Gallery: Our Picks for the Best Movies of 2014

  • Image may contain Vehicle Transportation Car Automobile Human Person and Michael Keaton
    Fox Searchlight
    01

    Birdman

    *Birdman* is easily the best long-take, metanarrative film about a washed up former comic-book movie star ever made. (Expand gallery to full screen to find out why we loved each film.)
  • Image may contain Human Person Light and Traffic Light
    Walt Disney Animation Studios
    02

    Big-Hero-6

    *Big Hero 6* won us over with a smart story, fantastic characters, and the best animated robot this side of WALL-E.
  • Image may contain Human and Person
    Warner Bros.
    03

    the-lego-movie

    Everything—including *The Lego Movie*—is awesome.
  • Image may contain Plant Grass Lawn Human Person Clothing and Apparel
    IFC
    04

    Boyhood

    What director Richard Linklater and his remarkable cast achieved in *Boyhood* is much more than just a cinematic stunt. It's an emotionally rich, pitch-perfect tale of self-discovery.
  • Image may contain Human and Person
    Warner Bros.
    05

    Edge-of-Tomorrow

    Although comparisons to videogames tend to be pejorative in the world of movies, that's exactly what makes *Edge of Tomorrow* so compelling.
  • Image may contain Human Person Clothing Apparel Shorts People Sport Sports Team Team Sport and Sphere
    Sony Pictures Classics
    06

    Foxcatcher

    Dear Steve Carell and Channing Tatum: We always knew you had it in you. *Foxcatcher* just proved it.
  • Image may contain Human Person and Chris Pratt
    Marvel Studios
    07

    GuardiansOfTheGalaxy

  • Image may contain Human Person Hat Clothing and Apparel
    The Weinstein Company
    08

    Imitation Game

    *The Imitation Game* is the movie we wish Alan Turing were alive to see.
  • Image may contain Human Person Helmet Clothing Apparel and Astronaut
    Paramount Pictures
    09

    Interstellar

    As cold and desolate as much of *Interstellar'*s setting is, Nolan’s tale of love and redemption and dreaming is warm, meditative, and ultimately as fulfilling as the connection between father and daughter.
  • Image may contain Human Person and Art
    Open Road Films
    10

    Nightcrawler

    *Nightcrawler* let Jake Gyllenhaal crank the Creep Factor up to 11.
  • Image may contain Clothing Apparel Coat Jacket Human Person and Leather Jacket
    20th Century Fox
    11

    x-men-days-of-future-past

    *X-Men: Days of Future Past* acted as a corrective, one that effectively deleted everything that infuriated us about 2006’s *X-Men: The Last Stand* with that age-old, failsafe narrative device: time travel.
  • Image may contain Animal Mammal Wildlife and Ape
    20th Century Fox
    12

    Dawn-of-the-Planet-of-the-Apes

    Andy Serkis' performance-capture work in *Dawn of the Planet of the Apes* was incredible.
  • Image may contain Clothing Apparel Octavia Spencer Human Person and Face
    Radius/TWC
    13

    Snowpiercer

    Director Bong Joon-ho’s disturbing dystopian tale, an examination of class issues set within a never-stopping train carrying the last survivors of the human race, messed with our heads in ways both wonderful *and* violent.
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