Ranking Every Movie of 2014: The Complete List

Jeremy BeckTop 10 Lists
The Grand Budapest Hotel

Back in January, the Manifesto resolved to rank every movie we watched in 2014. A month and a half later, that exhaustive and exhausting exercise is now complete. For recordkeeping purposes, what follows is the full list in its final form. If you’re interested in reading my thoughts on a particular movie, the hyperlink will take you to the post featuring that film’s review (ranging, depending on the quality of the movie, from 100 words to 1,000-plus). As with the individual posts, I’m providing the Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic ratings for context, as well as the name of the film’s director.

And so, here lies the Manifesto’s complete list of all 2014 movies, ranked in descending order of preference:

  1. Whiplash (directed by Damien Chazelle, 95% Rotten Tomatoes, 88 Metacritic)
  2. Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman, 90% RT, 71 MC)
  3. Gone Girl (David Fincher, 88% RT, 79 MC)
  4. Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 72% RT, 74 MC)
  5. The Imitation Game (Morten Tyldum, 89% RT, 73 MC)
  6. Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn, 91% RT, 76 MC)
  7. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 98% RT, 100 MC)
  8. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 95% RT, 76 MC)
  9. The LEGO Movie (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, 96% RT, 83 MC)
  10. Locke (Steven Knight, 91% RT, 81 MC)
  11. Proxy (Zack Parker, 57% RT, 57 MC)
  12. Dear White People (Justin Simien, 92% RT, 79 MC)
  13. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 92% RT, 88 MC)
  14. The Guest (Adam Wingard, 89% RT, 76 MC)
  15. The Fault in Our Stars (Josh Boone, 81% RT, 69 MC)
  16. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-Ho, 95% RT, 84 MC)
  17. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves, 90% RT, 79 MC)
  18. The Immigrant (James Gray, 87% RT, 77 MC)
  19. A Most Violent Year (J.C. Chandor, 90% RT, 79 MC)
  20. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, 89% RT, 70 MC)
  21. Bethlehem (Yuval Adler, 79% RT, 68 MC)
  22. A Most Wanted Man (Anton Corbijn, 88% RT, 73 MC)
  23. What If (Michael Dowse, 70% RT, 59 MC)
  24. X-Men: Days of Future Past (Bryan Singer, 91% RT, 74 MC)
  25. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund, 93% RT, 87 MC)
  26. Noah (Darren Aronofsky, 77% RT, 68 MC)
  27. Like Father, Like Son (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 87% RT, 73 MC)
  28. Beyond the Lights (Gina Prince-Bythewood, 81% RT, 73 MC)
  29. Selma (Ava DuVernay, 98% RT, 89 MC)
  30. Big Eyes (Tim Burton, 70% RT, 62 MC)
  31. Still Alice (Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, 89% RT, 72 MC)
  32. Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 92% RT, 89 MC)
  33. Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, 95% RT, 90 MC)
  34. Maleficent (Robert Stromberg, 49% RT, 56 MC)
  35. The Theory of Everything (James Marsh, 79% RT, 72 MC)
  36. The Drop (Michaël R. Roskam, 89% RT, 68 MC)
  37. Coherence (James Ward Byrkit, 85% RT, 64 MC)
  38. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 72% RT, 81 MC)
  39. Burning Bush (Agnieszka Holland, 100% RT, 83 MC)
  40. Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 96% RT, 90 MC) (not formally reviewed)
  41. How to Train Your Dragon 2 (Dean DeBlois, 92% RT, 76 MC)
  42. Neighbors (Nicholas Stoller, 73% RT, 68 MC)
  43. Lucy (Luc Besson, 66% RT, 61 MC)
  44. Starred Up (David Mackenzie, 99% RT, 81 MC)
  45. Veronica Mars (Rob Thomas, 78% RT, 62 MC)
  46. Calvary (John Michael McDonagh, 89% RT, 77 MC)
  47. American Sniper (Clint Eastwood, 73% RT, 72 MC)
  48. The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 97% RT, 87 MC)
  49. Big Hero 6 (Don Hall and Chris Williams, 88% RT, 74 MC)
  50. Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 97% RT, 94 MC)
  51. Wild (Jean-Marc Vallée, 91% RT, 76 MC)
  52. The Boxtrolls (Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi, 74% RT, 61 MC)
  53. Top Five (Chris Rock, 89% RT, 81 MC)
  54. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1 (Francis Lawrence, 65% RT, 64 MC)
  55. White Bird in a Blizzard (Gregg Araki, 48% RT, 49 MC)
  56. Nymphomaniac: Volume I (Lars von Trier, 75% RT, 64 MC)
  57. Love Is Strange (Ira Sachs, 94% RT, 82 MC)
  58. The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki, 89% RT, 83 MC)
  59. Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller, 86% RT, 82 MC)
  60. Get On Up (Tate Taylor 80% RT, 71 MC) (not formally reviewed)
  61. Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie, 93% RT, 82 MC)
  62. Joe (David Gordon Green, 86% RT, 74 MC)
  63. The Double (Richard Ayoade, 82% RT, 68 MC)
  64. Borgman (Alex van Warmerdam, 86% RT, 66 MC)
  65. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 85% RT, 78 MC)
  66. Dom Hemingway (Richard Shepard, 59% RT, 55 MC)
  67. A Walk Among the Tombstones (Scott Frank, 66% RT, 57 MC)
  68. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Marc Webb, 53% RT, 53 MC)
  69. Begin Again (John Carney, 83% RT, 62 MC)
  70. Unbroken (Angelina Jolie, 49% RT, 59 MC)
  71. Kill the Messenger (Michael Cuesta, 77% RT, 60 MC)
  72. We Are the Best! (Lukas Moodysson, 97% RT, 87 MC)
  73. Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier, 96% RT, 77 MC)
  74. The Equalizer (Antoine Fuqua, 61% RT, 57 MC)
  75. Ernest & Celestine (Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, and Benjamin Renner, 97% RT, 86 MC)
  76. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (Peter Jackson, 60% RT, 59 MC)
  77. The Rover (David Michôd, 65% RT, 64 MC)
  78. Godzilla (Gareth Edwards, 73% RT, 62 MC)
  79. Moebius (Kim Ki-duk, 77% RT, 66 MC)
  80. Magic in the Moonlight (Woody Allen, 51% RT, 54 MC)
  81. Divergent (Neil Burger, 41% RT, 48 MC)
  82. Frank (Lenny Abrahamson, 92% RT, 75 MC)
  83. Into the Woods (Rob Marshall, 71% RT, 70 MC)
  84. Obvious Child (Gillian Robespierre, 88% RT, 76 MC)
  85. Fury (David Ayer, 78% RT, 64 MC)
  86. John Wick (Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, 85% RT, 67 MC)
  87. Cold in July (Jim Mickle, 85% RT, 73 MC)
  88. The Raid 2 (Gareth Evans, 79% RT, 71 MC)
  89. Bad Words (Jason Bateman, 65% RT, 57 MC)
  90. 22 Jump Street (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, 84% RT, 71 MC)
  91. Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, 85% RT, 75 MC)
  92. The Interview (Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, 54% RT, 52 MC)
  93. Muppets Most Wanted (James Bobin, 79% RT, 61 MC)
  94. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (Kenneth Branagh, 56% RT, 57 MC)
  95. The Skeleton Twins (Craig Johnson, 87% RT, 74 MC)
  96. Filth (Jon S. Baird, 62% RT, 56 MC)
  97. Labor Day (Jason Reitman, 34% RT, 52 MC)
  98. Big Bad Wolves (Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado, 77% RT, 64 MC)
  99. Palo Alto (Gia Coppola, 73% RT, 69 MC)
  100. Nymphomaniac: Volume II (Lars von Trier, 59% RT, 60 MC)
  101. Rosewater (Jon Stewart, 74% RT, 66 MC)
  102. Enemy (Denis Villeneuve, 74% RT, 61 MC)
  103. Exodus: Gods and Kings (Ridley Scott, 29% RT, 52 MC)
  104. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 85% RT, 79 MC)
  105. The Monuments Men (George Clooney, 31% RT, 52 MC)
  106. Grand Piano (Eugenio Mira, 77% RT, 61 MC)
  107. Venus in Fur (Roman Polanski, 91% RT, 69 MC)

That’s my list. What’s yours?

Previously in the Manifesto’s Rankings of 2014 Movies
Nos. 92-79 (Tiers 12 and 11)
Nos. 78-71 (Tier 10)
Nos. 70-64 (Tier 9)
Nos. 63-56 (Tier 8)
Nos. 55-48 (Tier 7)
Nos. 47-40 (Tier 6)
Nos. 39-32 (Tier 5)
Nos. 31-24 (Tier 4)
Nos. 23-17 (Tier 3)
Nos. 16-11: The Honorable Mentions
The Missing Pictures: Part I
The Missing Pictures: Part II
The Missing Pictures: Part III
The Best Movies of 2014, Nos. 10 & 9: Locke; The LEGO Movie
The Best Movies of 2014, Nos. 8 & 7: Nightcrawler; Boyhood
The Best Movies of 2014, Nos. 6 & 5: Guardians of the Galaxy; The Imitation Game
The Best Movies of 2014, Nos. 4 & 3: Interstellar; Gone Girl
The Best Movies of 2014, Nos. 2 & 1: Edge of Tomorrow; Whiplash

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