海角大神

If we鈥檙e talking about the finest of the finest, 2013 was a pretty wonderful year for movies even though most of that wonderfulness sidestepped Hollywood. The screen glowed brightest, as usual, in the offbeat realms, in the small, specialty films, the indies and the documentaries. Many of the movies I liked most this year went relatively unheralded; all the more reason for me to issue this annual clarion call on behalf of the best.

But first, the Overview, heavy on the quibbles and cavils. The nice thing about being a movie critic is that there is so much to write about even when the films are less than stellar. Whether by design or happenstance, movies unavoidedly reflect the world in which they are made.

Consider, for starters, 鈥淕ravity鈥� and 鈥淎ll is Lost,鈥� two of the year鈥檚 more highly touted films. Both are about being marooned: In 鈥淕ravity,鈥� George Clooney and Sandra Bullock play NASA scientists adrift in space; 鈥淎ll is Lost鈥� has a preternatually strong and silent Robert Redford alone at sea in a sinking boat. (I would have preferred Al Pacino on that boat: He would never have shut up.)

Is it too much of an existential stretch to extrapolate from these movies the notion that, in parlous times, we are all feeling a bit unmoored? 鈥淕ravity鈥� was a big 3D hit, while 鈥淎ll is Lost鈥� was not, which perhaps only goes to show that, when it comes to being adrift, most of us prefer the heavens to the depths. (J.C. Chandor, the writer-director of 鈥淎ll is Lost,鈥� mused that the film might have done better if he had titled it, 鈥淎ll is Not Lost.鈥�)

Sometimes movies that were supposed to be 鈥渟aying something鈥� about America were, in the final analysis, not saying very much at all. Take Woody Allen鈥檚 鈥淏lue Jasmine,鈥� for example. It鈥檚 about the downturn of a moneyed Manhattan socialite, played at full throttle by Cate Blanchett, in the wake of her husband鈥檚 Madoff-like machinations. The film was embraced as a definitive statement about the recession-era horrors of our time. But Jasmine鈥檚 shrillness and snobberies and discordancies, by the film鈥檚 own evidence, were with her since childhood. The movie inflates a clinical case into an Everywoman, Upper East Side division.
There were many other wildly overrated movies this year. Least favorite for me by far was Joshua Oppenheimer鈥檚 documentary 鈥淭he Act of Killing,鈥� which gave gleefully unrepentant mass killers in Indonesia license to act out for his cameras their gaudy gangster scenarios. Alexander Payne鈥檚 鈥淣ebraska鈥� was an exalted drearfest, alternately spiky and sodden.

Steve McQueen鈥檚 鈥�12 Years A Slave,鈥� which is being promoted as a weapon against ongoing racial injustice, had some excruciatingly searing sequences, strong performances from Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong鈥檕, and, alas, much narrow-eyed melodrama and painfully stiff historical re-enactments, including an embarrassing turn from co-producer Brad Pitt as the Good White Guy.

It makes sense in these straitened times that there would be a plethora of movies about get-rich-quick con artists. The implicit message is: America is the land of opportunity 鈥� for opportunists. The most acclaimed of these movies, David O. Russell鈥檚 鈥淎merican Hustle,鈥� loosely based on the 1970s Abscam sting, was a frenetically entertaining burlesque that ultimately spun itself into a welter of yelling and yowling. This goes triple for Martin Scorsese鈥檚 interminable 鈥淲olf of Wall Street,鈥� which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as (yawn) a party-hearty stock manipulator. DiCaprio also starred as a party-not-so-hearty rich guy in Baz Luhrmann鈥檚 awful 鈥淭he Great Gatsby,鈥� my candidate for 鈥渕ost unnecessary use of 3-D.鈥�

To no one鈥檚 surprise, the Hollywood franchise folderol continued unabated in 2013. I could have lived without the sequels to 鈥淲olverine,鈥� 鈥淒ie Hard,鈥� Hangover,鈥� 鈥淭hor,鈥� 鈥淩ed,鈥� and 鈥淪tar Trek,鈥� but Robert Downey, Jr. kept me in the fold for 鈥淚ron Man鈥� (No. 3), I rather liked 鈥淭he Hunger Games: Catching Fire,鈥� and I very much liked 鈥淭he Hobbit: The Wrath of Smaug,鈥� even though I鈥檓 not quite sure what鈥檚 going on in it. Performers can save middling movies and elevate the better ones. Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto are altogether extraordinary in 鈥淭he Dallas Buyer鈥檚 Club,鈥� as are Adele Exarchopolous and Lea Seydoux in the sexually explicit 鈥淏lue is the Warmest Color.鈥� James Gandolfini was warm and embracing in 鈥淓nough Said.鈥� Jake Gyllenhaal dug deep in 鈥淧risoners.鈥� Tom Hanks鈥檚 final breakdown scene in 鈥淐aptain Phillips鈥� is the best piece of acting he鈥檚 ever done. Meryl Streep is 鈥� how鈥檇 you guess? 鈥� wonderful in that dysfunctional family endurance test 鈥淎ugust: Osage County.鈥�
But enough: It鈥檚 10 Best time, in roughly descending order.

1. 鈥淏efore Midnight鈥� 鈥� This third installment in Richard Linklater鈥檚 humane and heartfelt, one-of-a-kind movie experience follows 鈥淏efore Sunrise鈥� (1995) and 鈥淏efore Sunset鈥� (2004). Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, who co-wrote the script with Linklater, play the couple we first encountered as vacationing young idealists who meet on a train and spend a night together in Vienna. Now they are married and confronting the exigencies of a difficult relationship. Deeply moving, this film gains in resonance from being the third in the series.
2. 鈥淎t Berkeley鈥� 鈥撀� Frederick Wiseman鈥檚 four-hour documentary about the great public university, shot in 2010 at a time of campus-wide unrest over budget shortfalls, says more about the state of American education 鈥� and by extension, America itself 鈥� than any other movie this year. An epic achievement.
3. 鈥淔ill the Void鈥� 鈥� Rama Burshtein鈥檚 movie about marital machinations within an ultra-Orthodox Israeli community plays out like a Chasidic Jane Austen scenario. Helped by the amazing young actress Hadas Yaron, she locates the passion inside the Old World formalities.
4 鈥淭hese Birds Walk鈥� 鈥� This woefully underseen documentary, directed by Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq, centers on a runaway boy in Karachi, Pakistan, and is flooded with piercing sequences that open up an entire country and way of life.
5. 鈥淚nside Llewyn Davis鈥� 鈥� Joel and Ethan Coen鈥檚 greyed-out odyssey about an early 1960s Greenwich Village troubadour, played with sloe-eyed perfection by Oscar Isaac, is one of their best. Their trademark flip nihilism is filled out this time with real feeling.
6.聽 鈥淐aesar Must Die鈥� 鈥� The great Italian directors Vittorio and Paolo Taviani staged a production of Shakespeare鈥檚 鈥淛ulius Caesar鈥� in Rome鈥檚 high-security Rebibbia prison and then rehearsed the prisoner鈥檚 non-stage lives as well. The result is a form I usually dread 鈥� the meta-documentary 鈥� but this movie is a ferocious, shape-shifty exception to the rule.
7. 鈥淗er鈥� 鈥� Spike Jonze has made a movie for our fractured times about a man, played by Joaquin Phoenix, who falls in love with his personalized computer operating system (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). Set slightly in
the future, this lyrical, haunting movie feels very much 鈥渘ow.鈥�
8. 鈥�20 Feet From Stardom鈥� 鈥� Morgan Neville鈥檚 documentary about relatively unheralded female back-up singers (Lisa Fischer, Merry Clayton, Darlene Love, Judith Hill, Tata Vega, and others) is a signal contribution to American pop culture and, even better, an ecstatic jamboree. Minute for minute, the most enjoyable movie of the year.
9. 鈥淓rnest and Celestine鈥� 鈥� The best animated movie of the year is this sweet, watercolor-rendered parable from France directed by Stephane Aubier, Vincent Patar, and Benjamin Renner based on a Belgian book series about a little mouse who befriends a big bear. Children will love this movie and not feel like they are being taught a valuable life lesson (which, don鈥檛 tell anybody, they are). Long live non-CGI animation!
10. 鈥淲hat Maisie Knew鈥� 鈥� The year鈥檚 best literary adaptation, scripted by Nancy Doyne and Carroll Cartwright, is an update by directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel of Henry James鈥檚 1897 novel about a divorce as seen through the eyes of the couple鈥檚 little girl, played with hushed intensity by Onata Aprile. It鈥檚 one of the rare movies that gets inside a child鈥檚 torments and delights without getting all gooey on us. Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan tear into their roles as Maisie鈥檚 parents.
In addition to the films favorably mentioned in my preamble, I would also recommend: 鈥淭he Square,鈥� 鈥淩oom 237,鈥� 鈥淢uch Ado About Nothing,鈥� 鈥淲e Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks,鈥� 鈥淐omputer Chess,鈥� 鈥淭im鈥檚 Vermeer,鈥� 鈥淔rom Up on Poppy Hill,鈥� 鈥淚nequality For All,鈥� 鈥淒irty Wars,鈥� 鈥淲adjda,鈥� and 鈥淕imme the Loot.鈥�