2014 in Films: A 365 New-To-Me Films Year-End Recap
While I watched less films this year than I have in several years, I saw so many films this year that I truly loved (and a few dogs!). I also watched a lot of television (Hannibal, The Leftovers, Outlander, You’re the Worst, Boardwalk Empire (RIP!), The Knick, Louie, black-ish and Jane The Virgin are all worth your time!) and read 60 books! I also added a new feature to the site: Female Filmmaker Friday. You can read all of those pieces here. After the cut is my list of 365 new-to-me films I watched in 2014 (46 of which were directed by women), as well as a few highlights.
- Seems Like Old Times
- Number, Please? (1920)
- I Do (1921)
- Haunted Spooks
- August: Osage County
- Short Term 12
- Impulse
- Bumping Into Broadway
- Captain Phillips
- All Is Lost (2013)
- Rush
- Philomena
- The Butler
- Primrose Path
- Grand Central Murder
- Saving Mr. Banks
- All My Life
- Mothlight
- Trade Tattoo
- Girls Just Want To Have Fun
- The Virginian (1946)
- Just Like a Woman
- That’s What She Said
- News from Home
- Desperately Seeking Susan
- Reckless
- And The Oscar Goes To. . .
- Making Mr. Right
- Cookie (1989)
- Gun Fight
- Electric Dreams
- Smithereens
- Ritual in Transfigured Time
- The Invisible Woman (2013)
- Monte Carlo (1930)
- Nights in Rodanthe
- (February) Amour & turbulences (Love is in the Air)
- Dots
- C’est l’aviron
- Symphonie diagonale
- Presenting Lily Mars
- Freebie and the Bean
- Dear John
- Gloria (2014)
- Il mio nome è Nessuno (My Name is Nobody)
- Starstruck (1982)
- Seven Sweethearts
- Winter’s Tale
- B.F.’s Daughter
- The Comancheros
- She-Devil
- Pretty Maids All in a Row
- About Last Night (2014)
- Cutie and the Boxer
- The Pretty One
- Canyon Crossroads
- Big Top Pee-Wee
- Orlando
- Safe Haven
- (March) Airborne
- Ladies They Talk About
- The Lucky One
- Lady of the Night
- The Circle (1925)
- Spring Fever (1927)
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Lost in America
- Only Lovers Left Alive
- The Lunchbox
- Mauvais sang
- West Point
- Corvette Summer
- Shirin In Love
- Miele (Honey)
- Across to Singapore
- If Looks Could Kill
- The Twelve Chairs
- Paid
- Possessed (1931)
- This Modern Age
- Larceny
- Laughing Sinners
- Ivy
- The Gambler Wore a Gun
- Today We Live
- Lust in the Dust
- Le week-end
- Sadie McKee
- Teenage
- Chained
- An Unmarried Woman
- The Old Maid
- (April) Forsaking All Others
- No More Ladies
- The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
- Montana
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- 5th Ave Girl (TCMFF)
- Bachelor Mother (TCMFF)
- On Approval (TCMFF)
- The World of Henry Orient (TCMFF)
- The Innocents (TCMFF)
- I Never Sang For My Father (TCMFF)
- Stormy Weather (TCMFF)
- The Stranger’s Return (TCMFF)
- Hat Check Girl (TCMFF)
- Her Sister’s Secret (TCMFF)
- Hobson’s Choice (TCMFF)
- Midnight Lace
- Sorcerer
- Love on the Run
- The Decline of Western Civilization
- The Decline of Western Civilization Part III
- Mannequin (1937)
- Wholly Moses!
- History of the World: Part I
- Terraces
- Finding Vivian Maier
- The Milky Way (1940)
- The Yankee Doodle Mouse
- Mouse Trouble
- Quiet, Please!
- The Final Member
- (May) White Teeth
- Too Much Johnson
- Belle
- The Shining Hour
- The Bride Wore Red
- Popiól i diament (Ashes and Diamonds)
- 89 mm od Europy (89mm From Europe)
- Pociag (Night Train)
- Locke
- Neighbors
- Susan and God
- The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
- The Man with a Cloak
- Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht
- Décalage horaire (Jet Lag)
- Tall in the Saddle
- Godzilla (2014)
- Palo Alto
- Grand comme le Baobab (Tall as the Baobab Tree)
- Our Blushing Brides
- Przypadek (Blind Chance)
- Krótki film o zabijaniu (A Short Film About Killing)
- X-Men: Days of Future Past
- The Immigrant (2014)
- Fading Gigolo
- Montana Moon
- Cold in July
- (June) Vi är bäst! (We Are The Best!)
- Maleficent
- Love in the Rough
- Obvious Child
- Donnie Brasco
- Green Dolphin Street
- Fearless (1993)
- The Best of Everything
- Bella addormentata (Dormant Beauty)
- They All Kissed the Bride
- Design for Scandal
- Susan Slade
- Too Much, Too Soon
- Used People
- The Grasshopper
- Los insólitos peces gato (The Amazing Catfish)
- One Sunday Afternoon (1933)
- Sweetie
- A Woman Possessed
- Le mélomane
- Puce Moment
- Rabbit’s Moon
- Neighbours (1952)
- Trances
- Picnic at Hanging Rock
- The Man from Snowy River
- Magnificent Obsession (1935)
- Same Time, Next Year
- (July) Black Market Babies
- Life Itself
- The Dog Who Saved Christmas
- The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation
- The Dog Who Saved the Holidays
- The Tall T
- Silver Lode
- Hachi: A Dog’s Tale
- Tammy
- The Station Agent
- The Very Eye of Night
- Meditation on Violence
- The Cheat (1931)
- Boyhood
- A Safe Place (1971)
- La Vénus à la fourrure (Venus in Fur)
- Witch’s Cradle
- A Study in Choreography for Camera
- Ensemble for Somnambulists
- The Gazebo
- The Prince of Tides
- The Stalking Moon
- Snowpiercer
- Las horas muertas (The Empty Hours)
- Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- (August) A Guy Named Joe
- Evening
- Daniel Deronda (2002)
- Border River (1954)
- Devil in a Blue Dress
- Night Catches Us
- Pulp: a Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets
- Rabbit-Proof Fence
- Bound for Glory
- Lady By Choice
- Twentieth Century
- What If
- Saboteur
- Klovn: The Movie
- Battleground
- Lifeboat
- Tomorrow Is Forever
- Rage in Heaven
- Middle of Nowhere
- Pillow Talk
- Love Is a Racket
- Two Smart People
- Los Angeles Plays Itself
- Across the Wide Missouri
- Colleen
- Dames
- Night of the Comet
- Small, Beautifully Moving Parts
- Wildcat Bus
- (September) El espíritu de la colmena (The Spirit of the Beehive)
- Serious Moonlight
- Hester Street
- Female
- Frisco Jenny
- Virtue
- Coal Miner’s Daughter
- Frank
- An Officer and a Gentleman
- Something New
- Advanced Style
- Off Ground
- One Day Pina Asked
- The One I Love
- Old Acquaintance
- The Skeleton Twins
- Enough Said
- Mary Stevens, M.D.
- For the Defense
- Jewel Robbery
- Fort Bliss
- The Single Standard
- The Office Wife
- The House of Rothschild
- Nirgendwo in Afrika (Nowhere in Africa)
- Edge of Tomorrow
- Strait-Jacket
- Homicidal
- Love & Basketball
- Semi-Tough
- This Must Be the Place
- (October) The Blair Witch Project
- Surf Nazis Must Die
- Gone Girl
- House of Wax (1953)
- Lilting
- Brown Sugar
- Mystery of the Wax Museum
- Hellraiser
- Pharaoh’s Curse
- Carrie (2013)
- Fright Night (1985)
- Love Hate
- Ecologia del delitto / Reazione a catena (A Bay of Blood / Twitch of the Death Nerve / Blood Bath)
- The Serpent and the Rainbow
- Brain Dead (1990)
- The Legend of Hell House
- Fog Island
- Grave Secrets / Secret Screams
- Ida
- The Man from Planet X
- Transylvania 6-5000
- The Old Dark House (1932)
- The Ghost Walks
- Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
- Night of the Creeps
- The Death Kiss
- Dracula (1974)
- Midnight Matinee
- Invaders From Mars (1953)
- Laggies
- Invaders from Mars (1986)
- I Wanna Hold Your Hand
- Village of the Damned (1960)
- Mark of the Vampire
- The Raven (1935)
- Dracula Has Risen from the Grave
- Isle of the Dead
- (Noirvember) Act of Violence
- T-Men
- Shed No Tears
- Behind Locked Doors aka Human Gorilla
- The Dark Corner
- A Life at Stake
- The Man Who Cheated Himself
- Pitfall
- Dear White People
- Monkey Rag
- Nightcrawler
- Repeat Performance
- Framed
- The Young Savages
- Black Tuesday
- The Blackboard Jungle
- Trapped
- Torch Song
- Crime Against Joe
- Chicken Run
- Murder by Contract
- Beyond the Lights
- Dark Waters
- Convicted
- The House on 92nd Street
- Woman on the Run
- Reunion in France
- Good-Time Girl
- Highway Dragnet
- The Thief
- Sunday in New York
- Guilty Bystander
- Johnny O’Clock
- A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
- I Love Trouble (1948)
- The Bigamist
- Secret Beyond the Door…
- I, the Jury
- The Chase (1946)
- Murder is My Beat
- The Unfaithful
- (December) Sólo con tu pareja
- Truly Madly Deeply
- Elle s’en va
- The Theory of Everything
- Zero Motivation
- Lonesome
- The Last Performance
- Broadway
- Maps to the Stars
- Whiplash
- The Merry Widow (1925)
- The Babadook
- Inherent Vice
- The Hudsucker Proxy
- Still Alice
- Wild
- Big Eyes
- Violette
- Selma
- Seconds
- The Imitation Game
- Riptide
- A Most Violent Year
1880s: 0
1880s: 0
1890s: 0
1900s: 1
1910s: 1
1920s: 13
1930s: 50
1940s: 59
1950s: 38
1960s: 18
1970s: 22
1980s: 36
1990s: 16
2000s: 17
2010s: 94
One thing I really focused on in 2014 was Joan Crawford. God, I love Joan Crawford.
I watched 28 Joan Crawford films in 2014; that means 13% of the films I watched in 2014 had Joan Crawford in them. She is the Queen. I’ve seen 67 of her 85 movies. Most of what I have left are silent films that have never been on home video. But I will keep trying!
There were also two films that I watched in 2014 for the first time, and then subsequently rewatched multiple times:
An Unmarried Woman, 1978 (dir. Paul Mazursky)
My mom brought this movie up in almost every phone call we ever had for years and then finally one day last spring the Cinefamily showed a 35mm print of the film and I finally got to see it! And boy, oh boy, was it worth the wait. What a film! What a performance from Jill Clayburgh! One for the ages. It’s on Netflix and you should just stop everything and watch it right now. Best two hours you can spend, I promise.
Something New, 2006 (dir. Sanaa Hamri)
This is a rom-com from almost ten years ago, but it’s also packed with social commentary. I watched it randomly on MaxGo (the Cinemax streaming service) and then rewatched it a few days later and then bought the DVD and I don’t even know how many times I’ve watched it since September. It’s a great film and Sanaa Lathan just proves again and again that Hollywood really doesn’t know what to do with its talented women. Also, the female gaze as it rests on Simon Baker throughout the film is quiet delectable. This film is a real treat waiting to be discovered.
So that was 2014 in films. Like I’ve said, starting today and for the rest of 2015, all the movies I watch (in theaters or at home) will be either directed by or written by women (with the exception of TCMFF and Noirvember). I’m excited to see what comes out of this year. I will be chronicling the films I watch daily on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr and will update the site monthly, as usual.
Happy watching, 2015!
Posted on January 1, 2015, in 2014 in Films and tagged An Unmarried Woman, Jill Clayburgh, Joan Crawford, Sanaa Lathan, Something New. Bookmark the permalink. 1 Comment.
the diary of a film history fanatic 
An Unmarried Woman looks very good. I’ll have to watch it. Thank you for the list! I don’t think I’ve seen any films on your list, except for Gone Girl, Nosferatu and Desperately Seeking Susan. All good films!