Doug's Favorite Movies of 2013

Gravity
20 Feet From Stardom
Side Effects
The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
This is the End
The Way Way Back
American Hustle
The World's End
The Lone Ranger
Mud
The Wolf of Wall Street 

Honorable Mention:

Her
Captain Phillips
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
Spring Breakers
World War Z
Saving Mister Banks
In a World...

American Hustle

There’s a lack of modulation here. This potboiler about small-time con-artists hits the ground running in the opening seconds and never lets up. The story becomes more and more ridiculous and confusing and after a while, all you can do is laugh at the clothes. You wonder if it can ever resolve itself in any kind of satisfying way. But then… IT DOES! And it all makes sense! And when it’s over, you can look back at the movie, at the slickly deceptive performances from Christian Bale and Amy Adams, with heaps of praise. So I liked this! It may have a retro style, but the bewildering and deceptive filmmaking is modern and whip-smart. I continue to be impressed by Christian Bale’s ability to gain and lose weight, and how well he disappears into this character of the middle-aged schlub. Amy Adams is great here, with her bad British accent and plunging necklines. As she misleads and distracts her “mark” in the “con”, she also convincingly fools the audience, and you never know whose side she’s on. It’s sublime. I also have to say that I loved Louis C.K. in this: it’s the best I’ve ever seen him. My advice is: see this and trust the filmmakers. When you find yourself distracted and staring at the hair, it’s all slight of hand, and you’ll soon be shown what they made you miss.

Saving Mister Banks

This was dramatically heavier than I would have guessed based on the ad campaign. Because it’s Disney, it’s hard to know how whitewashed the story is. According to the movie, the author of “Mary Poppins” had a very rough childhood during which a couple of unimaginably traumatic incidents happened. Emotionally, these moments make the lows lower, and therefore, the highs higher. Again, it’s hard to know how much of this is real. But Emma Thompson’s depiction of “P.L. Travers,” aka Helen Goff, with her obsessive compulsive tendencies and rigid, unhappy demeanor, is skilled. When she finally falls under the spell of Disney’s musical it’s especially touching. Whether it happened or not, to see this grouchy, lonely woman feel carefree for just a moment, akin to Jane and Michael Banks’ father flying a kite for the first time, one delights in the possibilities. Sometimes truth is greater than fiction, but the fiction feels better.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

(Second Viewing)

Saw it again, this time in 48 fps, which I still don’t find offensive and I actually kind of LIKE. This actually felt shorter on the second viewing, too, which is unusual. Another thing I noticed is that the “Tolkein” of it all doesn’t really matter. Yes the fan-base can enjoy that “Gimli” is the son of “Gloin,” etcetera, but Peter Jackson has made movies that people who DON’T have an encyclopedic knowledge of the books can still enjoy. As long as lanky, well-dressed pixies are impaling orcs with arrows, and tiny British dudes are outwitting dragons, I’m in!

Oldboy

File this remake under, “Unnecessary.” There’s nothing wrong with the idea of retelling the notorious Korean revenge porno in English, and the casting was interesting. The pace is fairly brisk, and there are a couple of minor twists to the end of this version that I liked. There’s nothing wrong with this movie, per se. There’s just no reason to see this version instead of the original.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

I continue to be amazed by these movies. Every frame, every fired Elven arrow, every note of music is made with a perfect, unalloyed love of cinema. Is the plot unnecessarily convoluted? Yes. Do the action scenes go on too long? Yes. Is that a problem for me? No. It’s a spectacular movie to behold and I don’t mind the half-hour side-trips that lead to almost nothing. Because I trust Peter Jackson and I know that, at some point, he’s going to razzle-dazzle me with the most amazingly bad-ass, deep-voiced, sinister, fire-breathing dragon to ever grace the silver screen. And I trust that Bilbo will not be too afraid of it, for numerous convoluted reasons. And I trust that at the end of it all I’ll be blown away by the value I got for my entertainment dollar.