2013--The Year in Review

2013 was a fantastic year for movies. Its prime entry was the eventual winner of the Best Picture Oscar, British director Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave--a film like no other and one completely of today, since this crime of humanity has hardly been vanquished, and particularly original because it dissects the miserable lives lived by both the enslaved and slavers. Unflinching and highly emotional, to the point of sheer hopelessness and then to miraculous release, and beautifully acted by a peerless cast (headed by the remarkable Chewitel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong'o), it's a stunning display of bravery and wisdom in the face of insistent pain. That it has been so controversial is a sure sign that we still have a lot to get over in this country, and in the world (hell, most of civilization has been built on the backs of slaves). McQueen's movie--adapted by John Ridley from Solomon Northup's memoir--deserves to be a key part of that necessary discussion, as well as of a desperately needed confrontation of history, and an equal healing. There may have been other movies from this year I'd want to watch again, but there is no other 2013 film I'm more glad to have seen or seen made. 12 Year a Slave is absolutely required viewing.

This was an astounding year for the sci-fi genre, though. Spike Jonze's astounding Her believably presupposed a world in which humans fall deeply in love with their computer helpers, while Ari Folman's The Congress vividly visualized a future in which humans squander their lives away in completely fabricated realities. Andrew Bujalski's Computer Chess, meanwhile, delved deep into the digital past, dramatizing with great wit the initial adoration pioneering nerds had for this new world (Bujalski wisely chose to shoot this convention between such devotees on black-and-white, '80s-era videotape, and did so with tremendous creativity). The big winner at the Oscars, Alfonso Cueron's sensational tale of survival Gravity, stunned everyone with its immersion in the dangers of space travel (its 3D and big-screen IMAXness justly convinced everyone of its greatness--once you've seen it, you feel you've a veteran astronaut). Meanwhile, films like Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer's splendid account of an alien taking a female form in order to study male humans, with Scarlet Johannson in the lead, and Mica Levi's ravishing debut as a film composer), Shane Carruth's dazzling Upstream Color, Bong Joon Ho's barreling actioner Snowpiercer, Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen's jovial apocalyptic scenario This is the End, and Mark Forster's enthralling adaptation of Max Brooks' zombie killfest World War Z all ratcheted up the genre's cinematic reputation.

But then there are earthbound movies like Martin Scorsese's breathless damnation of modern money-making The Wolf of Wall Street, commanded by Leonardo DiCaprio's astounding lead as a vicious, drug-addicted economic parasite feeding on the greed inherent in the American economy, turned out to be the director's most dynamic movie since The Age of Innocence nearly two decades earlier. UK filmmaker Clio Bernard burst onto the scene with her unflinching look at poor British kids trying to make a buck in The Selfish Giant. And France's Abdellatif Kechiche won the Palme D'Or (along with his two lead actresses, Adele Exarchopolis and Lea Seydoux, in an unusual Cannes joint commendation) for his depiction of a naive lesbian love affair in Blue is the Warmest Color. There's Paul Greengrass' exciting Captain Phillips, with the terrific Tom Hanks in the lead, but also generous enough to cast the unknown Barkhad Abdi as the incredibly dynamic head pirate. And then there are the Coen Brothers, offering one of their most morally challenging movies (and that's really saying something) with Inside Llewyn Davis, an account of a '60s-era folk musician seriously disconnected from the concepts of right and wrong. In the end, there's no question that 2013 stands as the finest movie year of recent memory. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold.

PICTURE: 12 YEARS A SLAVE (US, Steve McQueen) (2nd: Her (US, Spike Jonze), followed by: Blue is the Warmest Color (France/Belgium/Spain, Abdellatif Kechiche); The Congress (Israel/Germany/France, Ari Folman); Computer Chess (US, Andrew Bujalski); The Wolf of Wall Street (US, Martin Scorsese); Gravity (US, Alfonso Cuarón); The Selfish Giant (UK, Clio Barnard); Under the Skin (US, Jonathan Glazer); Inside Llewyn Davis (US, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen); Gloria (Chile, Sebastian Lelio); Nebraska (US, Alexander Payne); The Lords of Salem (US, Rob Zombie); All is Lost (US, J.C. Chandor); A Teacher (US, Hannah Fidell); Beyond the Hills (Romania, Cristian Mungiu); Behind the Candleabra (US, Steven Soderburgh); Blue Jasmine (US, Woody Allen); The Spectacular Now (US, James Ponsoldt); Short Term 12 (US, Dustin Daniel Cretton); Ida (Poland, Pawel Pawlikowski); This is The End (US, Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen); The Crash Reel (US, Lucy Walker); Enough Said (US, Nicole Holofcener); 56 Up (UK, Michael Apted); Joe (US, David Gordon Green); Tim's Vermeer (US, Teller); Blackfish (US, Gabriela Coperthwaite); Sarah Prefers to Run (Canada, Chloé Robichaud); Captain Phillips (US, Paul Greengrass); Upstream Color (US, Shane Carruth); Prince Avalanche (US, David Gordon Green); Snowpiercer (South Korea/Czech Republic/US/France, Bong Joon Ho); The Grandmaster (Hong Kong/China, Wong Kar Wei); Begin Again (US/Ireland, John Carney); Only Lovers Left Alive (US/Germany/UK.France, Jim Jarmusch); Blue Ruin (US, Jeremy Saulnier); The Great Chicken Wing Hunt (US, Matt Reynolds); Side Effects (US, Steven Soderburgh); World War Z (US, Marc Forster); Night Moves (US, Kelly Reichardt); Afternoon Delight (US, Jill Soloway); August: Osage County (US, John Wells); The Bling Ring (US, Sofia Coppola); Touchy Feely (US, Lynn Shelton); Forev (US, Molly Green and James Leffler); The Tale of Princess Kaguya (Japan, Isao Takahata); Good Ol’ Freda (US/UK, Ryan White); Metalhead (Iceland, Ragnar Bragason); The Great Beauty (Italy, Paolo Sorrentino); Ain't Them Bodies Saints (US, David Lowery); The Wind Rises (Japan, Hayao Miyazaki); The Great Gatsby (US/Australia, Baz Luhrmann); Like Father Like Son (Japan, Hirokazu Koreeda); A Touch of Sin (China/Japan/France, Zhangke Jia); Fruitvale Station (US, Ryan Coogler); Mud (US, Jeff Nichols); Dallas Buyers Club (US, Jean-Marc Vallee); The To Do List (US, Maggie Carey); The Trials of Muhammad Ali (US, Bill Siegel); Zipper: Coney Island's Last Wild Ride (US, Amy Nicholson); The Institute (US, Spencer McCall); Casting By (US, Tom Donahue); The Way Way Back (US, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash); We're the Millers (US, Rawson Marshall Thurber); 20 Feet From Stardom (US, Morgan Neville); Our Nixon (US, Penny Lane); Before Midnight (US, Richard Linklater); Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight (US, Stephen Frears); This is Martin Bonner (US, Chad Hartigan); American Hustle (US, David O. Russell); The English Teacher (US, Craig Zisk); Belle (UK, Amma Asante); The Lunchbox (India/US/France, Ritesh Batra); Words and Pictures (US/Australia/Canada, Fred Schepisi); Inequality for All (US, Jacob Kornbluth); Iron Man 3 (US, Shane Black); Last Love (US/France, Sandra Nettelbeck); Prisoners (US, Denis Villeneuve); Frozen (US, Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee); Now You See Me (US, Louis Leterrier); Alan Partridge (UK, Declan Lowney); Philomena (UK, Stephen Frears); Dealin’ With Idiots (US, Jeff Garlin); HazMat (US, Lou Simon); Only God Forgives (Denmark/France/US, Nicolas Winding Refn); Saving Mr. Banks (US, John Lee Hancock); The Zero Theorem (UK/US, Terry Gilliam); Escape Plan (US, Mikael Håfström); Escape from Tomorrow (US, Randy Moore); Sharknado (US, Anthony C. Ferrante)) 

 

ACTOR: Leonardo DiCaprio, THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (2nd: Robert Redford, All is Lost; followed by: Chewitel Ejiofor, 12 Years A Slave; Joaquin Phoenix, Her; Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips; Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis; Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club; Bruce Dern, Nebraska)

ACTRESS: Adele Exarchopoulos, BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (2nd: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine, followed by: Paulina Garcia, Gloria; Brie Larson, Short Term 12; Sandra Bullock, Gravity; Meryl Streep, August: Osage County; Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Enough Said; Lindsay Burge, A Teacher)



SUPPORTING ACTOR: Barkhad Abdi, CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (2nd: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club, followed by: Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street; Gary Poulter, Joe; James Gandolfini, Enough Said; Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave; Will Forte, Nebraska)



SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Lupita Nyong'o, 12 YEARS A SLAVE (2nd: Lea Seydoux, Blue is the Warmest Color, followed by: Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer; Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine; Julia Roberts, August: Osage County; June Squibb, Nebraska; Margot Robbie, The Wolf of Wall Street; Scarlett Johansson, Her)

DIRECTOR: Steve McQueen, 12 YEARS A SLAVE (2nd: Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity, followed by: Spike Jonze, Her; Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street; Abdellatif Kechiche, Blue is the Warmest Color; Jonathan Glazer, Under the Skin; Andrew Bujalski, Computer Chess; Ari Folman, The Congress)

NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM: BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (France, Abdellatif Kechiche) (2nd: Gloria (Chile, Sebastian Lelio), followed by: Beyond the Hills (Romania, Cristian Mungiu); Ida (Poland, Pawel Pawlikowski) (won in 2014); Sarah Prefers to Run (Canada, Chloé Robichaud); The Grandmaster (Hong Kong, Wong Kar Wei); The Wind Rises (Japan, Hayao Miyazaki); Metalhead (Iceland, Ragnar Bragason); The Great Beauty (Italy, Paolo Sorrentino); The Tale of Princess Kaguya (Japan, Isao Takahata); Like Father Like Son (Japan, Hirokazu Koreeda); A Touch of Sin (China/Japan/France, Zhangke Jia)) 

 

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: THE CRASH REEL (US, Lucy Walker) (2nd: 56 Up (UK, Michael Apted), followed by: Tim's Vermeer (US, Teller); Blackfish (US, Gabriela Coperthwaite); The Great Chicken Wing Hunt (US, Matt Reynolds); Good Ol’ Freda (US/UK, Ryan White); The Trials of Muhammad Ali (US, Bill Siegel); Zipper: Coney Island's Last Wild Ride (US, Amy Nicholson); The Institute (US, Spencer McCall); Casting By (US, Tom Donahue); 20 Feet From Stardom (US, Morgan Neville); Our Nixon (US, Penny Lane); Inequality for All (US, Jacob Kornbluth)) 



ANIMATED FEATURE: THE TALE OF PRINCESS KAGUYA (Japan, Isao Takahata) (2nd: The Wind Rises (Japan, Hayao Miyazaki), followed by: Frozen (US, Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee)

 
  
ANIMATED SHORT: GLORIA VICTORIA (Canada, Theodore Yushev) (2nd: Subconscious Password (Canada, Chris Landreth), followed by: The Missing Scarf (Ireland, Eoin Duffy); Hollow Land (Canada/Denmark/France,  Michelle Kranot and Uri Kranot); Mr. Hublot (Luxembourg/France, Alexandre Espigares and Laurent Witz))

 

LIVE ACTION SHORT: JUST BEFORE LOSING EVERYTHING (France, Xavier Legrand) (2nd: Silence (Iran, Pegah Arzi), followed by: Cavedigger (US, Jeffrey Karoff); Winter Hill (US, Melissa Bruno); Comic Book Palace (US, Felipe Jorge))


 
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Spike Jonze, HER (2nd: Nicole Holofcener, Enough Said, followed by: Bob Nelson, Nebraska; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Inside Llewyn Davis; Clio Bernhard, The Selfish Giant))



ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: John Ridley, 12 YEARS A SLAVE (2nd: Abdellatif Kechiche and Ghalia Lacroix, Blue is the Warmest Color, followed by: Terence Winter, The Wolf of Wall Street; Walter Campbell and Jonathan Glazer, Under the Skin; Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, The Spectacular Now))

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Bruno Dubonnel, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS (2nd: Emmanuel Lubezki, Gravity, followed by: Ryszard Denczewski and Lukasz Zal, Ida; Phillipe Le Sourd, The Grandmaster; Brandon Troust, The Lords of Salem)

PRODUCTION DESIGN: THE GREAT GATSBY, Her, Gravity, 12 Years a Slave, Inside Llewyn Davis

COSTUME DESIGN: THE GREAT GATSBY, American Hustle, Her, 12 Years a Slave, Dallas Buyers Club

 

FILM EDITING: 12 YEARS A SLAVE, Gravity, The Wolf of Wall Street, Inside Llewyn Davis, Her

 

SOUND: GRAVITY, All is Lost, Captain Phillips, World War Z, Inside Llewyn Davis 



SOUND EFFECTS: ALL IS LOST, Gravity, Iron Man 3 



ORIGINAL SCORE: Steven Price, GRAVITY (2nd: Mica Levi, Under the Skin, followed by: William Butler and Owen Pallett, Her; Alex Ebert, All is Lost; Mark Orton, Nebraska)



ORIGINAL SONG: "Please Mr. Kennedy" from INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS (Music and lyrics by Ed Rush, George Cromarty, T Bone Burnett, Justin Timberlake, Joel Coen, and Ethan Coen) (2nd: "For The Time Being" from The Way Way Back (Music and lyrics by Edie Brickell), followed by: "Young and Beautiful" from The Great Gatsby (Music and lyrics by Elizabeth Grant and Rick Howels); "Let It Go" from Frozen (Music by Robert Lopez, lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez); "The Moon Song" from Her (Music by Karen O, lyrics by Karen O and Spike Jonze); "Atlas" from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Music and lyrics by Chris Martin, Guy Berrymkan, Jonny Buckland and Will Champion); "Ordinary Love" from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (Music and lyrics by Paul Hewson, David Evans, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr., and Brian Burton); "In Summer" from Frozen (Music by Robert Lopez, lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez); "Get Used to Me" from The Sapphires (Music and lyrics by Diane Warren))



SPECIAL EFFECTS: GRAVITY, World War Z, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Pacific Rim, Iron Man 3

MAKEUP AND HAIRSYLING: DALLAS BUYERS CLUB, American Hustle, Snowpiercer

Film #155: 12 Years a Slave

I saw Steve McQueen's 12 YEARS A SLAVE yesterday, and lemme tell ya, this is the film of the year--historically invaluable (outside of maybe the 12-hour TV miniseries ROOTS, the best filmed work ever produced on its subject), beautifully crafted and overwhelmingly emotional. I want to encourage--plead with, even--all to see it. However, I would be wrong not to mention that it's a difficult movie to view, for anyone. It's a gut punch that leaves you winded, as well it should--and it does so not with unending violence, but with needling misery punctuated by great grace. It illustrates a terrible set of crimes we must recognize and face up to in order to finally begin to vanquish its stink--and this "we" is not only America, but the "we" in all countries with slavery in their past or present, which basically includes the world entire. Like Steven Spielberg's SCHINDLER'S LIST, another brutally relentless picture to which it's been most readily compared (though not exactly accurately), this is a detailed telling of painful truths which we each have a collective responsibility to experience in all their abysmal power. 

In a scant 133 minutes, McQueen makes us feel every longing moment of Solomon Northup's kidnapping from his New York home, where he was once a successful musician and family man, and his seemingly endless imprisonment in a state of constant threat, frustration, back-breaking labor, and spirit-breaking hopelessness. The very title of the film let's us know that the protagonist (an excellent Chewitel Ejiofor) finally escapes his dour fate, and for that mercy, we're grateful. But the movie more importantly makes you also feel a bottomless anguish for those souls who share in his experience--those who had to wait for more blood to be shed, across a divided nation, before they could sample freedom, if they survived the journey at all. 

A major factor in the movie's success is the completely wrenching performance by Lupita Nyong'o as Patsey, a female slave caught between the sexual assaults of her psychopathic "master" (a hissable Michael Fassbender, continuing his long collaboration with McQueen) and his jealous, icy wife (the equally hateful Sarah Paulson). Nyong'o is incredibly talented and is, like the movie as a whole, instantly the frontrunner this awards season for her supporting performance that, in some of 12 YEARS A SLAVE's most compelling sequences, brands itself onto our brains. Fearless, she makes her character's physical and spiritual depletion utterly, unerringly palpable. 

This film's remaining cast is tremendous as well. Paul Giamatti is especially memorable in his brief showing as an unspeakably heartless slave trader (the scene where he separates a female slave from her children is torturous, and is easily the most nefarious screen moment ever for this usually likable actor); the typically unwashed Paul Dano is well positioned as an scary field boss; Alfre Woodard has a superb key sequence as a former slave who's somewhat cynically--and shrewdly--forged a path to survival by marrying into master status; and Brad Pitt, as a journeyman carpenter from Canada, is a gentle presence as the film's one pale-skinned voice of reason and compassion (Benedict Cumberbatch, as a blindly and ironically religious former "owner" of Northup's, is at least slightly giving, though still monsterous). Beyond the performances, Sean Bobbit's sumptuous widescreen photography reminds us that this violence and oppression occurred in places of dichotomous beauty (McQueen gently illustrates the passage of time without irritating title cards but instead with brilliantly melancholy views of the Louisiana countryside), Hans Zimmer's dischordant score provides a unsettling note throughout, Joe Walker's editing is perfectly timed, and John Ridley's screenplay is beyond reproach in dialogue, insight, and pace. 

Steve McQueen, whose British nationality adds a valuable outsider's perspective, is apparently fascinated and moved by imprisoned characters; his previous films, the Irish prison-set Bobby Sands biopic HUNGER and the sexual addiction drama SHAME--a movie I didn't care for, because of its distancing chilliness--prove this. Here, McQueen forsakes only a bit of the slick, long-taked gaze he displayed in those works but, without jettisoning his measured and unflinching style, he's traded up for a more valuable and effective emotional impact (12 YEARS A SLAVE is the only 2013 film that has moved me to tears). Amongst a massive number of unshakable images, I find I really can't shake the one shot of Ejiofor's Northup that most stunningly illustrates the high quality of both the director and the actor's unique efforts: a lengthy close-up of Northup silently considering his place in the world, and then looking directly into the camera as if to plead for the audience's help, and perhaps to recognize our complicity (also extremely unforgettable: a very long take of Northup on the end of a lynching rope, with his feet barely touching the ground and his body just on the verge of being choked lifeless, with no one--not even other slaves--coming to his assistance). 

Ejiofor is forced into giving a somewhat reigned-in performance, since the only emotions Northup can safely display are ones tinged with suffering. But this doesn't make his showing here any less detailed and disciplined. Steve McQueen's 12 YEARS A SLAVE will definitely have you wincing and weeping, and will also certainly stun you into a long, contemplative reverie as you consider, and are overwhelmed by, the cruelties the very concept of slavery inflicts upon its irredeemable perpetrators, who live dark lives of despicable heartlessness, and its hapless victims, who've experienced unimaginably gratuitous despair and, yet, somehow, retain a superhuman iron will to press on past the hell. This movie's own bravery is, in a similar light, heroic.