Top Films of 2013

A Review

This passing year was among the best in recent memory. With the amount of films that I’ve seen, there could have been countless versions of how I would structure this list, but this is one I feel adequately expresses the year in review. Mind you, there are certain films that have been left out due to me just having a lack of time, and quite frankly I’d rather not watch a shaky pirated cam version of something simply to review it. That being said, there is a big possibility that Ron Howard’s Rush, The Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis, Jean-Mark Vallée’s Dallas Buyers Club and Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave all could have placed here. That is not to question the quality of what’s on this list, because quite frankly, each film conveys elements and themes that made this year so great. With those withstanding, here’s what I thought were 2013's best films.

Honourable Mentions: Don Jon, Captain Phillips, Escape From Tomorrow, Oblivion, Fast & Furious 6, Room 237

15. Blackfish

A captivating and disturbing look behind the scenes of SeaWorld that challenges society’s perspective on marine entertainment, and the complexities that these creatures inhibit.

14. Upstream Color

Shane Carruth stunningly balances experimental abstraction with the poetic idea of human relations through the journey of two characters connected by a mysterious source. It’s a film that warrants multiple viewings, and refuses to hold your hand through its narrative, but is so mystifyingly beautiful you won’t mind.

13. The World’s End

The hilarious conclusion to Edgar Wright’s Three Flavours Trilogy is tweaked with a fantastic ensemble cast, a deliciously campy sci-fi story, and exhilarating action sequences. Feeling less juvenile than Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz, the best comedy trilogy ever ends with a more grown-up and satisfying note.

12. Computer Chess

An 80's satire dipped in David Lynchian otherworldly logic. Computer Chess excels with its smart wit, tube camera aesthetics, and downright weirdness. Who knew a film about a weekend computer chess tournament could be so characteristically dark and humorous?

11. The Wolf Of Wall Street

It’s no surprise that Martin Scorsese’s raunchiest film is also his funniest. Make no mistake, this isn’t a comedy for the weak of heart, with so much sex, booze, quaaludes and cocaine that it’ll make your head spin. Scorsese celebrates the excess of Jordan Belfort’s often excessive career as a Wall Street party hound with three hours of cynicism, debauchery, and brashness. Oh, and this is the best leading role Leonardo Di Caprio has had since 2004's collaboration with Scorsese, The Aviator.

10. Blue Is The Warmest Color

I doubt you’ll find something that portrays human sexuality, relational issues, and adolescence as brutally honest as Blue Is The Warmest Color does. The degree of controversy surrounding the film is completely unwarranted, and once that’s put aside, what you have is a film that holds no bar in displaying the young relationship of two women. There’s a reason why Cannes gave the two actresses the Palme D’or in addition to the director .

9. Only God Forgives

Unrelentingly violent, Refn teams up with Ryan Gosling once again to deliver a strong crime film basked in minimalism. Flamboyant in its colour contrasts, Only God Forgives is among the better looking films of the year. Each shot is soaked through a barrage of colours and of course blood. Just like Refn’s last outing Drive, the film isn’t for everyone, but if you’re the type to absorb both arthouse and genre films (like me), this is for you.

8. Behind The Candelabra

Is it all that sacrilegious to place a made-for-TV movie on this list? No, especially when it’s the absolute best film from Stephen Soderbergh since 2000's Traffic. Boasting bravura performances from Michael Douglas and Matt Damon (not to mention a fantastic turn from Rob Lowe as a cosmetic surgeon), Behind The Candelabra is as glitzy as a black comedy about Liberace can get.

7. Prisoners

Denis Villeneuve goes Hollywood! After churning out Genie Award darlings Incendies and Polytechnique, the Canadian director hits it big with this bleak crime thriller. Gut-wrenchingly suspenseful, and filled with pessimistically beautiful imagery, Prisoners is a sure sign that Villeneuve is becoming an international tour de force.

6. Gravity

Technologically spellbinding, Gravity was one of the primary reasons for going to your local cinema as opposed to being shut indoors on Netflix. Curón pushes boundaries with this as-real-as-it-can-get sci-fi thriller. What’s amazing about the film is how gracefully claustrophobic it felt in terms of tension, which, as I know, is a completely ironic yet fitting way to describe something that takes place entirely in space.

5. Spring Breakers

A satirical social commentary, Spring Breakers is the result of mixing gunpowder with Fun-Dip. Insanely dark and colourfully outrageous, Korine uses an acting line-up used to draw in the very audience/subculture he decides to symbolically spit on. Add in a memorable performance from James Franco, and you got yourself one hell of a cinematic cocktail.

4. American Hustle

Christian Bale’s driving performance as hustler Irving Rosenfeld is the centrepiece in this screwball ensemble. Working on the foundations of classic American crime films, David O. Russell shamelessly copies techniques from other directors’ works, which brings Irving’s question “Whose the master, the painter or the forger?” into even greater context within the grand scheme of filmmaking. And I love it for that.

3. Pacific Rim

Guillermo Del Toro’s pastiched love letter to Japanese kaiju films and mecha anime works so well because it takes the grandeur found in blockbusters and places some heart and soul into it. Pacific Rim makes no effort to hide its influences, but when a giant robot is dragging a cargo ship like a battle axe across the floor of a neon dripped Shanghai, there should be no complaints.

2. Her

Dissecting the connection society has with technology and each other, Spike Jonze’s Her analyzes the triumphs and faults of these relationships and the complications that arise. It touchingly deals with loss, love and the transcendence of an emerging industry that has become a transfixed part of us. It’s a film that both defines a current generation and proposes a future one. From being gorgeously shot, to boasting a great soundtrack from Arcade Fire, to containing strong performances from Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams and Scarlett Johansson, the film hits on all fronts. Her provokes questions that are increasingly becoming more and more relevant to us, and does it with sharpened humour and an expressively sweet story.

1. The Act Of Killing

Films have a way to emotionally involve their audience upon finishing. Whether that impression is a quick negative dismissal, sparking an hour long conversation at a café, or a resultant Facebook status, films accomplish emotional goals, regardless if they actually live up to it or not. It’s one of the reasons why I became so invested in this industry. Upon completing Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act Of Killing, a poignant silence ushered through me as I stared at the credits being rolled. It was then that it occurred to me, of all the film’s released in 2013, the one that hit hardest at achieving this emotional goal, was this one. I often found myself being utterly mesmerized and equally disgusted. Oppenheimer’s methods of allowing militant gangsters who partook in the 1965-66 Indonesian massacres act out their killings, serve as a surreal look into the minds of these terrifying individuals. Not to mention giving them a visual expository for their actions, in hope to shed a new perspective on a bloody history. You’ll hardly blink, completely hypnotized at the accounts of Oppenheimer’s subjects, who will stare right back at you through the camera as they laugh and dance about mass murder.