Jazzy 'Whiplash' leads a most violent year of excellence in cinema

Sometimes, I know exactly which movie will become my best of the year.

"The Right Stuff" in 1983. "Pulp Fiction" in 1994. "E.T." in 1982. See? Easy peasy.

But most times, I struggle to name a No. 1 movie, usually because excellence has been spread so evenly among several films that it becomes a tough call. Like this year.

I recognize that Richard Linklater's amazing drama "Boyhood" represents the year's most originally conceived, masterfully accomplished artist's vision as it took 12 years to shoot.

I also acknowledge Wes Anderson's comic "The Grand Budapest Hotel" to be the year's most amusingly stylish work that seamlessly blends whimsy with cold harshness.

Further, I concede that Alejandro González Iñárritu's fantastic "Birdman" marks 2014's trippiest film experience with a vanity-defying, career-high performance by Michael Keaton.

So what should be 2014's best motion picture?

It should be the one that speaks to me on a personal level, one that captures my eyes, ears, brain and heart in a way the other movies almost do, but not quite.

That movie would be "Whiplash," from 29-year-old Damien Chazelle.

"Whiplash" explodes with the manic energy of a young, driven filmmaker stoked to the max to show the world what he can do.

His film, shot in 19 days, radiates the same gritty urgency of another independent breakthrough, "Reservoir Dogs," directed by a video store clerk named Quentin Tarantino. (BTW, I named "Reservoir Dogs" my best film of 1992.)

Every scene in "Whiplash" bristles with tension, even the supposedly quiet ones between a jazz drummer (Miles Teller) and his wishy-washy father (Paul Reiser).

Then, in scenes between the drummer and his control-freak conductor (a menacingly combustible J.K. Simmons), the tension ratchets up until it becomes terror as the conductor puts his musicians through cruel survival tests.

(No surprise, perhaps, that Chazelle was a drummer in his school band and modeled Simmons' character after an abusive music instructor.)

Is "Whiplash" as visionary as "Boyhood"? As stylish as "Grand Budapest Hotel"? As daring as "Birdman"?

No.

Yet, "Whiplash" pulsates with kinetic, cinematic energy while posing some seriously disturbing questions about the price of excellence, and the primal need for paternal approval, even from figures who aren't your dad.

Chazelle won the Most Promising Filmmaker Award of 2014 from the Chicago Film Critics earlier this month.

Justly deserved.

And now, presenting the best English language movies of the year: 14 for 2014.

1. "Whiplash" - See above.

2. "Birdman" - A polarizing movie because of its never-explained fantastical elements. Nonetheless, a marvelous feat of camerawork and editing that turns New York's St. James Theatre into ground zero for a veteran actor to launch a comeback and shoot for the stars of artistic respect.

3. "A Most Violent Year" - J.C. Chandor's convention-breaking drama pits ethics and optimism against greed and cynicism in a cinematic cage fight of the sort we've never seen before.

An independent businessman (Oscar Isaac) struggles to protect his fuel company and becomes a realistic version of George Bailey from "It's a Wonderful Life" - a man dedicated to doing things "the best right way" in a world of corruption and self-interest determined to crush him and destroy his ideals.

4. "Life Itself" - Steve James' documentary on the life and times of Chicago film critic Roger Ebert won the best doc award from the Chicago Film Critics Association this month.

No hometown advantage here. Because Windy City critics knew Ebert and lived with him in a small dark room every week, they held James' movie to a much higher critical standard than other organizations. There's not a false moment in this amazing bio.

5. "Boyhood" - Linklater's bold 12-year experiment created unintentional fallout: It sets a demandingly realistic standard for casting older and younger versions of the same character. After this drama, casting Luke Bracey as the younger version of James Marsden in "The Best of Me" became a hilarious mismatch.

6. "The Grand Budapest Hotel" - Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) as a comic actor? Whoduthunkit? Anderson did, and his impeccably designed movie defies convention in a story that's part mystery, part something indescribably fantastic.

7. "The Imitation Game" - Benedict Cumberbatch's performance as the British mathematician who broke the Nazi's secret code during World War II highlights Morten Tyldum's plea for tolerance and appreciation for "the other" in our societies. Anyone unmoved by the informational slides at the end should be checked for a soul.

8. "The Lego Movie" - Yes, this has to be in the top 10 just for its A.D.D. editing, hilarious riff on the questing hero formula, and its ingenious computer animation designed to make the Lego characters move just like blocky characters made of Legos would, if they really could.

9. "Snowpiercer" - An ambitious, visually stunning and intellectually stimulating political epic from Korean director Bong Joon-ho. Earth's last survivors whip around a futuristic planet of snow and ice while crowded into a train functioning as a microcosm of society, complete with class distinctions. (The rich are at the front; the poor in the back.) Tilda Swinton's performance as the train harbinger is worth the admission.

10. "The Babadook" - Jennifer Kent's Aussie horror tale makes a stylish, haunting nightmare version of a Dr. Seuss story that chronicles a widowed mother's slow possession by a children's book boogeyman. One of the best examples in horror, now mostly a stale and inert genre.

11. "Interstellar" - Not as innovative and mind-blowing as Christopher Nolan's earlier dream project "Inception," but close enough. The first movie to cast Einstein's Theory of Relativity as the leading character uses Kubrickian-grade imagination and sets to frame a surprisingly intimate story of a father's promise to his very young daughter.

12. "Under the Skin" - This "Girl Who Fell to Earth" sci-fi tale doesn't make much sense, and the characters eschew empathy. Still, director Jonathan Glazer creates one weird movie erupting with provocative, eye-popping imagery and a story as cryptic as the original "Donnie Darko." Scarlett Johansson as a femme alien luring men to death in a big tank of black ooze? A bonus.

13. "Foxcatcher" - A fact-based drama from Bennett Miller, who delves into the dark side of the American dream of sports and wealth. A chilling portrayal of class entitlement with a frightening performance by a nearly unrecognizable Steve Carell.

14. "Citizenfour" - Laura Poitras' important documentary takes up the slack in investigative reporting that used to be the hallmark of mainstream press. CIA whistle-blower Edward Snowden taps Poitras to document his release of secret NSA cables.