As promised, my Best Films of 2013 list comes out the same day as the Oscar nominations. It felt right. Now it feels even more right for the sheer compare and contrast factor between my list and what the Academy went for. You won't need two hands to count the overlap, that's for sure.
10: Blackfish
This shocking documentary is all about Sea World's abusive treatment of killer whales and the danger of housing the massive mammals in tiny captivity tanks. It's a quick watch, 82 minutes long, but it's not an easy watch. Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite nails the subject with a lot of clarity and effective use of research. The highlight is the brutal middle act showcasing a myriad of injuries and fatalities suffered by whale trainers in captivity. You won't shake off Blackfish very easily.
9: Carrie
Hear me out. Kimberly Peirce didn't really set out to remake Carrie. The plot points are there--the shower, the inattentive school, the abusive mother, the discovery of telekinetic powers, the bully's revenge plan, the prom, and the destruction--but they're used for a radically different purpose. This is not the story of Carrie, a teenage loner who finally finds what makes her special and has it ripped away by bullying. This is Carrie, the story of how society forces young women to conform to certain expectations by any means necessary. It is a horror story about interfering in someone else's life just because they're different (for good or for ill) and what happens when a human being is pushed to the breaking point. It's a fantastic study and commentary on the social constructs that allowed Stephen King to even write a story like Carrie to begin with.
8: The Iceman
Sure, if you want a comedy heist film with mob activities, hop on-board the American Hustle train. But if you want a darker drama about the same time period and the other end of the Garden State, The Iceman is the film for you. The Iceman is the disturbing story of real life mob hitman Richard Kuklinski. He stumbles into organized crime by chance and quickly becomes an in-demand executioner for his quiet efficiency. The acting, production design, and editing are all top notch and really make this a true crime film to seek out for yourself.
7: Frozen
Frozen is not a flawless film (the opening act drags, the appropriation of indigenous music and costuming for an almost exclusively white cast of characters is questionable) but it really is a crowd pleaser. The quality of animation is stunning and the voice acting really sets it over the top. Best of all, it's the rare Disney animated film where family trumps everything else (making...three total? This, Lilo & Stitch, and Dumbo) and, rarer still, the pure Disney (not Pixar) film where the female lead gets to be the action hero (like Mulan and...uh...Mulan II?). The gorgeous score by Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez doesn't hurt, either.
6: Frances Ha
2013 had two very different films exploring the arbitrary nature of success in the entertainment industry. Frances Ha did it with a lot of style, a dry wit, and a wonderful leading performance from Greta Gerwig. The expressive black and white cinematography is a nod to Neorealism and it really elevates the whole production. Whether or not you personally like Frances, a woman who can't seem to catch a break as a professional dancer and doesn't see any other way to earn a living, is beside the point. This is an exploration of the dancer's quest, not a rallying cry for this particular dancer to be an international superstar.
Click through for the Top 5 Films of 2013.
5: Warm Bodies
No, I did not think I would actually like the zombie romance version of Romeo & Juliet. Yet here we are, looking back at 2013 and seeing a romzomcom called Warm Bodies land in the top 5 films of the year. Warm Bodies is just a lot of fun. The makeup work is sensational. The cast is just right for the story. The melodrama of zombie meets girl while eating girl's friends, zombie falls in love, zombie kidnaps girl, girl starts to cure zombie boy through love is presented with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Everyone on set knows the story is ridiculous and they commit to it all the same. You don't doubt their sincerity, but the conflict between zombie and human over the star-crossed lovers never feels maudlin or overwrought.
4: Gravity
Gravity is a film that I still believe you need to experience in theaters for it to work. The draw is the stunning 3D effects that create an inescapable sense of isolation and desperation as a scientist and a veteran astronaut float adrift in space. Gravity is science fiction about real people with real stakes hinged on the many possible terrors of manned space travel: the destruction of the ship, running out of oxygen, running out of fuel, losing communication with earth, space debris, and the knowledge that a rescue ship could never be set up fast enough to even launch before a catastrophic failure all but guarantees a death sentence for science.
3: Stoker
For a long time, the models for a good Edgar Allan Poe-styled horror were limited to the Roger Corman/Vincent Price films from the 1960s. Now we have Chan-wook Park's masterpiece Stoker for some updated guidance. Wentworth Miller crafted a truly disturbing screenplay about a young woman who can hear the sound of everything as loud as we can hear a car passing by on the street. Park combines masterful sound engineering with super saturated colors to overwhelm the viewer with India Stoker's view of the world. It's terrifying and beautiful in equal measure.
2: Short Term 12
Short Term 12 might be the best teacher fighting for her students film I've ever seen. It's all the more impressive for not actually being a film about a teacher. The central conflict is that Grace is just a worker at a foster care facility, not an actual figure with any control over the placement of the children. Brie Larson gives a stunning performance as Grace that I truly believe is unmatched by any other actor's work in 2013. The film opens up the limitations of the foster care system in a way that places the blame on the system itself, not the workers at all levels of the system just trying to do the best thing for the children. That is no small feat.
1: American Mary
Best of the year lists are subjective by their nature. When something comes along that so perfectly hits on so many of my cinematic interests, it's going to be recognized. American Mary is really breathtaking for a modern horror film. It pulls elements of exploitation, mad scientist stories, character study, and many variations on Frankenstein to tell the story of a medical student turned extreme body modification artist out of necessity. Perhaps the most shocking element of the film is the nature of monster. Any other horror film would most likely vilify or, at the very least, sensationalize people who want transdermal implants and other extreme body modifications; American Mary treats them as regular people trying to bring out their true selves. The monsters are the humans that pass in everyday society, preying on the weak and the different and turning young women like Mary into numb husks of humanity.
So those are my top 10 films of 2013. What were your favorites? Let me know in the comments below.