Friday, January 31, 2014

Best of 2013

How to sum up 2013? I found 2011 and 2012 to be particularly strong years and through much of the year I felt like this one was a bit of a downer. In large part, I think that has to do with the pathetic output coming out of Hollywood during ever elongating summer seasons, as each new movie released seemed to get bigger and louder, but also dumber and dumberer.

But as always, the real gems are found in the cracks. You just have to look for them. Some were surprising major releases and others were obscure titles found through intelligent curation among shared cinephilia. And, broadly, the best movies weren't just great stories, but they were in some way aesthetically and formally bold. Whether they were in MTV-inspired hypercolor or black and white (there are five of those in here); whether they were documentaries that challenged the form itself or space adventures that redefined the idea of the frame; whether they were quickly edited action comedies or a meditative series of conversations between two familiar lovers, many of the movies below reminded me why the cinema is alive and well, and still a fertile ground as long as there are people around with enough chutzpah to simply plant a seed.

Terrence Malick's TO THE WONDER

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Month in Review: December 2013

December screenings (links to Letterboxd reviews):

MUSEUM HOURS

12/1 Magic Magic (SebastiƔn Silva)
12/7 Muscle Shoals (Greg 'Freddy' Camalier)
12/9 The Unspeakable Act (Dan Sallitt)
12/9 Ellie Lumme (Ignatiy Vishnevetsky)
12/11 Berberian Sound Studio (Peter Strickland)
12/17 Laurence Anyways (Xavier Dolan)
12/18 Passion (Brian De Palma)
12/20 Sightseers (Ben Wheatley)
12/21 Nebraska (Alexander Payne)
12/21 American Hustle (David O. Russell)
12/22 No (Pablo LarraĆ­n)
12/22 Blackfish (Gabriela Cowperthwaite)
12/22 Sharknado (Anthony C. Ferrante)
12/23 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Francis Lawrence)
12/25 Museum Hours (Jem Cohen)
12/26 Drinking Buddies (Joe Swanberg)
12/26 It's a Disaster (Todd Berger)
12/29 Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)

A few more big 2013 titles to see. Will be posting my top films of last year soon... hopefully!