I watched more films in 2013 than I did in 2012, but fewer stayed with me in any meaningful way. So, here are my top 5 and my bottom 3.
5. The Wolf of Wall Street
I'm still of two minds about "The Wolf of Wall Street." I can't deny how much I enjoyed the film. Martin Scorsese communicates story better than almost anyone in the business, and this film is a masterclass on why. Everything sparkles, feels effortless. Diversions from the story to tell, for instance, the origin of a certain type of drug or financial scheme would feel indulgent in a lesser film, but fit perfectly here. It's an immense moviegoing experience.
At the same time, it's a hard movie to watch with the idea that this is a biopic. I understand much of it is fictionalized, but still, the man in question wrote a memoir in which he admits to his behavior in the film, and worse. He's still failed to pay restitution to those whose lives he ruined. And while Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio are far from glorifying his behavior, they've still contributed to his legend. The fact that “The Wolf of Wall Street” exists, that this asshole's story attracted two amazing talents, that it's such a masterfully made film, certainly makes it all the darker, all the more a guilty pleasure.
4. Oblivion
"Oblivion" isn't particularly great. I'll probably never watch it again. But it had a certain amount of classical science-fiction beauty to it that I've found lacking in the genre for the last few years. Militarism and gritty "realism" have been the name of the game for awhile in modern sci-fi, and I'm exhausted with it.“Oblivion” has a lousy story, with cliche action beats and mediocre direction, but it also has floating skyhouses, giant hydroprocessing machines, a massive alien space pyramid, clones and a gonzo sci-fi twist that breaks the barrier between reasonable and absurd without a second thought. "Oblivion" is the kind of movie with concepts and ideas beyond cool gun toys and video game tie-ins. Not perfect, but I haven't stopped thinking about it.
3. The World's End
I saw “The World's End” while at San Diego Comic Con this year. I waited in line for 12 hours to see the United States premiere. I might be biased, but even with that in mind, it's still baffling to me how much I adore it. Simon Pegg plays Gary King, the role of his career, a recovering drug addict who attempts to reunite his high school friends for a pub crawl they never managed to complete during their youth. The other four men have already moved on, found jobs and families and meaning beyond who they were at 18. King has to face his own inner demons, keep his friends together… and also face an alien invasion that promises to end the world. Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost, whose previous movies "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" are already genre classics, hit another one out of the park. Although the hype around “The World's End” promised the trio's foray into science-fiction, the sci-fi is just a nice layer on top of a fantastic story about friendship. It warms the heart.
2. Inside Llewyn Davis
I really like folk music, so "Inside Llewyn Davis,” on the strength of its soundtrack alone, probably would've made my top five. But it's a damn fine film, too. Llewyn is a starving artist musician with a massive ego who refuses help and shirks responsibilities at all opportunities. He doesn't think ahead, acts purely on impulse. While he's talented, he has none of the skills required to market himself and finds himself trapped in an endless cycle of friend's couches and failed career moves. It doesn’t sound like a good film, but the Coen Brothers are, as ever, reliably clever in their storytelling, humor and casting. It's a powerful, while understated, story about the traps that await at the intersection of living life and creating art.
1. Only God Forgives
Fellow Yapper Sam Watermeier and I hashed out my top 10 on New Year's Eve, and he told me this was a ballsy choice for #1. To me, there's nothing else that quite compared. It's a strange, slow death-poem about masculinity, violence and justice. Refn likes to describe his filmmaking process as exploring fetish and, in doing so, causing his audience to connect with the movie and feel something. I felt something. You can find my full review here.
Bottom 3:
American Hustle “American Hustle” is a great 90 minute movie extended far beyond its running time. It's a caper at heart, and capers have a pretty set structure, which “Hustle” ultimately follows after spending an extra hour in the second act pretending it won't. At a certain point, you start to wonder if it will ever end, if the ending could necessitate everything leading up to it. Clue: It doesn't. Throw in a very odd role for Jennifer Lawrence, woefully miscast as a housewife, and you've got a mess of a movie without much to recommend it..
The Counselor Of all the movies I saw in 2013, few were as exciting to me in concept as “The Counselor.” Written by a novelist I admire? Directed by a famous artist in need of redemption for a lousy last decade? Starring both up-and-coming and established stars? How could it go wrong?
Oh, let me name the ways. Ridley Scott's direction is too straightforward for Cormac McCarthy's highly metaphor-driven approach to language. The casting is bizarrely off-center. It loses touch with its story midway through. My favorite scene to discuss is the infamous "Cameron Diaz masturbates on a car” moment, which honestly reads well on paper but comes across as laughably stupid on screen. And though Diaz is woefully miscast as the film's conniving femme fatale, it isn't entirely her fault that the scene falls flat. It's just a bad scene in a bad movie.
Elysium I actually walked out of “Elysium” partway through the film to text my girlfriend and tell her how awful it was. I'm still in a state of shock. The trailers looked boring to me, but they didn't give the impression that “Elysium” was going to be downright awful. From the direction of the boring action scenes to the muddled allegorical foundation of the story, it was a chore to watch.