Watch This Super Pretty Montage of The Year’s 25 Best Movies

More often than not, montages are used as easy, quick-fix tools used to build drama in a scene that has none. Random objects are combined with other random objects then tied together with either orchestral or piano music to create a hokey magical sense of meaning. Still, I think it’s a bit of an overgeneralization to call montages bad, especially when some – like David Ehrlich’s 25 Best Movies of 2014 – are so, totally, good.

Ehrlich, who previously edited Film.com and now contributes to the AV Club, compiled a list of his 25 favorite films from 2014 (that many?), then spliced some of his favorite moments together in a montage. While I disagree with some of his selections (where’s Whiplash? The Skeleton Twins? Obvious Child?) all rankings are pretty much pointless, so he’s forgiven. To his credit, he also includes moments from movies that didn’t just didn’t make the brutal montage cut.

What makes Ehrlich’s edits so great is that they’re actually edits: not just ‘best of’ moments carelessly thrown together to create a meaningless sequence. They actually flow – there’s a sequence and rhythm to it that make some sort of storytelling sense. In case you’re too attention deficit to make it to the end of the sequence (can’t blame ya), here’s the full list:

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel

2. Inherent Vice

3. Under the Skin

4. Nymphomaniac

5. Gone Girl

6. Only Lovers Left Alive

7. The Double

8. God Help That Girl

9. Force Majeure

10. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

11. Boyhood

12. Goodbye to Language

13. Ida

14. Palo Alto

15. Babadook

16. Mommy

17. Why Don’t You Play in Hell?

18. Starred Up

19. Godzilla

20. Listen Up Philip

21. Love is Strange

22. Selma

23. Timbuktu

24. We Are The Best!

25. Lucy

Yes, James Franco’s Palo Alto is on the list. Yes, it’s disconcerting, and yes, I closed my eyes for that very very  scary part. Either way, stop reading, and check it out for yourself.

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