TOP 10 2013

[Sleepless]

Haven't seen it but heard good stuff about it.

[jenkins]

how's everyone doing on their 2013? please share your 2013

had this idea which excites (me), to remember 2013 in terms of the 2013 movies i experience here in january/february 2014. it's fun to do bc otherwise there's the potential of faded memories, mistaken memories, and etc calendar blames. these movies i hadn't seen and i'm seeing again. after february all the past year's movies i've wanted to see i'l have seen, and there remain only those movies i made the mistake of not seeing (catching fire? probs) or hadn't heard about. gtk

1
atbs
2
gimme the loot
3 (tie)
before midnight
furious 6
sightseers
6 (tie)
all is lost
pit stop
crystal fairy
9
bastards
10
funeral kings

atbs isn't the only movie i rewatched. the bling ring, the world's end, computer chess, and prince avalanche, my memories of you match my experience. i like atbs better now, tbh

[jenkins]

huh. that's my january '14 list of '13 movies, which i'm making for new remembrances. but now i know in general all '13 chat belongs here. please tell me yours thanks

[Lottery]

Top 5 is something like:

1. Inside Llewyn Davis
2. Her
3. Pacific Rim
4. Only God Forgives
5. Upstream Color

Still have a lot left to watch.

[Frederico Fellini]

1. The Wolf of Wall street 
Can't remember the last time I had that much fun watching a movie. Best Scorsese since Casino. A scumbag movie about scumbag people reflecting a scumbag society. 3 hours flew by. If Dicaprio is ever gonna win an Oscar it's gonna be for this one.

2. 12 Years a slave
McQueen knows how to make me cry. Great acting by everyone. Sad without entering into cheesy and melodramatic. Great score. McQueen comes with a bit of a more "mainstream/accessible" style. One of the best endings of the year.

3. Gravity
Gorgeous. Jaw dropping cinematics that would make Kubrick proud. Always been a Cuaron supporter (Viva el cine latinoamericano, cabrones!). Honestly surprised by how good Bullock was.

4. Dallas Buyer's Club
If Leo doesn't win, It's mcconaughey's time. Jared Leto was superb as well. Great story.

5. Her
Joaquin Phoenix great once again, overlooked once again.

6. American Hustle
David O. Russell's movies are very hit or miss for me, this one was alright. I honestly stopped giving a fuck about the story half way through and just sat there enjoying the amazing performances. Jennifer Lawrence >> Everybody.

7. Inside llewyn Davis
Much better on second viewing. Quirky, sad and cruel and yet laugh out loud funny which is the Coen's trademark. Explain the cat?  Or maybe there is no explanation.... maybe that's the point?  ???????... Great ending though... "Au revoir"....  "It ain't the leaving, that is grieving me... but my own true love whose bound to stay behind". : )

8. Pacific Rim
The visuals.

9. Prisoners
Snubbed big time.

10. Anchorman 2
My type of humor. I watched this 3 times at the theater. Get high as a kite, sit back and enjoy this masterpiece.

[jenkins]

cool. those are appropriate lists for the top 10 topic. also looking for, like

Polkablues' 5 Middlest Movies of 2012
Your ultimate guide to what was neither here nor there in the year of the failed apocalypse

(4-way tie for fifth place)
5. Haywire
A movie that aimed low and nailed its target square in the balls.  Especially middling when held up against Soderbergh's other output from last year.
5. Wreck-It Ralph
Perfectly delightful, but even a sugar-addled 7-year-old could tell it's not Pixar.
5. Total Recall
A much better movie than the original.  A much less batshit insane movie than the original.  A much more forgettable movie than the original.
5. House at the End of the Street
Even Jennifer Lawrence's white tank-tops can not elevate this script beyond passable.
1. For a Good Time, Call...
I honestly couldn't even tell you if I liked this movie or not.  Easily the middlest movie I've seen in years.

[Cloudy]

I randomly lurked in the Shoutbox and found Jenkins talking shit about this place being in hibernation/only PTA people not movie people, which compelled me to do one of these even though they're a bastardization and make me feel like vomiting.

1st Tier: (films i can watch on repeat, and constantly dig more and more into, craving/recalling scenes as I walk through the day and HAVE watched repeatedly in theaters)
Post Tenebras Lux (3 times
The Act of Killing (3 times)
Inside Llewyn Davis (4 times)
Nebraska (2 times)
Like Someone In Love (need to see again)

2nd Tier: (films that do something cinematically fucking brilliant but may not be films I'd be wanting to see again any time soon, because their moods are somewhat funky and maybe messy, and not cohesive as a whole, but a great intent)
12 Years a Slave
The Great Beauty

3rd Tier (films that are just great, fun, well crafted, good MOVIES...if that makes sense.)
Mother of George
ATBS
Blue Jasmine
Gravity
Rust and Bone
Wolf of Wall Street
Blue is the Warmest Color

"it was a verrryyy good year...", and a very surprising one. Only when looking at the whole do I realize how great it really was, many of these films were sleepers (great yet don't exude a lot of excitement), I'm having trouble saying this, but so many of these films were not like "The Master" "Django Unchained" "To the Wonder"...films that people have been waiting for for years. And it's great to see cinema open up in this way.
Like for example, I went to the theater, never seeing the trailer for Act of Killing, just looking at the poster, and decided to plunge...that was a fucking miraculous discovery.

[jenkins]

lol. shhh, you read secrets. you're divulging!!(!!)

thanks. good movieing up. gotta imdb mother george. agree it was a great movie year even without the gushers. have watched and enjoyed a spectrum of movies

[Cloudy]

Edit: Jenkins, Mother of George was shot by Lowery's DP on ATBS, so first just expect photographic greatness on that level alone.

Just did an edit to talk about what the hell I mean by tiers, because it's not a traditional attitude towards them.

(PS: I get entertainment/enjoy your comments on movies/etc. dude, we should meet up by the way, I'm in Berkeley, I think you're in SF, anyways we'll talk about this somewhere else.) 

[Yes]

1. The Wolf of Wall Street
2. Before Midnight
3. Her
4. Inside Llewyn Davis
5. 12 Years a Slave
6. The Place Beyond the Pines
7. Nebraska
8. Spring Breakers
9. Frances Ha
10. Only God Forgives

[OstrichRidingCowboy]

In ascending order:

The Heat
Much Ado About Nothing
Blue Jasmine
Fruitvale Station
Gravity
Frances Ha
Her
Beyond the Hills
The Wolf of Wall Street
12 Years a Slave

[03]

IN NO ORDER (all dates imdb)
- john dies at the end
- lords of salem
- upstream color
- ain't them bodies saints
- stoker
- VHS 2
- wolf of wall street
- spring breakers
- post tenebras lux
- blue is the warmest color

runners up/no room: the grandmaster, wrong, byzantium, its a disaster

[jenkins]

last night was the last night for oscar nom screenings (voting began on feb 14 btw). i've watched and rewatched many movies since december while on my 2013 movie quest, now i feel pretty done, and of course i miss all kinds of older movies and types of movies. headed back to those. didn't see all of 2013's movies, never see all of a year's movies, but i definitely saw plenty. positive i'm forgetting some. remembering:

paradise: faith (netflix) -- overall easy enough to fill your movie with wacky characters and outlandish events, but i think seidl does this in a hard way, with a stern and committed value to the rusty characters he portrays. they're warped people and he doesn't leave them, he doesn't betray them, he doesn't fix them. there they are. why do i watch his movies? i don't know, but i keep watching, and i don't know why people like this keep existing, but they keep existing. ugly and rotten, yet there's beauty where beauty doesn't belong, and i'm thankful for someone putting that on camera

only god forgives (netflix) -- career success with drive, followed by refn writing a movie larry smith shot, and it lands with a cold thud. so, for me, it's good refn is serious. he's obviously serious. he could've cashed on drive, he could've made more drive, but he didn't, he went reckless and wild, and in only god forgives there's a focus that's bizarre, that doesn't really work, but my eyes were magnetized, and refn did what he wanted to do. somewhere i heard the idea that movies which are easiest to like, which are immediately likable, tend not to be the best movies, because the best movies take our time to grow. i like that, seems pretty true. will this movie grow over time? doubt it. but it'll always be what refn wanted, so i'll always like it anyway

don jon -- jgl isn't a new jersey guy, and i think there are some easy punches in here, related to mainstream depictions of new jersey culture, which are no doubt rooted in actual new jersey culture. but i kept thinking he was surfing a wave that isn't his. he's faking. so, ok, let him fake it. why can't he fake it? he can fake it. these are movies we're talking about, this is drama that's being created. what happened here, for me, is the opposite of what i described seidl doing. there's perhaps a sexual problem inherent to new jersey club culture and internet porn, and this movie does a fine enough job with a portrait of its elements, but by the end julianne moore comes along and explains sex to don jon, and he has a human relationship with julianne moore and he's changed. oh fuck. that easy? whatever. nice to see julianne moore in a good role. i like her role here, and the other 2013 moore role i saw was carrie. carrie didn't help the moore situation. i think don jon helps the moore situation. thanks for that, at least

in a world... -- if you want to view the culture of los angeles this movie is a good place to start. admired how lake bell displayed the twists between people and the entertainment industry, the mess of it all, and admired the accuracy of scenes depicting disparate personalities engaging with each other. was this movie recognized as good? not sure, but i don't think it really was, or not very much. it's not for everyone but it's excellent, and i'd compare it to albert brooks '79-'85 (his three movies in that time)

short term 12 -- like the above mentioned lake bell movie, i see here the emergence of an artist of formidable talent, whose cinematic vision helps form an atmosphere that closely resembles the one in which its character exists. watching this movie, for me, felt like being these people. that's my favorite thing you know

philomena -- imo it's tough to beat the island people in terms of dedication to authentic characters. judi dench performs as an elderly character how bruce dern performs as an elderly character in nebraska, and pairing philomena with nebraska would make a delightful double doozy. you'd see, for example, that the irish are more badass than americans. dench's character has derailed as the elderly tend to derail, into an emotional and practical place built by a life lived, and it takes tremendous acting to showcase this, to strip herself of the protective cultural shield granted to her as a professional actor, and to behave like a normal person. impressive indeed. stephen frears consistently pursues breathing characters, and here he does a fine job. cinematically, he's not andrea arnold or lynne ramsay, he's stephen frears, but the quality he allows is dench's acting. also, not bad steve coogan, not bad at all

spoiler
nebraska -- sorry(?), but brad pitt in 12 years, you know what i mean, well that's how i feel about the robbery in nebraska. it's a real "come on" moment for me. ridiculous. it's meant to be, because this is a comedy and it's a silly robbery and it illustrates small-town minds, but two cousins/nephews robbing a cousin/uncle and it ends with a punch in a bar and come on. come on! will say, after seeing nebraska i felt very mellow and unargumentative and i had reflective thoughts about life and attitude and cinema. i like a lot of what this movie means. i don't like this movie btw

gravity -- i accidentally began with the movies i most liked (mmm, makes sense), and now i'm doubling on movies a lot of people liked and i didn't really like. awkward. this is to remind me of my experiences watching 2013 movies, that's what i'm up to. the tech here is next level, for sure, and this is the year digital cinema became like global warming, this is the year it's so fucking obvious digital cinema is happening and coming to kill celluloid, that's frightening, react against it if you want, save the celluloid planet if you wanna, i'll watch it either way, but digital cinema is here, and gravity used digital cameras with robotic operations, a digital backdrop, and people acting by moving their faces. i admired cuarón's technique like everyone else did, holy fuck i can't believe he put this together, and if digital is the killer, it doesn't seem so bad since we have gravity, which we know couldn't have been made in the old tried/true ways. oh, the movie itself, right: what happens is some floating around and fetal positioning

the wind rises -- i tried twice, dammit. both times with subtitles, in gorgeous theaters (egyptian and sgt), with the thought that this might be miyazaki's last movie. i adore miyazaki. i remain in discord with the wind rises. it's wound so nicely around vibrant textures, but i miss spirited away, i miss miyazaki's fantasies, i just do. he's so fantastic and incredibly imaginative and here all his talent is being used for a narrative that exists during the time of japan's growth, to animate the type of inspiration and motivation that led to japan's advancements. irl stuff. it speaks about these things to remind people that the development of society depends on them, that's a thoughtful and pleasant message. i miss dragons the dual-dreams sequences gave me the most tingles

the great gatsby -- doubt anyone cares what anyone thought about the great gatsby. phewww. wanted to make sure i saw it in a theater in 3d, which i did. i want lurhmann's art department or an art department as good as baz lurhmann's. k

(still pretty accurate btw. you could switch out a couple for a couple, but pretty accurate still)

[Pubrick]

So.. that's not your top ten. Why are you posting it here?

This isn't "ten movies I watched."

[jenkins]

jb's choice

good chat pubrick. one of our best