LeapBackBlog 2013 Film Awards – Part 5: Films

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.

Part 1: Technical Achievements

Part 2: Supporting Performances

Part 3: Directors

Part 4: Leading Performances

American Hustle

2013 was filled with many great performances and films, leaving so many overlooked. American Hustle, however, is not one of the overlooked films and its highly entertaining and wonderful performances have run the table, garnering an Oscar nomination in every acting category (and four performances among my favorite 20), which is only fitting, as it is a film completely built upon its great and eccentric performances (as well as nostalgically festive costumes and production design). Yet, David O. Russell’s film does not get lost in all the big performances and showy aesthetics. At its core, it is still a character driven narrative with strong, well-developed characters that the audience invests in. American Hustle is a lot of fun, and is one of the better con man films in recent memory.

Fruitvale Station

Fruitvale Station tells the true story of Oscar Grant, a young black man recently released from prison who is desperately trying to put his life back together and provide for his family (be a good husband to his soon-to-be wife and father to is young daughter). However, his life is tragically taken on New Year’s Eve 2008 when he is accidently gunned down by police during an incident on the BART train from San Francisco to Oakland. Making his feature debut, writer-director Ryan Coogler creates a very emotionally impactful film by showcasing the man that Grant was, his strengths and weaknesses. The audience can see themselves in the man through his hopes, dreams, and fears. Thus, when the climactic scene arrives, it is devastating, and maybe for a moment viewers feel (to some degree) the helplessness that those less fortunate (deemed inferior in society due to economic means, race, or often both) feel constantly (in a system designed to keep them forever marred in poverty and crime with no real viable escape). If nothing else, the film creates a connection between Grant and every viewer (regardless of their background), putting them in his place. It is a powerful experience – one that hopefully leads to people treating each other with a bit more kindness and respect. In a year of many strong indie character dramas, Fruitvale Station is one of the best and most involving.

Gravity

3D is in most cases a worthless feature, tacked on after the fact to garner high ticket prices while actually making the film-watching experience worse (and yet people still pay for it in droves…it makes no sense). That is not the case at all with Gravity. Alfonso Cuaron (a harsh critic of 3D) uses the technology to create a completely immersive experience, capturing the imagination and to some extent giving viewers a taste of a ‘real’ Space adventure (when really none of us will ever get to go experience Space first hand). Gravity proves that 3D can be a fantastic cinematic tool (if used properly), while shaming its use in 99% of other films. There is no other film as deserving of the price of admission in 2013, as this is a film that demands it be seen on the largest screen possible (while the rest of these top ten films can be enjoyed equally at home). It is a thrilling spectacle that also happens to feature strong performances and resonates emotionally. In most years, it would be the clear cut film of the year. It is just an incredible cinematic achievement.

her

Love in the modern age turns out to be a lot like love in any other age; it is about connection. Spike Jonze’s film Her is about connection and also the lack of connection we face culturally at present (and possibly to a greater extent in the future). The film takes place in the near future and is about Theodore Twombly, a man struggling with melancholia in the wake of his wife splitting from him. He craves connection but fears being hurt again. Thus, a relationship with his new hyper intelligent self-aware OS Samantha seems safe. Yet, Theodore finds himself falling hard for Samantha, while at the same time frustrated by the limitations of the relationship now that it has become deeply emotional. Jonze creates a completely believable relationship between Theodore and Samantha that plays out in a manner that feels truthful to our own experiences. It is as such a film that is incredibly relatable, and also somewhat a warning. We are so dependent on technology that we seem to put it in the place of human activities that we need as people to create true connection. We are isolating ourselves in the name of being social through technology. Her is a touching and kind of sad romantic narrative that is not afraid to be optimistic about the future as well.

Inside Llewyn Davis

There are many kinds of musicals. Filmgoers seem to be most accustomed to the kind in which characters break into song to express the emotions they hold inside them without it feeling out of place in the world of the narrative (My Fair Lady, for example). Inside Llewyn Davis too is in a way this kind of musical, though most would not regard it as one at first. The Coen Brothers’ film is about Llewyn Davis, a struggling folk musician as he toils away trying to make a career out of his music (while being a bit of a bastard). Davis is very gruff on the outside, with a short temper and seemingly a cold heart. But, when he plays his music (and there are multiple musical performances in the film), the audience sees his true soul, which is filled with guarded emotional sadness (primarily from the loss of his musical partner and a bad relationship with his father). It is also through Davis’s music that we see that beauty exists in a word that is otherwise faded and cold. In this way, Inside Llewyn Davis is indeed a musical – a very, very good one.

Rush

Who knew that Ron Howard (a filmmaker I have dismissed often in the past and probably will again in the future) would make a film that would be among my ten favorite, especially in such a competitively deep year as 2013. But that speaks to the quality of Rush, Howard’s Formula-1 drama focusing on the great rivalry and friendship between James Hunt and Niki Lauda. Rush is a fantastic sports drama (probably one of the five best in cinema history), built upon the excitement and danger of car racing at its highest level. And yet, it is an even better character drama, as Howard explores both Hunt and Lauda: what motivates them to be the best. Suffice it to say, Rush is my favorite Ron Howard film – a film that is very well acted, wonderfully shot, and even directed with skill.

Short Term 12

Character dramas that are utterly moving and completely engrossing are a rare breed, films that resonate so deeply that we as viewers find ourselves fully invested and connected to the characters. Short Term 12 is one such film. Built upon one of 2013’s most incredible performances by Brie Larson, this gravely overlooked film is about Grace, a supervisor at a facility for wayward youths while they await placement in a foster home. Grace devotes herself fully to helping these kids, while trying to contain her own demons. Writer-director Destin Cretton’s clearly personal narrative is rich with great character moments and honest emotion, but what is so refreshing about the film is that it has an unyielding optimism (something often lacking in modern pop culture, rife with cynicism) even though the narrative comes from a place of deep wounds and seemingly insurmountable pain. Grace is a real role model for young people. Short Term 12 is a film that needs to be seen, and I encourage anyone who has an opportunity to watch it to do so; it is without question among the five best films of the year.

The Spectacular Now

While many popular young adult films focus on grand adventures or supernatural romances, The Spectacular Now tells a much smaller, more relatable, and dramatically engaging story. It is about Sutter, a high school senior who lives in the now with no regard for his future, content to just have fun in the moment. And then he meets Aimee, a nice girl who has plans for her future forcing Sutter to reconsider his world view. What makes James Pondsoldt’s film work so well is that these characters are beautifully played by Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley (each just missing out on making the acting lists) and resonate emotionally as real people with relatable problems. Namely, the film deals with alcoholism in young people, as well as growing up with deadbeat parents. How do we overcome the faults of our parents? This is a question many young people sadly must face. While The Spectacular Now is primarily a character drama, it also works as a charming romance. Recent YA films like The Hunger Games and The Twilight Saga are blowing up the box office, but films like this and The Perks of Being a Wallflower are really the great films leading the resurgence of good and meaningful films aimed at young adults.

12 Years a Slave

Slavery in America continues to this day to shape public consciousness and popular culture, and yet until 12 Years a Slave no other piece of media has been able to so directly tackle it on a profoundly emotional level. What makes Solomon Northup’s story so compelling is that in a way it encapsulates the full experience of Slavery. Northup was a proud and prosperous freeman who was tricked and captured against him will, transported by boat to a new place and then sold into slavery. His first master was kind to him, but still his master. His second was a monster. Yet, Northup endured. Finally, after twelve year, he was again free, returning home to him family, filled with supreme happiness but also unspeakable sadness for those not as lucky as he and the unshakeable scares of what he witnessed and had done to him during his enslavement. Steve McQueen’s film is filled with brilliant performances, beautiful and haunting aesthetics, and deeply moving emotional resonance. It is my favorite film of 2013.

The Wolf of Wall Street

The Wolf of Wall Street is centered on the exploits of Jordan Belfort, a stock trader who starts out in penny stocks only to build an empire. However, Belfort’s business practices are not all legal leading to an FBI investigation and his eventual downfall. Martin Scorsese’s film is highly entertaining. Scorsese engrosses the audience in a world of wild drug use, sex, ego, and greed, which plays as very funny, possibly shocking, and maybe even secretly inviting (courting the darkness inside us all). The lifestyle of a high powered Wall Street trader is so excessive that it all feels exaggerated and kind of insane, but Scorsese uses it to explore what happens when capitalism is left to run amuck – the dark side of the American Dream – an issue that is still very relevant in the world today (especially in America). It is a masterfully made film, and one of the most powerful cinematic experiences of the year (be it the gleeful joy of laughing at all the antics or the abhorrence at the crude manner by which these characters live).

Honorable Mentions (11-25):

Before Midnight, The Bling Ring, The Conjuring, The Counselor, Frozen, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, The Hunt, Iron Man 3, Much Ado About Nothing, Mud, The Place Beyond the Pines, Side Effects, This Is the End, Thor: The Dark World, and The World’s End

Fruitvale Station (2013) – Review

Review: Fruitvale Station is a strong character drama and appeal for social change. The film is about Oscar Grant, young black man recently released from prison looking to put his life back together and be there for his family (a girl he is hoping to marry and a young daughter). Taking place on New Year’s Eve 2008, the film chronicles Grant’s final day before being accidently gunned down by police during an incident on the BART train from San Francisco to Oakland.

Writer-director Ryan Coogler makes a daring choice to begin Fruitvale Station. As a prologue, he shows the actual real life event as shot by a witness with a cell phone. By doing this, Coogler immediately grabs the audience’s attention and emotionally invests them in the story. The footage is shocking. The decision pays off so well because most incoming viewers are probably unfamiliar with the full extent of the event (having only some peripheral knowledge from the news or maybe nothing more than the film’s trailer). However, the choice is nonetheless daring because in lesser hands it could have undermined all the dramatic build up leading up to the event.

The fact that this is a true story also plays a very impactful dramatic role in the film, and Coogler takes full advantage. Like all great filmmakers, he emotionally manipulates the viewer to feel something, but does so in such a way that the audience does not realize they are being manipulated. Showing the real footage right off puts the audience on edge, and from there Coogler spends most of the first two acts developing Grant, showing his strengths and his faults as a man – but most importantly, Coogler endears him to the audience.

The key scenes in the film are those spent between Grant and his daughter, as they showcase the man as a very loving father and good person at heart. The scene between Grant and Katie (the girl in the supermarket) in which he goes out of his way to help her buy the right ingredients for a fish fry, going as far as to call his grandmother for assistance, also showcases his kindness. Additionally, the scene in which Grant dumps his weed into the Bay (after recalling a very personal moment in prison, and a promise he made to his mother) instead of making a drug deal for some much needed cash expresses that Grant is truly committed to change and being there for his family, above all other considerations (and there are a few other scenes as well – one involving a dog – that attest to the good in him). He is a good person at heart, and wants to change his life. These moments make the film, because these are the moments in which the audience commits fully to him.

Yet, Coogler does not shy away at all from presenting Grant as a fully fleshed out character, capable of good and bad. The audience is shown the anger that Grant carries within himself – anger at his plight, and the seemingly impossibility of overcoming it. This anger is deep rooted, stemming from the almost insurmountable disadvantage that many of America’s poor find themselves at from birth – particularly and historically African-Americans. There is also street culture and the role that it has played in Grant’s life and development. He must be tough and aggressive outwardly to survive. Going back to the supermarket scene, there is a great piece of character juxtaposition. As Grant is helping Katie, he steps away to try and get his job back, even resorting to intimidation when he realizes it is not going to happen. He is from a world in which street life and all that comes with it is really the only viable option when the alternative is a different kind of slave labor (void of hope and opportunity). Coogler does a fantastic job of bringing all these aspects together to create a full picture of who this man was, which makes the tragic accident that befalls him all the more heart wrenching.

With all the character work done, and the audience fully invested emotionally in the character, Coogler depicts the tragic accident in an unflinching and even manner. He does not demonize the police and glorify Grant. He instead lets the events play out for the audience to make their own assessments. What results is not so much that Grant is mistakenly shot by the police when an officer pulls his gun, meaning to pull his Taser, but rather that we still live in a world governed by racial stereotypes, and to think otherwise is naïve. However, it is still a sad truth nonetheless. The police detain Grant and his friends, after being called to the scene in response to a fight that broke out on the train (which did involve Grant and someone he knew from prison). By the time the police show up, the fight is over and everyone is leaving the scene, and yet the police detain them nonetheless specifically targeting Grant and his friends because they are trained to look out for young males that are dressed in a manner representative of gangs (which in Oakland would most likely be young black males) – racial profiling. The police treat Grant and his friends with some hostility because to them (again backed by what they typically see on a day-to-day basis) these men are probably up to no good. This angers Grant and his friends because their rights are being abused, which makes them uncooperative, and the situation escalates until the deadly mistake. Neither side is fully in the wrong, or in the right. It is sadly just another typical call for the police, and just another typical day in the life of many young black men in America.

This is the point Coogler is trying to make, the reason why he spends so much of the film with the character, getting the audience invested. This tragedy is not the fault of either side. It is the system that is broken. Coogler delivers an emotional wallop to hopefully knock the audience out of their indifference. Here is a film about a young black thug (so to speak, looking at Grant from negatively informed racial perspective), and yet outside of his economic restraints he is no different than any of us (the audience cares about Grant and is heartbroken by his death). Grant has a family. He wants what is best for them. He wants a better life for himself and his family – these are the things we all want. And yet, his socioeconomic place in American keeps him from having the chance to ever escape and achieve his aspirations, and ultimately he is just another statistic (a young black man who is gunned down before the age of twenty-five).

Until the system changes and we as a people change our perceptions of what individuals should be allowed to achieve regardless of race, religion, or background, this will just keep happening again and again (recently, a very similar incident happened involving the death of Trayvon Martin). It is not right that we just relegate the lower classes to the urban and rural ghettos and create laws and structures that keep them from ever being able to reach for more. Of course for many their only avenue that makes sense is the economy of the street (which means selling drugs and other criminal activities), and in turn this creates a police force that is conditioned to racial profile in these ghettos. It also creates a specific street culture that then influences how the rest of America views these people. It is a vicious cycle in which few survive or escape (many ending up in prison, dead, or forever impoverished, leaving the next generation even worse off). This is what Coogler wants the viewer to see. The people are not the problem; they are just like us.

Overall, Fruitvale Station is a very effective and affecting character drama that makes a plea to the humanity within all of us, without ever feeling preachy or self-righteous. It is a fine piece of cinema.

Technical, aesthetic & acting achievements: Fruitvale Station is a fantastic debut film for writer-director Ryan Coogler. He certainly seems to have a strong command of dramatic pacing and character development. He also garners wonderful performances from his cast. I very much look forward to seeing what he does next.

Ludwig Goransson’s score does a good job reinforcing the dramatic moments of the film, and creating the overall atmosphere and tone (one that is optimistic, but always with a somber hint). The soundtrack is also very good as it brings a local urban sound to the film. Rachel Morrison’s cinematography is fantastic as it grounds the film in reality, and presents the action to the audience as if they are really there (which dramatically and emotionally really resonates). She is someone to watch in the future (also doing fine work in Sound of My Voice). Like Morrison’s photography, Hannah Beachler’s production design is also very rooted in creating a realistic look for the film (vital to its dramatic impact).

The cast throughout is brilliant as well. Ahna O’Reilly and Kevin Durand give standout performances in small supporting roles. Octavia Spencer is in many ways the heart of the film. She, like the audience, sees all the good and bad within Grant, and as she is crushed by his death so too is the audience. Melonie Diaz, playing Grant’s girlfriend Sophina, serves a similar role. She wants Grant to be the man she knows he is capable of being. She sees how close he is to becoming that man, only to be devastated by his death. She (like O’Reilly on the train filming the incident) also expresses the audience’s frustration and sense of helplessness when the police detain Grant and his friends. In a different film, the manner by which the police engage Grant would seem normal, and yet because we know him and care about him we are outraged, which is exacerbated by Diaz’s reactions to the events as they happen. Michael B. Jordan gives what is undoubtedly his breakout performance (which surely will see him offered many Hollywood leading roles in the next couple years). He builds a man who is kind and good hearted, and yet in a different moment intimidating and even frightening. It is a marvelous performance. One that should see praise and acknowledgement come awards season.

Summary & score: Fruitvale Station is a brilliant character drama – one that asks America to really look at itself and reassess its values in regards to how we disregard our lower classes, leaving them to toil in an endless struggle of poverty and crime. 8/10

At the Movies – July 2013 – Part 3: Most Anticipated Films

Must-See of the Month:

Fruitvale Station 

(Ryan Coogler) – Drama – Jul 12

Summary: New Year’s Eve 2008, Oscar a young Bay-Area resident makes his way into the city to celebrate the coming of a new year – that is until he crosses paths with old enemies and the night takes a tragic turn. Filmmakers: Writer-director Ryan Coogler makes his feature debut with the film, announcing himself as a new bright talent to watch. He is working with composer Ludwig Goransson (Community), cinematographer Rachel Morrison (Sound of My Voice), and production designer Hannah Beachler. Cast: The film stars Michael B. Jordan and features Chad Michael Murray, Kevin Durand, Octavia Spencer, and Melonie Diaz in support. Expectations: Fruitvale Station won both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and the Un Certain Regard Avenir Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. It looks like a very strong drama lead by a stunning performance from newcomer Michael B. Jordan, who is drumming up Oscar buzz. Some will recognize Jordan from Friday Night Lights and Chronicle – he is sure to be a star. This is a must-see for fans of very good character dramas (and it is based on a true story). Trailers: Here. Review: Here.

Worth Checking Out:

Blue Jasmine 

(Woody Allen) – Drama – Jul 26

Summary: After her husband loses everything (finally being exposed for the fraud he is), Jasmine seeks refuge in San Francisco with her sister Ginger – though they do not really get along too well. Filmmakers: Writer-director Woody Allen makes a film each year. Recently his output has been overall very good. In the last eight years he has made three brilliant films (Match Point, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and Midnight in Paris), three good films (Scoop, which I love, Cassandra’s Dream, and Whatever Works), and two mediocre films that still have their great moments (You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger and To Rome with Love). He is working with cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe (who shot Vicky Cristina Barcelona) and production designer Santo Loquasto (who has worked frequently with Allen, but most recently on Whatever Works). Cast: Cate Blanchett stars and Sally Hawkins co-stars. Peter Sarsgaard, Alec Baldwin, Michael Stuhlbarg, Bobby Cannavale, Louis C.K., and Andrew Dice Clay feature in support. Expectations: Blue Jasmine looks like it will probably fall into Allen’s middle category – good, but not amazing. However, it does look very funny and has a great cast (it seems like Allen has been watching a lot of HBO). I am also interested to see how Allen uses San Francisco in his narrative, as he always does a great job of making the setting an essential part of his films. This is a must-see for fans of Allen and those looking for a funny drama with great performances. Trailer: Here. Review: Here.