Film Babble Blog's Top 10 Films Of 2025

For most of the last 12 months, I thought of 2025 as a very weird year for film. There were a lot of high-profile flops including one what’s being considered a front runner for the Best Picture Oscar, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, but also movies like the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE and TRON sequels, and the SNOW WHITE and THE RUNNING MAN remakes, which all performed poorly while oddly flicks that looked like they might be soulless, cash-grabbing reboots like SUPERMAN, and THE NAKED GUN turned out to be decent crowd-pleasers.

But when it came to the last few months while catching up with many of the year’s releases, which were way less mainstream than those mentioned above, I started thinking of 2025 as a very good, and challenging year for film. There were great political thrillers, moving dramas whether personal or historical (or both), and three films that made my list that had characters named Agnes.

While there are still a number of films I haven’t seen (there always are; you can’t see everything), it’s time to post my personal Top 10 of the year, six of which are Best Picture nominees. So here goes the countdown:

10. NO OTHER CHOICE (Dir. Park Chan-wook)

Nominated for the Best International Film Oscar, this South Korean black comedy, which I've seen some online commentator liken to a mash-up of PARASITE and A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM is as compelling as it is wickedly amusing from start to finish. 

9. SORRY, BABY (Dir. Eva Victor)

Eva Victor’s impressive directorial debut, which she wrote and stars in, delivers a darkly quirky take on trauma. Victor as a New England graduate student named Agnes, who is sexually assaulted by a professor, puts in a genuine, lived-in performance, and her scenes with her best friend Lydie (an also appealing Naomi Ackie) have an affecting warmth. It’s a shame Academy voters didn’t give SORRY, BABY some love.

8. IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (Dir. Jafar Panahi)

Made by an filmmaker who’s been imprisoned for creating what the Iranian government considered “propaganda against the regime,” this edgy thriller about a group of former political prisoners, who are caught up in the dilemma of thinking they’ve caught their torturer, but aren’t completely certain. Secretly shot in Iran, Jafar Panahi’s weighty materiual here is definitely worthy of both its Best International Film Oscar nom, as well as for Best Screenplay.

7. SINNERS (Dir. Ryan Coogler)

Receiving a record-breaking 16 Oscar nominations, Ryan Cooglar’s supernatural thriller SINNERS made for a better, more thoughtful, though equally twisted, take on the FROM DUSK TO DAWN scenario mixed with the CROSSROADS deal with the devil to great impact. As it was a big office hit with great critical acclaim, it’s due to take home quite a bit of gold on March 15. Michael B. Jordan has some stiff competition (DiCaprio, Chalamet) in the Best Acting category, but for his killer double turn as the Smokestack Twins, he could well pull off an upset.

6. THE SECRET AGENT (Dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho)

This thoroughly engaging political thriller - yes, another political thriller - got four Academy Award noms last week, for both Best Picture, and Best International Feature Film then Best Actor for Wagner Moura, and in the new category of Best Casting. Set in 1977 during the height of Brazil’s military dictatorship, the film features Moura as a research scientist on the run from hitman as he attempts to flee the country with his son, and it grips from the get-go. 

5. HAMNET (Dir. Chloé Zhao)

The absolute antithesis of John Madden’s 1998 historical rom com SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (which won seven Oscars!), this emotionally-driven adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel of the same name is a haunting experience, especially in its heart-wrenching last third. Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley star as William and Agnes Shakespeare, with the film focusing on the birth of their children, and subsequent death of their son Hamnet at age 11. The channeling of this tragedy into art, as seen through Agnes’ reaction is stirringly transcendent, and I believe Buckley should be handed the Best Actress statue for her performance. HAMNET got eight Oscar noms (including Best Picture) so here's hoping that happens.

4. TIE: BLUE MOON / NOUVELLE VAGUE (Dir. Richard Linklater)

This may seem like a cheat, but I truly equally enjoyed Richard Linklater's two period piece offerings this last year, and am especially glad that Ethan Hawke got nominated for his terrific turn as famed lyricist/songwriter Lorenz Hart though I doubt he'll win. The Broadway set BLUE MOON concerns Hart on the opening night of his former writing partner Richard Rodgers’ musical Oklahoma! in 1943, while NOUVELLE VAGUE is about the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s French New Wave classic BREATHLESS in 1959. Both films are loving, and ultra charming tributes to innovative artists, and their eras, and both should not be missed.

3. SENTIMENTAL VALUE (Dir. Joachim Trier)

Joachim Trier’s touching drama about an acclaimed filmmaker portrayed by Stellan Skarsgård hoping to reconnect with his daughters, Nora (Renate Reinsve), and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) via a new film project that he wants Nora to star in. Elle Fanning, who got one of the film’s nine nominations, appears as an American actress who takes on the role when Nora refuses. Like HAMNET it explores handling tragic loss through artistic expression, but in a vastly different manner. Trier's work has artsy elements but handles them unpretentiously, and with an absorbing elegance. 

2. TRAIN DREAMS (Dir. Clint Bentley)

This is absolutely the best film I’ve ever seen about grief, which, I have to admit, I really didn’t understand until losing my father last April. In Clint Bentley’s adaptation of Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella, Joel Edgerton plays Idaho logger and railroad worker Robert Grainier, who loses his wife (Felicity Jones), and child in a forest fire and has to navigate through a lonely existence. Evocatively ghosty, with unforgettable vivid imagery, TRAIN DREAMS definitely got to me, and here's hoping more folks seek it out on Netflix.

1. ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER

(Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)

While it underperformed at the box office, Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1oth feature is one of the most acclaimed movies of 2025, and I’m among the many who have praised it as I voted for it for Best Picture in the year-end poll for the North Carolina Film Critics Association (NCFCA). Leonardo DiCaprio as a burned-out ex revolutionary heads the strong cast including Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro, and a crusty AF Sean Penn as the scary Col. Steven J. Lockjaw in this twisted chaotic and comic action thriller that finds Anderson at the top of his game. With 13 noms, it's second in nominations to SINNERS, but I’m pulling for it to take home the big ones. With nearly a dozen noms but no wins, it really feels with this extraordinary piece of work like it’s finally PTA’s time.

Now, I’ll leave you with this hilarious commercial parody, featuring host Teyana Taylor, from last weekend's Saturday Night Live for a line of ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER action figures new from Mattel:

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Film Babble Blog’s Top 10 Movies of 2017 Part 1

2017 was a very weird year, so it's fitting that many of its movies were pretty damn weird too. A lot of franchise films flopped (this is despite the fact that over half of the year’s top 10 at the box office were sequels), a STAR WARS movie was divisive between critics who loved it, and longtime fans of the series who hated it; and there were a number of films with strangely similar titles like LOGAN, LUCKY, and LOGAN LUCKY, and WONDER, WONDER WHEEL, WONDERSTRUCK, WONDER WOMEN, and PROFESSOR MARSTON AND THE WONDER WOMEN. 

Then there were WTFWT (What the F*** Was That?) movies like A GHOST STORY and MOTHER! So yeah, it was one weird year.

A lot of the movies of the last year blur together in my head. I mean, I had forgotten about such dreary titles as THE CIRCLE, THE BEGUILED, and BEATRIZ AT DINNER until looking at a list of 2017 releases just now. And there were also a few films I only liked the first halves of like DOWNSIZING, and THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI, that are also fading in my memory.

But now’s the time to concentrate on the cinema I best responded to, and I thought I'd do what I did a few years back and add what quotes stuck with me as well to the list.

So here goes Part 1 of my picks, in descending order, with their key lines or exchanges, and some links back to my reviews (click on select titles):

10. THE POST (Dir. Steven Spielberg)

Kay Graham (Meryl Streep): “You know what my husband said about the news? ‘News is the first rough draft of history.’”

9. LAST FLAG FLYING (Dir. Richard Linklater)

Sal Nealon (Bryan Cranston): “Every generation has their war. Men make the wars, and wars make the men. It never ends!”

Reverend Richard Mueller (Lawrence Fishburne): Maybe one day we’ll try something different.”

8. DARKEST HOUR (Dir. Joe Wright)

Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman): “Please tell the Privy Seal that I’m sealed in the privy and I can only deal with one shit at a time.”

7. LADY BIRD (Dir. Greta Gerwig)

Marion McPherson (Laurie Metcalf): “I want you to be the very best version of yourself that you can be.”

Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson (Saoirse Ronan): “What if this is the best version?”

6. THE FLORIDA PROJECT (Dir. Sean Baker)

Moonee (Brooklynn Prince): “I can always tell when adults are about to cry.”

So that’s 10-6 of my favorite films. See 5-1 at Part 2.

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LAST FLAG FLYING Gets Just About Every Last Detail Right.

Now playing:

LAST FLAG FLYING (Dir. Richard Linklater, 2017)

Richard Linklater’s latest is and isn’t a sequel to Hal Ashby’s 1973 cult classic THE LAST DETAIL. The three lead characters’ names have changed but they’re basically the same archetypes as the three military cohorts in the original, with Bryan Cranston’s Sal Nealon mirroring Jack Nicholson’s Billy L. “Badass” Buddusky, Steve Carrell’s Larry “Doc” Shepherd stepping in for Randy Quaid’s Laurence M. “Larry” Meadows, and Laurence Fishburne’s Richard Mueller taking on Otis Young’s Richard “Mule” Mulhall.

In THE LAST DETAIL, Navy lifers Buddusky and Mulhall escort court-marshaled Meadows to prison in Maine for petty theft, and take drunken detours along the way. In LAST FLAG FLYING, our trio are vets who re-unite to accompany Carrell’s Doc to the funeral of his son who was killed in Vietnam.

The film begins with Doc showing up at Sal’s dive bar in Norfolk, Virginia, after decades of non-communication, and after a night of drinking, Doc takes Sal to see their old pal, Richard, who became a Christian priest.

The film takes place in 2003, so there are running gags involving the internet and cellphones being new things, and footage of Saddam Hussein on TVs in the background.

Like its predecessor, it’s largely a road trip movie with a lot of buddy comradery, but in this story that happens after they reach their first destination - Dover Air Force Base in Delaware where they learn that Doc’s son didn’t die the heroic death that the army’s official statement reported. They then take his son’s body to bury in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, first by rented truck, then by train after a brush with homeland security with a lot of lively conversation fueling every scene.

THE LAST DETAIL was famous for having large amounts of profanity – it contained more uses of the f-bomb than any previous film when it was released in the early ‘70s - but it’s no big thing these days for a film to be filled with such dirty dialogue so it’s barely noticeable when it’s used here. Maybe that’s from my being desensitized by many viewings of Scorsese movies or frequent listens of Richard Pryor albums, I dunno.

Alongside the strong performances of the main protagonists, is an excellent supporting cast made up of Yul Vazquez as Lt Col. Willits, who tries to stop Doc, Sal, and Mueller from transporting the body themselves; J. Quinton Johnson stars as Marine Charlie Washington who breaks the news to the guys about how Doc’s son died, and especially Cicely Tyson as the grieving mother of one of their fellow Marines, who died in Vietnam.

Despite its sometimes weary depiction of distrust of the Government during the George W. Bush era, there’s a lot of warmth in LAST FLAG FLYING. Linklater handles the pathos superbly, and gets us to care about these very verbal vets. Its dialogue, co-written by Linklater and Darryl Ponicsan (who wrote the 1970 book, “The Last Detail” and its 2005 sequel that’s the basis for this film) is rich and real feeling.

Cranston stands out as the grizzled, cynical Sal – it’s one of his most fleshed out characters since Breaking Bad – Carrell’s sad sack succeeds in getting our sympathy, and Fishburne conveys dignified grace, that is except for the funny bits where his Reverend Mueller loses patience with Sal and regresses into his old profane self.

Linklater’s loving update deserves Oscar action, but more so it deserves big audiences who no doubt will appreciate its affable yet profound sensibility. LAST FLAG FLYING gets just about every last detail right.

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EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!!: The Film Babble Blog Review

Now playing at a multiplex or indie art house near you:

EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!!

(Dir. Richard Linklater, 2016)

Richard Linklater’s 18th film EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!!, which takes its name from a Van Halen song, is billed as a “spiritual sequel to DAZED AND CONFUSED.”

This means that while it involves none of the same characters it’s an Austin, Texas-set period piece that takes place several years after DAZED’s last day of high school ’76 scenario with a similar amount of hard partying, soul searching, and a wall-to-wall soundtrack of radio hits from a bygone era.

It’s 1980, and to the beat of The Knack’s “My Sharona,” we meet our protagonist (and Linklater surrogate) the affable feather-haired Jake (Blake Jenner) as he drives onto campus to start his freshman year at the fictitious Southeast Texas University. Jake, a pitcher on a baseball scholarship, arrives only with a suitcase and a milk crate of records (Devo’s 1977 debut “Are We Not Men” is the most visible album).

Jake moves into one of the two baseball houses on campus and meets his fellow players/roommates – including the pornstached McReynolds (Tyler Hoechlin), the slick-talking Finn (Glen Powell), the much ridiculed redneck Billy Autry (Will Brittain), the cocky constantly primping Roper (Ryan Guzman), the bearded spiritual stoner Willoughby (Wyatt Russell), the obnoxious outcast Niles (Juston Street), and the team’s token black guy, Dale (J. Quinton Johnson).

Jake soon notes that in his new living situation, where his teammates are always playing games whether it be foosball, ping pong, darts, poker or bloody knuckles (a stupid game in which two people punch each other’s knuckles until one of them gives up) that everything is a competition – “even hits from bongs.” Getting laid, always the main motivation in movies like this, is another messy game getting played here, of course.

The film is set entirely in the three days before classes begin – a ticker pops up here and there to tell us how much time is left – with little actual plot to speak of. In between the baseball bros’ drinking at various venues – including their regular watering hole “The Fox,” a country dance joint, and a punk club – Jake meets a smart, pretty performing arts major named Beverly (Zoey Deutch), who invites him to a costume party with her theater geek friends that Jake worries whether he should let his rowdy crew in on.

The crude yet warm-spirited EVERYBODY WANTS SOME has a lot of solid character driven laughs, but as well acted as these personalities are, I’m not sure that there is a Matthew McConaughey-style breakthrough role happening here in this no name cast.

Russell, who’s the son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, has a witty charisma about him, but he gets walked out of the game before his Willoughby even gets a chance to be the film’s Wooderson.

With its washed out look via the cinematography of Shane F. Kelly (Linklater’s DP on A SCANNER DARKLY and BOYHOOD) , EVERYBODY WANTS SOME can sure look and feel like a film that was shot in the early ‘80s, a lot more than DAZED looked like a film that was shot in the ‘70s. The attention to detail, one of Linklater’s greatest strengths, really perpetuates the illusion that we’re taken the wayback machine to another time.

The well chosen soundtrack, which features such classics as “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang (an early sing-a-long, or rap-a-long car ride scene to this song is a highlight), Robin Scott’s “Pop Musik,” Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust,” Devo’s “Whip It,” and various Cars and Cheap Trick tracks, also helps achieve that effect.

I doubt that this film will become the coming-of-age cult classic that DAZED has become in the decades since its release in 1993, but it’s a fine, funny follow-up to that film and Linklater’s brilliant, much more ambitious BOYHOOD. It begins much like BOYHOOD ended, with a young man on his own for the first time in his life starting a new life at college. It’s apparent that the overwhelming feeling of having your life ahead of you, with an open mind to new people and experiences, is something that has never left the 55-year old Linklater.

To paraphrase one of the writer/director’s most enduring characters, the aforementioned McConaughey character of Wooderson, Linklater gets older, but these universal themes stay the same age.

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Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard Talks SLACKER For Film Acoustic

Earlier this week, The Modern School of Film’s series, Film Acoustic, moved its program from the Carolina Theatre in Durham to the N.C. Museum of Art in Raleigh for a screening of Richard Linklater’s 1991 breakthrough debut SLACKER.

The film was the choice of Death Cab for Cutie front man Ben Gibbard, who, in the tradition of the series, took part in a discussion after the screening and performed a few songs for the folks in attendance. MSOF founder and moderator Robery Milazzo told the audience in his intro at the Museum’s open-air theater that “this is our first-ever outdoor event,” and that he “absolutely hates watching movies outside,” but that “tonight’s movie is right in the pocket of a movie that screens really well outside.”

Milazzo was right, SLACKER did indeed screen really well, except for the fact that it was really cold that evening. Linklater’s film, which concerns a day in the life of Austin, Texas with the roaming camera going from eccentric character to another, was well received by the crowd, some of who were smarter than me and brought blankets, but I could tell from the vibe that they were more there for Gibbard.

After the film ended, Milazzo brought out his guest of honor with these words: “It’s really amazing that for a movie that quotes Tolstoy, Nietzsche, and Madonna, to have with us someone that Spin Magazine called ‘the poet laureate of the young and hopeful.’” The audience applauded and wooed “Professor Ben Gibbard,” as Milazzo called him, as he walked onstage to talk SLACKER, and various other related, and non related, topics.

Here are some highlights:

On why he choose SLACKER:

Gibbard: “It was a movie that I saw when I was going to college in Billingham, and it really resonated with me because I recognized so many of these characters in my friends and myself. Conversations that are happening throughout this movie are the kind of pseudo intellectual college conversations that you have at the time feel really deep, but once you kind of remove from them you recognize how silly some of them were.

But I just love the fact that this movie takes place over 24 hours in Austin, Texas, and it does such a great job of putting forth the minutiae of what happens in a college town. The absurd, but also kind of beautiful moments as well; the humor. It really resonated with me when I saw it and I come back to it every couple of years, and still really enjoy it.

How SLACKER has served as inspiration:

Gibbard: “To come back to that word ‘minutiae’ I’ve always enjoyed focusing on small moments in life and tried to blow them up and make them something larger than they actually were, and I think that in this movie you have all these little vignettes that flow fairly seamlessly as one character passes another then the camera follows them. And, you know, there are obviously some kind of funny, silly moments in it, but there are also some kind of beautiful moments there. 

Like I love that scene with the elderly man walking at the end of the movie, and we’ve actually been using – without permission – the audio from that as an opening track when we walk out on this tour because I just love that. I just love that, it’s kind of a wonderful way that encapsulates the characters in the film by having this older gentlemen at the end talk from a place of authority, and experience about a lot of the smaller moments that have happened throughout the movie. And some way or another, I just think that’s really a beautiful little soliloquy he has in there.”

On the Austin, Texas locations of SLACKER:

Gibbard: “The thing that’s interesting about watching this film now, 25 years after it was shot, is seeing how much Austin has changed. There’s the scene in the little dinner where the woman is like ‘you should quit, you should quit…’ and I remember making a pilgrimage to that diner one of the first times I went to Austin because I really wanted to see it and I walked in and that same guy was working there. This was like 2001...the guy who comes over and says ‘smarten up’ or whatever. I walked in and it blew my mind that he was standing right there, but across the street…

Milazzo: “Did he say ‘keep it down?’ I think that’s what…”

Gibbard: “No, he didn’t – he just kinda looked at me and I walked out. But, no, I remember in the movie as the guy is walking into the diner, you can see it’s just like the skyline of Austin in the background, and nothing, just some warehouses. Now, there’s like a massive Whole Foods and condos, and it’s been interesting to see, you know, as I watch this movie I’m aware of where a lot of it was shot, just how much the city has changed. It’s the same when I see movies that take place in my hometown of Seattle, how much the city has grown and changed.

Milazzo: “We’re here in Raleigh, North Carolina, and there are a lot of those sort of cities – smart cities, smart communities, uh, I guess when you watch this movie, is this an inspiring vision of America? As awful a question as that sounds – is there any melancholy in this change for you when you watch this film?”

Gibbard: “Uh, it’s not really melancholy, I think that these kind of conversations and characters still exist in every college town in America, you know? For me, I see this film and it reminds me of a time in my life where these things were of the utmost importance. 

I look back at that time in my life fondly, that these conversions and these characters and the people that I knew in my own version of this were kind of like folk heroes of my college experience. You know, the townie who worked at the bar, the guy who’s in 15 bands, all that stuff, these people – you knew ‘em. And I think these people still exist, they’re just that age now.

Milazzo: “It funny, if you cast actors here you’d think ‘ah, those people don’t exist.’ But the fact that he used real people brings it to life in this kind of cool way.”

Gibbard: “I actually have an interesting story about that. Years ago, this was 2000, and we were playing a show in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and we had been warned that the sound guy at this particular club was kind of ornery, but we kind of warmed up to him, we kind of hung out with him, and he seemed so familiar, but I couldn’t place him. He was kind of a heavy set guy, kind of balding. I was like ‘I know this guy from somewhere.’ We were going home later, going back to a place we were staying with this person, and I was like ‘man, that guy looks so familiar!’ And she was like ‘you, know he’s Steve with a van from SLACKER.’ And I was just like, ‘what?’ It was like the first movie star I met. I was like, ‘I can’t believe it!’ I was almost glad that I didn’t recognize him because I would’ve like bothered him all night.”

With a little prompting by Milazzo, Gibbard picked up his guitar and played a few songs between the chit chat starting with “Title Track” off of Death Cab for Cutie’s 2000 album “We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes.” 

After some strained talk about the writing process (move it along, Milazzo!), Gibbard fittingly tackled “A Movie Script Ending,” from 2002’s “The Photo Album,” took a stab at Nirvana’s “All Apologies” (he started playing the riff then said “I’m not gonna be able to do this”), did a rough but still solid version of “Steadier Footing” (also from “The Photo Album”), and concluded his appearance with a stunningly superb rendition of “I Will Follow You into the Dark” from 2005’s “Plans,” which you can watch a crude video of his performance that somebody recorded on their phone.

A final anecdote, in response to an audience member’s question about what is a favorite song of Gibbard’s that he has returned to again and again:

Gibbard: “It’s not so much because of the lyrical content, and it might seem like a strange choice, but I really believe that “There She Goes” by The La’s is like the most perfect song ever written. It’s a perfect song – it’s short, it feels like you’ve heard it before but you haven’t. 

And someone might hear that song and go like ‘that’s just a light pop song - like, I could write that.’ Well, no you couldn’t…because you would’ve written it if you could. And that entire record is like that for me, but that song in particular, like you know there’s a lot of covers of it in the world, it’s kind of a ubiquitous song, but whenever the original comes on I have this moment like ‘God, this is like an amazing song.’

I had this moment, this is name dropping so forgive me, but years ago, Death Cab was playing a festival in Japan, and Teenage Fanclub is my all-time favorite band, they were playing…it was us, then Teenage Fanclub, then The La’s – they were doing a reunion. 

So it was really crazy, and I’m standing next to Norman (Blake) from Teenage Fanclub, he was like one of my heroes from the time I was 14, and they go into ‘There She Goes’ and he turns to me and says ‘Man, classic pop song, right?’ ‘Yeah!’ ‘It’s crazy that it’s about heroin, right?’ 

And I was like ‘what?’ I never thought of that angle on the song. And it just changed it all for me. This moment where somebody, who’s one of my heroes, was giving me information that I hereto did not have and it’s changing the whole song for me.”

More later…

Hey Kids! Funtime 2015 Oscar Picks!

Yep, here we go again. The 87th Academy Awards Ceremony is this Sunday, February 20th, so it's time for Film Babble Blog's official predictions to be posted.

Now, last year I got 21 out of 24 right - my best score ever - but this year I find myself really wanting to be wrong about some of these. I would love some surprises, some upsets, to shake things up this time. I want to see first-time host Neil Patrick Harris quipping between categories about some unexpected thing that just happened. Even NPH says he's “hoping for a scandal.”

Anyway, on to my picks which go something like this: 

1. BEST PICTURE: BOYHOOD

This is battling it out with BIRDMAN (which I wouldn't mind winning as I loved it too), but my money is on Richard Linklater's 12 years in the making epic about life, love, and time. It was my #1 favorite film of 2014 so I'm way biased, but it feels so right.

2. BEST DIRECTOR: Richard Linklater for BOYHOOD

3. BEST ACTOR: Michael Keaton for BIRDMAN

I'm biased here too because I love Keaton and thought he did an incredible job as actor Riggan Thompson/Birdman. Hard to believe the guy has never been nominated before - I think he should've been for CLEAN AND SOBER back in '88. Eddie Redmayne for his performance as Stephen Hawking in THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING seems to be the major competitor, but, c'mon! It has to Keaton

4. BEST ACTRESS: Julianne Moore for STILL ALICE

5. BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: J.K. Simmons for WHIPLASH

6. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Patricia Arquette for BOYHOOD

And the rest: 

7. PRODUCTION DESIGN: Adam Stockhausen & Anna Pinnock for THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

8. CINEMATOGRAPHY: BIRDMAN

9. COSTUME DESIGN: THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

10. DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: CITIZENFOUR

11. DOCUMENTARY SHORT: CRISIS HOTLINE: VETERANS PRESS 1

12. FILM EDITING: BOYHOOD

13. MAKEUP: THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

14. VISUAL EFFECTS: INTERSTELLAR

15. ORIGINAL SCORE: THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING

16. ORIGINAL SONG: “Glory” from SELMA - I'd actually prefer “Everything is Awesome” from THE LEGO MOVIE to win because I'm not a big fan of Common's song, but SELMA should at least win something. Then again THE LEGO MOVIE got snubbed too so we'll see.

17. ANIMATED SHORT: FEAST / Dark horse: THE DAM KEEPER

18. LIVE ACTION SHORT: THE PHONE CALL

19. SOUND EDITING: AMERICAN SNIPER

20. SOUND MIXING: WHIPLASH

21. ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

22. ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: THE IMITATION GAME

23. ANIMATED FEATURE FILM: BIG HERO 6

24. BEST FOREIGN FILM: IDA

There's no way I'm going to do as well as last year, so like I always say: Tune in Monday to see how many I got wrong.

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Film Babble Blog’s Top 10 Movies of 2014 (Plus Their Key Lines)

Since the Oscar nominations were announced a week ago, and I’m pretty caught up on all the major, and not so major, movies of 2014, it’s time to list my 10 favorite films of last year (plus some spillover). This time instead of providing a blurb for each entry, I’m going to only highlight a key line, or at least what I think is one of the most memorable, for each movie. Also, unlike in previous year’s lists, I’m listing them from 10 down to 1. Click on the film's titles to read my original reviews:

10. CALVARY (Dir. John Michael McDonagh)

Father James Lavelle (Brendan Gleeson): “The commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ does not have an asterisk beside it, referring you to the bottom of the page where you find a list of instances where it's okay to kill people.”

9. ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE
(Dir. Jim Jarmusch)

Adam (Tom Hiddleston): “You drank Ian.”

8. THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

(Dir. Wes Anderson)



M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes): “The most dreadful and unattractive person only needs to be loved and they will open up like a flower.”
Also: “I sleep with all my friends.”

7. THE LEGO MOVIE

(Dirs. Phil Lord & Christopher Miller)

Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman): “The only thing anyone needs to be special is to believe that you can be - I know that sounds like a cat poster, but it’s true.”

6. INHERENT VICE (Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)



Dr. Rudy Blatnoyd, D.D.S. (Martin Short): “It’s not groovy to be insane.”

5. SELMA (Dir. Ava DuVernay)



Martin Luther King (David Oyellowo): “That means protest! That means march! That means disturb the peace! That means jail! That means risk! That is hard!”

4. WHIPLASH (Dir. Damien Chazelle)



Fletcher (J.K. Simmons): “My dear god, are you one of those single tear people?”

3. LIFE ITSELF (Dir. Steve James)



Roger Ebert: “Look at a movie that a lot of people love and you’ll find something profound no matter how silly the film may seem.”

2. BIRDMAN (Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu)

Riggan Thomson as his inner Birdman (Michael Keaton): “People, they love blood. They love action. Not this artsy fartsy, philosophical bullshit”

1. BOYHOOD (Dir. Richard Linklater)

“Never leave your mother’s womb, unless you wanna see how hard a broken heart can swoon.” - Tweedy (from the end credits song “Summer Noon”)

And now, in no particular order, a bunch of 2014 spillover, with a few of their key lines too:

EDGE OF TOMORROW (Dir. Doug Liman) “Okay, first of all, terrific presentation. Just Terrific.”

FRANK (Dir. Lenny Abrahamson)

NIGHTCRAWLER (Dir. Dan Gilroy)  “Do you know what fear stands for? False Evidence Appearing Real.”

WILD (Dir. Jean-Marc Vallée)

THE RAID 2 (Dir. Gareth Evans)

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (Dir. James Gunn): “It's got a real shining-blue suitcase, Ark of the Covenant, Maltese Falcon sort of vibe.”

FORCE MAJEURE (Dir. Ruben Östlund)

A MOST VIOLENT YEAR (Dir. J.C. Chandor)

GONE GIRL (Dir. David Fincher) “We're so cute. I wanna punch us in the face.”

UNDER THE SKIN (Dir. Jonathan Glazer)

JOHN WICK (Dir. David Leitch & Chad Stahelski): “Oh.”

All in all, not a bad year for film.

More later...