Movie Moments Of The Year - 2014

Another cobbled together list of some of my favourite moments from 2014's films as well as older ones I saw for the first time. So here's a leisurely stroll through them...

2014 films:

• The story of creation in Noah - beautifully composed as it also worked in evolution and epic timescales into the mythology of the story.
• "SPACESHIP! SPACESHIP! SPACESHIP!! SPACESHIP!!" - The LEGO Movie.
• The Grand Budapest Hotel - every perfectly centred frame.
• Those final credits of 22 Jump Street - they're funny cuz their true...
• Being in the same theatre with Caroll Spinney (the puppeteer of Big Bird and Oscar The Grouch) and James Randi within the same week during Hot Docs.

• The breathless car chase in Nightcrawler.
• The bracing last 10 minutes of Whiplash.
• The wonderful sing-a-long in A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence (more fully described here).
• And then followed later in the film by the gut punch...
• The docking scene and entry into the black hole sequence from Interstellar.

• Melanie Lynskey in Happy Christmas.
• The end discussion of the erotic novel in Happy Christmas - please tell me there are extended outtakes of that somewhere on the DVD...
• Alejandro Jodorowsky's brief passionate anger about a director's ownership of their dream of the story in Jodorowsky's Dune.
• Gone Girl's moment of realization that she once again has been trapped into playing a role and once again has to take action...
• The butterflies arriving with Spring in The Duke Of Burgundy.

• Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds performing "Higgs Boson Blues" and "Jubilee Street" in the awesome music doc 20000 Days On Earth.
• The opening single take swooping shot in The Town That Dreaded Sundown which introduces all the major players at once.
• The first reading of the play with Edward Norton in Birdman where Michael Keaton's actor actually improvises and reacts instead of sticking to the script.
• Both times that "Une Femme Avec Toi" plays in The New Girlfriend - both are emotional high points.
• The avalanche in Force Majeure and the immediate consequences.

• Little Groot's dance at the end of Guardians Of The Galaxy.
• The opening titles of The World Of Kanako - insane and perfectly capturing the tone and pace of the film to follow.
• The hallucinogenic trip in They Have Escaped.
• Michael Keaton enters a small New York City liquor store lit up like a Christmas tree in Birdman.
• Norte: The End Of History's turning point: the off screen murder.

• The Guest dispatching some bullies.
• Ghostly visitors in the documentary The Darkside - subtle and effective at getting the storyteller's experiences across.
• The explanation (which involves the idea of fornication with sandwiches) of why vampires prefer virgin blood in What We Do In The Shadows.
• Scarlett Johansson in repose in Chef.

• Though I didn't like the film much, that final shot in The Immigrant is glorious. As is the entirety of Marion Cotillard's performance.
• Dave Franco's De Niro impersonation in Neighbors.
• The impressive car chase in The Raid 2.
• A royal meeting in the garden in A Little Chaos.

Older films:

• Light and shadow in The Uninvited.
• Those damn minions in Despicable Me - I just couldn't help smiling during every scene they were in. Great comedic creations.
• The massive iceberg calving event towards the end of Chasing Ice. Also the time lapse photos of glaciers shrinking over a few years were remarkable.
• "Cool" from West Side Story - the energy, anger and frustration of youth captured in dance.
• A final walk on the beach in About Time.

• Sorcerer - the unbearable tension of the rope bridge crossings of both trucks.
• Every bit of spittle that flies from the mouth's of the characters of Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf.
• Russian Roulette in The Deer Hunter - after hearing about the scene after all these years, it was even worse than I imagined.
• The over-the-top-and-around-the-bend practical effects at the end of Society. Extra gooey...
• Trouble Every Day's two "graphic" moments were absolutely harrowing.

• A drunken walk across a banquet table with a fire extinguisher in Ashes And Diamonds.
• The depiction of insanity and an insane asylum in the Japanese silent film A Page Of Madness.
• This moment from the B-movie Deadly Spawn. Baffling.
• Meg Tilly's shrieking accusation in Abel Ferrara's Body Snatchers.

• Slim Pickens' death scene in Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid - waiting for his life to fade away like the setting sun.
• The build up of tension towards the end of The Bedford Incident.
• Spotting all sorts of unknown-at-the-time faces in Prime Time (aka American Raspberry).
• Crossing water using floating pieces of wood in 36th Chamber Of Shaolin.

And finally:

• Watching some of my all-time favourite films (Network, 12 Angry Men and To Kill A Mockingbird) for the first time with The Boy.