In the immortal words of Porky the Pig, ble, ble, ble, that's all folks! It is the final day of 2013, a year that brought us all of the fun that a year with a Syrian civil war, a bombing at a beloved Boston tradition, and a government shutdown can bring. Years like this are the reason that cinema's ability to provide an escape will never die. So we now happily bring you the climactic ending to all of our "End of 2013" lists, the PDC staff picks for the top 5 movies of 2013!
Mae, Rocky, Julian and John (Travis previously published his picks for the top 15 movies of 2013, which you can find here) each went back and painstakingly narrowed down their picks to the 5 movies from 2013 that were their overall favorites.
So without further adieu, here's Mae to start us off!
Mae's Picks
I wasn't a big fan of the first film, though I'm a huge fan of the books. So when Gary Ross bowed out as director, I didn't shed a tear and was more than excited when director Francis Lawrence jumped on-board. And when the film was finally released, there was really no doubt that Lawrence had just delivered a great movie that exceeded all expectations. Jennifer Lawrence and everyone else involved are at the top of their game. The film is intense, action-packed, and makes right everything that was wrong with the first film. What's not to love about that?
4. PRISONERS
What makes Prisoners such an outstanding film is its ability to portray great drama all while exploring the gray area of a person's morals when pushed to the brink. Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Paul Dano are exceptional in their roles. It's not a film you can watch more than once, because it's so emotionally exhausting, but it's intense and gripping and the end might piss you off just a little just because it ends on a cliff-hanger.
3. THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN
There hasn't been a film in recent memory that encompasses the trials of love and the pain of loss the way this film does. It uses bluegrass music as a backdrop for its story and isn't told in the traditional chronological way, which is part of what makes it unique. It captures a love story and then sends that love story through the wringer and asks the characters (and us) to survive it. The way the movie is told is mesmerizing, the music moving, and the performances so strong that you might need a tissue or two... or three by the end of the film.
You've probably heard me praise this film on the PDC podcast over and over, and even after watching the movie a second time, it's still deserving of praise. Steve McQueen gives a straightforward film that's full of powerful and oftentimes hard-to-watch moments of intensity. McQueen doesn't sugarcoat anything, bringing us the realities of slavery in a no- nonsense manner, and isn't scared to do so. The long takes, the emotion, and the realistic nature of the whole film leaves a huge impact and asks us to revisit one of the darkest parts of America's history with our eyes wide open.
If this film doesn't make it to the Oscar ballot, it would truly be a damn shame. Like my #2 pick, Short Term 12 deals with pretty serious topics and does it with absolute grace and dignity. The film explores the emotional impact foster care and abusive families can have on kids and teenagers. There are issues of trust, rape, neglect, physical and verbal abuse, and skeletons in the closet that the cast deal with. Brie Larson's performance is one layered with maturity and John Gallagher, Jr. is an outstanding pillar of support. The entire cast clicks so well together and bring warmth to an otherwise dramatic and emotionally-heavy film. Intense and strong story-telling at its best.
Rocky's Picks
I’ve loved Guillermo del Toro for a long time, but my affection practically doubled with Pacific Rim, his big-budget would-be blockbuster this summer. As I’ve already griped in my Best/Worst Trailers of 2013 list, too few of my American countrymen saw this movie, and I still can’t figure out why. You guys realize this wasn’t Transformers, right? And yet chances are when the next Michael Bay dreckfest hits theaters, you’ll be lining up to see that. Sigh. But I loved everything del Toro brought to Pacific Rim: his eye for detail in the design of the kaiju; an international mentality and cast; strong female and minority characters in Mako Mori (Ranko Kikuchi) and Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba); and, finally, a story that didn’t rely on egregious violence or the objectification of women to get its point across. Thanks for that, Guillermo.
4. THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES
“I’m still his father; I can give him stuff.” Possibly the most underrated movie of the year was Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond the Pines, which had a fantastic ensemble in Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Rose Byrne, and Dane DeHaan but got almost zero attention when it was released this past spring. Ugh, but it was such an affecting, powerful movie, with a story spanning generations and hitting on various issues about patriarchy, masculinity, and family. Don’t forget that Cianfrance did the same thing with his previous movie starring Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine, but I think The Place Beyond the Pines is the better film. That final scene with DeHaan? I’m getting teary just thinking about it.
“This is the fucking American Dream. This is my fucking dream, y’all!” Oh, James Franco! He was a revelation in Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers, but so was the film’s main foursome: Korine’s wife, Rachel; ABC Family star Ashley Benson; and former Disney princesses Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens. Together, they presented a range of teenage girl debauchery, from the naïve, idealistic one (Gomez as Faith) to the lascivious, bored one (Hudgens as Candy), and the film revolved around their simultaneously competitive-yet-loyal friendship. Bound to be a cult classic, Spring Breakers holds up to repeat viewings like few other films this year—and who could ever tire of Franco’s faux-gangster drawl? Certainly not me.
Is having a tie cheating? Because if so, I’m cheating. But oof, both of these movies hit me hard this year, in ways that I can’t imagine myself forgetting. The Past, the latest film from Iranian director Asghar Farhadi—who won the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar last year for the very deserving A Separation—is a slowly unfurling, character-driven drama, the kind of movie that parcels out information methodically and entrancingly. Much like A Separation, this isn’t a movie with good guys or bad guys—just people struggling to make a life for themselves, to protect their families, to find some semblance of happiness. Bérénice Bejo and Ali Mosaffa are unforgettable; the final scene with Tahar Rahim will break your heart. The Past will haunt you.
And The Great Gatsby will, too, even though it’s so opulent, so bombastic, so soaked in glitter and booze and couture. As I noted in my piece about the Best and Worst Onscreen Kisses of 2012, there’s something “rotten and lustful and idealistic” in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s original novel, and director Baz Luhrmann gets that right. He keeps a shocking amount of Fitzgerald’s original dialogue and text; presents Gatsby (a fantastic Leonardo DiCaprio) as the right kind of half-dangerous, half-pathetic bastard who can’t let the past go; and although his framing device of Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) telling the story to a psychiatrist isn’t the best, it’s ambitious. The Great Gatsby might have been one of the most unabashed films of the year, wearing all of its emotions on its sleeve. I respected it so much for that.
1. 12 YEARS A SLAVE
But I didn’t respect anything this year as much as 12 Years a Slave, the Steve McQueen-directed film that swept our Washington DC Area Film Critics Association awards this year. No, it’s not an easy film to watch. But it shouldn’t be, should it? You should watch it for the overwhelmingly great performances from Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong’o, Michael Fassbender, Paul Dano, Sarah Paulson, and even Brad Pitt, in his limited screentime; you should watch it for McQueen’s exceptionally long takes, how he lets his actors display their resolve and pain and determination on their faces; you should watch it for the sense that film can stand for something and mean something and do something. If 12 Years a Slave doesn’t make a strong showing at the Oscars this year, we riot. Or at least I do.
John's Picks
Now hold on before you start throwing rotten fruit. First of all this isn’t medieval Europe so you need to update your methods of taunting. Secondly, when I say top 5 it doesn't mean best 5 it means the 5 I enjoyed the most so, no, I’m not saying Snake Eyes should be up for a best actor Oscar (what a wonderful world that would be)
GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra was a pleasant surprise, there’s no doubt there, but it definitely left Joe fans wondering why there was no visual acuity with the cartoon…I mean, that was one of the coolest things about the cartoon, the way everything looked. Jon Chu said he was one of those fans and he certainly proved it with GI Joe: Retaliation. It certainly had some problems, like killing off the entire original cast except for Snake Eyes (Snake Eyes is to GI Joe what Daryl Dixon is to The Walking Dead) but this misstep was more than made up for. Bringing Dwayne Johnson on board as Roadblock and filing out the other two main spots with fan favorites Lady Jaye (Adrienne Palicki) and Flint (D.J. Cotrona) was the first show of good faith, but the reason it’s on my list can be narrowed down to two things, design and ninjas. Cobra Commander is back to the silver faced mastermind we know and love, the vehicles and weapons are completely outrageous and awesome, and best of all Cobra Commander’s evil plan is actually quite genius. I’m not going to try and explain the ninja aspect since there’s no way I’ll do it justice but if you watched any of the trailers you know that this all boils down to half of the movie being about Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow complete with some more history and possibly the most epic mountaintop ninja fight ever filmed.
If history has shown us anything it’s that remaking a beloved 80’s horror property does not end well. Needless to say remaking Sam Rami’s ultra low budget horror classic, possibly the most beloved cult horror film of the time, had to be a bad idea. What we get is a movie that (aside from the lack of Bruce Campbell) completely honors and improves on the original. Though most will give The Conjuring top honors for scariest movie of the year I have to go with Evil Dead, it’s terrifying, satisfying, and most importantly a hell of a lot of fun.
This really seems alien to me, I mean is there any other franchise that started getting better after it’s fourth installment? Finally someone in Hollywood figured out how to take what made something popular and adapt it properly to grow the story in a believable way. Now, of course I don’t mean that the events in the movie are believable, just that outlaw street racers would, conceivably, use their skills for bigger and better scores. Part 6, another movie on my top 5 with Dwayne Johnson, sees the gang finally on the edge of gaining their way back into the states with a clean slate but at the cost of going up against their most deadly opponent yet. The plot really doesn’t matter though as long as it’s somewhat fresh and includes the two most important things to the franchise; fast cars and the best action ensemble in decades (which makes the passing of co-lead Paul Walker all the more saddening).
2. THE GREAT GATSBY
If I had done a prediction list at the beginning of the year I most definitely would not have thought this would have made it. Decadent, superbly acted, and awesomely fun…the kind of movie that will make you want to put throwing a party like Gatsby on your bucket list. Honestly, I’m kind of amazed there wasn't a trend of Gatsby parties across college campuses after the movie came out. A soundtrack of hip-hop mixed with the flapper style of the roaring 20’s hits all of the right notes (pun intended) in a surprisingly compatible way. Then, on top of the sheer exhilaration of watching the party scenes , you have a perfectly filmed adaptation of the classic novel’s real story, the star-crossed relationship of Gatsby and Daisy. It will reinvigorate your love of reading the book in high school, or, in my case, make you regret opting for the Cliff’s notes.
If Julian reads this list, he may never talk to me again, but Man of Steel is one of those goose-bump inducing films that remind you of why you started loving movies as a kid. I know that people had problems with the movie but, in my opinion, there was literally nothing I could gripe about afterwards. Superman Returns showed us that the candy coated boy scout from Krypton defined by Christopher Reeve was no longer something with broad appeal. Zack Snyder gave Superman what he needed a (slight) edge. He needs to remain the moral compass for not just the Justice League but for mankind, so Batman dark was never an option nor should it have been. Oh, and the whole killing Zod thing. Here are two perfect reasons that doing so was the right choice. First, this is Superman’s first week on the job against what will be one of his toughest enemies, showing him do things out of character and/or make mistakes stands only to humanize him…something he sorely needed. Second, it serves as the moment when Superman definitively chooses Earth as his true home, saving a random family by killing the only remaining person from your planet in existence is a pretty bold statement of allegiance I would say. All of the magical, inspiring and visually astounding hallmarks of the original Superhero but with some new, fresh twists that work on every level…yup, that sounds exactly like the way to successfully reboot a classic film.
Final Note: The most confusing complaint that was popular among MoS detractors was the damage done to Metropolis and Superman’s apparent indifference to bystanders. First, it’s four people that are basically Gods fighting to the death in the middle of a crowded city…this is that realism that you've been asking for. Also, Superman wasn’t indifferent to bystanders, like I said earlier this was his first real week on the job and he had his hands extremely full. If anything I think it’s a great jumping point to explain a bit more about why he is so unwaveringly good other than hometown words of wisdom from Jonathan Kent.
Julian's Picks
Note: My list is the basically the dark side of the American Dream list. Since I haven’t seen all of the films I wanted to see this year, I decided to focus most of my list on the theme. There are no numbers here, just hits, like it's Bad Boy records in 1995.
I think I was into this film from the title alone. If America is about anything it’s about the hustle. That’s how you win, those are the some of the main beliefs taught in this country and this film loosely based on the Abscam scandal in the late '70s is a thesis on that. The highlight for this whole film is the many fantastic performances like the lauded one from JLaw, Amy Adams and Bale but also from the other ones like Renner and Louis C.K. This whole movie is such a complete piece of work; David O. Russell and his team deserve all the accolades for the choice of music, costuming, cinematography and even the hair/makeup. This is a highly re-watchable film; I wanted to make like 80 gifs from it while I was in the theater.
THE GREAT GATSBY
Balling. Pure and simple. It’s very rare that I read a fiction prose book before seeing a film but this one I decide to take that plunge and did so. Man I really loved this film. I thought it totally captured the book and that feeling of what we think about the '20s. The costuming in this is crazy and so is the use of music and 3D. I think that Gatsby might not get a lot of awards since it was released in the summer but I think its impact will be very great, more so than any other adaptation of the work. Heck I think you can see it now, it’s the reason we got Jay Z’s Magna Carta Holy Grail. Leo is about to be the next Scarface folks. Also, all the best film gifs of 2013 came from the trailer for this film.
Now I didn’t see this film in theaters, I went ahead and gave Amazon some money for that rental and man I don’t regret it one bit. I don’t know if I should’ve seen it in the theater by how much this film got me hype. This film is far from standard, not really linear and is more than most films out this year about a feeling and a look more than anything else. Only God Forgives was like looking at a video mood board with all original content. This weird journey of Baby Goose’s Julian and his quite crazy mother and their eventual run in with the Angel of Vengeance is like somehow watching Nicolas Winding Refn’s dreams. It’s not a film for everyone, it’s very violent and indulgent, but not many films got me as excited and inspired like this film.
SPRING BREAKERS
Look at my Shiiiiiiit! James Franco y’all. This movie. This movie folks. The tumblr pic king of 2013 films. Spring Breakers is very much the Kids of right now. Frightening for those with children and at a certain age, about right for those younger and for those in the age of the characters, I don’t know, because they are out there doing this craziness. Early on I called this film like a Southern rap song as a film (specifically screwed and chopped) and it very much is as it’s a mix of the good times of parties while also the dark times of the trap life. It’s interesting to see these people go down this hole, all for the pursuit of a never-ending good time.
This doesn’t fit the dark American Dream theme I said in my prologue but this film hit so many notes for me. It’s a martial art film that feels like an old kung fu classic film telling a story of famous people of the past that became myth, but it’s just set in a closer place in time. For me it perfectly meshes Wong Kar Wai’s usual style of story with very well done fight sequences and choreography. It’s beautiful and has a good sense of the actual philosophy on how each Grandmaster sees their art and the world. Zhang Ziyi has one of the best performances of the year; in the end you’ll be sitting there on YouTube watching 64 hands demos all day.
