A look at the year’s movers, shakers and mischief makers in the movie biz.
As the year in film draws to a close, we finally have some idea what the heck happened … and who made it happen. Here, then, are some of 2014’s biggest movers and shakers — by gross, artistic achievement, earthquake and flood.
The champs
Your top-grossing actor and actress of 2014 are ... Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt! What the what? Lawrence is no surprise — she had both “X-Men” and “Hunger Games” movies on the slate, and “Catching Fire” was 2013’s biggest hit. “X-Men: Days of Future Past” all but guaranteed her the crown when it became the highestgrossing entry of that series so far, with nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars worldwide. As of this writing, that and “Mockingjay Part 1” have compiled $1.36 billion in a fairly even split.
Actually, the surprise is that Scarlett Johansson is a close No. 2, with $1.22 billion from “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” the unexpected smash “Lucy” ($459 million), “Chef” and the niche-released “Under the Skin.”
You could have won some bets by picking Pratt to make the most noise among the boys at the start of the year. The comic actor who had never headlined a major release starred in two movies that totaled $1.34 billion (yes, less than Lawrence) — “The Lego Movie” and domestic champ “Guardians of the Galaxy” ($772 million worldwide, $332 million at home). Pratt topped the likes of Mark Wahlberg ($1.09 billion for “Transformers: Age of Extinction” with “The Gambler” just released), Robert Downey Jr., Dwayne Johnson and Tom Cruise.
The declaration of independents
Among the most outstanding films this year are the indies “Boyhood,” “Whiplash” and “Birdman.” Each is the brainchild of a writer-director (or director/co-writer) with a singular vision: One took 12 years to make, with an unknown 6-year-old cast as its lead and no three-act plot; one assumed that a high-stakes drama about jazz drumming would hold its audience; the other is a dizzying trip into the mind of a desperate, washedup actor, presented as one continuous shot.
The body count for all three together is, arguably, zero (maybe one). There are oneand-a-half-ish sex scenes, and no nudity. There is, however, Michael Keaton in his tighty whities. The language and topics discussed are alternately utterly ordinary and the stuff of the intelligentsia.
In other words, these three films are unthinkable in today’s Hollywood — and they may be the three best of the year.
So hats off to Richard Linklater, Damien Chazelle and Alejandro González Iñárritu, respectively, not only for their bold, original ideas but also for having the creative cojones to make these films just as they wanted.
The studios are turning out some really good, large-canvas stuff — Marvel is ruling the world with the best superhero movies ever — but they’re falling down pretty badly on everything else, it seems. As a result, it’s falling to indie auteurs such as these to blaze the trail to exciting, interesting new cinema — and they’re apparently up to the task.
By the way, Dan Gilroy belongs on this list for the daring, creepy “Nightcrawler” as well.
The dual threat
Don’t call it a comeback. Angelina Jolie never really went anywhere; she took time off from acting to direct two films, but her last three features before that were all boxoffice hits (that includes “The Tourist,” which ate it domestically but cleaned up abroad for $278 million worldwide). This year, those cheekbones sliced their way back to the top with her biggest grosser yet, “Maleficent” ($757 million). She also married some Oscarwinning producer named Pitt and — oh yeah — directed the big-budget, Oscar-buzzy epic “Unbroken.”
The damn, dirty virtual apes
The photo-realistic visual effects in “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” and the argument they further for a performance-capture Oscar category all but ended that particular awards race in July. “Interstellar” and others have their claim to the sauce of awesomeness, but what New Zealand effects house WETA, director Matt Reeves and actors led by Andy Serkis achieved was flat-out jaw-dropping.
As Serkis is quick to point out about the wizards of WETA, it’s not just the technology that’s moving forward — it’s the skill of the artisans employing it. “Dawn” sets a very high new standard for what visual realities film can depict.
The other GOP
That will teach comedians to make jokes about killing foreign leaders.
Most Americans probably wouldn’t take too kindly to, say, an Iranian film about two bumbling jerks trying to off President Obama (or at least 43 percent of Americans, anyway). But seriously — hacking Sony to death because of “The Interview”? Aren’t critics supposed to see a movie before declaring it an act of war?
The puckishly named GOP (“Guardians of Peace”) demanded that the studio withdraw the Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy from the release slate, while upping the pressure with threats to theaters. North Korean leadership officially denied involvement — presumably while cackling maniacally and stroking a fluffy white cat.
Sony has been embarrassed, but … this kind of publicity, you cannot buy.
But the comeback of the year award has to go to:
The Old Testament God
Yep, the snowy-bearded guy in the sky (or British youth, depending) made his presence felt in “Noah,” “Exodus: Gods and Kings,” “Left Behind” and “God’s Not Dead,” among others.
That doesn’t even include many other notable Christian faith-based releases this year, among them: “Son of God,” “Heaven Is Real” and “Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas.” It was Yahweh or the highway (to hell) in flicks grossing more than half a billion dollars collectively.
And if any law of the universe can be agreed upon by believers and atheists alike, it’s that in Hollywood, where there are profits, there are sequels. “God’s Not Dead 2” is reportedly in the works.
No word on whether “Exodus 2: Back to Egypt” has been greenlit.