Best of 2014: Best Posters

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All the best movie posters for movies released in 2014 loved by Sinekdoks.

To begin the year retrospective series in Sinekdoks, I will post all the best movie posters from movies released in 2014. Since I like odd number, I present you all 23 best posters I pick.

23. Borgman: The poster is so creepy and enigmatic just like this Dutch horror—with the mysterious main character opens his coat and the paper figures.

22. I Origins: The poster might be ambiguous; it might look like an iris of an eye or a sun or a flower. Just like the movie in which the eye becomes a gate to more sophisticated things. The poster is simple but beautiful—just like the eye is beautiful.

21. Blue Ruin: The poster looks vintage and filthy with the colour of the sky in ombre and the title in ruin. It feels so classy and classic, feels so southern and awkwardly dangerous.

20. The Fault In Our Stars: It honestly shows the main protagonists in a spider-man-kiss pose. It looks fragile but sweet at once; it’s simply one of the best YA drama poster ever made.

19. Foxcatcher: It’s the simplest Foxcatcher movie poster with only Steve Carell’s prosthetic face in silhouette while we can see DuPont’s mansion inside. It looks simple but it has the impression of man with power, dark power around.

18. The Guest: A silhouette of a potentially wild girl with a hand gun painted in snazzy neon colors and black background really reflects the soul of the movie—vintage and badass. It really seems that the vintage colors become a main attraction in 2014 and The Guest is one of them that exploits it well.

17. The Interview: A combination of old propaganda poster with James Franco and Seth Rogen makes the funniest poster of the year. Oh, and the Korean lines in the poster is just great.

16. Nightcrawler: It’s artistically mesmerizing—with a close shot to Jake Gyllenhaal’s ambitious face and his glasses reflecting LA landscape. The poster emanates the movie spirit all in all.

15. Inherent Vice: Like The Guest and Nightcrawler, the poster feels so classic and LA-laden. Moreover, it feels more mischievous, which reminds me to the radiation in the poster of PTA’s Boogie Nights.

14. The Babadook: The kid and an open door… and the pop-up creature with the title on it. It gives serious hint to the plot involving a pop-up book and a boogeyman-like creature from beyond the door.

13. The Book of Life: The film gets all the sterling animation and fancy design of characters; the poster gets the same. Actually, there are many other posters for this movie, but I like this one best. With fancy fonts with red shadow contrasted to the blue background and the look of the main protagonist, Manolo, it feels so dias de los muertos, so fairy-tale-ish and so Mexican.

12. The Theory of Everything: This is one of the best biographical drama this year—following the back of Stephen Hawking. What we see in the poster might look a little theatrical and ironical, as Stephen Hawking (portrayed by Eddie Redmayne) dances with his eventual wife, Jane (portrayed by Felicity Jones) with shades of mathematical equation set in high opacity. The upside-down position of the main characters also give extra philosophical insight drawn on this poster. If you see it clearly, the poster has described the life of Stephen Hawking in an instant.

11. Boyhood: At a glance, there’s nothing special from this poster; just a boy laying on the grass and staring at the sky. Not until you watch these 12 years of boyhood wrapped in a movie and you realize: the picture for this poster is taken in 2002 and the boy is now 20 years old. It’s a simple example of how visionary Richard Linklater is; this poster is one example.

10. Whiplash: There’s a man on the ledge—so metaphorical—but he’s on the ledge of a drum stick while he holds drum sticks. The plot and the atmosphere of the film is all on the poster, which feels so minimalist and jazzy. This poster is a reason why you never saw J. K. Simmons is coming.

09. Enemy: This movie is about doppelganger and Jake Gyllenhaal’s ambivalent performance. Director Denis Villeneuve makes it a little enigmatic but mostly Lynchian. The poster reflects that with landscape of skyscrapers take over Gyllenhaal’s head, and oh, a giant spider there. Everything seems so unrelated and preplexing, that’s why we need to go through the spider web.

            

08. Gone Girl: I actually love both of these posters. The first one is a landscape of a lake with little clouds on the dominating sky and we see news ticker about the search for “Amazing Amy”. The poster—with no title—has told us two things—the involvement of countryside area and the involvement of mass media on the search of the gone girl. Yet, the main attraction is actually the tagline: You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s… you fill the blank now.

The second poster is quite similar to the first, only this one shows the title and characters from the movie. From this poster, we learn more but still know nothing—there will be something to do with the husband. Yet, the real point is the fading look from Rosamund Pike on the top—a real cue to her strong performance and character.

07. Birdman: Michael Keaton’s head-and-torso figure is pictured in a soft-palette water-colored cartoon image. However, the center of attraction is the comic-book birdman on top of Keaton’s head. That’s the best part… we never know what Birdman is all about until we watch.

06. The Purge: Anarchy: This vicious sequel successfully fulfills all expectations the first Purge got. The poster blatantly explains everything the annual purge needs—all the weapons, guns and blades, picturing American flag. If a poster straightforwardly carries everything from its movie, this Purge poster is a good example.

05. Guardians of the Galaxy: Feels so comic book and so Star Wars; the galaxy gets another badass heroes with colors and Marvel touch. It’s simply the most defining Marvel movie ever made.

04. Nymphomaniac: It looks minimalist but meaningful—with Forget about Love tagline and symbols that look like two brackets or (sorry) woman’s genital. Nymphomaniac feels as controversial as any of von Trier’s works.

            

03. X-Men: Days of Future Past: One of the best X-Men poster movie ever is on the pitch. These two posters bring back all the glory from the first two X-Men movies made by Brian Singer (before The Last Stand ruined everything) and forge them with the groovy classic from Matthew Vaughn’s First Class to reconcile and reboot this big franchise. The crossover of Patrick Stewart with James McAvoy and also Sir Ian McKellen with Michael Fassbender are just too great to miss.

02. The Grand Budapest Hotel: It’s all about precision and design—oh and fanciness, extravagance, and everything in Wes Anderson’s latest work. The titular hotel in pink stands firm before the Alps that look like painting from centuries ago. This whimsical poster is so mesmerizing and so Wes Anderson.

01. Under The Skin: This is the poster I like most in 2014—Scarlett Johansson’s face poses as a nebula over the star constellations. It’s jetblack, stark, and a real master in class.


So, those posters are my favorite in 2014. I hope everyone enjoys it, though people might get different opinions.

6 responses

  1. Under the Skin is so rightfully the #1! I also will always love the audacity of the Nymphomaniac poster, even if I hated the movie, and The Interview poster is so hilarious because it was already hilarious BEFORE the Sony hack and the North Korea threats and now it’s even MORE hilarious.

    1. I agree with you about The Interview, Andrew! When I checked on IMDb trivia and got the translation of those Korean words on the title, I knew it’ll be so hilarious. It turns out hilarious on-screen and off-screen

  2. Nice picks! I love a lot of these. (especially I Origins, it’s nice to see that singled out.) I thought Tusk had a pretty wicked poster as well.

    1. Thanks for stopping by, Brittani. Well, I missed Tusk, that’s why it didn’t make to the list. Perhaps, it might make to the honorable list if I update the list 🙂

  3. No Unbroken, Men Women Children or Frank or As Above So Below, and yes Mr. Turner ?

    Btw the way, so great to see Borgman, Enemy, and Whiplash

    1. Frank almost made it, but I decided to choose 23 movies only. If I made it into 30 perhaps Unbroken and Men, Women, & Children might make it. 🙂

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