The year 2014 was a great year for movies and appeared to have a recurring theme: Nostalgia.
A wise-cracking scavenger traveled to the future and cranked up the oldies, a superhero fallen from grace went batty on us, our favorite childhood toys came to life and we got to see a little boy actually grow up before our very eyes.
In addition, sci-fi and teenage romance was big this year as well, as the first of yet another young adult book series finally made it to the big screen and its main star also appeared in a heartwarming and heartbreaking Love Story for the Millennial generation.
Check out 10 of the best movies that were released in 2014 below.
10. St. Vincent
Bill Murray plays Vincent, a misanthropic middle-aged man with a gambling problem (think Uncle Buck without the jolliness) who becomes the babysitter of his next-door neighbor, a little boy, played by Jaeden Lieberher, and takes the kid under his wing. It's the classic story of boy and man learning life lessons from each other.
Murray is fantastic as always and Melissa McCarthy, best known for her comedic performances, plays a convincing soon-to-be-divorced mom who's down on her luck. Naomi Watts brings the comic relief as a Russian pregnant stripper and friend of Vincent's.
9. Nightcrawler
The plot: Jake Gyllenhaal, who lost 20 pounds for this movie (mainly in his face), plays a, well, sociopath. Devoid of empathy and emotion, assertive and pleasant, Los Angeles man Louis Bloom is a creeper.
And he's looking for a job. He sells his bicycle at a pawn shop to buy a crappy camcorder and police scanner (a waste of money—download an app, dude) and begins the perfect new career path: He becomes an independent cameraman who documents nighttime grisly crime and accident scenes for money. And he's really good at it. You know, because of the whole being a sociopath thing.
So he sells footage exclusively to a struggling local TV station, whose news director (Rene Russo) is all too happy to accept, no matter how graphic, for the sake of ratings.
The movie exposes the dark side of the TV news business, in an exaggerated way, of course —Russo's character bluntly explains to Bloom that crimes in the suburbs make for much better television. "Crash with injuries, good neighborhood," Gyllenhaal's character remarks after hearing a report on his police scanner. Yep, that's a potential "get." And then he hits the jackpot: A triple murder in a home in Granada Hills. Only in addition to the aftermath, he gets the footage of the actual killing. Now it's getting real.
8. The Fault in Our Stars
For Hazel and Gus, played by Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, it was love at first sight. He stares at her shamelessly at a support group for cancer patients and later strikes up a conversation. Taking a page from When Harry Met Sally, she asks him why he's staring.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asks.
"Because you're beautiful. I enjoy looking at beautiful people," he says.
They begin the cutest courtship of all time…it's just ridiculously adorable. You root for them through every twist in this film, a Love Story for the Millennial generation. And while a lot of it is predictable, there are twists, and each one will either melt or break your heart. Mostly break your heart.
The plot: In this dystopian sci-fi movie, which is a conspiracy theorist's dream, Woodley plays Tris, a teenage girl who dares to have a unique personality that makes society unable to sort her into one "faction," rendering her a "divergent." (And Elgort plays her brother…yep.)
Tris' aptitude test administrator tells her to keep that on the down-low, so she gets to pick one and she picks the hardest one because she's crazy.
Now a member of Dauntless, essentially their society's military, Tris battles her fears in scary simulations while fighting to maintain her membership in her group...
...while an evil takeover plot targeting people like her is brewing, thanks to the villain Jeanine, played by Kate Winslet.
Meanwhile, she lusts after one of her instructors (the lust-worthy Theo James).
...with good reason.
The eye candy is, indeed, spectacular; There's James, plus the introduction of the equally as gorgeous Jai Courtney, who plays the sadistic Dauntless leader Eric.
Catch most of (spoiler alert) the Divergent cast in the sequel, Insurgent, while you can also see Courtney in the fifth Terminator film, aka Terminator Genysis, as well as the new DC villain ensemble movie Suicide Squad.
6. X-Men: Days of Future Past
The plot: Worlds collide when your favorite X-Men from the first trilogy, such as Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier...
…BFF Ian McKellen as Magneto, Halle Berry as Storm...
…and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine meet their younger, alternative counterparts from the current film series, such as James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, in a spectacular time travel adventure aimed at preventing a rather bleak future.
Then there's the return of Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, who's even more badass in this film that she was in X-Men: First Class, and the introduction of hot new mutant Quicksilver.
5. Veronica Mars
Following years of begging from diehard fans of this splendid and underrated teen series, Rob Thomas (the other one) finally made a movie based on it and it was all thanks to the, well, fans! The movie was produced with the help of a Kickstarter fundraising campaign, one of the first that ever went viral.
It was glorious to see Veronica (Kristen Bell), former flame Logan (Jason Dohring) and the old gang (including frenemies) back together again, although Sheriff Lamb (sob!) is still sorely missed.
4. The LEGO Movie
Obviously, kids will love this movie and LEGO fans of all age, especially ‘80s kids, will probably love it because it will transport them back to their own childhood. Visually, it's surprisingly accurate, right down to spaceship-building-obsessed Spaceman Benny's helmet, which is broken in the exact place people will remember theirs breaking.
The movie is smart, moves quickly from scene to scene to avoid losing your attention and has a heartwarming story that brings to mind some of Pixar's hits, interweaving the real world and the LEGO world fantastically.
Add in a fantastic cast—Chris Pratt as "normal, regular, average" man with a heart of gold and underestimated intelligence…
…Elizabeth Banks as love interest Wyldstyle / Lucy…
…Will Arnett as Batman, yes that Batman…
...who's a terrible boyfriend, by the way...
…plus Channing Tatum as Superman, Jonah Hill as a clingy Green Lantern, Community's Alison Brie as starry-eyed optimist Unikitty, Morgan Freeman, Star Wars' Anthony Daniels and, most importantly, Will Ferrell playing the character he plays best (the megalomaniacal villain), and a catchy song ("Everything Is Awesome!") and you've got box office gold, my friend.
3. Guardians of the Galaxy
The plot: In this film, Pratt plays Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, an intergalactic playboy and scavenger abducted from Earth in 1988. One day, he steals a powerful orb for money, not knowing what it is, and finds himself with a bounty on his head.
He teams up with motley crew of misfits:
A sexy, green-skinned assassin (Zoe Saldana, playing almost every Zoe Saldana role ever)...
...a hot-headed and super articulate but seemingly oblivious meathead out for revenge (wrestler Dave Bautista)...
...a feisty raccoon with even more moxie than Labyrinth's Sir Didymus, and with an East Coast accent (Pennsylvania-born Bradley Cooper)...
...and a powerful and lovable Chia Pet warrior of few words, Groot (Vin Diesel).
Watch it for: The amazing special effects, quick wit, the feel-good late ‘60s pop and Motown soundtrack and nerd-tastic ‘80s references will delight Boomers and Gen-Xers. Also, audiences of all ages may experience a euphoric, sexual awakening…to the hotness that is Chris Pratt, who sports what younger viewers may find to be THE biggest and bulkiest iPod ever in the film.
2. Birdman
The plot: Michael Keaton plays a fictional version of himself—an aging actor named Riggan Thomson who played a superhero in a hit film series (Keaton starred in Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns) and feels his glory days are over. He tries his hand at Broadway, acting, writing and directing a revival of Raymond Carver's 1981 short story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.
Hijinks ensue when he brings in popular theatre actor Mike Shiner (Edward Norton), whose onstage antics are as shocking as his offstage behavior, which threatens the whole production and Thomson's hopes for a career comeback...in addition to his sanity.
Keaton and Norton simply steal the show, literally.
Emma Stone is also fantastic as Thomson's strung out, troubled but independent and...social media-savvy daughter.
1. Boyhood
The plot: The life of Mason, a Texas boy, is shown from age 5 to 18. He and his older sister live with their mother, who divorces their dad and remarries twice, each time to an alcoholic. Despite their troubled upbringing, they are raised with love.
What's so great about it? Where to start? How does one describe a flawless movie that will captivate you from start to finish, make you gasp, laugh, cry, cheer and fist-pump? Because it's nothing short of enchanting. It's not only the best movie of 2014; it may be the best movie in 20 years.
Dazed and Confused and Before Sunrise series director Richard Linklater did something amazing: He filmed the movie in increments over the course of 12 years, using the same cast. You see Mason, played by Ellar Coltrane, grow up before your very eyes, transforming from a cute, bright-eyed kid, to an awkward pre-teen, to an emo-like teenager to a young adult who's ready to conquer the world.
You see his sister, played by Linklater's daughter Lorelei, turn from a rebellious teen to a mature college student. You see Ethan Hawke, who plays his father, and Patricia Arquette, age gracefully. And Hawk fans—enjoy the actor at his finest, and even a teeny-tiny Dead Poet's Society homage in the movie.
Given the amount of time needed to shoot this movie, to ensure the cast was available all at once, can only be described as a true labor of love.
To those U.S.-raised viewers around Coltrane's current age—20, you may find it particularly enjoyable to basically relive your American childhood, complete with iconic 2000s pop culture references: Early Britney Spears, melancholy Coldplay, colorful iMac G4s, Game Boy Advance and Harry Potter magic.
To those older viewers, note that like several of his past movies, Linklater incorporates the well-identifiable narrative of the mislabeled "slacker" whose goal is just to enjoys life's sweetest moments. That's many of us. And male or female, Millennial, Gen-Xer, Boomer, a factionless child of the early ‘80s…it doesn't matter: Many of us are, in fact, Mason.
We've dealt with his struggles. We've relished in similar triumphs. We've looked up to people and we've looked down them. We've put our trust and respect in adults and learned, growing up, that not all of them deserve it. We've probably had several seemingly deep, now admittedly meaningless late-night conversations with people we've captured our hearts. As teenagers, on the cusp of adulthood, we've felt invincible. But most of all, we want nothing more than to be loved, to be happy and to see our loved ones happy.
Boyhood for ALL the awards.