Robert Saucedo’s Top Ten Films of 2013
I hate ranking movies on lists (I am infinitely grateful I wasn’t forced to name my favorite 100 films as part of the Alamo 100 program). That said, I have an unavoidable drive to share my favorite ten films every year. Without fail, I always find myself regretting the placement, ranking or omission of films immediately after hitting send but, like migration for a bird, I feel the call every winter. Now please excuse me while I lie sleepless at night wondering if I should have included films that almost made the list – Stoker, Iron Man 3, Spring Beakers or Gravity, to name a few.
10. Zero Charisma
Zero Charisma straddles a fine line between over-the-top satirical comedy and being a raw, truthful portrait of a person so many of us know (sometimes because we see that person in the mirror). Zero Charisma is an unflinching look at nerd culture – both the bright spots and the ugliness. It is funny, sharply written and features some outstanding performances but lying just below the surface is a darkness that betrays the film’s unassuming power. It is this emotional center, lurking just below the surface like a crocodile stalking a thirsty gazelle, that will catch you by the heart. Like the best of Jody Hill’s work, Zero Charisma is a balancing act of tones – it’s funny and sad, sometimes at the same time.
9. 12 Years a Slave
A prestige picture with the heart of an exploitation movie, 12 Years a Slave is a horrific journey that many audiences will find it difficult to undertake – scarier than any horror film released this year, the movie travels so deep into dark shadowy despair that hope seems impossible. Why then would an audience want to submit themselves to such an experience? Chiwetel Ejiofor leads a cast of performers whose talents are transcendent. Watching the film is like watching a baby born – it’s a bloody, nauseating mess of torn tissue and screaming pain but you can’t take your eyes away because you know you’re watching a miracle in action.
8. Frances Ha
Perhaps being inspired to take a European vacation on credit cards was not the right message to get out of Frances Ha but it was hard not to walk away from the film more than a little in love with Greta Gerwig’s flighty, immature Frances – downward spiral and all. Gerwig imbues the film with a life and energy that makes it impossible not to develop a crush on the movie. Frances Ha is a great many things – funny, beautifully shot, poignant (at least to this perpetually broke would-be artist) – but at the center of every facet of the film is the wonderful performance from Gerwig.
7. Escape from Tomorrow
Escape from Tomorrow is a movie that could have easily been overshadowed by the story behind its production – the filmmakers sneaked into Disney theme parks to film an unauthorized horror film. Lucky for audiences, the film was an unwaveringly weird delight that never allowed itself to be engulfed by controversy. A surreal, wonderful journey through some pretty basic ideas – happiness, family and consumerism – turns into one of the most enjoyable experiences I had in a theater this year. Escape From Tomorrow is a film that knows exactly what it wants to be and challenges audiences to view it on its own terms.
6. Inside Llewyn Davis
I’m half sure I could survive solely on a diet consisting of nothing but Coen Brothers films. Of course Inside Llewyn Davis is an amazing film – was there any question? The Coens have filmed a mostly plotless journey through the ‘60s folk music scene that operates at its own pace – providing answers, insights and performances at the exact moment audiences will find themselves at their most emotionally vulnerable. Watching the film is an experience close to getting drunk on cinema – you’ll need to spend a bit of time sobering up before the drive home from the theater.
5. The Wolf of Wall Street
When Martin Scorsese eventually retires from a life behind the camera, the film world will know a deep loss. The director makes it looked so damn easy to craft intoxicatingly dense and layered films that put to shame directors half his age. The Wolf of Wall Street is a film that burns with urgency, pulling the audience along a three-hour journey through excess. There is something alive and churning in the soul of the movie and that soul – sometimes profoundly ugly, impossible to ignore – shines with a luminance that draw, like bugs to a zapper, a new generation of film fanatics to the cult of Scorsese.
4. Drug War
The latest film from visionary director Johnnie To (Election, Breaking News), Drug War is a smoldering crime film that mixes intense police procedural with some truly surprising twists. It is a movie that takes its time with its plot – before cumulating in one of the best extended shoot-out sequences I’ve seen in years. If you’re somebody who is constantly disappointed by the films Hollywood churns out, Drug War is proof that quality cinema is still being produced – it is just often coming from another country. I love superhero movies as much as the next childhood-clutching man-child but this is the best film about crimefighters to be released in the last several years, hands down.
3. Pain and Gain
This may be the biggest surprise of the year. Pain and Gain, after the fact, really seems like a movie that could have only been directed by Michael Bay. An excessive, violent, often disturbingly bleak look at our culture’s unquenchable desire for more (money, sex, drugs and muscles), Pain and Gain rockets out of the gate like a greased up ferret. It’s raucous, smelly and at times unpleasant to look at but the movie has a knack for getting into tight holes and before I knew it, Pain and Gain had burrowed itself into my mind – urinating all over my senses until all I could see, smell and taste was the film’s passion. This is my kind of film – dark, nasty and unforgettable.
2. Her
I want to live in a world directed by Spike Jonze. Her is a story that lives and breathes in the small touches – the tiny, lovingly crafted clumps of clay that Jonze has sculpted his movie out of. I want to share Her with everybody I know – if I thought I could duct tape my friends and family to a chair and force them to experience Her without repercussion, I would. Instead, I’ll have to settle for bugging them about the movie incessantly.
1. Sightseers
Sightseers is Ben Wheatley’s most accessible film – a darkly funny look at two new lovers who embark on an increasingly deadly cross-country road trip. It was my favorite film from last year (I saw it at Fantastic Fest 2012) and it remains my favorite film this year – only now I can officially name it as such thanks to the fact that it was finally released theatrically. Hilarious and unpredictable, the movie is a perfect litmus test as far as I’m concerned. Don’t like the film? You’re probably not a whole lot of fun to hang out with.
