This year I went to the movies a lot and I watched some seriously awesome movies that made me so very happy, so here is my list of the best of the year, plus a few trailers!
The Pretty One and What If? Genre: Rom Com, for the most part. I loved both of these movies, which starred Zoe Kazan and Jake Johnson, and Zoe Kazan and Daniel Radcliffe respectively.
The Pretty One starts with two identical twin sisters who couldn't be more different but love each other fiercely, one of them is super outgoing and glamorous, while the other is stuck in their home town wearing their mom's old clothes and tending to their father. When they get into an accident together, everyone thinks Laurel (the shy one) is the one who dies, when actually was Audrey (the pretty one of the title), so Laurel takes her place and discovers there was plenty she didn't know about her sister.
What If? is a friends to lovers kind of deal, and I loved that the characters took the time to get to know each other, it's pretty obvious that they are attracted to each other from the start (though they are both in denial) yet they really do become good friends and respect each other's relationships as they were. It was sweet and I totally bought Dan Radcliffe as a romantic lead, who would have thought Harry Potter had actual game?
Big Hero 6, Penguins of Madagascar and How to Train Your Dragon 2 Genre: Comedy, Animation I was sitting here trying to figure out what these, my favorite animation movies of the year had in common, and I realized they are all about family, and the many incarnations of it. Plus they were all really funny movies with surprising turns of drama and, in some of them, tragedy. All three movies gave me big warm fuzzies by the end though and I can't recommend them enough.
If I Stay Genre: Book Adaptation, Drama, Young Adult It's no secret that I ADORE this book (though I probably love Where She Went even more) and I think the movie did an great job of capturing all the things that broke my heart wide open when I was reading the book and translating them to the screen. Yes, there were some changes but I didn't mind any of them. Also this is how you make me cry with a movie: you show me the characters and what matters to them, and then let me crumble all on my own when the bad stuff happens... you don't just throw cancer at me and expect me to care *cough*Fault in Out Stars *cough* while I can see and resent the strings you are trying to use to pull at my emotions.
100 Feet Journey Genre: Drama, Romance, Foreign-ish This movie was so adorable!!! It had food and romance and family and was just such a lovely story about a young indian chef and how he's captivated by French cuisine when his father decides to relocate to France and open a restaurant there after a big tragedy strikes their family - the movie never turns dark and sad, by the way. Absolutely loved it.
Guardians of the Galaxy, Dawn of Planet of the Apes and Edge of Tomorrow Genre: Action, Comedy (Guardians), Drama (Edge of Tomorrow and Planet of the Apes) I group these three together because of me they are made of similar stuff, these three movies thrilled me and made me enjoy the popcorn experience in the theater. Guardians was super funny, I appreciated shirtless Chris Pratt for the first time EVER and I LOVE Rocket and Groot.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was so fast paced and exiting, I loved humans and apes alike (and hated some apes too).
Lastly Edge of Tomorrow fulfilled so many of my manga/anime loving heart fantasies. I loved the story and how it played out. Probably my favorite Tom Cruise movie since A Few Good Men, he plays the sleazy, kind of cowardly thing so well (yet I didn't hate him) and actually shows some range as he's character changes through out the course of the story. and Emily Blunt, I loved her, probably my favorite female performance of the year.
The Invisible War Genre: Documentary. The Invisible War was an amazing and brave film about sexual assault and abuse in the US military, it was hard to watch at times, slow in some places but very eye opening. It's not a fun documentary but very worthwhile.