Voilà my annual list of the best and worst movies of the year (for last year’s list, see here). The movies here came out in the cinema this year in France or in the US. All have separate posts on this blog or will soon. N.B. I see a lot of movies but haven’t seen everything, including some that have been highly recommended by cinephile friends (e.g. I missed or have yet to see Cristian Mungiu’s ‘Beyond the Hills’, ‘La grande bellezza’, and Claude Lanzmann’s ‘Le Dernier des injustes’). And several recent, well-regarded American films are opening in France after the new year.
TOP 10:
12 Years a Slave
A Simple Life (桃姐)
A Touch of Sin (天注定)
Blue is the Warmest Color (La Vie d’Adèle)
Home from Home—Chronicle of a Vision (Die andere Heimat—Chronik einer Sehnsucht)
No
Omar (عمر)
The Broken Circle Breakdown (Alabama Monroe)
The Repentant (Le Repenti التائب)
Wadjda (وجدة)
HONORABLE MENTION:
Horses of God (Les Chevaux de Dieu يا خيل الله)
Out in the Dark (עלטה ظلام)
Rush
Syngue Sabour, the Patience Stone (سنگ صبور)
The Past (Le Passé گذشته)
BEST MOVIE FROM SINGAPORE:
Ilo Ilo (爸妈不在家)
BEST MOVIE FROM SRI LANKA:
Ini Avan
BEST MOVIE FROM GEORGIA:
In Bloom
SECOND BEST MOVIE FROM GEORGIA:
Keep Smiling
BEST MOVIE FROM TURKEY:
Beyond the Hill (Tepenin Ardı)
BEST MOVIE FROM ICELAND:
The Deep (Djúpið)
BEST MOVIE FROM ISRAEL ON COURTSHIP AND ROMANCE AMONG THE HAREDIM IN A TEL AVIV SUBURB:
Fill the Void (למלא את החלל)
BEST MOVIE FROM ISRAEL ON FANATICISM AND VIOLENCE AMONG THE HAREDIM IN A TEL AVIV SUBURB:
God’s Neighbors (המשגיחים)
BEST MOVIE FROM ISRAEL ON CONFLICT BETWEEN ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS DURING THE FIRST INTIFADA IN GAZA:
Rock the Casbah (רוק בקסבה)
BEST MELODRAMATIC COMEDY FROM MOROCCO ON CONFLICT BETWEEN MEMBERS OF A MOROCCAN FAMILY IN TANGIER:
Rock the Casbah
BEST MOVIE FROM MOROCCO ON A LOWLIFE POLICEMAN WITH A HEART OF GOLD IN CASABLANCA:
Zero (زيرو)
BEST MOVIE FROM MOROCCO ON LOWLIFE LAYABOUTS IN TETOUAN:
Death for Sale (Mort à vendre بيع الموت)
BEST MOVIE FROM DENMARK ON LOWLIFE LAYABOUTS IN COPENHAGEN:
Northwest (Nordvest)
BEST MOVIE FROM DENMARK ON LOWLIFE SOMALI PIRATES:
A Hijacking (Kapringen)
BEST MOVIE FROM HOLLYWOOD ON LOWLIFE SOMALI PIRATES:
Captain Phillips
BEST MOVIE FROM HOLLYWOOD ON 1970s VIOLENT AMERICAN RADICAL LEFTISTS:
The Company You Keep
BEST MOVIE FROM ARGENTINA ON 1970s VIOLENT ARGENTINIAN RADICAL LEFTISTS:
Clandestine Childhood (Infancia clandestina)
BEST MOVIE FROM INDIA THAT WILL HAVE YOU SALIVATING FOR INDIAN HOME COOKING:
The Lunchbox
BEST MOVIE FROM GERMANY ON AN INTELLECTUAL WHO DID NOT SHY AWAY FROM CONTROVERSY:
Hannah Arendt
BEST MOVIE FROM FRANCE ON FRANCO-ALGERIANS PROTESTING RACISM AND INJUSTICE IN FRANCE:
La Marche
BEST COMEDY FROM FRANCE MAKING SPORT OF INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS BETWEEN FRANCO-ALGERIANS AND ALGERIANS IN ALGERIA:
Homeland (Né quelque part)
BEST COMEDY FROM FRANCE MAKING SPORT OF INTER-GENERATIONAL RELATIONS AMONG PORTUGUESE IMMIGRANTS IN FRANCE:
The Gilded Cage (La Cage Dorée)
BEST COMEDY FROM FRANCE MAKING SPORT OF A FORMER FOREIGN MINISTER WHO REALLY IS THE WAY HE’S MADE OUT TO BE IN THE COMEDY:
The French Minister (Quai d’Orsay)
BEST COMEDY FROM FRANCE THAT WAS IN FACT ONLY AN OCCASIONALLY FUNNY COMEDY:
9 Month Stretch (9 mois ferme)
BEST DOCUMENTARY ON A GREAT CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN SINGER WHO PRACTICALLY NO ONE IN AMERICA HAS HEARD OF:
Searching for Sugar Man
BEST DOCUMENTARY FROM ISRAEL PERIOD:
The Gatekeepers
BEST MOST CHILLING DOCUMENTARY ON COLD BLOODED GENOCIDAL KILLERS IN INDONESIA WHO REGRET ABSOLUTELY NOTHING:
The Act of Killing
BEST DOCUMENTARY ON THE GOVERNING STYLE OF THE CURRENT FRENCH PRESIDENT:
Le Pouvoir
BEST DOCUMENTARY ON LEBANON’S 1960s AEROSPACE PROGRAM:
The Lebanese Rocket Society
BEST AGITPROP DOCUMENTARY ON THE 1970s TRIAL OF A CELEBRATED AMERICAN COMMUNIST WHO REALLY DOES NOT MERIT HER CELEBRITY:
Free Angela and All Political Prisoners
BEST DOCUMENTARY ON MOROCCAN JEWS WHO EMIGRATED TO ISRAEL BUT REMAIN PROFOUNDLY ATTACHED TO MOROCCO:
Tinghir-Jerusalem, Echos from the Mellah
BEST DOCUMENTARY ON THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE END OF APARTHEID IN SOUTH AFRICA:
Plot for Peace
BEST MOVIE IN 3-D:
Gravity
BEST MOVIE BY ROMAN POLANSKI:
Venus in Fur (La Vénus à la fourrure)
BEST MOVIE BY JOEL AND ETHAN COEN:
Inside Llewyn Davis
BEST MOVIE BY GUS VAN SANT:
Promised Land
BEST MOVIE BY ALEXANDER PAYNE:
Nebraska
MOST OVERRATED MOVIE BY WOODY ALLEN:
Blue Jasmine
MOST FORGETTABLE MOVIE BY STEVEN SODERBERGH:
Side Effects
MOST CONTRIVED MOVIE BY LEE DANIELS:
The Butler
MOST TRIVIAL MOVIE BY SOFIA COPPOLA:
The Bling Ring
MOST TEDIOUS MOVIE BY HONG SANG-SOO:
Nobody’s Daughter Haewon
MOST UNSATISFYING MOVIE BY ARNAUD DESPLECHIN:
Jimmy P.: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian
MOST DEPRAVED MOVIE BY CLAIRE DENIS:
Bastards (Les Salauds)
MOST BLOATED UNORIGINAL MORALLY DEGENERATE MOVIE BY MARTIN SCORSESE:
The Wolf of Wall Street
MOST VIOLENT POLICE ACTION MOVIE FROM SOUTH AFRICA DEPICTING THE RAINBOW NATION UNITED IN JUSTICE AND IN CRIME:
Zulu
MOST COMPLICATED MOVIE FROM ARGENTINA ON STUDENT-FACULTY POLITICS IN ARGENTINIAN UNIVERSITIES:
El Estudiante
MOST LUGUBRIOUS MOVIE FROM AFGHANISTAN ON PATRIARCHY AND GENDER DYNAMICS AMONG THE EDUCATED AFGHAN ELITE:
Wajma, An Afghan Love Story (وژمه)
MOST ABSTRUSE MOVIE FROM GUINEA-BISSAU:
The Battle of Tabatô (A batalha de Tabatô)
MOST SUCCESSFUL SCREENPLAY ADAPTATION OF A YASMINA KHADRA NOVEL:
The Attack (L’Attentat)
MOST FAILED SCREENPLAY ADAPTATION OF AN ALBERT CAMUS NOVEL:
The First Man (Le Premier homme)
CREEPIEST MOVIE FROM JAPAN:
Penance (Shokuzai 贖罪)
TRASHIEST MOVIE FROM SERBIA:
Klip (Клип)
WORST MOVIE BASED ON A 1940s FRENCH CULT NOVEL:
Mood Indigo (L’Écume des jours)
WORST MOVIE BASED ON A 1980s FRENCH CULT COMIC SERIES:
Snowpiercer (Le Transperceneige)
WORST MOVIE FROM ISRAEL PERIOD:
Zaytoun (להישאר בחיים)
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