The number 1 movie for 44 years

There's a post going around that tells you what the number one movie was the year you were born. Being a movie buff, I simply couldn't stop there, so I did it for each year I've been around. Here are the results with my grades for each:

1970: Tora! Tora! Tora! (B)

1971: The French Connection (A+)

1972: Lady Sings the Blues (NA)

1973: Mean Streets (A+)

1974: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (A)

1975: Let's Do It Again (NA)

1976: Marathon Man (B)

1977: Julia (NA)

1978: The Boys from Brazil (B)

1979: 10 (NA)

1980: Private Benjamin (B+)

1981: Chariots of Fire (A)

1982: E.T. (A+)

1983: Never Say Never Again (B+)

1984: Teachers (NA)

1985: Commando (C)

1986: Crocodile Dundee (A-)

1987: Fatal Attraction (B)

1988: The Accused (A-)

1989: Look Who's Talking (B)

1990: Marked for Death (NA)

1991: The Fisher King (A)

1992: Under Siege (B+)

1993: Demolition Man (C+)

1994: Pulp Fiction (A+)

1995: Seven (A)

1996: The Ghost and the Darkness (NA)

1997: I Know What You Did Last Summer (C+)

1998: Practical Magic (NA)

1999: Fight Club (A-)

2000: Meet the Parents (A-)

2001: Training Day (B+)

2002: Red Dragon (B)

2003: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (NA)

2004: Shark Tale (B)

2005: The Fog (NA)

2006: The Grudge 2 (NA)

2007: Why Did I Get Married (NA)

2008: Max Payne (NA)

2009: Where the Wild Things Are (B)

2010: Jackass 3D (NA)

2011: Real Steel (NA)

2012: Taken 2 (NA)

2013: Gravity (A+)

2014: Fury (C+)

The Best Films of 2014 - At Last

Apologies for taking so long to post this, but in a way, my timing is appropriate. I just spent the weekend at the Ohio Science Fiction Marathon in Columbus, and that's fitting, because my list has a heavy sci-fi presence this year, with no less than four  films having sci-fi elements. It was also quite a year for Chris Evans and Jessica Chastain, who both placed two films in my list. 

1. Interstellar: I head far too many "Yes, buts" regarding this knockout of an experience, which, with a little hindsight, will attain the appreciation it wholly deserves. Other films on this list may be more innovative or more daring, but no movie packed the emotional and visual punch this one did. Mr. Nolan is working on a higher plane than most directors.
2. Boyhood: Like another film on this list, it's nothing less than Life Itself.
3. Birdman: It's not just a navel-gazing movie about actors and their vanity. It's about how we all search for some form of redemption that we can find in ourselves if we only look hard enough. And with its "one take" trick, it's a blast just to watch.
4. Whiplash: This movie rolled and snared its way into my brain, tapping into my nervous system like few other films have recently. The mind games it plays are nefarious, maddening, and richly satisfying.
5. The Grand Budapest Hotel: Beneath the candy-colored sets and the shifting aspect ratios lies an emotional resonance that tells us the past wasn't always as good as we think it was - even while there's something to be said for nostalgia.
6. Life Itself: Roger Ebert once said that the movies are like a giant empathy machine, and one of the main flaws in the world today is that too few people have it. That's the lesson that America's greatest critic left behind in the movie of his life.
7. A Most Violent Year: It reminded me of nothing less than The Godfather II. That's pretty good company.
8. Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Yes, in the top 10. It's right up there with the 70s paranoid thrillers (Three Days of the Condor, The Parallax View) on which this movie modeled itself. I'm willing to bet that if this movie didn't have any spandex or visual effects showcases, it might have made more 10 best lists.
9. Snowpierecer: Chris Evans again, in more of a reluctant hero mode in one of the wilder visual allegories I've ever seen: Civilization is not only on a train, it IS the train.
10. American Sniper: Like The Hurt Locker, but better. And this HAD to resonate with me, consdering my brother is an American sniper.

TIER 2

The Second Ten. I would call this the "Honorable Mention" list, but that would sell these movies short. Each of these movies is well worth seeking out - or revisiting. In alphabetical order:

Chef: Nice to see Jon Favreau go back to his small-film roots. You'd better eat before seeing this, of you'll be munching on furniture.

Citizenfour: Seeing footage of Edward Snowden when he made his revelations is nothing less than astounding.

Gone Girl: Those who treat this strictly as a whodunit miss the point. It gives new meaning to the phrase, "You deserve each other."

Ida: The Holocaust seen at its most personal roots, with haunting black and white photography.

The Imitation Game: A too little-known story only serves as the bedrock for the kind of device I'm using to type this list, to say nothing of the millions of lives saved.

Inherent Vice: Paul Thomas Anderson's stoned detective comedy might be his loopiest film. It's the kind of unique ride that only he can drive.

Into the Woods: Best cast of the year, and simply flat-out entertaining.

Locke: Can you base an entire film around one man's journey that shows nothing but him behind the wheel of a car? You can if it's Tom Hardy.

Nightcrawler: In the news business, they say "If it bleeds, it leads." Jake Gyllenhaal twists that around into something truly macabre.

Selma: Like "Lincoln" before it, this movie decides not to focus not an entire life story, but a key chapter of it - and in so doing, gives us more than the essence of the man at its center.

TIER 3

The list of 10 very entertaining films that I couldn't quite place at the very top, but would gladly see again. In alphabetical order:

Begin Again
Big Hero Six
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
The Fault in Our Stars
Fed Up
Hector and The Search for Happiness
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
The Lego Movie
The Railway Man

The Movies I Most Want to See in 2015

A lot of sites have listed the most anticipated films of 2015, but honestly, their list doesn't usually match my own. It's a lot of the usual suspects. Avengers, Star Wars, Hunger Games, etc. I'm looking forward to those too, but I usually prefer to go off the beaten path. So I present my list of 12 films I'm most looking forward to seeing, roughly in order of release. 

The Last Five Years: I'm a big fan of Anna Kendrick and her musical chops. I loved Into the Woods, and that's just the first of three musical films she has in the can. Most people know that the Pitch Perfect sequel comes out in May, and I'm all over that too, but I'm even more intrigued by this adaptation of the Jason Robert Brown musical, co-starring Jeremy Jordan. (Feb. 13). 

Mad Max Fury Road - Well, shit. Have you SEEN the trailer? (May 15)

Jurassic World: That trailer works too. (June 12) 

Inside Out - Summer offers its greatest one-two punch with Jurassic World one week, and the film I believe will be Pixar's creative comeback on June 19. 

The Walk: Robert Zemeckis has long been the master of photo-realistic visual effects. With this film, chronicling the incredible tightrope walk between the Twin Towers, he may have accomplished his most impressive feat yet.

Crimson Peak - Jessica Chastain in a Guillermo Del Toro movie? That's all I need to know. (Ocotber 16)

Untitled Cold War Spy Thriller: Steven Spielberg directing a Coens script? That's all I need to know. And on the same weekend as Crimson Peak! (October  16)

Peanuts -I've been a fan of the classic comic for about as long as I can remember. I still have significant chunks of A Charlie Brown Christmas memorized. So when I heard a CGI movie was being made, I cringed. And yet the trailers, including the latest, seem to capture Schulz's spirit well. Five cents, please.   (Nov. 6) 

Spectre: Skyfall was the best Bond movie in EONs. (Bond fans will see what I did there.) The follow-up, also directed by Sam Mendes, is probably THE film I'm most looking forward to seeing in 2015. 

Star Wars - The Force Awakens:  Yeah, it's one of the obvious answers. But I'm excited like everyone else is. Besides, maybe it'll get people to stop bitching about the prequels, which are flawed but still take too much abuse.  (Dec. 18)

Joy: Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence team up for the third time with David O. Russell. After Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, that's fine by me. (Dec. 25)

Carol: I covered the shoot of this for the Journal-News in Hamilton last year and caught a glimpse of Cate Blanchett. So naturally, I'm curious to see how it turned out. (Fall) 

Silence: A Martin Scorsese picture. Any questions? (TBA, but probably in the fall) 

Sir Critic Lives: Every movie I saw in 2014

MOVIES 2014

Theaters

1. Blue is the Warmest Color A-
2. Inside Llewen Davis B+
3. Her A+
4. August Osage County C+
5. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit C+
6. Lone Survivor A-
7. Labor Day B-
8. The Invisible Woman B-
9. The Lego Movie A-
10. The Armstrong Lie B+
11. Frozen X3  A+
12. Philomena A-
13. Dallas Buyers Club B+
14. Wolf of Wall Street A
15. 12 Years a Slave  A
16. Nebraska A
17. Captain Phillips A
18. Her A+
19. American Hustle A
20. Gravity A+
21. The Monuments Men B
22. Non-Stop B
23. The Grand Budapest Hotel A
24. Muppets Most Wanted B
25. 300: Rise of an Empire B-
26. Noah B
27. Divergent B+
28. Bad Words B
29. Captain America: The Winter Soldier A
30. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 C+
31. The Railway Man A-
32. Under the Skin C-
33. Only Lovers Left Alive C
34. Locke A
35. X-Men Days of Future Past A-
36. Maleficant B
37. Edge of Tomorrow B+
38. The Fault in Our Stars A-
39. Fed Up A
40. Chef A-
41. Draft Day B
42. 22 Jump Street. A-
43. Neighbors B
44. Obvious Child B-
45. Jodowarsky’s Dune B+
46. A Hard Day's Night A+
47. Snowpiercer A
48. Begin Again A-
49. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes A
50. Life Itself A+
51. Guardians of the Galaxy A-
52. It Happened One Night A+
53. Lucy B+
54. Boyhood X2  A+
55. The Big Lebowski B+
56. Jersey Boys C
57. Magic in the Moonlight B+
58. A Most Wanted Man B+
59. Silk Stockings B+
60. Cavalry B+
61. The Drop B+
62. How to Train Your Dragon 2 A
63. Hector and the Search for Happiness A-
64. Gone Girl A-
65. Men, Women and Children C+
66. The Skeleton Twins B
67. Fury C+
68. Birdman A+
69. Kill the Messenger C+
70. Nightcrawler A-
71. Interstellar X3 A+
72. Big Hero 6 A-
73. Whiplash A
74. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1: A=
75. The Boxtrolls B
76. The Theory of Everything B+
77. Citizen Four A
78. Rosewater B
79. Exodus: Gods and Kings C-
80. Top Five B+
81. Wild B+
82. The Hobit: Battle of the Five Armies A-
83. Into the Woods A

On the Small Screen

1. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp  A-
2. Liberal Arts B
3. Last Tango in Paris  B+
4. Stories We Tell A
5. That’s Dancing B
6. A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy B-
7. The Aristocats B
8. The Black Cauldron C+
9. Ben-Hur (1925) B+
10. Harold and Maude: B
11. Millius A-
12. Listen Darling B
13. Miss Pinkerton B
14. Air Force B
15. No B+
16. Straw Dogs (1971) B+
17. Beneath the Planet of the Apes C
18. Escape from the Planet of the Apes
19. Transcendence C
20. Straw Dogs (2011) B
21. The Deadly Tower B+
22. Passage to Marseille B
23. Homefront C
24. Peyton Place B+
25. Sorcerer B+
26. Crazy Love A
27. Macbeth A
28. The Game B
29. All Quiet on the Western Front A-
30. Postcards from the Edge B+
31. Under Capricorn C
32. Airport: B
33. The Black Stallion: A-
34. Dodge City A-
35. Little Women (1949) B
36. Dracula  (1937)  B+
37. Dracula (Spanish) B+
38. The Steel Trap B+
39. Frankenstein (1931)
40. Wee Willie Winkie B
41. The Mummy B+
42. Edward Ullmer documentary B-
43. People Will Talk A-
44. Carnival of Souls B+
45. Altman A-
46. Happy Christmas B-
47. Chaplin C-
48. The Man with the Goden Arm A-
49. Buster Keaton: So Funny It Hurt B
50. It Happened on Fifth Avenue B
51. Remember the Night A-