Count Down 100 Movies from 2013 (Multiple users) Tele page 20

[Sam]

Great write up, Gopher. Loving or liking all the major releases I've watched from those 10 you listed. Though I gotta say, I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't mention the fabulous Rob Lowe in your Candelabra review

[Gopher]

My one real problem with Candelabra is that we didn't get nearly enough Lowe. He could've stolen the show from Douglas/Damon entirely and he almost did with a handful of scenes. 

[DAR]

I thought Lowe was the best part

[The Stingray]

#87: G.I JOE: RETALIATION 

"You know, they call it a waterboard... but I never get bored!"

 

lmao!

 

This is why I don't watch that many movies a year.

 

Btw, awesome write-up! I think you just earned yourself a spot on my most valuable members list in the Gopher Awards.

[Gopher]

#30: OUT OF THE FURNACE 

"Working for a living? I gave my life for this country and what's it done for me? Huh? What's it done for me?"

We've seen this kind of gritty, R-rated drama often. In FURNACE, Christian Bale's Russell goes after the men he thinks are responsible for the disappearance of his younger brother Rodney (Casey Affleck) and dark broodiness ensues. However, the film constantly feels violent and unpredictable, beyond the limitations of a conventional revenge story. This film has lingered with me, partially because of Masanobu Takayanagi's desolate cinematography of rural Pennsylvania, Woody Harrelson's hauntingly realistic crime ringleader, and Affleck's tragic former Iraq war solider who feels compelled to fight other men to make his living. But ultimately, the film begins and ends with Bale, whose work here could not be more different than his outwardly intense AMERICAN HUSTLE performance. His Russell is a real person who was content to reside to his factory job for the rest of his career until tragedy struck his family, and when Bale responds with guarded but urgent emotion, which is remarkable in its boiled-down effectiveness. This an extraordinarily bare performance from one of my favorite actors ever. 

 

 

#29: IRON MAN THREE  

"A true story about fortune cookies. They look Chinese. They sound... Chinese. But they're actually an American invention. Which is why they're hollow, full of lies, and leave a bad taste in the mouth."

IRON MAN THREE is the best IRON MAN film, the best screenplay Marvel has produced, and Robert Downey Jr.'s best turn yet as Tony Stark. But my favorite thing about IRON MAN THREE is that it's totally, unequivocally a Shane Black movie. Much like KISS KISS, BANG BANG, Black constructs this film with a series of tangents that move about the film at breakneck speed. His plots evolve as a constant surprise and re-use of previous information, and the reason this works is because Black and RDJ have an enormously entertaining and substantial script to play with. This is a revenge film, a buddy cop movie, a cop-kid action comedy, and a James Bond riff all in one. We get a film that is unafraid to do hilarious, unexpected things with its villain or give its protagonist an emotional journey following the PTSD he experiences post-AVENGERS. The film's narrative logic isn't always sound, but its emotional logic is always meaningful. IRON MAN THREE is all I could ask for from a superhero film. 

 

 

#28: THE SPECTACULAR NOW 

"I want more than a moment. I want a future." 

Finally a film that doesn't fall victim to the major tropes of the teen indie dramedy (even last year's excellent PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER fell into a few), that feels authentic in its adolescent-driven feelings of love. Miles Teller is a revelation as Sutter, a borderline alcoholic party animal who is too eager to live in the "now" to worry about his future, and Shailene Woodley (the fifth actor on this list I'm in love with) has a strong, understated performance as the girl who takes him under her wing. Director James Ponsoldt proved with SMASHED that he's pretty great at getting emotional, naturalistic performances out of his actors, and his work with his sprawling ensemble cast (including Brie Larson, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Bob Odenkirk and Kyle Chandler) feels like part of a cohesive piece. THE SPECTACULAR NOW is messy, funny, sad, hopeful and touching in all the ways a real, empathetic love story should be. 

 

#27: THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE 

"Remember who the real enemy is." 

I didn't like the first HUNGER GAMES at all. The film may have been limited by the lack of quality material they were adapting (I haven't read any of the books), but I thought it was a sloppily-directed film that looked like crap and lacked almost any urgency or focus. But talk about a comeback. CATCHING FIRE is one of the best "blockbusters" of the year. Finally a YA adaptation that seems to take its audience seriously. This film is wrestling with themes of oppression, hope and rebellion, and doesn't shy away from portraying the brutality of Panem's government. It takes over an hour for the movie to even get to the games as the first act is almost entirely just character discussing the catalysts for a potential revolution among all the Districts. This is all riveting stuff, particularly because Katniss (performed with depth and vitality by Jennifer Lawrence) has become a compelling character to be aligned with in this world, and the rest of the ensemble (Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Elizabeth Banks, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson) is excellently cast and gets to do a wide range of enjoyable, effective work. The games themselves are thrilling, with new characters like Finnick (Sam Claflin) and Johanna (Jena Malone) who add weight to this world and consequences that feel like they have meaning to them. Not to mention CATCHING FIRE looks amazing, with a brilliant color palette and reasonably strong special effects. I've heard MOCKINGJAY is a disappointing book, but this film could not have left me more excited for next November. 

 

#26: PHILOMENA 

" I forgive you because I don't want to remain angry."

The Catholic Church doesn't come off so well in PHILOMENA, the story about a woman who has been separated from her son for 50 years and seeks help from a recently-shamed journalist (Steve Coogan, who adapted the real-life Martin Sixmuth's book about Philomena Lee) to help her find him. And why should it? Philomena's son was taken away from her by the nunnery she grew up in, and then they destroyed every paper that could help determine where her son went and who he became. And while Coogan gives himself great moments to justifiably lambast the church, the film through Judi Dench's modest but moving performance demonstrates the power of faith even in the face of unbelievable cruelty. I couldn't imagine going through Philomena's life and keeping my religion, but her virtue is heartwarming. This is a small film, but its themes are towering and effective. 

 

#25: DALLAS BUYERS CLUB  

"I've got one life. I want it to mean something."

Sometimes two performances can not just carry a film but elevate it to another stratosphere. In this 80s drama about the AIDS epidemic and a man who goes around the restrictions of the FDA to help people, Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto have those sort of performances. They both disappear into these characters with startling effect. And while DALLAS BUYERS CLUB is a film I whole-heartedly recommend, I'd like to spend this time talking about McConaughey's rise over the past couple years into one of the best performers in cinema today. For literally a decade this man had attached himself to the world's shittiest romantic comedies to a point where I thought the DAZED AND CONFUSED star just didn't care about quality anymore. Then he takes roles in BERNIE, KILLER JOE, and MAGIC MIKE that could not be more different or difficult from his usual work, and he knocks them out of the park. Suddenly he can be hilarious, tear-worthy, utterly terrifying, or all of the above. His 2013 roles in this film, MUD and THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (both of which I'll be talking about very soon) only continue this trend. No actor has me more excited for what he'll do next than this guy. 

 

#24: PACIFIC RIM 

"There are things you can't fight - acts of God. You see a hurricane coming, you get out of the way. But when you're in a Jaeger, you can finally fight the hurricane. You can win."

I've seen PACIFIC RIM four times (twice in IMAX 3D, once in the Arclight Dome and once in 35mm) and each time the film left me bouncing in my seat. Guillermo Del Toro made me feel 10 years old again in the best way possible. The action is riveting and the visuals are crazy, colorful and full of personality. I cared about everyone in the ensemble, even the asshole Aussie son. I cared about the fights--I felt the weight of their losses and I felt their victories--because unlike every original tentpole these days PACIFIC RIM didn't feel like they were saving their best material for a potential sequel. The stakes couldn't be higher. Here, the world is about to come to an end, and Stacker Pentecost, Raleigh Beckett, Mako Mori and company are here to save it. PACIFIC RIM isn't groundbreaking storytelling: there's nary an "original" concept in the film, and that goes for the character development too. But I think it's a gorgeously realized summer blockbuster on all accounts, and it put a big fat stupid smile on my face for over two hours. 

 

 

#23: STOKER  

"I'm not formed by things that are of myself alone. I wear my father's belt tied around my mother's blouse, and shoes which are from my uncle. This is me. Just as a flower does not choose its color, we are not responsible for what we have come to be. Only once you realize this do you become free, and to become adult is to become free."

STOKER's only shortcoming is the resolution of the script from PRISON BREAK star Wentworth Miller, which while mostly successful frustratingly putters out in the third act. However, given how most shots in the first English film from Park Chan-Wook (OLDBOY) felt like works of beautiful, uncomfortable art, I didn't really mind. I was utterly entranced by the film's editing, composition, and control of tension: one particular transition from Mia Wasikowska brushing the orange hair of her mother (Nicole Kidman, who has rarely ever been this fragile and creepy in a role) into a field of wheat is one of the most incredible editing tricks I've ever seen. What carries the film through all its surrealism is the coming-of-age story of Wasikowska's India Stoker, which is delightfully disturbing, just like the rest of this film. 

 

 

#22: BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR 

"I have infinite tenderness for you, and I will my whole life..." 

Some films deserve their three-hour runtime, and while this French romance between a junior in high school (Adele Exarchopoulos) and a blue-haired art school student (Lea Seydoux) isn't exactly plotty, I felt like I needed to spend this much time with these characters to fully understand what makes them tick. The film is predicated on intimacy, and I was pulled into Adele's world so deeply that at some pont I couldn't help but care about her happiness. The character's youth and experience transforms over the course of her first love to something more lovely, sad, and mature, and these two actresses create believable characters whose emotions felt authentic to me. 

 

 

#21: FRUITVALE STATION 

"I'm good, I'm good, I'm gonna be good."

True stories are a minefield when it comes to emotionally manipulating an audience, but this is a film where the reality of this situation helped win me over. The movie is uncomplicated in what the audience is ultimately supposed to feel about Oscar Grant, III, the victim of the BART police shooting in 2009, but the character study that writer/director Ryan Coogler creates is powerful because of how complicated it is, and that's what makes this movie work. From his time in prison, to cheating on his girlfriend, to losing his job, to on the risk of not paying rent, to on the verge of returning to drug dealing, Oscar has obviously screwed up his life a ton. But I still felt for him, because Michael B. Jordan brings so much grace and nuance to the role of a guy who is always trying to do the right thing. This could have easily been a film where the event was the entire story and we feel for Oscar because, like anyone in this real-life situation, we would feel sorry for him. But Coogler doesn't take the easy way out. Instead, he writes and directs a gorgeous portrait of this life that doesn't shine over the ugliness is Oscar's life, and as a result its beauty shines out. There's a lot worth talking about with FRUITVALE, from Rachel Morrison's cinematography (a rare situation where shaky-cam photography truly works) to how much this movie offers with a short running time (for 85 minutes, its pacing is pretty much perfect) to Jordan's performance to Octavia Spencer's to Melonie Diaz's. Diaz gets much less to do than Jordan, but there's a scene in which she slaps her hands on her legs out of fear, anger and sadness, and through the way she conveys this I felt right there with her emotions. It's one of the single most effective cinematic moments of the year. 

[Ezen Baklattan]

Philomena was pretty good, even if it was a bit heavy handed at times. I also approve of the Stoker/Blue/CF mentions.

[Gopher]

#20: RUSH

"People always think of us as rivals, but he was among the very few I liked and even fewer that I respected. He remains the only person I envied."

I'll say this upfront: I haven't liked a Ron Howard movie since APOLLO 13. Check out his filmography on IMDB and you'll see he's directed a lot of garbage (and A BEAUTIFUL MIND, which many loved but I didn't care for). So that's just one reason why RUSH was a total surprise for me. Set to Hans Zimmer's most original, kinetic score in years, the Formula 1 races are absolutely thrilling, and the cinematography from the various perspectives of the tracks and cars helped me feel like a part of the action. Best of all, Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl shine as competing racers James Hunt and Nikki Lauda. The film depicts the racers with two competing ideologies--Hunt is pumped up by the praise and glory he receives, while Lauda is more pragmatic and technical about what he can do with his cars to help him win--but doesn't ask its viewers to pick sides. Rather, RUSH explores the successes and tragedies both men faced in the 1976 season to great narrative and emotional heights. 

 

 

#19: FRANCES HA 

"Hello. When did 'Puss in Boots' start?"

It's unexpected to see such a happy, delightful film about a twenty-something who has no idea what she's doing or wants to do with her life, but Noah Baumbach's study of the charming, cheerful, frequently absent-minded Frances (Greta Gerwig, the ever-beaming light of this movie) finds a sense of playfulness in her misadventures. Sam Levy creates gorgeous black-and-white cinematography that alongside all the music and dancing helps seduce the viewer into the world of a light comedy that happens to take place in the real world. This is the story of a Manic Pixie Girl becoming a real person, and it's a joy to watch.

 

 

#18: FROZEN 

"She's my sister. She would never hurt me." 

FROZEN is both a deconstruction and reconstruction of the Disney musical. Sure, it's an immensely enjoyable cartoon with great music, clever lyrics, beautiful animation and my new favorite Disney sidekick ("I'm impaled, ha-ha!") but there's more going on here. The warm heart of FROZEN is a love story not between a princess and her future prince, but between sisters Elsa and Anna, the former of whom is gifted/cursed with icy powers and shuts herself off from her sister out of her own protection. Elsa is so nervous and anxious about her powers in front of her sister that she eventually sets off an eternal winter in Arundel, one that her sister must journey to mend. Amidst their conflict and character arcs--Anna learns in a fantastic subplot how windy the traditional Disney concept of "true love" actually is, while Elsa learns to become unrestrained by her fears--we never lose the importance of their relationship or love for each other, even if they can't always express it to each other. FROZEN is a thing of delicate beauty, and among Disney's most emotionally resonant films ever. 

 

#17: BLUE JASMINE 

"Anxiety, nightmares and a nervous breakdown, there’s only so many traumas a person can withstand until they take to the streets and start screaming."

When you've made a new film every year for 44 years, there's bound to be more than a few stinkers in the mix. But as long as you produce films as rich, thematically cavernous and funny as BLUE JASMINE every now and then, you're pretty much set regardless. Paralleling Blanche DuBois' journey in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, the film is a character portrait of Jasmine, a woman becoming undone. She is portrayed disturbingly off-balanced by Cate Blanchett, but the actress finds the broken heart of Jasmine as her porcelain exterior falls apart. She's hit rock bottom, and her fits, pill-popping and drinking all boil down to her obvious attempt to maintain a crafted style of defined elegance. As her story progresses, it becomes clearer that we've been watching a tragedy this whole time, even if we're still laughing. Rarely has Allen felt so in tune with the real world and genuine, flawed emotions, but BLUE JASMINE (which I must mention gets fantastic acting out of Andrew Dice Clay and Bobby Cannavale) feels vital.

 

#16: MUD

"Why are you helpin' us?"

"Because both of you love each other." 

The emotional complexities on display in Jeff Nichols' third feature aren't necessarily anything we haven't seen before, but Nichols and his amazing ensemble delve into them in such a real, surprising way. There's an element of fantasy in the film like something out of Mark Twain, but it's more grown-up: two boys encounter a wanted criminal living in a boat lodged high up a tree and decide to help him reconnect with his girlfriend in exchange for keeping the boat. The atmosphere perfectly counters Ellis' coming-of-age story in the film, in which he learns that relationships and family are always more complicated than they seem. Ty Sheridan gives an even more versatile performance than his work in TREE OF LIFE, and McConaughey is every bit as soulful and hypnotizing to watch as I've already made him out on this list to be. 

 

 

#15: NEBRASKA 

"Have a drink with your old man. Be somebody."

NEBRASKA excels as Alexander Payne's most empathetic character study to date. From ELECTION to ABOUT SCHMIDT to THE DESCENDANTS this guy's strength has been in mining dark humor out of desperate, odd, slightly crazy people. But there's never a sense of judgement to Woody Grant, who "wins" a $1 million dollar sweepstakes prize and coerces his son into driving him to Nebraska to pick up his earnings. On the way, they stop in Woody's old hometown of Billings to find his reputation is evolving into a town hero. There's a sense of longing that permeates through Bob Nelson's script and Phedon Papamichael's lush black-and-white cinematography, that these characters are buying into and acting upon a lie because they've always felt the grass is greener on the other side and they're tired of living their lives and relationships so modestly. It's an easy movie to consume, but there are elements of several scenes that keep me thinking about the film six weeks since I've seen it. On that level, NEBRASKA is a deceptively simple film that manages to paint a lot in simple brushstrokes. 

 

 

#14: THIS IS THE END 

"A huge earthquake happens, who do they rescue first? They'll rescue Clooney, Sandra Bullock, me. If there's room, you guys will come."

Yes, THIS IS THE END is really, really funny. Writer/directors Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg treat their titular apocalypse with absolute seriousness and let the comedy come from nihilistic actors responding to all the horror. They know how to tell a joke and when to let their actors improv (the cum fight between James Franco and Danny McBride is among the best scenes of the year). But it's also exemplary for so much more. Friendship in the face of one friend's rising success and other's inability to move out of his fixed lifestyle. Hollywood and how much the system has fucked up celebrities' perceptions of reality. Religion and how at the end of times, every faith comes down to whether you're a good person or not. THIS IS THE END wrestles with all this great material amidst the cum and dick jokes, and in doing so makes its way to a shocking, hilarious and heartwarming finale. 

 

 

#13: CAPTAIN PHILLIPS 

"There's got to be something other than being a fisherman or kidnapping people."

"Maybe in America, Irish. Maybe in America." 

 

There's a trio of amazing survival films this year, but CAPTAIN PHILLIPS is a different breed of survival film than the other two (which I'll be discussing tomorrow). Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) must survive on his goliath of a cargo ship when Somalis attack their boat looking for money, an encounter that reveals what opportunity means to us versus the Third World. The US can be big on power and control over their trading waters, but the deprived humanity in Somalia have to steal in order to survive and provide food and shelter for their homes. Barkhad Abdi's Muse, a leader of the pirate group, could in any other circumstance be a hero. But he's put against a group of people who have to make a living of their own, and as a result we witness a complicated, unfortunate situation that speaks volumes about our real-world crises today. Paul Greengrass was the perfect filmmaker for this subject, as he stages a realistic portrayal of these events and grows the tension exponentially over the course of the film's action. But the real humanity of PHILLIPS is in Hanks, who reestablishes himself as the best actor working today. The final 15 minutes of CAPTAIN PHILLIPS is almost entirely a physical performance, and it's a physical performance that will bring tears to your eyes. I felt right there with what the real Phillips went through. 

 

 

#12: THE WORLD'S END 

"It's pointless arguing with you."

The first time I saw Edgar Wright’s final entry in his Cornetto trilogy, I really enjoyed it. The second time I saw it, I loved it. The third time, I knew it was one of the best films of the year. This is Wright's most thematically dense film, as the central story of Gary King (Simon Pegg, who has never demonstrated this kind of manic range on film before) dragging his high school friends to their old hometown to finish a pub crawl is ripe for dissecting alcoholism, aging, nostalgia, culture commodification, and friendship (the latter of which the entire Cornetto trilogy is really about). But just as importantly, the combat sequences are incredibly staged, structured and shot, the editing is as sharp and delightful, and the script and performances are fucking hilarious. THE WORLD'S END is great cinema, plain and simple. 

 

#11: STORIES WE TELL 

"When you're in the middle of a story, it isn't a story at all but rather a confusion, a dark roaring, a blindness, a wreckage of shattered glass and splintered wood, like a house in a whirlwind or else a boat crushed by the icebergs or swept over the rapids, and all aboard are powerless to stop it. It's only afterwards that it becomes anything like a story at all, when you're telling it to yourself or someone else."

What moved me most in STORIES WE TELL is the transparency of the whole documentary. The hook is simple: director Sarah Polley is delving into the story of her mother who died of cancer in 1990 and how her life affected Sarah and the rest of her family. However, the movie becomes about the way people tell these stories (hey, that's the title of the movie!), questioning the validity of Sarah's work and basically pulling the rug from beneath the viewer. The fourth wall is constantly broken and Polley keeps tripping up conventional expectations right into the end credits, where there's yet another shocking revelation. Sarah's dad is both a character in the story and the narrator who spends a lot of his time in the film in a recording booth, which adds a whole new level of intimacy to the project. It never feels like an act of narcissism on Sarah's part to make this movie, even if she's worried it does: we see her bond with her family in such genuine ways that never feel unearned. It's an incredibly self-aware documentary in that Polley is openly questioning the ethics of how to tell a story like this in the first place, what she's leaving out, whose (usually contradicting) perspectives she can focus on, because after all, there is no one story of her mother, as she learns. For me, this was a passionately crafted, handsomely conceived mindhole blower. Everyone should find something to resonate with them in this film, if not Sarah's family story itself then the nature of how and why we tell our own family stories. 

Edited January 3, 2014 by Gopher

[RobinHood26]

Im far to excited for your top 10.

[Empire]

This has been really great so far! Can't wait to see what you put in your top 10!

[CoolioD1]

This has been really great so far! Can't wait to see what you put in your top 10!

It's right there in his sig.

[Gopher]

 

#10: ALL IS LOST 

"All is lost here... except for soul and body. That is, what's left of them." 

Almost entirely wordless, ALL IS LOST is a film that demands your attention to visual storytelling but more importantly demands your empathy. In the middle of the Indian Ocean, a man's yacht takes on water, and subsequently Robert Redford (in a performance with stunning realism and passion) must do whatever it takes to stay alive. The film refers to Redford as "Our Man," as it's not important to know anything about the character Redford plays. We only need to recognize this man as a fellow human being who is forced into truly extraordinary circumstances. From pumping water out of his boat to staying afloat a sinking liferaft, this man's struggle is our struggle. The emotional weight of the film relies entirely on writer/director J.C. Chandor's fascination of behavioral study, his use of sound, and the technical achievement of believably filming an entire film about a boat sinking. He pulls it off magnificently. 

 

 

#9: SPRING BREAKERS 

"I know we have to go back to school, but we'll always remember this trip. Something so amazing, magical. Something so beautiful. Feels as if the world is perfect. Like it's never gonna end."

I'm dead serious. Harmony Korine's odyssey into the disturbing psyche of spring break is amazing. Deep in the ashes of civilization (St. Petersburg, FL) enter four school girls disgusted by the mundanity of their middle-class existences and so willing to fight for their right to party that they rob a Chicken Shack in order to find the money to get to paradise. What follows is disassociating, dreamy, and utterly hypnotic. These pleasure-seekers are so pumped up full of superficiality that alongside their new muse Alien they can literally destroy the world. And as the Florida rapper and self-proclaimed gangster, James Franco finally takes over the world. His Alien is a truly unhinged performance--full of humor and sincerity--that never once feels like a stunt. I admire every bold, beautiful decision Korine makes in this film. Alien couldn't have said it any better: "you just got hypnotized and transported to another world, y'all." 

 

#8: UPSTREAM COLOR 

"The water before you is somehow special. When you drink it you feel revived and full of energy. It is better than anything you've ever tasted. Take a drink now."

Between its pigs, nematodes, sound foley artists, poisonous blue inks and mental breakdowns, UPSTREAM COLOR is probably the weirdest film of the year. I've never seen a movie like it before. But there's a method to PRIMER director Shane Carruth's madness. Like SPRING BREAKERS this is a hazy, dreamlike film, but his semi-impressionistic approach dramatically heightens the weight of his two very damaged characters (played by Carruth and Amy Seimetz, the latter of whom is tragic and brilliant in this role) trying to help each other come back to reality. I'd be happy to discuss this movie for hours, but I can't explain everything in the film. I don't want to, either. The ends justified the means, and I'm happy with the mystery. You rarely see a singular voice in a film, but Carruth directed, edited, produced, wrote, and starred in this science fiction movie, and his sensibilities as a director are wholly unique. I thought it with PRIMER and UPSTREAM confirms it: Carruth is the very first of his kind. See UPSTREAM COLOR (it's on Netflix!) without reading any further plot details or carrying any preconceptions. Have an organic experience. 

 

#7: THE ACT OF KILLING 

"But I can feel it, Josh. Really, I feel it. Or have I sinned. I did this to so many people, Josh. Is it all coming back to me? I really hope it won't. I don't want it to, Josh."

THE ACT OF KILLING is as psychologically terrifying as the acts of genocide the film exposes of its Indonesian gangster figures, and the finest example I can think of in which a documentary transcends its genre. Director Joshua Oppenheimer follows Anwar, who in 1965-66 personally killed over 1,000 people and has never been held accountable for his crimes, as he and his cohorts dramatically re-enact their feelings about the murders for Oppenheimer and an anonymous Indonesian film crew. The results are surreal, butt-squirmingly scary, and revelatory of the effects of power and injustice held over long periods of time. And when the executioner finally confronts his past away from the magical realism of his film, it's somehow everything I could have wanted the man to understand about his actions while still disturbing as hell to me. This film will be remembered because it simply must be. 

 

 

#6: GRAVITY 

"Hey, Ryan, it's time to go home."

I saw GRAVITY three and a half times, and the ending made me well up on each viewing. I went back to the theater so often because I don't expect to ever see the film on a screen smaller than gigantic. Alfonso Cuaron's depiction of space, Emmanuel Lubezki's surreally realistic cinematography and Tim Webber's special effects team demand for GRAVITY to fill as much of your field of vision as possible. Only with GRAVITY does 3D feel like it actually expands the world and lets us see and understand its characters better. But about the welling up part: groundbreaking as the SFX may be, it is Sandra Bullock's human heart that makes the film come alive. Cuaron crafts a great space opera, but also a great survival story in which her Dr. Ryan Stone tries to rejoin the human race in various capacities. She is a woman who has shut down in the face of adversity and needs to plant her feet back on Earth. This works organically in a surprising way alongside the film's space thrills, thanks to Cuaron's long, busy, contemplative shots and Bullock's disciplined, tough performance. 

 

 

#5: 12 YEARS A SLAVE 

"I apologize for my appearance. But I have had a difficult time these past several years."

Raw brutality and emotion are rampant in Steve McQueen's masterpiece, which follows a free man who is drugged, kidnapped and shipped to a Georgia plantation for what could have been the rest of his life. McQueen takes his tense, elegant aesthetic from HUNGER and SHAME to a film with a much larger scope, in which he has the guts to depict scenes of prolonged, sustained sorrow and pain. He is totally unafraid to show Solomon Northup dangle from hanging rope for what feels like ages. McQueen's precision is matched in each of the film's performances: Chiwetel Ejiofor's performance is based mostly in body language and he conveys an astonishing amount just by looking up from his work or thinking about his family. Michael Fassbender once again throws himself into a McQueen role and brings one of cinema's most despicable characters. For me, 12 YEARS A SLAVE ranks with SCHINDER'S LIST and REQUIEM FOR A DREAM as one of the most effectively devastating films ever made. Every shot in this thoughtful, graceful film left me drained. 

 

 

#4: HER 

"I have never loved anyone the way I love you."

"Me too. Now we know how."

Spike Jonze has a lot on his mind with HER. Yes, it's about a guy who falls in love with his OS, but it's really about where we are as a society, the complexity of human bonding, and what defines our emotional wants and needs. Never have I seen a film so bare and open about dissecting what makes humans happy. But HER never feels calculated in the way you'd expect a film about human-robot love to be. It's a stunningly, profoundly emotional experience. Joaquin Phoenix as the soulful Theodore Twombly finally finds the relationship he wants in Samantha, a character voiced with such grace and humanity by Scarlett Johansson (a performance combined with Samantha Morton's) that I was convinced she was a real person and not his new computer program. And that's the most effective angle Jonze could have taken in HER: we're just as in love with Theodore and Samantha as they are with each other. He never condemns our tech-hungry generation. After a while, the shots of a not-too-distant future Los Angeles in which civilians walking while wearing earpieces and/or looking at their smartphones start to look like people desperate to make an easy, accessible connection, human or otherwise. Funny and touching, HER is heartbreakingly real but earnestly hopeful. Jonze has come into his own voice for the first time and we should be privileged to hear it. 

 

 

#3: BEFORE MIDNIGHT 

"Like sunlight, sunset, we appear, we disappear. We are so important to some, but we are just passing through."

I think Richard Linklater's trilogy of Celine and Jesse (BEFORE SUNRISE, BEFORE SUNSET, and this film) deserve to be recognized as one of the great cinematic achievements. His latest adds to the other two movies as much as SUNSET added to SUNRISE because of how much more invested we are in this relationship, played to flawed perfection by Julie Delphy and Ethan Hawke, who co-wrote the film with Linklater. However, the film simultaneously works on its own as a day in the life of a beautiful, funny, depressing, complicated, intimate, real love story. We never know where this relationship will end, and I never want to. 

 

 

#2: INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS 

"I'm tired... I'm so tired. I thought I just needed a night's sleep, but it's more than that."

LLEWYN DAVIS leaves you cold, but in the best way possible. This may be Joel and Ethan Coen's most melancholic story-- there's a profound sense of loss and coldness to struggling musician's Llewyn's life--but it's one of their most funny, visceral and emotional, and the original 60s folk music adds so much to the film's characters and atmosphere. Llewyn's character study, embodied by a great Oscar Issac performance, proves how you can pour your heart and soul into what you do and even be really good at it, but it doesn't matter if you can't catch a break. The most devastating shot in the film, right before an ass-whooping from a man in the shadows, is when Llewyn looks to his competition and realizes that he's not special, that he's not going to make it no matter how much he tries. The same cycle of crap will keep happening to him, partially because Llewyn seemingly feels this compulsion to suffer. We laugh at how bleak Llewyn's life is so we don't cry, a devise for humor the Coens excel at and what all of their best films pull this off in spades. LLEWYN DAVIS is absolutely one of their best.

 

 

#1: THE WOLF OF WALL STREET

"Was all of this legal? Absolutely fucking not. But we were making so much money we didn't know what to do with ourselves."

Before WOLF I struggled plenty with the arrangement of my top five, because my #2-6 choices are all deserving of the "Best Movie of 2013" title and I disliked that I had to rank them. However, when I saw this film last week, I thought I knew. And when I immediately saw it again, I knew I knew. WOLF OF WALL STREET is the most successfully ambitious film of the year. This is among the ballsiest, funniest, richest satire I've ever seen. This is the cinematic equivalent of Martin Scorsese dropping the mic. What the old master did for the mob with GOODFELLAS he does for capitalism with WOLF: he uses the real-life story of Wall Street stockbroker Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) to indict the system that caused the repugnant excess rampant in 1980s American culture. To establish what drove men like Belfort and why society glorifies these men. he seduces viewers into the drug-filled, sex-crazed excess. It's a thoroughly joyful film, but scary in all the most appropriate, effective ways. These guys are criminals and society accepts them. Hell, even Belfort himself stands to gain untold millions from the production of this film alone. The fact that these guys ultimately won is the twist of the knife, and makes Scorsese's satire all the more urgent. 

 

Much of the gratitude for WOLF should go towards Terence Winter's amazing script, which knows exactly when to play what cards and how to revolve the cast around DiCaprio. Jonah Hill disappears into the delightfully crude role of Donny Azoff. His chemistry with DiCaprio, while initially jarring, is palpable. Margot Robbie as Belfort's second wife Naomi gets a fascinating character to play with, from the honeymoon phase of their relationship to its darkest moments. The rest of the sprawling ensemble--including Cristen Milioti, Matthew McConaughey (in his best role of the year, dammit!), Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Jon Bernthal, Joanna Lumley, Jon Favreau, Jean Dujardin--are utilized perfectly. Each have no more than a couple of significant scenes, but they have so much in their characters to work with, so they give those scenes their all. There's also Rodrigo Prieto shooting Scorsese's first digital 2D feature, who adds a vital, youthful look to the film's insanity, and editor Thelma Schoonmaker, who helped bring down Scorsese's initial four-hour cut of the film to a product that zips by, that effortlessly transitions from moment to memorable moment. But let's talk about DiCaprio. This is the acting of the millennium, namely because he gets to do everything in the book and then what the book didn't know to include. The man is as charming and attractive to listen to as Belfort needs to be on screen, but is some of the most impressive physical work I've ever seen an actor do. A particular car scene harkened back to Jim Carrey in ACE VENTURA for me, because that's the level of balls-out performing DiCaprio reaches and excels.

 

WOLF OF WALL STREET feels like a film I could see every day for months, enjoy every single time, and find something new to appreciate about it. This is cinema, in its purest, finest form. 

[DAR]

Take a bow Gopher that was just fantastic.

[RobinHood26]

Your top 5 is pretty much spot on. Great read. Glad to see Wolf #1. 

[baumer]

Gopher, after he finished putting in the last period in his top 100:

 

[baumer]

I want to do a top 100 but I could never live up to what Gopher just did.  

[baumer]

Gopher did such a fantastic job with his write up that it will obviously be hard to follow his up, so I'm not going to try to be better than he is, just different.  We have very different writing styles and sometimes very different taste in film, so our lists will have some of the same rankings and many different ones.

 

I have seen 118 films this year.  Like Gopher, I too was shocked at the quality of films released this year.  I found a lot of the smaller films to be the best ones and conversely I found a lot of the bigger ones to be something I'd use to let a puppy pee on when pottie training him in the house.  But aside from a few misfires, this year has been quite good.  

 

I have rated 49 of the 100 films on this list as an 8 or higher.  So 49 out of 118 films are ranked an A. That means 41.5% of the movies I've seen this year were excellent.  I'll take those odds any year.  That means that more than 4X out of ten, when I paid for a movie this year, I felt immensely satisfied leaving the theater.  

 

Before we get started, one caveat to this is that I have not seen Her, Inside Llewyn Davis, Nebraska and a few other notable films.  They might make the list, they might not, but for now, they are not eligible for this list.

 

So without further ado....I'll get started in a few minutes.

 

***Note....I know others want to make their own lists and I'll have mine done by Sunday of next week.  Someone else can start theirs, and then we can combine all the lists, once we have all finished.  I think it's better to have one person doing theirs at a time.

Edited January 5, 2014 by Christmas baumer

[Kvikk Lunsj]

Great job, you are fantastic writer. I loved reading your count down. 

[baumer]

100) Star Trek Into Darkness: STID is not a very good film.  This film just seems like a bunch of noise.  People are running around frantically, always bustling to do something, but most of the time, it's just a bunch of static.  I didn't understand Khan's motivation, or anyone's for that matter  People just seem to do things in here because they need a reason to spend money on the film.  

 

Bones just seemed like a caricature of the television Bones and Scotty is always panicking.  

 

The film did nothing for me, it was watching Cutthroat Island...all action and no substance.  Now think about that.  This is the 100th best film of the year imo.  That means there are 18 other films I've seen that I disliked more that this.  That's scary.

 

99) Spring Breakers:  While I understand why some like this film, I don't agree with that assessment. This was way over the top for me and it just dragged and got really silly. A film about sex drugs and rock and roll that doesn't drag and does it much better than this is Less Than Zero. This is just strange. And it's very weird. Franco is fantastic but the script imo lets the film down.  

 

You have four seemingly innocent young girls who are so desperate to break out of their mundane lives that they decide to rob to get money to go on vacation with.  This film goes to great lengths to show how disconnected some of the youth seem to be today between reality and fantasy.  Everyone wants to live a life of insouciance but how do you go about getting to the point where you can?  That is one thing the film does well.  It illustrates beautifully the lengths that people will go to get there and the consequences of it.  James Franco nails the performance and if was to get a supporting actor nomination, it wouldn't surprise many.  He won't but if he did, it wouldn't be a big shock.  It's just the body of the film seemed a little repetitive.

 

 

98) Thor 2: The Dark World:  I'm getting up there in age now.  I'm starting to think that perhaps comic book superheroes are just not my thing anymore.  There have been worse superhero films than this, but not many.  The problem with Thor 2 is that it is boring and the plot is about as ridiculous as you can get.  I realize the story has it's origins that date back decades but the main plot with this film is that some race of creatures wants the world to be dark again.  That's it.  I mean, why?  Why do you need the entire fucking world to be dark?  Apparently there are 9 realms.  Can't they just take one realm or maybe even just a tenth of a realm and keep it dark?  And you can see the problem here. Maybe I just don't get the plot and that's probably because I just don't care enough.  Outside of Avengers, Watchmen, Iron Man and The Dark Knight, every super hero film  after 2008 has disappointed me to some degree.

 

97) The Last Stand:  There's about 15 minutes of this film that is absolutely stunning. From the time the deputies get to the area where the bridge is being built until they arrive back at the sheriff's office with a dead Jerry, it is outstanding. The rest of it is just okay. Part of the problem is Arnold. There are a dozen other actors who could have played this role. Arnold should not have. I think of Arnold as The Terminator or Dutch or Harry Tasker, not an old man who still has a little left in the tank. Stallone revived his career by being in the best shape of his life, Arnold should have done the same. He should have waited to get back into the game until he was jacked up again. I just didn't like seeing him look old and tired. And that really took away from my enjoyment of the film.

The biggest problem with the film is that the buildup is much too long and then finally when the finale takes place, it's just kind of a letdown.  It is blessed with a really good cast and Genesis Rodriguez is ridiculously hot but that doesn't make up for the fact that this film seemed to be thrown together quickly so that Arnold could make it his first film since T3.  

 

This is all I have time for at the moment.  Later on today, I'll get to number 90.

 

Edited January 5, 2014 by Christmas baumer

[baumer]

96) The Great Gatsby:  After seeing the movie, I did some research into the book.  Apparently the book does a much better job of explaining the film and the how the characters did what they did and why they did it.  This film is about a man is unfathomably rich and throws parties every night, which look like they would cost more than his bootlegging fortune would allow him to pay.  And his motivation for these parties are to impress a girl.  Instead of just approaching her and telling her of his feelings or affinity towards her, he figures the best thing to do is try to impress her with materialism.  Then the climax of the film has the girl's husband discover that Gatsby used to be poor.  In a normal world, this wouldn't even be a concern.  Everyone comes from humble beginnings.  But in this film it's as if the sky is falling and the sun is about to freeze the earth.  

 

The good things about the film are Leo's performance and the set design.  The set decoration is by Beverly Dunn and she made a name for herself on the SW prequels.  She has perhaps outdone herself with this film.  While the plot and the script are the problems, the set decoration is the highlight.  She should be recognized at Oscar time.  If the film was half as good as she was, it would be a much better time at the movies.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2014 by Christmas baumer

[Empire]

Great job with this Gopher. Really enjoyed reading this.

 

 

It's right there in his sig.

 

I am pretty clueless sometimes.