Movie Maven: Top film picks of 2014
January 02, 2015

Ralph Fiennes in 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'
Bob Yeoman/Fox Searchlight Pictures
Movie Maven Stephanie Curtis joins Jill Riley and Sean McPherson (in for Steve Seel) to discuss her picks of the best films of 2014. It's a useful list as we head into the depths of winter and into awards season.
Boyhood
Richard Linklater's labor of love, produced over the course of a decade, that chronicles 10 years in the life of a boy and the people in his life. "Scenes of it will come back to you," Stephanie says.Edge of Tomorrow
In this film, Tom Cruise plays a man who gets forced into being a soldier, and he ends up in a type of Groundhog Day scenario where he gets killed over and over. "It's an intricate, great movie," Stephanie says. "You wish that action films were more like this."Babadook
This horror film is available via streaming, and it is also playing at MSP Film Society. The story centers on a boy and his mother who have a sad life together. One night she reads a book to him called Mr Babadook … soon Mr. Babadook shows up. "It is absolutely petrifying," Stephanie says, "but it's got an emotional center to it. It's a great psychological thriller."Grand Budapest Hotel
"Everyone should see it," Stephanie says about this Wes Anderson film starring Ralph Fiennes as a hotel concierge trying to keep it together as World War II is beginning. "I absolutely loved it."MPR's Movie Maven, Stephanie Curtis, joins The Current's Morning Show to talk about films every Friday at 8:30 a.m.
