Matt’s 2014: The Best Dozen

Best of 2014

Best of lists are hard. Choosing the films I liked best isn’t hard, but keeping it to a reasonable number and ranking them is. One thing that’s not so much hard as it is annoying: coming up with something to say other than "I loved this and you should watch it".

I saw a lot of films this year but there are plenty I missed. I didn’t see Birdman, Whiplash, or Mommy, all of which are on many other best-of lists for the year (and in the case of Whiplash I can guess it would have made mine) but I also did see Boyhood, Gone Girl, 22 Jump Street, and a host of others that didn’t make my list.

All in all, I saw over 75 movies released in 2014. Not a huge percentage when you think about it but certainly more than the average person.

So with all that in mind here are my favourite dozen movies from 2014.

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Review: Chef

Chef

Jon Favreau has a longer history as an actor than as a writer/director but it’s the latter class that Jon Favreau’s career has had a few bumps in the road lately.most people seem to know him as these days. After writing _Swingers_ and directing _Made_ and later _Elf_ he eventually was given the job of bringing Marvel Studios first film to screen with _Iron Man_. That film was a smash hit and kicked off one of the biggest franchises of all time but the follow-up _Iron Man 2_ and later _Cowboys & Aliens_ were met with less enthusiastic responses.

After all that bombast _Chef_ represents a return to the type of film that got Favreau noticed as a writer/director in the first place: a smaller, simpler film with a straightforward premise and a lot of heart.

And you know what? It’s really good.

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