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10 reasons why 2013 was an embarrassment of cinematic riches

While I doubt you’ll see a better movie than “The Wolf of Wall Street” this year, the idea of numerical ratings, or even a thumbs up, is reductive, not really saying shit about the nuances of what makes a film worth loving, loathing or being on the fence about. 

But really, I just hate making lists. There’s always the movie you didn’t see, or worse, one you forgot. So, with that in mind, here are my favorite movies of 2013. I’ll let you decide if they are in the right order, but you must see them. Promise?

1 // The Wolf of Wall Street
People seem to be missing the point of “The Wolf of Wall Street.” It isn’t a glorification of the excesses of misogynistic, white-collar criminals. It’s a satirical skewering of the mentality that has been ruining this country for much of the past 30 years. It just happens to be wrapped up in the funniest, lewdest, most electric film of Martin Scorsese’s late career. At 71 years-old, the venerable director has made a movie with the energy and momentum of a filmmaker a third his age, capturing Jordan Belfort’s gilded, manic life story with the skill of a master. Leonardo DiCaprio turns in the performance of his career alongside a scene-stealing Jonah Hill, and the results are nothing short of astounding. It’s a three-hour long film that feels like it takes up half of that runtime, and still leaves you wanting more.

2 // Dallas Buyers Club
Matthew McConaughey turns in yet another Oscar-worthy performance as Ron Woodroof, a lecherous rodeo cowboy whose heterosexual adventures in the ‘80s earn him an AIDS diagnosis at a time when that news amounted to a death sentence. Refusing to take inevitability sitting down, Woodroof circumvented the FDA to bring experimental therapies to the desperately ill — with the help of Jared Leto’s Rayon, a dying pre-operative transsexual whose world-weary pragmatism changes the homophobic Ron in ways he never would have believed. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, “Dallas Buyers Club” miraculously subverts schmaltz to craft a unique, unshakeable story of true humanity.        

3 // The Act of Killing
I’d never seen a movie like “The Act of Killing.” Neither have you. Director Joshua Oppenheimer delves into the lives of a band of executioners responsible for the murder and torture of thousands during the communist purges in Indonesia during the mid-1960s. That would be morbid enough, but the unrepentant men involved (who still inspire fear today) are offered the opportunity to re-enact their bloody exploits with shocking and deeply weird results. Surreal, creepy and at points utterly avant-garde, “The Act of Killing” will leave you mesmerized, appalled and quite possibly a little ill. 

4 // 12 Years a Slave
It feels odd to call “12 Years a Slave” director Steve McQueen’s most hopeful film. The story — of a free Northern black man, Solomon Northup, who is kidnapped from his family and sold into bondage in the South — certainly isn’t light-hearted. In fact, McQueen exhibits his usual unflinching style down to every last dehumanizing detail. But the full picture he paints, with wonderful performances from Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ashley Dyke and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Northup, is one that rewards the audience with just enough light at the end of the tunnel to feel some slight contentment.     

5 // Fruitvale Station
The most moving film I saw all year. The true-life tale of Oscar Grant, as portrayed in a stunning performance by Michael B. Jordan, “Fruitvale Station” lets us walk by Grant’s side during a fateful day in 2008 that culminates with a confrontation with a Bay Area transit cop. The beautiful, grainy 16-mm film stock and lucid direction from first-time feature director Ryan Coogler bring Oscar Grant back to life, returning the humanity that was stolen from him. Simply amazing.   

6 // Her
Spike Jonze has a Christopher Nolan-like, watchmaker’s approach to his narratives — except his work is warmer, more organic and emotionally genuine than Nolan’s. With “Her,” Jonze grafts a quirky, human love story onto a dystopian sci-fi bauble of oddness, crafting a melancholy and genuine rumination on love’s frailty.  Joaquin Phoenix is Theodore, a divorced nerd who falls in love with his computer’s operating system (voiced by Scarlett Johansson).  While the core of the plot might remind some of the cheesy ‘80s romance “Electric Dreams” (a computer falls in love with Virginia Madsen), “Her” a is a far more nuanced, deeply written and skillfully executed tale. Phoenix and Scar-Jo turn in engrossing performances and Jonze has never been more assured behind the camera.     

7 // Blue Jasmine
Much like Scorsese, a reinvigorated Woody Allen is turning in his best work in decades. “Blue Jasmine” marks his return to darker character drama as we follow Jasmine (Cate Blanchett), a formerly rich Manhattanite whose fortune is lost when her corrupt husband is imprisoned for fraud. Forced to move to San Francisco and get back on her feet with the help of her lower-middle class sister, Jasmine spirals into mental downfall as she begins to realize her life was never what it seemed, and that she might never be able to adapt. Blanchett is a wonder and, shockingly, so is Andrew Dice Clay as Auggie, Jasmine’s estranged brother-in-law.

8 // The Spectacular Now
Coming of age films rarely get it this right. With “The Spectacular Now,” director James Ponsoldt nails all the frustration, excitement and loss of waning adolescence with novelistic panache. Miles Teller, as Sutter Keely, a hard-drinking, funny, charismatic teenager pining to know his estranged father, is a natural. The chemistry he shares with Shailene Woodley during the film’s most intimate scenes make for some of the most genuine character moments of the year.        

9 // Inside Llewyn Davis
The Coen brothers strike again with this gorgeous, pathos-driven tale of a couch-surfing folk singer in the 1960s and his fugue-like adventures across the country after losing his benefactor’s cat. Striking a satisfying balance between the tone of “A Serious Man” and the musical joys of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” the Coens weave an enigmatic tale with the feel of near improvisation (though that’s just effortlessness), giving us yet another classic. Oscar Isaac is prickly and sympathetic as Davis, while a slew of great actors fill the periphery. The narrative might not satisfy everyone, but the ride is more than enough to keep us interested.      

10 // Spring Breakers
Harmony Korine’s trashy, funny and provocative assault provides so much more than just the opportunity to ogle Mouseketeers in bikinis. A thematic sibling to his 1997 cult-classic, “Gummo,” Korine paints the screen with a hedonistic satire of American cultural entitlement, when a gaggle of college girls who love sex and money go on spring break and meet Alien (James Franco, in the role of his career), a nouveau riche drug dealer who turns out to be a lot deeper than he seems.   

Honorable Mention // Still Mine
This simple story — that of a landowner fighting City Hall to build a house on his bucolic property — on its own wouldn’t normally propel “Still Mine” onto this list. But the performances by James Cromwell and Geneviève Bujold as an aging married couple seals the deal. They are simply perfect. Funny, sexy, sweet and utterly charming, the transparency they bring to their roles is nothing short of miraculous.