Here are my top rankings of movies I watched in 2013 (that were from other years.) Just because it took me a while to get around to them doesn’t mean they aren’t good. You can see my best of 2013 (from 2013) by reading this other post. See my original Three Sentence Reviews by clicking on the links.
Listed in alphabetical order:
Bernie
Jack Black playing a very un-Jack Black character. Plus Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey, residents of small Texas towns and TWO musical production numbers.
Paper Heart
Weird girl! But so fun! And Michael Cera in a fabulous quasi-documentary. Words fail me to paint the proper picture of just how enjoyable this movie is.
Platoon
So it took me a while. But I watched it and I liked it. Travel back in time when all those guys were young. Twitch at all the grody war stuff. Realize your Charlie Sheen thing wasn’t all that strange.
Premium Rush
Joseph Gordon-Levett as bicycle messenger in a “map” movie meaning they several times trace maps through New York City. Michael Shannon as the very bad guy. Plus, one of the best bar kisses on film. Perhaps the best.
Rock of Ages
I’m totally the target audience, but even so, this was incredibly fun. And Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand make up for their lack of singing pipes as a very funny comedy duo. Catherine Zeta-Jones should just restrict herself to over-the-top characters.
Safety Not Guaranteed
There are the good movies everyone natters on about and then there are the good movies that are unexpected. This was the second kind. It had a bit of a bizarre plot, but by investing your time in this movie you will be served with a full meal of good movie. There is character growth, humor, a few tears. Also, the entire time I just wasn’t sure if we were watching a movie making fun of a weird guy, or a quasi-sci-fi drama. I’ll let you find out which way the wind blew.
Silver Linings Playbook
Perfect story, in that I wasn’t “in” from the get go. It seemed a bit off, I wasn’t totally sold and then, wham! They got me. Upon repeat viewing with Matt, I felt him experience the exact same distance and the exact same locking-in at the same point. Perfect cast, main and supporting, quirky characters, captivating story. When watching the preview, I was annoyed that Jennifer Lawrence was in this because she is too young, but she played older and was fabulous and I wouldn’t trade any of them for the world.
Take this Waltz
A movie about a young married woman drawn to another man. The longing is palpable, so much so that I ended up feeling like I was cheating on her poor husband. This has not only an interesting love triangle, but all three characters are fully developed. The film is also quite hot, as longing tends to be. Plus, Sara Silverman has a minor role. So it was a good film and then, where the ending usually would be, the film just kept going to deposit us in an entirely different space. And that’s what made it a great film.
The Help
I was ready not to like it because the book was so good and also complex and there was no way they were going to be able to transfer all that to the movie. But they did! And the acting was superb. And the men were actually minimized in the book-to-movie transfer, which is something that never happens.
The Master
This is probably not the best movie to watch while you are knitting, or letting the dog in and out of the house or stopping the film to answer the phone. Because you might become distracted and just stop watching, because it’s that kind of film. However, if you can set aside the time to just watch this movie, you will be bowled over by an intense plot and stellar acting. It’s also fantastically weird. Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams standing over a sink are permanently burned in my brain.
We watched Bernie thanks to your recommendation. Of course you did not set us astray. It was an exceedingly interesting movie!
Hey, I've seen way more of these! Bernie is in my Netflix queue but I haven't been doing a lot of movie watching these days. Perhaps soon.