My Favourite Films of 2013

My biggest regret of 2013, aside from effectively giving up writing in the 2^nd half of the year, was the fact that I didn’t get to the cinema anywhere near as often as I would have liked. At the beginning of December my thoughts, as they often do, turned to a contemplation of the best films that I had seen over the past 12 months (well, 11 at that time) and I pretty much drew a complete blank.

Needless to say, this sent me into a bit of a panic. What had I being doing with my life? Had I being enjoying the great outdoors and the company of fellow human beings a bit too much? Yes, obviously I had.

I was determined to correct this monumental error in decision making and life wasting by spending as much time as I could over the next 31 days in a dark room staring at pictures on a screen. I wasn’t really concerned with the size of the screen (or the room for that matter) or if their were people in that room with me, what concerned me was the plethora of films I had to watch before 2014. How did I go? Not too bad actually. I think I managed to watch enough to write this list without it being completely pointless.

And then there is the fact that regardless of whether or not you agree with my choices here, whether or not you think I saw enough films to make any sort of judgment such as this and whether or not anyone actually reads this thing, at least I’m writing again.

Happy New Year everyone, if I could give you one piece of advice to carry into the New Year it would be this: watch as many films as you can.

 1.    Much Ado About Nothing

I wasn’t sure if this Shakespeare adaptation from nerd-god Joss Whedon actually qualified as a 2013 film because it was first screened in 2012 and seemed to take forever to get any sort of release. Then I realised that it is my list, I saw it in 2013 and nobody actually cares.

Shot during a 2 week break between principle photography and editing on The Avengers, Much Ado features beautiful black and white photography that captures some wonderful physical acting and brilliantly idiosyncratic line readings of Whedon’s original (but not too original) adaptation of the classic Shakespeare tragi-comic romance.

It won’t be to everyone’s tastes but if you’re a fan of modernised Shakespeare adapts that stay true to the source with a novel approach (think Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet) you’ll enjoy this.

This was my most refreshing film of the year.

 2.    World War Z

Like you, I wasn’t expecting much out of this Brad Pitt vehicle based on the zombie novel of the same name; the trailer was unenticing and, to me, it looked as if Mr.Pitt had returned to his bland, charisma vacuum leading-man days (see: Troy etc.). For some reason though, possibly after seeing Marc Foster’s name in the director chair, I decided to give it a go late one night and I was not disappointed.

WWZ actually plays as a modern action thriller in the Bourne trilogy mold, albeit without as many fistfights.  It was cleverer than I though it would be, made fantastic use of its exotic locales and Brad Pitt was more than capable as the lead. Even if you’re zombied out from The Walking Dead and countless terrible _____ of the Dead sequels of recent years, this is one that you should have a look at.

This was my most surprising film of the year.

 3.    The World’s End

Here’s a confession for you, I did not immediately warm to the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg/Nick Frost trifecta in the same way that a lot of people did. I thought Shaun of the Dead was occasionally funny, Simon Pegg was a bit of a loser and Nick Frost was a dick.

I was wrong.

After watching Hot Fuzz and rewatching Shaun I finally realised what these guys were all about. This final film in the so-called ‘Three flavours Cornetto’ trilogy I, for the first 2 acts at least, the perfect realization of the Wright/Pegg/Frost philosophy: stick by your mates through thick and thin even if thick and thin means hilariously affectionate homages of seriously unlikely genre films.  The final act goes a bit pear shaped as it looks as if they couldn’t think of where the story should go but still, as a whole it’s a wonderful experience.

This was my most emotionally gratifying film of the year.

 4.    Drinking Buddies

Every year their seems to be that one film that doesn’t try to do too much, doesn’t try to be more than it is capable of being and doesn’t ask anything more of the audience than to get caught up in the world of some likeable but flawed characters for the next 90 minutes. That film in 2013 was Drinking Buddies.

There is nothing grand about this film; there are no special effects, no gags and no grandstanding actor moments. This is simply a small film about group of friends who enjoy brewing and drinking beer together, and haven’t quite figured out the twin mysteries of life and love just yet. It’s feel good without being schmaltzy and humorous because of its humanity.

This was my most relatable film of the year.

 5.    Cloud Atlas

The theme of this list so far seems to be humans relating to humans, how difficult and/or rewarding this can be and just how important it is whether you are fleeing from zombies, battling aliens or getting drunk. The film to tackle these ideas most directly and on the grandest scale is this time-spanning story of interconnected souls from author David Mitchell and filmmakers Tom Twyker, Andy & Lana. Wachowski.

It took me three sittings to get through the film, not because it was bring but rather, as a fan of the book, it took me a while to get used to the different narrative structure used by the filmmakers.

Visually the film is never less than stunning and all of the actors do a brilliant job with multiple characters. The story itself, like many big idea novels, has to be finished before you really get an idea of what you’ve just experienced. Once you get to the end and let it wash over you though you will be entranced and ready to watch it all over again

This was my big ideas film of the year.

 6.    Django Unchained

More than I few people asked what was wrong with me when I didn’t immediately proclaim my love for this film way back in January after my first viewing. I liked it but didn’t love it but what a lot of people heard was I hate it. That wasn’t fair but perhaps neither was my initial reaction to Django.

I still think it doesn’t work as well as Inglourious Basterds even if I can’t quite put my finger on why. I don’t think it is as funny as that film and I think there are a lot more forced ‘cool’ moments in this than in previous Tarantino films where the ‘cool’ was so effortless.

Chrstoph Waltz definitely deserved his supporting Actor Oscar even if he should have probably shared it with Leo and everyone else is fine. I actually can’t wait to see it again, no doubt there was a lot of quotable dialogue I missed or forgot and the soundtrack was, of course, amazing in that distinctive Tarantino way.

This was my largely overrated but personally underrated film of the year.

 7.    Prisoners

I started watching Prisoners at about ten minutes to midnight towards just the other night, less than fully enthused and figuring I would fall asleep about 2o minutes in. When I glanced at the running time, two and a half hours no less, I seriously considered changing my mind and watching another episode of Parks and Recreation.

I’m glad I didn’t.

Prisoners somehow manages to narrowly skirt genre clichés even if it doesn’t really bring anything new to the table. The cinematography is stark but effective as is the score and the performances range from satisfyingly creepy to the believably distraught. Hugh Jackman gets the shouty, showy role and does a fine job losing his shit whilst Jake Gyllenhaal musters all the charisma he can to give life to his interesting but one-dimensional detective.

This was my just different enough film of the year.

 8.    This is the End

Whilst everyone else was hating on this film before it had been released I was quietly optimistic. As a fan of the somehow endearing James Franco/Seth Rogen bromance from Pineapple Express I felt like this could pick up where that film (with Jay Baruchel in the Franco part) left off thematically. What I mean by this is, I have nothing against stoner comedy/<insert any other Hollywood genre here> mash-ups.

This is the End fell just on the right side of self-indulgence. It was obvious that more than a few famous faces from the current crop of ‘hot young things’ comedians were going to pop up and they did so in pleasingly self-deprecating ways. Danny McBride once again stole the show with his completely over-the-top crudeness and the sci-fi elements were a little odd but ultimately worked.

This was my guilty but not really guilty at all comedy of film the year.

9.    Stoker 

I had been anticipating this film for almost 12 months before I finally got around to watching it just before the end of 2013. I wasn’t disappointed. The trailer, unlike a lot of trailers these days was spot on in terms of setting the mood without giving away too much and what we got, at least as far as I’m concerned, was just what I was hoping for.

Nicole Kidman is always better in cold, morally ambiguous roles than she is in anything else and fellow Aussie Mia Wasikowska more than matched her beat for beat. I personally think that Matthew Goode is thoroughly underrated and he again delivered the sort of understatedly charismatic turn he is so capable of, this time with a delicious dose of malevolence just (barely) bubbling under the surface.

The only problem with this eery yet endearing film was just how to sell it. Part gothic thriller, part coming-of-age drama and a whole lot besides, there really is no point trying to describe it, better just watch it.

This was my defied categorisation film of the year.

10. The Film(s) I Haven’t Seen Yet

That’s right, I’m cheating. As always there were a number of films I really wanted to see but just didn’t. Not because I didn’t have time (well, maybe that was part of it) but because either (a) I was distracted and/or lazy or (b) they hadn’t been released (or had only been showing for a short period of time) in Australia when I started writing this.

So here is the rather substantial list of films I should of seen but haven’t, anyone one of which is probably capable of filling the 10^th and final spot on my completely arbitrarily limited list of films of the year. My aim is for this list – the films I didn’t get a chance to see – is a lot shorter this time next year.

• American Hustle
• The Kings of Summer
• Mud
• Gravity
• Blue Jasmine
• Frances Ha
• Short Term 12
• Before Midnight
• Blue is the Warmest Colour

And, finally, what is a best of film list without a small worst of film list tacked onto the end? Here are my least favourite films of 2013, they seem to have a few things in common:

• Star Trek Into Darkness
• Man of Steel
• Iron Man 3
• The Hangover Part III
• Room 237