Late-ish 2013 Retrospective: Top 20 Best Films

So, here it is. 2013 was a damn good year for films if I do say so myself. It was hard reducing this list down to just 20, because any one of my honourable mentions would have had a welcome place in my list. 2013 had some game-changers (in more ways than one), some rule-breakers, and some life-changers. There were plenty of films that came out that you could just tell would live on into the future. We had Alfonso Cuaron defying the restrictions of cinema, Spike Jonze defeating every other portrayal of love in cinematic history, and Leonardo DiCaprio destroying any notion that he's not a proper actor with a singular Quaalude-induced scene. What a time to be alive.

Alas, let's close the book on 2013 before we close the book on May 2014. Because there's no time like the present...

Honourable Mentions: Spring Breakers, What Maisie Knew, Pain & Gain, The Bling Ring, This is the End, Fruitvale Station, Don Jon, Rush, Dallas Buyers Club, Drinking Buddies, Inside Llewyn Davis, Philomena, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Frozen.

"Every thing you do, someone out there can see."

Here's one of these films that slips so far under the radar that it is pretty much criminal. This film should be taught in schools. Sure, it gets extremely melodramatic in some places, but the general message behind it is about the only message we've desperately needed a film to cover. Not to mention it has some fantastic performances from Andrea Riseborough, Jason Bateman, Jonah Bobo, Alexander Skarsgard and Paula Patton. Very, very impressive.

"I think anybody who falls in love is a freak. It's a crazy thing to do. It's kind of like a form of socially acceptable insanity."

Just as Disconnect shows the dangers of the internet, Her shows the good things it could be capable of in the future...which is also doubled with the bad. This isn't really a film about a guy falling in love with his computer, but about love itself. As I said in my director's post, it was a damn brave film for Spike Jonze to make, and possibly one of the more realistic portrayals of love on film in recent times. Oh, and Scarlett Johansson. That's all.

Annual Awards Nerdism: Ranking the Best Picture Nominees

I think I've done pretty well this Oscar season, seeing all but one Best Picture nominee - Nebraska - before Oscar time. And I must say, the quality has been high. Not 2010-2011 Oscar season level high, but pretty close to it. So here's my ranking of all of the films I've seen that are nominated:

8. American Hustle, Dir. David O. Russell
To be honest, American Hustle is probably the only Oscar nominee from this year that I didn't really like - it's skating someone in between a 2.5/5 and a 3/5. I just couldn't stand the sprawling nature of it and how the improvisation was so indulgent and distracting. Otherwise, it was fun enough and offered a few interesting insights, and had some stellar performances from Amy Adams and Bradley Cooper. There were parts of it that were great, and some not so great parts...it was a mixed bag that I struggle to understand how so many people loved it, but hey, everyone seems to love David O. Russell so that's cool. I do think that it'll end up going home without an Oscar to it's name, though.

7. Dallas Buyers Club, Dir. Jean-Marc Vallee
Now here's a film that would be nothing without the dedicated performances from Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto. It tells a fairly basic story in a fairly basic way (and yes, it could fall into that dreaded 'Oscar bait' territory) but it manages to be touching, relevant and actually worthy of the gold bestowed upon it because of the two central performances. I wouldn't say that it is particularly memorable and will have a loud, proud place on the hall of fame, but since it's here right now, it is worth celebrating a little bit.

6. Philomena, Dir. Stephen Frears
This seems to be the dark horse to the awards, since it just showed up and it's just there. In fact, I wasn't even sure that I wanted to make the trip to the cinema to see it, but I'm glad I did. I'm also glad that Stephen Frears is back in the fray, because his last few films - Cheri, Tamara Drewe and Lay the Favourite - slipped under the radar even before they came out. Philomena is a devastating little film, which shows film-making and it's most plain but most able to tell a good story. Which I think is an achievement in itself, because good, simple storytelling is often overlooked for so many other aspects. Oh and yeah, I cried throughout the entire thing.

5. Captain Phillips, Dir. Paul Greengrass
I'm still not at all over this film. I found the clip of Tom Hanks' final scene in this film and it is still as emotionally scarring as it was the first time I watched it. To say that the entire film hinges on that one scene wouldn't be a compliment to the rest of the film, but that final scene is probably the best acting I've ever seen on film. However, the rest of the film is so intense and expertly made, that it brings true meaning to cinema being an experience. Plus, there's the incredible debut from Barkhad Abdi, who has justly been earning his share of accolades. And it's also great how unpatriotic this film is. Had it been in the hands of anyone else other than Paul Greengrass, this film could have been a two hour lovefest towards America, the land of the brave.

4. Her, Dir. Spike Jonze
I only saw this yesterday but it already has a special place in my heart. Probably because it made me happy and depressed in equal measure. Is it a sweet film? Yes. But is it a sign of worrying times? Yes. It manages to be so many things at once, much like Samantha herself. It's really difficult to sum up this film, other than to say that it tells a strange story and makes it strangely relatable. Such an endearing little film with perfect production design. So much to love.

3. 12 Years a Slave, Dir. Steve McQueen
If 12 Years a Slave wins tomorrow, I'll be emphatically happy. Mostly because Steve McQueen is a perfect director, and while this film is my least favourite of his, it still warrants a 5/5 rating from me. I can't help but feel like this is our Schindler's List and much will be said about this film in the future. And honestly, Steve McQueen did an almost perfect job of making this film (I really wasn't a fan of the early editing and Hans Zimmer's score, but the rest of it was amazing), making an utterly brutal, unflinching portrayal of something most filmmakers would shy away from. It's so, so, so great. I can't wait to see Steve McQueen up there accepting the award.

2. Gravity, Dir. Alfonso Cuaron
Gravity is the other favourite to take the award and I wouldn't mind seeing this one win either. Mainly because it is another film that is pretty much our generation's phenomenon: we'll be talking about it for years to come. It is masterful filmmaking of the highest order, it has changed things in cinema, it has reminded us that cinema is alive and kicking...and when you think about it, it is part of a very select group. So if it wins, I'll be very, very happy. There's nothing between both 12 Years a Slave and Gravity, which makes things ever so exciting.

1. The Wolf of Wall Street, Dir. Martin Scorsese
This doesn't have a shit show of winning (unless all the voters are on ludes, but we know they're all prudes, dude). But upon another watch this film became my favourite film of the year, and definitely a strong representative of our times. And, well, even though it is three hours long, every second is perfect. From the batshit crazy performances from Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill and Margot Robbie (along with the amazing ensemble), to the wonderful screenplay, to the electric direction from Martin Scorsese, just...everything. This movie is probably scarier than all of the horror films from 2013 put together.

So, the big prediction:

Yessir, all bets are placed on 12 Years a Slave to take the big prize, with a little bit of competition coming from Gravity and (ugh) American Hustle. However, I doubt anything will be able to take down Steve McQueen's masterpiece.

What say you? Are you on the 12 Years a Slave camp? Guess we'll find out tomorrow!

Annual Awards Nerdism - Oscar Predictions - Visuals, 'Bests' and Writing

I won't go into a whole lot of detail, but tonight I'll be predicting the winners for the 'visual' awards (Best Achievement in Cinematography, Best Achievement in Editing and Best Achievement in Visual Effects), the 'bests' awards (Best Animated Feature Film of the Year, Best Foreign Language Film of the Year and Best Documentary, Feature) and the writing awards (Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published). Remember: Red = the longshot, Orange = the predicted winner, Green = who I want to win.

Best Achievement in Cinematography

Emmanuel Lubezki - Gravity / Bruno Delbonnel - Inside Llewyn Davis / Phedon Papamichael - Nebraska / Roger Deakins - Prisoners / Phillipe Le Sourd - The Grandmaster

Remember that time when Emmanuel Lubezki didn't win best cinematographer for The Tree of Life? Does anyone remember that travesty? The Academy has a lot of atoning to do, and I can definitely see them righting their wrongs this year by giving him the award for his brilliant, transcendent work in Gravity. I still haven't seen Prisoners but maaaaan, Roger Deakins must be getting fairly annoyed with all these nominations he's getting without actually winning. I still can't believe he lost for Skyfall, but, well, this looks like another year that he'll go empty handed.

Annual Awards Nerdism - Oscar Predictions - Soundies and Design

Forgive me if this year's awards nerdism has been a little slight compared to previous years. Normally I'd attribute this to not being able to watch most of the films before the Oscars, but since I finally moved to a place that has three multiplexes and three other smaller cinemas, I have no excuse (except in the case of Nebraska, which is only playing in Auckland and Wellington so I won't see that until DVD time). And unlike the past couple of years, I've been much more into this year's awards season because I think there's a few races that remain wide open - even the bigger categories (I still have my prayer circle for Leo going, just tweet out something with #prayercircleforleo and we can make a movement). So yeah, as per usual, I'll roll out my 55% informed predictions, but I don't have the usual pictures to go with them (like Smiling Silva, 'Overjoyed' David and Loopy Looper) because I'm lazy and couldn't be bothered figuring out three photos for them. Instead, I have colours, because that's totally original. To add to the originality, they're traffic light colours, and here's how they work:

Red - The longshot, the outsider who pretty much won't be getting their name called out.
Orange - The real prediction, the one who will probably get their name called out.
Green - Who I really want to win.

Tonight, I'll be looking at the Sound categories (Best Achievement in Sound Mixing, Best Achievement in Sound Editing, Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures - Original Song, and Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures - Original Score) and the Design categories (Best Achievement in Production Design, Best Achievement in Make-Up and Hairstyling, Best Achievement in Costume Design). As we get through the predictions, I promise there'll be some of my famous prediction poetry. Because I'm secretly Shakespeare.

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing

Captain Phillips / Gravity / The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug / Inside Llewyn Davis / Lone Survivor

I'm not sure about anyone else, but did anyone kinda forget that Lone Survivor was a thing? It comes out in NZ today, and I was genuinely surprised at when the trailer popped up before a couple of movies I went to go and see. It was strange to see it pushed so much for awards contention, considering it looks like just another Mark Wahlberg film, and well, it came out on the other side worse off, and has it's place in the two sound categories. Will it win big? Unlikely. This is definitely going all to Gravity, because the sound in that is INSANE. It is probably in my top three aspects of that film (there's a long, long list of stuff I love about that film). Just as a side note: isn't it sad how little love Inside Llewyn Davis got? I just saw it yesterday and while I wasn't taken by the whole film, it was impeccably made and Oscar Isaac gave a perfect performance (then again, the acting category was so packed this year).

My Unofficial Top 15 Films of 2013

Well, 2013 is drawing to a close, so of course, everyone is rolling out their year in review lists. Me? I've only seen around 30-40 films of 2013, so I'm not the best person to come to if you're expecting a list filled with 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle and Short Term 12, this ain't the one. Come back in June next year, and I probably would have sussed out 2013 film wise. However, I do have 15 favourites out of the 2013 releases I did manage to catch this year, so here they are, in all of their "Stevee picked me!" glory:

15. Spring Breakers, Dir. Harmony Korine
I'm never sure of how to explain Spring Breakers in a way that makes it seem like a favourable experience. That's because it isn't the kind of film that can be easily summed up, but you can put a few colourful adjectives under the umbrella of the "Spring Breakers experience". I have to applaud Harmony Korine for being different, and not choosing to put a filter on it (which we'll see more of further down in this list), and for all the anti-feminist statements that could be made about this film, there's plenty of pro-feminist statements to back that up. The four girls in this film are awesome. And hey, how awesome is the "Every Time" scene? Definitely one of my favourite scenes of the year.

14. The Past, Dir. Asghar Farhadi
I saw this back at the New Zealand Film Festival, and just like I was with A Separation, I was left utterly in awe of how Asghar Farhadi can create a thriller with words. He is so deftly talented at writing, creating these very real accounts of life which don't need copious embellishments and adjectives to help get them off the ground. The performances are all fantastic in this, particularly from Berenice Bejo, the Cannes winner, who sheds every ounce of Peppy Miller in The Artist to play one of the most difficult characters of the year. I'm a little shocked that it didn't make the Foreign Film shortlist, and will most likely pass without a whimper because of that. Which is a great shame, because Farhadi hits the mark yet again.

13. Frances Ha, Dir. Noah Baumbach
All I can say is that I'll be watching this when I'm Frances' age, and I'll probably find plenty of parallels. Which is either depressing, or kind of cool, because I'd love to be Greta Gerwig.

12. Disconnect, Dir. Henry Alex Rubin
One of the years most cruelly underseen and underrated films, but such an important film on so many levels. It is too rare that films can get the dangers of technology so right and not get caught up in the "zeitgeist" of looking cool with their Facebook/Twitter/Instagram plugs. Even when things perhaps get a little bit too overdramatic, there's some fantastic performances by the likes of Jason Bateman, Jonah Bobo, Andrea Riseborough, Paula Patton, Alexander Skarsgard and Max Theirot to make it an extremely special film. I'm calling it: this should be required viewing at schools.

11. Stories We Tell, Dir. Sarah Polley
Another film I caught at NZFF, and one that surprised me to no end. I wanna be Sarah Polley. It was so brave of her to make her family story the subject of this documentary, but also to comment on the way that stories are passed down through the years. Stories We Tell does so much more than it says on the packet, and is all kinds of awesome and inspiring.

Breaking Smiles and Thrills

Mettel's blogathon has us looking at the movies that make us smile and the movies that give us thrills. I won't waste much time on an introduction, so here's what Mettel has to say about this week's choices and my choices are as follows:

Midnight in Paris - Aw hey, it's the Fitzgeralds.

Midnight in Paris is a movie that makes me smile from start to finish, but nothing has me smiling like an idiot as when Gil meets the Fitzgeralds. Or anyone else from that era, for that matter. It is just so magical. Just imagine if this happened in real life, guys!

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.

Late Night Thoughts with Stevee #1

If you should remember, most of my writing is just pointless rambling, so what better than to fill a post with my late night thoughts which have about as much cohesion as an Adam Sandler movie? Not that they have the quality of an Adam Sandler movie. Since no one actually ever puts any thought into an Adam Sandler movie.

-So my last ever term holidays have come to a brisk end, but that's no matter - I'm actually looking forward to going back to school. To be honest, I've hated the holidays this year (apart from the sleep ins) because they have gotten in the way of all of the projects I've had on the go. Except for the first holidays. That was all stage challenge. I don't remember how I survived that. Anyways, as you may know I went to Sydney at the beginning of the holidays, which was great fun, especially buying all of the DVDs I wanted. I saw Captain Phillips and Blue Jasmine, which were both terrific, and Frances Ha (which I loved) and Stoker (which I didn't love) on the plane. And I went to Madame Tussaud's which was awesome. I bought an Oscar from there and posed with Leonardo DiCaprio (as seen above). Because I'm hilarious. Then I came back and I've literally done nothing but toil over this essay I have to write for English that's somehow gotta find connections between A Streetcar Named Desire, The Crucible, Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Catcher in the Rye, and also how these novels proved the influence of the time they were written in. It is the worst thing I have ever written, with four pages and absolutely no cohesion at all. Please help.

-This week has been a bit crazy, though. I got accepted into the hall I wanted at University of Canterbury, and also won a $5000 scholarship for being Head Girl. Now I just have to enrol in my courses (a Bachelor of Arts with Cinema, English, and possibly a History and Linguistics paper - but I don't get university courses at all) and start selling drugs so I can pay for the rest of it.

-Speaking of being Head Girl...ah, I really wish I got the epiphany to start blogging again earlier so I could outline this craziness a bit more. Alas, since Stage Challenge, everything started to get really bad for a number of reasons (mostly just missing Stage Challenge - honestly, it was like having a leg cut off when that all ended) but that's all done now. I focused my energies on trying to help a whole lot of redundant workers in town, which wasn't successful. And I got nominated for this community services award as well. I honestly don't remember much else, aside from being very tired and cleaning the common room lots, but here's the point where things get scary. I have exams around the corner, and then I have to do my valedictory speech, which I've been thinking about all year, but now it is about to happen, I'm kinda scared about it. Oh and yeah, this year has gone way too fast.

-In other exciting school news, my drama class is performing The Crucible by Arthur Miller. I'm playing Elizabeth Proctor. Would be great if I were Joan Allen right now.

-Anyway, off the topic of school, and on to the topic of movies. So I saw Gravity today. I have a 'review' all set to go, which is pretty pointless since every man and his dog has written about it, but I tried to make it a little different. It just needs a heck of a lot of editing so I can use the thesaurus to give me 27 more variations of the word 'amazing'.

-Aside from rewatching a whole lot of movies so I could also toil over that bloody English essay, I saw most of the week's new DVD releases. First up was The Hangover Part III, which I liked more than the terrible second one but still not all that much. I laughed quite a bit, but there were way too many unnecessary animal deaths I found. And then there was Sharknado, which was every bit as terribly entertaining as I thought it would be. Deadfall was next up, which was okay but man, Eric Bana was crazy in that. Straight after I watched The Paperboy, which I really quite liked, even though it was ridiculously violent and greasy. Nicole Kidman killed it, though. Lastly, I watched The Hunt, which was definitely one of the most depressing films I've ever seen. But it is sooooo very good.

-The film that I'm most obsessed with at the moment is The Place Beyond the Pines. I rewatched it over the weekend and was absolutely won over this time. Every time I see the trailer at work, I just want to see it over and over again. I'll get around to reviewing it, but this is definitely in my Top 3 for 2013 now.

-The Nymphomaniac posters are pretty much the worst/scariest things I've ever seen. I know that Lars Von Trier was trying to be all against the grain and stuff, but...that's not cool.

-American Hustle has a new trailer and I love it and I need this movie right now. Amy Adams looks fantastic. Jennifer Lawrence looks amazing. I love it already.

-Diana is getting thrashed, huh? Poor Naomi Watts, she's not having a good year. Remember how Jessica Chastain was supposed to be in that film? Luckily she decided to do Zero Dark Thirty instead.

-Speaking of J-Chas, who has been stalking around on her Facebook page? Her big status about Oscar Isaac was absolutely adorable, as was her link love for Awards Daily's post on women in film. She is easily the best person in Hollywood at the moment, maybe even the planet, I dunno.

This is honestly my most used movie quote of all time.

So, can anyone offer any help on my English essay? Or, an easier question: what's everyone been watching lately? What's on your cinematic mind?