For the list of films I did not see in 2013, please see the previous post. Now onto the happy stuff...
ELEVEN PARTICULAR FAVOURITES OF 2013
RUSH / MR. PIP
Two very different films with one thing in common: I really wasn’t expecting to like - let alone love - either of them. RUSH had pretty much set itself up for failure with an awful trailer, but the film itself somehow managed to eschew most of those pre-flagged clichés, and handle those that made it in very well indeed. Throw in career-best performances from both Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl, and great support from 27%er Christian McKay, and it had me at “big balls”. MR. PIP meanwhile, came as a complete surprise, managing to be by turns touching, beautiful (the imagined scenes from Great Expectations, done in a Pacific Island production design, are particularly ingenius), brutal and unflinching - not at all what I expected from a Walden Media production; bravo to them and all involved for taking the chance, and I hope it ends up on the Australian high school curriculum.
DALLAS BUYERS CLUB
I must get down to the bookies and put money on Matthew McConaughey winning an Oscar in 2014. I’m just not sure if it’s going to be for his supporting turn in THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (which I’ve not yet seen of course, but c’mon - his bit in the trailer positively radiates “awards contender”) or his leading role here as fiercely heterosexual HIV victim Ron Woodroof, who took on Big Pharma to dubiously-yet-justly source ‘unapproved’ medicine for his disease. McConaughey has been great in a rash of stuff in recent years, but DALLAS BUYER'S CLUB is one of the few where the rest of the film has been as strong as his performance.
GRAVITY
I noticed quite a few people felt Alfonso and Jonas Cuaron laid the metaphor on a little thick whilst leaving the plot a little thin with GRAVITY. Personally I didn’t mind either: given the sheer audaciousness of the rest of the production – the constant floating camera and terrifically effective use of 3D (it’s the best post-conversion I’ve seen), I was quite happy not being too taxed by an overabundance of story detail.
BLUE RUIN
With my disdain for OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN now on the record, thank your chosen deity for BLUE RUIN also hitting screens in 2013. This quiet American indie is the anti-OHF, centering around the unexceptional Dwight (Macon Blair) who takes his opportunity for much dwelt-upon revenge with little knowledge or thought for the consequences of his actions - or even specifically what those actions will be. Writer/director/cinematographer Jeremy Saulnier barely puts a toe wrong throughout as the ripple effect of Dwight's tragic choices begin to kick in. BLUE RUIN stayed in my head longer than any other film of last year. It has real potency, and somehow reminded me of the equally excellent WINTER’S BONE. I hope it garners, however gradually, the same recognition and praise.
ALAN PARTRIDGE: ALPHA PAPA
Sure, it should have been called HECTIC DANGER DAY, CHAP OF STEEL or COLOSSAL VELOCITY, but even with the lesser choice of title I laughed more at Alan’s big screen outing than at any other film last year: Phillip Glass’ Koyaanisqatsi playing over shots of Norwich; “Why do you sit so close to the wheel?! I can steer with my balls!”; Pan left, revealing paparazzi; “I’m awful sorry I done a shit in a box...” You get the idea.
ZERO DARK THIRTY
Lest we forget Kathryn Bigelow's bin Laden-hunting behemoth released back in January. It may have fallen out of the public consciousness somewhat since the end of the 2013 awards circuit, but Bigelow’s abrasive dramatisation hasn’t diminished at all. Sure, it has to condense the years-long story and distill a myriad of real-life players into types, but it cleverly avoids jingoism (even if some of its characters don't), and I found the little-cited scene where a lowly admin bod finds the intelligence the CIA needed all along - and which they’ve been torturing poor bastards for months for – in an archive, to be a particularly pleasing Cheney-aimed cock-punch.
THE SQUARE
Sadly, this astounding documentary about the Egyptian uprising of 2011 and its struggle - still very much ongoing – seems to be being overshadowed by the similarly amazing (by all accounts) documentaries THE ACT OF KILLING and STORIES WE TELL. However, there may yet be every chance of THE SQUARE ending up on people’s 2014 list. The initial cut of the film was shown at Sundance in January. The version I saw in November had been recut with additional footage after another turn of events in Egypt. As I was watching that cut, the Muslim Brotherhood (who at the film’s end had control of the government) were being outlawed as a terrorist organisation after another upheaval - so as with Egyptian political stability, so too is THE SQUARE seemingly a work in progess. As for the existing cut, it’s a masterful example of knowing exactly who and what to capture in the frame amidst abject chaos.
TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE
I’m going to be writing more on this in the very near future. In the meantime, just take all of the superlatives you’ve been hearing about it as true.
CAPTAIN PHILLIPS
Trust Paul Greengrass to take one of the most tense thrillers of the year, and elevate it into an even-handed, intelligent, complex humanitarian think-piece and also one of the most tense thrillers of the year. Highlight? Phillips, near the end, finally going into shock: Hanks’ best scene ever.
SAMSARA
There are those who will write off Ron Fricke's follow-up to BARAKA as another 'glorified
screensaver', but that's their loss. I can understand how some might have to will themselves to start
watching, but I implore everyone to give SAMSARA a chance: the bigger the screen, the better. I love the gentle, masterful
editing. I love the colour (and I’m almost colourblind). And I love the space it gives you to absorb it.
Hypnotic and
harmonic, potent and profound, sometimes even disturbing - but it’s never dull. Not for a second. There isn't a single shot that is anything less than
fascinating, often because it will have been filmed in a part of the world
that we rarely look at. So yes, it’s ‘exotic’, but in the best way. I liked
BARAKA a great deal, but to me SAMSARA is better in every way. However
tentatively, it’s one of the greatest sequels of all time.
Yeah. *Nods, pushing spectacles up nose.* Think about it…
(VERY) HONOURABLE MENTIONS:
BEHIND THE CANDELABRA
THIS IS THE END
THE WORLD’S END
PHILOMENA
DJANGO UNCHAINED
ANCHORMAN 2
THE COUNSELLOR
THE HEAT
BLUE JASMINE
FRUITVALE STATION
LIFE OF PI
WHAT MAISIE KNEW
OUTRAGE BEYOND
THE IMPOSSIBLE
TRANCE
BEFORE MIDNIGHT
MYSTERY ROAD
PAIN & GAIN
PRISONERS
THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES
AMERICAN HUSTLE
THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY
ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE
AND I'LL EVEN KICK OFF AWARDS SEASON:
FAVOURITE GIF:
Jennifer Lawrence attempts to open a tin of mints at press conference.
FAVOURITE YOUTUBE MASHY-UPY THING:
What does the fox say...?
FAVOURITE SHORT FILM:
I didn't see nearly enough short films in 2013, but thankfully Matthew 'Garth Marenghi' Holness put his brilliant, spot-on pastiche A GUN FOR GEORGE up on YouTube (or at least someone did - I hope this is legal and official). I'd been waiting ages to see it, and I certainly wasn't disappointed. Fingers crossed this is only the beginning for Terry Finch on screen...
UNFAIR DISMISSALS:
THE COUNSELLOR
I've yet to properly read why so many found what I thought was Ridley Scott's best film of the last ten years to be so objectionable. I think it to be a fresh, left-of-centre look at American drugs trade (and I do mean all of the Americas), and the class war going on between the continent's North / South divide.
OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL
Not a perfect film by any stretch, but I still don't understand where all the bile directed at Sam Raimi's gallant sequel came from. Sure, James Franco still isn't certain of himself around so much green screen and Michelle Williams' Glinda isn't much of an improvement on Billie Burke's performance in the first film, but Rachel Weisz and particularly Mila Kunis give it their all, making for what I found to be solid, irony-free, straight-down-the-line family entertainment.
WHITE HOUSE DOWN
If you read my previous post, you pretty much get my feelings on this by now.
MOST AWKWARDLY CROWBARRED-IN PIECE OF PRODUCT PLACEMENT:
You might think THE INTERNSHIP would be the obvious choice for this, but I’m disqualifying it on the grounds that it’s not really product placement when you’re paying for the entire movie; that makes it strictly speaking a large, expensive commercial, rather than your product placed in someone else’s movie. Instead, the award goes to The Backstreet Boys (who wouldn’t you know it, just happened to have a ‘best of’ album and tour to plug that summer) for their awkward insertion into THIS IS THE END. Well done, Sony Music/Sony Pictures.
MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER
Tom Holland, for THE IMPOSSIBLE and HOW I LIVE NOW
MOST IMPROVED
After a long, dull streak of TRANSFORMERS movies (each with less and less heart), Bay changed gears with PAIN & GAIN. Who knew the man did satire?
BEST & FAIREST
Steve Coogan, for finely executed double duties (co-writing and performing) on two of my favourites: ALAN PARTRIDGE: ALPHA PAPA and PHILOMENA, as well as a fine supporting turn in WHAT MAISIE KNEW.
Also, I managed to go the entire year without seeing his scrotum on screen. Just.
RUNNER-UP
In 2013 I saw Matthew McConaughey in MUD; THE PAPERBOY; KILLER JOE (which I didn’t particularly like, but he was great in it) and DALLAS BUYER’S CLUB. In related awesomeness news: I don’t see that run of great performances slowing down in 2014.
And that's it for 2013 in review. Thanks for at the very least scrolling to the bottom, and please do stick around in the year ahead. Hopefully my writing will improve (or at least become a bit less rusty), and we all might just learn something. Coming soon: Reviews of HER, THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, and BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR.