15. Moneyball (dir. Benett Miller)

It’s not a perfect film, but sometimes imperfection is what we look for in cinema. With a great thematic tale of how a man frustrated with the limitations he has to excel he decides to something unprecedented in a sport that’s as old as stories themselves and it ends up changing the way everyone in sports starts to think about club management. Brad Pitt, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Jonah Hill all shine in their roles and manage to lift up a slightly clunky script to be a film I look forward to revisiting year in year out.

14. Crazy, Stupid, Love (dir. John Requa & Glenn Ficarra)

If there was a movie this year that had the right level of ability to surprise as it did to disappoint it would be this movie. I’ve watched this film at least four times so far this year and every time I’m still surprised when we get to the almost climactic scene in the garden. Gosling plays a character that I will adore for years to come and can’t wait for my chance to be that guy and start slapping my Steve Carell around for a bit.

13. Win Win (dir. Thomas McCarthy)

Paul Giamatti is one of those actors that if you gave him one scene, that one scene would be the best of the film. He makes use of a script in such a way that not many actors today do and he shines brilliantly in this story of a flawed man who makes a horrible decision in a desperate time in his life. The film’s characters do what they do and we watch as they orbit the world of Giamatti’s character and we just see his reactions which are stellar. Comedy and drama didn’t mix as well as they do in this film in many others.

12. Meek’s Cutoff (dir. Kelly Reichardt)

The west is a land that we glorify a bit. When you watch films starring Clint Eastwood and John Wayne we think of it as a somewhat manageable and enjoyable world. However, the truth is more likely the complete opposite. There’s a lot of untamed lands and not much to stand between you and death for the slightest of mistakes. So when a caravan of travelers are led astray and find themselves lost in the middle of these barren lands they are left with few choices as how to keep going.

The film is presented from the perspective of the three women of the caravan who’re generally left out of all decision making of how to proceed so we are literally passive travelers on this trip and are constantly looking for ways to try and better the caravan’s situation and at the same time dealing with our own inability to affect the outcome.

11. Hesher (dir. Spencer Susser)

Thanks to a coincidental meeting of T.J. (David Brochu) and Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) the tale of how a depressed family, having just lost T.J.’s mother, are given the wake-up call they need to realize that this isn’t the way to respond to their situation. What’s great about this movie is just the way the character of Hesher goes about this in the most insanely chaotic ways, this includes: car bombs, bon fires, squatting in their home without consent, threatening bodily harm a number of times to a child, and much more. The film is crazy and deserves remembering for its own uniqueness.

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