While understand ing the cool reception of Interstellar (yes, Hathaway could have been pushed out the airlock in the second act), I would just add that one doesn't need to follow the physics to get some feeling of wonder. I think it's fair when critics say that sci-fi tends to be weaker on character, where often they exist only in support of an Idea. Nolan is guilty of that on several prior occasions, so I had hoped the billing of Interstellar as more about the people, esp. the family, would be correct. I'm ready to admit, after a week, that Intstell. is an interesting failure.

Foxcatcher sounds like a real departure for Carell, who had gotten locked in my mind as either comedy goofball or nice guy dramedy.

Wow, Snowpiercer is an awful film. In an effort to combat global warming, scientists release a chemical to block sunlight. However, they overshoot and are plunged into snowball earth, and all life allegedly* is extinct except on an enormous hermetically sealed train that travels around the world endlessly, like the world's largest model train. The tail dwellers are sick of protein bars (although it's better than the cannibalism of the early days), and revolt, deciding to go to the front of the train to talk to the engineer. The whole movie is going from one car to the next, with lots of people shooting people, which doesn't seem a good idea in a train that's supposed to be a closed ecosystem. (Or mostly closed. They do melt snow for water.) The whole thing is remarkably silly. And a bit of a sham. At the end we see a polar bear. What has it been eating for the last seventeen years?

No performances stand out. The cars with plants and fish are pretty, but what about the car with sides of beef and plucked chicken? Where do they keep the cattle and hens?

Wow, it never fails to amaze me how different tastes can run. I would never put Snowpiercer on a best-movies list, but the clear silliness of the concept doesn't bother me one whit. Its main fault is a certain monotony, but it has IMO some entertainment value, completely lacking in such similarly silly science-fiction attempts as Interstellar and Inception. Meanwhile, I absolutely loathed every moment of The Grand Budapest Hotel, which is being almost universally adored.

Anyhoo, here are my favorite movies of 2014 so far, in descending order:

1. Boyhood (light-years in front)
2. Nightcrawler
3. Foxcatcher
4. Men, Women & Children (horrendously underrated)
5. Birdman (technically mind-blowing but show-offy)
6. The Skeleton Twins
7. Whiplash

Loved Birdman. The camera work is mind blowing, and it's all over-the-top, but it had the right stuff. As happens with magical realism, I end up just rolling with it and fascinated.