The Good Things to Come

I began this blog in January of 2013. It seems I chose a good year to start because it’s been a great year to write about movies. Though unevenly distributed –the good ones concentrate towards the end of the year—2013 was a great watch.  I can truthfully say that I can’t chose one movie as my favorite because there have been some really good films out there, but so very different and good in different ways, that it’s hard to choose the top one, so I’m going for the Top Ten, like most movie sites.

The caveat to my top ten is that despite living in a fairly large city in the south, with some film festivals, technology and tools like the Internet, Netflix, Hulu, and Red Box, I haven’t been able to see many non-English language films (“ foreign films” in the US), or documentaries,  so I guess I can’t completely recommend the best films of 2013. But this is why I’ve created the chart that follows this commentary. The chart holds my picks, but also the Top Ten of 2013 for my favorite movie critics. I don’t always agree with one or the other, but A.O. Scott of the New York Times and Peter Traverse of Rolling Stone magazine are usually my best guides; to a lesser degree Manola Darghis also of the New York Times. I’ve also included the French film magazine that was my guide in my more youthful days, Cahiers du Cinema, with which in more recent years I tend to agree with less, more on a feminist basis than anything (I dislike misogynistic films or films where actresses have been mistreated, which some critics overlook when analyzing films), but it will add the non-English films to the list.

Inside Llewyn Davis

As a “reality check” of the forces that drive film these days –i.e. the industry- I am also including a column of the Top Ten films that made most money at the box office in the United States. It will come as no surprise that there are very few films on the critics’ lists that are also top money makers, the exception that confirms the rule being Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity (it’s Oscar chances rise by leaps and bounds).

12 Years a Slave

Box office information is not something to disdain in today’s world, since it is increasingly a predictor of trends. In North American ticket sales alone $10.9 billion dollars were made; that’s the yearly economy of many a country in the world. It’s also important in terms of trends and the future of film itself, especially now that there so many movie streaming sites like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon,  and the gazillion other non-legal ones, as well as new Cable TV series and movies.  It is interesting to note, as the New York Times does, that “Combined, three presumed best picture contenders — “Nebraska,” “Her” and “Inside Llewyn Davis” — have been seen by roughly one-tenth of the more than 10 million viewers who tuned in to the last episode of “Breaking Bad.””. I loved the last episode of Breaking Bad, so this is a cautionary tale for movie producers, directors and critics. No serious documentary made a deep impression at the box office, so there is another.

American Hustle

For those of us who survive by film we’ll still end the year with a sigh of relief for we know that, whatever the medium chosen, there are young and middle aged film makers out there, along with actors, cinematographers, illustrators, screenwriters, and more, raising the bar and excelling. They are a promise of more good things to come and that makes for a Happy New Year to all!

TOP TEN 2013

Surviving by Film	Rolling Stone Peter Traverse	The New York Times A.    O. Scott	The New York Times Manola Darghis	Cahiers du Cinema
Nebraska (Alexander Payne)	12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen)	Inside Llewyn  Davis (Joen & Ethan Coen)	12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen)	Stranger by the Lake ( Alain Guiraudie)
12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen)	Gravity  (Alfonso Cuaron)	12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen)	American Hustle (David O. Russel)	Spring Breakers ( Harmony Korine)
Fruitvale Station (Ryan Coogler)	The Wolf of Wall Street  (Martin Scorcese)	Blue Is the Warmest Colour (Abdellatif Kechiche)	Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen)	Blue Is the Warmest Colour (Abdellatif Kechiche)
Inside Llewyn  Davis  (Joen & Ethan Coen)	Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)	Enough Said (Nicole Holofcener)	Behind the Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh)	Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron)
American Hustle (David O. Russel)	Her (Spike Jonze)	A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhang Ke)	Captain Philips (Paul Greengrass)	A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhang Ke)
The Dallas Buyers Club (Jean-Marc Vallée)	American Hustle (David O. Russel)	All is Lost (J.C. Chandor)	The Counselor  ( Ridley Scott)	Lincoln (Steven Spielberg)
Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)	Captain Philips (Paul Greengrass)	Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)	The Grandmaster (Wang Kar-wai)	Jealousy (Philippe Garrel)
Captain Philips (Paul Greengrass)	Nebraska (Alexander Payne)	Hannah Arendt (Margarethe von Trotta)	The Great Beauty	Nobody’s Daughter Haewon (Hong Sang-soo)
Philomena (Stephen Frears)	Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen)	Lee Daniels’ The Butler (Lee Daniels)	Her (Spike Jonze)	You and the Night (Yann Gonzalez)
Lee Daniels’ The Butler  (Lee Daniels)	Inside Llewyn Davis – Joen & Ethan Coen	Tie* (see below).	Inside Llewyn  Davis (Joen & Ethan Coen)	La Bataille de Solferino (Justine Triet)

*Tie for 10th: The Great Gatsby, The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorcese), The Bling Ring (Sofia Coppola), Spring Breakers, Pain and Gain, American Hustle.

TOP TEN BOX OFFICE: Iron Man, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Despicable Me 2, Man of Steel, Monsters University, Frozen, Gravity, Fast and Furious Six, Oz the Great and Powerful, Star Trek Into Darkness.