Favorite Films of 2013

The first one should be obvious. The rest may surprise you...

My favorite films of this year all used excess and the fantastic as a way of reaching truths about the characters and the audiences who saw them. They were uncompromising in vision and execution, unafraid of taking us places that we didn’t necessarily think we wanted to go. My favorite movies this year pushed us to places great and small, whether it was the unimaginable horror of fighting for survival in the worst conditions imaginable or the quiet resolution of accepting a normal life in the midst of the supremely powerful.

Movies this year dared us to look forward, backward and inward; to accept or to rebel and fight. My top ten this year reflects this extreme point of view and rewards those films that actually challenged us in some ways, even when they may not appear to be so progressive on their surfaces.

2013 was a good year for films with voices. Let’s hope 2014 is even better.

Favorite Movies of the Year

1.      The Wolf of Wall Street

2.       About Time

3.       The World’s End

4.       Gravity

5.       Iron Man 3

6.       This is the End

7.       American Hustle

8.       The Heat

9.       Pain and Gain

10.   The Way, Way Back

Biggest Disappointment This Year: Man of Steel.

Yes, it’s an uncompromising film too, but one with something so rotten and awful at its core that it presents the inverse vision of the title character. It’s Watchmen without Watchmen.