Late-ish 2013 Retrospective: Top 10 Directors

Again, I don't have a huge disclaimer to put here. I know it's May, I know it's late, but hey, it is never too late to honour some pretty awesome directors, is it?

Honourable Mentions: Steven Soderbergh - Side Effects, The Coen Brothers - Inside Llewyn Davis, David Lowery - Ain't Them Bodies Saints, Abdellatif Kechiche - Blue is the Warmest Colour, Ron Howard - Rush, Lake Bell - In a World..., Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Don Jon, Ryan Coogler - Fruitvale Station, Asghar Farhadi - The Past, Richard Linklater - Before Midnight, Harmony Korine - Spring Breakers.

10. Spike Jonze - Her
Her is an incredibly brave film. Take it from one of the film's pivotal lines about love: "it's like a socially acceptable form of insanity." The way that the film ruminates on love is so beautiful, as opposed to sugar coating everything and having couples running of into sunsets and that kind of gooey stuff. Perhaps that's all because this is a film about a man having a relationship with his computer. Which is quite strange (it's quite hard to sell this movie to my friends), but Jonze does it in such a way that it feels completely natural. Not to mention, the futuristic world he creates is definitely a world that I could see actually happening, thanks to Jonze not over-saturating the film with ludicrous visions of the future. Even though the movie left me feeling extremely empty for a little while, this is a unique kind of beauty that I wish we could see more of.

9. Denis Villeneuve - Prisoners
Fun fact: throughout many lines of ancestry, it's possible that in some way I'm related to this guy (I would have even had his last name once upon a time, which would have been nice). If that somehow means that I have an ounce of his talent, that would be fantastic. Even though I haven't seen Incendies since it first came out about two and a half years ago, it is still engrained in my brain - it's so hard to shake the deliberately cold, striking way the film was made. It's the same with Prisoners, which Villeneuve could make with a bigger budget, bigger names, and the magic touch of Roger Deakins behind the camera. Prisoners is a masterful, slow burning thriller that mixes the suspense of detective work with the emotional trauma created within the families. It's a puzzle that doesn't seem willing to be solved, but it is made in such a way that I wasn't sure if I ever did want it to be solved. Villeneuve is always in control of his material. I haven't seen Enemy yet (because who knows if it will even get a release here), but how crazy is it that he managed to make those two films in the same year? And here comes my trademark saying: I want to be him.

This is Our Generation's Phenomenon: Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity

What do I have to say about Gravity that hasn't already been said? You've heard it all:

-It is phenomenal.
-A simply amazing cinematic experience.
-Easily the best film of the year.
-And maybe one of the best ever.
-Holy shit Alfonso Cuaron how did you manage this?!
-Sandra Bullock gives her career best work, and definitely the performance to beat this year.
-Is the best example of cinematic technology?
-Give Emmanuel Lubezki his Oscar already.
-Best use of 3D?
-Ground-breaking etc etc etc.
-This is cinema, as good as it gets.

And let's just remember that all of this acclaim has been piled on a movie that just came out last week.

Day 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Welcome to the third day of my eight-day long Harry Potter marathon. This is purely because I have not seen any of the Harry Potter's and I promised a whole lot of people that I'd watch 'em all when the last DVD came out. That was just about a month ago, so I have to do it now. I will be blogging about my journey through Hogwarts...and such.

I'd been told that Prisoner of Azkaban was a huge improvement on Chamber of Secrets. They weren't wrong. From an outsider's perspective:

-That bus ride was pretty cool. It was really fast and magical. I found myself like Alfonso Cuaron's direction already.
-I couldn't help but laugh about the ballooning aunt. I wish I was a wizard so I could do that to some people (wow, that sounds horrible).
-If I could live with any family, it would be the Weasley family. They're so cute! They get a bad wrap for being a family who uses hand-me-downs and stuff, but seriously? A family full of gingers? Count me in. They look like a good family who's fun to be around.
-Well, thank goodness. Tom Felton's hair is no longer melting into his head. In fact, everyone's hair looks better in this one. Apart from Snape's. He is good with his hairstyle for all intensive purposes.
-This one was a little shorter (135 mins). It was a good run-time, and definitely stayed entertaining for the whole thing.

-This Professor Lupin seemed like a good guy. Until the moon made him all crazy. But he was the kind of teacher that I would like to have. Plus, I've always like David Thewlis as an actor.
-Snape is awesome. The 'page 394' scene is so awesome. Well, he's kinda harsh, but you can tell he means well. And Alan Rickman does such a bloody good job of playing him it's no wonder that people are crying foul at his many snubs.
-The actors are slowly becoming more watchable. Like now, it's easier to believe in what they're doing. But boy, they did heaps of growing in a year. What is with that?
-I think I liked this movie because there was a lot going on, and also it was a lot more serious. The other films tried to be serious but they got too caught up in being like family films.
-Thank goodness Alfonso Cuaron came along. He really breathed life into the series. When I say that, I mean that his work in this film brought about the dark themes that the series is so famous for, leaving the first two in it's dust.
-But I highly doubt that this is the best of the series. It was good, but not that good. As the series gets darker I'll enjoy it a lot more.
-Gary Oldman is in it! Gotta love him. If only he could get that Oscar nomination this season.
-The werewolves in this movie are really creepy. If only Taylor Lautner could look like that and then Twilight wouldn't be so popular and the world could have nice things again.
-I wish Kenneth Branagh was still in the series.

-This movie really got me into the Christmas spirit. I wish I could have snow on Christmas.
-Hagrid is still my main man. He rocks.
-It was just awesome. I can't wait for the next one.

Three down, five to go. Sure, Prisoner of Azkaban was good, but it wasn't great. Still, it remains a high point in the series.

What I got: