Collin Q. here. Man, what a year for the silver screen. 2013 has been filled with a lot of great flicks, both big budget and small. Notable names and newcomers alike have been turning out awesome narratives and eye-fetching cinematography, keeping with the momentum the previous year had seemed to create. I suppose I should have titled this “Favorite” films instead, because I won’t be presenting them in any particular order. Enjoy!

American Hustle

For some reason I’ve noted changing opinion toward this one over it’s run…it seems like it became “cool” to hate it now that it was nominated for Best Picture, or for whatever reason? I don’t know what movie those people were watching, but I thought American Hustle was smart, funny, and full of enjoyable acting. I totally fell in love with David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook last year, and it’s nice to see him stick with most of the same people (I think it adds meta-familiarity for both audiences and probably for the actors themselves). Christian Bale’s transformation continues his conquest of character acting. Bradley Cooper wasn’t too shabby either, though I think he was a bit underutilized this round, probably in comparison to Silver Linings. I have never been much of a Jeremy Renner fan (I was one of the few who didn’t like The Town (2010) all that much,) and I was skeptical, then indifferent about his casting as Hawkeye in The Avengers. But his role here made me eat my words, so it must have be Hansel and Gretel‘s foul stench lingering.  As for the ladies, Amy Adams is one of my favorite actresses, and she once again brought her best, along with loads of glorious 70’s side-boob magic. I love Jennifer Lawrence, I really do, and this proves that no matter what she’s in, she’ll steal us all away. Did I mention I love her? Anyhow,  American Hustle is a good example of entertaining film that isn’t cheap drivel, pretentious critics be damned.

Her

I tried not to go into this one biased. I’m a pretty big fan of Spike Jonze, Being John Malkovich (1999) is one of my favorite films of all time, and in my teenaged skater boy days I worshipped Girl Skateboards, Yeah Right! (2003) was a masterpiece of a skating film. When I heard Her was about a lonely man who falls for an AI program, I instantly sympathized. (Valentine’s Day is in a week, I’ll be sitting in a coffee shop in Los Angeles browsing Reddit on my phone if you’d like to join.) Then the castings were released, all excellent. Then Arcade Fire was scoring the film, even more excellent. It was just one of those movies I already knew I would like going into it, and that was certainly the case. Her is definitely a great treatise on the importance of technology and relationships in contemporary times. The future is now, people!

Prince Avalanche

I think this deserved much more attention than it got. I’m not the biggest fan of mainstream comedies, and I appreciate things with a more nuanced humor sometimes. Prince Avalanche is mostly a drama, but it contains these entirely human moments that make you chuckle to yourself because you’ve felt that way before. Who doesn’t like Paul Rudd? No one, that’s who. The chemistry between Rudd and Emile Hirsch is what drives the film, and the entire film, it’s quite minimalistic in nature. Did I say nature? There’s a lot of that, too. The impact of this story comes near it’s center, in an extremely haunting and heartbreaking sequence. You’ll notice when, and it was completely unscripted, a fragment of real life that made it’s way into the film. It’s these eccentricities that make a good story into a true treasure. Also, Rudd’s moustache is triumphant. Put a green cap on him and he could play Luigi in the clearly demanded sequel to Super Mario Bros. (1993)

 Fruitvale Station

It was an indie gem. Keeping this depressing theme I’m on, talk about a tale of true loss. A chronicle of a very real man, Oscar Grant III’s last day on Earth. The 2009 shooting was highly controversial, most finding the actions of the BART police to be heinous and unwarranted. Michael B. Jordan (not the former basketball star) really did an amazing job for a first leading role. Although I knew the ultimatum going in, it didn’t make the narrative any less tense or devastating. I know there are a limited amount of spots for a lot of great films at the Academy Awards, but I can’t help but feel like Fruitvale Station got snubbed. Prepare your wine and tub of ice cream for this one, folks.

Pacific Rim

Let’s lighten the mood. Guillermo del Toro’s love letter to kaiju kicked major ass. As I said earlier, there are a lot of movies that try to be entertaining but fall short, Pacific Rim was not the case. While giant monsters and mechs are very popular on the other side of the world, they haven’t gotten as much love here on American soil. (I saw it in IMAX, if you didn’t you missed out.) It was also nice seeing Charlie Day in solid role outside of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I was entirely surprised that the film grossed so little, if you consider ~$400 million “little”, but the same thing happened with Tron Legacy (2010). On a similar note, in 2011 Tron got the mega-snub by the Academy with no nomination for Best Visual Effects, yet “Alice in Wonderland” was. This year, Pacific Rim gets the same, yet “Lone Ranger” is nominated in the category. I mean, what?

The Place Beyond the Pines

This one really got to me. I think it’s a combination of the actual film and it’s conventions, and my own tastes. I grew up in a very small town in Vermont, and the setting for Pines reminded me a lot of it (the film was actually shot in Schenectady, NY). After 2011’s Drive, people have been all up on the Ryan Gosling hype train, for good reason of course. Bradley Cooper is tried and true by now as well, and I loved see in Ray Liotta as anyone should. Eva Mendes isn’t particularly known for serious acting, but I thought she did remarkably well…probably another instance of “you are Hollywood beautiful, here are your lame roles to act” syndrome. One of the common criticisms I saw was that the film was it’s length and the structure of having three basically separate acts, but I totally loved it. I think a lot of movies feel too linear as it is, real life doesn’t happen like that. You look back to a time and remember where you were and categorize it under a certain phase of your life. When the narrative of Pines was complete, it stuck with me.

Dallas Buyers Club

This really has been the year(s) of Matthew McConaughey. He’s someone who has always been a great actor, just one that got stuck in the echoing chamber of bad romantic comedies. Let’s face it, the late 2000’s were hit and miss for a lot of people, and if anything it was his lady-killing good looks that kept him down. Coming back with a vengeance, films like The Lincoln Lawyer, Mud, The Wolf of Wall Street and this one have just proven his true power as an actor. Dallas Buyers Club is truly mix of emotion, and it’s far more fearful when the threat in a story has been very real for so many. I’ve gotta point out Jared Leto too, he’s the only sort of person that can play both a trangender woman and the man who shot John Lennon and make it convincing. I agree with my friend Will, you could very well see an Oscar “upset” and McConaughey going home with Best Actor for this.

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This year really has been incredible. I could keep this list going on, but I think there is good coverage between all of us here at Monday Morning Matinee. There are some incredible films in the pipeline for this new year and all the way into 2015. Don’t worry, we’ll have you covered right here!

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