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 - 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.

2013 was the Year of...

2013 was a pretty big year. Perhaps not in my film watching (which will be shown in my unofficial Top 15 that'll be posted up tomorrow morning), but there were plenty of things that I loved about this crazy year. So here's a big gigantic mess of the things that made 2013 what it was for me, some of which are movie related, most of which is culture related, and just the general happenings of 2013 that will remain landmarks for the year. Kinda like flipping through the back pages of my diary. But more interesting than my diary would be if I actually had time to keep one.

The Actors 

Daniel Day-Lewis
Yup, this was definitely my biggest actor obsession of the year. Spurred off by my drama class doing The Crucible, and then turning into this big thing where all I'd do with my spare time is watch his Oscar acceptance speeches over and over (I haven't watched one in about three weeks - have I been rehabilitated?). All other spare time was taken up by watching all of his movies. Which brought me to the lovely My Beautiful Laundrette, the awe-inspiring My Left Foot, the rather restrained The Age of Innocence, the amazing In the Name of the Father, of course The Crucible, the gutsy The Boxer, the violent Gangs of New York, the heartbreaking The Ballad of Jack and Rose, a rewatch of There Will Be Blood which boosted my love for the film, a rewatch of Nine which dragged down my supposed love for that film, and a couple of watches of Lincoln which just exemplifies how Daniel has mastered his craft. I wish I had at least 40% of his commitment.

Bradley Cooper
This has been a banner year for Bradley Cooper, an actor who I've long been in love with since The Hangover back in 2009. Along comes Silver Linings Playbook, which shows what I've long known: Bradley Cooper is one talented actor who is more than just the "eye candy" status that the woman's magazines like to lay on him. The Place Beyond the Pines gave him another chance to show how talented he is, and I hear that he's one of the best things about American Hustle. Hopefully The Hangover has been long left behind, and it is only up from here.

Making the Case for Elizabeth Debicki + Blogathon Entries

Yes, I know there were 10,000 better films that came out in 2013, but truth is, I've only seen around 30 2013 films (I wish I was joking), and by far, the one that stuck was The Great Gatsby. As is documented here, I don't really like the film all that much as an adaptation, but I liked it enough to see it six times since June. Reason? This flawless lady right here:

Yes, the marvellous debut actress Elizabeth Debicki is cruelly underused in the film. They cut out her all important final scene (but the deleted scene does exist, and she is flawless, so we'll pretend that it is still a part of the film). Of all the actors in the film, she has her character so incredibly aligned with F. Scott Fitzgerald's description. In fact, the part where Jordan is described is pretty much my favourite example of Fitzgerald's writing (apart from the amazing final lines), and to see Debicki pull off those few moments so flawlessly ensured that I would love the film.

Debicki just fits so perfectly into the time period, with her look and her voice, shedding off the feelings of imitations that plagued Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton. I'd be happy if we had a whole film of just her and her poor driving skills, lies about leaving the car roof down and her adventures through golfing. Unfortunately, we didn't get that, but one can only imagine what kind of talent Debicki would have brought to the table. Her vibrance is something that I look forward to seeing in the future.

But one can't forget: Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby. He's (supposed to be) getting buzz for The Wolf of Wall Street, and the Best Actor race is damn over-crowded this year, so any chance of him getting proper recognition for his work as Gatsby is slim. Alas, he fits Gatsby like a glove, perfectly portraying Gatsby's fantastical dreams and self-built delusions. Would have been interesting to see how he'd have fared if the film was released closer to awards season (probably not well, knowing his track record).

Other mentions, from the handful of films I've seen:

The Place Beyond the Pines - Best Supporting Actor, Bradley Cooper
He may have a bit more traction with American Hustle, but out of the fine ensemble - which does include a brilliant Ryan Gosling - Bradley Cooper really proved his worth here. It is hard to put my finger on exactly what it is that he does so well here, but he just brings such a vulnerability to someone reluctantly put at hero status. Speaking of...

Catching Fire - Best Actress, Jennifer Lawrence
...another person reluctantly put at hero status. And also another person who has a better chance with American Hustle. But Jennifer is wonderful in this film, navigating the tricky business of being Katniss Everdeen with more fluidity than she showed in the first film. She truly does make this teen franchise one of a high calibre.

The Past - Best Actress, Berenice Bejo
Why isn't this getting more love? Sure, Bejo won the Cannes award for Best Actress, and rightly so, but the love seemed to stop there. She plays one hell of a character, and is probably one of the "strong female characters" that actually deserves that paper thin title. She's flawed, frustrating and ferocious, and definitely a far cry from the preppy Peppy Miller from The Artist. Due credit should also go to Asghar Farhadi for another thrilling screenplay that uses words as weapons.

Side Effects - Best Actress, Rooney Mara
This film, though released very early in the year, is still one of my absolute favourites. It is so twisted, evoking this Hitchcockian feel that many modern thrillers lack. One of my favourite things about this film was the chilling performance by Rooney Mara, who played one of the more twisted and complicated characters of the year with surprising ease. If Lisbeth Salander had be terrified of Mara, then Side Effects definitely gave me another reason.

Spring Breakers - Best Cinematography
For one thing, and one thing only: the pink skies that light up some of the scenes in the film. Makes a grimy gangster flick as slick as a Terrence Malick film. Spring Breakers deserves points for being the most colourful, most out there film of the year, but I'm pinning my hopes on a cinematography nomination, because this film was an unsettling feast for the eyes.

Entries into the blogathon:

Mette has some love for Spring Breakers and the categories it should be nominated in. Which includes Best Nail Polish.

Josh makes the case for everything, with an outsider for every category at the Oscars. How I'd love for Before Midnight to get a Best Picture nom!

Brittani makes the case for The East, a movie which I'm still desperate to see. ILY, Brit Marling!

While Gravity is sure to get a lot of love, one person who will probably come out awards season without any recognition is George Clooney. Sati tells us why he should be up there with the party.

Andy has a case to make for Stoker, and the several categories it should be nominated in (a big yes for a Nicole Kidman nom).

And Nikhat went beyond the call of duty and had three cases to make: a case for comedy, a case for Tye Sheridan in Mud, and a case for Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha. Considering I've seen all of the films she's made a case for, major hearts for all of them.

There were only a few entries, so if you wanna get your entry in, tweet at me (@SteveeTaylor) or email it to me (steveetaylor[@]hotmail.co.nz). For now, who is an outsider that you're most rooting for?

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!

Boats Against the Current: Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby

I've seen Baz Luhrmann's version of The Great Gatsby five times now. I'm not even ashamed to admit it. If I were to somehow become Alien out of Spring Breakers, it wouldn't be Scarface I'd have on repeat, it would be The Great Gatsby. Anything remotely Gatsby I snap up - whether it be reblogging my 100th gif of Jordan Baker or changing my cover photo on Facebook or finding something pretty to adorn my bedroom walls with.

Despite all this, I don't actually like The Great Gatsby as a film all that much. Let's put all of this into context: last term I did this huge research project about modern adaptations of classic films. Now, I won't bore you with the gory details since that thing ended up being like, 40 pages long, but The Great Gatsby was my main focus. This was because I had never seen so many people around my age go absolutely nuts for this one movie. Admittedly, this was mainly because of the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio is descended from angels and we're all materialistic magpies that will swoop in on anything that glitters (so you can imagine the field day we had with this). Let's just say, I wasn't the only one reblogging, cover photo-ing or adorning everything Gatsby.

Update on Life as Head Girl Part 2 - the Stage Challenge Edition

Hey guys, sorry for deserting you for two months, but needless to say, I've been a busy wee lass. Last Friday, my school competed in Stage Challenge, which closed out the busiest four months I've ever experienced. So before I tell you about everything, I'll let you know what stage challenge is: an eight minute performance, usually done through dance, where you convey a message. Our performance this year was based around the idea of the dark side of money. The main character (played by my best friend and amazingly talented Cassie) is introduced to a materialistic world, and sees the downfalls of consumerism, losing everything to a world she wanted so much to be a part of. We didn't place in the competition (I may be biased, but we were robbed - we got beaten by dancing kiwi fruit and meningitis dancing to Skyfall of all songs, but oh well), but we got seven awards of excellence for Drama, Concept, Stage Use, Performance Skill, Costuming Character, Choreography and Set Design & Function (we were the only school to win that one so yay!).

I will say something: I've never been so proud of anything in my life. And while I don't like tooting my own horn, I've done a lot to be proud of, but this one takes the top spot. This year, I got to direct the performance and I've been busy sorting everything out for the past four months. I was lucky to have an amazing group of choreographers who came up with the performance, and their dances were far beyond than anything I could have ever imagined. On the night, I sat in the audience crying my eyes out from the moment the performance started. While I've always loved the exhilarating feeling of performing, seeing something you've worked on so hard for so long was the best feeling in the world. Honestly. When we came to the end of the performance - where Cassie commits suicide by falling off the back of the platform (kind of a downer, but that's Dannevirke High School for you, we never do happy, cute endings where the whole cast comes on stage), I just cried and cried and cried. There was an overwhelming feeling of proudness that I'd never felt before, because everything came together so well: the dances were perfect, the costumes were amazing, and the lights finished everything off wonderfully. I also don't think I've ever hugged so many people - or embarrassed myself so much by crying in front of every important figure in the school (the principal, the teachers, the board members). They're probably wondering how I ever got Head Girl now.

When it came to results time, I admit to being guttered about not being placed, but I started crying again because I was just so proud. It may sound cheesy, yet what I learned during this journey was far more valuable than any prizes. Because I've totally lost my good writing talents, I'll just list everything that I learned:

• That time management is the best skill anyone could ever have, and luckily I have that skill pretty downpat. There were lots of rehearsals (we had 18 hours worth of rehearsals over four days, and me and a couple of others worked on the set/performance for 50+ hours in one of the school holiday weeks), but being Head Girl and also working at a place that was extremely understaffed, my life wasn't put on hold for Stage Challenge. Let's just say, I actually did lots of work in all my free periods and school, and even took homework to work to do during my night shifts. Somehow, through all this mess I managed to get an Excellence for a Biology assessment, which is great because Bio is my worst subject. Mind you, I haven't quite caught up on my sleep yet - probably need to go into a coma for a month to do that. The bags under my eyes speak wonders for how much work I've been doing lately.
• Being calm is also a great quality. We had a huge committee with a lot of strong minds, and while I had several down days because of some of the friction caused, when it came down to it, I thought I handled the major problems pretty well. There was one day that was particularly horrible, but we managed getting through it and everything went well in the end. Being able to count to ten and not jump to conclusions was probably the thing that got us all through.
• Stage Challenge is probably the best fitness plan you'll get - even if you're not performing. On the day before the performance, we had a full day of rehearsals, and I don't think I've ever run around so much in my life. Looking back through the photos of that day, all you could see me doing was running through the frame
• I drank too much coffee and bought a lot of food to get me through. Turns out that whole coffee was the best thing ever, I went the last two days without caffeine and I felt perfect. Still, stage challenge started my coffee addiction.
• I've never felt so much gratitude in my life. My co-director Emma was amazing. My choreographers were amazing. My dancers were amazing. My set guys were amazing. Cassie was amazingly amazing. But especially the people who saw all my mental breakdowns behind the scenes - sorry, but thank you. I'm especially proud of our achievements as we did this with no teacher assistance. Which is very different from previous years.

• Most of all - I love directing. I really do. Since I wasn't performing, these pictures of me 'in action' are as close as you're gonna get to seeing me participate in the production. I look like Steven Spielberg. Someone hand me an Oscar.

Before I get into a little photo gallery of the performance, I'll give you an update on me and the movies. To be honest, I've lost interest in movies quite a bit lately since I've been so busy. I only watched 13 movies last month (down from the usual 30), and most of those were rewatches because I can't focus on new movies at the moment. I've just about cancelled my Fatso account because I can't keep up with the two movies I get a month. However, I've been getting quite sentimental over some movies - The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Django Unchained and Silver Linings Playbook recently came out on DVD so I've been recommending them left right and centre. I saw Anna Karenina, which I actually really liked. Joe Wright was very inventive - and it was achingly beautiful. But the movie that is currently my everything is Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby. Yes, I loved it. It was near perfect. The soundtrack is my life. Leonardo DiCaprio was the perfect Gatsby. Elizabeth Debicki was the perfect Jordan Baker. And Baz Luhrmann...wow. If I were to ever be a filmmaker, I'd be pretty much exactly like him. Which is kinda why our stage challenge took after extravagance and such. And probably why I decided that it would be a good idea to put one dance group in bobbed wigs and feather headbands. Yeah, it wasn't inspired by The Great Gatsby at all...

Anyway, here's a gallery of the performance. Thanks to Maxine for being our amazing photographer on the day:

This is our opening scene - three working girls hating life. All set to the tune of 'Money, Money, Money'. Just imagine the lyrics playing out on stage.

The main character gets the idea that the rich life is just what she needs.

This is our 'business dance', which is still set to Money, Money, Money. They basically lure Cassie into the 'rich life', and give her some money so she can go on her way.

With the money she's given from the business people, she's introduced to the materialistic world of excessive consumerism. And yeah, you see the bobs and the headbands...hmmmm, thanks for that, F. Scott Fitzgerald/the perfection of the 1920s. (this scene is set to Money Honey by Lady Gaga)

This is probably one of the biggest reasons as to why we won the only Set Design and Function award - our vault opens, some people come out of it, and then it closes by itself. Well, as far as the audience knows...but man, we did well with that one! Special thanks to Seth and Jared for making that piece of magic.

Yeah hey, my name is Baz Luhrmann.

This is when consumerism kinda bits back. The mannequins are all quite serious and all hate Cassie now, but she's totally oblivious.

This is the business world gone wrong - everyone who has been chewed up and spat out by the demons of consumerism and have learned the hard way that money doesn't buy happiness. This is set to Lux Aeterna from the Requiem for a Dream soundtrack...yeah, I was going for the most depressing song I could find.

This dance - set to Carmen by Lana Del Rey - is the last scene, showing the desolation and loneliness that valuing money over things like family and friends can do.

Not only is this picture perfect, but this was easily my favourite part of our performance - I cried so much because the whole movement went so perfectly.

DHS: bringing you happy endings at Stage Challenge since never.

Now that it's all over, I will say that while I don't miss having to go up to school for 10 hours a day and stuff like that, there's plenty of memories that I miss from Stage Challenge. Like eating Chinese on the set after spending something like nine hours making it, or all the coffee runs, or just being around an awesome group of kids for a few hours. I'd like to say that now Stage Challenge is over, I can get back to blogging - but alas, my life has not stopped being busy yet. If you want to read a blog describing every fabulous facet of The Great Gatsby though, maybe I can help you there?

Anyway - another public thank you to everyone involved with this project - and a public thank you to you guys for making me pass 600,000 hits even though I'm not a regular poster! What's been going on with you guys in the cinematic world these days? How was Man of Steel? How bad was After Earth? How are all the 2013 movies going - because I sure as hell don't know! Let me know in the comments!