George Clooney in Gravity
To paraphrase Charles Dickens’ oft-quoted A Tale of Two Cities adage, for film, 2013 was the best of years and it was the worst of years – as every year inevitably is. From the hundreds of features that graced Australian cinemas in general theatrical release seasons, the good came with the bad, both surrounding a vast sea of average, ordinary, and okay efforts. It’s a numbers game, pure and simple: in any given year, there will be excellent films, there will be awful films, and there will be many that are simply standard.
It is those at the top of the heap that resonated and bear remembering, however, 2013’s batch of the best a large, varied and stellar bunch indeed. And that’s just those that made their way to the multiplexes and art house institutions; on the Australian film festival circuit, a plethora of otherwise unseen gems also emitted a shining glow.
Echoes of 2012
2013 started with a host of films seen elsewhere (read: the United States and Europe) in 2012, the majority primary awards contenders. Academy Award winners Life of Pi (best director for Ang Lee), Silver Linings Playbook (best actress for Jennifer Lawrence), Django Unchained (best supporting actor for Christoph Waltz, best original screenplay for Quentin Tarantino), Lincoln (best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis) and Amour (best foreign-language film) justified their acclaim to Australian audiences. Fellow nominee Zero Dark Thirty arrived to controversy, and largely went unrewarded for its meticulous look at the machinations of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, but staked its claim as one the year’s most thrilling.
Must-be-seen-to-be-believed documentary The Imposter, slow-burning Russian war parable In the Fog, German character study Barbara, and Chilean retro political portrait No kick-started the spate of efforts from the previous year that enlivened and enlightened viewers in 2013. Emotional French effort Rust and Bone, harrowing Danish drama The Hunt, beguiling Portuguese beauty Tabu, punishing Romanian study of religion, Beyond the Hills, and the sweet and sincere Swiss offering Sister joined their ranks. All had their first local screenings at 2012 festivals.
American, big and small
At the big end of town, a host of blockbusters surprised and pleased, perhaps none more so than Alfonso Cuaron’s breathtaking Gravity. A technical achievement perhaps unsurpassed in the medium, as well as an engaging showcase for star Sandra Bullock, it delivered emotional and aesthetic involvement far beyond its simple “lost in space” concept. Fellow visual effects behemoth Pacific Rim was the monster movie to end all monster movies, made by an auteur – Mexico’s Guillermo del Toro – intent on combining modern capabilities with old-fashioned spectacle. The latest from Michael Bay, Pain & Gain was either loved or hated, its flashy, Miami-set, based-on-a-true-story skewering of capitalism brimming with unexpected commentary and comedic brilliance – but not for all tastes.
Fellow American efforts – indies and smaller mainstream fare alike – also had an outstanding showing, and an impressive break-through rate in cinemas. Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha, starring the effervescent Greta Gerwig, revelled in authentic eccentricity as a slice of quarter-life-crisis delight. Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers showed the ugliness and the ambition of the American dream, as seen through the titular teen rite-of-passage. Jeff Nichols’ Mud, with another charismatic and vulnerable display from the resurgent Matthew McConaughey, was as warm and wise as coming-of-age effort should be. And no one can forget the rapport of – and riveting performances from – Matt Damon and Michael Douglas in Steven Soderberg’s Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra.
The list goes on, as diverse as it is. The quiet comedy of Mike Birbiglia’s Sleepwalk with Me, cult pop culture icon Joss Whedon’s take on Shakespeare in Much Ado About Nothing, Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke’s third exploration of love in Before Midnight, and Jim Rash and Nat Faxon’s summery examination of male influences in The Way, Way Back all also deserve a mention. Nicole Holofcener’s mature romantic comedy Enough Said, James Ponsoldt’s insightful look at teenage alcoholism, The Spectacular Now, and Destin Cretton’s glimpse inside the foster care system, Short Term 12, incited genuinely affecting responses. Second efforts from Derek Cianfrance (The Place Beyond the Pines and Shane Carruth (Upstream Color), the latest from the prolific Woody Allen (Blue Jasmine) and Joe Swanberg (Drinking Buddies), and first-time efforts Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and Fruitvale Station rounded out a terrific range of US films.
Around the world
Greats hailed from elsewhere, and from the limited international features that earned a theatrical release in Australia. It was almost impossible not to be stunned by Stranger by the Lake, a compulsive and compelling evaluation of love and lust by filmmaker Alain Guiraudie. The black-and-white, silent, Spanish spin on Snow White that was Blancanieves proved utterly enchanting, adding a bull-fighting bent to the classic fairytale. Xavier Dolan’s Lawrence Anyways saw the wunderkind director capitalise upon his emotional proclivities in a grand transgender love story.
From Denmark, A Hijacking showed how a tale of piracy could be told with urgency months before the higher-profile Captain Phillips, and with just as exceptional performances. Fellow Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn travelled to Thailand with American heartthrob Ryan Gosling for the pensive, propulsive, vivid and violent Only God Forgives. And few films were as funny as Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa, the big-screen debut of Steve Coogan’s most famous character worth the wait for his first cinema outing.
Discussion has surrounded the small number of films – 14 in total – eligible for the AACTA awards; however their quantity doesn’t mask the quality of a few standouts. A thoroughly local interpretation of the western genre, Ivan Sen’s Mystery Road combined noir tendencies with a stoic, sympathetic lead turn by Aaron Pedersen. Tim Winton’s The Turning varied in its execution, if not in its ambition, but its best segments were worthy of attention. The Rocket and Satellite Boy, two features focused on child protagonists, successful married serious themes with bewitching stories. And of course there is Baz Luhrmann’s divisive The Great Gatsby a feat of aesthetics and imagination – even if the director’s vision of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic novel isn’t always realized.
By format and genre
In the documentary format, two films stood apart: Stories We Tell and The Act of Killing. Sarah Polley’s personal portrait is intimate, intricate filmmaking that subverts the very idea of telling stories; but don’t be surprised when the latter, from director Joshua Oppenheimer, and delving into Indonesian death squads, wins the best documentary Oscar next year. Music documentaries Twenty Feet from Stardom, The Stone Roses: Made of Stone and Cosmic Psychos: Blokes You Can Trust spearheaded yet another excellent year for the meeting of the mediums. Though concerned with the musical collective, the mobilising Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer was steeped in their horrifying recent political struggles against the Russian state.
Genre films are often unloved in local cinemas, few gaining an Australian release. Of those that managed the feat, the sleek, celebrity-obsessed Antiviral made more of director Brandon Cronenberg than his family name, Scott Derrickson’s Sinister was able to evoke real scares with a twist on a familiar tale, and Park Chan-wook’s first English-language effort, the sublime Stoker, reveled in its gothic sensibilities. You’re Next married mumblecore and horror with deliciously comic consequences. Magic Magic conjured a psychological thriller in remote confines, bringing to the screen the worst social nightmares of many.
In the field of films for all ages, 2013 started and ended well, bookended by two of the year’s best. ParaNorman made the scary and spooky accessible in an endearing story of identity and belonging, complete with throwback references for adult viewers. Though yet another Disney princess film on paper, Frozen sabotaged the standard with its welcome focus on sisterhood, rather than romantic fulfillment. That both are gorgeously animated, and make ample use of their 3D presentation, is an added bonus.
Festival fun
From the world of festivals came more cinematic treats from around the globe, perhaps none more so than Xavier Dolan’s Tom at the Farm. A disturbing thriller that dives into the essence of connection, it combines the dark with the delicate – with a devastating lead performance from the director. Ulrich Seidl’s striking trilogy of Paradise: Lost, Paradise: Faith and Paradise: Hope sprang from similar thematic grounding, as filtered through sex, religion and body image. More great music documentaries materialized in A Band Called Death and The Punk Singer, exploring the true roots of the punk and riot grrrl movements respectively.
The best of the rest included Oscar Wilde updating The Selfish Giant, Sion Sono’s energetic and over-the-top Why Don’t You Play in Hell?, and Jia Zhang-ke’s capitalist horror story A Touch of Sin. Examining grief without wallowing in it, Scottish seaside fable For Those in Peril, Canadian drama The Wait, and Uberto Pasolini’s contemplative Still Life showed different sides of dealing with the end of life. American indie comedies also fared well, as seen through Lake Bell’s voiceover-oriented In a World, David Gordon Green’s ambling and affable Prince Avalanche starring Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Don Jon and its deconstruction of romantic and sexual idylls.
Coming soon
And as 2013 comes to a close, a new breed of potential future trophy recipients march towards screens, including American Hustle’s swift-talking ode to 1970’s crime sheen. Of course, some of the year’s best – Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, Alexander Payne’s Nebraska and Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis, won’t be seen here until early 2014. Robert Redford-starring survivalist drama All is Lost, vampire love story Only Lovers Left Alive – with a perfectly cast Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston, Paolo Sorrentino’s lavish love letter to Rome, The Great Beauty and 2013 Palme d’Or winner Blue is the Warmest Colour , range among the other 2013 films releasing in Australia in the new year.
The best of the best
No look back at the best of a year in film is complete without the obligatory list, the statement of the top ten features that stayed with this reviewer after hundred have been seen. So, without any further ado, a personal tally of those movies that did more than the usual, those films that were really something special – and received a theatrical release in Australia in 2013.
Frances Ha: Writer/star Greta Gerwig’s astute embodiment of uncertainty, as rendered in Noah Baumbach’s gorgeous monochrome imagery, ensures Frances Ha is filled with the verity and vividness of twenty-something New York life.
Gravity: Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity circles above its sci-fi, space-oriented brethren in its tale, talent and technique, in a thoughtful toying with life, grief, and the inevitable– as embodied by leading lady Sandra Bullock.
Stranger by the Lake : Calculated performances complete what is, at heart, a complex and considered contemplation of human nature, as chronicled and compiled in stunning fashion by director Alain Guiraudie.
Pacific Rim: Pacific Rim’s aliens-versus-robots technical achievements are plentiful, its narrative precise, its imagery handsomely photographed and its set-pieces stunningly choreographed; however, for all its size and sheen, it is director Guillermo del Toro’s valuing of the details that shines.
Only God Forgives: Aided by its Thai underworld setting, Only God Forgives may push Nicolas Winding Refn’s predilection for visceral austereness to its most extreme, but there’s method to the writer/director’s mesmerizingly minimalistic, vividly violent madness.
Enough Said: The shadow of James Gandolfini looms large over warm and witty, apt and acerbic romantic comedy Enough Said, and – given sweet, sincere, self-deprecating turn against the equally impressive Julia Louis-Dreyfus – rightfully so.
Mud: Mud, like the earnest exploration of masculine maturation it depicts, is awash with easy-going, summer-time charm and the mercurial spirit of adventure, with Matthew McConaughey instrumental in its coming-of-age enigma.
Spring Breakers: The scantily-clad protagonists, repetitive Skrillex-scored refrains and music video-style visuals just scratch the surface of Harmony Korine’s kaleidoscopic mood piece and musing on youth, excess and chasing and sustaining the American dream.
Drinking Buddies : A film that pleasingly hits too close to home, friends-contemplating-benefits comedy Drinking Buddies reached the spot in audience’s hearts and minds that recalls their own similar experience, and deftly dredges up all the bittersweet feelings that go along with it.
Django Unchained : In taking on, interpreting and subverting spaghetti western tropes in Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino entertains with panache and uses the film’s pastiche-laden packaging to empower the truths behind its brazen, brutal and brilliantly funny content.
