7 Really Great Movies From 2014 Worth Streaming
by Adam Freelander
Honestly? All you need to know about the Oscars this year is that Selma got screwed. Watch them, don’t watch them, I don’t care. Just see Selma. And Boyhood. And The Grand Budapest Hotel. And actually, don’t watch the Oscars now that I think of it.
Below are seven movies I loved in 2014. All are available digitally. Some, I’ll say up front, are right now only available for “digital purchase,” to the tune of $10–15. But here’s what I’ll say about that. A single movie ticket where I live, plus online service charge, can run you $15, sometimes more. So for the price of seeing American Sniper alone (sounds fun!), you can get two or three or four people together in your living room and see something new and unique and satisfying. (I recommend using GoWatchIt and canistream.it to get a better sense of digital viewing options.)
Personally, my tastes are pretty middlebrow; I like indie fare that isn’t too out there and that I don’t have to pretend to understand. Some safe twee shit. I try to stay aware and see interesting stuff, but my truly great shame is that even after years of trying hard to be better and smarter, my sensibility remains barely a shade to the left of, like, Garden State. So your mileage may vary. But here goes.
Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston are hipster vampires. I mean they play hipster vampires; in real life only Tilda is a hipster vampire. This is an extraordinarily cool and sexy movie, and only just barely accessible enough where I didn’t throw up my hands and say NOPE, this was not made for me. It’s also beautiful and otherworldly, which is to say it will probably put some of you to sleep. So just watch with some coffee or some blood and you’ll be good. I recommend seeing this instead of Fifty Shades of Grey. [digital purchase: iTunes, Amazon, etc.]
Klara, Bobo and Hedvig are three 13-year-old girls in Sweden in 1982 and they start a bad punk band. This movie is the pure uncut joy. You will like it irrespective of your feelings towards punk. You might START liking punk because of this movie, inshallah. Years from now people will take online quizzes to see if they are a Klara, a Bobo or a Hedvig. I am a Bobo, though I also display elements of a Klara. A crazy contradiction I know. [Netflix]
Two old dudes travel to Iceland. One of them is mild-mannered and one of them is foul-mouthed. The foul-mouthed one is a non-professional actor, and his performance, which starts out noticeable and distracting, becomes hilarious and kind of thrilling by the midpoint. I have so much love for this movie. It’s heart-melting and ecstatic and the best road movie I’ve seen in so long. And with apologies to i Love Makonnen or whatever your non-name is, the theme song to the movie is the best track of 2014. [digital purchase: iTunes, Amazon, etc.]
A low-budget comedy starring Anna Kendrick and featuring Lena Dunham, this is a classic Netflix our-metadata-thinks-you-might-like-this situation. (That POSTER.) It just happens to also be great. Joe Swanberg is the director who created mumblecore, brought us Greta Gerwig, and whatever your own personal feelies on those two phenomena, Swanberg is now on the cusp of breakthrough mainstream success and it’s not because he rode the nonexistent mumblecore wave to the top. He’s just better at getting genuine comedy and pathos out of actors than almost anyone. Also, his baby is in this movie and completely runs away with it. [Netflix]
Lots of excitement these days over Netflix’s upcoming Wet Hot American Summer series. But you don’t need to wait for the series — which might not even be good! — to get more of the antic David Wain-ness animating Wet Hot. There’s of course “Childrens Hospital” and “The State” — one excellent, the other essential — but They Came Together is Wet Hot’s closer spiritual twin.
This movie came in for some fair criticism on its release that questioned whether its parody of romantic comedy is essentially misogynist. It’s a valid point — in satirizing the genre it sprays a couple soft targets — but I also think the movie at its core is fundamentally silly and stupid and delightful, the kind of farce we haven’t had much of since the Zucker-Abrahams movies of the 70s. Or you know, since Wet Hot American Summer. [digital purchase: iTunes, Amazon, etc.]
This is the one you’re most likely to have already heard of, so I’ll dispense with the hard sell. I’ll just say, if you’re as frustrated as I am that it’s somehow always summer on “Girls”, it’s nicely therapeutic to watch a great, authentic New York movie that actually takes place in the dead of winter. Oh, and this movie makes Knocked Up seem like it was made a thousand years ago. [digital rental: iTunes, Amazon, etc.]
A hot Swedish family goes skiing in the Alps, and when the father reacts poorly in a crisis moment, his sense of self falls apart. Awesome! While maybe not the laffer of the year, Force Majeure is sharp and well-observed and yes, often very funny, with real things to say about masculinity and marriage. Awesome! It was also, along with Selma and Le Film Lego, a primary Oscar snubbee, so give it a watch as a show of your support for non-garbage. [digital purchase on iTunes, Amazon, etc.; available for digital rental this Tuesday 2/10]
So what else?
Adam Freelander is a video producer/editor in his real life, but he had such a good time writing for The Billfold this week. Thanks guys.
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