1. Her
2. Pacific Rim
3. The Wolf of Wall Street
4. The World's End
5. Warm Bodies
6. This Is the End
7. Iron Man 3
8. Star Trek Into Darkness
9. About Time
10. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Still haven't seen a couple of the good ones from 2013 (Inside Llewyn Davis and Nebraska) and there are another 8 or 9 that aren't on this list that I really liked. I should also say there is a big jump in quality and how much I like the top 4 versus everything else on the list. Anyway, here is my top 10.
1. Gravity The single most exciting and unique theater experience I have ever had. It was beautiful to watch and unbelievably stressful. Sandra Bullock carrying a movie all on her own (basically) was a really nice surprise. Cuarón just keeps being incredible.
2. The Hunt One of the saddest and most frustrating movies I've seen in ages. Watching Mikkelson's life be destroyed because of a single lie from a child is devastating. There are some absolutely beautiful scenes where actors are at the top of their game. Doesn't get much better.
3. Her Still haven't quite figured out what is so special about Her, but it feels important. It's a quirky, funny, and often sad look at humans and their relationships with each other and technology. From beginning to end it feels very forward thinking. Spike Jonze's best work thus far.
4. 12 Years a Slave Steve McQueen is the perfect man for a film like this. He has no fear and will let the camera show just about anything and that feels so necessary for a film like this. Chiwetel Ejiofor gives, I think, the best performance of the year, at least emotionally. Beautifully shot, stellar performances across the board, and a very classy treatment of such a shitty part of history.
5. Mud A great piece of simple, classic American filmmaking. It was also one of the first films that showed me the mighty, magnificent return of McConaughey (I'd missed Killer Joe). The two main kids are also excellent from start to finish. I really like Jeff Nichols' movies a lot and this might be his best thus far.
6. The Wolf of Wall Street. Maybe the most entertaining thing from 2013, it's got so much energy and Scorsese is absolutely fearless. DiCaprio is great, but the real stars are Jonah Hill and Rob Reiner.
7. Stoker Many times when foreign directors move over to English language films it doesn't work out too well but Chan-wook Park did great, great work with Stoker. It's incredibly stylish and bizarre right through to the end and has some fun surprises.
8. Only God Forgives I guess I'm a pompous asshole or something for liking this movie, but whatever. Winding Refn has always made strange, difficult movies (Drive is the exception I think) and this continues that pattern. It has little story, or dialogue and the characters are practically nonexistent but that didn't stop me loving it. Refn and crew are showing off throughout with some stunning visuals but what really got me was Vithaya Pansringarm who is really the main character. He has such power ever minute he is on screen. Kristin Scott Thomas is also great. Not sure entirely why I like it, but it's very weird and dream like and it just really clicked.
9. The Act of Killing Perhaps the most disturbing thing I have seen in years. It's shocking just how casually everyone in the film discusses the atrocities they committed. It's also really weird, many of the "movie" scenes they film are so out there.
10. About Time
I don't even fucking care. I would normally not have liked this movie much because mushy love/life stuff is the worst. Even though I certainly enjoyed Love Actually and Pirate Radio, I didn't expect to like this one so much. The two leads are really good together, it's funny, and honest, and has Bill-mother-fucking-Nighy in it. Yeah, kind of embarrassing, especially considering what the other films on this list are like, but whatever, I really liked it.
Others that I liked (in order) were Star Trek: Into Darkness, Blue Jasmine, Dallas Buyers Club, Pacific Rim, Spring Breakers, Pain & Gain, Blue is the Warmest Color, and Fast & Furious 6.
1. The act of killing
2. Spring breakers
3. The congress
4. All is lost
5. Gravity
6. The selfish giant
7. Stoker
8. Fruitvale station
9. Her
10. Before Midnight
1. 12 Years a Slave
2. Before Midnight
3. Jagten (The Hunt)
4. Blue Jasmine
5. Don Jon
6. Gravity
7. Side Effects
8. Blackfish
9. Hours
10. The Kings of Summer
Honorable Mentions:
The Way Way Back
Magic Magic
Crystal Fairy
Oblivion
Captain Phillips
Blue Caprice
We Are What We Are
To The Wonder
Mud
Fast and Furious 6
Only God Forgives
Fruitvale Station
V/H/S/ 2
The Conjuring
Elysium
Prisoners
1. Her
2. Wolf of Wall Street
3. Spring Breakers
4. The Place Beyond the Pines
5. Simon Killer
6. 12 Years a Slave
7. Byzantium
8. American Hustle
9. Frances Ha
10. The Spectacular Now
x. Gravity
x. The Counselor
x. Side Effects
x. Mud
x. This is the End
x. The Hunt
x. Before Midnight
Honestly, I know Her is my favorite movie of the year but the other 16 could all be in a different order from minute to minute. Really hard/arbitrary list for me this year.
1. Prisoners
2. This Is The End
3. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
4. Captain Philips
5. Gravity
6. The Place Beyond the Pines
7. Side Effects
8. Stoker
9. The Conjuring
Incredibly (to me), these films are all that I saw from 2013. I really had to struggle to remember even nine, and I'm not proud of this list in any way. Having failed to get off my ass and into the theater over the last couple months, here's what I probably would have liked to add to my list: American Hustle - I loved Silver Linings Playbook, but when I first saw the trailers my initial gut feeling was that this movie wouldn't stack up. Then I read impressions ranging from "best movie of the year" to "it only has good actors, nothing else." The wildly divergent opinions only made me want to watch it more, but laziness won out. The Wolf of Wall Street - Perhaps even more divisive than American Hustle, so I'm even more interested! Most opinions I've read peg it as either the funniest movie ever and one of Scorsese's best, or one of the worst films ever, just a complete waste and nothing but sex scenes and drug use. We'll see! 12 Years A Slave - I was turned off by the Fassbender casting and what looked like some weak acting from Ejiofor, but I've heard much more clear praise for this film than almost any other this year. I hope it lives up to the hype. The Hunt - Mads is the man, 'nough said. Her - Her? Short Term 12 - Heard a lot of good things from practically everyone who's seen it. Rush - The trailers made it look like generic garbage about absolutely. Then I saw a clip of it on an awards show and it was something completely different. Like, apparently this movie has a plot and everything! Characters, even. Maybe even conflict! Anyway, I guess I'll be waiting for cable but I wish I had checked it out.
1. Upstream Color
2. Before Midnight
3. Her
4. Inside Llewyn Davis
5. Blue Jasmine
6. Blue Is the Warmest Colour
7. Frances Ha
8. Wolf of Wall Street
9. Nebraska
10. Short Term 12
...Still haven't watched Gravity, Mud, or The Hunt : (
1. Her
2. Wolf of Wall Street
3. 12 Years a Slave
4. Dallas Buyers Club
5. Inside Llewyn Davis
6. Gravity
7. Mud
8. Short Term 12
9. Europa Report
10. All Is Lost
11. The Act of Killing
12. Prisoners
13. Rush
14. Captain Phillips
Movies I have not watched that might have made top 10: Before Midnight, American Hustle, The Hunt, Fruitvale Station
Also, 'Actor of the Year' would totally be Matthew McConaughey for me. I wanna give myself a pat on the back for predicting his career's upswing after seeing Lincoln Lawyer in 2011, but I did not at all expect it to be this big. Dude has been absolutely killing it. All in all one of my favorite years ever for movies, a lot of good stuff pretty much regardless of preference. Completely blew 2012 out of the water for me.
I think Wolf of Wall Street is going to end up aging extremely well. Not unlike how King of Comedy and After Hours are really fondly looked on now, I think 10 years from now, Wolf is going to the best received of the Scorsese/DiCaprio films.
1. Twelve Years a Slave
2. Gravity
4. The Act of Killing
4. American Hustle
5. Oblivion
6. Catching Fire
7. The Great Gatsby
8. Lone Survivor
9. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
10. Frozen
I don't know. I'd be ok with moving it up a week. I want to have the results before the Oscars though, and need a bit of breathing room, so March 1st doesn't seem so hot.
I mean, if more people approve, I don't see why not. Otherwise, I think we should be fine the way we are (the major benefit would be time to be able to see more movies). .
1. 12 years a slave
2. Wolf of Wall Street
3. Gravity
4. Dallas Buyers Club
5. Her
6. Captain Phillips
7. The Conjuring
8. The Gilded Cage
9. About time
I don't know. I'd be ok with moving it up a week. I want to have the results before the Oscars though, and need a bit of breathing room, so March 1st doesn't seem so hot.
I mean, if more people approve, I don't see why not. Otherwise, I think we should be fine the way we are (the major benefit would be time to be able to see more movies). .
I think 1 week would work. End the voting on the 21st and still have time to tally it before the Oscars. Give those who have not voted an extra week to make a list.
1. Her
2. 12 Years A Slave
3. Gravity
4. Short Term 12
5. The Worlds End
6. Frances Ha
7. Upstream Color
8. The Act of Killing
9. The Kings of Summer
10. Iron Man 3
10. Sparrows Dance
09. Museum Hours
08. Computer Chess
07. Fourplay
06. Wolf Children
05. Frances Ha
04.Like Someone in Love
03. Bastards
02. The Unspeakable Act
01. Before Midnight
Ten movies I didn't get to see that received high praise from people I respect that I actually had an interest in:
At Berkeley
Beyond the Hills
Blue Is the Warmest Color
Faust
I Used to Be Darker
Laurence Anyways
Nebraska
Night Across the Street
A Touch of Sin
You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet
Interesting listing The Garden of Words ahead of Wolf Children. Thought the former ended on a poor note with really bad melodrama and overwrought music. It looks beautiful but so does Wolf Children, and I think that pretty easily trumps Garden's ending.
1. Stories we Tell
2. Before Midnight
3. Inside Llewyn Davis
4. Blue is the Warmest Colour
5. 12-Years a Slave
6. Short Term 12
7. To the Wonder
8. The Congress
9. Blue Jasmine
10. Stoker
EDIT UPDATED MY LIST.
Honourable Mentions: Simon Killer, Wolf of Wall Street, Mood Indigo, Her, In the House.
Interesting listing The Garden of Words ahead of Wolf Children. Thought the former ended on a poor note with really bad melodrama and overwrought music. It looks beautiful but so does Wolf Children, and I think that pretty easily trumps Garden's ending.
I'm a sucker for Shinkai melodrama, or just melodrama in general. But besides that, I still like it for other reasons. Shinkai doesn't develop his characters as overtly as I think a lot of people are accustomed to (it is very subtle, I feel), so while I think some think (and understandably so) the end of Garden of Words is abrupt and weird, to me it's a fitting ending to a show about a growing romance between two people who seem to hide their emotion, motives, and lives either because society tells them it would be strange, or they themselves shoot themselves down questioning themselves. It's a moment when those walls all come tumbling down and the supersaturated solution crashes out.
Wolf Children is still very strong but it didn't look nearly as nice, and I just feel the emotional investment on my end wasn't there as much. It almost felt like a true blood Disney movie, I guess. Not that that's a bad thing at all, but it felt kinda safe; still a really good movie though.
1. 12 years a slave
2. blue is the warmest colour
3. inside llewyn Davis
4. before midnight
5. captain phillips
6. blue jasmine
7. wolf of wall street
8. frozen
9. nebraska
10. iron man 3
missed out on seeing: Dallas buyers, philomena, stories we tell, act of killing, short term 12, only god forgives, wind rises, computer chess, Frances ha, pacific rim, worlds end, upstream colour
Alright, not gonna hold off anymore, going with my gut.
10) Stoker
9) 12 Years a Slave
8) The Wolf of Wall Street
7) Her
6) Spring Breakers
5) Fast & Furious 6
4) Nebraska
3) The Act of Killing
2) Before Midnight
1) Inside Llewyn Davis
11-20 in no order: Blue is the Warmest Color, Gravity, A Band Called Death, Top of the Lake, Side Effects, Computer Chess, Sightseers, The World's End, Frances Ha, Drug War
and stuff that was on the watchlist that I either feel no urgent desire to check out or don't feel like paying for a home video release I haven't seen or can't even access yet or doubt would make it anyway:
The Wind Rises, The Grandmaster, At Berkeley, Post Tenebras Lux, Laurence Anyways, Beyond the Hills, Blue Jasmine, The Great Beauty, The Bling Ring, Broken Circle Breakdown, Museum Hours, Like Someone in Love, The Counselor, Stories We Tell, Wadjda, All Is Lost, The Past, Passion
And for "fun," here are the worst 2013 movies I saw:
4) American Hustle confident it'd be just as insufferable even if it weren't inescapable
3) Hell Baby what's a polite way to say "you're not very funny, but you're also quite ugly"
2) The Hangover III "meets most of the technical qualifications of a movie."
1) A Good Day to Die Hard if prison means he doesn't have to watch this, maybe don't free John McTiernan.
Unlike videogames, I don't struggle to cobble together ten movies to make a best of list. In fact, I saw no fewer than sixty-six new films in cinemas last year. I'll spare you sixty-six through to eleven (and yes, all movies in my list have 2013 release dates in the UK):
10. The World's End
After lengthy contemplation, I think it's fair to say that The World's End is the weakest part of Edgar Wright's Cornetto Trilogy - and probably a touch worse than Scott Pilgrim versus The World too. Well, they can't all be winners. Well, actually, they can. The World's End might be worse than some very good films but is still, itself, a very good film. Like all Wright's films, it's very precise, very measured, very layered, full of clever foreshadowing and symbolism, and pretty damn funny.
9. Upstream Color
I couldn't provide a satisfactory synopsis for this movie with a gun to my head. I'm not sure I could endure a repeat viewing. Watching it, at least during the first twenty minutes, I wanted to hate it. Much as I fought against it, I ended up absorbed by a complicated and compelling - if bizarre and slightly pretentious - movie.
8. You're Next
If I could give an award for best movie marketing, I'd give it to You're Next. The movie being advertised wasn't half bad either, leaning more toward a black comedy than a horror movie. It felt like a Neil Marshall film, like Dog Soldiers or The Descent, or a mix of both. Comfortable viewing. You know, if you can tolerate a bit of gore.
7. Iron Man Three
The tears over how The Mandarin was 'mangled' or how Robert Downey Jr. didn't spend enough time in his CGI invincibility suit were just the icing on the cake. Finally, an Iron Man movie not only with humour, but tension. Also, lots more humour. And a mention of Croydon. Black is back.
6. Much Ado About Nothing
I wouldn't really describe myself as a Joss Whedon fan. Yeah, alright, Buffy was a good show, and Firefly was pretty decent - though not as good as its supporters might have you believe. I am definitely pro-Avengers. Let's just say I wasn't expecting this adaptation of Much Ado to be as gut-bustingly funny as it ended up being. Maybe if I'd read the play...
5. Stoker
Precision-engineered weirdness. Kind of sexy. Typical Chan-wook Park (now in English).
4. Frozen
There's a film that comes along every now and then that makes me feel soft and fuzzy inside, and it's normally a Disney film. Pixar's now got serious competition from Mummy. Well, more than serious competition - do you see Monsters University (an admittedly good movie) on this list? Between this and Tangled, the charm of the Disney formula remains but the messages have necessarily evolved. In this case: what true love means.
3. Blue Jasmine
Cate Blanchett in the single best performance of the year. I like those Woodsy Allen movies except for that nervous fella's always in 'em.
2. Philomena
Judi Dench, however, gives Cate a run for her money as Philomena Lee. This was the funniest movie of the year. A neat trick, considering it was also the most heartbreaking film of the year. And not forgetting the line of the year:
"I think if Jesus were here now, he'd tip you out of that fucking wheelchair - and you wouldn't get up and walk."
Utterly fantastic.
1. Before Midnight
The third and hopefully not final part of Linklater's Before trilogy... just has to be seen to be believed.
