Amph List your favorite movies of 2013

My 2 favoritie films of 2013.

The Wolverine - I felt this film was a great sequel for Wolverine. Very action packed and thrilling. The twist at the end was very unexpected.

Man Of Steel - I was never a fan of the Superman franchise, but this film opened up an awesome universe beyond Superman himself. The Krypton civil war and Krypton villains made the film that much better.

 

I forgot about Jack the Giant Slayer. That would go down in the Terrible list.

 

I wish I could put The Wolverine on my shortlist. I really do. But that goddam final act...man, talk about totally screwing the pooch on what was a moody, atmospheric thriller.

 

Memorex by SmashTV

 

Monsters University
Thor
Star Trek
Planes

 

My Top 10 for 2013
10) Gravity
9) Gravity
8) Gravity
7) Gravity
6) Gravity
5) Gravity
4) Gravity
3) Gravity
2) Frozen
1) Gravity

 

This is my Top 10 for 2013, and I think it might have been the best year for film since 2007.

Link here.

 

Great – “You gotta go see this.”

Aliens (1986) – James Cameron - ****
Marines battle vicious alien horde.
Brilliant ensemble meets intense action.

Argo (2012) – Ben Affleck - ****
Smuggling people out of Iran.
Moody, atmospheric, incredibly suspenseful masterpiece.

Blackfish (2013) – Gabriela Cowperthwaite - ****
Mistreated killer whales turn violent.
Deeply disturbing, infuriating waterpark expose.

Bonne & Clyde (1967) – Arthur Penn - ****
Fictionalized biopic about bank robbers.
Excellent performances; layered, strange script.

The Conjuring (2013) – James Wan - ****
Demonologists, tormented family face ghosts.
Deeply frightening and emotionally effecting.

 

So I've got a whole bunch of screeners to watch now and so am getting more caught up for the year. So far in the past several days I have seen:

Frozen- A really very good film, all around. Possibly the best Disney has done since The Emperor's New Groove, or maybe even Mulan, which is saying something. The cast was great (Idina Menzel!), the music was great, and the story was pretty good. And Disney finally got love right! Well, mostly. At least it was far less wrong than usual. I love how they poked fun at the love at first sight thing.

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I was also really surprised with how the curse (was it a curse or an injury?) was resolved. I didn't expect

Spoiler

the act of love to be romantic love, both because the movie was about the two sisters and because it was a screamingly obvious red herring, but I did not expect Anna to save herself. I thought Elsa would save her somehow. That was a great move on Disney's part.

The movie did have its problems; the main one I suppose was

Spoiler

making Hans a villain. Overall it came practically out of thin air and just didn't seem very well thought out. I know it was a late change... I'm glad they didn't make Elsa a villain, but I'm not sure this was the way to go.

In the end though I thoroughly enjoyed myself and "Let It Go" has been stuck in my head for the past four days.

12 Years a Slave- Another really good film, but definitely hard to watch. I like to think that I know more about America's history of slavery and the slave trade than the average American. I've read several slave narratives and historical works about the time period, because the entire thing is one of the eras in our history I find most interesting, culturally, socially and politically. So I wasn't terribly surprised by the actions of the slavers in the movie, because they were things I already knew about. But even then it was just so visceral and unflinching that it was quite painful at times. I think this kind of portrayal was a good thing; it was a brutal, brutal time, and we don't need to romanticize it.

Aside from this I thought the acting was very good all around (well, Brad Pitt felt like he was phoning it in, which is unusual and disappointing, but his part was small enough that it didn't matter much). Eijiofor was compelling as Northup, doing a very good job of portraying the fear, despair, and defiance of his character. Fassbender was possibly the most chilling slaver I've seen since Simon Lagree. And don't get me started on Paulson. She was absolutely stunning as Mistress Epps; I feel she should at least be nominated for something, because that really stuck with me.

There were a few things I wasn't a fan of. While some of his pieces were quite good, overall I think Zimmer was a bad choice for composer. I don't think his style really fits with the type of movie they were making. And there were some odd editing choices, I felt; cuts in places that I felt didn't make sense. These detracted from the movie a bit. But the compelling nature of the material and the quality of the acting made up for it. Great film.

Inside Llewyn Davis- Another hard film to watch, but for very different reasons. The Coen Brothers' most recent film about the struggles of a young folk musician in the the 60s resonated with me, but not in an altogether desirable way. I generally love the Coen Brothers; No Country for Old Men, Barton Fink, and Raising Arizona are some of my favorite films of all time. But I didn't like this one as much. Don't get me wrong: it was well acted (how often does Carey Mulligan use her actual accent anymore, anyway?), as always, and the editing choices were interesting, but the main character was just cringe-worthy in his nature. I get that this was part of the point of the film. It was supposed to showcase his flaws. But there were several points where I almost had to turn it off because he was just so broken that it made me uncomfortable, probably because I empaphised with him a bit too much.

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Take for example the first scene with the Gorfien's, at their dinner party. I get why he freaked out; I really do. But the reaction was so vile that I almost couldn't bear it. And then to top it all off with the cat... actually, that's probably what kept me watching. I went into "Aww, poor kitty! What happened to him?" mode and was sucked back in.

So yeah, I wouldn't at all call it a bad film. I think it was rather a very good one. But aside from a few scenes it was not one that I enjoyed, and that's a shame.

Nebraska- Now this was just awesome. A crazy old man thinks he's won a million dollars and forces his son to humor him, driving him from Billings to Lincoln to pick up his supposed winnings, while we see the messed up nature of their family's lives and they learn to bond together. Who wouldn't find that interesting?

Well, okay, it doesn't sound that great on paper, granted, but it's really good, I swear! Alexander Payne paints (in black and white, mind) an unpleasant and unfiltered picture of small-town America, finding both sadness and humor in all of the foibles of the characters. It's great black comedy. As they get stuck in Woody's (the dad's) hometown over the weekend his son meets all of his father's old acquaintances and comes to further appreciate who his father really is. His brother and (really awesome) mother also show up and we get to see all the dysfunctional aspects of their relationships with one another. One of my favorite moments is near the end. I don't want to spoil it, but I'm just going to say that it involves the sons doing something very nice and very misguided for their father... in more ways than one.

As it is the film is superbly acted by everyone. Will Forte plays the son David Grant in a charming, bemused way that I can only really think of as "Archie if he were real". He really gives off that kind of good-natured All-American vibe. But the parents! Wow! June Squibb plays the mother Kate, who's probably my favorite character. She is very much the cool old lady. Her comedic timing is flawless, and she's great at getting just that perfect mix of fiestyness and lovability. But the best performance is Bruce Dern as Woody Grant, the old man. He does a compelling job of presenting a sad old man, seemingly lost in a world he's become outdated in while still being coherent enough to get a few good moments of snark. Dern was good enough that I would be surprised if he isn't nominated for something.

So yeah, those are the films I've seen in the past few days. Out of them I think I liked Frozen and Nebraska best; both of them are worth a buy, in my opinion. But they were all very good films. If you guys haven't seen them, do yourself a favor and check them out. Especially Nebraska. Just loved that film.

Anyway I've got over a dozen more movies to go through so I'll be at it for a week or two. At the end maybe I'll make a list of my favorites.

 

Edit: nevermind, wrong topic.

 

MrZAP, I totally agree with you on Paulson; with all the other wonderful actors in the movie, she's not getting mentioned enough. She was really creepy and terrifying in 12 Years. I have to disagree with you on Zimmer; I think it's his best score in years . . . maybe since Gladiator, though I'm getting the nagging feeling that there's one after Gladiator but before this one that I can't quite think of. I like the fact that some of it is anachronistic; some of those dark drones and rumbles that he uses really help build the dread and I thought that he nailed the quieter moments better than he's ever done before.


Great – 45 – “You gotta go see this.”

Despicable Me (2010) – Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud - ****
Villain saddled with three kids.
Hilarious and tear-jerking by turns.

Despicable Me 2 (2013) – Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud - ****
Villain turned spy meets girl.
Sequel that equals the original.

Django Unchained (2012) – Quentin Tarantino - ****
Unlikely partners search for slave.
Exquisite performances elevate revenge fantasy.

Don Jon (2013) – Joseph Gordon-Levitt - ****
Porn addiction complicates romantic escapades.
Smart, witty, vividly directed, pertinent.

Fill the Void (2012) – Rama Burshtein - ****
Orthodox Jewish family faces tragedy.
Deeply moving story of subculture.

 

Hopefully seeing American Hustle on Tuesday.

 

Honestly Paulson's character was one of my favorite parts of the film, because of how extraordinarily portrayed it was. I don't mean her character was extraordinary; the sexual abuse of slave owners and terrifyingly vindictive jealousy of their wives is well-documented. I mean it's extraordinary how much they laid it bare. Fiction likes to show us the whips, the lynching, the hard masters and overseers, and the hard life of the fields. I can't remember the last time I saw them showcase the sexual aspect of slavery in film, and certainly not the element of the jealous mistress. But the sexual abuse was one of the most common and most brutal aspects of slavery, and aside from the (significant and considerable) trauma from it it also contributed to many broken marriages and to the misfortune of many a slave maiden who got on her mistress' bad side. So as horrifying as it was to watch, it felt really good, in a way (please don't take this the wrong way) to see it onscreen, and have it out there. The fact that Paulson was perfect just made it better. I think the film's greatest strength is that it doesn't pull any punches for the audience.

I do agree that Zimmer did well in the quiet scenes. I think the use of strings was very good. But overall I would have preferred a more classical feel to the score. Sometimes Zimmer is great, like in Gladiator, but oftentimes it feels like he's just using the synthesizers too much and needs to get back to the fundamentals.

EDIT: Hope you like it. Hustle is probably still my favorite film of the year so far.

 

Same here

Hopefully it will be on my list for 2013

 

Great – “You gotta go see this.

Fruitvale Station (2013) – Ryan Coogler - ****
Last day of shooting victim.
A tragic, surprisingly even-handed film.

The Great Gatsby (2013) – Baz Luhrmann - ****
Couples reunion leads to tragedy.
Faithful, profound adaptation of Americana.

A Hijacking [Kapringen] (2012) – Tobias Lindholm - ****
Owner, pirates negotiate over ship.
Merciless, harrowing movie slowly despairs.

The Impossible [Lo Imposible] (2012) – Juan Antonio Bayona - ****
Tsunami separates large British family.
Emotionally gut-wrenching, intensely cathartic masterpiece.

In a World . . . (2013) – Lake Bell - ****
Voiceover artists compete for roles.
Bell’s smart, hilarious directorial debut.

 

I think I'll double feature AH with Lone Survivor or something else. Anchorman 2 perhaps? Was that one good for those who have seen it?

 

Anchorman 2 was fine. It wasn't hilarious, but there were a few laughs. It was about twenty to thirty minutes too long. I'd recommend it only if you're a big fan of the original.

 

Anchorman 2 is OK.

I think American Hustle is almost a masterpiece, but a lot of internets people hate the film. It's got a sloppy and complacent first act which I think loses people, but what follows is immensely rewarding, I think. If you're expecting a film that is about its "con" then you're in the wrong place - personally the film reminds me of the work of Huston, Aldrich, and Jewison most.

 

Oh, absolutely right. I loved every second of American Hustle, but I wouldn't even describe it as a con movie or a caper movie. It's just a character movie as far as I'm concerned.

 

I think on reflection Rush is still my film of the year. I appreciate it won't speak to non-F1 fans like it will to racing fans, but that shouldn't diminish it's power as a film.

 

Niki Lauda looks better than ever. I enjoyed seeing him at the Golden Globes:

 

So that's what Davros would look like with 21st century health care.

 

Harsh man. Harsh.

 

I just watched Prisoners. So that.