Late-Ish 2013 Retrospective: Top 15 Male Performances

More 2013 retrospective goodness just to remind you that 2013 happened and 2013 was great! Don't really need to waste a whole lot of time explaining this, so here are my favourite male performances from last year...

Honourable Mentions: Bradley Cooper - American Hustle, Bradley Cooper - The Place Beyond the Pines, Ryan Gosling - The Place Beyond the Pines, Dane DeHaan - The Place Beyond the Pines, Joaquin Phoenix - Her, Steve Coogan - Philomena, Dane DeHaan - Kill Your Darlings, James Gandolfini - Enough Said, Miles Teller - The Spectacular Now, Matthew McConaughey - Dallas Buyers Club, Hugh Jackman - Prisoners, Daniel Bruhl - Rush, Michael B. Jordan - Fruitvale Station, Michael Douglas - Behind the Candelabra, Matt Damon - Behind the Candelabra, Leonardo DiCaprio - The Great Gatsby, James Franco - Spring Breakers, Jude Law - Side Effects, Jonah Bobo - Disconnect.

15. Dwayne Johnson as Paul Doyle in Pain & Gain
Let me preface this by saying that Dwayne Johnson may be my least favourite working actor. That's probably because I can't stand the fact that every single movie he is in, whether it is a cinema release or a straight-to-DVD release, will always rent in truckloads. Sad thing is that they're all exactly the same. I surprisingly dug Pain & Gain a lot against all odds (the Johnson/Mark Wahlberg/Michael Bay factor), but I was most surprised by Johnson's performance. He was obviously taking the piss out of his usual macho beef-cake persona, and in an alternate universe, he would be the perfect buff brother of Jordan Belfort who was nowhere near as smart as him.

14. Jake Gyllenhaal as Detective Loki in Prisoners
We never really know a lot about Detective Loki. We're just offered insights into his existence. I think that's what I admire most about any film who can do it right: a script which only offers insights into a character's existence instead of an outpouring of their life, and an actor who can build that existence into something truly believable. Gyllenhaal hits all the right notes, even when the film isn't necessarily concerned with him. It's all in the scene where he eats this Thanksgiving dinner at a diner alone.

Late Night Thoughts #6 (in the morning): Go get it, McConaughey/DiCaprio Domination/Barkhad Abdi's my new fave person

-No, I'm not going to do a full post on the Oscar nominations. For one thing, by the time I get around to doing them, like eight hours after the nominations, they're old news. And for another thing, I've found that people don't generally respond to awards coverage. Well, definitely not in the last few years I've done it, anyway.

-Plus, I can't really add anything new. The Tom Hanks snub sucked. American Hustle seems to be the buzz, and I'm going to reserve judgement until I see the film (possibly next week), but is this The King's Speech of this year? I reckon it is totally going to True Grit things - have all those nominations but no awards to show for it.

-Also, The Great Gatsby getting no love in the song section hurt, too. WTF is Alone Yet Not Alone?

-Anyway, so here's the story of nominations night: they were at 2.30am, and even though I was supposed to get sleep before and after then, I was up all night sick. However, I managed to contain the stomach flu for the nominations, but I had to do silent fist pumps so I wouldn't wake the house (like I did when Rooney Mara got nominated). There were a lot of silent fist pumps. First, for Jonah Hill. I knew it was going to happen (but sadface for Daniel Bruhl, though). Then for Sally Hawkins, who I knew I was right for predicting - remember when everyone thought it wouldn't happen? Then for Before Midnight getting a screenplay nod. And then for my girl Amy Adams for finally breaking through into the lead category. Started from the bottom now you here, Amy.

-And then along came Best Actor. When Christian Bale got called, I was like "no, no, no, no, no, dear god no that is Leo's spot". And then it happened. All of my hopes and dreams came true in that one moment. I didn't even pay attention to the rest of the nominations.

-But "Academy Award nominee Matthew McConaughey" sounds perfect, doesn't it?

-Anyway, this wasn't the only time of the week that Leo made my hopes and dreams come true. Of course, the Golden Globes - a.k.a the only awards show I'll be able to watch fully this year - happened and he got the award there, too. Ah, it was perfection.

-The Golden Globes were very entertaining. Was very happy to see Matty M, Amy Adams, Jared Leto, Alfonso Cuaron and Steve McQueen get awards. Plus, Amy and Tina were gold. Can't really say too much other than that - just flip through my Twitter feed for my uncensored, unedited thoughts.

-But I must say, I keep watching Matty M's speech because I love hearing him say "alright, alright, alriiiiiight" and "go get it, McConaughey". Like I swear that's going to be my new catchphrase for awards season: "go get it, McConaughey". I seriously need to stop saying it in real life situations.

-I really wish we could just have Jessica Chastain giving Matthew McConaughey awards all season. Their cute friendship makes me all the more excited about Interstellar.

-It would seem that Jennifer Lawrence backlash is the new black right now. Now, I love her as a person. I loved her in Winter's Bone and particularly The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. I'm still a little angry about her winning for Silver Linings Playbook, as I don't think she ever owned her character. And it appears that the same thing happens with American Hustle. I dunno - she has an exceptionally good filmography and she's an exceptionally good performer, but she seems to be getting an awful lot of praise for movies she's not necessarily right for. If she wins that Oscar this year, the backlash will be terrible. But I think that's going to go to Lupita Nyong'o, who broke my heart in 12 Years a Slave. Well, at least I hope it does.

-On the opposite end of the spectrum, and awards getter that I'm loving at the moment is Barkhad Abdi. Maybe I'm a sucker for stories like his, but it is so awesome how he does literally one film and then gets nominated for an Oscar. He's really sweet, too.

-I've been catching up on 2013 films, with films like Short Term 12 (man, y'all were right, such a great film), Rush (I liked it, a bit sad Daniel Bruhl didn't get nommed but no big loss), Dallas Buyers Club (go get it, McConaughey), 12 Years a Slave (yeah...I've never cried so much in my life. Steve McQueen has the most perfect filmography of anyone), and...The Canyons, which I will probably write a post about in the next week or so. Man, that was an experience.

-The next and final installment in my "money" series will take a look at Side Effects and Blue Jasmine, but I'm just waiting for Blue Jasmine to come out on DVD so I can watch it again. And soak up the amazingness of Cate Blanchett and Sally Hawkins.

-And in non-movie related news, I got my exam results back. I managed to achieve Level 3 with Merit endorsed (which I suppose is like a solid B-grade/A- for you Americans), which I was told at the start of the year I couldn't do because I was Head Girl. Ha. Also managed to get Excellence endorsed in Level 3 English (solid A+ grade), getting Excellences in everything I did apart from my damn Othello essay, which I got Merit in. And I also got Merit endorsed in Drama. And yeah, that's high school completely done. I didn't fail anything last year, which was also quite the achievement. I got my acceptance letter into Canterbury and have to scrape together so much money - uni is so hard and I haven't even gone yet!

-Oh crap, just realised the SAG awards are tomorrow. I won't be watching, as I have work, but I don't really see the point as Leo isn't nominated anyway. Alas, my quick predictions would be: Best Ensemble - probably American Hustle since everyone loves it, but judging by only having Jennifer Lawrence nominated, this could well go to 12 Years a Slave (as it should); Best Actor - I imagine this is going to Matthew McConaughey, but there could always be a spoiler from Bruce Dern; Best Actress - Cate Blanchett, no doubt; Best Supporting Actor - Jared Leto, no doubt; Best Supporting Actress - most likely Lupita Nyong'o - I only think Jennifer Lawrence's chances would be helped if the rest of her cast was individually nominated.

-And make sure you listen to the Across the Universe podcast, where the Chicks with Accents discuss/cry over The Wolf of Wall Street. It's beautiful.

What's been going on in your cinematic lives lately?

Everyone, Tom Hanks is Back: Captain Phillips

Captain Phillips (2013) / US / Out in NZ cinemas Oct. 24th / Directed by Paul Greengrass / Written by Billy Ray / Starring Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, Mahat M. Ali, Catherine Keener, Michael Chernus / 134 mins.

I've always had this notion about films being these fantastical things, capable of anything that couldn't possibly occur on Earth. However, after all of the CGI cheesecakes that have shown us about as much ground-breaking technology as we can get, it would seem that the thing that wows us most these days is realism. The films that don't feel like films. Naturally, being a true story helps, but in the past we've seen these true stories deviate from the reality and hit it home with sentimentality.

And then there's Captain Phillips.

There are not many contrived moments in this film. There aren't any really inspiring speeches with violins pulsating in the background. There are no great reunions at the end. While I don't claim to know every single detail of what it would be like to have a ship hijacked by Somalian pirates, this felt like the real thing.

DVD--Toy Story 3

or: The best animated film ever made?

One word to sum it up: Heart breaking.

It's all over?

I may have once been skeptical about the making of Toy Story 3. To be honest, I thought it was just made to be a cash cow and one of those movies which tries to revamp the whole series by being 3D. Being made 10 years after the last one? That was an odd move, too. But after watching the first two the nights before watching this one, I really, really, did not want the series to end. I enjoy the small things in life, and the Toy Story franchise is something which I enjoy much more than a younger kid probably would. Seriously, anyone who doesn't feel some kind of emotion at the end of watching this is a clearly a very cynical person. Toy Story 3 is the best (and you know there are a lot of good ones) movie to be made by Disney Pixar, end of story.

Andy is now 17 years old, and is off to college to start his new independent life, leaving Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the rest of the gang to ponder their future. When they discover they are moving to Sunnyside Daycare, they are happy that they will be played with again. Unfortunately, they find there are two awful horrors that they experience while living at Sunnyside: the kids aren't as nice or gentle as their former owners and the other toys at Sunnyside are setting out to make life miserable for the gang. The toys must plot an escape plan so they can get out of Sunnyside, which proves to be no easy task.

Toy Story was great. Toy Story 2, to me, was still good but lacked the charm that the first one had. However, Toy Story 3 blows them both out of the water. There's always that feeling that a third movie will be the worst of them all, but this one seems to be the extremely rare exception. We are introduced to new characters, and we also have some real villains this time, which helps make the movie more exciting. I mean, Lotso, the strawberry scented bear, and the slightly mishandled baby doll were enough to give me nightmares. I actually got really frightened in some of the scenes in this, but that's what makes this movie so great.

2010 has been a seemingly bad year for movies. However, this, Inception and The Social Network are three movies which have gone down in history for their service to their genres: animated features, sci-fi actioners and biographical dramas respectively. Over the years, we have seen so many great animated features, particularly coming out of the amazing dreamworld that is Pixar. Toy Story 3 definitely tops them all. It has that edge over them: taking something ordinary like a toy and making them extraordinary; amazing computer generated animation that isn't bogged down by the fact it was made in 3D; a hilarious script which both young and old will have a laugh at; but most of all, it has that emotional edge that comes from the fact that we genuinely care about these characters. We've all had a toy which has become our best friend. We all wished so much that they would come to life. Call me a little kid, but I actually felt sorry for the toys I have locked away in my closet after watching this. And the end of this movie made me feel so sorry for them that it just brought out the little kid in me.

In the last five minutes of this movie, I couldn't help but bawl my eyes out. There were so many emotions: nostalgia, moving on, happiness, sadness, optimism...but most of all, I hated that it had to end. Any fan of the series will probably feel the same as I did. My recommendation is that you watch the first two reasonably close to watching this one. It's one of the best cinematic experiences I have ever had. Look at it this way: Toy Story 3 is perfect for any age. It's just an all-round perfect movie. I don't mean to overhype it for you, but there it is. Toy Story 3 will win Best Animated Picture at the Oscars next year, will even get a nomination for Best Picture, and will go down in history as the greatest animated feature ever made. It really is as great as everyone says it is.

Woody, Buzz, Jessie, the rest of the gang: I will miss you loads!


THE VERDICT: I LOVED this movie. Doesn't matter how old you are, Toy Story 3 is a classic and a must watch for fans of the trilogy.

10/10

Classic--Toy Story 2

or: The fantastic dud of the trilogy.

One word to sum it up: (still) Memor-iffic

Why do I hail Toy Story 2 as the fantastic 'dud' of the trilogy? Well, while it is still very, very good, I didn't find it as charming as the first one, or as (insert amazing description here) as the third one. But don't worry, there was no way I was going to hate Toy Story 2, as it makes up what may be the greatest trilogy of all time. It still has everything the first one has, but suffers from the sometimes inescapable second-movie syndrome.

While Andy is away at summer camp Woody (Tom Hanks) has been toynapped by Al McWiggin (Wayne Knight), a greedy collector and proprietor of Al's Toy Barn. In this all-out rescue mission, Buzz (Tim Allen) and his friends Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles), Slinky Dog (Jim Varney), Rex (Wallace Shawn) and Hamm (John Ratzenberger) springs into action to rescue Woody from winding up as a museum piece. They must find a way to save him before he gets sold in Japan forever and they'll never see him again!

I was so happy when I found that Toy Story 2 has the same formula as it's predecessor, and uses all the tricks in the bag to make us really root for these characters. In most sequels, they will always try to overblow the franchise and get more than they did for the first one. It's like reinvesting money just to get some more interest, but most of the time that investment gets lost in the mail or the finance company goes bankrupt. That's not the case with Toy Story 2. It's a wonderous sequel, and really holds its own in the trilogy. Come to think of it, the trilogy really holds it's own among every other film. They all have that warmth and honest emotion we never see in a kids movie; also a message which isn't thrusted in front of our faces, but is put in there with such subtlety that we can't help but love the movie.

Again, the computer graphics are amazing, and this is really the benchmark of animated cinema. Sure, the 2D sketch animations by Disney were great, but Toy Story 2 ensures that we all like Pixar's computer generated animation. And we do. Film doesn't really get much better than this. However, if I have one thing to say about this fluffy sequel, it's that this get's a bit too melodramatic, and doesn't have the same happy/emotional edge that the first one had. But given that minor issue, the rest of the film is enjoyable, well composed, and definitely one of the best examples of why Pixar makes the best movies. Yes, they're even better then the live action ones.

THE VERDICT: A great sequel, with all the charms that one could expect from a Toy Story movie.

8/10

Classic--Toy Story

or: One of the scariest movies I have ever seen.

One word to sum it up: Memor-iffic (in other words, brings back the memories).

Since Toy Story 3 is making it's way to the DVD shelves this week, I thought I would run through the series in sequence, just to bring out the little kid in me. I still tend to believe that you are never too old to watch animated films by Pixar or Dreamworks, because they have something for everything. They have that heart, pure comedy and that all-round enjoyment that you don't get from today's live action films. The unfortunate thing about the 1995 release of Toy Story is that we started to see a lot of computer generated animated features instead of the 2D classics that I so love. Anyway, every movie that comes out of Pixar proves to be amazing, and we have Toy Story to thank for that.

A little boy named Andy loves to be in his room, playing with his toys, especially his doll named Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks). But when Andy is not with the toys, they come to life. Woody believes that he has life (as a toy) good. However, he is worrying about Andy's family moving, and he also does not realize that Andy's mother gave him an action figure known as Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), who does not believe that he is a toy, and quickly becomes Andy's new favorite toy. Woody, who is now consumed with jealousy, tries to get rid of Buzz. Then, both Woody and Buzz manage to get lost. They must find a way to get back to Andy before he moves without them, but they will have to pass through a ruthless toy killer, Sid Phillips

I still think that Toy Story is one of the scariest movies I have ever seen. Why? Because Sid Phillips is one demented kid, and I genuinely prayed for the safe return of Woody and Buzz to Andy. This just proves that Toy Story reminds me that I'm still a kid at heart. I could watch a proper horror movie that's R18 and not be scared, whereas I watch this G-rated animated flick and I still get really scared. Pixar made the most perfect kids film, but it's one that the adults can watch and still feel completely fulfilled by everything it achieves. That could be because the story takes something ordinary and makes it extraordinary: toys coming to life. Forget animals talking, that had been done before. Once the toys started talking, it kinda made me reflect back to my younger days when I had boxes filled with Barbies and play ponies. I used to try and make them come to life. But did they ever do that? Every kid used to think that, and that's why this movie works. Andy would do anything for his toys, but his toys would do more for him. Sometimes I have to wonder how my toys feel now that they have been locked up in the darkness of my closet for eternity.

I believe that Toy Story set the bar for future Pixar creations. They all seem to have this sort of formula: a strong message, taking ordinary things and making them extraordinary, a very low reliance on slapstick comedy, and they always have something for young and old. That formula works, and each time they come back at it, it never gets old. It's amazing that Pixar had improved on Toy Story, but then again, this movie will forever be one of the best. Toy Story truly is beyond great, and serves as the best reminder of my childhood (even if I was born the year it came out).


THE VERDICT: The most fun I could have in 77 minutes.

10/10