Staff Selections: 2013 The Year in Review

Andrew

1. FootnoteActually released in 2012, I finally caught up with this father-son drama and was floored by its intellect, style, and humanity.
2. Berberian Sound StudioPlugging straight into my repressed fan-boy ID, this was meta-horror heaven, despite the shaggy-dog ending.
3. Marina Abramovic: The Artist is PresentA doco of astonishing impact, all the more extraordinary for being simply a portrait of an artist.
4. BarbaraA delicately balanced script and performances took both my head and heart where they wanted to go.
5. ParaNormanMy favourite animated kids film since the first 'Ice Age', this technical wonder also appealed to my abiding morbid fascination.
6. NoA Chilean history lesson bravely shot on retro U-matic, this was hard politics made palatable - exactly what the film is about.
7. Your Sister's SisterThis rom-com just tickled my fancy with three lovable leads and a natural script that doesn't navel gaze.
8. KlownI've been shamed for liking this taboo-breaking Danish comedy, but I can't apologize for laughing from beginning to end.
9. Free SamplesA tiny, talky movie that makes 20-something cynicism seem totally fresh.
10. ComplianceI got more hate mail for recommending this, but I've always enjoyed films that find dignity in that which is bad taste.

Coulda been contenders: This is 40, Tiny Furniture, Life of Pi, God Bless America, West of Memphis, Queen of Versailles, The Arbor, The Sessions, Zero Dark Thirty, John Dies at the End, Lore, The Place Beyond the Pines, Sinister, Best catalogue: Le Bonheur (1964)

Svenda

1. The ArborUnique experimental documentary featuring multi-layered ruminations of the nature of it's own artistry.
2. DreddImmensely satisfying and amusing adaptation of the classic British comic.
3. Beyond the HillsUnforgettable long-form story-telling featuring all the big themes.
4. LawlessAn evocative and thoroughly brutal portrait of a dark era in American culture.
5. Holy MotorsCrazed carnival of expression reaches perfection with the re-pairing of Denis Lavant and dir. Leos Carax.
6. Marina Abramovic: The Artist is PresentAn easy indulgence for all "people watchers"!
7. Berberian Sound StudioDeliciously suspenseful homage to classic horrors that, like BLOW OUT, will appeal hugely to sound recordists.
8. TabuEnjoyed for it's exquisitely relaxing and dream-like mood - details of the plot are long forgotten.
9. Love StoryDon't bother with the tedious "How to Meet Girls From a Distance" - this is where it's at!
10. A Field in EnglandCompletely bonkers...

Runner Ups: The Loneliest Planet, Fringe - Season 5, Black Mirror, Best catalogue: Off The Charts - The Song Poem Story, Heavy Metal Parking Lot, Green Porno.

Misma

1. Beasts of the Southern WildA grim fairytale for the recession age it's wildly enjoyable and crackles with a raucous, creative energy. Wholly unlike anything i've seen before.
2. BarbaraOn every level an exceptionally well crafted film, deeply romantic in the midst of an atmosphere heavy with paranoia and dread. Nina Hoss astounds.
3. Holy MotorsOne of the strangest and most jaw-droppingly inspired things I've seen. If only dreams were this good...
4. The MasterNot simply a 'Scientology' story, Anderson has woven a brilliant riddle from disparate strands, it's dream-like visuals, opaque narrative and electric performances cast a wonderfully unsettling spell.
5. Wuthering HeightsThere is such savage and elemental beauty in this rough adaptation it might have been unearthed from the damp Yorkshire ground.
6. MudJeff Nichols again proves himself an immensely skilled storyteller with this coming-of-ager where two boys befriend a fugitive raconteur far down a Southern river. Simmers with a sad, humid beauty.
7. LoreExquisitely impressionstic and deeply disconcerting right to it's bitter conclusion.
8. West of MemphisDetailed with blood-boiling but admirable clarity the catastrophic miscarriage of justice enacted upon the West Memphis Three.
9. Gregory Crewdson - Brief EncounterSurprisingly delightful insight into the process of this modest, low-key man who creates stunningly dark images of unease.
10. Beyond the HillsHypnotic, agonising immersion into a Romanian Orthodox convent. Unfolded with stark naturalism and a non-judgmental distance that makes it troublingly clear how all are in someway culpable.

Bubbling Under: Samsara, The Imposter, Berberian Sound Studio, Lawless, Before Midnight, Sightseers, Ai Wei Wei - Never Sorry, Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present, Electrick Children, Skylab, Bernie, Green Porno, Black Mirror (TV Series).

Simon

1. LooperRestored my faith in time-travel thrillers. Excellent.
2. Silver Linings PlaybookMoving, emotional performance from Bradley Cooper.
3. Killing Them SoftlyWell-told tale of small-time thugs and junkies.
4. Cloud AtlasEpic and unusual, this year's 'John Carter'.
5. Zero Dark ThirtyAs close to the truth as you'll probably ever get.
6. John Dies at the End'The Matrix' meets 'Naked Lunch' and has a crazy party.
7. Get the GringoMel makes action comedy set in a Mexican prison - 80's old school fun.
8. End of WatchVisceral, documentary-style buddy cop thriller.
9. Warm BodiesEnjoyable zombie romance mashup.
10. The Way Way BackHeartfelt coming of age story, thoroughly enjoyable.

Also running: I Give it a Year, The Paperboy, Safety Not Guaranteed, Two Guns, Argo, Mud, Dredd... Best revival: Heavy Metal Parking Lot.

Recommended but missed a Top 10...

The Grown-Up: Before Midnight, The Sessions, Performance (A Late Quartet), Rust and Bone, The Hunt, Promised Land, Smashed, Flight, Stand Up Guys, Arbitrage.

The Growing-up: Tiny Furniture, Pitch Perfect, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Turn Me On, Goddamit!

The Young at Heart: Amour, Quartet, Still Mine, Ping Pong, Song for Marion, Over the Hill Band, You Will Be My Son, Welcome Aboard, Elena, The Door.

Good clean fun: Safety Not Guaranteed, The Angels' Share, Bernie, Ruby Sparks, The Brass Teapot, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, Iron Man 3, Now You See Me, Oz: The Great and Powerful, Gambit, Hysteria, Love is All You Need.

Good unclean fun: The World's End, Sightseers, This is 40, This is the End, Spring Breakers, Grabbers.

Le Souffle: The Intouchables, Le Chef, Camille Rewinds, Haute Cuisine, Delicacy, Beloved, On Air.

The Iconoclastic: Behind the Candelabra, Lincoln, Hitchcock, Hemingway & Gellhorn, Love Marilyn.

The Inspirational: The Impossible, Searching for Sugar Man, The Sapphires, The Crash Reel, Samsara, Monsieur Lazhar, Kon-Tiki, First Position, The Whale.

Tastemakers: Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, Journal de France, Step Up to the Plate, Tasting Menu.

Tastebreakers: Django Unchained, God Bless America, The ABC's of Death, Antiviral, Beyond the Black Rainbow, Cosmopolis, King of Pigs.

Heartbreakers: The Imposter, The Tall Man, Dreams of a Life, Silence in the House of God.

Girl Trouble: Electrick Children, Sound of my Voice, Side Effects, Miss Bala, Byzantium.

The Well Drawn: Chico & Rita, A Monster in Paris, Children Who Chase Lost Voices, Despicable Me 2, The Croods, Rise of the Guardians, Wreck-It Ralph,.

Lost in Music: Last Days Here, Charles Bradley: Soul of America, The Love We Make, Under African Skies, Neil Young - Journeys, The Stone Roses - Made of Stone, Sound City.

The Homegrown: Giselle, How Far is Heaven, Love Story, How to Meet Girls from a Distance, Shopping, Fresh Meat, Two Little Boys, White Lies, Mt. Zion, Romeo and Juliet: A Love Song, Edwin: My Life as a Koont.

The 'Small Screen': The Fall, Top of the Lake, Veep, Banshee, The Newsroom, Parade's End, Silk, Bletchley Circle, Inspector Soneri, Arrow, Under the Dome, Regular Show.

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