Lawrence Uncut: My Top 10 Favourite Movies of 2013

Better late than never:

So yea, I know that 2013 is long gone by now, but I still really want to make one of these lists. I did not get to review every good movie I saw last year, and even though I will not get the chance to go into very great detail about them, I still feel as if writing a top 10 list will give me the opportunity to express my thoughts on a lot of really good films, that definitely deserve to be talked about. As with everything else I write here on my blog, this top 10 will be extremely subjective and personal, and it will probably piss a lot of people off as a result thereof. It is also important to keep in mind that I did not get to watch every single movie from 2013, so if you wonder who titles such as Frances Ha, Frozen, Lone Survivor, Osage: Orange County, Philomena, The Wind Rises and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug are not anywhere to be found on the list, it is simply because I have not seen them yet. However, as an added bonus to those who read the entire list, I have included a list of honorable mentions at the bottom of this post, which contains the movies that I wish could make it to the list, but just did not make the final cut. With all that boring stuff out of the way, I think it is about time we get into my top 10 favorite movies of 2013.

#10 - The spectacular now

To start off the list, we have James Pensoldt's adaption of the writers of 500 Days of Summer's third screenplay. Not only is this film one of the best teen romances of 2013 in my opinion, but also one of the most realistic and relatable romantic movies that I have seen for a long time. I vividly remember watching this film a cold Wednesday afternoon whilst feeling a little sick, and being in the fragile state that I was, this film's honest and emotionally draining story swept me off my feet even more than 500 Days of Summer did. Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley play the two main characters in this indie coming of age high school love story, and both of them deliver the performances of their careers in my opinion, especially Woodley, who I am sure has a long and bright acting career ahead of her. Being at a very similar point in my own life as the two main characters are in this film, I felt a strong connection to both of their characters, and after the film had ended, I just sat still and stared at the screen with wet eyes for more than ten minutes. The Spectacular Now is one of the best romances of 2013 for sure.

#9 - Nebraska

Nebraska is director Alexander Payne's latest movie, and even though I personally think that The Descendants is his best movie yet, Nebraska is one of the funniest, most engaging and most well created movies I saw in 2013. In this film, Bruce Dern plays a drunken old man by the name of Woody, who struggles with a lot of regret over what he has and has not achieved throughout his life. As he embarks on a road trip to his home town along with his youngest son, played brilliantly by Will Forte, Woody gets a chance to fix some of the broken relationships and settle some of the disputes that have been troubling him for many years. Shot beautifully in black and white, Nebraska is one of the most personal movies I saw in 2013, and I almost felt as if I could reach out and tough its many-layered characters whilst watching the film. Dern is brilliant in this film, and so is his wife played by June Squibb, who delivers one of the funniest performances of the year. Please, do not let the black and white fool you, because Nebraska is one of the most strangely heartwarming and colorful movies of 2013. 

#8 - Fruitvale Station

This one is a true gutwrencher. As I said in my review of the film, Fruitvale Station is based on the real life shooting of 22-year-old Oscar Grant on the last day of 2008, and it is one of the most harrowing films of 2013 for sure. The amount of emotional attachment I felt towards this individual, no matter how many wrong choices he might have made throughout his life, was stronger than almost any other connection I felt towards a film character from last year. This is largely due to newcomer  Michael Jordan's phenomenal performance and first time director Ryan Coogler's extraordinary directional effort, and I absolutely cannot wait to see what the two of them come up with next. The most impressive thing about this film, is the fact that Coogler managed to make a very open minded and neutral film based off of a story that very well could have turned into an extremely one-sided affair, which is a feat that a lot of more established Hollywood directors do not always manage to pull off. You can read my review of Fruitvale Station here.

#7 - Inside Llewyn Davis

In my opinion, Ethan and Joel Coen are the two of the best living screenwriters, if not the very best, as well as two of the most reliable directors who still make movies. These two incredible filmmakers just keep on surprising me with their darkly funny, strangely poetic and flawlessly crafted films over and over again, and the way I see it, Inside Llewyn Davis is their best movies since No Country for Old Men. It might not be all the way up there with No Country, Fargo and The Big Lebowsky, but it is still one of the most catchy and melancholically entertaining films of 2013. I usually never listen to music on my own and do not fancy myself a music enthusiast, so the fact that I have listened to all the songs from this movie almost every day for more than a month, should tell you something about how much I loved watching it. The Death of Queen Jane and Please Mr. Kennedy, although very different in tempo and subject matter, are two of the best movie soundtracks I have heard since Ben Nichols' Shelter from the movie Take Shelter, and are just two of many reasons as to why I cannot wait to revisit Inside Llewyn Davis on BluRay. 

#6 - The Way Way Back

The Way Way Back is one of those movies that you can watch over and over again and never get bored of. Not only is it the funniest movie from 2013 in my opinion, but it is also one of the most heartwarming, loving and honest films I have seen in quite some time. It focuses on a young awkward teenager by the name of Duncan, who is having the worst summer of his life in his douchy stepdad's beach house. Duncan eventually meets Sam Rockwell's character and starts hanging out with him in a water park nearby, which is where he starts learning what growing up, being yourself and falling in love really means. The Way Way Back truly is one of the sweetest, funniest and most loving films I have seen for as long as I can remember, and it captures the essence of teenage mystery, awkwardness and excitement better than most movies in its genre. In my opinion, Sam Rockwell also delivers one the best performances of the year in this film, and even just thinking about his monologue about the reason as to why the water park was founded still cracks me up even today. In short; please, for the sake of your inner child, watch this movie.

 #5 - Mud

As far as I am aware, 36-year-old writer/director Jeff Nichols is going to be remembered as one of the very finest filmmakers from our generation. Shotgun Stories is great, Take Shelter is a timeless masterpiece, and Mud is almost just as good. This film is a coming of age story just like The Spectacular Now and The Way Way Back, but more so than those two other films, Mud is an incredibly profound, many layered tale about love, friendship, mystery and the path to becoming a grown up human being. It features the two best performances by young actors from 2013 in Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland, as well as the crown jewel in Matthew McConaughey's career comeback as the titular character "Mud", and the three of them make this film one of the most engrossing movie going experiences of last year. I absolutely cannot believe that Nichols was not nominated for best original screenplay at the latest Oscar ceremony, because the way I see it, Mud's phenomenally well told story, engrossing themes and fateful atmosphere makes it the most well written movie of 2013, even better than Spike Jonze's Her. You can find my full review of Mud here, but please keep in mind that my opinion on the film has changed a lot since I wrote the review. 

#4 - All Is Lost

This film truly amazed me. Although All Is Lost only features one character, has next to no dialogue and takes place almost entirely on a small boat, it is one of the most exiting and nerve wracking films from 2013, as well as the single scariest movie I saw last year. Although Gravity probably will go on to become the most well remembered survival movie from 2013, All Is Lost had me much more engaged and much more worried about its main character. Robert Redford is flat out phenomenal in this film, and if I had to choose a favourite male performance from 2013, I would have to go with his heartbreaking and surprisingly physical portrayal of the unnamed main character in All Is Lost. The fact that writer/director J.C. Chandor and Redford managed to create such a thrilling and crushing movie with as small an amount of scenery and diversion as they did is a remarkable feat, and I still get goose bumps from thinking about the way in which the film concludes. In my opinion, All Is Lost is high concept filmmaking at its very best. 

 #3 - Only God Forgives

Kicking off the top 3, we have the most "controversial" pick on the list. Only God Forgives was absolutely crushed by critiques and audiences all over the world upon its release, but in my opinion, it is one of the most atmospherically pleasing and visually stunning movies that I have ever seen. Yes, it does feature a lot of very slow paced walking and a huge amount of melancholic staring, but no film from 2013 managed to keep me enthralled, riveted and mystified as much as Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives did. Refn has a very distinctive visual style which borrows a lot of elements from directors such as Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch, and as a direct result thereof, this film feels more like a fever dream than an actual movie. Refn does not waste a single frame in this film, and as much as I hate to be the asshole who says "pfft, you just don't get it!", the people who claim that Only God Forgives does not make sense and has no character progressing or story arc, just did not fucking get it. I personally bought it on BluRay as soon as I got the opportunity, and luckily enough, Only God Forgives only gets better and better the more I watch it. You can read my review of the film here.

#2 - The Great Beauty

The Great Beauty is an Italian film, and it is nothing short of spellbinding. It won the award for best picture in a foreign languae at the Oscars, but in my opinion, only one film from 2013 spoke the language of film better than this aesthetic masterpiece. The movie takes place in Italy, where 65-year-old playboy Jep Gambardella has been navigating the superficial and materialistic highlife of Rome for almost 40 years, without ever having felt happy or fulfilled. He seems to be the only person in his circle of "friends" who actually know that everything they say and do is complete and utter bullshit, and the film goes on to depict how wealth, art and social status has become a hollow shell of nothingness and stupidity for Jep and the people around him. Director Paolo Sorrentino tells this satiric story with some of the most gorgeous and visually pleasing images I have ever seen on film, and the movie contains several of the deepest and most telling sequences I have ever seen in any sort of visual artform. I am ashamed to admit that I have never seen seen a film made by Federico Fellini, but the fact that Sorrentino and The Great Beauty is being compared to Fellini and his work, makes want to change that as soon as humanly possible. You can read my in-depth review of The Great Beauty here.

#1 - Blue is the Warmest Color

When I said that The Great Beauty was my favourite film of 2013 back when I originally reviewed it, it was because I had not seen Blue is the Warmest Color yet. I decided to give it a go out of pure coincidence, and never in my life had I thought that a three-hour-long French movie about a lesbian couple would end up becoming the best film about love and sexuality that I have ever seen. As the poster truthfully states, this movie is absolutely shattering in more ways than I can describe. Not only it a gripping coming of age story about a young girl's personal struggle with friends, school, parents and herself, but it is also a genuinely heartbreaking, honest and realistic depiction of self discovery, homosexuality and love. Adèle Exarchopoulos plays the main character in the film, and she gives the best performance of any actor or actress in any film from 2013, making her character the single most emotionally engaging film persona of the year. I knew within very few minutes that this film was something special, and by the time it ended, I cared more about Adèle than any other fictional character I have encountered all year. Blue is the Warmest Color broke the barrier between fact and fiction more effectively than any other film I have seen for a very long time, and that is why it is the best film I saw in 2013.

Honorable mentions:

The Act of Killing

Out of the Furnace

Rush

Star Trek into Darkness

Filth

Dallas Buyers Club

Short Term 12

Blue Jasmine
Behind the Candelabra

The Kings of Summer

12 Years a Slave

Prisoners

Her

American Hustle

Place Beyond the Pines

Upstream Color

Gravity

Ain't Them Bodies Saints