10. Chris Evans
Look, any time you star in one of the year’s best – and most successful – movies, which Evans did in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, you’ve had a killer year. But aside from making one of the best comic book movies ever, Evans also starred in Snowpiercer, which was a huge critical hit, and he’s apparently in the midst of the “on” part of an on-again, off-again relationship with Minka Kelly. And if that’s not good enough, his next two films that he has lined up are The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War. Settle down, bro. Damn.
9. Kendrick Lamar
Speaking of Dre, 2014 saw his latest protégé, Kendrick Lamar, become the next big thing in the rap game. You know you’re the man when the dude who wins the Grammy for best rap album, in this case Macklemore, seems embarrassed by the whole thing and publicly admits that you should have won. I mean, that’s pretty incredible, right? Kendrick Lamar is killing it so hard that even his fellow rappers – not exactly known for being humble – are straight up admitting that he’s it.
8. Mario Götze
If anyone emerged from the World Cup as an undisputed winner, it was Mario Götze. He scored the game-winning goal in extra time to give Germany the Cup, and then he celebrated by making out with his girlfriend, supermodel Ann-Kathrin Brömmel, in front of the whole stadium before partying the night away with Rihanna. Not bad for a 22 year-old. Or, you know, any dude alive.
7. Pharrell
His song “Happy” hit number one and stayed in the top 10 for 22 weeks, he won Grammy Awards for producer of the year and record of the year, he owned the crazy hat game and he even was nominated for an Oscar. If there’s a monster hit, chances are that Pharrell’s fingerprints are on it somehow. He’s producing, singing, showing up on everyone else’s albums… he is pop music right now.
6. Pen Farthing
This is the sort of bro who just shames the rest of us with his utter brosomeness. Just check out his story. I mean… come on. While we’re all sitting around playing video games and making dick jokes, he’s reuniting soldiers with the stray dogs that kept them going while they were in Afghanistan. Imagine trying to run game at the bar and then this dude comes up and just kills you dead while all the ladies flock to his junk. You just can’t compete with puppies and soldiers.
5. Elon Musk
He’s basically this era’s Howard Hughes. The founder of PayPal turned electric car wizard has made Tesla the car company of the future, but 2014 also saw his company, SpaceX, win a contract with NASA – fucking NASA! – to run the space game. Oh, and he’s also a billionaire. He’s become so rich and so powerful that he’s leaving Earth behind to conquer the universe. That’s a bro who’s already won.
4. Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio is always winning. He is the bro king. He makes movies whenever he wants, or whenever Martin Scorsese picks up the phone, which is a hell of a way to make a living. He dates and dumps supermodels like he’s picking them out of a catalog, and during those rare moments when he’s single he just does shit like this. It just isn’t fair.
3. Chris Pratt
Chris Pratt blew the fuck up in 2014. He went from being the chubby but lovable dude in Parks and Recreation to being the jacked new-age Harrison Ford thanks to his starring role in Guardians of the Galaxy, which was only, you know, the biggest movie of the year. He then leveraged that into the starring role in Jurassic World, and suddenly, this dude is as big a star there is in Hollywood. Not bad for a guy who literally lived in a van back in the day. Not bad at all.
2. Joshua Wong
Joshua Wong just turned 18 in October. Think about what you were doing when you turned 18. Doing bong rips in the basement, trying to figure out what to bring with you to the dorm Freshman year… that sort of thing, right? Well, Joshua Wong is the face of the democracy movement in Hong Kong. And the truly incredible thing is that he’s been doing this for years now. He’s been standing up to the Chinese government like a boss since he was literally a kid. And what’s more, he seems to actually be winning. He is the leader of a true movement of the people, and in the end, nothing is more powerful than that.
1. Matthew McConaughey
The term “comeback” doesn’t even seem to be adequate, does it? Matthew McConaughey had such a stunning comeback that they had to invent a new term for it: the McConaissance. I mean, he didn’t just have a good year, he had one of the best years – and maybe the best year – an actor’s ever had. Let’s break it down, shall we?
He started by winning a Golden Globe for best actor, then topped that by winning the Oscar in the same category. And while all this was going on, he was starring in True Detective, giving one of the most mesmerizing performances ever in the most talked-about TV series of the year. That landed him both an Emmy nomination and another Golden Globe nomination for next year’s ceremony. He then ended the year by starring in Interstellar, which was the most ambitious and grandiose movie of the year. Well alright, alright, alright.
He just flat-out fucking destroyed it in 2014, and he proved without a shadow of a doubt that inside of every bro there is an even better bro just waiting to break out. And that’s why he won 2014.