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Showing posts with label The Impossible. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Impossible. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

My favorites of 2013


This is a list of my favorite films I saw, theatrically, in 2013. These are only films I saw in the theater. The first grouping represents as close to a "top films" list as I probably get with Short Term 12 definitely being my favorite film of the year. It is an amazingly, heartbreakingly beautiful film that is that rare thing that truly touches at a lot of what humanity is deep down, and the needs we all have for love and community. Rust and Bone is another heartbreakingly beautiful film, and is easily one of Marion Cotillard's greatest performances (so far). Mud is writer/director Jeff Nichols' meditation on romantic love, and has been one of THREE performances that Matthew McConaughey knocks out of the park this year (all of which are on this list). Don Jon is a hilarious and strikingly poignant look at sex and relationships, The Place Beyond The Pines is a rare feat of filmmaking that covers multiple generations of family and explores the sins of the father and their consequences for the family. Before Midnight, for those of you who have seen the other two films in the "Before" series, is a romantic, but very real, continuation of one of cinema's great (modern) love stories, and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is a revelatory film about the very condition of the world, as it stands, right now.

These are just my favorites for the year. Please understand that you may not like everything on this list, and that is perfectly okay. We all like different stuff. 


Rust and Bone (technically 2012) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg7skcyYolU
The Place Beyond The Pines - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G07pSbHLXgg
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAzGXqJSDJ8


The Impossible (might be 2012?) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgw394ZKsis
The Wolf of Wall Street - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iszwuX1AK6A

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Thursday, February 7, 2013

The Impossible

Disaster films are, generally, more about special effects than they are about story, but The Impossible manages to side step that pitfall, and create a story driven tear jerker, with amazing effects to boot. Naomi Watts (in what is probably the best performance of her career) and Ewan McGregor are parents who bring their three sons one a trip to Thailand for the Christmas holidays. While there, One of the largest tsunami's on record hits the coast, right where they're staying. The rest of the film is the aftermath of this event, but I don't really want to go into it, because I don't want to spoil anything.

The film was made by a Spanish production company, which explains why it's a good film. Hollywood would have jacked the budget up, cut anything remotely resembling story or good dialog out of the script, and tried to sell it as a summer blockbuster. This film was perfectly executed and needed to be released just the way it was. The acting and directing are amazing, and the cinematography, while often times the result of having to work around the effects, is still gorgeous.

This is one of the best films of the year. It will stick with you for a long time, afterwards, and I LOVE films like that. I highly recommend it, and if you get the chance, see it in a theater. It really is something amazing.
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