The Best Films of 2014 (So Far!)

Now that June is here, we’ve already reached the halfway point for movie releases in 2014. We thought we’d take a break to sit back and reflect on some of the best films to hit theaters this year. These are movies that may be dropped from the conversation come December in the midst of Oscar season. So here, aggregated from our contributing writers’ votes, are our top five films of 2014 so far.

5. The Double FULL REVIEW

Directed by: Richard Ayoade
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Mia Wasikowska, Wallace Shawn, and Sally Hawkins
How to see it: On VOD now, out on DVD/Bluray August 26, 2014

A clerk in a government agency finds his unenviable life takes a turn for the horrific with the arrival of a new co-worker who is both his exact physical double and his opposite – confident, charismatic and seductive with women.

A flawless blend of style and technique, Ayoade’s second feature is incontrovertible proof that he is a director to be watched. From its release, it has consistently drawn favourable comparisons to Lynch and Gilliam, but it has a sensibility that is distinctly its own. Aurally and visually, it is supremely well constructed; murky yellows and greys flicker by with the buzz of an old fluorescent light while the score rattles and thuds in hypnotic repetitions. Jesse Eisenberg gives not one, but two, career performances as doppelgängers Simon James and James Simon, both vying for the affection of the bewitchingly good Mia Wasikowska. Equal parts eerie surrealist nightmare and wrily dark comedy, “The Double” is guaranteed to be a favorite of mine for a long time. Zack Miller

4. Only Lovers Left Alive  FULL REVIEW

Directed by: Jim Jarmusch
Starring: Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, John Hurt, Anton Yelchin, Mia Wasikowska, and Jeffrey Wright
How to see it: Out on DVD/Bluray August 19, 2014

A depressed musician reunites with his lover, though their romance – which has already endured several centuries – is disrupted by the arrival of uncontrollable younger sister.

Jarmusch has succeeded in creating a strangely funny, sexy and artistic film about two eternal lovers, who happen to be vampires. He has a very original take on the vampire-love-genre, with two main characters who are as compatible as yin and yang. “Only Lovers Left Alive” is a magnificent piece of cinema and symbolism. Eden van der Moere

Jarmusch, with his iconic white hair and affection for outsiders of all kinds, seemed destined to bring complexity and intellect back to the undead. Many may expect a Jarmusch film diving into a genre like this to be “not really about the vampires,” and yet he proves to be not only genuinely interested in exploring the lives, thoughts, and feelings of immortals, but capable of doing so in an effortlessly stylish, sexy, and atmospheric mood that digs itself into every branch of the production. Taylor Sinople

3. The Grand Budapest Hotel FULL REVIEW

Directed by: Wes Anderson
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, Tilda Swinton, F. Murray Abraham, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Jude Law, Saoirse Ronan, Tom Wilkinson, Edward Norton, and Adrien Brody.
How to see it: Out on DVD/Bluray June 17, 2014

The adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend.

The funniest material Wes Anderson has written in years, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” is a masterwork of iconic aestheticism, even if it doesn’t quite manage to pack the emotional punch of the auteur’s best films. And, like the hotel at the center of its story, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” is a visually sumptuous creation filled with outlandish and eccentric characters that call back to the wistfulness of lost generations. We need filmmakers that can imagine (and actually capture) stories like this. Fans of the style will have a field day with this lady-killer concierge and his lobby boy that traverse a fictional country with a stolen painting – ducking Nazis and henchmen, contacting obscure, secret societies, breaking out of jail using tiny chisels snuck in inside pastries, and doing whatever it takes to protect the most grand hotel this fictional side of Europe. Taylor Sinople

2. Under the Skin FULL REVIEW

Directed by: Jonathan Glazer
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Paul Brannigan, Jessica Mance, Michael Moreland, Krystof Hadek, and Lynsey Taylor Mackay
How to see it: Out on DVD/Bluray July 15, 2014

A mysterious seductress preys upon the population of Scotland.

“Under the Skin” is a masterpiece rumination on postmodernism that explores alienation in a very literal way. If you’ve yet to come across the attention grabbing logline, here it is: Scarlett Johansson plays an alien who has come to Earth to prey on human men. English director Jonathan Glazer (“Sexy Beast,” “Birth”) hinges everything on whether Johansson (referred to as “Laura” in the formal credits) is interesting enough to spend much of “Under the Skin” simply looking at. She is. Taylor Sinople

1. The Great Beauty FULL REVIEW

Directed by: Paolo Sorrentino
Starring: Toni Servillo, Sabrina Ferilli, Carlo Buccirosso, Carlo Verdone, Iaia Forte, Pamela Villoresi, Galatea Ranzi, Franco Graziosi, Giorgio Pasotti, and Massimo Popolizio
How to see it: Available now on DVD/Bluray via The Criterion Collection.

Jep Gambardella has seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades, but after his 65th birthday and a shock from the past, Jep looks past the nightclubs and parties to find a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film but not seeing a wide release in the United States until March 2014, “The Great Beauty” is a spectacular journey into the wit and ennui of the fictional author and socialite Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo). Beginning with a quote from Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s Journey to the End of the Night, the film echoes the author’s combination of pessimism and humor, but opts for a more touching poignancy as opposed to brutality. The film follows Jep as he weighs his life against his contributions to humanity, as he begins to realize how truly superficial his seemingly enviable life of late parties and meaningless sex really is. The visual and episodic construct of the film is clearly influenced by the work of Federico Fellini, with its most obvious cousins being “La Dolce Vida” and “8 ½”, but with a grace and elegance that nods to the fantastical elements of Italy’s post-Neorealist period without screaming its praises. “The Great Beauty” is simply a marvelous view into a man whose depth and intellectualism seems more a curse at times than a blessing. Williamson Balliet

Although heavily influenced from previous Italian counterpart Fellini, Sorrentino has created an unforgettable exploration on the modern “human apparatus.” This film brings to the table so much more than just the superficiality of high-socialites. The themes of authenticity, gratitude, and the origin of modern and classical art are all worth pondering after leaving the theater. Adil Sylqa

“The Great Beauty” is one of those films that audiences and critics will be talking about in 50 years in the same way that we talk about “Breathless,” “The 400 Blows,” and “8 ½” now. Between the absolutely stunning cinematography, amazing setting, brilliant script, and spectacular performance by Toni Servillo, the film just has a classic and timeless feel to it. Tyler Ward

I chose “The Great Beauty” – an imaginative, existential Italian dramedy from Naples-native Paolo Sorrentino – as my first experience at the theater in 2014, and I find myself so deeply appreciative of its existence yet disappointed that I wasn’t able to champion it on my Best Films of 2013 list. Somewhere between the neorealist social context of Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” and the flashy cinematic glitz of Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby” lays “The Great Beauty:” an extravagant and overwhelming visual feast that delves into the fantastical delusions of its enigmatic protagonist. Taylor Sinople

There it is, our top five films of 2014 so far. Here were our 6-10 picks: Blue Ruin, Locke, Nymphomaniac: Vol I., Joe, and The Immigrant. What are your picks? Let us know in the comments.