Best Director 2014

05. Bong Joon Ho for Snowpiercer - For creating an intense, singular existence; a life in a moving train that is both claustrophobic and awe inspiring in its depth and scope. For making the most bleak, tragic dystopia sci-fi movie in years. For that scene in the classroom.

04. Bennett Miller for Foxcatcher - For making an adult film that is intense and thrilling without being crass or crude. For taking a true story that feels outlandish and making a movie that feels intimate, almost like a documentary.  For that unleashing the horses scene.

03. David Fincher for Gone Girl - For continuously being unafraid to make movies with complicated women. For making the most perfect adaptation of a novel I've ever seen. For making a movie that is a thrilling whodunit, a send up of media sensationalism, and a commentary on marriage in the modern world. For that first shot of Amy in the car.

02. Jonathan Glazer for Under The Skin - For making a dreamy, surreal, beauty of a film. For making the one film that I have not been able to stop thinking about all year, like a lovely melody stuck in my head. For that scene at the end in the woods.

01. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for Birdman - For making the most gutsy, artsy, purely enjoyable film of the year.  For the total immersion with those long, spiraling takes. For being unafraid to go there in its final act. For ending on that shot of Emma Stone's amazed face, that maybe is meant to mirror the face of the audience after you've just watched this gamechanger.

Best Directors 2013

During the month of January, I will be counting down what I think was the best in 2013 - Supporting Actor and Actress, Lead Actor and Actress and, of course, Best Films. Today I'm starting with Best Directors.

05. Noah Baumbach, Frances Ha - I've always liked Baumbach, although there has been something lacking in his earlier works (The Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding). Perhaps that "something" was a woman's voice. Because on Frances Ha, he collaborated with actress / co-writer Greta Gerwig and the two together made something truly special. Frances Ha is fundamentally sweet, and manages to stay away from becoming just another quirky, hipster fad (which is the problem with The Squid and the Whale). The script manages to turn Frances into a real, fleshed out person and Baumbach directs this movie as if it were something from a different era. It's not only because it's black and white does this movie feel like its from a different, less complicated time. This is Baumbach's Manhattan moment.

04. Derek Cianfrance, The Place Beyond the Pines - Cianfrance already made a beautifully tragic and intimate movie starring Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine), so with this movie he tried to go epic. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. The fact is Cianfrance swings for the fences with The Place Beyond the Pines, and if he doesn't quite hit it out of the park, well, it's still a great shot. From that opening no-cut moment at the Carnival to a motorbike bank robbery to the dizzying chase through a house, this movie is an imperfect masterpiece. One thing is for sure, I can't wait to see what Cianfrance does next (rumor is: an adaptation of The Light Between Oceans, one of the best books I read last year).

03. Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity - Gravity, as a story, didn't quite do it for me. What the story lacked in... well, anything happening AT ALL, it more than made up for with its special effects and out of this world (pun intended) filmmaking. Cuaron literally makes us feel like we are in space. (Side note: I find the idea of going to space terrifying, and I have no idea why anyone would want to do it. I think you are all cray. End aside). The opening shot alone is magnificent, nearly twenty minutes of swirling, space action, larger than life, like literally nothing you've ever seen before. While the first twenty minutes is sort of the best part of the movie, story wise, the filmmaking and special effects only get better from there. Gravity is one of the few movies you needed to see in 3D, to get the full experience.

02. Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave - This is the year of directors making almost-masterpieces. First, Cianfrance, and then, McQueen. McQueen is the one getting all the awards attention though, and deservedly. 12 Years a Slave is a beautiful film. While the subject matter is horrifying, to say the least, the movie itself is a gorgeous love letter to the South. The shots in this film are simply amazing, and I hope McQueen wins the Oscar for Best Director, because he deserves it. My only problem with the movie was it got a bit too pretentious at times. Perhaps if someone had reigned him in a bit more, this would have been a perfect film. Regardless, it's still the years most engrossing filmmaking wise.

01. Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street - Then there is Martin Scorsese. 71 years old. Has already made Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, Cape Fear, The Departed, Hugo. I could go on. The list of his masterpieces seems never ending, right? Well, add The Wolf of Wall Street to that list, because Scorsese is still making movies like he cares about them (which he does, obviously). He's still making movies like he's got something to prove (even though he doesn't, he hasn't in decades). He is still making movies that are the most energetic, the wildest, the most outlandish, the craziest. The Wolf of Wall Street is just another crowning achievement for, probably, the greatest living director. In my book, Scorsese could do no wrong, and with every movie, he just continues to prove my point.