Best Films and Performances of 2013

First, Two Bad Films I'd Like To Briefly Mock

Man of Steel (Zach Snyder)



I'm an unabashed fan of Superman and the old fashioned and fantastical elements of the character are precisely the things that make him interesting. With that, any attempt to make Superman modern and realistic is inherently misguided and this mars Man of Steel right out of the gate. Even beyond that, Snyder’s film is an overly long and overly serious work of disaster porn that fails at every turn. It's sad news for the Big Blue Boy Scout that this is the direction Warner Brothers apparently wants to go with the character.

The Counselor (Ridley Scott)



It turns out Cormac McCarthy is about as good at writing screenplays as Tommy Wiseau. The Counselor wastes a great cast by filling their mouths with unending dialogue that reaches for profundity and instead lands at hilarity. Though at times an interesting failure, due to some compelling action set pieces staged by director Ridley Scott, The Counselor is an experiment in storytelling that completely and utterly backfires.

Favorite Films of 2013

17.  Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (David Lowery)


Director David Lowery has crafted a poor man’s Badlands but that’s still a pretty rich man in my book. Buoyed by good performances from Casey Affleck, Ben Foster and Rooney Mara.

16.  Prince Avalanche (David Gordon Green)



Hopefully this means David Gordon Green has given up on making dumb stoner comedies with his friends as Prince Avalanche seems to mark a return to form. Well acted by Emile Hirsch and Paul Rudd, the film is a charmingly low key and melancholy little comedy about two guys working on a rural highway with nothing to do but talk back and forth about their lives.

15.  Pain & Gain (Michael Bay)



It's Michael Bay! While I couldn’t possibly care less about his Giant Robot Movies, Pain & Gain is a darkly funny and gleefully violent satire about the American Dream that is a hell of a lot fun to watch. The Rock’s performance as a haplessly naive criminal is a highlight as well.

14. The Spectacular Now (James Ponsoldt)



I don’t care too much for coming of age stories but The Spectacular Now works precisely because it sidesteps all the cliches and stereotypes normally found in those types of films. It also helps that the film is grounded by two great lead performances from Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller.

13.  Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley)



Polley has shown herself to be an adept and versatile chronicler of romantic relationships; in particular the ways in which they crumble apart and then ripple outwards to affect others. Much better than a documentary about one’s own family has a right to be (please don’t try that at home, anyone, ever) Stories We Tell explores the various meanings we attach to familial lineage while also commenting on the documentary form itself and the nature of storytelling.

12.  Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)



Greta Gerwig plays another Greta Gerwig style character, i.e. a woman-child struggling to grow up. It’s a good thing she has the presence, the charm and the vulnerability to make these types of characters feel real and lived in instead of cliched. Frances Ha looks great in black and white while alternating between being both hilarious and sad. As an aspiring creative person of sorts it definitely cut a little close to home, but the film speaks more broadly to anyone who feels like they haven’t figured out what to do with their life even though everyone else apparently has.

11.  Only God Forgives (Nicholas Winding Refn)


An ultra violent and leisurely paced neon tinged nightmare about guilt and retribution. Many joked that this was Refn’s and Gosling’s unofficial sequel to Drive but it has much more in common with the director’s earlier film, Valhalla Rising, in its eschewing of plot and character in favor of tone. Gosling and his co-lead Vithaya Pansringarm aren't asked to do much other than glower and hurt people but Kristen Scott Thomas gives a memorable performance as a horrifying momager running a Bangkok drug ring.

10.  Blue Is The Warmest Color (Abdellatif Kechiche)



The best comic book adaptation of the year! As I mentioned before, I don’t normally care for coming of age stories but Blue is so honest and so well acted it immediately won me over. Kechiche chooses to focus his camera squarely on his lead actress’ face throughout most of the film and we watch her weep and yell and scream and dance and be nervous and have sex and get angry and on and on as her character discovers not just a sexual identity but comes into her own as an adult.

9.  Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)



What happens to a beautiful love story when the honeymoon phase ends and the whispering of sweet nothings is replaced by arguments about who has to pick up the kids from soccer practice? Before Midnight shows us a couple of young romantics who aren’t quite so young anymore as the cracks begin to show in their relationship. As this is a Before film, they naturally, beautifully, wonderfully, wander around and talk it out. Here’s to hoping Linklater, Hawke and Delpy keep giving us new installments in this series as long as they are able.

8.  The Hunt (Thomas Vinterberg)



Dark, sad and completely engrossing, The Hunt shows a community of people morphing from loving neighbors to vicious monsters due to fast spreading rumors and an off the cuff remark springing from a child’s imagination. Mads Mikkelson’s lead performance makes the film all the more heartbreaking as he refuses to lose control or give into bitterness and despair.

7.  Upstream Color (Shane Carruth)



A beautiful mood piece. The plot of Shane Carruth’s second film ostensibly involves worms with mind control powers but it’s really just an excuse to ask questions about the nature of human existence, love and the inter-connectedness of all living things.

6.  To The Wonder (Terrence Malick)



Another beautiful mood piece, To The Wonder is a rumination on the experience of falling in and out of love. Malick has clearly entered the ‘for-fans-only’ phase of his career but I’ll gladly drink that Kool-Aid all day.

5.  The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)



Scorsese comes roaring back in vintage form; Wolf of Wall Street contains a plethora of slow motion, long tracking shots, montages and, in the tradition of the best Scorsese films, people behaving badly and going completely unpunished. Scorsese and screenwriter Terence Winter use comedy to draw us into the world of bullshit artist Jordan Belfort and, though it seems fun at first, the closing shot of the film shows that the joke was on us the whole time.

4.  Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron)



A tour de force of sound and image and a visceral cinematic experience. Sure, some of the dialogue is a bit clunky, but cinema is a visual medium and the film would have still worked even if Sandra Bullock and George Clooney were speaking Esperanto.

3.  Her (Spike Jonze)



A beautifully melancholy love story. In the best tradition of science fiction stories, Jonze depicts a plausible future to comment on the present. A lesser filmmaker might have fallen into the trap of mocking our addiction to technology or playing the premise for laughs at the protagonist's expense, but Her always remains a sympathetic and relatable film.

2.  12 Years A Slave (Steve McQueen)



The reason why 12 Years A Slave is such a remarkable film about American slavery is that McQueen refuses to let his audience off the hook. There are (largely) no sympathetic white characters and no concessions given to the audience’s comfort. Some complained that 12 Years was a difficult film to watch, but a film about human beings enslaving each other at pain of death should be difficult to watch. McQueen clearly understands this and his long unbroken shots do a fantastic and unsettling job of portraying the unending horror and brutality of slavery.

1.  Inside Llewyn Davis (Coen Bros.)



There are a number of different ways you can approach thinking about Inside Llewyn Davis. You can talk about the music, of course, or the Academy Award nominated cinematography by Bruno Delbonnel or you could discuss the film’s place in the Coen Brothers’ increasingly legendary canon. The thing that’s the most striking about this film to me, though, was the lead performance of Oscar Isaac.

Isaac gives Llewyn a hang dog world weariness that permeates every frame. He’s a melancholy loser who isn’t talented enough to succeed as a singer but too much of a fuck-up to hold down a real job. When he picks up a guitar, his guard comes down and all the hurt and longing and sadness comes out. Singing isn’t a joyous expression of the soul for Llewyn, as a supporting character suggests in the film, but instead an outlet for his weary spirit.

In his tired eyes and the way he keeps clutching at his coat to keep out the cold, Isaac makes Llewyn a sad and sympathetic character even when he’s angrily lashing out at the people around him.

Favorite Male Performances:

Oscar Isaac - Inside Llewyn Davis




I raved about Isaac above but this is a beautiful, haunting and career defining performance from him. Look no further for proof than the sad and restrained way he informs John Goodman’s character, Roland Turner, about why he separated from his former singing partner (and the way Isaac lets the reason for that separation seep into his face in every other scene in the film).

Christian Bale - Out Of The Furnace



In American Hustle, Bale gives the kind of big, showy ‘movie-stars-playing-dress-up’ style of performance that the Academy eats up with a spoon. He’s much better here, in a subtle and reserved portrayal of man whose life keeps slipping further and further down into the pits of despair. No screaming matches or big monologues to be found and none needed either; the way he undersells the line, “I miss you so much” to a former lover played by Zoe Saldana will completely break your heart.

Joaquin Phoenix - Her



Part of the reason why Her never descends into stupid parody or overly broad social commentary is because of Phoenix. He plays Theodore Twombly as a melancholy and lonely man but in a subtle and sympathetic way that makes him always relatable and never pathetic. A man falling in love with an operating system could certainly be played with the sledgehammer broadness of an SNL sketch, but Phoenix plays it straight and plays it small. We root for the romance rather than laugh at it because we feel for him and genuinely want him to find happiness.

Favorite Female Performances:


Adele Exarchopoulos - Blue is the Warmest Color



Apparently the director of Blue shot b-roll of his lead actress’ face as she napped, as she ate and as she rode the train to set. Not a lot of performers could make such footage compelling but Exarchopoulos has a truly mesmerizing screen presence. As I mentioned above, so much of the film plays out in close ups of her face and she effortlessly propels the movie forward with her nonverbal acting. A favorite scene of mine is when her character enters a lesbian bar for the first time and, without saying a thing, we can see her try to figure out if this is a place where she can feel at home; she feels out the space, skittishly walking through it and furtively glancing back and forth. Her body language says more in that scene, and so many others, than a million monologues could. Which, of course, isn’t to say she can’t sell dialogue driven scenes: there’s a conversation late in the film where her character meets up for a drink with a former lover and Exarchopoulos fills her character’s every word with such longing and such profound sadness that the exchange is completely heart rending.

Greta Gerwig - Frances Ha



Gerwig can be both effortlessly hilarious and dramatic, not only in the same film but sometimes in the same scene. Like with Joaquin Phoenix’s performance, she’s able to ground a character that, in lesser hands, could come off as pathetic or obnoxious.

Amy Adams - American Hustle



I didn’t care much for this movie but Adams is phenomenal in it. She is oftentimes as broad as the rest of cast but is always able to make her character feel real and grounded and vulnerable. She’s also able to compellingly play a character who is sometimes playing a character themselves, while, again, staying grounded and vulnerable and sympathetic. Adams also puts in a great turn as a supporting character in Her.

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