Top 10 Movies of 2013

 10. Evil Dead

Easily the most technically impressive horror film of the year, Director Fede Alvarez orchestrates a sumptuous symphony of gore and with his Raimi-approved reimagining of the classic low budget scarefest. Jane Levy delivers an uncompromisingly brutal, memorable performance as the heroin junkie turned Necronomicon-inhabited demon girl. Definitely for those of us who enjoy sitting in the dark and watching young people get shot with nail guns.

 9. 12 O’Clock Boys

Sold as “The Wire with Wheelies”, young director Lotfy Nathan’s first feature documentary is a visually sublime, testosterone-laden look at what constitutes modern escape for poor black youth in America. Embedded within a Baltimore urban dirt bike gang, Nathan follows the formative years of Pug, a suave 13-year-old who lusts for greatness and the chance to fly - with one wheel high in the sky - among the legends of the street. A chase film with actual human poignancy.

 8. Stories We Tell

We knew before “Stories we Tell” that Sarah Polley is a national treasure. But here, in her most (literally) introspective film yet, Polley constructs the tragic, salacious, fascinating fabric of her family’s history with an almost emotionally forensic focus. With this, her first documentary, Polley establishes herself as a wholly Canadian storyteller: vulnerable, yet determined; grounded, yet self-analytical. 

 7. Dallas Buyers Club

Who knew Quebec’s Jean-Marc Vallee finally would make his mark with this, an AIDS drama starring a never-better Matthew McConaughey as Ron Woodruff, a hard-drinking, fightin’, womanizin’ HIV-positive cowboy. Co-starring Jared Leto in easily the best supporting performance of the year as the transsexual addict Rayon, Vallee has constructed an air-tight, hardened but emotionally-affecting story out of a man’s journey from self-interested destruction, to selfless enlightenment.

 

6. Gravity

The best directed special effects spectacle of the year, Alfonso Cuaron and his brilliant crew have truly cemented their names in the annals of cinematic wizardry. An intimate tale of survival told on the broadest scale imaginable, Cuaron still manages to find a beating, human heart amongst the debris of a wrecked space station in the form of Sandra Bullock, who, in likely her most arduous and compelling role to date, is the real source of seat-gripping suspense up on that IMAX screen. Those with self-admitted iron nerves should apply within.

 5. The Act of Killing

A surreal and almost unbelievable piece of documentary filmmaking, Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Act of Killing” is an unflinching, strangely enjoyable look inside the minds of murderers. Following the lives of former Indonesian death squad leaders as they attempt to stage hollywood-style re-enactments of their past atrocities, Oppenheimer has delivered a film that defies categorization. A must-see for those looking for a breathtakingly challenging view of what constitutes truth in non-fiction filmmaking.

4. 12 Years A Slave

Steve McQueen’s adaptation of Solomon Northup’s hellish odyssey into slavery is simultaneously one of the most powerful and artful films in recent memory. With a stellar cast anchored by an absolutely perfect Chiwetel Ejiofor, sumptuous cinematography and an at times intensely shocking brutality, McQueen has created a searingly memorable work that will live on as an important, but sublime slave drama.

3. American Hustle

David O. Russell flexes his filmic muscles and throws in every trick in the book to make a slick, smart and enormously thoughtful caper based on the infamous ABSCAM sting of the 1970s. This is Christian Bale with a combover and a beer belly; Jennifer Lawrence as a vain, volatile and agoraphobic housewife, Bradley Cooper living in his mother’s house with a perm and an exceedingly voluptuous Amy Adams. Pretty much ‘nuff said. 

2. Her

The most romantically melancholic and aesthetically fascinating slice of science fiction in recent memory, Spike Jonze further cements his auteur status with “Her”, easily his most assured, but mature film yet. Featuring another impressive leading performance from Joaquin Phoenix that is reserved but wholly lovable, this is not just a quirky love story between a man and his operating system, but also an intelligent comment on the fragility of the human heart and the need for connection, regardless of physical form.

 1. Upstream Color

Shane Carruth’s follow up to the outstanding but uncompromisingly difficult “Primer” is yet another high-minded philosophical odyssey, this time of literally the most organic kind. I cannot remember any other film this year that was as simultaneously cerebral, gorgeous and narratively complex. The plot, involving two lost souls trying to put their lives back together after having been maliciously hypnotized by a criminal using a mind controlling parasite, is - on paper - among the most confounding, but resolves itself in a thrillingly cyclical and satisfying confusion. Great films are thought provoking, but astounding, scintillatingly original films like “Upstream Color”  are a reminder that once in a while, movies have the power to change the way we think.