Left: "La Vie D'Adele" (AKA "Blue is the Warmest Color)
Heavy weighs the hand that
holds the pen, especially when it comes to listing your favorite films of the
year. It’s a thrilling task that seems
simple, but is in fact anything but.
There are questions to answer—how much do you write? How many movies do you list? Do you rank each film from one to ten? Or do you let them all stand on equal footing
in a gesture of artistic fairness?
For
me, the answers are never easy. But I
have known for a while now that I could do nothing less than honor the movies
of 2013 that I love. Yes, every year
produces great works, but I felt particularly strongly about this one. Why?
The answer, in a word, is bravery—last year, no director seemed afraid
to put us through the emotional wringer (even J.J. Abrams, an absolute popcorn
maestro, seemed fixated on death and sacrifice). And yet the year’s greatest could hardly be
called bleak. They may have embraced
painful feelings, but they also prized kindness, compassion, and love, even if
they never fully rewarded them.
So here they are—my favorite films of 2013, listed by the
order of their Portland release dates.
Some are from directors I’ve loved for a while now, while others come
from filmmakers whose work I’m hoping to get to know better. But for me, the main thing was that 2013 was
a wonderful year, not just of fantastic movies, but movies that felt like
worlds unto themselves, worlds that enriched my own.
TO
THE WONDER (Terrence Malick) Perhaps the most challenging
thing about Terrence Malick is that, as a filmmaker, he seems content to float
among fragments of clouds, distilling characters into quick images flickering amidst
beautiful environments. The result? Something at once melodious and disarmingly frenetic.
But, ah, the rewards of such visionary style. Mr. Malick may be a sometime realist, but he finds
deep poetry in this story about a tourist (Ben Affleck) who meets and falls in love
with a Parisian woman (Olga Kurylenko, who spins through the movie with wild
joy), before inviting her to join him at his home in the Midwest. And though it is there that the movie spends
most of its time, Mr. Malick’s gaze remains rapturous both stateside and abroad
as he sweeps us through a gray coastal cathedral, over dark waters and train
tracks, and through magnificent golden fields that, when not filled with
buffalo, are gloriously empty and expansive.
Of
course, “To the Wonder” is a sad story, a movie about a romance that dies with
agonized but stubborn breaths. But in
its supreme visual and emotional eloquence, Mr. Malick’s film remains a
transcendent and tender experience, and an aptly titled one at that.
STAR
TREK INTO DARKNESS (J.J. Abrams) This time, the crew of the
starship Enterprise has a new
nemesis—the turtle-neck wearing, magnetic-voiced John Harrison (Benedict
Cumberbatch), an adversaire diabolique whose true identity is revealed in a
scene too delicious to spoil here. Yet
the real focus of this brightly entertaining and emotionally vibrant film is the
heroic duo of Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and his ever-logical first officer,
Commander Spock (Zachary Quinto).
There’s
a morality battle raging between them (here, Spock finds himself acting as
Kirk’s conscience), but also a sweet friendship that is both witty and romantic. “I’m scared, Spock,” Kirk breathes in the
midst of ever-deepening danger. “Help me not be…how do you choose not to feel?” And Spock, voice breaking, responds with the
words that make the movie:
“I do
not know. Right now I am failing.”
ENDER’S
GAME (Gavin Hood) Ender Wiggin climbs into a shadowy,
brown-walled cave, a dark travel bag slung over his shoulder. For a moment, he’s alone. But then, there is a series of clicks as a
massive, many-tentacled creature emerges, moving smoothly toward him. It presses a sharp claw to Ender’s cheek and,
for a moment, you wonder—is it going to hurt him? But it does not. Instead, the creature looks at our hero with
its deep, pupiless eyes and finally, wipes away one of Ender’s tears.
Moments later, “Ender’s Game” concludes with a final
flourish as Steve Jablonsky’s score leaps from mournful quiet to heartfelt
loudness, signaling an end to a long and painful journey that has left Ender
brimming with shame for the atrocities he’s committed. But that moment between Ender and the
creature still lingers and is honored by our hero’s declaration to atone for
the destruction and murder he’s responsible for. “Because,” as he says, “I have a promise to
keep.”
“LA
VIE D’ADELE – CHAPITRE 1 ET 2” (Abdellatif Kechiche) For
anyone who has ever been in love. One
day, while walking down a busy city street, Adele (Adèle Exarchopoulos) spots
Emma (Léa Seydoux) as she glances over her shoulder, unable to look away. Then that night, Emma’s blue hair flashes
through Adele’s dreams and soon after, the two find themselves meeting in a
bar, kissing at a park, and finally, living together.
It doesn’t take long for you to realize that it will
never work, that Adele and Emma are too different from each other to be
together forever. How, though, can you
not want them to be? After all, what “La
Vie D’Adele” understands so well is that even when a relationship is over, it
doesn’t really finish because feelings intensify in grief to an excruciating
degree. In the end, that’s part of why
the movie is so recognizably painful and also why Adele spends so much of her
post-breakup days alone and miserable, whether she’s sleeping on a bench where she
and Emma once sat together, or sobbing next to a “Cars” backpack.
In that moment, Adele’s anguish is more than
relatable—it’s a part of you, because the movie’s clear-eyed and graceful
realism (Adele and Emma’s first kiss is so coherently captured that you feel
you’re there with them, lying in the grass) lets you to seep into Adele’s world
completely, whether she’s chomping on a Butterfinger in bed, blowing out the
candles on a cake, or dancing and mouthing the words to Lykke Li’s “I Follow Rivers”
at a birthday party thrown for her by her family and friends.
That
party is a beautiful, happy event, especially because Adele is surrounded by
people who love and care about her. But it
is not just because of that scene, but because of every part of “La Vie
D’Adele” that, like her family and Emma, I care about Adele too.
ANCHORMAN
2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES (Adam McKay) I’ll let this one speak for
itself. But suffice to say that in 2014,
I’ll still be singing of Doby (and staying classy, America!).
More Favorites:
“Blue
Jasmine” (Woody Allen)
“Fruitvale
Station” (Ryan Coogler)
“Gravity” (Alfonso Cuarón)
“Pacific
Rim” (Guillermo Del Toro)
“Short
Term 12” (Destin Daniel Cretton)
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