Traditional Top Ten for 2013

Happy New Year Everyone

Before I give you my listing, the three films that moved in and out of my top ten deserve to be mentioned as well. One last minute film bumped "Saving Mr. Banks" off the list. "About Time" was on the list at one point but was bumped by "Saving Mr. Banks". "12 Years A Slave" is a fine film and hovered on the edge for me. Ultimately I was just not moved in the same ways that everyone else seems to be by it. The horrifying depiction of human cruelty may have suffered because I'm not sure how repeatable the experience is for me. This is not really a list of the "Best" films of the year, it simply represents my set of favorites. It is of course subjective, but I could enjoy seeing all of these multiple times. The original reviews are available by clicking on the posters shown below.

10.  42 

This is a social movement film that describes an important change in the American character and the greatness of one man. Jackie Robinson achieved his place in sports history not just because he was the first black player in the major leagues, but also because he was a great player and a courageous man. The story will probably be seen by many as too conventionally told but it hits all the important emotional points and it works on each of them. It also has the advantage of having my favorite movie poster of the year. The image to the left here depicts a baseball move, but look at Robinson's right hand, it is raised and clutched in defiance. The fact that this horizontal activity is depicted vertically, makes it more interesting and maybe even symbolic. Harrison Ford gives a terrific performance as Branch Rickey, the baseball man who saw the future.

9. The World's End

 This movie is on the list for one reason, it made me laugh and it made me laugh hard. I was chuckling all the way to the car after the movie was over and still laugh just thinking about it. Simon Pegg has become one of my favorites in the last few years. He has a comic persona but can play a good dramatic turn as well. I was late to "Shaun of the Dead" but "Hot Fuzz" was on my radar before it opened and i was there that first night. The idea that these films are in any way connected story wise is just part of the joke that everyone seems willing to go along with. The set up of the movie was excellent and the characters were played straight. When it takes a sharp turn two thirds of the way in, we are willing to go along because the characters were so strong to begin with. I know I will be watching ten or fifteen minutes of this every time I run across it, and I know that if I have the time, I will end up finishing it.

8. Drew: The Man Behind the Poster

As a movie, this documentary about the illustrator Drew Struzan is pretty conventional. There are a lot of talking heads sharing opinions and telling stories. The fact that those talking heads belong to some of the greatest film makers of the last thirty years is what begins to tell you there is something different here. I looked forward to this movie for about a year before it opened. I love movie posters and I love poster art. Too many posters now are simply photoshop creations. Some of them are attractive but they are rarely artistic. Drew Struzan makes art. I'm not sure I know how one distinguishes illustrator from artist, but I am confident that Mr. Struzan is esteemed by people in both fields. The movie played at a film festival here in Southern California and that's what allowed me to meet both the director and the subject. Each of them was gracious with the few moments i spent talking to them and it was a highlight of the year for me.

7. American Hustle

In terms of quality, this may be the best picture of the year. I thought it was extremely well written and turned an interesting historical event into an entertaining story with some clever additions of romance and "Sting" like story deception. As a collection of performers it would be difficult to find a cast that did a better overall job than this one. All of the major characters are effective in their roles with special attention going to Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence. These two women are the current generations version of Bette Davis and Barbara Stanwyck, sexy in non conventional ways and talented as all get out. This is director David O. Russells third film in a row to knock it out of the park, he is in the sweet spot of his career right now and we are lucky to be a part of it.

6. Evil Dead

The thing that most scared me when I knew this was coming was that it would suck. The original "Evil Dead" is a touchstone horror classic from the 1980s and it was straight out frightening. The sequels went more for humor mixed with scares but the original practically invented the cabin in the woods genre of horror movies. The one thing that gave me some confidence was that the original film makers were overseeing the new crew and they would not want their legacy to be tainted. Some of the other sites I read did not like this but i thought it was everything I hoped it would be. There was gore in service of the story and characters, the effects are for the most part practical, there are some good subtle nods to the original without becoming campy and best of all, it was frightening.

5. The Conjuring

That's right, I've got two horror films on my ten favorite list and they are back to back. Where "Evil Dead" goes for the visceral horror, "The Conjuring" is more suspenseful and builds to it's frights. There a smashing opening that seems to have little to do with the later events but of course in the end it will be connected for us. This is a moody, haunted house piece that does not reinvent the genre, it just does it's job efficiently and with professionalism. There are CGI moments but they are used with restraint, which seems to be the main problem I have with most films in this genre, when it's time for the boogie man to show up, it is often not as frightening and sometimes it is visually distracting.

4. Gravity

 This movie looks amazing. The images could convince you that it was filmed on location. I have seen a couple of pieces critical of the science or a storytelling technique or two, but those criticisms miss the bigger picture. This is an ambitious film, told on a grand scale about some of the most intimate feelings we as human beings have. While others have been beating the drum for Cate Blanchett as the best female performance of the year, I know in my heart and in my brain, that Sandra Bullock completely owns this move and this solar system. If you go to the movies to be wowed, than this is the movie to go to. It impressed me repeatedly. This is the kind of movie that 3D IMAX films were made for. I hope it will translate to other platforms because the story and the performance deserve equal attention to the look of the movie.

3. The Way, Way Back

One of those little movies that can, does. A coming of age story that has a few twists and a genuinely appealing performance from Sam Rockwell. The scenario is a little complicated but the story is conventional. The characters are incredibly real and the dialogue is full of sparkling insights about growing up and relationships. Allison Janey will slay you every time she opens her mouth. This is a funny film that has some genuine heart and the performances are winning. It crawled under my skin and just stayed there, daring me to try to rid myself of the warm happy feeling it gave me. I expect this to be a summer perennial at my house. 

2. Rush

The real life story of a Formula One rivalry from more than thirty years ago did not seem to be something that I would fall in love with. I'm not a race fan and although I vaguely remember the incident, it was not of historical significance. None of that mattered once these characters came alive on screen. The fascinating point of the story is how competition compels us to make ourselves better and that competition means someone else is challenging us. The two lead actors are excellent and the race sequences are well staged. Somehow this movie pulled me in and as I sat in the theater after it was over, I could hardly contain my enthusiasm for the film. This movie has disappeared from most people's radar for end of the year accolades, I say it easily is better than the new Scorsese film and equal to the other films that are being bandied around now. This is an adult film for grown ups who want to be intelligently entertained, not shocked or pandered to.

1. Mud

This film contains a more subtle performance from Matthew McConaughey than the one he gave in "Dallas Buyers Club". I prefer it but both of those roles are terrific showpieces for an actor who has been slumming in rom-com world for far too long. Here's the thing though, McConaughey's performance is not the best one in the movie. That was provided to us by a child actor named Tye Sherida. Kids performances may be hard to gauge because sometimes they are just being kids and that's all the part calls for. This was a lot more complicated and difficult and he pulled it off while being surrounded by a pretty impressive cast. This film came out in April and is now making the rounds on cable. Be sure to take some time to see it. The less you know about it, the more I think you will enjoy it. From the time I saw it, it was on the top of my list and nothing that has come since has been able to dislodge it.

End of the Year Wrap Up

This year was certainly better than last year when it came to the diversity of quality films. I still worry that I see too many sequels and comic book based movies but I have to say there were several that I enjoyed quite a bit. When I get to the traditional top ten list later, I was surprised to see that there were no animated films near the top. Last year I had two and in 2010 I had three. Monsters University was as close as I could come and it was not that close. Also missing from my list will be a few surprises. I love Star Trek, but "Into Darkness" just missed the list. "Man of Steel" was one of my most highly anticipated films of 2013, and the more I think about it, the lower it drops in my esteem. "The Wolf of Wall Street" was not just a disappointment to me, it kinda ticked me off. Before I pass out my accolades to the movies of the last year, I want to comment a bit on my own blogging efforts.

I try to look at a variety of blog pages from people that I have encountered on line. I visit Keith and the Movies,  The Cinematic Katzenjammer, It Rains...You Get Wet, and Every 70s Movie on a daily basis. Several other bloggers also are worth visiting, I just don' always have time every day, they include Morgan on Media, Citizen Charlie, And So It Begins, and Scopophilia Movies of the 60s, 70s,80s. Two of my favorite blogs however are not daily blogs, My Movies My Words is a project by a writer on the other side of the country and I enjoy Eric's take on films but he posts when he can rather than on a regular schedule. Finally, Fogs Movie Reviews has discontinued publishing but Dan still has two years worth of posts that you can go back though and enjoy.  Many of these sites are more prolific than I could ever hope to be and some of the writers have a way with words and insights that frankly intimidate me a bit. I am however happy with what I manage to produce and by way of narcissistic-ally looking back over the year I producede this inventory.

Blog Record for KAMAD

I did some kind of post on all 89 trips to a movie theater that I made this year. That was a lot of AMC Stubbs reward points but also a lot of money spent.

69 New features released this year
11 Classics seen on the big screen years after their first appearance in theaters.
9 VLOG posts on the companion site
41 Posts that are not strictly reviews this includes blogathon reviews, MIWETS on Fogs and My page, and assorted commentaries on movie related issues.
341 Different films watched during the year. At least forty of those were watched a second time so I definately averaged more than a movie a day, even if I did not post on all of them.

A Few Favorite Posts

Not a top ten list but some of the Reviews or Commentaries I most enjoyed writing this year:

Ten Favorite Moments from 2012  A countdown of favorite moments from films in 2012, most of these moments lasted thirty seconds or less. It was fun to put together but the video quote from Piranha 3DD is missing because the film was taken down (Probably by my own daughters company).

      Shelby: Josh cut off his penis because something came out of my vagina.

Kirkham A Movie A Year  A quick visual trip though my 55 years on the planet.

   

My Secret Lair

King Kong Times 3  A personal reflection on the three versions of the story of the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Three Perfect Movies   Do yourself a favor and watch any of these gems that not everyone is aware of. If I ever need to cheer myself up, I put in one of these 3 movies and I am happy again almost immediately.

Happy Birthday Strother Martin A salute to one of the great character actors of all time, and a man that I knew slightly because he was related to me. (Visual Proof Included)

The Adventures of Robin Hood on the 75th Anniversary of its release. This is the original post and it still has the video links that were not copied to the Favorite film page.

Jaws: The Vlog Link  This link will take you to an epic forty-five minute video on the movie. I yak for about twenty minutes, There is a quick interview with some guys at the theater in costume and then Amanda and I debrief for about twenty minutes. A big investment of your time, but I had a blast doing it.

Top Ten 007 Movie Posters  I was inspired by Eric from "My Movies, My Words" and then was re-blogged by Michael at "It Rains ...You Get Wet." Another chance to talk about one of my favorite subjects, Bond, James Bond.

Not the Posters but a Laser Disc Re-Creation

Drew: The Man Behind the Poster  This may have been the film going highlight of the year. I got to meet the subject of the film and have a short conversation with both he and the director. Look for the movie either on DVD or Streaming, a fascinating look at a real artistic genius.

CK Secret Santa Blog a Thon  My secret Santa gave me a terrific classic to post on. If you go to the link there is also a link to the Cinematic Katzenjammer site that compiles all the secret Santa Reviews.

Movies I Want Everyone to See  I was privileged to write for Fogs Movie Reviews for almost five months. This is the review I did for my wife's favorite movie and one of the things I'm most proud of writing for that now closed site.

Next Up, the Traditional Top Ten List. Check back soon, it should be up sometime on January 1, 2014.

47 Ronin

This movie has apparently been sitting on a shelf for a year or so, and there were not a lot of ads or promotions for it. I guess the studio decided that their investment could not be recovered and they are protecting themselves by releasing it as counter-programing during the holidays and offering only a small amount of release support.  That's a business decision, and the investors have to go with their guts. I think the movie may have been tainted by some of those actions because it was much better than I was expecting it to be.

A little palate cleansing is nice at this time of year. I just saw six new releases of end of the year Oscar bait and Holiday cash in fare. I've been a little overwhelmed and I looked forward to something fairly mindless and action oriented, and here sat "47 Ronin" starring Keanu Reeves on my doorstep. The trailer was not promising, it emphasizes the CGI 3-D hooks of the movie. Fortunately, there is less of that element than might be expected. There are still dragons and ogres and mystical warriors, but the vast majority of the plot seems to be standard samurai action and setting.

Mr. Reeves is often criticized for his acting skills but I have found him acceptable most of the time if he is cast well.  There are not long passages of dialogue for him to spout. The exposition is done in an opening narration and through the voices of other characters. There was only one sequence where Keanu delivers lines that are portentous and even in that spot the sentences are short and to the point. If your objection is to Keanu in a love story set in the Samurai world, don't worry, that is only a small element of what takes place. In truth his character Kai is more of a co-starring role rather than lead. He is an important character, but the story is not about his journey, he is simply one of those acting to avenge their master and restore balance to the world as they see it.

The events are steeped in mysticism but are based on a real event that has been retold and embellished and changed over the years.  The actions of the warriors appear to be in keeping with the code that they lived by and this movie takes pains to emphasize that. There are frequent ceremonial rituals that are engaged in, and clothes that are associated with families and levels of service. The obligations that the ronin feel are explained by their leader and illustrated by their actions. This was one of the aspects of the movie that made it so much more appealing to me. There are several action scenes and the magical/supernatural elements do appeal to a broader audience in modern cinema, but I think this could have been effectively told without all of those components.

A couple of examples of elements that feel overdone; when the lead retainer, Ôishi seeks the banished Kai, he ends up in the set from the third "Pirates of the Caribbean". It feels strange and it is a sequence that is used to partially explain  why Keanu Reeves is not Japanese. In that sequence Kai is battling what appears to be a demonic ogre and it is a CGI creation. A traditional fight would serve the story just as well but the 3-D needs to have some weapons fly off the screen and the leaps and jumps need to be made fitting for a jaded audience. I was still entertained but I would have been just as pleased with a straight drama.

In the long run it was not great but it was good and I was entertained more than I expected to be. I hope that if you are interested you will take the time to see it in a theater. There are other films out there but if you are seeking mainstream entertainment and a entertaining action film, this is your best choice for the holiday period.

Top 25 Movie Posters of 2013 - Movies HD

Not my list but some good choices, take a couple of minutes to check them out.

The Wolf of Wall Street

OK, I'm not drinking the Kool Aid on this one. It was basically three hours of material that you would put in a trailer and almost no story telling at all. I know that Martin Scorsese is one of our greatest living directors but he needs to be called out the same way that people are willing to call out Spielberg when he plays the same notes over and over again. This is not a movie that has anything to say and it hits no emotional points except tedium and disgust.  I can't say it is vile because the movie does not really advocate a viewpoint, but it would be easy to see how people watching this would have the same reaction as the stockbrokers who saw the Forbes article that shared the title of this film. Where do I sign up?

The movie "Wall Street" had a clearer condemnation of the excesses of greed and capitalism, this movie is simply an excuse to showcase those excesses. How many times is it necessary to see Leonardo DiCaprio pop a pill, snort cocaine up his nose or end up drooling on the floor? If your answer is less than a half dozen times, be prepared to be bored, because that sequence of events is repeated every twenty minutes in this three hour tour of late eighties/early nineties barbarism. The fact that he is often accompanied by Jonah Hill as a dweebish partner in crime should make it even less necessary to repeat the events over and over. We get it. Ladle on some nudity, including a shot of what I hope was a prosthetic Jonah Hill penis, and you begin to imagine the lengths to which this movie will go to show us the depravity of this wolf-pack. What might have been missing was any sense of the consequences to anyone other that the lead character in the schemes being played out here. I did not care much for "Blue Jasmine" earlier this year but it is an intellectual and moral giant of a film com,pared to this load of thunder signifying nothing.

Jordan Belfort heads a company designed to separate people from their money regardless of whether the investment has any merit. In fact he seems to prefer that the stocks that he peddles are so high risk because that will absolve him of blame for a lack of return by any of his customers. DiCaprio tears into the role with gusto but the part is so under written that he comes across as a stick figure of bellicose ambition. Just as there are too many sequences of debauchery; from dwarf tossing to gang bangs to gleeful fraud on a party line, there are way too many speeches. This my friends comes from a speech teacher. Belfort gets on the microphone in front of his troops almost as often as he snorts cocaine. What should come over as lunatic inspirational messaging for the sales people in the boiler room operation disguised as an investment firm, seems tired and redundant. Emotional high points can't be high if everything is delivered at the same pitch. The one time it worked in the film was in the moment that Belfort reneges on his S.E.C. agreement. He drops the hyperbole for a few seconds to make a real emotional connection with one of his employees and then dramatically returns to the hyper stylized tone he uses for most of the picture.

There is no character arc in the story. Everyone starts out as a greedy bastard and everyone end up as a greedy bastard. No one is enlightened or changed as a result of the events that take place in the time span of the movie. Some of those events make an interesting anecdote but they do not make a compelling story and when strung together for three hours they make a tedious film. I can understand why there was talk of moving this film to the early part of the next year, it needs some firm pruning and a story editor who can make some sense out of what Scorsese has shot. I think that a decision was made that the salacious nature of the film subject and the name of Martin Scorsese would be satisfactory at  bringing in film fans and there are enough critical apologists that the movie would get some awards consideration. I frankly saw DiCaprio better in a two minute scene in "The Great Gatsby" than in the whole of this film.

The kinetic energy of the filming and editing can't turn the excesses into anything other than a teaser trailer for a movie that lasts three hours. If you watch the first teaser for the film, you get everything there is in the movie. Add a few more F-bombs and a lot of nudity and drug use and there you have what so many people are claiming is a great film. It takes a lot of talented people to make a movie and the technical aspects of this film are excellent. There are some good short pieces of acting work that are quality based but they are in aid of something meaningless. The vision of the director is ultimately responsible for how the film is supposed to come across to the audience. The director here seems to be blinded by his vision of decadence, much the same way as he was by the style of film in "New York, New York". A vision can't just be the images, it needs to be emotions and insight, two things lacking in this film.  Art is subjective, so some will find this artful, I just found it loud, crass and not very entertaining.

Philomena

This a a film to stir your blood if you have any sense of injustice. Regardless of your faith or political leanings, the history of harsh treatment of pregnant young women in Ireland in the first half of the last century is not a happy one. Whether it was the horror show projected by "the Magdalene Sisters" ( a film that has received much criticism for it's accuracy) or the more mundane heartlessness of the abbey shown in this film, it does appear that strict moral adhesion to a philosophy was emotionally cruel. This film is actually a pretty sad story despite the humor that is highlighted in the trailer above. There are moments of levity but at it's heart, the film concerns the indifference of a couple of institutions to the people that they serve.

The first of those institutions are the convents that took in women abandoned by their families and then misused them. I have not done enough research to know if this is just typical Catholic bashing or if this was standard operating procedure. I do believe that the film shows a strength of faith by the title character that would be hard to preserve if there was not a foundation of goodness somewhere. From a more modern perspective, unwed pregnant women are not something to be hidden away and their children taken from them. From a perspective of the times, it might seem that the children were given treatment in their best interest and that the expectation that the women would simply accept the results was normal. What is not normal is the desire to cover up past sins when relevant information is deliberately withheld. I watched and was unhappy when the children were taken, but I did not see that as an act of evil. Later in the story, when we discover that at least some officials in the hierarchy deliberately withheld information from parents and children, the shroud of evil is draped on those characters. The way the story is revealed in the film seems to be dramatically effective, regardless whether it is accurate or not.

The second institution that is criticized here is the world of journalism. The author of the book that the film is based on is portrayed as the lead character of the film. The screenwriters have not been shy about displaying his flaws as a human being. As an outcast from the privileged class of journalists at the high levels of government, he seems to have disdain for the idea of a human interest story and for anyone who would be interested in reading one. The pompous fall back of writing Russian history after a fall from grace might make him seem less of a failure from the class that he sees himself in, but it was clear that the rest of the world had little use for it. The nice part of the story is that he is forced to recognize that there is worth in the stories of others who are not czars, commissars, or members of an oligarchy.

Judi Dench is marvelous as the elderly woman seeking her lost child. She conveys a rueful manner at those times that the imagined image of her child  appears in her mind. She is also a peppy retired nurse with simple enthusiasms and a warm human nature. I know people who speak to the employees of a restaurant or hotel and make friendly conversation. They sound very much like the chipper Philomena Lee does in those sequences in Washington D.C.Where the misanthropic and jaded journalist sees a person of pitiful or limited imagination, most of us would see a warm hearted soul, willing to share something of herself and learn something from others. Although it is not the journey that will get the most attention, the story of the journalist is just as significant to the film as that of the mother trying to find the lost child from her past.

Steve Coogan plays the writer Martin Sixsmith and he does a good job of reflecting his conflicted loyalties to his journalistic roots and the feelings of his newly acquired friend Philomena Lee. The flashback sequences to the 1950s Irish Convent feel authentic in tone and they certainly look like they might have been filmed at a location where time has stood still. The film is well made and tells the story efficiently, although it does tend to take a couple of political shots, those are largely minor sucker punches that anyone could expect from the authors point of view. There are elements of the final resolution with the adopted sister and the long time lover that I thought needed to be expanded upon, but on the whole it was a rewarding experience for the acting talents and the sad set of stories that make up the whole purpose of the film.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

The story idea of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is a natural for movies. A quiet man leads a rich internal life compared to the mundane existence he eeks out every day. Back in 1947, the great Danny Kaye starred in a Goldwyn musical feature based on the story. There is two hours of entertainment that is fairly conventional and has a nostalgic charm to it that seems light and airy. This new take on the story is a lot more serious, it has a great contemporary song score (but it is not a musical), and despite having some darker themes, it is even more ephemeral than the Danny Kaye film.

Ben Stiller stars in and directed this mediation on loneliness and  fantasy. In this story, Walter is not really unfulfilled in his job, but he is wistful over lost opportunities and the absence of love in his life. It is his longing for romantic contact that drives him to live out a series of imaginary adventures that are then followed up with more real experiences. His interest of affection is not a glamorous music star or model, but rather a pretty co-worker, near his age with a pre-teen child. Walter's main fantasy is not unreachable but all of the scenerios in which he sees himself or later actually experience, are far out of his ability to achieve. My daughter used the phrase "magical realism", which is often associated with  the literary works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I know the concept has been used to describe films as well. "Chocolt", "Amelie" and even "Groundhog Day" are examples. The most recent example of a film of this type would be "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". That film is deliberately referenced in this film, probably as a way of easing us into accepting that which is not logical but which makes the story more interesting and memorable.

The film moves quietly for the most part. It is punctuated with the kind of soft lyrical music you would find on an independent radio station or on NPR at night. The music sets the tone for the film, it is sometimes contemplative, sometimes exuberant but it is always controlled and tasteful. The movie story is the same way. there are bursts of visual craziness but they are simple passages in a longer,calmer plot line. As Walter moves from imagined adventures to real one, we begin to allow the outrageous concept of an everyday man doing the incredible, repeatedly, to be the norm. I think the music score has as much to do with this as the "magical realism" motif that the film adopts. 

If it were not for the presence of some spectacular visual sequences, which combine location work with CGI fx, this is a movie that could have been done on a shoestring budget. As it is, this is a big time studio picture directed at a holiday audience with an intention to have very broad appeal. From a story and performance point of view I think they largely succeed. Walter Mitty is an identifiable character and the woman he longs for, played by Kristen Wiig, seems a nice normal match for a romantic comedy. The fact that this is not a traditional romcom is what makes it appealing but it may also make it a target. I can imagine a world full of cynics, sharpening their knives to go after this lightweight entertainment. If you listen to them, believing the film is tired or not challenging, you will miss a nice experience at the movies. Not every film needs to achieve histrionic heights to be worthwhile.

This is a pleasant fantasy that has a few humorous moments and some beautiful imagery. The central performers are appealing and the story is told effectively. I think it might be a little long for such a souffle. Adults will be able to indulge the leisurely pace of the film, but younger audiences used to instant gratification and comic book action will probably notice the running time a little more than they should. The film has a few things to say but for the most part it just tries to show us how much life we can experience, if we just find sufficient motivation.