The 2013 Paulies

What a fantastic year at the movies.  Even as an armchair critic and regular dispenser of cinematic snark, I had a hard time mustering negativity about this year’s crop of films and Oscar nominations.  I mean, the Academy actually rewarded the best picture of the year with the Best Picture Oscar (12 Years a Slave), gave a slew of technical awards to one of the best recent feats of technical filmmaking (Gravity), and even gave the “miss congeniality award” (or as they call it, Best Original Screenplay) to a wildly original and heartfelt film that didn’t exactly crush the box office (Her).

Of course, AMPAS being AMPAS, several nominations also went to: (1) a mediocre Scorsese rip off with wigs, wide lapels, and name brand onscreen talent (American Hustle); (2) a turgid black and white travelogue with delusions of profundity (Nebraska); (3) an issue drama that only rises above Lifetime movie status because of the charisma of its lead performances (Dallas Buyers Club); (4) a decent enough thriller with unpleasant geo-political overtones (Captain Phillips); (5) and Philomena (sorry, this is the only Best Picture nominee I missed).  But overall, there just wasn’t much to get worked up about….unless you count Bette Midler’s musical performance taking the focus away from one of the most brutal “In Memoriam” lineups in recent memory.  So (mostly) hooray for the Academy…and hooray for the filmmakers that made this an excellent year at the cinema.

My annual caveat still applies.  I am not a film critic and, as such, I can’t see everything.  Some movies I missed this year that may have made a difference in the final tally include: Bastards, Philomena, Blue Caprice, Like Someone in Love, Beyond the Hills, At Berkeley, and The Great Gatsby (hahahaha).  In addition, some movies that were well represented on critics’ top-10 lists did not, to the best of my knowledge, get a DC theatrical release in 2013 and have not yet been released on Blu Ray/digital download.  These include: A Touch of Sin, The Wind Rises, and The Stranger by the Lake.  I will roll them into my 2014 list if they pass muster.

Also, consider this a blanket SPOILER ALERT for all movies discussed. 

Top-10 Movies of 2013.

1. 12 Years a Slave (Availability – In Theaters; DVD/Blu release on March 4):  Even in a particularly strong year for film, 12 Years a Slave was head and shoulders above the competition.  The movie tells the true story (based on the memoir of the same name) of Solomon Northup, a free African American man from the North who is kidnapped, sold into slavery, and eventually rescued after twelve grueling years.  However, be forewarned that it is an absolutely brutal film to experience.  Director Steve McQueen unflinchingly depicts the violence and dehumanizing abuse visited upon Solomon (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Patsey (Lupita Nyong’o) and the other slaves on the various plantations that Solomon is shipped to.  But McQueen never sensationalizes the scenes or overplays his hand.  His camera is steady and resolute throughout, giving equal weight to the small details and personal interactions of his characters as he does to the injustices perpetrated by and against them.  These characters are brought to life by a fantastic cast headed by Ejiofor and Nyong’o with Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Alfre Woodard, Paul Giamatti, Paul Dano, Brad Pitt, and Sarah Paulson also giving excellent performances in supporting roles. This standout ensemble anchors the film and presents a wide range of complex, living characters for the audience to connect with.  In sum, while many award winners dim with the passage of time, I believe 12 Years a Slave will be looked back on decades hence as not only a worthy Best Picture winner, but an all-time classic film.
2. The Great Beauty (Availability – In Theaters; Criterion DVD/Blu release on March 25): When I walked out of The Great Beauty, I was convinced I had just seen a new work by an old Italian master whose previous films I had somehow overlooked.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Paolo Sorrentino is a 43-year old director with only a handful of films (well regarded films that I should have seen, so my ignorance still plays a roll) under his belt.  Regardless, Sorrentino’s vision of a decadent Rome and the dazzling, tragic figures in it is at once gorgeous and melancholy.  For these aging socialites and artists the party doesn’t stop, even after the revels turn to despair and the drinks and dancing become crutches instead of tools.
3. Upstream Color (Availability – Netflix Instant; Digital Rental; DVD/Blu): Shane Carruth is one of a vanishing breed of true indie stars.  After the triumph of his micro-budget headtrip Primer 10-years ago, he was deluged with offers for studio funding or directorial work-for-hire.  But instead of “selling out,” he put together another uncompromising idiosyncratic independent work which he wrote, directed, starred in, and distributed himself.  To reveal much about the plot (it involves drugs, worms, pigs, fauna, and extensive audio sampling) would be unfair…and to assign a fixed meaning to this exquisite tone poem of a film would be dishonest.
4. Blue is the Warmest Color (Availability – Netflix Instant; Digital Rental; Criterion DVD/Blu): A pitch perfect drama about a young woman (the transcendent Adele Exarchopolous) coming of age, falling in love (with the nearly as amazing Lea Seydoux), and exploring her sexuality. It is an actor’s showcase of the highest order, every frame pulsing with palpable intensity and emotion. Indeed, both actresses complained about the rigors of the shoot­ and the methods of director Abdellatif Kechiche. Such complaints are certainly worthy of discussion, especially given the gender and sexual politics involved, particularly given the fact that Blue made history by becoming the first movie to win the Palm de d’Or…and have the award presented to the actors. Regardless of the techniques involved (it is a fair bet that neither actress will work with Kechiche again), the end product is exemplary.
5. The Counselor (Availability – Digital Rental; DVD/Blu):  Well, this was one of the most misunderstood films of the year.  With a rare “D” Cinemascore and a Metacritic rating that settled below 50 percent, audiences and critics alike were clearly disappointed by the long awaited collaboration between Ridley Scott and Cormac McCarthy.  To some degree, the disappointment was understandable.  After all, this was a movie about a drug deal gone wrong that elided the typical narratives associated with that genre at every turn.  It was a film where, instead of fighting, cartel kingpins gave speeches steeped in existential philosophy, where central characters died offscreen, and where extreme acts of violence erupted without warning and with irrevocable consequences.  It was, in other words, a Cormac McCarthy novel put to film.  And I loved every minute of it.
6. Her (Availability – In Theaters): A classic tale of boy meets operating system/boy falls in love with operating system/boy loses operating system to a post-physical collective of artificial intelligences.  With Her, Spike Jonze creates a fully realized near futuristic world (albeit one where it seems that hipsters have taken over the economy and mustaches are worn universally and un-ironically) just different enough from ours to feel foreign and just similar enough to feel plausible.  Then, like the best science fiction, Spike Jonze uses his futuristic conceit to explore aspects of our modern condition, including our relationships to each other and to or technology (sorry Spike, whatever you claim, the movie did deal with technological relationships as well as personal ones). 
7. Stories We Tell (Availability - Digital Rental; DVD/Blu): Sarah Polley’s (Away from Her, Take This Waltz) latest film and first documentary (well kind of) feature starts as a seemingly innocuous investigation into the life of her deceased mother before transforming into something wholly different and more fascinating.  Through a series of filmed interviews with family and friends, some cleverly inserted reenactments, and artfully staged readings of key documents, she explores her mother’s life and uncovers family secrets that had been hiding in plain sight for decades.  Ultimately, the film becomes an inquiry into the very nature of memory, truth, and the stories we tell ourselves about our own pasts.  Given the subject matter and the film’s warm critical reception, I was surprised when it wasn’t nominated for Best Documentary Feature.
8. Museum Hours (Availability - DVD/Blu): The intersection between life and art is a familiar theme for movies but it is not often that one approaches the subject as directly, and cleverly, as Jem Cohen’s Museum Hours.  The story, such as it is, follows a woman who comes to Vienna to visit her dying cousin where she meets a security guard at the famous Kunsthistorisches Museum of Art (In many ways, the museum itself is both character and setting).  The story of their friendship is intercut with in depth looks at the pieces in the museum juxtaposes with images from Vienna.  The connections between the narrative, the museum, and contemporary society are delicately observed, forging a visual tapestry linking art, history, and contemporary life.
9. Short Term 12 (Availability - Digital Rental; DVD/Blu): A surprisingly moving story about the workers and children at a short term care facility for children who have been taken away from their parents or foster parents.  Anchored by nuanced performances from Brie Larson and a stellar supporting cast, the film creates a fully immersive universe in its relatively short running time.  Indeed, the only problem with this movie is that there isn’t more of it.  If Sundance wants to give Destin Cretton a development deal to produce a television series based on this movie, I know I’ll watch.  Ninety-six minutes just is not enough to tell all of the stories in Short Term 12.
10.  Wadjda (Availability - Digital Rental; DVD/Blu): Usually I try to consider a film on its own merits, without regard to its production backstory but sometimes the backstory and the work are so entwined as to be virtually inseparable.  Wadjda is the first feature film shot entirely in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the only Saudi feature directed by a woman (Haifaa Al-Mansour).  The story is deceptively simple: A feisty 11-year old girl yearns for a green bicycle and contrives a means to obtain it.  However, everything from the object of her desire (forbidden because “girls don’t ride bikes” in Saudi Arabia) to her methods of obtaining it (raising money by selling jewelry to classmates, delivering notes for illicit lovers, and, ultimately feigning newfound piety to win a Quran reading competition) show how challenging even seemingly mundane activities can become within a restrictive system.  But Al-Mansour’s characters are presented as individuals rather than caricatures and her criticisms of the state never rise to the level of polemic.  Indeed, her critiques are shown in the low-key acts of individuals rather than the large scale dramatics of revolution.  It is a portrait of a society in transition and the ways that people work within the system, adjust, and go about their lives even within restrictive regimes.

 Honorable Mentions: Only God Forgives, The Wolf of Wall Street, Gravity, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Prisoners

Best Director

1. Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave: McQueen is a true master of visual storytelling though, for better or worse, his greatest strength is how he frames and shoots scenes of extreme physical and spiritual suffering.  His gifts were used to great effect in his first feature, Hunger (Michael Fassbender starves himself to death), and somewhat less effectively in Shame (Michael Fassbender tries to fuck himself to death).  With 12 Years a Slave, he found perhaps the most appropriate subject for his talents.  McQueen deploys his unique style to show the emotional, physical, and spiritual horrors of slavery in uncomfortable detail without ever sliding over the line into exploitation.  The result is a directorial effort as powerful and daring as I can remember seeing in recent years.
2.  Alfonso Cuaron – Gravity
3.  Paolo Sorrentino – The Great Beauty

Best Actor

1. Chiwetel Ejiofor - 12 Years a Slave: Ejiofor’s portrayal of Solomon Northup is the soul and beating heart of 12 Years a Slave.  His face tells the tale of his ordeal better than any script, as he flashes between despair, longing, and barely suppressed rage and back again in a few heartbeats.  In sum, he gives a master class in how to bring life to a complex character.
2. Tony Servillo – The Great Beauty
3.   Michael B. Jordan – Fruitvale Station

Best Actress

1. Adele Exarchopoulos – Blue is the Warmest Color
2. Brie Larson – Short Term 12
3. Amy Adams – American Hustle

Best Supporting Actress

1. Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave:  She won and it was well deserved.  There are scenes she had to play that were nearly impossible to watch and unimaginable to have had to portray.  Nyong’o ably carries these scenes of brutality but is even stronger in the spaces in between as she quietly compels the audience to see the toll that the horrors perpetrated on her body and spirit has inflicted.
2. Lea Seydoux – Blue is the Warmest Color
3. Gemma Arterton - Byzantium

Best Supporting Actor

1. Matt Damon – Behind the Candelabra: It didn’t qualify for the Oscars because its U.S. distribution was via HBO but it premiered at Cannes and that’s good enough for me.  Damon’s portrayal of Liberace’s lover, assistant, and eventual creepy time shifted doppelganger was a bold move for an actor that sometimes plays it safe (and it was much better and more layered than Jared Leto in a dress).
2. Michael Fassbender – 12 Years a Slave
3. Jake Gylenhaal – Prisoners

Worst Film of the Year

Star Trek Into Darkness – Were there worse films made this year?  Absolutely (looking at you Identity Thief, Wolverine, Lee Daniels’ The Butler, et al.) but none filled me with more apoplectic nerd rage than JJ Abrams second Star Trek movie.  To detail all of its sins would take up more time and space than I have but I have to get some of these issues out there.  In sum, Abrams removed all of the optimism that made Star Trek unique and replaced it with run of the mill “grittiness,” EXPLOSIONS, and lens flare.  Now, Trek is just another summer CGI-filled extravaganza where the plot consists of a few words of exposition in between video game quality action set pieces and major cities (or planets or ships or whatever) getting destroyed.  Also, Benedict Cumberbatch is great as Sherlock Holmes but he’s not Khan.  Ricardo Montalban is Khan.  And why the hell would anyone in this rebooted splinter universe even know or care who Khan is anyway?  You don’t get to reboot the timeline and keep the character history.  And speaking of character history, did Abrams really need to bastardize Spock’s “needs of the many” speech and then give t to Kirk…or make Khan’s super blood a literal deus ex machina (or would it be a deus ex corpus in this case?)?  And if you can teleport between planets light years apart, why do you even need a space ship?  Seriously, I don’t ask for realism in my space operas but I need some internal consistency at the very least.

Damn, I swore to myself I wouldn’t go off on a rant here.  And this man has the keys to the Star Wars universe too.  Ugh.

Well that’s it for 2013.  As always, please post a comment or send me an email if you want to discuss any of this.  Here’s hoping that next year brings more great movies and fewer reminders of the mortality of our film heroes (RIP Roger Ebert, Harold Ramis, Alain Resnais, Philip Seymour Hoffman, James Gandolfini, et al.)