The 2013 Film Retrospective
By all accounts, supported by fans and critics alike, 2013 has been a terrific year of film. Daring, innovative movies have challenged, spellbound, enamoured, floored, and even tickled. Fantasies were indeed full of wonder, blockbusters were truly spectacular, and the surety and power of even the smallest of films was unparalleled.
A ‘Best Of’ list can easily go all the way to 30, and across the board a top ten is (or at least should be), hard to argue with. So let’s look back on the year that was, recognize the best, the would-be great, and the amazingly awful.
The 2013 Top 13 Best Movies
- 12 Years a Slave
- Inside Llewyn Davis
- Captain Phillips
- Her
- Before Midnight
- Mud
- Way, Way Back
- Drinking Buddies
- Fruitvale Station
- Frozen
- All is Lost
- Love is All You Need
- In A World…
Top Three Movies that Were Two-Thirds Great
1. The Call
Simple and savvy, this thriller was taut and tense throughout, as a kidnapped Abigail Breslin corresponded with a 911 operator Halle Berry while trapped in the trunk of the car. The finale, however, took the movie completely off the rails with its contrivances, needless sexualization, and a hokey ending.
2. The Place Beyond the Pines
Very ambitious and superbly acted, this triptych of stories loses steam from one to the next. Gosling’s story was fascinating, Cooper’s was familiar yet still potent, while the finale, the coming-of-age tale that connects everything, was tedious and clichéd.
3. Thanks for Sharing
Mark Ruffalo and Tim Robbins had the tender, honest, insightful storylines in this dramedy about sex addiction, but the thread of Josh Gad, who is indeed an immense talent, was sophomoric, distracting, and completely frivolous, detracting from what could be a great film.
Top Three Movies that Were One-Third Great
1. World War Z
What a tense, terrifying, and intimate opening! Too bad the rest of the movie peters off, giving way to generic action and a boring, silly finale.
2. Man of Steel
There is way too much going on here, and it all moves at different paces. The opening is Avatar and the ending is Transformers, but in the middle there is a genuine, meaningful story involving Clark Kent growing up with his adoptive parents in Kansas.
3. Now You See Me
The opening is pretty slick, and the star-power makes it compelling. Unfortunately, it turns into a ridiculous chase movie that not only reveals every illusion (the mystery is gone), but features an ending that is laughable.
Bad Movies with Misleading Titles
1. InAPPropriate Comedy – Not funny.
2. I’m So Excited – Not exciting.
3. The Right Kind of Wrong – All kinds of wrong.
4. 2 Gun – Way more than just two.
5. The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghost of Georgia – Not how geography works.
6. The Last Exorcism Part II – You can’t make a sequel if ‘Last’ is in the title (I hope there is not a Last Vegas 2…)
Lastly, an admission: Being a critic is a great job, but try as one might, some movies get a harder or easier look once in a while depending on any number of outside or inside factors. With that, there are some slight alterations, looking back on the year.
Three Movies Slightly Better than I First Thought
1. The Call
2. The Place Beyond the Pines
3. 42
Three Movies Slightly Worse than I First Thought
1. Kick-Ass 2
2. Gangster Squad
3. Machete Kills
Three Movies Just as Bad as I First Thought:
1. After Earth
2. The Purge
3. Walking with Dinosaurs
