I mulled doing a worst list, but it would read like every other worst list, with The Lone Ranger leading the pack. It was awful, awful, awful. But one that was actually worse was Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain, which made Keystone Cops out of convicted killers and victim dismemberers (laugh track here). It was the lowest point in movies this year. So without saying their names any more, I’ll move on.
Here is my list of best films. It was not hard to make, but it was hard to cut. The top four or five were established many months ago and never moved. The others drifted up and down, on and off, and generally all around before settling where they did. Lists are generally annoying endeavors, so I sympathize with readers who avoid them. My list resembles other lists, which is one of the flaw of year-end lists — they all tend to look alike. Ultimately, though, I make my list, if nothing more, than to serve as a time capsule to my tastes of 2013. Maybe that’s selfish, but isn’t that why people read lists, to find out how someone else’s list compares to their own?
In any case, here’s mine.
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1. The Spectacular Now
Teens are a nebulous subject, which is why so many films get so perilously lost when the setting involves a high school. James Ponsoldt’s breathtaking character drama The Spectacular Now understands teens on an intimate soul-deep level. It nurtures them, caresses their feelings, gives them freedom to wander, and allows them to live as natural, awkward beings. It’s a beautiful film made all the better by Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, who play the star-crossed teens — he’s popular and charismatic, she’s delicate and optimistic. They lift each other up and drag each other down in Ponsoldt’s humanistic script. After a horrendous summer of high-octane garbage, I knew I had seen my favorite movie of the year after falling in love with the film’s careful honesty and superb performances. I wasn’t the only one who loved it: The Spectacular Now was Roger Ebert’s final four-star review; it published on his site after he died.
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2. 12 Years a Slave
Viewers should experience two emotions watching Steve McQueen’s absolutely vital piece of American history, 12 Years a Slave: shame and hope. Shame that our country was founded amid a belief as abhorrent as slavery, and hope in the people who fought to stay alive within it. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon Northup, a free-born American citizen who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Deep South. He encounters some good souls (Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt) and some truly awful ones (Michael Fassbender). McQueen’s camera lingers on torture and abuse long enough to repulse you, but short enough to give the film its central core of hope. Ejiofor is stunning, as is Fassbender, who plays a despicably vile slave owner. One of the hidden gems in the movie, though, is Lupita Nyong’o, who plays a woman drained of all her hope and filled with sorrow. This is an important film that needs to not be seen, but witnessed.
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3. Gravity
Alfonso Cuarón reinvented the science fiction thriller with an unlikely ally — science. Neil deGrasse Tyson lovingly picked it apart, but Gravity is still light years ahead of many of its peers. Using realistic sound effects (none) and hyper-realistic gravity physics, Cuarón managed to bring us a convincing space drama, about two astronauts left marooned in a low orbit after space debris shreds the space shuttle, then the International Space Station and then a Chinese station. The situation grows very dire as man-made meteorites continuously blast through their escape plan. The film features one of my favorite images of any film of the year: Sandra Bullock, in silhouette, hurtling off into the Milky Way with only her helmet lights skipping through the cosmos.
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4. Her
Spike Jonze has always been a creative force, but with Her he enters another realm completely. His film, which he also wrote, is about a man who falls in love with the voice in his phone’s operating system. And wow, what a voice — sexy, a little coarse and deep, but altogether filled with compassion. The voice is played by Scarlett Johansson; the man by Joaquin Phoenix. Together they wander the film’s sci-fi-tinted cityscape exploring their love and limitations. The movie is less a commentary on the Internet and technology than it is on love and all the funny things we do to find it, flourish in it, and keep it. And considering all the ways this could have ended, Jonze finds a perfectly believable way to find some closure. It’s heartbreaking, no doubt, but it’s appropriate in every way.
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5. The Place Beyond the Pines
In a triptych of stories, The Place Beyond the Pines gives us three figures locked in dangerous cycles, each of which ends in a different way: one in defeat, one in victory and one in forgiveness. The movie, by Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance, is one of the most rewarding experiences of the year. Ryan Gosling plays a motorcycle daredevil who turns to bank robbing, Bradly Cooper plays the cop who responds to a fateful call, and Chronicles' Dane DeHaan plays a troubled kid with a missing father. The stories interlock in fairly straightforward and realistic ways, but they are all emotionally complex with each story cascading its outcomes down onto the next. In the end, sometimes the sins of the father are visited on the son, and sometimes the cycle is broken.
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6. Nebraska
Oh Bruce Dern, where have you been all these years? Dern plays a guy so convinced he's won a scam direct mail contest that he's going to walk his winning letter from Montana to Nebraska. His son, played by a surprisingly skilled Will Forte, takes pity on the crotchety old man and agrees to drive him on what will become a fantastic road movie about rediscovering your roots. The film is witty and smart, and terrifyingly honest about getting old and a little delirious. June Squibb has a performance as Dern's wife, and she steals the show in every scene including the one that will make her famous: "You all can go fuck yourselves," she tells her various cousins and in-laws. The movie is directed by Descendants helmer Alexander Payne, further cementing his role as America's premier maker of hilarious dysfunctional family dramas.
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7. The Wolf of Wall Street
In 50 years, when American college professors are teaching students about banking regulation and their former state of criminality, they will show students Wolf of Wall Street and tell them, "See the way it was. This is why banking is so regulated today." Martin Scorsese directs Leonardo DiCaprio in a riotous free-for-all about excess — women, drugs and money, money, money. The film certainly glorifies DiCaprio's antics, but only a madman would look upon them and think, "Hey, this is something I might want to try." Wolf of Wall Street, with its manic editing and narrative structure, is a red-hot indictment on the white-collar crime that infects every bank in America. Scorsese, here in top form, uses every tool in his toolbox, as does DiCaprio, who really outdoes himself with his over-the-top-ridiculous performance.
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8. Prisoners
Crime thrillers rarely surprise me anymore; they're too predictable. Prisoners, though, by director Denis Villeneuve, shocked me with its freshness and its macabre twists. Hugh Jackman stars as a father whose daughter is abducted, probably by a mentally deficient young man who cruises town in a creepy RV. The police can't act because there is no proof, so Hugh's character kidnaps the boy to torture the information out of him. The film's grisly twist — the victim's father becomes the kidnapper — is just one of many diabolical plot developments in this brainy and moody thriller that also stars Terrence Howard, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano and Melissa Leo.
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9. Spring Breakers
The Spectacular Now features teens with hopes and dreams. Spring Breakers features teens with none. Both are accurate movies. Spring Breakers takes place in one of those beach cities overrun by college kids for spring break. We follow four young women as they hypnotically drink their way through their vacation. And when they run out of money they steal. The shots of them in jail in their bikinis is an image worth way more than a thousand words. Later they hook up with Alien (James Franco), a whacked-out drug dealer and rapper, who can see potential in his new muses. The film, deftly shot by Harmony Korine, is a spastic dubstep-scored manifesto of sex, alcohol and "spring break forever." Really, though, it's about nihilism and the wasted potential of young people; a DayGlo hyper-ballad of teens giving the middle finger to the establishment. The hedonistic orgy of color and feminism is subversive pop-art of the strangest, most poetically bankrupt variety. And I loved every sonic second of it.
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10. Upstream Color
I've seen Shane Carruth's time-traveling basement epic Primer about a dozen times and still don't get all of it. It's a labyrinth of dead ends and alternative timelines, but it's an utterly captivating brand of DIY sci-fi. Here Carruth is again with something more cerebral and poetic — so poetic that early reviews compared it to Terrence Malick. Upstream Color is easy to explain, but nearly impossible to understand. It begins with a thief using a tiny worm to poison a woman into a hypnosis-like coma, in which she can accept commands without question. The thief has her transcribe a book, drink copious amounts of water, make paper chains and, eventually, empty her bank account. After it's over, the woman wakes up with gaps in her memory. She ends up meeting another victim, and they begin to share memories with each other, and also with pigs that now contain the parasites they once did. There's also another character: the Sampler, who runs the pig farm, records sounds out in nature and somehow has access to memories that don't belong to him. It's all very confusing, but also completely transfixing, with the hypnotic shots of ambushed memories and shared visions serving as film's only hiding places for clues. I've seen it twice and I still have only scratched the surface of its many secrets, but Upstream Color is a fascinatingly dense tale of mind manipulation.
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11. August: Osage County
Few movies have better acting than August: Osage County, a movie that features a turbulent descent into 40 years of resentment and pain. The play-turned-movie is about a father's death and how his children return home to bury him and deal with their mother, a pill-popping microburst of disappointment. The mother is played by Meryl Streep and she will surely get an Academy Award nomination for this performance. Now, that kind of proclamation is hardly prophetic for Streep, one of the most honored actresses in the history of the cinema, but this nomination would be appropriate, and not just because, "It's Meryl." She howls and yammers, slithers and burps, and she attacks her children for their continued failures. Julia Roberts has a fascinating role that allows her to yell some rather stupendous F words, some of them at Streep, which is worth the price of a ticket right there.
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12. The Act of Killing
In 1965, a failed communist rebellion created a state-sponsored genocide in Indonesia. The killers would hack, shoot, burn and bomb their supposedly communist victims. One killer would wrap wire around their necks and yank until they were dead. We know this because the killer himself re-enacts the murders, often with a wry little smile. Director Joshua Oppenheimer pointed his camera at other killers and they also smiled with pride at the people they murdered. It's a perverse thing to admit, but it happens over and over again in The Act of Killing, a documentary that serves as an admission of guilt for an entire country. Today in Indonesia, the so called "gangsters" are recognized as national heroes. One of them, the choker from above, spends the whole movie chuckling like an idiot about the people he killed. At one point he shows his grandchildren why he's so famous. And finally, he stands where the murders took place and dry heaves over his crimes. By now it's too late; his secret is out. I watched this movie in stunned disbelief, and it's never really left me.
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Honorable Mention, Science Fiction — Oblivion
Joseph Kosinski's splendid science fiction adventure about cloning, an alien race, Earth's destruction and Apple-designed flying space pods was a stand-out from early 2013. Held together with incredible photography, dazzling special effects and M83's electric shoegaze, Oblivion wasn't the smartest science fiction of the year, but it was another sign that Kosinski, after his zippy Tron Legacy, was well on his way to becoming an established director. The movie did give us one of the most unintentionally funny visuals: Tom Cruise's sperm-shaped flight pod entering the polished space vagina of an orbiting alien mothership. And say what you will about Tom Cruise, he continuously delivers strong performances, especially in ambitious sci-fi films.
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Honorable Mention, Animation — Monster’s University
After Frozen came out Monsters University dropped off many critics' maps. While Frozen is a wonderful Disney movie, one with some progressive new story themes that are welcome to Disney's animated legacy, my heart is still with Pixar's prequel to Monsters Inc. Mike and Sully are back, this time as they meet in college, fight over their respective careers, eventually team up and take on a vindictive dean. The Greek games are fun, especially that race with the toxic spikeballs, and so are the new characters, including that rolly-polly Art. I found the film to be a worthy addition to the Pixar family because it added more to the story: Mike, the green volleyball with one eye, is taught a valuable lesson about teamwork. In a world that puts emphasis on the high scorers, and not the people who assist the high scorers, Mike is given a behind-the-scenes job that is just as important as being the hero. It was a small, but valuable, twist that I appreciated immensely.
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Honorable Mention, Biopic — Fruitvale Station
Oscar Grant was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong cop. That makes it sound like his own fault and, well, that's how the cop probably saw it — "guilty of being black" is a real phenomenon with police officers, just look at the demographic breakdown of New York City's stop and frisk program. Oscar was on a BART train on New Year's Day when he was hauled off, laid on the ground, handcuffed and then shot at point-blank range in the back. He later died of his wound. The cop may have meant to fire his tazer, but drew his gun. We'll never know what was in his heart, although the videos and subsequent trials certainly paint differing pictures. The film, named after the station Oscar was shot in, follows Oscar Grant on his last day of life. He had some issues he was working through, but he was ready to move past them with his girlfriend, his daughter and his loving family, who were always in his corner. Ryan Coogler's debut is a powerful piece of film, and it's held together by the very talented Michael B. Jordan, who is quickly becoming a force all his own.
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Honorable Mention, Costume Drama — American Hustle
David O. Russell's wildly intriguing film about criminals hunting criminals with the FBI at their side is a joy to behold. The hair, the costumes, the settings, the music … here is a fully realized 1970s wonderland, where crime and corruption meet in a dizzying display of double crosses and manipulation. Framed around the ABSCAM case that netted several high-ranking elected officials for bribery, American Hustle mostly focuses on the criminals who arranged the sting. One of them is a fat loser with a bad combover (Christian Bale) and the other is a conniving femme fatale with a plunging neckline (Amy Adams). Then there's Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Louis C.K. and Robert De Niro, rounding out a stellar all-star cast. The movie is a tad too long, but it rarely leaves the groove it cuts on its rock-n-roll journey through the garish ’70s.
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Honorable Mention, Fantasy — Riddick
When I left the Riddick screening, a fanboy was griping that there wasn't enough "action and killing." That's precisely why I loved this dopey action movie. Well, that and also because it looked nothing like the previous Riddick movie. The movie begins with Vin Diesel's muscly hero getting stranded on a planet all by himself with no guns or foes. It had me hooked at this point. He spends the first 40 minutes or so trying to survive the elements, the hyena-wolves, the centipede-scorpion bugs and other surprises of the planet's harsh ecosystem. And then, when bounty hunters show up to claim their prize, he takes them all hostage until he gets his way. Diesel is a lovable action hero, if only because that grumbly voice allows for so little range, which makes everything he says sound the same, from deadly threats to off-the-wall quips. Riddick still finds time for wanton violence, but the fact that the plot is so very different than everything that came before it is worthy of mention and appreciation.
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Honorable Mention, Horror — Evil Dead
Just when you think Evil Dead has maxed out, when the violence and mayhem couldn't possibly get worse, it's right then that the movie kicks into a hidden gear and crashes through the bloody ceiling. The result: raining freakin' blood. Yes, Sam Raimi's version is a horror classic, but this remake proves that sometimes to honor the original, a remake must top it again and again and again. Needles in eyes, hammers to knees, nail guns shot through faces, chainsaws, rape trees, possessed sisters, skin-wrapped books, point-blank shotgun blasts, turkey carvers … oh this movie unleashes some shit. I like over-the-top movies, and Evil Dead clears the top, circles the block and returns to give you the finger.
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Honorable Mention, Indie Darling — Prince Avalanche
David Gordon Green left indie character dramas many years ago to do stupid James Franco comedies. He was sorely missed. He returned to the fold here with Prince Avalanche, about two workers doing road maintenance through an area destroyed by wildfire. They dig holes for signs, paint the road lines and apply the lane nipples (that's not what they're called?). They also bicker and fight, and then contemplate their lives and what's happening back home. The movie stars Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch, who play their roles with a touch of irony and nostalgia for the 1980s, the time period the movie is set. By the end of the movie, you realize the movie had more going on than you anticipated — are they dead, or is everyone else? Prince Avalanche won some early accolades, but then disappeared. I didn't want to forget it; it was a charming study on isolation and road nipples.
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Honorable Mention, Tom Hanks — Captain Phillips
Tom Hanks, the male Meryl Streep, does not need any new awards, although he certainly deserves them with each new movie, all of them delightful precisely because Tom Hanks is in them. Anyway, I wanted to honor Tom Hanks (yet again), but this time for a side of him that we haven't yet seen. He plays Captain Phillips in Paul Greengrass's high-seas boat drama about pirates and a hostage negotiation. The movie is quite good, but I really want to focus on Hanks' last scene. He's aboard a Navy vessel being treated for the days-long ordeal he just went through. And then Hanks, as Captain Phillips, just loses it. Complete breakdown. It's clearly post-traumatic stress disorder, and it's terrifying. Hanks whimpers and sobs, his eyes are spinning, his hands trembling. We've seen Hanks act the hell out of some roles, but I've never seen him like this. Never. Not once. The guy is good.
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Honorable Mention, WTF?!?!? — The Counselor
Oh did I ever hate-love this bizarre Ridley Scott movie. It's written by novelist Cormac McCarthy precisely the way you would expect Cormac McCarthy to have written a movie. "What the fuck did you expect?" is what he would tell you if you ever could interrogate him about this WTF-worthy crime thriller. The movie — so esoteric, so existential, so elegantly perverse — is about a man becoming a criminal, but it's not that easy. All of the dialogue is spoken in obtuse metaphor. Some of it is easy to figure out; other parts are so literary and complex that most moviegoers are unlikely to understand what's happening. The speeches, and there are many of them, are brilliantly written and performed, but without anything linking them to the rest of the story they become painful exercises in "Wait, what?" It also features one of the strangest and least erotic sex scenes of the year, if not the decade. "Catfish" is all the character who experiences it can say. It's all I can say to end the year. "Catfish."
