The best-of-2013 listing rolls on and awards season has roused from its holiday slumber, so we have a bit of catching up to do. And we begin with Reverse Shot, where editors Michael Koresky and Jeff Reichert suggest that “lists are increasingly the diseased lifeblood of film writing. The more voters the more homogenous the outcome, and the result is that those films widely deemed the year’s best are invariably consensus picks.” Not so much the film voted to the top of RS‘s own list. Nick Pinkerton: “In a year when American movies clambered over one another to best epitomize the vulgarity and unquenchable avarice which is presumed to be at the heart of the American Dream, To the Wonder connected to an entirely different tradition: call it American Reverie.”
Ranging further away from the consensus (in seemingly all directions) is the huge roundup of lists from the illustrious contributors and editorial board of desistfilm.
Listening (99’40”). Peter Labuza and Keith Uhlich have begun their discussion of their lists. This episode of The Cinephiliacs also features brief contributions from myself, Andreas Stoher, Craig Simpson, Monica Castillo, and Carson Lund. More listening. John Anderson, Richard Corliss, and Joshua Rothkopf discuss the year on the Leonard Lopate Show.
Some of RogerEbert.com‘s contributors have commented on their top tens; some haven’t. The international team at Twitch has made its selections. Topping the list at In Review Online: Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel‘s Leviathan. #1 at the Arts Desk: Joshua Oppenheimer‘s The Act of Killing. And at Les Inrocks: Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger by the Lake.
Paste‘s list goes to 50. Their #1: Richard Linklater‘s Before Midnight. And more friends of the magazine have posted their lists: Directors Megan Griffiths, Karin Hayes, Dan Mirvish, Paul Rachman, and Lynn Shelton; producer Natasha Giliberti; actor Josh Radner; and writers Anna Goldfarb and Kayli Stollak.
Robert Horton hosts a panel of Seattle-based critics (including Jim Emerson, Kathleen Murphy, and Andrew Wright) discussing their 2013 top tens; you’ll find those lists and more at the Parallax View
The Nashville Scene checks in with local cinephiles—critics, programmers, designers—to talk about the year’s top movies, posters, TV, etc. You’ll find more top ten collections at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Toronto Film Review.
“Every year the Alamo Drafthouse team—including staff from the programming offices of every location, Drafthouse Films, Mondo, Badass Digest, Fantastic Fest and more—vote on our favorite ten films of the year.” #1: Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street.
UNIQUELY INDIVIDUAL
The new year’s ushered in a slew of fresh and noteworthy lists posted by individuals at their own sites in varying formats. In alphabetical order with the #1’s and other notes in parentheses:
Michael J. Anderson (Jia Zhangke‘s A Touch of Sin), Nigel Andrews (Financial Times; Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue Is the Warmest Color), Nicholas Bell (Ioncinema; Blue Is the Warmest Color), Josef Braun (probably Olivier Assayas‘s Something in the Air), Lisa K. Broad (Wong Kar-wai‘s The Grandmaster), Dennis Cozzalio (Blue Is the Warmest Color), Brian Darr (Leviathan), Lukas Foerster (Lav Diaz‘s Norte, the End of History), Sean Gilman (Abbas Kiarostami‘s Like Someone in Love; plus older films), Tom Hall (probably Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha), Michael Hawley (Rafaël Oullet’s Camion), Roderick Heath (alphabetical order), Ambrose Heron (alphabetical order), Robert Koehler (arts•meme; Leviathan), Joe Leydon (five pairs), Michael Lieberman (James Gray’s The Immigrant), Patrick Z. McGavin (Before Midnight), Peter Nellhaus (Park Chan-wook’s Stoker), Olivier Père (Stranger by the Lake), Ray Pride (Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis), Michael Sicinski (Nathaniel Dorsky’s Spring), Michael Smith (A Touch of Sin), Bob Turnbull (Jem Cohen‘s Museum Hours; plus the moments of 2013), Kurt Walker (Isiah Medina’s Time is the Sun), Blake Williams (Ramon Zürcher’s The Strange Little Cat), and John Wyver (Paolo Sorrentino‘s The Great Beauty).
MORE OF THE BEST OF 2013
The big, big DVD Beaver poll is out. Topping the list of Blu-ray releases is 3 Films By Roberto Rossellini; DVD: Eclipse Series 38: Masaki Kobayashi Against the System.
At Twitch, Todd Brown spotlights “Fifteen New Directors to Watch” and Jaime Grijalba Gomez picks ten Chilean films.
Vadim Rizov ranks his Letterboxd capsule reviews of 2013 by popularity.
At Salon, Gary Kramer champions the “10 most underrated movies of 2013.”
Omar Ahmed takes an in-depth look at the year in Indian cinema.
Art of the Title had a fine year.
In the Chicago Reader, Ben Sachs considers the “year in nausea.”
Then there’s year in general for Vince Keenan and, at frieze, Bert Rebhandl.
And for Filmmaker, Ray Pride remembers lost friends.
AWARDS
The Producers Guild of America has announced its nominations for its 25th annual awards. The ten films in the running are 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, Blue Jasmine, Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club, Gravity, Her, Nebraska, Saving Mr. Banks, and The Wolf of Wall Street.
“Waltz With Monica (Monica Z), from Danish director Per Fly, leads the race for the Guldbagge (Golden Beetle)—the Swedish national film awards, now in its 50th year—with 11 nominations.” Michael Rosser reports for Screen.
Gravity tops the Central Ohio Film Critics Association‘s top ten. Further award-winners include Alfonso Cuarón (Best Director), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Best Actor for 12 Years a Slave), and Adèle Exarchopoulos (Best Actress for Blue Is the Warmest Color).
NOT 2013
Excellent lists from David McDougall and Daniel Riccuito. And Sean Gilman‘s 1933.
MEANTIME
The “Yearly Review” from Harper’s. Toronto movies, Chicago movies. And the year at Modern Art Notes.
Lists and Awards 2013 Index. For news and tips throughout the day every day, follow @KeyframeDaily on Twitter and/or the RSS feed. Get Keyframe Daily in your inbox by signing in at fandor.com/daily.
