Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: 2013 in films

1/03/2018

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

The 10 Best Films of 2013:

1. 12 Years a Slave - Steve McQueen + Best American Movie of the Year

2. Like Father, Like Son/そして父になる (Soshite Chichi ni Naru) - Hirokazu Koreeda + Best Drama of the Year + Best Japanese Movie of the Year

3. Only God Forgives - Nicolas Winding Refn + Best Danish Movie of the Year

4. Philomena - Stephen Frears + Best True-Story Movie of the Year + Best English Movie of the Year

5. Finding Vivian Maier, documentary - Charlie Siskel & John Maloof

6. Inside Llewyn Davis - Joel and Ethan Coen + Best Music Film of the Year

7. Blue Is the Warmest Colour/La Vie d'Adèle - Chapitres 1 & 2 - Abdellatif Kechiche + Best French Movie of the Year

8. The Great Beauty/La Grande Bellezza - Paolo Sorrentino + Best Rome Movie of the Year + Best Italian Movie of the Year

9. The Past/Le Passé - Asghar Farhadi + Most Under-Appreciated Movie of the Year

10. Blue Jasmine - Woody Allen + Best San Francisco Movie of the Year

Other great movies of 2013 (in alphabetical order)

20 Feet from Stardom, documentary - Morgan Neville

All Is Lost - J. C. Chandor + Best Survival Movie of the Year

August: Osage County - John Wells + Best Ensemble of the Year

Bad Hair/Pelo Malo - Mariana Rondón + Best Venezuelan Movie of the Year + Best LGBT Movie of the Year

Begin Again/Can a Song Save Your Life? - John Carney + Best New York Movie of the Year

Behind the Candelabra - Steven Soderbergh

The Butler/Lee Daniels' The Butler - Lee Daniels + Best Political Movie of the Year

The Conjuring - James Wan + Best Horror Movie of the Year

Despicable Me 2 - Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud

Don Jon - Joseph Gordon-Levitt + Best Debut Movie of the Year

Enough Said - Nicole Holofcener + Best Los Angeles Movie of the Year

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared/Hundraåringen Som Klev Ut Genom Fönstret och Försvann - Felix Herngren + Best Swedish Movie of the Year

Ida - Pawel Pawlikowski + Best Polish Movie of the Year

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone - Don Scardino + Best Las Vegas Movie of the Year

Monsters University - Dan Scanlon

Nebraska - Alexander Payne

Saving Mr. Banks - John Lee Hancock + Best Period Movie of the Year + Best Dramedy of the Year

Side Effects - Steven Soderbergh + Best Thriller of the Year

We're the Millers - Rawson Marshall Thurber + Best Comedy of the Year + Best Road Movie of the Year

Recommendable, good movies of 2013 (in alphabetical order)

Anchorman: The Legend Continues - Adam McKay

Dallas Buyers Club - Jean-Marc Vallée

Evil Dead - Fede Alvarez

Fading Gigolo - John Turturro

Fruitvale Station - Ryan Coogler

Gravity - Alfonso Cuarón + Best Science Fiction Movie of the Year

The Last Stand - Kim Jee-Woon + Best Comeback of the Year (Arnold Schwarzenegger)

Lone Survivor - Peter Berg + Best War Movie of the Year

Mama - Andrés Muschietti

Northwest/Nordvest - Michael Noer

Nymphomaniac - Lars Von Trier + Wildest Movie of the Year + Best Poster of the Year

Oz the Great and Powerful - Sam Raimi

Pacific Rim - Guillermo Del Toro

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - Ben Stiller

Sorrow and Joy/Sorg og Glæde - Nils Malmros

Stranger by the Lake/L'Inconnu du Lac - Alain Guiraudie

This Is the End - Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen

Tom at the Farm/Tom à la Ferme - Xavier Dolan + Best Canadian Movie of the Year

White House Down - Roland Emmerich + Silliest Movie of the Year

The Wolf of Wall Street - Martin Scorsese

The 10 Worst Movies of 2013:

1. Black Nativity - Kasi Lemmons + Most Deserved Mega-flop of the Year

2. A Good Day to Die Hard - John Moore + Worst Poster of the Year + Stupidest Movie of the Year

3. World War Z - Marc Forster

4. Stoker - Chan-wook Park

5. The Last Exorcism Part 2 - Ed Gass-Donnelly

6. Keeper of Lost Causes/Kvinden i Buret - Mikkel Nørgaard

7. Sharknado, TV movie - Anthony C. Ferrante

8. A Field in England - Ben Wheatley

9. Odd Thomas - Stephen Sommers

10. The Bling Ring - Sofia Coppola

Other failed, poor or mediocre 2013 movies (in alphabetic order):

Admission - Paul Weitz
Blue Ruin - Jeremy Saulnier
Escape from Tomorrow - Randy Moore + Best Low-Budget Movie of the Year
Gangster Squad - Ruben Fleischer + Most Expensive Flop of the Year
The Heat
The Kings of Summer/Toy's House
Omar
Star Trek Into Darkness - J.J. Abrams
Under the Skin + Strangest Movie of the Year
Warm Bodies
The Wind Rises/風立ちぬ [Kaze Tachinu]
The Wolverine - James Mangold + Best Superhero Movie of the Year

[71 titles in total]

Notes

The fourth edition of updated 2013 lists raises the amount of reviewed films from 65 to 71.

Running through the list from the top:

2013 has given a generous 10 masterpieces (so far) in Steve McQueen's amazing, multi-Oscar-winning 12 Year a Slave, family-themed drama Like Father, Like Son by Japanese master filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda, Nicolas Winding Refn's singular, Bangkok-set neo-western Only God Forgives, Stephen Frears' fantastic drama Philomena, Charlie Siskel and John Maloof's slightly overlooked, incredible documentary Finding Vivian Maier, Joel and Ethan Coen's music drama pearl, Inside Llewyn Davis, Paolo Sorrentino's colorful ode to Rome, The Great Beauty, Asghar Farhadi's stern, brilliant drama The Past and Woody Allen's priceless Blue Jasmine. The top 10 also includes Abdellatif Kechiche's incredible French love story Blue Is the Warmest Colour, as Mariana Rondón's lustrous Bad Hair is pushed out this year by the re-assessed masterpiece by Refn.
Other great movies this year includes J. C. Chandor's amazing lost-at-sea drama All Is Lost, James Wan's phenomenal horror The Conjuring and Lee Daniels' terrific political drama The Butler.

2013 had many other great and wonderful films, as well as some painstaking duds, most prominently Kasi Lemmons' truly horrendous musical Black Nativity, which squeezes itself into the Worst #1 seat, putting John Moore's awful Die Hard 5, A Good Day to Die Hard in #2. It is followed by great filmmaker Marc Forster's World War Z and Chan-wook Park's pretentious, boring and unpleasant Stoker. The worst-of continues with the dubious, befittingly titled The Last Exorcism Part 2, Danish crime adaptation The Keeper of Lost Causes by great filmmaker Mikkel Nørgaard, TV movie sensation Sharknado, great British filmmaker Ben Wheatley's psych-out, gross, borderline pretentious A Field in England, Stephen Sommers' jumbled Odd Thomas adaptation and finally master filmmaker Sofia Coppola's disappointing The Bling Ring, as Ruben Fleischer's deafening Gangster Squad leaves the list in this update.

2013 was characterized by a jump towards almost ruthless realism in some of the year's most interesting films, from the biggest winner (12 Years a Slave) to the more arthouse-bound European films like Nymphomaniac, Stranger by the Lake and Blue Is the Warmest Colour, all of which feature explicit sex scenes galore. Film Excess warmly welcomes this new trend, which only heightens already good films, (but will hardly save films that are already shabby.)
Of great filmmakers that put out somewhat disappointing films in the year can be mentioned Paul Weitz with Admission, J.J. Abrams with Star Trek Into Darkness, James Mangold with The Wolverine and Hayao Miyazaki with The Wind Rises.

Notes on the 2014 Oscars:

The academy favored 12 Years a Slave and Gravity, as well as Dallas Buyers Club:
12 Years a Slave won 3 awards, for Best Film, Best Supporting Actress (Lupita Nyong'o in her startling break-out performance) and Best Adapted Screenplay (John Ridley). Dallas Buyers Club won 3 awards, for Best Actor (Matthew McConaughey), Best Supporting Actor (Jared Leto), and Best Makeup and Hairstyling. The night's biggest winner was Gravity with 7 awards, for Best Director (Alfonso Cuarón), Best Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki), Editing, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects and Score (Stephen Prince).
Cate Blanchett won Best Actress for Blue Jasmine; Spike Jonze won Best Original Screenplay for Her; Disney's Frozen won Best Song (Let It Go) and Best Animated Feature; Baz Luhrman's The Great Gatsby won Best Costumes and Best Production Design.
Mr Hublot won Best Animated Short; The Lady in No. 6: Music Saved My Life won Best Documentary Short and Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson won the short film Oscar for Helium. Twenty Feet From Stardom won Best Documentary, and Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty won Best Foreign Film, ahead of The Broken Circle Breakdown, The Hunt, The Missing Picture and Omar.
Honorary awards went to Piero Tosi, Steve Martin, Angela Lansdale, Charles 'Tad' Marburg and Angelina Jolie.

IMDb's user-generated top 10 most popular 2013 titles:

1. Frozen
2. The Wolf of Wall Street
3. The Lone Ranger
4. The Great Gatsby
5. Prisoners
6. We're the Millers
7. Her

8. Now You See Me
9. Fast & Furious 6
10. Nymphomaniac: Vol. 1

The 2013 Cannes Film Festival:

Steven Spielberg was the year's jury president, and The Great Gatsby opened the fest. The year's official festival poster featured Paul Newman lying down face to face with wife Joanne Woodward.
Blue Is the Warmest Colour won the Palm d'Or, which also won its main actresses an special honorary Palm d'Or. Rithy Panh's The Missing Picture won the Un Certain Regard section; Anahita Ghazvinizadeh's Needle won the Cinéfondation award; Moon Byoung-gon's Safe won the short film award. Other main prizes went to Bérénice Bejo (best actress, The Past), Bruce Dern (best actor, Nebraska), Like Father, Like Son (jury prize), A Touch of Sin (best screenplay), Amat Escalante (best director, Heli) and Inside Llewyn Davis (Grand Prix).
A full list of the main competition films of the year:
Behind the Candelabra, Blue Is the Warmest Colour, Borgman, A Castle in Italy, The Great Beauty, Grigris, Heli, The Immigrant, Inside Llewyn Davis, Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian, Like Father, Like Son, Michael Kohlhaas, Nebraska, Only God Forgives, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Past, Shield of Straw, A Touch of Sin, Venus in Fur, Young & Beautiful

2013 movies still pending on the watch-list:

Grudge Match, 12-12-12, Gimme Shelter, The Galapagos Affair, The Railway Man, The Last of Robin Hood, Blood Glacier, The Sacrament, Labor Day, Visitors, Of Horses and Men (seen - bad), Jodorowsky's Dune, The Last Match, Adult World, All Is Bright, Mistaken for Strangers, Not Today, The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman (seen - bad), American Hustle, Ender's Game, Mom (TV-series), Insidious: Chapter 2, Enemy, Prisoners, Bad Words, Wolf Creek 2, Salomé, Antarctica: A Year on Ice, Escape Plan, The World's End, Only Lovers Left Alive (seen - bad), The Lunchbox (seen - okay), Borgman, Monster Pies, G.B.F., Oblivion, The Croods, The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete (seen - masterpiece), Upstream Colour, The Grandmaster (seen - okay), Helium, Iron Man 3, Cutie and the Boxer, Dirty Wars, The Square, The Phone Call, Tangerines, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Living on One Dollar, Crystal Fairy and the Magical Cactus, Magic Magic, Gerontophilia, Now You See Me (seen - awful), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Prisoners, Man of Steel, The Lone Ranger, Fast & the Furious 6 (seen - bad), American Hustle, Thor: The Dark World (seen - bad), Movie 43, Kick-Ass 2 (seen - bad), After Earth, The Purge, Identity Thief, The Hangover Part III, Horns, Tracks, Joe, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, Free Fall, Venus in Fur, Big Bad Wolves, Boy & the World, Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed.

Previous annual lists:

2017 in films - according to Film Excess
2016 in films - according to Film Excess
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2014 in films - according to Film Excess
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess

What do you think of Film Excess' 2013 lists?

What films would comprise your lists?
Anything essential missing on the watch-list?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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1/03/2018

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

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