THE BEST OF 2014 - The Best COMICS Of The Year

THE BEST COMICS OF 2014:

- It's amazing how much the world of comics has changed in a short time. Digital comics have opened up the medium to a whole new readership - and the ease of availability of new and classic books - along with the continued proliferation of comics-based movies and TV shows - made this a banner year.

What's amazing now is the sheer diversity of content that's out there. If you look at, say, the 90's, the major publishers all sort of leaned in the same direction. Most of the books from DC, Marvel, Image, and others were all, stylistically, pretty similar. Now, it's a whole new ballgame. I look at Image alone - the way they've become a breeding ground for creator-owned, creator-driven series - and it's amazing. They've come a long, long way from the early days. Many others are now following their lead - IDW, Boom!, Dynamite, etc. Even Marvel and DC have more books now that feel less bound to some giant connected universe, and more accessible to people who are simply fans of those characters. Marvel in particular drew tons of buzz in 2014 by putting out books that felt like they were made less for the fans who'd read every Marvel book since 1973, and more for the influx of new fans who hoped for the sorts of stories and characters that spoke to them, a more modern audience. Case in point is Ms. Marvel - one of the year's most interesting and applause-worthy success stories. The book stars a new character, Kamala Khan, a young Muslim-American teen who gets superhuman powers and becomes an unlikely hero. It's written by G. Willow Wilson, a woman who converted to Islam and who, I might add, is a fellow BU grad. Wilson has been an up-and-coming writer for a while now, and it's great to see her enjoy this sort of success - Ms. Marvel, as it turns out, became an unlikely top seller - something that, I'm guessing, was in large part thanks to the way that digital comics have broadened the traditional audience. But there's something that's just plain cool about this new Ms. Marvel becoming a fan favorite. Comics have always been about celebrating those that are different, but diversity has sadly not always been something that mainstream comics have done well. But Kamala Khan is, in her own unassuming way, breaking down barriers left and right. Here's a character that diverges from the idea that Islam's teachings can only lead to evil. Here's a strong female character who *isn't* the stereotype of what a strong female character should be (i.e., she's not just a guy with boobs). And here is a character that can be a hero to girls, women, Muslims, and everyone else. Hell, I'm a white Jewish male and I think she's pretty damn awesome.

Kamala Khan, to me, represents what's great about comics. Unlike the high-stakes, big-money world of movies, comics are not focus-tested and franchised-out to the nth degree - at least not all of the time. Comics are a place where barriers can be broken, where new, original, and oftentimes crazy ideas can be tried out. Comics are where anything goes and the sky's the limit. I think that's why Guardians of the Galaxy was such an exciting movie in many ways. To date, most superhero films have played it safe, to an extent - giving us more grounded, real-world versions of our favorite characters. But Guardians is one of the first modern superhero movies to fully embrace the sort of cosmic craziness that made me love comics in the first place.

Putting superheroes aside though, I'll take a step back and talk again about the diversity in storytelling in 2014's best comics. One of the year's best books was Sex Criminals, about a couple that can stop time whenever they get busy. Sounds insane, I know. But writer Matt Fraction made it into a book that's at once completely out-there, yet at the same time has some of the most authentic-feeling characters in anything I've read this year. It's a similar story with my favorite new comic of 2014, Alex + Ada. It's a type of story we've seen before: man meets robot, man falls in love with robot, man and robot have to go into hiding because human-like robots that can think and feel are outlawed in this world. But what makes it work so well here are characters that seem authentic, and storytelling that keeps you guessing. That's not to say that I don't also love stuff that's just flat-out out-there. In other words, thank the comic gods for Grant Morrison's continued output. One of my favorite books in 2014 has been Morrison's Multiversity for DC, which is a tripped-out celebration of all the wonderful weirdness of DC's past, present, and future, with a meta twist that only a guy like Morrison could dream up.

Despite everything I've said, I still miss old-fashioned paper-and-ink comics. I miss going to the comic store and coming home with a stack of crisp comics begging to be read. I miss the tactile nature of holding the pages in your hand. When I do buy a new comic or trade paperback and read it in the traditional manner, I can't deny that that, to me, is the superior experience. I think the benefits of digital outweigh the negatives. What's been so cool about the digital experience is how easy it is to discover more material based on an existing favorite. This year, I got hooked on Alex + Ada, and quickly decided I needed to read more from the Luna Bros., whose work I'd somehow not familarized myself with far. Soon enough, I was knee-deep in the series that put them on the map, a Stephen King-like horror/thriller called Girls. Now I'm on to another work of theirs, The Sword - pretty cool. Still, I hope that we don't have to wait long for someone to come out with a better reading alternative than an iPad. Amazon, I'm looking at you. Amazon this year purchased the primary digital comics retailer, Comixology, so I suspect there may be some interesting developments still to come as a result.

But here's to the great year for comics that was 2014. And here's to an even better one in the year ahead.


DANNY'S BEST COMICS OF 2014:

1.) Locke & Key

- This one is fudging things a little, because technically Locke & Key wrapped up in 2013. However, the collection of the series' final chapters - Alpha & Omega - wasn't released until 2014, and I suspect that many were, as I did, reading this one via the hardcovers and trade paperback collections. In any case, Locke & Key has been one of the seminal works - comics or otherwise - of the last decade, in my view. It's something that, I suspect, will always be a defining work for author Joe Hill, and for artist Gabriel Rodriguez. Hill has the uncanny ability, like his father Stephen King, to write incredibly-realized characters that feel tangible and wholly authentic, and to then place them in absolutely insane situations tinged with horror, fantasy, and the supernatural. As I said in an earlier post praising the series:  in many ways, it feels like vintage King: a rustic New England setting, a distinctly slice-of-Americana vibe, and an existential horror that creeps its way into these characters lives and starts profoundly changing their worlds. I felt a profound sadness as I read the book's concluding chapters, both for the characters and what they'd endured, and also because this was the end of one of the great comic stories. I can't wait to see what Joe Hill does next.


2.) Alex + Ada

- Written by Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn, with art by Luna, Alex + Ada is my current must-read monthly comic. The work of Jonathan Luna (as well as earlier work done with his brother) reminds me a lot of that of Brian K. Vaughan. The characters are so well-realized that all the craziness that happens around them feels plausible. The Lunas, like Vaughan, tend not to write about traditional hero characters. Their protagonists are regular dudes, relatable and not all that extraordinary. Often, these types of sci-fi stories are about a guy who's the best at what he does, etc. Not here. Alex is just a regular, slightly disaffected young adult who's trying to figure out what he's doing with his life. That said, this is riveting storytelling - each issue ends in a cliffhanger that leaves you clamoring for more. Sci-fi stories about robots are a dime a dozen, sure. But this one has the potential to be one for the cannon.


3.) Sex Criminals

- Sex Criminals has such a great voice, and that's thanks to writer Matt Fraction, who has become a real favorite over the last few years. He blends real human drama and pathos with a wicked sense of humor. Sex Criminals shouldn't work, but it does, because it's as much about people trying to figure themselves out as it is anything else. And by the way, best letters page going by a long-shot.


4.) Hawkeye

- More Matt Fraction. I fully caught up on Hawkeye this year, and am now suffering because of the long gap between new installments. But Fraction's Hawkeye is just plain awesome - it's like Coen Bros' doing superheroes - funny, irreverent, moody, and yet oddly insightful about the human condition. In 2014, the book took an extended detour to LA, to follow Kate Bishop, the female Hawkeye, as she delves into a neo-noir mystery. Such great stuff, can't recommend it enough.


5.) Lazarus

- Lazarus continued to wow me in 2014, with some serious world-building going on that continued to fill in the puzzle pieces of the book's post-apocalyptic dystopia. Writer Greg Rucka has been taking his time in putting all of the building blocks in place, but there's a great sense that this is all leading to big things, world-shaking things. As I've said before, imagine a Game of Thrones-esque society where, instead of houses, warring corporations vie for control of a collapsed world.


6.) Multiversity

- As I said above, Multiversity is just a treat for fans of DC, fans of Grant Morrison, and fans of the weirder, sillier, more out-there side of superhero comics. This is Morrison's roadmap to DC's multiverse, with each issue taking place on a different earth. So far, one issue has told a Watchmen-like conspiracy-thriller with the Charlton characters on which that story was based. One issue has told a whimsical Captain Marvel story in the spirit of the original comics. Another imagined the sons and daughters of iconic superheroes in a crime-free world where heroes prefer starring on reality TV to battling evil. Great stuff from the ever-fertile mind of Morrison.


7.) Saga

- Saga's release schedule has been intermittent in 2014, but when it's come out, it remains one of the true must-read ongoing series out today. Brian K. Vaughan is taking us on an adventure here, and I honestly have no idea where things are going month-to-month. As Y: The Last Man was to surviving your 20's, Saga is to the later part of adulthood - a star-spanning tale of two parents drawn together and now, drawn apart. But what's cool about Saga is that this story seems destined to expand well beyond its current scope. Who knows where it's all headed? But in BKV we trust. And man, that Fiona Staples art is as amazing as ever.


8.) Fatale

- Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' Fatale came to a close in 2014, and it will go down as a recent favorite. The book was a unique mix of noir and Lovecraftian horror, and the scope of the narrative just kept expanding and going in interesting directions. The femme-fatale protagonist, Josephine, finally confronted her otherdimensional tormentors in the big finale, and the result was a satisfying conclusion to one of Brubaker's best books to date.


9.) The Walking Dead

- The Walking Dead as a franchise is so ... everywhere ... that praising the comic seems almost unneeded. But I want to give props to Robert Kirkman, because while the Walking Dead TV series' quality fluctuates wildly, the comic is consistently excellent. Following the ultra-intense conclusion to the "All Out War" storyline, the book did a bit of a re-set, time-jumping ahead and introducing a new status quo. It was just what the book needed, and a reminder that what's great is that this is a story that truly keeps evolving. Kirkman is writing the zombie story that never ends, but that's a good thing - especially if it remains this compelling.


10.) Injustice

- How is Injustice possibly as good as it is? The best-selling weekly digital comic is a spin-off of a videogame. That should mean it's crap. But Injustice is actually the best ongoing superhero book that DC is putting out - it's a book that seems downright giddy at getting to play with the toys in the sandbox, pitting the DC characters against each other in ways that are surprising and downright fun. This is the superhero book that most gives me the feeling of being a kid again and discovering the joy of comics. And in bite-sized digital form, it's the perfect quick-read.

THE NEXT BEST:

11.) Batman

- Scott Snyder continues to do great things with the core Batman book. His "Zero Year" storyline was an unexpected epic, and his current "Endgame" arc is page-turning, blockbuster storytelling at its finest.

12.) Invincible

- Robert Kirkman's other big book is still one of my favorite reads. This is a book in which anything can and will happen, and Kirkman seems to love changing up the tone of the book on a whim, just to throw readers off. If Walking Dead is the zombie story that never ends, Invincible is the superhero story that never ends. And again, that's a good thing.

13.) The Silver Surfer

- Dan Slott's whimsical take on the Surfer has been a treat - especially with the added bonus of stunning Mike Allred art. The book is a trippy, funny, cosmic riff on sci-fi in the vein of Dr. Who, but Slott has made this its own thing - a book that feels wholly unique in the Marvel pantheon.

14.) The Wake

- The Wake was my 2013 book of the year, and it remained strong in 2014 - though the conclusion did not have quite the punch of the first half of the book. Flashing to a future where the world is overrun with water, the book became less horror and more apocalyptic fantasy-adventure. Still fun and intriguing, but not quite as awesome and badass as what preceded.

15.) Ms. Marvel

- See above. But just to add, Ms. Marvel feels like the book we needed in 2014, the book that felt like it was a long time coming, and the book that made us wonder how we did without Kamala Khan and characters like her for so long.

16.) Swamp Thing

- Charles Soule's run on Swamp Thing has been stellar. The book is a strange mix of horror, adventure, and trippiness - very much in the spirit of the classic Alan Moore run. Soule has introduced some intriguing new supporting characters, and expanded the mythology of the Green to include new enemies and allies.

17.) Batman '66

- Batman '66 was a weekly pleasure in 2014, building on the success of the previous year. Writer Jeff Parker so skillfully and so hilariously captures the wry humor of the Adam West TV show, cranking the absurdity up just a notch to make sure we get that he's in on the joke. Visiting with the classic TV Batman - both in the '66 series and in the great Green Hornet crossover - was some of the most fun I had reading comics this year.

18.) Red Lanterns

- Charles Soule again. Even as the Green Lantern franchise struggled to maintain consistent quality in 2014, Red Lanterns was the one book of the bunch that consistently brought its A-game. In 2014, the book told a pretty epic story - showing us the transformation of the formerly-villainous Red Lanterns into a group that was a force for good, albeit in their own unique, rage-filled, blood-spewing way.

19.) The Manhattan Projects

- Jonathan Hickman's monthly dose of insanity is almost always at the top of my must-read list, and this year, the book closed its current run, with the promise of further stories down the line. But man, the stuff that happened in The Manhattan Projects in 2014 ... this story about America's secret cabal of scientists went to even more far-out places than normal. Where else can you see twin Alfred Einsteins hunting aliens, or a gun-toting LBJ kicking ass and taking names? Nowhere, that's where.

20.) The Twilight Zone

- J. Michael Straczynski's update on the classic TV show was a real surprise this year. Over multiple story-arcs, the book told Twilight Zone-style stories that felt true to the issues and concerns of 2014. I enjoyed that the book didn't try to 100% ape the format or the stories of the show, but instead went for something different. All the while, it stayed true to the spirit of the show.


RUNNERS UP:

Batman & Robin
Batwing
Fables / Fairest
Batgirl
All-Star Western
Action Comics
The X-Files: Season 10
Batman: Eternal
Starlight
Velvet

SPECIAL MENTIONS:

- I'd like to give a special shout-out to ALL-STAR WESTERN. Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti wrote the character of Jonah Hex for years and years - since 2005 - both before and after DC's New 52 reboot. Over the years, I always looked forward to the writing duo's gritty, weird, engrossing tales of the Old West, and I loved their take on Hex and DC's other Western heroes (in particular, I really dug their introduction of new character Tallulah Black, a badass female gunslinger who could match Hex's attitude and guts). The series finale of All-Star Western was a fitting closer to this storied run, although I also hope that the pair have a couple more Jonah Hex stories left in the tank.

- I'd also like to mention another long run that came to a close in 2014, that being Gail Simone's tenure writing BATGIRL. Simone, a longtime fan-favorite, was intimately linked to Batgirl and Barbara Gordon, having written her for years - pre-New 52 - as the star of Birds of Prey. When the New 52 reboot began, Simone was in the tough position of having to undue one of the defining traits of the modern Babs Gordon - the fact that she was confined to a wheelchair after having been shot by the Joker. But Simone endeared fans to the re-tooled Barbara Gordon Batgirl, and wrote some fantastic issues of the book. A 2014 highlight was the "Future's End" tie-in that imagined a five-years-later version of the character - it was an epic and emotion-packed issue that felt like the end of an era.


WRITERS OF THE YEAR:

1.) Matt Fraction (Hawkeye, Sex Criminals)
2.) Ed Brubaker (Fatale, Velvet)
3.) Brian K. Vaughan (Saga)
4.) Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead, Invincible)
5.) Greg Rucka (Lazarus)
6.) Tom Taylor (Injustice, Earth 2)
7.) Scott Snyder (Batman, The Wake)
8.) Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn(Alex + Ada)
9.) Joe Hill (Locke & Key)
10.) Charles Soule (Red Lanterns, Swamp Thing)

ARTISTS OF THE YEAR:

1.) Chip Zdarsky (Sex Criminals)
2.) Fiona Staples (Saga)
3.) Mike Allred (Silver Surfer)
4.) Michael Lark (Lazarus)
5.) Greg Capullo (Batman)
6.) Jonathan Luna (Alex + Ada)
7.) Sean Phillips (Fatale)
8.) Ryan Ottley (Invincible)
9.) Adrian Alphona (Ms. Marvel)
10.) Gabriel Rodriguez (Locke & Key)

THE BEST OF 2014 - The Best ROCK Of The Year

THE BEST OF 2014 - THE YEAR IN ROCK

- 2014 saw a continuation of the previous year's slowed momentum for all things rock. And yet, there were signs of a pulse. Some great new bands emerged from far corners and unexpected places. It was also a year in which some of rock n' roll's biggest titans stood tall - determined to send a message that, as long as they were still alive and kicking, rock yet lived.

If nothing else, 2014 was the year that AC/DC returned. Despite illness and turmoil in the band, the rock legends pulled it together for, perhaps, one final run. And that effort brought us Rock Or Bust, and album that continues AC/DC's uncanny, unflappable streak of delivering great rock music without fail. In these waning days, a new AC/DC album was a true gift from the rock gods - a reminder of what pure rock sounds like from a band that embodies the rock n' roll spirit. In 2014, I bought a new AC/DC album, and that alone makes it a pretty damn good year in my eyes.


Other big rock acts hit back this year with new material, to varying degrees of success. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - prolific in recent years - came out with Hypnotic Eye, which was a solid if not amazing album. What really sold me on its songs though was when I heard them played live. I saw the Heartbreakers play in LA at The Forum, and it was a true show for the ages. Petty was in rare form, and he blazed through hits and rarities and new material. And the tracks he played off his latest album sounded phenomenal on that night. Weezer, The Foo Fighters and Jack White also came out with some great new music, though the biggest news in the rock world may have been U2's iTunes album-drop. I'll admit, something about the spectacle of it all turned me off. But eventually, I warmed up to some of the songs, and felt grateful that U2 was still capable of doing innovative stuff here in 2014. The gifting of the album to everyone though? It may have been a little much.

But really, did anyone have a better year than "Weird" Al Yankovic? One of my musical and comedy heroes since childhood, Weird Al had a true moment in 2014, and it was well-deserved. For a while, Weird Al's offbeat but inherently well-meaning brand of comedy seemed decidedly uncool. Liking Al was the musical equivalent of admitting to playing Dungeons & Dragons. But in 2014, the world finally caught on to the fact that Weird Al is a by-god national treasure - a man whose songs are clever, funny, and the rare sort of pop-cultural treasure that can be equally appreciated by people of all ages. America was loud and proud in its collective love for the Weird One in 2014, and man, it's about damn time. I guess it's just another sign that the nerds have won? But regardless, it was great to be living in a world in which Al is a beloved icon, and even more so, a world where his latest album became a #1 chart-topper. With spot-on parodies of the latest pop music, Al's latest was right up there with his greatest. What a man.

I do think that 2015 has the potential to be a real turnaround year for rock. There are several albums I'm looking forward to in the new year, including new albums from favorites like The Darkness and Scorpions. But my main hope is simply that good new stuff gets played. Every so often I'll hear a great new song, like Volbeat's infectious rocker "Lola Montez," and I'll think "Yes, this. Show me more of this." Or I'll get turned on to a great new band, like Twenty One Pilots, whose 2013 album Vessel was my favorite musical discovery of this year. Hearing songs like "Car Radio," "Semi-Automatic," and "Guns for Hands," I was sort of blown away. This was new, original, different ... but it was 100% rock. I want more new bands - bands that embody rock n' roll (as opposed to the seemingly neverending parade of folky indie bands) - to break through in the coming year. And by the way, I'm going to include both of the above in my 2014 best-of, because neither really hit the mainstream until this year.

I also saw some great live shows in 2014. I saw none other than KISS in concert (with opener Def Leppard), and they completely rocked. Talk smack about them if you like, but they still put on a hell of a show. I last saw KISS circa 2003, so eleven years later, it was great to see 'em one more time. I also saw Motley Crue at the Hollywood Bowl, during their farewell tour. I'm only a casual Crue fan, but it was a great, hugely energetic show - made even better by the fact that the opener was one of my all-time faves, the legendary Alice Cooper. I also saw Tom Petty and the Hartbreakers, as mentioned, and it was a fantastic show at The Forum. An added treat was seeing opener Steve Winwood - not someone I'd see solo, but a definite bonus in this instance. Finally, I was lucky enough to see The Simpsons, live at the Hollywood Bowl. A 25th Anniversary celebration, featuring key voice talent from the show - as well as special guests like Conan O'Brien, Jon Lovitz, and Weird Al - it was a fantastic tribute to the show and all of the great songs and musical numbers it's produced over the years. As a lifelong Simpsons fan, this was a rare treat.

Here's to a rocking 2015. As AC/DC said: it's rock or bust, baby.



DANNY'S TOP ROCK SONGS OF 2014:


1.) Twenty One Pilots - "Car Radio" / "Semi-Automatic"

-  I heard "Car Radio" on the radio one day (ironically enough), and it was one of those "thank god for Shazam" moments. The song was not quite like anything I'd heard before - an escalating descent into madness that evolved from a deliberately spoken rap/emo hybrid into a head-banging rock/EDM rager. Soon after, I caught Twenty One Pilots when they performed on the MTV Movie Awards back in April. These guys were insane. Donning white face masks and stage-diving into the crowd like alien freaks, this was, finally, it seemed to me, a legit rock band for the 2010's. As I dove into their album, "Vessel," I was pretty amazed at how seamlessly they blended rock, rap, and EDM to create something wholly unique. "Car Radio" and "Semi-Automatic" are my favorite examples of their sound - great, catchy songs that go from zero to one-hundred and just plain rock.

2.) AC/DC - "Rock Or Bust" / "Rock the Blues Away"

-When I heard "Rock or Bust," all seemed right with the world. This is just straight-up classic rock, the sort of stuff that AC/DC seems to be able to churn out in their sleep. And yet, with a long gap between albums, and with rumors that this could be their final run, this is not the sort of song we can take for granted. In reality, "Rock or Bust" is a minor miracle - a song that's vintage AC/DC at a point in the band's career when they shouldn't be able to still be making music this good. "Rock or Bust" is yet another mission-statement from a band that is needed now more than ever, digging their heels in the sand and saying "Rock on its deathbed? Not on our watch."

3.) Weezer - "Back to the Shack"

- Weezer gets a lot of undeserved crap, but the one thing that is true is that it was high time that they delivered a kick-ass rock song on the level of their best tunes. Luckily, they did just that with "Back to the Shack," a stand-up-and-clap-your-hands rallying cry that beckons listeners to rock out "like it's '94." This is Weezer at its best - confessional and defiant, funny and flip, rocking confidently while also being self-effacing.

4.) Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - "Shadow People" / "Forgotten Man"

- With each passing year, Tom Petty seems less and less interested in creating a radio-friendly rock anthem in the vein of his greatest hits. But he can still rock a jam like nobody's business, and he's still one of the best lyrics-guys in the biz. "Shadow People" is a mesmerizing, hypnotic jam that sucks you in and doesn't let go. "Forgotten Man" is a more straight-up rocker, a bluesy tune that casts Petty as a man out of time. Like that's news. 

5.) Jack White - "Lazaretto"

- I still miss The White Stripes, but Jack White has been keeping plenty busy, and I can't deny that his solo stuff has been pretty consistently excellent and interesting. His latest album was an eclectic mix of sounds and styles, but "Lazaretto" is the loudest, most badass rocker of the bunch. With White's trademark guitar stylings and rebel-yell vocals, it's the kind of song that makes you appreciative that guys like White are carrying the rock torch loud and proud.

6.) Volbeat - "Lola Montez"

- I noticed this song one day atop the iTunes charts and gave it a listen. What I heard was one of the catchiest rock songs in a long while, the kind that begs you to sing along and jump around. The source is unlikely - Volbeat is a Danish rock band whose songs lean towards the metal side of the spectrum. But Lola Montez is a melodic, anthemic song - with strange lyrics about a legendary Spanish dancer. Whatever it is, it works, and I'm pumped to hear more from this band.

7.) The Pretty Reckless - "Heaven Knows"

- The Pretty Reckless were a band that, until now, has perhaps been better in concept than in execution. Led by Taylor Momsen of TV's The OC, the band's trashy, thrashy aesthetic made me want to like them, but I just never got that into the music. But with "Heaven Knows," I'm converted. The song feels like vintage 80's arena-rock, and it's the kind of fist-pumper that you just don't hear much of anymore. It's a perfect match for Momsen's growling voice, and the whole thing has a Joan Jett-esque flair that I dig.

8.) U2 - "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)"

- This one grated on me a bit at first, but after a few listens I really came around to it. For one thing, I like the premise - the idea of a young Bono being transfixed by the music of Joey Ramone ... that's pretty cool. For another thing, I like the song's mix of heavy, distorted guitar with soulful singing. In a way, it's a departure for U2, but it also quickly feels like a lost classic.

9.) Foo Fighters - "Something From Nothing"

- The Foos seemed to be men on a mission this year. They were everywhere. They saw themselves as the defenders of the holy name of rock, and their new album seems intent on cranking things up a notch and going decidedly heavy. "Something From Nothing" has an almost Sabbath-like feel, grinding away like it's a song with something to prove.

10.) "Weird" Al Yankovic - "First World Problems"

- All hail the Weird One. Al's latest album is rife with spot-on pop parodies, but the man has always been a rock n' roller at heart. First World Problems, a surprisingly rocking original song that pays stylistic homage to the Pixies, shows Al's rock bonafides. It's even got supporting vocals from Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls. And in addition to being a pretty rockin' tune, it's also a typically hilarious example of Al's warped observational humor. Basically, it sort of seals the deal: Weird Al friggin' rocks, dude.


OTHER TOP POP SONGS OF 2014:

1. Iggy Azalea - "Fancy"
2. Charli XCX - "Break the Rules"
3. Jennifer Lawrence - "The Hanging Tree - Alternative Radio Mix"

THE BEST OF 2014 - The Best TV Of The Year

THE BEST OF 2014 - The Best TV Shows of The Year

- So it may not be hyperbole to call 2014 television's best year ever. In the wake of last year's Breaking Bad finale, I think there was a collective panic from industry insiders - was the Golden Age of TV over? Had Breaking Bad set the bar so high that it was all downhill from here? The answer was, in fact, a resounding "no." Breaking Bad did raise the bar, but a number of new and returning dramas stepped up admirably to fill the void. 

You guys know that I'm a huge pop-culture junkie. I watch a lot of TV. But there was no possible way I could keep up with the tidal wave of good stuff this year. In fact, no one could. There was good TV coming from broadcast, cable, and premium networks. There was even more good TV coming from Netflix. And Amazon. And any number of other places. In 2015, we're going to get a new season of Community via Yahoo. We're going to get a new Tina Fey-penned comedy - originally meant for NBC - premiering on Netflix. We're going to watch via streaming, EST, VOD, TVE, and DVR. There's too much content, no question. Luckily, so much of it is good that if you don't have a great show or two that you're into, well, you're clearly living in a cave. 

All of a sudden, IFC is doing great shows. Comedy Central is on an incredible hot streak, helping to usher in a TV comedy renaissance that led to tons of laughs this year. Some of TV's best shows are only getting better - with Game of Thrones having its best-ever season, and Key & Peele emerging as *the* must-see comedy on TV. New shows blew me away with their quality and originality. True Detective, Fargo, Broad City, Penny Dreadful. Even shows that I dismissed have apparently gotten better. Last year, everyone seemed with me as I unceremoniously dropped the likes of Arrow and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. from my DVR. Now, all I hear is how I need to get back onboard. Speaking of superheroes, there were tons of them on TV this year. Some of the new comic book shows bombed, but others soared. The Flash is probably my favorite new show of the 2014 Fall TV season -a fun, fast-paced series unashamed of its comic book roots. 

Perhaps no show best summarizes the state of TV in 2014 as well as Black Mirror - a British series that actually first premiered in the UK back in 2011. Here is a series that was mostly unknown in the US, but then suddenly dropped on Netflix in December and became an instant viral sensation. This modern twist on The Twilight Zone - a sci-fi anthology that tells darkly-tinged stories about the dangers of technology - received no promotion, no advertising ... it simply went live on Neflix and word-of-mouth did the rest. 

The other mega-hit that sort of defines 2014 for me wasn't even actually a TV show, but a podcast. More and more over the last few years, I've found podcasts a great way to go more in-depth on a particular area of interest. But Serial was the first podcast that I listened to with the same sense of what-will-happen-next urgency with which I watch my favorite TV series. Serial quickly became a genuine pop-culture phenomenon, and it's yet another sign that great content is now coming from just about everywhere, in many shapes and forms. You can compare Serial to old radio serials, or to true-crime TV, or to This American Life (from which it spun out), but the fact is ... this is pretty much uncharted territory. Listening to Serial felt like an entirely new kind of entertainment experience for me. Like many, I suspect, I went in skeptical, but quickly became a believer. Ironically, in a world in which we're all encouraged to buy huge, vivid, LED TV's, many of us found ourselves, in 2014, huddled around our listening device of choice, enraptured by an audio-only serialized narrative. Who would have thought?

It's exciting. In the early days of TV, scripted series were crafted like stage plays. Only later did TV embrace more cinematic storytelling. Now we're sort of seeing TV series evolve to fully embrace all the new ways that people are watching them. We're seeing shows made for binge-watching, shows made for streaming, shows made for web-watching, and some shows that aren't really TV at all. From narrative podcasts like Serial to serialized story-based games like Telltale's The Walking Dead - it's a brave new world of content. It's all happening. Just remember to go outside once in a while.


DANNY'S TOP TV SHOWS OF 2014:


1. FARGO

- I was skeptical going in, but Fargo very quickly became an absolute must-watch. With the same sort of wit, humor, and sense of creeping dread as the Coen Bros. classic, but with a sensibility all its own, writer Noah Hawley's FX masterwork was the best thing on TV this year. The cast was off-the-charts good - Billy Bob Thornton played a villain for the ages, Alison Tohlman emerged as a bright new star, and Martin Freeman lay claim to yet another instantly-iconic role. The look and feel of the show was utterly cinematic - paying homage to the film while also carving out its own aesthetic. But ultimately, what I loved about the show was the same thing that makes the film an all-time favorite: Fargo is a left-of-center look at the best and worst of humanity - examining good, evil, and they grey spaces in between. 

2. TRUE DETECTIVE

- It was a close race for the #1 spot this year, and for me it was a near toss-up between Fargo and True Detective. I gave Fargo the slight edge, but man, True Detective was an absolute powerhouse of a show. For one thing, the acting of Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson was titanic. This was some of the best-ever acting on TV. McConaughey wowed as the ultra-intense, scarred-by-evil Rust. Harrelson blew the doors off as powder-keg, would-be family man Marty. The show reminded me of past favorites like Millennium, in that it wasn't content with just being a procedural cop show, but pushed further to instead become a meditation on the nature of evil. The show took on a tinge of existential horror, leading many to believe supernatural elements were waiting in the wings. But True Detective, ultimately, didn't need otherdimensional creatures to make an impact. It did so by showing us the dark side of what ordinary humans are capable of.

3. GAME OF THRONES

- I've loved Game of Thrones since the first episode, but there was always a slight feeling of inconsistency. The great moments were at times nestled between a lot of padding. Not so this year. This year, Game of Thrones delivered one genuine "holy $%&#!" moment after another, blowing up social media and inspiring endless cries of "no spoilers!" The fact is, GoT was an absolute must-watch this year - and it had everything - from gladiatorial battles to patricide to dragons to ice-zombies to all-out-war. Filled with great, iconic performances and an unmatched sense of epicness, this was the year that Game of Thrones went from almost-great to just plain awesome.

4. NATHAN FOR YOU

- In a year that was a TV comedy renaissance, Nathan For You - and its unlikely star Nathan Fielder - reigned supreme. Nathan For You was good in Season 1, but Season 2 raised the bar and delivered one classic episode after another. The only thing I can rightly compare it to is Da Ali G Show at its peak - because Nathan's ability to meld brilliant sketch ideas with real-world, mostly oblivious-to-the-joke marks is second only to that of the great Sacha Baron Cohen. What's more, Nathan feels like the comedy hero we needed in 2014 - a deadpan geek who mercilessly mocks the consumer culture we find ourselves so squarely immersed in. His outlandish business ideas and get-rich-quick schemes often have a strangely sound logic behind them, but it's Nathan's unflappable commitment to his character and his ideas that sells the joke each and every time.

5. THE AMERICANS

- This show keeps getting better and better. Season 2 of The Americans upped the tension in the Jennings household, increasingly showing the toll that Philip and Elizabeth's double lives takes on both them and their not-so-little-anymore kids. Seeing Philip's fractured psyche start to collapse, as he balances multiple lives and multiple identities, was incredibly compelling. And Matthew Rhys and Kerri Russell (and Noah Emmerich - so great on this show) continue to do top-tier work here. To me, this is the heir apparent of Breaking Bad - a sophisticated, smart, satirical peak down the rabbit hole, showing us the darkest side of the American Dream

6. KEY & PEELE

- I've been a fan of Key & Peele from the start, but this year the show really upped its game, becoming a true must-watch, each episode delivering multiple instantly-viral sketches that will forever live in the TV comedy cannon. The show looks amazing - with movie-quality direction. And Key & Peele seem to be able to do anything - playing every sort of character under the sun. This is the best sketch comedy going today - not relying on gimmicks or recurring characters, but just trying out material, experimenting, and making some of the funniest comedy out there in the process.

7. MASTERS OF SEX

- The most compelling relationship on TV these days is the one between Michael Sheen's Dr. William Masters and Lizzy Caplan's Virginia Masters. The push and pull between them, the delicate balance of love, hate, resentment, attraction, repulsion, respect, and co-dependency is fascinating, and Sheen and Caplan absolutely kill it on this show. Michael Sheen needs to be in the conversation around best performance in a TV drama. He is phenomenal on Masters of Sex - and has delivered some of 2014's best, most memorable, most devastating TV moments as this character. The show excels at depicting this central relationship, but it also has so much to say about men, women, and America - where it's been and where it is. What's funny is how sex is, in some ways, the least essential part of the show. But rest assured, this is one of TV's best.

8. COSMOS

-  All hail Neil DeGrasse Tyson and his unyielding commitment to making science awesome. Cosmos was educational, informative, and often mind-blowing in its depiction of life, the universe, and everything. But it also was a show with a bit of a chip on its shoulder, relentlessly making the case for science, for the scientific method, for the importance of facts over fallacy. In a world in which influential groups and individuals deny science itself - deny evolution, climate change, genetics - Cosmos was a meticulously-presented refutation to the deniers, and a poignant affirmation to everyone else - of the power and awe-inspiring nature of the universe. Each episode left you feeling awed, humbled, and curious. 

9. COMMUNITY

- Community seemed poised for cancellation in 2014, and when word came down, cries of "Six Seasons and a Movie" swelled from the faithful. And with good reason. After a so-so, Dan Harmon-less Season 4, Season 5 was downright next-level, with all-time classic episodes that hit in rapid succession. From "Repilot" to "App Development and Condiments," from "Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" to "G.I. Jeff," Community went totally off its rocker in S5, did pretty much whatever the hell it wanted, and in the process created a whole bunch of awesome. Six Seasons and a Movie indeed.

10. ORPHAN BLACK

-  At this year's Comic-Con, I saw fans cheering, applauding, crying, and basically going absolutely bat-$&%# crazy for Orphan Black, and for its multi-talented star Tatiana Maslaney. And with good reason, I think. The show can be messy, uneven at times. Its underlying mythology is still a little weaksauce, and the less said about the "Tony" episode, the better. But beneath all that lies the biggest beating heart of any show on TV. We love these sorts of genre shows because we feel like we're along for the ride as characters we love get put through hell, beat the odds, and emerge stronger for it. And no show makes you root for its underdog characters as does Orphan Black, with the unlikely members of its "Clone Club" (each played, in a performance that continues to amaze, by Maslaney) serving as some of TV's most fun and most badass heroes. Want strong female characters? Orphan Black has 'em in spades. It's no wonder then that when the twisty, action-packed Season 2 culminated in an all-clone dance party, it was one of the most purely joyful TV moments of the year. 


The Next Best:


11. BOARDWALK EMPIRE

- Boardwalk's truncated final season got off to a shaky start, but business really picked up as the series finale drew near. In the final summation, Boardwalk was a fantastic show - a brilliantly-woven tapestry of a certain time and place in American history, a look at how the American Dream was sold away to criminals and gangsters. There were so many great, award-worthy performances on the show, but when all is said and done, I have to give credit to Steve Buscemi as Enoch "Nucky" Thompson. It was a quietly powerful performance - a man who thought himself above the fray, but who, ultimately, is undone by his own sins.

12. BROAD CITY

- Don't be surprised if Broad City is even higher on this list next year. It came out of the gate firing on all cylinders, yet another hilarious show in Comedy Central's re-tooled lineup that provided a forum for fresh, funny voices. In this case, the voices belonged to Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, a comedy duo that shows that women can do brilliantly stupid stoner comedy just as well as the guys. Their New York-set misadventures are weird and funny, but there's also an authenticity to these two that you can't manufacture. There's no filter here - these girls are doing their thing and I'm just thankful we get to watch.

13. JUSTIFIED

-  Year-in-and-year-out, Justified is one of the best damn shows on TV, and certainly among the most badass. I sort of feel like I'm underrating this past season, only because while it might have been just a bit of an off year for the show, it still delivered a Stetson's-worth of great moments. Sadly, Justified often flies under the awards-show radar, but Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins - not to mention the kickass supporting cast - just kill it week-in, week-out. And I'll say this: now that there's a bit of a sense of urgency, with the upcoming season being the show's last ... there's absolutely no TV show I'm looking forward to more in 2015 than Justified's last ride.

14. THE GOLDBERGS

-  By the end of Season 1, The Goldbergs had become the best sitcom on broadcast TV. It was sort of a throwback - funny and offbeat, but also charming and sweet. The Goldbergs' nostalgic vision of 1980-something suburbia is like looking through an old photo album, and the callbacks to the pop-culture of my youth are always handled with clear and genuine affection. But the Goldbergs is no mere nostalgia-machine. The writing is clever and the jokes are spot-on. My only concern is that Season 2 has grown just a bit same-y and repetitive. Here's hoping for a Goldberg golden age in 2015.

15. PENNY DREADFUL

- This show seemed made just for me. An Alan Moore-esque Victorian horror-adventure series that combined literature's great monsters into one pulpy universe? Sold and sold. But I'll admit, the first episode of the show left me wondering if it would really be all that I hoped. As it turns out, the show evolved into something truly special over time. The biggest revelation was Eva Green as the enigmatic Vanessa Ives. As we learned more about Ms. Ives' inner demons (both figurative and literal), the show became a true tour de force, with Eva Green doing some drop-dead amazing acting that elevated the show to instant cult-fave. More, please.

16. BROOKLYN NINE-NINE

- Brooklyn Nine-Nine's ensemble is very, very strong - and that's led to some of the funniest TV of the last year. Samberg is the headliner, but Andre Braugher is the MVP. His Captain Ray Holt has quickly become one of TV's best and funniest characters, with a deadpan delivery that kills. But the rest of the cast - Terry Crews, Joe Lo Truglio, Chelsea Peretti - have also really stepped up, in a way that reminds me of early Parks and Rec. All the ingredients are there for B99 to become something truly great, and I think 2015 may be its year.

17. SILICON VALLEY

- 2014 marked the return of Mike Judge to TV, and for a brief moment, all was right with the world. Silicon Valley had all the hallmarks of classic Judge, calling to mind things like Office Space and King of the Hill - with Judge's satirical eye now turned towards the tech industry. The cast of the show was great, especially standout TJ Miller. And the way that the show skewered the real silicon valley was nothing short of brilliant. If this was the year that the nerds took over the world, then Silicon Valley showed what it is that we have wrought, warts and all.

18. 24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY

- Yes, there is a part of me that wants to rank this higher. It's hard to judge Jack Bauer and co. objectively, because no matter its faults, I love 24 without reservation, and nothing made me happier in 2014, TV-wise, than having the JACK BAUER BY-GOD POWER HOUR back on TV, with Jack dispensing gravitas and kicking-ass like it was 2004 again. The end of 24 had really caused a void on TV, a void that needed to be filled. And thank the lord, 24 returned to give us the badass TV show we wanted and needed. And this wasn't just a nostalgia-run. Kiefer Sutherland was in top form, and the return of beloved favorites (Chloe! Heller!) and the introduction of new ones (welcome Yvonne Strahovski!) made this 24 resurrection a true TV event.

19. PARKS & RECREATION

- Parks is one of my favorite TV comedies of the last ten years, and man, I'll be sad to see it go when it finales over the next several weeks. Season 6 sputtered a bit at times, with certain stories feeling a bit dragged out and overdone. But the show rallied late in the season, delivering some flat-out classics, and then shocking us all with an unexpected time-jump cliffhanger to cap things off. Parks is still one of the best - with an all-star cast that I have no doubt will bring us a memorable final season. Saying goodbye to Pawnee is going to be *literally* one of hardest farewells in TV history.

20. AMERICAN HORROR STORY

- Few shows are so all-over-the-place, yet so can't-stop-watching entertaining, as AHS. The final few episodes of Coven ended strong, and so far, Freakshow has been an odd but fascinating iteration of the show - toning down the horror in favor of general weirdness and character-driven soap-opera. But man, even when the storylines don't add up, the cast makes things ever-interesting. I could watch Jessica Lange's Elsa Mars spout oddball insights and lurid anecdotes all day. For sheer, jaw-dropping WTF-ness, it doesn't get any better.

21. NEW GIRL

- After a rough Season 3, New Girl has really bounced back for Season 4 - once again finding the absurdist center at the bottom of the weekly tootsie-pop that made Season 2 really shine. Max Greenfield continues to kill it on this show, with Schmidt giving voice to weekly witticisms that make New Girl, still, one of the most quotable comedies on TV. At its best, New Girl is home to some of the sharpest writing on TV, and can, on a good day, make me laugh harder than anything else out there.

22. SHERLOCK

- I binge-watched through Sherlock this year, and I finally got the hype around the series. Really, it's all in the endlessly-entertaining back-and-forth dialogue. Watching Benedict Cumberbatch's socially-inept Sherlock try to fit in with the rest of humanity is the show's ace-in-the-hole, and that was nowhere more evident than in Season 3's way-too-fun wedding episode. Season 3 also brought back arch-enemy extraordinaire Moriarty, and left the door open for even more adventures to come. Can't come soon enough, says I. 

23. THE FLASH

- My favorite new show of the 2014 Fall TV season, The Flash is pure geekgasm-inducing joy for the DC Comics faithful. Borrowing heavily from classic runs on The Flash comics, the show stands out for actually embracing its superhero and sci-fi premise, showing us a full-fledged superhero, in full costume, doing superhero-y things and going on superhero-y adventures. Imagine that - a show that seems proud and reverential of its comic book origins. It's what makes The Flash one of TV's most purely entertaining series.

24. GARFUNKEL & OATES

- The great Comedy Explosion of 2014 continued as cult comedy faves Garfunkel & Oates got their own show on IFC. I really dug it. The two have a unique sensibility and the observational humor is often spot-on. Match that with the catchy and deceptively biting songs, and you've got yourself a winner. With this, Portlandia, and Maron, IFC had a winning 2014.

25. BATES MOTEL

- Bates Motel has really found its footing as a quirky mash-up of CW teen drama and Twin Peaks-esque small-town weirdness. And, you know, Psycho. Norman Bates is still not quite a psycho-killer, but he's well on his way, and watching him downward-spiral into the abyss has made for some fascinating TV. Freddie Highmore is still fantastic as Norman, and Vera Farmiga turns in one of TV's strangest yet most endearing performances each week as Norma. This show is well-worth a binge-watch if you've yet to get onboard.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

- Portlandia
- Maron
- Sleepy Hollow

SPECIAL MENTION: 

a.) THE COLBERT REPORT

- Fare thee well, Stephen Colbert. For years, The Colbert Report has been the spot-on satire we needed, a show that somehow transcended its initial gimmick to become one of the smartest, funniest, and downright essential shows on TV. I congratulate Colbert on his new gig as Letterman's late-night replacement, but man, I will miss the "Stephen Colbert" character. I can only hope that others will step up to fill the void. In the meantime, hats off to Colbert, as it's been a legendary run.

b.) HELLO LADIES

- I did want to mention the fantastic special that aired this winter on HBO, wrapping up one of my favorite shows of 2013. The Hello Ladies special was a brilliant closer to Stephen Merchant's show, and I can only hope that we don't go long without more wonderfully-awkward cringe-comedy from Merchant and his co-conspirators.


INDIVIDUAL AWARDS:


The Best TV Heroes of 2014:

1.) Molly Solverson - Fargo
2.) Raylan Givens - Justified
3.) Vanessa Ives - Penny Dreadful
4.) Sarah Manning, Alison Hendrix, and Cosima Niehaus - Orphan Black
5.) Barry Allen - The Flash 


The Best TV Villains of 2014:

1.) Lorne Malvo - Fargo
2.) King Joffrey - Game of Thrones
3.) Tywin Lanister - Game of Thrones
4.) Boyd Crowder - Justified
5.) Al Capone  - Boardwalk Empire


The Best TV Anti-Heroes of 2013:

1.) Rust and Marty - True Detective
2.) Philip and Elizabeth Jennings - The Americans
3.) The Hound - Game of Thrones
4.) Nucky Thompson - Boardwalk Empire
5.) Helena - Orphan Black


Best Actress in a Comedy:

1.)  - Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer - Broad City

Runners Up: Amy Poehler - Parks and Recreation, Carrie Brownstein - Portlandia


Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy:

1.) Wendi McLendon-Covey - The Goldbergs

Runners Up: Gillian Jacobs - Community, Alison Brie - Community


Best Actor in a Comedy:

1.) Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key - Key & Peele

Runners Up: Max Greenfield - New Girl, Jake Johnson - New Girl  


Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy:

1.) TJ Miller - Silicon Valley

Runners Up: Nick Offermann - Parks and Recreation, Hannibal Buress - Broad City, Troy Gentile - The Goldbergs


Best Actress in a Drama:

1.) Lizzy Caplan - Masters of Sex

Runners Up: Eva Green - Penny Dreadful, Tatiana Maslaney - Orphan Black, Alison Tohlman - Fargo, Jessica Lange - American Horror Story


Best Supporting Actress in a Drama:

1.)  Maisie Williams - Game of Thrones

Runners Up: Annaleigh Ashford - Masters of Sex, Emilia Clarke - Game of Thrones, Angela Bassett - American Horror Story: Freakshow


Best Actor in a Drama:

1.) Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson - True Detective

Runners Up: Matthew Rhys - The Americans, Martin Freeman - Fargo, Michael Sheen - Masters of Sex


Best Supporting Actor in a Drama:

1.) Michael Shannon - Boardwalk Empire

Runners Up:  Walton Goggins - Justified, Noah Emmerich - The Americans, Charles Dance - Game of Thrones, Peter Dinklage - Game of Thrones


And that's all, folks - my picks for the best TV of 2014.

THE INTERVIEW, In Hilarious Fashion, Leaves No Target Un-Besmirched

THE INTERVIEW Review:

- Never did I anticipate that THE INTERVIEW would become the international incident that it has. I won't spend time recapping the sheer insanity that has occurred over the last few weeks, except to say that, improbably, an over-the-top Seth Rogen/James Franco comedy has become the talk of the world, and has therefore attracted the attention - and drawn the scrutiny - of an unlikely assemblage of film critics, journalists, politicians, and seemingly everyone else in the known universe. People who never would have seen this movie have seen it. People with delicate constitutions. People who don't find an hour and a half of brilliantly-crafted dick jokes all that funny or interesting. People whose definition of good comedy starts and ends at pre-00's TV sitcoms. I'm not here to insult anyone, but as someone who always tries to talk about movies in the context of what they are and what they're trying to be, I have to give a finger of shame to all those talking out of turn about THE INTERVIEW. If you don't like or don't understand this style of humor, then don't watch it, and for the love of all that is holy, don't provide your highly-subjective opinion like its the gospel. The fact is,  the state of comedy in America is in a really weird place, and has been for a long time. We live in an age of niche comedy, where mom and dad can happily laugh along to TV Land re-runs while their teenaged kids crack up to obscure Adult Swim animation. And each presumes that the other's preferred brand of comedy is garbage. In an age where it's easy to go down the rabbit hole and become a hardcore fan of something, we're seeing an increasing divide between the comedy nerds and the people who know nerds from their favorite show, The Big Bang Theory. What comedy nerds know is that a lot of great comedy is, on the surface, completely dumb. But they also know that it takes a real brilliance to make great dumb comedy, and that often even the raunchiest, silliest comedy contains its own unique form of genius.

So listen up, people. If you're going to critique comedy, then understand what makes good comedy. Understand that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are very smart people who are very good at what they do. Understand that there is a cleverness to their films, a sense of comedic timing, and an underlying wit that is leagues ahead of more pandering-to-the-lowest-common-denominator comedies that THE INTERVIEW will inevitably get lumped in with by people who don't know any better. I'm not trying to be a jerk or a snob here, I'm just urging people to give their thoughts more educated context then "derp, The Interview sucked, I didn't laugh once - those guys are idiots!" No. Appreciate the art-form or keep your views to yourself. Or, at the least, have the good sense to acknowledge that the film just isn't your cup of tea, so you may not be the best-qualified to speak on it. I get it - there's an undeniable absurdity in the idea that *this*, of all movies, was the one that became a rallying cry for freedom of speech, that led to Presidential comments and political debates. Because of that, there's inevitably going to be a backlash, both overt and more passive-aggressive. I can't tell you how many times I've read: "I had no interest in this stupid movie, but I'll see it because patriotism." Again: no. See it or don't see it - that's your call. But don't be blind to the point here, the point which your passive-aggressive qualifiers are in fact undermining: that, by-god, we live in a country where we are free to be funny in whatever manner we choose. We live in a country in which comedy *can* be celebrated as an art form - a place where the very *idea* of comedy - cutting through the barriers of convention and getting at some greater Truth (even if said truth is absurd) - is valid.

So how is THE INTERVIEW? I wouldn't put it quite at the sublime laugh-riot levels of last year's This Is The End, or even say that it's as good as the bro's vs. schmoes brilliance of this summer's Neighbors. But it is really, really funny. In many ways, it's the silliest movie that Seth Rogen has yet made, with a lot of very over-the-top cartoonish gags, with barely a foot - or even a toe - in reality. And that might not be everyone's bag, but I think it fits. A place as strange and fundamentally absurd as Kim Jong Un's North Korea deserves to be treated absurdly. And a guy who claims to talk to dolphins and to not defecate simply has to be taken to task and skewered. When the reality is so fundamentally silly, so too is the satire.

As always though, Rogen and Goldberg's script isn't *really* even about North Korea, but instead about two man-children who are forced to (at least slightly) grow up. Rogen plays Aaron, a TV producer who left a career in more serious journalism to work on a fluffy, Access Hollywood-style entertainment show. James Franco plays Dave, the over-eager host of the show who is also Aaron's best friend and biggest bad-influence. When Aaron finds out that Kim Jong Un is in fact a fan of his show, he sees it as a chance to branch out to covering more serious subject matter. He arranges an interview with Un, but before he and Dave can head to North Korea, they are confronted by the FBI. Given the access to the notorious dictated that Dave is set to be granted, the feds want Dave to be the catalyst for a top-secret assassination plot.

Rogen and Franco are a well-matched comedic duo, with Rogen's stoner every-man a good foil for Franco's slightly-crazed eccentric. Franco goes full-on broad with his comedy here, and goes full-throttle with his "I AM ACTING FUNNY IN A COMEDY MOVIE" affectation. It gets a little grating at times, and I do wonder if the movie would have worked a bit better had Franco toned it down just a tad. But Rogen's more grounded character - and the overall sharpness of the script - helps to offset the fact that Franco is slightly overdoing it. The fact is, the situations Franco finds himself in are completely insane, and so his slightly insane character is not completely out of place. As it turns out, Franco's Dave befriends the fawning Kim Jong Un, who acts like an insecure dork who's just become the best friend of the coolest kid in school. Un tries to impress Dave with his cars, tanks, food, and women, and the easily-manipulated Dave soon finds himself warming up to the childlike Un. Randall Park plays Kim Jong Un to perfection - he comes off as an overgrown kid who balances moments of charm with moments of unbridled psychopathic scariness. The running joke is that Un is pretty much stuck in a phase of teenage insecurity - worried that liking Margaritas and Katy Perry might make him gay (responds Franco: "If liking margaritas and Katy Perry makes you gay, then who would ever want to be straight?"), and spinning all manner of absurd lies about his supposed god-like status. But Park is great here - extremely funny, but also scary and effective as a villain when need be.

There are some great supporting players who also knock it out of the park here. Lizzy Caplan goes above and beyond as Agent Lacey, Aaron and Dave's ultra-competent and perpetually frustrated handler. Diana Bang is also a standout as Sook, a top-ranking lieutenant of Kim Jong Un who harbors feelings of resentment for her supreme leader. Bang really kicks some ass here, and also displays a real knack for comedy in some of her scenes with Rogen. Also, have to give a shout-out to Veep's Timothy Simons, who has a really small role but delivers maybe the funniest line of the film during an extended Lord of the Rings riff.

Evan Goldberg really shows off his directorial chops here. The film foregoes the bright, hyper-saturated look of most modern comedies, instead looking more like the sort of action/thriller that the movie seeks to lampoon. And when the action heats up, it's super well-directed, with some hilarious yet pretty-damn-badass fight scenes and even a tank chase. Yep.

If you don't like scatalogical humor, then you should probably avoid this one altogether. But man, for those of us who can appreciate well-honed raunch, THE INTERVIEW delivers it in spades. But again, you've got to respect the extent to which Rogen and Goldberg know exactly what they're doing with the movie's humor - gleefully undermining every (and I mean every) moment with the potential for serious dramatic weight with something silly and wonderfully absurd. There are occasionally stretches where the movie flatlines just a bit, but overall, it produces pretty great gags on a consistent basis.

It's all pretty silly and funny, but I do think there's a method to at least some of the madness. There are no sacred cows here - the joke is on Rogen and Franco's characters as much as it is on anyone else. But beneath the absurdity there's also a pretty biting takedown of Kim Jong Un's North Korea - not in a way that's incredibly substantive or serious, but more so in that the movie 100% calls out Un on everything about him that, in real-life, is just as silly and absurd as it's portrayed in the film. The movie holds up a funhouse mirror to Un, imagining a world in his image - where everyone acts with all the reason and enlightenment of a moody fifteen-year-old. This is the absurdity that a guy like Un deserves thrown back at him. In the 40's, Hitler was punched out by patriotic re-imaginings of his concept of the "ubermensch" - KO'd by the likes of Captain America and Superman. In the 80's, we imagined rugged lone wolves like Rambo to singlehandedly take down the Communist machine. Now, for the guy who talks to dolphins and has no butthole, it's hard to argue that cult-comedy stoner maestros Rogen and Franco are the unlikely, absurdist heroes that Kim Jong Un deserves.

Is THE INTERVIEW a comedy classic worthy of the special place in history it shall now receive? Debatable. But is it the kind of ballsy movie that's worth rallying around, as an example of freedom of speech at its most free? Yes it is. This isn't a dumb movie - its characters are dumb, but the people behind the scenes know that, and they know what they're doing here. They've made a very funny film, but it also happens to be a film that stands for something: the All-American idea that no one, be they your best friend or the dictator of a foreign power, is above getting some egg on their face. Especially if said egg is well and rightly deserved. It's fitting then that the film fades out to the over-the-top power chords of the Scorpions' "Winds of Change." Comedy is just another form of rock n' roll, baby. A little dirty, a little misunderstood ... but man, it can help to tear down those walls more than you might think.

My Grade: A-

CALVARY Is a Sweeping Cinematic Elegy

CALVARY Review:

Father James: I think there's too much talk about sins, and not enough about virtues.
Fiona: What would be your number one?
Father James: I think forgiveness has been highly underrated.

- From writer/director John Michael McDonagh, CALVARY is a darkly funny, elegiac, and downright badass film. Set in a small Irish town where everyone knows everyone, the film opens with a stunning scene: local priest Father James (the great Brendan Gleeson) sits in his confessional booth, listening as an unseen man states his intent to kill him in one week's time. Why? Because the man was molested by a priest as a child, and now he feels that someone must suffer for the sins of the Church. He doesn't want to kill a bad priest, because few would take note. Instead, he wants to kill a good priest, a good man like Father James. That, he feels, would be a meaningful sacrifice. From there, the film follows Father James through the next seven days - and as he interacts with the various locals (many of whom are having some sort of crisis of faith), our list of potential suspects for the would-be murderer grows. The film is only part mystery though. It's also a meditation on faith and sin. Father James' struggle is not just to avoid being murdered, but to avoid what that murder would represent: the death of a community, of a faith, of a way of life. As James tries to make peace with his life, with his congregants, with his formerly-estranged daughter - we come to see him for what he is: the last good priest. He's the last bastion of what his faith could have been had it not all been flushed away by lies and sin and corruption. It's a hell of a story, and a hell of a film.

John Michael McDonagh clearly shares his brother Martin's (In Bruges) knack for beautifully-written, bitingly funny, eminently quotable dialogue. There is a wonderful poetry to the script of this film, and it's a joy to listen to the witticisms and observations that are spoken by these characters. At the same time, the film looks incredible. Never have I wanted to visit Ireland so badly as I have while watching CALVARY. Sweeping views of the green Irish countryside, epic shots of the crashing waves along the shoreline, and many smaller, more personal moments that are also impeccably framed and only accentuate the film's drama and humor.

The anchor of this film is undoubtedly Gleeson. What a performance. Gleeson delivers in so many ways as Father James, making him an incredibly human, multifaceted character. James is a good man, but he's also got a dark past that haunts him. He steadfastly believes in the good that the church can do, but his eyes are also open to the rot that infects it. There's no question that the film paints James as sort of a Christ-like figure, but that in no way detracts from the raw humanity of the character. What the film does do is make James' plight about something bigger than just him. And we see that weight of responsibility, that burden in Gleeson's narrowed eyes as he walks the beach, as he converses with person after person who seems to have lost their faith. James is a man of the people - he hangs at the local pub, cracks jokes with kids, and is accepting of all types. He is a simple man in many ways: he believes in goodness, and forgiveness, and that people can change (in one of the film's most powerful scenes, he goes to visit an old student who's been locked away for murder, praying for some semblance of remorse or hope for redemption). But he faces a world that seems to corrupt that ethos on an all-too-regular basis. Gleeson is so good here, and just super badass to boot. His singular presence, matched with McDonagh's sharp dialogue, is a match made in cinematic heaven.

The rest of the cast is great, filled with fine actors who collectively paint a vivid portrait of a town, and of a way of life, on its last legs. Game of Thrones' Aidan Gillen is fantastic as a hedonistic, atheist doctor who gets a rise out of antagonizing Father James and his beliefs. M. Emmet Walsh is fantastic as an aging writer planning for his looming death. Dylan Moran is memorably smarmy as a millionaire who finds no pleasure in people, possessions, or anything at all. Chris O'Dowd shows real dramatic chops as a troubled man whose wife is cheating on him. Domhnall Gleeson (who I just realized is the son of Brendan, and who is having a banner year) is disturbingly twisted (his M.O. these days) as the aforementioned unrepentant killer. And Kelly Reilly is a real standout as James' back-in-town daughter, Fiona, who returns to her father's care after a failed suicide attempt.

As someone who's fascinated by religion, and the role of religion in modern society, I couldn't help but get really caught up on the meaning and significance of this film. It helps that the movie is so thoughtful and witty in its musings about the church. It's funny, I've known many religious leaders who were good. People who consoled the sick, helped grieving families, mentored children, and were, overall, the kind of people who inspire and set a good example. But how to reconcile those people - and all the good that can come from religion and faith - with all the bad? CALVARY looks closely at that quandary, serving as a mournful (but also darkly funny) eulogy for the Good Men, for the Father James of the world. The men pushed out and away from forces both internal and external. CALVARY tells the tale in grand, funny, badass, epic fashion.

My Grade: A-

UNDER THE SKIN Is Mesmerizing and Strange Indie Sci-Fi

UNDER THE SKIN Review:

- This is one of those movies that's really hard to review and definitively relay my thoughts on. Immediately after viewing it, I was convinced that it was sort of a mess. I thought it was indulgent, overly-long and slow, and just sort of pretentious in that "man, this is *really* trying too hard to be indie-arthouse-cool" way. And yet ... I couldn't stop thinking about the movie after watching it (and no, not just because it features a very naked Scarlett Johansson). Certain scenes in the film kept rolling over in my mind. I think there's something about the way the film is presented - in an almost hypnotic, trance-like way - that gives it a sticky quality. It's certainly a movie that I won't soon forget.

UNDER THE SKIN casts Johansson as a mysterious alien being who has come to earth to (for reasons not quite known) kill humans. Presumably, she is using her prey as some sort of food or fuel - humans are a resource to be exploited. What's more clear is how she is going about this grisly business. Having taken the form of an attractive human female, the unnamed alien roams the streets of Scotland, looking for victims. The alien has just enough understanding of human speech and behavior to do her job. And, looking as she does (like, er, Scarlett Johansson ...), the alien is able to fairly easily seduce lonely men and lure them back to her lair. Once there, the seduction continues, culminating in the men being led into a murky pool of black goo (beckoned by the sultry Scarlett, they barely realize what's happening), where they are trapped - frozen in a toxic bath that slowly reduces them to near-nothingness.

These seduction scenes are initially a bit repetitive. But they are also eerie as all hell, and they're where director Jonathan Glazer really shines. At times, Glazer's direction is almost maddeningly methodical. But in these scenes, it's downright hypnotic. Everything is shot in an abstract manner that makes the alien's pit of blackness feel 100% alien. There's a lack of physics and geometry in the scenes that throws off your equilibrium and induces real feelings of dread. What the hell is happening? With each seduction scene, we get a slightly more complete picture of the fate that awaits these poor saps - and as we discover more, the whole scenario only gets creepier.

Apparently, some of the scenes in which Scarlett first meets and picks up these men were shot sans actors, meaning she actually just sort of cruised the streets incognito and chatted up guys. There is definitely an unscripted feel to some of the scenes that makes them that much more unsettling. It really does feel like her character is stalking and preying on these men. However, where the film starts to *really* get interesting is when the alien encounters a deformed man. Her main criteria for selecting victims is, primarily, that they are men without families or close relations who will miss them when they're gone. But she hadn't really considered other factors, and the deformed man's deeply ingrained trauma throws her for a loop. Before, she had only seen men as animals. Now, she begins to question the morality of what she's doing. Throughout the second half of the film, the alien begins to yearn for more genuine human experience and emotional connection. But opening herself up in that way also makes her vulnerable, and sets her up to be a potential victim - to go from hunter to prey.

As mesmerizing as parts of the film are, I do think that Glazer overdoes things a bit with his stylized, art-film aesthetic. Certain moments lend themselves to the sorts of long, contemplative takes he favors. But not every moment benefits from the methodical pace. Prolonged shots of nothing in particular feel unneeded. Basically, the movie constantly walks a fine line between artfully methodical and insufferably glacial. So many films - sci-fi in particular - could stand to slow things down and be less jumpy. But UNDER THE SKIN asks just a little too much of our patience at times. It also doesn't help that the narrative is kept so intentionally vague. The book on which the film is loosely based apparently provides a lot more back-story for the alien. But the film gives us little, despite throwing in lots of frustratingly vague moments meant to hint at the larger narrative. For example, we see lots of scenes of mysterious men on motorcycles following the alien around, presumably cleaning up her mess and keeping law enforcement at bay. Presumably. In truth, the movie provides next to no information about the motorcycle guys, so the continual cuts to them often feel like time-wasters.

And yet ... certain moments in the film are just *so* striking and unforgettable. The seduction scenes in the pit. The encounter between the alien and the deformed man. A later scene in which the alien realizes she's not as human as she thought. And notably, the climactic scene in which we finally get a glimpse of what's "under the skin," and see the alien's true form. Glazer does some amazing stuff here, and I give him credit for, at the least, trying something totally out-there and different with this film. There are certainly no easy or pat answers in this one, but it is a conversation starter. What does it mean to be human? To be a woman? To be an aggressor as opposed to a victim? Scarlett Johansson typically has that slightly off-kilter, detached affectation, and she cranks it up to eleven here. Perfectly cast, she makes the most of the part and really sells the whole unnerving, mind-bending aesthetic of the film.

UNDER THE SKIN can be tough to get through at times, but I think it's a must-watch for film fans and for sci-fi fans, if only to see something completely different and experimental. It took me a while to realize it, but this one most definitely got under my skin.

My Grade: B+

INTO THE WOODS Falls Flat

 INTO THE WOODS Review:

- Disney. Fairy tales. Musicals. It all goes together like chocolate and peanut-butter, right? In theory, yes, which is why I went into INTO THE WOODS feeling pretty good about this movie's chances. What I soon discovered, however, is that the film falls into the dreaded category of movie-adaptations-of-stage-musicals-that-still-feel-like-stage-musicals. I get that for fans of the stage play, there may be a certain thrill in seeing what they already know and love up on the big screen, spruced up with A-list acting talent and Hollywood f/x. But for everyone else, me included, I end up watching these sorts of films and wondering "why?" Film is a different medium than stage, and in theory you're not limited in a movie the same way you are in live performance. But INTO THE WOODS stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that. So we see the same locations pop up over and over. We see songs in which heroes frustratingly sing *about* great adventures, without us actually getting to see the adventures. And we have to go through the ritual of hearing lines meant to be delivered to the guy in the back of the auditorium, loudly and with a wink, delivered to no one in particular on-screen. Don't get me wrong, there are moments of INTO THE WOODS that really shine - and the cast is so good that they're able to sort of put the material on their backs and carry it to the finish line. But I felt like a lot had to have been lost in translation here. As is, this felt like a so-so album, from which I'd have preferred to just grab the big singles off iTunes rather than spring for the full enchilada.

Stephen Sondheim's stage version of Into the Woods first played to audiences in 1987, but before and since we've seen many, many iterations of this sort of revisionist fairy tale premise. Even in the world of Disney musicals, last year's Frozen utilized some similar tropes when skewering the traditional "Prince Charming" archetype. And so INTO THE WOODS' fractured fairy tale story feels only partly novel in this big screen adaptation. The tale centers around a humble baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) who desperately want to have a child - but find themselves unable to conceive. It's soon revealed that their inability to have children is in fact due to a witch's curse, struck upon the baker's father and intended to affect his entire bloodline. However, the witch (Meryl Streep) is in a bargaining mood: she agrees to remove the curse, if the baker and his wife procure a collection of items needed for the witch to cast a spell that will remove her own curse, restoring her beauty. As it happens, the items the baker needs are all fairy tale staples, and as he seeks them out it leads he and his wife into the woods, where they stumble upon the likes of Cinderella, Prince Charming, Jack (of Jack and the Beanstalk), Little Red Riding Hood, The Big Bad Wolf, and other storybook characters. The result is a greatest-hits version of many popular stories (many of which have, over the years, been themselves adapted into Disney films), except usually with a slight twist. The stories are all modified to better suit their interconnectedness, and each is given a darkly funny twist or two, in keeping with the film's arched-eyebrow approach to the classic fairy tales it gently skewers.

The problem is that the skewering is so gentle that it feels barely-there. Perhaps the film doesn't have quite the sharpened edge of the stage play, but it certainly doesn't have enough bite to feel all that novel, or even that funny. The film's funniest moments involve Chris Pine's Prince Charming, who - though we've seen this sort of take on the noble prince before - manages to be a high point with his over-the-top, self-involved swagger. Pine at least gets to play a character where the joke is clear. Meanwhile, other talented actors and performers are saddled with characters who feel only half-formed. Emily Blunt, for example, is absolutely giving it her all here and knocks all of her songs out of the park. But who is the Baker's Wife supposed to be, exactly? Some late-movie revelations about her character seem out-of-left-field and undercooked. And that's true of a lot of the movie's characters. The story tries to pack in so much that a lot of stuff feels rushed. I honestly had little idea what was going on with Meryl Streep's witch during the movie's second half. People who had seen the play later gave me the scoop. But the movie often seems to cut things short before we've even gotten the punchline or proper payoff.

Lack of payoff also means that, as mentioned, the movie seems unnecessarily beholden to the confines of the stage. Here's an example: Jack's big song about climbing his beanstalk and meeting (and stealing from) the giants who live in the clouds above. It's a fun song - and young actor Daniel Huttlestone nails it. But it also left me wondering why we were listening to Jack singing about giants rather than seeing Jack's adventures play out for ourselves. Director Rob Marshall - who also did the film version of Chicago - seems to forget that in a movie you can juxtapose whatever images you want over the songs. But instead of giants, we watch Jack swinging around a tree for ten minutes. Every so often, the stage-y direction works to the film's advantage - as when Chris Pine's Prince (who dotes after Anna Kendrick's Cinderella), and his brother, a Prince (played by Billy Magnussen, and who pines after Mackenzie Mauzy's Rapunzel) share a comedic song about their mutual anguish atop a waterfall. But more often than not, I was left wishing that the movie would break away from its source material and really go big with its visuals. Certainly, the subject matter calls for it.

What really keeps the film afloat is the cast. I've talked about Chris Pine and Emily Blunt, but Anna Kendrick, Meryl Streep, James Corden, and a host of others deserve credit for really giving it their all, and making most of the film's songs - even when they're not super-catchy - come off as spirited and energetic. I'll also give special mention to the movie's two kid leads - Daniel Huttlestone as Jack and Lilla Crawford as Little Red Riding Hood. Both are real scene-stealers, and they might just be the best performers, song-wise, in the movie. As for Johnny Depp as the Big Bad Wolf? He's okay. The Wolf seems like sort of a wasted character in the film - he appears relatively briefly, and doesn't make much of an impression beyond the fact that his costume is really lame. I mean, come on, this is a musical about fairy tales - who decided that the Wolf was just going to be a creepy guy with a mustache? It's another of the movie's odd aesthetic choices that seems to stubbornly insist on preserving the look and feel of the stage. 

I initially was charmed by INTO THE WOODS big opening number, but it turned out that the film just keeps losing steams as it goes. By the film's conclusion, it had become incredibly draggy. There are some bright spots along the way, but mostly, the jokes lack punch, the riffs on fairy tale characters seem obvious and not particularly clever, and the songs - while performed ably by the cast - are not particularly memorable. Hardcore fans of the musical may find bits and pieces to latch onto,  but it seems that whatever wit and cleverness was in the original has been, mostly, sliced and diced from this version. For most, this one is bound to fall flat.

My Grade: C