Sam's Top 10 Films of 2013
2013 was a fun, enriching year at the movies, a year that allowed us to have our popcorn and eat it, too. Of course, this list could change tomorrow, but here's what my heart is now telling me were the year's best films.
10. "Only God Forgives"
"I'm more interested in the need for expression than the result of it." So said writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn before he screened this film at Indiana University earlier this year. You can sense Refn’s need to express himself as "Only God Forgives" unfolds like an act of catharsis — a purging of all his thoughts on family and violence. Ryan Gosling stars as a boxing manager/drug dealer whose brother is murdered. His oppressive mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) orders him to exact revenge upon the man who killed her first-born son. But Gosling wrestles with avenging a man whose death was justified. (His brother dies at the hands of the father whose daughter he raped and killed.) Refn beautifully visualizes the strangeness of this scenario, bathing Gosling in dreamy pink and blue light. He also underscores the moral murkiness of the plot with shots of Gosling entering dark, Kubrickian corridors. The film itself feels like a trip through one of those hypnotic hallways.
9. "Carrie" Based on Stephen King’s classic tale of a telekinetic teenager, this version of “Carrie” is a mesmerizing funhouse mirror of high school angst and aggression. The film’s poignance is a large credit to its star. With her simultaneous grace and ferocity, Chloë Grace Moretz engagingly embodies the film’s tone. Along with director Kimberly Peirce, she illuminates the humanity beneath the horror. 2013 has been a banner year for the horror genre. With “V/H/S/2,” “The Conjuring,” “You’re Next,” and “Insidious: Chapter 2” under its belt, this year has mirrored the magic of the late-’70s, early-to-mid-’80s era of horror. “Carrie” is not only worthy of that list; it also ranks among the best coming-of-age dramas in recent memory, including “The Spectacular Now” and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.”
8. "Out of the Furnace" With its rich Rust Belt setting and gritty, complex characters, "Out of the Furnace" offers a tense, deeply atmospheric experience. Christian Bale stars as a Pennsylvania steel-mill worker driven to extremes when his jarhead brother (Casey Affleck) gets mixed up with a monstrous crime boss (Woody Harrelson). Evocative of a great '70s crime thriller, "Out of the Furnace" is utterly absorbing.
7. "Blackfish" “Blackfish” is more than a muckraking indictment of SeaWorld. It’s also a powerful prison drama. This documentary takes a scary yet sympathetic look at one inmate driven to the edge. That prisoner is a 12,000-pound killer whale that lived up to its name, fatally injuring two SeaWorld trainers and one visitor over the course of its 20-plus years at the park. “Blackfish” is the kind of film that proves truth is stranger than fiction and that creatures on Earth can be just as spellbinding and otherworldly as any CG creation.
6. "Gravity" An intense sci-fi thriller whose characters are as arresting as its visuals — and that's saying a lot because its visuals are pretty stunning. Sandra Bullock stars as a medical engineer lost in space and a woman whose troubled life on Earth haunts her even as she hovers miles above it. Masterfully directed by Alfonso Cuarón, "Gravity" is poignant and hypnotic.
5. "Before Midnight" The third film in Richard Linklater's romance trilogy, "Before Midnight" finds Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) examining their on-off relationship during a vacation in Greece. In the hands of Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy, the dialogue exchanges are like magic acts — utterly dazzling and emotionally complex.
4. "V/H/S/2" "V/H/S/2" is pure cinema — a wild, cathartic funhouse ride. This found-footage horror anthology offers an embarrassment of riches, from a daytrip through the eyes of a zombie to a look inside a deadly cult compound and much more. Each segment is better than the last, and all of them evoke an exhilarating fly-on-the-wall sense of discovery. Through its story of a couple that stumbles upon a collection of gruesome video tapes, "V/H/S/2" addresses our culture's collective morbid curiosity, which is all the more prevalent in this age where we can find almost anything online.
3. "Dallas Buyers Club"
Right from the beginning, this film establishes a rich, ominous atmosphere in which everyone seems vulnerable. That potent sense of dread gives way to cautious optimism as Matthew McConaughey's rodeo cowboy Ron Woodroof smuggles unapproved medication from all over the world to beat his 30-day death sentence from AIDS. Anchored by McConaughey's magnetic performance, "Dallas Buyers Club" is harrowing yet hopeful and altogether outstanding.
2. "The Wolf of Wall Street"
Martin Scorsese's most ferocious, darkly exhilarating film yet. As hilarious as it is thrilling, this sprawling tragicomedy is a breathless rush of a movie. As a slick, seamy stockbroker, Leonardo DiCaprio is the perfect vessel for Scorsese's fever-dream vision of the financial world. Ranking right up alongside "GoodFellas" and "Casino," this film is scary yet seductive, much like the Wolf himself.
1. "Prisoners"
Any film, regardless of genre, should evoke a moment-to-moment sense of mystery and discovery. In that regard, no other 2013 film was as wholly intriguing as “Prisoners.” It ranks high among the number of great thrillers this year, but it feels like so much more than a thriller. Writer Aaron Guzikowski and director Denis Villeneuve turn this tale of two missing girls into what feels like a work of dark magic, sucking viewers down a rabbit hole leading to snakes, mazes, and moral murk. It leaves you scared yet giddy with anticipation at whatever nightmarish situation is around the corner.