Foxcatcher

John du Pont: You’re going to do great things, Mark.

Foxcatcher is a riveting psychological thriller from director Bennett Miller.  His direction is glorious as the story moves along with a great amount of tension that rises as the stakes are heightened.  It’s nice to see a movie that is equal parts engrossing and terrifying.  It’s always fascinating to see just how crazed of a reaction a film can manifest.  It left me feeling shocked, dejected and wretched.  Foxcatcher works due to an impeccable cast featuring Steve Carrell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo all at their very best in career-defining performances.

Interstellar

Cooper: This world’s a treasure, but it’s been telling us to leave for a while now.

Christopher Nolan is a director who knows how to put butts in seats.  After directing one of the best cinematic trilogies and inspiring countless filmmakers to step up their game in terms of entertainment, his name became a trademark of its own.  Nolan has taken a bold step forward with Interstellar, a space adventure that is technically gorgeous but lacking in certain facets.  Matthew McConaughey headlines this nearly three hour exploration with an extraordinary supporting cast to bounce off of.  Interstellar is certainly ambitious enough, even if it doesn’t thoroughly live up to what one would expect from Nolan.

Nightcrawler

Lou Bloom: If you want to win the lottery, you have to make the money to buy a ticket.

The fall season is a great time for movies.  Not only are there a handful of Oscar contenders, but we get a bunch of smaller films that range from several different genres.  This year, Nightcrawler has crept onto the scene in high fashion, delivering one of the year’s best thrillers and most stimulating performances from an underweight Jake Gyllenhaal in a lofty role.  Writer/director Dan Gilroy and cinematographer Robert Elswit team up again to pursuit a dark, dreary look at the outskirts of Los Angeles.  It’s incredible.

Birdman

Riggan Thomson: I got a chance to do something right.  I gotta take it.

Believe the hype, folks.  Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu faultlessly crafts Birdman, a film that appears as one long tracking shot, using clever filmmaking skills to pull off the remarkable style.  Michael Keaton makes an incredible comeback in a momentous performance that deserves all of the praise and awards that it’s sure to garner, but it’s Edward Norton who steals the show with a paramount performance that perfectly encapsulates what the actor is really like.  This is an ambitious, breathtaking, and technically impressive work of art. 

Fury

Wardaddy: It will end, soon. But before it does, a lot more people have to die.

Fury is a well-acted, mediocre war drama that features Brad Pitt and company killing nazis.  It’s a straightforward WWII drama, nothing more and nothing less.  Pitt channels Lt. Aldo Raine as the first billed actor, but it’s Logan Lerman and Shia Labeouf who outperform him in wholly transformative performances.  The sound design is top-notch and the action sequences are visually stunning.  While there’s little substance and underdeveloped characters, Fury remains a pretty good, albeit clichéd picture.