhero teams don’t begin and end at the Avengers. And then Birdman came along and proved the best superheroes are sometimes the has-beens. Here, in no particular order, are our 11 favorite movies of 2014. (Expand the gallery to fullscreen for a full rundown of why we liked each film.)
Honorable Mentions
…because not everything we loved this year could fit into one list.
Best Performance In a Tank Top: Channing Tatum, 22 Jump Street and Foxcatcher
Best Performance By a Talking Brick: Elizabeth Banks, The Lego Movie
Most Meta Performance: Michael Keaton, Birdman
Fewest Words, Most Tears/Love: Groot, Guardians of the Galaxy
Best Supporting Robot: TARS, Interstellar
Most Repulsive Supporting Actor: Jon Bernthal, Fury
Best Sci-Fi Makeover: Karen Gillan, Guardians of the Galaxy
Best Oscar-Bait Makeover: Eddie Redmayne, Theory of Everything
Best Oscar-Bait Makeunder: Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
Best Villain: Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Best Use of Retcon-ing: Jean Grey, X-Men: Days of Future Past
Best Pedigree, Worst Movie: Transcendence
Most Versatile, Actress: Tilda Swinton
Most Versatile, Actor: Andy Serkis
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