Film in 2013 was fantastic. We
saw tons of wonderful performances, powerfully emotional dramas, hysterical
comedies, gripping thrillers, big and entertaining blockbusters, and grand
technical achievements. This year was particularly difficult in narrowing down
my choices for my favorite films, performances, directors, and technical
accomplishments. For example, I loved Amy Acker in Much
Ado About Nothing and Oscar Isaac in Inside
Llewyn Davis, but neither quite made the list, and the same can be said for
David O. Russell’s
wonderful directing in American
Hustle or Hoyte Van Hoytema’s
sublime cinematography in Her
(both just missing out on the list, when they would have made it in most other
years). And, there are a number of good films that did not make the list either
(and a few I have not yet seen). As it stands, the LeapBackBlog Film Awards are
made up, through difficult deliberation, of the films that entertained me and
grabbed me as something special, the performances that engaged me, and the
craftsmanship that delighted me. These are my favorites of 2013.
The
Coen Brothers have essentially been making films for three decades,
amassing a fervent cult following and a firm place among the top American (if
not among all filmmakers in cinema history) auteurs. With Inside
Llewyn Davis they again show off their talent for making films that center
around antiheroes, as Llewyn Davis is not a nice person and probably not a good
man. Yet, the audience is asked to and does feel sympathy for him. They are
drawn in by his art, excusing the man. This simple exercise speaks profoundly
to how art is treated by people across time and culture. Man is deeply flawed
and often very ugly (not physically, but morally or spiritually or whatever you
want to call it – people often seem to deviate to the darkside when left to
their own devices or put in a position of power or control); and yet art is
strikingly beautiful and moving. It is humanity’s light in the darkness, our
legacy of achievement amidst the devastation and cruelty. The Brothers take
this theme and weave it into a circular story about a man who is just trying to
make a career out of his music, but is having a real tough time. Plus, as is
typical of all their films, the Coen Brothers again showcase their impeccable
skill and eye for genuinely stunning aesthetics.
Gravity
is in many ways 2013’s most impressive film – certainly from a cinematic
spectacle perspective. It is a momentously thrilling and involving experience
that grabs the audience and never lets them go until its conclusion. It is
riveting. However, the film turning out as fantastically brilliant as it has was
completely dependent on the work of auteur Alfonso
Cuaron, who worked for three-plus years to get everything right. Famously,
Cuaron is not a fan of 3D (similarly to most top directors); and thus for him
to make a film to be primarily seen in 3D, it had to look perfect. Cuaron
creates the best 3D audiences have ever seen, in terms of both the overall
cinematic experience and technical quality. And that is just the 3D! Cuaron
also needed to create a realistic feeling zero-g environment, which he achieved
working with master puppeteers (along with a fabulous performance from Sandra Bullock). Gravity
is in some ways an even bigger technical achievement than it is a piece of
great narrative cinema (though, it is that too). This was unquestionably the
most difficult film to make for a director, and the result of all Cuaron’s work
is so very satisfying. There was no better cinema-going experience in 2013 than
Gravity.
Based on the premise of Her
alone, the film could have turned out many ways, seemingly all of which end up
in a film that is laughable, silly, and probably cheesy. This could have been a
generic horror film in which Samantha, jilted by Theodore, becomes like Skynet
and tries to destroy him, realizing humans are inferior beings. Or, this could
have been a kooky romantic comedy that somehow ends with Samantha’s
consciousness transported into a cyborg or even a brain-dead human woman,
thereby giving Theodore the complete package. But in Spike Jonze’s
hands, Her is a narrative about love and relationships in the modern world. It
is a film about connection or lack of connection. It is a film about how in a
way technology has created a culture of self-inflicted isolation and loneliness.
But chiefly, Jonze makes a film that is almost universally relatable, as it
hits on all the emotional moments of new relationships – how they are amazing
and beautiful in the beginning and how they can fall apart simply through the
organic growth of the people in them. The film resonates deeply because it is
very honest in its approach to its handling of emotions. There is no
manipulation or falling back on clichés to convey information. Jonze has simply
created a beautiful, funny, and kind of sad film about modern love (and in this
way, the film is a bit like the Before Sunrise
series, which culminated in this year’s Before Midnight).
It is safe to call Steve McQueen an
auteur filmmaker. Starting with the brilliant films Hunger and Shame,
McQueen has promoted himself as one of cinema’s great new talents through his
work, whose style is specific and powerful. 12
Years a Slave is his most commercially accessible film, even though it is
emotional intense and draining. It is a work that gets right at the heart of
slavery when so many other films and TV miniseries have merely nipped around
it. It is immense and cathartic. It is deeply sad and yet uplifting. McQueen is
a director who is unafraid in his approach, lingering when many others would
flinch and cut away – there is a haunting shot in the film of Solomon Northrup
hung from a tree by the neck, his feet barely touching the ground allowing him
to just grasp to life. McQueen holds on this shot for a long time, as life
carries on around Solomon as if this is nothing out of the ordinary, all the
while Solomon struggles to stay alive. This one, long uncomfortable shot in a
way is a summary of slavery – an entire people subjected to inhumane torture
while the world goes about its business unconcerned and unhelping, and even
worse accustom to this sort of treatment of a supposed ‘lessor’ people. McQueen
has made a film transcends slavery to become about not just one person’s
struggle or one people’s struggle, but about all peoples’ struggle in a world
that is still dominated by those that would oppress. It is an important and
meaningful work, and a masterfully made piece of cinema.
With The
Wolf of Wall Street, Martin
Scorsese has made a film that works in a very interesting manner.
Primarily, it is an insanely fun and wild exposé, detailing the sheer and
unbridled greed and moral ambiguity of the typical high-powered Wall Street
broker. Scorsese invites his viewers to both feel distain for these characters
and secretly (or not so secretly) a jealous admiration. This is a film that
asks the viewers to look at their own morals. Do we as viewers find these
people deplorable or are we envious – probably somewhere in-between. Scorsese
shows us the American Dream fully realized, only warped and corrupted from what
we hold as the ideal. The Wolf of Wall Street is a wondrous achievement, and in
my opinion Scorsese’s best since Goodfellas.
It is also worth noting that Scorsese shows his flair for getting fantastic
performances from his actors (something we all knew) and his surprising talent
for comedy (something we did not know).
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