I’m still playing catch-up with several of the more high profile releases (Birdman, The Imitation Game, Selma, etc.), but even without having seen those films, there were still a lot more than 10 movies that I loved in 2014. Here are 15 of the most memorable:

Honorable mention: Boyhood
Without a doubt, Boyhood is a special kind of achievement. The idea of shooting a movie over the course of 12 years, and the way the film so subtly marks the passage of time – it just sneaks up on you – is something that deserves to be recognized.

And yet, if I’m being completely honest, upon my first viewing of the film I found myself admiring it a lot more than actually liking it. There are scenes that I absolutely love, but despite the intimate, personal nature of the story, it didn’t quite hit the emotional beats I thought it would. The purpose of this list is to celebrate the movies I enjoyed the most or stayed with me long after I saw them, and Boyhood is an example of the latter, but more for the groundbreaking shooting schedule than anything else at this point. I am definitely looking forward to seeing the film again, but for now the best I can do is this honorable mention.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier / Guardians of the Galaxy
It’s a shame overall box office was down this past summer, considering more good-to-great blockbusters were released when compared to 2013. Case in point: Marvel Studios continued its winning streak with arguably the two best (and least superhero-y) films in its Cinematic Universe so far. The Winter Soldier, an all-around terrific sequel that doesn’t fall into the trap of repeating what its predecessor did, felt like a Bourne movie crossed with a political thriller, and Guardians was just an absolute blast. Writer/director James Gunn and his stellar cast easily made up for the fact that the film’s plot was basically a carbon copy of The Avengers, by focusing in on this motley crew of charming space misfits, led by the awesome Burt Macklin, FBI Chris Pratt.

Edge of Tomorrow
Another example of the year’s stellar summer output was this Tom Cruise vehicle that turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. What could have been another generic sci-fi action flick (like 2013’s Oblivion, which also starred Cruise) quickly revealed itself to be far more clever, funny and thrilling than the uninspired marketing and godawful title would have you believe.

Enemy / Nightcrawler
It’s a great time to be Jake Gyllenhaal, who in recent years has been making some very smart choices in the roles he’s taken. In 2014, Gyllenhaal pulled double duty in the criminally overlooked Enemy, a mindbending slow burn of a thriller that practically demands repeat viewings to uncover all of its secrets. But Gyllenhaal’s dual roles in that movie were a mere warm-up compared to the career-best performance he gives in the dark and hypnotic Nightcrawler. Gyllenhaal enthralls as the sociopathic Lou Bloom, whose pursuit of the American Dream takes such dark turns that you simultaneously don’t want to see what happens next yet can’t look away. I imagine that was writer/director Dan Gilroy’s goal, as Nightcrawler forces us to question the role we play as viewers of the trashier, more exploitative side of news media.

Gone Girl
I was surprised by the number of times I laughed during Gone Girl. I haven’t read Gillian Flynn’s novel (she also wrote the screenplay), so I don’t know if the dark humor was carried over or if it was something that director David Fincher brought to it, though the latter wouldn’t surprise me in the least. Whenever I read or watch his interviews, Fincher always strikes me as having a twisted sense of humor. With Gone Girl, it seems like he found the perfect material to let that side of him shine through, and the result is a murder mystery that’s superior to his immaculately crafted but completely uninspired adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike are fantastic as the leads, but the most memorable performance may have been from Carrie Coon, who also made quite an impression on me in HBO’s “The Leftovers.”

The Grand Budapest Hotel
There ain’t no movie like a Wes Anderson movie. Even if you don’t know his name, you can always tell if you’re watching one of his films, so singular is his visual style. But that doesn’t mean his movies are samey, nor does it mean he sacrifices substance for that style. Take his latest, for example. The Grand Budapest Hotel, with its luxurious production design and shifting aspect ratios, is dryly funny (Ralph Fiennes has never been better), and many scenes take on the manic pacing of the screwball comedies of old. But the wartime setting, and retrospective way the story is told, eventually reveals something more thoughtful and emotional. And it’s that emotion, so carefully sprinkled throughout, that allows it to rise above the idea of the film as light confection (though you could hardly be blamed for enjoying the film on that level). It’s just a pleasure to watch unfold.

The Guest
Whoever came up with the idea of casting Dan Stevens (the boring one on “Downton Abbey.” No, the other boring one.) as the human monster in this brutally entertaining horror film is a genius. Sporting an American accent, and playing a guy so far removed from the stuffiness of the BBC drama, Stevens has completely changed my original perception of him, and his work here shows that he has the potential to break out in a big way.

Interstellar
Is it everything I hoped it would be? Almost. But as much as I tend to love Chris Nolan’s films, even I can’t ignore the poor dialogue and his tendency to over-indulge in the pursuit of epic epicness (lose the entire Matt Damon section and I’d be a lot happier with the film as a whole). That being said, there’s a scene in the middle of Interstellar that is one of the most poignant movie moments of the year. It shows us that Nolan continues to make strides in giving his densely plotted tales the emotional heft they need to engage not just the mind, but the heart as well.

The Lego Movie
Hilarious, clever and surprisingly touching, The Lego Movie shows that even the most cynical and financially motivated of Hollywood product can be a real winner if you’ve got the right filmmakers behind the camera. Writers/directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord have made a career out of taking the flimsiest of concepts and breathing some real life into them (they’re also responsible for 21 Jump Street and its sequel). The Lego Movie would have been a great time had it just played out as a wacky adventure starring generic Lego figure Emmett (Chris Pratt, killing it again), but Miller and Lord go one step further. They know that for a lot of people, those colorful blocks are more than just toys. Not only are they capable of bringing kids and parents together, but they can ignite a child’s imagination in a way that few things can. The film is a celebration of that creative spark.

Life Itself
I may just do this for fun, but I wouldn’t be doing it at all were it not for Roger Ebert. It’s because of him that I love movies as much as I do, that I read about movies as much as I do, that the internet is so alive with people’s opinions and perspectives on and troubles with and celebrations of movies. Based on Ebert’s memoir, Life Itself is a warm and heartfelt tribute to the late critic, who always stood out to me because it never felt like he was talking down to me or showing off how much smarter he was than me through his writing. I read a lot of reviews, and often it just feels like critics are actively trying to confuse you. I could read hundreds and hundreds of words and sometimes still not be able to tell if this guy (let’s call him Armond White) actually liked what he saw. But Ebert understood what the purpose of reviewing was: to let people know if a certain movie was worth seeing or not. Ebert wasn’t some extraordinary, larger than life figure. He was a normal guy with flaws, and while his career was a great success, you could tell watching the film that his family is what made him happiest, and his illness, even at its most painful, wasn’t going to take that away from him. Life Itself can be difficult to watch at times. There are scenes throughout that show Ebert, missing his jaw and unable to speak due to cancer, going through rehab or being in obvious pain, but they’re counteracted by moments of obvious joy. It’s absolutely worth seeing.

The Raid 2
I was not a big fan of The Raid: Redemption. My problem with its nonstop action, strikingly choreographed and shot though it was, is that it never really took a moment to take a breath. That film was pitched at 11 for its entire runtime, to the point where it started to feel monotonous and numbing. With The Raid 2, Gareth Evans has expanded the scope of his cop vs. (many) gangsters tale, and the result, while unwieldy at times, is one of the most visceral action epics of the last several years. The set pieces in this movie are just a sight to behold: the camera moves so fluidly and the sequences are edited so crisply that you feel the full impact of every punch, kick, blow, slash, etc. In terms of pure action, it’s the best movie of the year.

Snowpiercer
This summer, while everyone was busy losing three hours of their lives (and pieces of their souls) to Michael Bay, smarter people (or at least people who didn’t hate themselves) chose to see Snowpiercer, Bong Joon-ho’s wild and inventive dystopian action epic. Set aboard a train carrying the last of humanity as it travels around a now-frozen earth, the lower class survivors at the back of the train (led by Chris Evans in a revelatory performance) revolt and make their way forward through the middle and upper class cars in thrilling fashion, as Bong makes his statements on class warfare purely through his visuals. It’s a refreshing spin on your typical dystopian science fiction, and best of all, it’s an hour shorter than Transformers.

Two Days, One Night
In this French-language film, a working class woman, ready to return to work after suffering a nervous breakdown, finds that her co-workers have voted to have her lose her job permanently in order to receive pay raises. Now she has a weekend to convince each of them to change their minds. Despite the ticking clock, Two Days, One Night is not some fast paced thriller. There’s no shocking twist, no villain. There are only people (some kind and compassionate, others selfish and rude) working to make ends meet. It so authentically captures the hardships of life that can befall any of us. And at the center of the film, providing its big, beating heart is Marion Cotillard, delivering one of the most empathetic performances of the year. Her Sandra goes on an emotional roller coaster, and Cotillard, with her wonderfully expressive face, takes us on that journey with her as we observe Sandra’s anxiety, her hopefulness, her fear, her determination, her soul. Two Days, One Night may not transcend time and space, pose questions about mankind’s place in the universe, or capture 12 years in the life of a young boy, but it is the most human story of the year.

Under the Skin
This is definitely a case of differing consensus between critics and general audiences. Currently holding a one star rating on Netflix Canada yet appearing on several critics’ top 10 lists (in the top spot in many cases), all I can say about Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin is that it stuck in my mind in a way that no other movie has in a while. I’d be lying if I said my attention never wavered during the film, but that’s only because it refused to explain itself (it’s an anti-Nolan movie in that way), leaving me to think about what was happening more than usual. Here, Scarlett Johansson plays an alien being of some kind who drives around Scotland luring unsuspecting men to their apparent deaths. The purpose of her mission isn’t explained and never becomes clear, but what does become apparent is the effect that her human guise and interactions with these men (one in particular with a disorder that disfigures his face) end up having on her.

It’s actually been quite a year for Johansson, appearing in three wildly different films where she played characters that felt thematically linked. In addition to the creature she plays in Under the Skin, she also reprised her role as the calculating yet compassionate Black Widow in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. And as the title character in Lucy, she displays a range that runs from traumatized and helpless to inhuman and omnipotent as a result of a drug that unlocks the dormant abilities of her brain. That’s a ridiculous premise, no doubt, and while Lucy isn’t top 10 (or top 15) material, Johansson’s performance is fantastic and serves as an interesting mirror to her role in Under the Skin.

I could cite a number of qualities that make the film stand out, like the cinematography or the unusual score or the unexpected visual effects work, but in the end, Johansson – who I consider to be one of the smartest and most talented actors of her generation – is the reason Under the Skin got under my… something. (I can’t write anymore.)