The Top Five Films of 2013.

It’s that time of the year again, the Globes, BAFTA’s and Oscars have passed by and at last it’s come to big one. The Stu-ies. It’s the same deal as last year. Any film released in the UK in the last twelve months or if they became eligible for the Oscars were all in the mix to be on this most exclusive of lists.

5. The Place Beyond The Pines

Derek Cianfrance’s generational crime drama, was one of the biggest surprises of the year for me. Initially when I saw the first few images from it, I was less than enthused about seeing seeking it out. For a film that shows the damage a parent, or lack of one can do to a child, it also entertained from start to finish. Yes, the films chapters get stronger as the film progresses, but no chapter drags and each presents a fully formed film, at the mercy of what came before and affecting what follows.

Director: Derek Cianfrance

Writers: Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio and Darius Marder.

4. The Hunt

How would you react if someone you had known all your life was accused by your young daughter of exposing himself to her? Would you believe your best friend? Or your young daughter? Within that premise and those questions is the truly horrible scenario we see primary school teacher Lucas forced into. Ostracised and instantly hated, his life is torn apart, not by the truth or his own actions but the fear of those around him.

Mads Mikkelsen, should have quite honestly been nominated for every single Lead Male acting category this year. Few got close to the level of performance he gave us this year. But no doubt due it not being in English, it counted against him, Thomas Vinterberg and the film as a whole. Expect an English language remake in the next two to three years.

Director: Thomas Vinterberg.

Writers: Thomas Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm.

3. The Wolf of Wall Street

Let’s be honest, the trailer for this film was better than a lot of what came out this year. It shut people up in the cinema, it actually got their attention and you could people saying “I want to see that” after it finished.

For, me the third in a loose trilogy with Goodfella’s and Casino, Wolf is the funniest Scorcese film in a long time and arguably his best film since Casino. It’s sprawling but also closely focused on this one man who climbed so high and became so powerful that he could almost do anything he wanted, have anything he wanted and get away with it…almost.

Did anyone write a better script than Terence Winter this year? No. He made a took an unlikeable man who took advantage of countless people to make himself stupidly rich and didn’t make him that likeable. He made him and his group of followers interesting, funny, depraved, stupid but never likeable. This, right here, is the secret of the films success and it’s greatest strength.

Director: Martin Scorcese.

Writer: Terence Winter.

2. Captain Phillips

I could quite easily have put this joint first place. It was that close. Both films in which life on the water plays an integral part to the story.

I could only vaguely remember the events as they played out a few years ago and as a result wasn’t sure what happened or how the hostage situation ultimately came to an end.  So I was relatively blank when this film started and let it carry me along. Like Paul Greengrass’s other work, after about five minutes you hooked and in Phillips you are only introduced to both Phillips and Muse. By the time the two meet, you are in deep as the tension starts to crank.

A lot of people talk about stakes when it comes to films. Here the stakes are, as far as action films go, relatively low, just one man. Although what that one man signifies is a lot bigger. As you see from America’s response. It’s by this time, roughly half way through, that you’ll know if you’re in. As tensions become almost unbearable in the lifeboat and the SEALs wait for instructions from their commanders before the lifeboat reaches the Somali coast.

How Tom Hanks was overlooked by the Academy is quite frankly, farcical. There wasn’t a better two or three minutes of acting than at the very end of this film.

Director: Paul Greengrass.

Writer: Billy Ray.

1.Mud

Jeff Nichols third feature film, his best so far and the best film of the year. Captain Phillips pushed it close, but for me this never dropped from my top spot from when I say it back in October. A mix between a modern western and Huckleberry Finn, Nichols created a whole world and filled it with messed men, women and children (Two of the best child performances you’ll see anywhere).

Considering that Matthew McConaughey has just one an Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club, I am actually surprised that he didn’t get anything for Mud, as for me he gives a much more interesting and engaging performance here.

I could go on and on about Mud, but the best advice I could give to you is to go and buy it and watch it for yourself and see a film that has been tragically overlooked by the academy and hasn’t received the worldwide recognition it deserves.

I eagerly await Jeff Nichols next film.

Director: Jeff Nichols.

Writer: Jeff Nichols.

Top Five Films of 2012....and a bit.

I’m a little late to the game with end of year lists, I’m personally going from the beginning of 2012 up to and including that was released or eligible for this years Oscars, so it’s more like a 15 month period. But anyway, enough with the build up, let’s get straight to it.

5. The Master

Easily the most difficult of films to get into, or even get a hold of. Paul Thomas Anderson’s most recent film takes to post World War Two America as we follow navy veteran Freddie Quell, played disturbingly well by Joaquin Phoenix as he searches for something. The search is either to improve himself and his situation, or to simply continue to find better and better places to get drunk and have sex. Whether Freddie wants to change is one of the biggest questions in the film.

The Master, is one of Andersons shortest films, although the first viewing can be quite gruelling as there isn’t a lot of plot to drive the film forward, instead it focuses on the three main characters of Quell, Lancaster Dodd, or The Master (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and his wife Peggy (Amy Adams). However, on subsequent viewings the film does “speed up” and is much more rewarding as it allows you to really focus on these characters.

It isn’t as perfect as There Will Be Blood, but then again few films will ever reach that bench mark again. Instead, The Master offers a personal look into beliefs and the power religion holds over people, as well as asking just how much people want to change against how much they can actually change. You may struggle with it, but it’s a film not be missed.

4. Looper

Arguably one of the biggest hits outside of the obvious comic book fare we had at the cinemas this summer. Rian Johnson’s excellent third film and possibly his best so far, reunited him with Joseph Gordon Levitt from Brick and once again they found and gave us an interesting and complicated protagonist.

Looper, for me follows in the tradition of the last few years where we get a big, accessible and intelligent science fiction film that really strikes a cord with the audience, in previous years it’s been Source Code (2011), Inception (2010), Moon (2009), although budgets may vary for all, it was that they all brought big ideas and themes to this resurgent genre.

The film begins quickly and gives our protagonist an obvious goal, to kill his future self and get his life back. But it’s when Looper changes from what everyone is expecting that it really kicks into high gear. As we are given Old Joe’s full story and reason for coming back as well as what he plans to do. Whether you can see a justification for what he does is a very individual thing. But by giving us conflicting protagonists, the film asks us to choose what it is the more valuable to us ,as well as why we are supporting this character over the other.

3. Zero Dark Thirty

If you can get past the endless controversy that surrounds this film, you are in for a tense and morally ambiguous film. We all know it ends generally, but here it’s about the characters who spent near enough a decade searching for one man. Bigelow and Boal do an amazing job of holding your attention as these operatives discuss names, places and histories at such speed that it would be quite easy for the audience to get lost. But because of their own skill and that of the actors, not once did I feel lost or behind on what was happening.

Chastain’s central character of Maya is one of the most interesting protagonists in last five years. We watch her evolve from being somewhat timid at the start of the film during her first interrogation, to a borderline obsessive by the time of the raid on Abbottabad.

Now, does the film justify Torture or the various methods that have been used by intelligence agencies? Not at all in my opinion, as one crucial piece of evidence is found without the use of torture. The big controversy comes from the fact that film states that torture took place in the first place. Given the people that it’s likely screenwriter Mark Boal spoke to, it’s seem fair to say that it did happen, maybe not like this, but that it certainly did happen. That accusation for some is more serious than the methods used.

2. Once Upon A Time In Anatolia

This may be a bit of cheat due to the date of release, but as it was released in 2012, it qualifies for this list. Nuri Blige Ceylan’s beautiful Turkish crime film is as mesmeric as it is visually stunning. Taking place in the Turkish countryside mostly, as a group of officials go out with a killer to find the body of the man he murdered.

As straight forward as the basic plot sounds, it is more about the men who have come out to search for the body, as the killer struggles to remember where the body is and they spend more time out in hills, they begin to talk about the histories and what made the into the men they are.

As mentioned before, the greatest part of the film are it’s visuals. We are often treated these elegantly framed and photographed long shots of the countryside as the cars move along the winding roads. As it has been mentioned before by various critics, these shots resemble moving paintings (for all the clumsiness of that expression) which reminds me of Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon.

This is personally complex, choosing it’s characters over its plot as its main focus and apart from a kind of twist towards the end, has the films stakes relate to the characters. To everyone else, what is it at stake is just the finding the body and getting back, but for the more senior members of the group, it is about, pride, reputation, the secrets of their past and the cost of telling the truth.

1. The Dark Knight Rises

This choice may not come as a surprise to many, in fact it may have been more of a surprise if it hadn’t made the top spot. Was it as immediately satisfying as The Dark Knight? Maybe not for everyone and it divide some peoples opinion, but that was no doubt down to it being a conclusion and people do hate having stories ended for them.

Like it’s predecessor, Rises aimed big, using contemporary fears and concerns and used them to colour it’s story, commentaries on it’s political leanings were expected, but maybe not as ridiculous as some that emerged. It also pushed it’s scope even further, breaking the narrative up into, two or three different storylines for the majority of it’s middle and asking the viewer to keep up, something that big budget blockbusters don’t, instead preferring to spoon feed audiences their basic plots.

Despite the numerous plots and characters present within the film, this and the rest of the trilogy were all about telling one mans story, Bruce Wayne’s. We saw him return from sacrificing years of his life, to be chased, beaten and driven to his lowest point and rebuild himself, leading to a stirring and tense climax that left me open mouthed for remaining five minutes of the film. We were given the scene between Gordon and Batman that we had waited three films for as well as the most relief and joy inspiring almost shot that any film of this kind has ever delivered.

All in all we were given a more than fitting finale to one of the most well loved and entertaining trilogies of the last few decades, easily standing alongside the sprawling Lord of the Rings. With his next incarnation, I can only hope that they manage to reach these heights once again.