From the January 2015 issue of Sight and Sound. — J.R.

Horse Money
Director(s): Pedro Costa

Adieu au langage
Director(s): Jean-Luc Godard

 
Locke
Director(s): Steven Knight

 
The Owners
Director(s): Adilkhan Yerzhanov

 
Citizenfour
Director(s): Laura Poitras

TV vote
Borgen
Director(s): several

***

Remarks:
 
Sadly, I’ve had to omit two exceptional Iranian films (Reza Mirkarimi’s Today, Sepideh Farsi’s Red Rose), two exceptional performances by Juliette Binoche (Fred Schepisi & Gerald Di Pego’s Words and Pictures, Olivier Assayas’s Clouds of Sils Maria), Alain Resnais’ final feature (Life of Riley), and the belated appearance of Orson Welles’ unfinished and ancient but still-sprightly Too Much Johnson. But my top five continue to provoke and expand. Horse Money and The Owners need to travel more, and Locke, which feels like a classic heroic Western, deserves to be recognized as more than just a stunt or tour de force. Adieu au language re-invents 3-D and cinema, and Horse Money, like The Owners, Citizenfour, and Today (not to mention Borgen, in its own fashion). re-invents both the world and its moral prerogatives.