Runners-Up List (11-20, alphabetical order):
The Act of Killing
Before Midnight
Blue Jasmine
The Conjuring
Frozen
Fruitvale Station
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Mud
Rush
The Way Way Back
10. The Spectacular Now
A great coming-of-age that has a few cliched characters but avoids the predictable outcomes. It is basically an almost identifiable outlook of what happens in the senior year of high school. Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley create good chemistry. I can't believe Teller gave a great performance after his stinkers Project X and 21 and Over.
9. Frances Ha
Greta Gerwig gives a fantastic and nuanced performance of a woman who is struggling to live in New York and find a job, purpose in life and self-explanation of why she is there in New York to begin with. This is Noah Baumbach's first great movie that I really have enjoyed using the black and white to accentuate New York as a lonely state of happiness and sadness in the real world.
8. American Hustle
I may have praised it a little too much when I said it was David O'Russell's best work despite The Fighter being one hell of a movie. But, frankly, I honestly did enjoy this movie as a crime film that was surprisingly watchable. The movie is really driven with many great performances, especially Jennifer Lawrence's.
7. Nebraska
This movie is so beautiful in black and white and the cinematography from Phedon Papamichael captures the simplicity of natural beauty. No matter how simplistic this movie is, it is Bruce Dern's performance that really anchors the movie. We sense his pain, moodiness, sadness, and at times, humor in the screen. This is a sometimes melancholy, but funny father-and-son road movie that is well worth watching. It is another great addition to Alexander Payne's filmography.
6. The Wolf of Wall Street
This was one of the most insane and craziest movies I have ever seen alongside A Clockwork Orange, Fight Club and other movies. But, I have to say that this is one of the most ambitious movies of the year and got to give it to legendary director Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio of tackling this subject matter with throwing everything on the screen. This movie is basically an evil twin of Goodfellas: a portrait of Wall Street scumbags stealing clients' money to enjoy the fulfillment of the hedonistic lifestyle of drugs and sex in a decadent era.
5. Inside Llewyn Davis
This is another great addition to the Coen brothers' impressive filmography. It is a movie that is so is rich and natural in the setting of the 1960s in its folk lifestyle. Also, we witness a struggling musician trying to decide what to do in his future with his talents. It is filled with great performances by Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, and Justin Timberlake and has a pretty good soundtrack.
4. Captain Phillips
This is certainly one of Tom Hanks' best performances especially in the last scene where he is suffering from shock and is traumatized. Paul Greengrass, one of my favorite directors, is the only director who can make some shaky camera movements work with tension and style and it is germain to the true story of Captain Phillips being taken hostage by Somali pirates during the Maersk Alabama hijacking of 2009. Also, Barkhad Abdi gives a quiet and captivating performance as the scary-looking leader, Muse.
3. Her
Spike Jonze's brilliant movie about a relationship between a lonely man and his OS named Samantha makes you smile, but also makes you think about how we are doing in this age of technology and where we are heading towards the future. Joaquin Phoenix is amazing in this role making us believe what he has put himself into in terms of his impending divorce and life. Scarlett Johansson's voiceover performance as Samantha really turned this movie into an unconventional romantic odyssey of love and despair. This is a terrific piece of original work.
2. Gravity
A spectacular masterpiece from the brilliant director Alfonso Cuaron, who is known for works such as Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, A Little Princess & Y Tu Mama Tambien. This tense and visually edifying achievement has to go down as one of the most important movies of science fiction because of what Cuaron and his son Jonas had crafted. I still don't know how they did it but do I really want to know? Sandra Bullock gave her best performance ever (even better than her Oscar role in the Blind Side) and George Clooney is well suited as the seasoned veteran.
The best movie of 2013 is....
1. 12 Years a Slave
I think this movie, Gravity, and Her were more than great. They were brilliant and important movies. This movie brutally and about accurately depicts the cruel world of slavery based on the eyes of Solomon Northup who wrote the true novel. He was a free man tricked by a few white "circus owners" and was sold into slavery. Director Steve McQueen has created a honest movie about a man's journey not deserving the punishment when working the plantations, but he could not speak up because of the laws. This haunting experience of treating the slaves miserably reminded me of another brilliant and haunting film, Schindler's List, where the Nazis treated the Jews miserably. Chiwetel Ejiofor deserves the Best Actor award in my opinion in a riveting performance and Michael Fassbender is equally up to the task. Lupita N'yongo, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt, Alfre Woodard are all fantastic. Even, Hans Zimmer's score is truly enchanting. A brilliant piece of filmmaking.
That's that. Happy New Year! And let's see what is in store for 2014...
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