We were treated to highly entertaining, significant films by visionary directors like Marc Forster (World War Z), Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim), Danny Boyle (Trance), Sofia Coppola (The Bling Ring), Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity), Baz Luhrmann (The Great Gatsby), Lee Daniels (The Butler), Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners), Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips), Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), Alexander Payne (Nebraska) David O. Russell (American Hustle), Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street) and Peter Jackson (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug).
This was also the year of the black history film with many great historical biographical films depicting struggles against racism in America and elsewhere. Movies like The Butler, 42, Fruitvale Station, 12 Years a Slave and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
Since the success of Life of Pi (2012) last year we saw a spate of “stranded-at-sea” stories this year with movies like Kon-Tiki, Leviathan, A Hijacking, Captain Phillips, All is Lost, and Maidentrip.
Black and White films made a comeback this year since the triumph of The Artist (2011) with films like Much Ado about Nothing, Blancanieves, Frances Ha and Nebraska.
Foreign films made an exceptionally strong showing in 2013. I was impressed with the amount of quality films on offer from counties like Denmark (The Hunt | A Royal Affair | A Hijacking), Brazil (Brazilian Western | Neighboring Sounds | Gonzaga), South Africa (iNumber Number | Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), Spain (Blancanieves), Sweden (Hotel) and France (Blue is the Warmest Color).
Dystopian future visions continue to be popular in a year that saw a number excellent original “end of humanity” films like Oblivion, World War Z, Elysium, Pacific Rim and The World’s End.
Below is a list of my favourite films I saw so far this year categorized by genre and in order of release date.
(Click
on the film titles in orange for my full review)
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Oblivion Joseph
Kosinski
World War Z Marc
Forster
Pacific Rim Guillermo
del Toro
Elysium Neill
Blomkamp
The
Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Peter
Jackson
Action Adventure/Suspense/Thriller:
Trance Danny Boyle UK
The Dinner (Het Diner) Menno
Yeyjes Netherlands
Brazilian Western (Faroeste Caboclo) René Sampaio Brazil
iNumber Number Donovan
Marsh South Africa
Gravity Alfonso Cuarón
Drama:
A Royal Affair Nikolaj Arcel Denmark
Neighboring Sounds Kleber Mendonça Filho Brazil
No Pablo Larraín Chile/France/US
The
Great Gatsby Baz
Luhrmann
Blancanieves Pablo Berger Spain/France
Fruitvale
Station Ryan
Cooglar
The Hunt Thomas Vinterberg Denmark
The Butler Lee
Daniels
Pioneer Erik
Skjoldbjaerg Norway
Prisoners Denis
Villeneuve
Wadjda Haifaa Al-Mansour Saudi Arabia
Captain Phillips Paul
Greengrass
12
Years a Slave Steve
McQueen
Blue is the Warmest Color Abdellatif Kechiche France/Belgium
Gonzaga:
De Pai pra Filho Breno
Silviera Brazil
Mandela:
Long Walk to Freedom Justin
Chadwick UK/South Africa
Comedy/Feel Good/Romance:
Hotel Lisa
Langseth Sweden
Don
Jon Joseph
Gordon-Levitt
American Hustle David
O. Russell
The
Wolf of Wall Street Martin
Scorsese
Feature Animation:
Feature Animation:
Monsters
University Dan Scanlon
From Up on Poppy Hill Goro Miyazaki
Documentaries:
Call Me Kuchu Katherine
Fairfax Wright US/Uganda
Muscle
Shoals Greg ‘Freddy’ Camalier
JP
2 comments:
Wow, that's quite a list. I'm at a time in my life where most of my movie watching runs along the lines of The Croods and Monsters Inc. Thanks for expanding my horizons a bit!
Thanks, that is an awesome list ! It's great to have all reviews in one place!
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