The Existential Weight of the Human Heart: Lee's Best Movies of 2013

When trying to tie the best movies of 2013 together, and there are a lot of them, I found myself struggling to find a universally common thread. However, as I started to look closely at the movies that kept me going back to them, the ones that moved me the most, I found among them a deep existential yearning that is as heartbreaking as it is exhilarating. The movies that resonated the most with me involved people working to find their place in this world, to discover their purpose. As someone who still grapples with this regularly, I could relate and more importantly, empathize. I had a strange year and the movies, as they often do, helped me through it. Cheers to that. And to a new movie year. See you there!

-Lee


Wish I Could Forget (in alphabetical order): Dead Man Down, Don Jon, Father's Day, A Good Day to Die Hard, Man of Steel, Now You See Me, Sushi Girl, White House Down


Wish I'd Loved (in alphabetical order): 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, Antiviral, The Bling Ring, Captain Phillips, Pacific Rim, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Spectacular Now, Stoker, To the Wonder


Notably Missed (in alphabetical order): Carrie, Leviathan, Like Someone in Love, Museum Hours


Honorable Mention (in alphabetical order): The Act of Killing, Dark Skies, Drinking Buddies, Enough Said, Gravity, The Last Stand, Maniac, Much Ado About Nothing, Post Tenebras Lux, Side Effects, Star Trek: Into Darkness, This is Martin Bonner, This is the End, V/H/S 2, Warm Bodies, The Wolf of Wall Street, You're Next


20-11

20) Sightseers dir. Ben Wheatley
19) Frances Ha dir. Noah Baumbach
18) Drug War dir. Johnnie To
17) Mud dir. Jeff Nichols
16) Fruitvale Station dir. Ryan Coogler
15) Being Awesome dir. Allen C. Gardner
14) Only God Forgives dir. Nicolas Winding Refn
13) Stories We Tell dir. Sarah Polley
12) Nebraska dir. Alexander Payne
11) The Lords of Salem dir. Rob Zombie


TOP TEN

10) The Lone Ranger dir. Gore Verbinski

The action scenes are effortlessly and epically staged, the visuals are striking, and the western roots are honored, satirized, and critiqued...sometimes all at once. The Lone Ranger is quite a tricky beast indeed, and proves that Verbinski, between this and Rango, could make a hell of a career out of crafting offbeat westerns. And while it might first appear that Johnny Depp is giving yet another one of his goofy "Johnny Depp" performances...well, I challenge you to look closer. This is an exciting, funny, and subversive picture, one of the boldest summer movies in many a moon, and one I will expand on in an article in the near future. Stay tuned...

9) Computer Chess dir. Andrew Bujalski

Made on a micro budget (and shot with cameras from the 1960s) but packed with more ideas than a movie that costs ten times as much, Andrew Bujalski's latest is a sly and often bizarre comedy mixed with heady science fiction. It takes place during the early 1980s at a computer chess convention, and while the early conversations between the contestants are disorienting, it can't even compare to the surreal and downright creepy elements that come into play as the movie progresses. This is as creative an examination of the way our relationship to technology is affecting our interaction with others that I have seen.

8) We Are What We Are dir. Jim Mickle

Jim Mickle makes horror movies that are equal part character and atmosphere, with the latter usually having much to do with the behavior of the former. This is one of those rare remakes that made me forgot the original even existed, a story of fathers and daughters, responsibility and tradition, and decisions and consequences. It features a series of outstanding performances and a conclusion that, while I never saw it coming, is completely inevitable. I can't wait to see what Mickle and his writing partner, Nick Damici, tackle next.

7) Room 237 dir. Rodney Ascher

I wisely watched this for the first time directly after re-visiting The Shining, the result being that I just wanted to turn around and pop in the source material again. A collage of different theories, hidden symbols, and various meanings, Rodney Ascher's documentary, no matter how outlandish it may get, is such a joy because it, above all else, celebrates the magic of the movies. What can be more fun than following up a screening with a lengthy discussion about the many ideas buried underneath the surface? This movie is a tribute to that, tenfold. I hope more filmmakers follow Ascher's lead.

6) Spring Breakers dir. Harmony Korine

Harmony Korine's latest turns the American Dream of the party that never ends into a fever dream of the coming apocalypse. Beginning with a monster assault of footage containing college kids boozing it up on the beach, he then segue ways into the hypnotic journey of four girls searching for the ultimate vacation, one that involves drinking, drugs, and eventually, danger. James Franco mesmerizes as a drug dealer who takes these paradise hungry girls under his wing. It's a movie filled with unforgettably haunting imagery, much of it vividly displaying the quick and undeniable loss of innocence.

5) Before Midnight dir. Richard Linklater

It's hard to believe that Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy have lived with these characters for almost twenty years, and what's even more remarkable is how, through the course of this series, each movie is better than the last. The first two pictures perfectly set the stage for this new (final?) chapter, as we finally witness what nine years together has done to Jesse and Celine. This is a truly wise portrait of what happens when a fantasy romance becomes real. It's about two people who love each other but are too stubborn to know how to properly show it. The idea of them being together was always more magical than the end result, a truth that is conveyed with unflinching honesty from one scene to the next. I sincerely hope this isn't the last time we see this couple.

4) Inside Llewyn Davis dir. Joel & Ethan Coen

Elegantly photographed, expertly performed, bleakly honest, and absurdly comic, the Coen Brothers' latest is also one of their very best (which is impressive considering they crank out one winner after another). It continues to show how expertly they handle period pieces, in this case 1960s Greenwich Village, where a struggling folk singer slaves away to (barely) make ends meet. The quest for success with your art is an endless one, a cycle that includes lots of couch surfing, dive bars, and rejection. And in the case of Llewyn Davis, you do it because it's the only thing you know how to do. Like all the best Coen Brothers pictures, it's beautiful, comic, and ultimately, melancholy.

3) Upstream Color dir. Shane Carruth

A gorgeous and poetic puzzle of a movie, filled to the brim with ideas and scenes of subtle sublimeness. It approaches the role of nature in ways that are wholly original, and shows the rebirth of oneself and the discovery of a relationship with tenderness and compassion. Shane Carruth wrote, directed, edited, scored, and stars in the movie, and each role is handled with the love and respect of someone with a true adoration for the medium. Here's hoping he doesn't wait nine more years before his next feature. If that turns out to be the case, it will only mean more time to continue unlocking the many secrets of this one.

2) The World's End dir. Edgar Wright

What a bonus that the best time I had at the movies all year was also one of the most poignant. Simon Pegg gives a career best performance as a man pushing 40, obsessed with completing an adolescent challenge that was left unfinished. The movie begins as a painful portrait of lost youth and then, without warning, shifts gears into a breathlessly staged genre picture. The two sections fit together so well because director Edgar Wright, as he has in his other movies, uses the spectacle as a backdrop for a character's growth. As splendid as it has been in his past efforts, I don't think it's had quite the sonic impact it does here. The final scene of The World's End is one of the few this year that made me tear up. I wasn't expecting that, and I'm all the more grateful for it.

1) Her dir. Spike Jonze

I believe it was about the time Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) first meets his operation system, Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), that an emotional wave swept over me, and it stood its ground for the rest of the movie. Spike Jonze, working from his first original script, accomplishes the hefty feat of creating a believable relationship between a man and a computer. He does so by making Samantha, who is only a voice, into a complex, smart, and sympathetic being. We can sense how her evolution is affecting who she is becoming, even if Theodore doesn't understand her anymore than she understands him or he understands himself. The core of the picture revolves around a future society where relationships are broken and technology has finally created such a large gap in human interaction that true love has become a distant memory. Real connections are met with fear, and how could they not be? It's easier to get close to something that has no expectations of you. Her observes these themes with overwhelming clarity, managing at the same time to create a very moving rapport between the lonely and confused Theodore and Samantha, at times even making us forgot she's just a voice in a machine. I was spellbound and heart broken by every moment of it, thanks in part to the dynamic performances (particularly Johansson's) but more because of Jonze's ability to write dialogue that is strikingly personal yet identifiable. This is the best kind of love story; one that has truth, consequences, pain, and most importantly, tinges of hope. It is my favorite movie of year, and one of the best of the decade thus far. If another movie is able to consume me more than this one, I might not be able to bear it.


Thank you for visiting Hell and Beyond!


(c)Hell and Beyond, 2014