Top movies of 2014, for those who really care about movies

You'll probably generally agree with my list, if you also agree that American Sniper doesn't have a single original thought or line, and is a mediocre hackneyed love story...and a mediocre hackneyed war movie.

My rankings (in descending order) of David Foster's Best Films of 2014 are:

1. Force Majeure--fun acting around an important and critical topic that allowed for hours and hours of thoughtful conversations
2. Mommy--Canadian entry to the Oscars, the best three-lead acting of any film of the year, taking Maggie Gyllenhaal one step further--or one kilometer further
3. Ida--now THIS is a war film--two women jointly rediscover their past, and make morally defensible decisions once they understand 
4. Boyhood--talk about getting lucky on a long term project...could you select a better group to watch grow up together?
5. Calvary--Dostoyevsky and Camus dealt with inescapable guilt when you're on the fringes of society.   This film, and Brendan Gleeson, looks straight in the face of guilt when you're in the middle--and doesn't flinch for a moment
6. Birdman--battling demons is not an uncommon theme but every one involved in this film added their own creativity to transcend the routine
7. Citizenfour--I'm influenced by the fact that I believe Edward Snowden is among the most heroic people on the planet--every one knows you're not allowed to whistle blow when the subject is American imperialism
8. The One I Love--it turns out Mark Duplass is more faithful than Elizabeth Moss, in the best answer ever to the eternal question "what do you really want from your partner."  Funny and honest, as all the Duplass films seem to be.
9. Into the Woods--beautiful direction particularly of Meryl Streep, and of the cleverer-than-ever Sondheim lyrics
10. Grand Budapest Hotel--evenly stylized fun from the get-go
11. Interstellar--I didn't get the whole 2013 thing with George Clooney spacewalking and Sandra what's-her-name wearing the same underwear Sigourney Weaver wore in Alien.   But Interstellar is a cracking SF tale with plausible time warp metaphysics.   Maybe we've had enough Jessica Chastain?
12. Nightcrawler--I think every business person should be required to watch this film so they can learn from Jake Gyllenhaal just how dangerous management training materials are.   Also: a strange, gorgeous buddy film
13. The Dark Valley--Austrian entry to the Oscars, proving that nearly every one can improve on the John Ford western...and now has.   This one is gorgeous and wickedly dark.
14. Days and Nights--Mark Rylance and Ben Whishaw, two actors who now seem to be beyond critical review (that's probably not a good thing) play around with an updated Anton Chekhov at the summer house.   If you're a bird, and you haven't seen The Seagull, I won't give anything away by telling you to be very very careful.  People are going to self-destruct in the way they always do, no matter how much warning they get, so I won't bother issuing any warnings to them.  
15. Selma--two very talented power brokers, LBJ and MLK, duke it out, and MLK wins by a nose, allowing the U.S. to take yet another very very tiny baby step out of the morass of racism.  

Some others I didn’t like--or didn't like enough to rank:

Imitation Game (My understanding is that around 8000 people were employed at Bletchley.   So this depiction of a central genius barely sparkles--there have been so many other better movies about mentally ill talented people, and even more better films about straight and gay oppression.  But not terrible.)

Mr Turner (Really?   Did any one see that 1980's film about cave people finding fire?   The grunting in that film was much better than this one.  Loved Ruskin as a budding intellect...I mean, really early in his process!)

Wild (Also enjoyed this but I've hiked the Appalachian Trail and sometimes live in Truckee CA on the PCT, so I wasn't surprised to learn that a long walk can have an impact on your life or your addictions.)

Foxcatcher (I enjoyed this, but that's all.   Channing Tatum completely steals the show, though the others support his wonderful acting very well.)

Whiplash (I don't agree that random acts of violence are a clever way to separate musical genius.   In fact, they're just random acts of violence.)

The Interview (this genre will never be topped after This is the End.   So stop already!)

American Sniper (yuck--turns out when you're a grunt all dark people look like savages, and you'll have trouble keeping your marriage cheerful.   This is news?   Why do people watch this crap when there are all the fantastic powerful films listed above?)
Two Days, One Night (French entry for Oscars--I don't know, but my major reaction to the film was wondering where she bought those boots--she walks farther than Rees Witherspoon in Wild, and her street boots hold up fine!)
Theory of Everything
Gone Girl (I liked the book.   This film accomplished something new--it made me like the book less.)
Mockingjay (seems to have lost the feminist roots that made the series special?)
Dear White People
Love is Strange
22 Jump Street