2014 Epilogue

September 26, 2025·32 min·2 clips

Josh Bell and Jason Harris revisit their 2014 movie season, questioning which films they covered and which they missed.

1. Awesome Movie Year's epilogue episode for the 2014 season recaps every film covered and considers notable omissions. 2. Josh Bell, a film critic, hosts alongside Jason Harris, a filmmaker and comedian. 3. The episode functions as a year-in-review, asking which films most defined 2014 and whether the season's choices held up in retrospect. 4. The 2014 US box office top 10 consisted of nine franchise films — Guardians of the Galaxy, Maleficent, Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part One, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 — and a single original film, Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. 5. Josh calls the franchise dominance of 2014's box office a depressing trend that has only intensified since; Jason partly defends the X-Men and Captain America entries as quality films. 6. The season's films included: Faults (debut film by Riley Stern), Transcendence (flop episode), Life Itself (documentary on Roger Ebert), Force Majeure (foreign film), The Lego Movie (animation), Birdman (Best Picture winner), Edge of Tomorrow (cult classic), John Wick (Dave's pick), and A Walk Among the Tombstones (audience choice). 7. Notable omissions the hosts acknowledge include Boyhood, Nightcrawler, Dear White People, Obvious Child, Snowpiercer, Gone Girl, Foxcatcher, Blue Ruin, and Inherent Vice. 8. Josh argues Boyhood was the only film from 2014 that deserved Best Picture; Jason describes the full nominee lineup as 'a bunch of a-holes.' 9. Both hosts dismiss the Academy's recognition of Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything and criticise The Imitation Game and American Sniper as unworthy nominees. 10. Foxcatcher is repeatedly mentioned as an unjust omission from the Best Picture nominees; Jason calls it possibly Steve Carell's best performance. 11. The Sony hack that caused The Interview's cancelled theatrical release is discussed as a defining cultural and political moment of 2014, with Josh recalling an attempt to drive to a Mesquite, Nevada theater that was showing it. 12. Jason notes that 2014 saw an unusual cluster of actor directorial debuts — nine in total — including Ryan Gosling's Lost River, Russell Crowe's The Water Diviner, Jon Stewart's Rosewater, Chris Evans's Before We Go, William H. Macy's Rudderless, and Jason Bateman's Bad Words, most of whom have not directed again. 13. Cannes 2014 is praised as a strong competition year with films from Olivier Assayas, Jean-Luc Godard, David Cronenberg, Mike Leigh, and the Dardenne Brothers — all losing to Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Winter Sleep. 14. The documentary year is praised as especially strong, with Josh recommending The Overnighters, Jodorowsky's Dune, and Iris, and Jason endorsing Finding Vivian Maier and Virunga. 15. The 2014 Sundance lineup produced Whiplash, which Josh dislikes but acknowledges as a breakout; other notable entries included The Skeleton Twins and Kumiko the Treasure Hunter. 16. Listener suggestions via the Popcorn and Puzzle Pieces Facebook group included The Raid 2, Kingsman, Top Five, Wild, and What We Do in the Shadows. 17. The hosts debate Jon Favreau's Chef, which Josh dismisses as 'self-satisfied' while Jason defends it; the disagreement is flagged as a potential future episode. 18. The conversation is casual and opinionated, with both hosts interrupting each other frequently and making jokes at the expense of films they dislike. 19. This episode suits listeners who have seen many 2014 films and want a critic's retrospective assessment of the year's highs, lows, and Oscar missteps. 20. Listeners unfamiliar with the films of 2014 will find the rapid-fire format hard to follow without prior knowledge of the titles being discussed.

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A reflective season epilogue that turns missed picks and listener suggestions into lively movie talk.

Awesome Movie Year closes out its 2014 run with an epilogue that looks back at the choices the hosts made, the ones they left behind, and a few listener suggestions from social media.

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Want the season scorecard and the choices they made and left on the table?

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