2013 was another great year in the film industry, an industry designed to present the art of the moving image interlaced with sound and music. I got the opportunity to see 29 films in the theater this year, and with the Oscars fast approaching, I’ve taken the liberty of roughly ranking the better ones into two buckets below, similar to a post I made last year for 2012 (found here). I’ve also made a list of some of my favorite quotes from the films. I’ll mention a few words here about my top favorites from this year.
My favorite film for 2013 was Her, a bizarre yet fascinating film about a melancholy man who develops a romantic relationship with an artificial intelligence. Ostensibly following in the footsteps of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Speilberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence and sharing some similarities in tone to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, this daring sci-fi tragicomedy that focuses on the near future attempts to strike at the core of the human experience with a philosophical exploration of relationships and what it really means to be alive, and comes from brilliant director Spike Jonze (Adaptation, Being John Malkovitch). Jonze’s artistic intent is shown throughout the film, whether through a scene involving an AI rendition of Alan Watts (one of the most interesting thinkers I’ve ever encountered), or inclusion of Arcade Fire’s made-for-the-film song “Supersymmetry” (a word which refers to a theory in physics that describes every particle in the universe as having a partner particle that is mostly the same but differs in some crucial way). As Jonze described in an interview, the relationship of the characters to technology is merely the setting for the film and not necessarily what the movie is about. Ultimately, the film leaves you with a plateful to think about.
Coming in at a close second for me and also made by Annapurna Pictures, David O. Russell’s American Hustle was a stylish, funny, and uproariously entertaining film about two con artists who themselves get conned by an FBI agent to conduct a sting operation to take down some corrupt politicians. Loosely based on true events, American Hustle featured great directing, a wonderful soundtrack, and captivating performances from several top players in Hollywood (Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence). The film’s themes of survival, loyalty, greed, and deception ring as true today as they did in the 1970s during which the film takes place.
In terms of my other favorite films this year, it was clear even from the earliest moments of the narrative that 12 Years A Slave was a masterpiece in the technical sense. Also based on true events, the film chronicles a free black man living in New York that gets kidnapped and forced into slavery in the South during the mid-1880s. While certain scenes were a little difficult to watch due to the sharp realism involved, witnessing his capture and struggle and catharsis brought a predominantly black audience close to tears minutes before the film even ended, when I saw it opening weekend. While the topic of slavery is not novel, what makes this film particularly moving is having it centered on an educated well off-man man who starts off free and content but is thrust into a difficult situation against his will, thus allowing the audience to put themselves in his shoes, as this general kind of predicament is one in which anyone in the audience could conceivably find themselves in.
Favorite Films
Her
American Hustle
12 Years A Slave
Before Midnight
Gravity
------------------------------------------------
Captain Phillips
Philomena
Blue Jasmine
Rush
Dallas Buyers Club
Mud
The Wolf Of Wall Street
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
The Butler
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
All Is Lost
Don Jon
Prisoners
The Place Beyond The Pines
Side Effects
Star Trek Into Darkness
Elysium
Enough Said
Favorite Film Quotes
“Like sunlight, sunset, we appear, we disappear. We are so important to some, but we are just passing through.” – Before Midnight
“Sometimes all you have in life are fucked up, poisonous choices." – American Hustle
"We are only here briefly, and while I'm here, I want to allow myself joy." – Her
“The past is just a story we tell ourselves.” – Her
“Well I don't want to survive; I want to live.” – 12 Years A Slave
“If you let yourself be overcome by sorrow, you will drown in it." – 12 Years A Slave
“There's only so many traumas a person can withstand until they take to the streets and start screaming.” – Blue Jasmine
“Happiness is your biggest enemy. It weakens you. Puts doubts in your mind. Suddenly you have something to lose.” – Rush
“A wise man can learn more from his enemies than a fool from his friends.” – Rush
“I see her in the flowers that grow in the meadow by my house.” – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” – Philomena (by way of T.S. Eliot)
Well that's a wrap folks. Would love to hear your thoughts and reactions in the comments below, and if you haven't seen some of these films, especially those farther up the list, I'd recommend that you do. Thanks for reading, and happy watching.
“Pain killers for my back, adderall to keep me focussed, xanax to take the edge off, cocaine to wake me up, and morphine because..well because its fucking awesome”.
Good stuff. I saw very few on this list so far, but will use this list as a starting point for those I see soon. I did see American Hustle and I would say it is in or near my top twenty films of all time. Phenomenal film.
Nice post. You're quite the movie connoisseur. How does this year stack up to years past? Was there a particularly good year in the last 5-10 years? Were there any movies you saw this year you felt were underrated or should have received more attention/acclaim?
Thanks. Honestly I've only really become obsessed with trying to see every latest movie in the last 2-3 years or so, but even still I like to judge a year in film not necessarily by any sense of quantity but by the quality of the very best films that were made, and from that perspective I think this year was as good as any year in the last decade, maybe even better than some.
In terms of underrated movies, from the chatter I'm seeing I think Her and Before Midnight deserve far more acclaim than they seem to be getting, along with movies (Mud for instance) that came out in the first half of the year - I think historically the films that receive the most acclaim come out closer to Oscar time (Q4 or late Q3) because folks have short memories.
On that note, in terms of overrated films, I think that Inside Llewyn Davis and Nebraska are receiving too much acclaim (similar to Argo from last year)...they were decent films in general, but a bit on the dismal side and didn't seem to have cause much impact to the viewer (me in this case), which is really one of the key goals of any film - to impact the viewer, cause some sort of emotional or intellectual reaction, leave a mark.
Absolutely loved this bit. Such a thought process can have a profound impact on improving performance. Then, recognition is based on a more effective parameter than the amount of money splurged to make a movie or some other worthless parameters used to judge movies nowadays.
good list, i have some catching up to do, very excited to see American Hustle btw
Nice list, the only one missing here is Fruitvale Station imo
Thank you for posting this! I'm going to fill my new ehdd with most of the above.
Didn't
Refreshing to have content like this on WSO!
Great list. I tried looking for movies that you might've missed, but I have to say there really is nothing more I would add to this list (except maybe Fruitvale Station as mentioned above). Awesome job.
This was great, thanks.
And in other news, it was another bad year for kid's movies.
Worst of the year: Smurfs 2
Horrible movies: The Croods Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs 2 Epic
Bad movies: Despicable Me 2 Turbo
Entertaining movies: Monsters University Frozen
I will note that my kids liked every single one of these movies.
The sacrifices we make for children. Also, Despicable Me 2 was disappointing
GC covered most of the oscar contenders. Below are few additional ones to consider, mostly foreign or comedies (so they don't make the original list).
A Hijacking Ain't Them Bodies Saints Amour Anchorman 2 Blancanieves Kon Tiki No The Attack The Hunt The Way Way Back The World's End This Is the End Warm Bodies
You actually watched all these @"Going Concern"? That's quite the haul if so... 25 movies this year?
I have also watched most of these and am quite the movie addict so can't imagine someone watching all of those.
Gravity - absolute shit American Hustle - almost great but not quite Rush - great 12 Years A Slave - incredible Mud - good Wolf of Wall Street - good Don Jon - great (not the popular opinion) Dallas Buyers Club - great The Place Beyond the Pines - great The Butler - good Prisoners - good Blue Jasmine - almost great but not quite Hunger Games - Okay, it was not anything near the first one and was actually just not a good movie to be honest compared to expectations.
Have not seen Nebraska, Her, or Before Midnight yet. Have high hopes for 'Her' though.
Outside of these everything else was good or just okay.
Would agree on your assessment of Gravity. Probably would have said it was 'pretty good' if the hype hadn't been through the roof. IMO one of the most overrated films in a while.
Wow, I can't believe I forgot Lone Survivor on my list. I watched it recently and it was amazing. That's what I get for thinking about it at work.
Have you seen Out of the Furnace? It was a good movie as well, not noteworthy but still good.
Didn't care for Gravity at all, and thought American Hustle was just ok. One movie that really surprised me was The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - a good movie for those stuck in the cubicle life..
For anyone counting, I saw like 200 DVDs in last one year (Netflix 3X shipping). Add in another 15 or so in theater, and whatever I streamed, business school can offer a lot of free time.
That's an impressive list. Did you see The Counselor? I was sorta excited to see it because it was a Cormac McCarthy screenplay (after NCFOM I'd see anything he wrote adapted). I thought it was enjoyable but def didn't live up to my expectations. I'd recommend you see it if you like suspense, although if Her is your type of movie we probably have opposite tastes.
I loved No Country For Old Men from a few years ago, which I believe is a pretty similar type of movie to The Counselor, and also stars Javier Bardem. Also, the movies I've included as liking really run the gamut of genres and styles, so it's not really fair to make such a broad generalization from one movie. That being said, check out Her with an open mind and judge for yourself. I'd consider watching a film in any genre except for pure horror, and I like anything that is good.
Even after all that though, a film is like a woman...while some are just objectively spectacular (Margot Robbie, etc), not every man will be attracted to a particular woman (or film), and a lot depends on their personal preferences and their overall perspective on things.
For anyone that's curious, here is a rather interesting film review of Her:
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/12/why-em-her-em-…
Watched Rush last night and it was very good. Never followed F1, but pretty cool insight into the sport (not that much of the "sport" aspect though).
Next on my list - Twelve Years a Slave and Her
I can't find 90% of this shit in 1080p.
Also, my most anticipated films for 2014:
Inherent Vice Interstellar Foxcatcher Jupiter Ascending Transcendance Noah Boyhood The Grand Budapest Hotel The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Knight of Cups (TBD) The Immigrant (TBD)
Would love to hear if anyone has other potentially good ones.
2014 Quality Movies: 300 Rise of an Empire Dom Hemingway Gone Girl Exodus The Giver The Equalizer
These will be pretty bad quality movies but still looking forward to seeing them: Jane Got a Gun Transformers 4 Transcendance Horrible Bosses 2 Robocop The Monuments Men X-men Days of Future Past Hercules (Both versions) Resident Evil 6
I didn't include what you already had but most of those are on my to-watch list.
Definitely adding Gone Girl, Exodus, and the The Giver to my list.
Christian Bale as Moses...ha! This I have to see.
I just watched Rush, loved it. American Hustle was really good. Gravity, eeeehhh, mixed feelings. It was one of the coolest space movies I have seen recently, but the ending was just dumb. Tried to hard. Captain Philips was very good also.
Elysium was good if you can ignore the fact that every fucking thing Matt Damon does nowadays has a political undercurrent.
Watching Wolf tonight. I'll check out the rest of this list though, thanks for posting it.
Her was great. I think my movie of the year is Blue is the Warmest Color, which I wouldn't have expected going in but I loved it.
Oh, and on the documentary front, The Act of Killing was totally nuts and haunting.
saw Blue Jasmine the other day...excellent. As for 2014, I'm looking forward to Interstellar. unapologetic Christopher Nolan fanboy here
Been on a tear as I have been sick. Loved Wolf, will buy the blueray when they come out with the full, extended cut.
Walter Mitty, hmmm, I liked it a lot, but I expected him to go on more of a life altering event. Don't get me wrong, it was altering, but the promos made it out to be him just going on this year long journey after snapping one day. Really just a couple of cool trips and then back. Still very good.
Dallas Buyers Club. Wow. Very very good movie. Amazing how far we've come since those days and really cements the fact that if I ever got really sick I would seek treatment outside the USA. Fuck the FDA.
Watching Her now, 12 Days a Slave tomorrow. Maybe a couple more if I still feel like shit.
God, I need to invest in a massive TV haha.
Golden Globe winners now out...reasonably congruent with the top picks from my list
Her - Best Screenplay American Hustle - Best Comedy Picture, Best Comedy Actress, Best Supporting Actress 12 Years A Slave - Best Drama Picture Gravity - Best Director Blue Jasmine - Best Drama Actress (well deserved) Dallas Buyers Club - Best Drama Actor, Best Supporting Actor
Captain Phillips, Philomena, and Rush got shafted, but they all had nominations for Best Drama Picture and of course there can only be one winner. Unfortunately, Before Midnight got completely shafted with only a nomination for Best Comedy Actress - other than that, decent turnout.
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