A 10th Anniversary Retrospective: A LOOK AT THE BEST FILMS OF 2013

Let the nostalgia fest continue yet again!

This is now the third installment of my Anniversary Retrospective series in which I will discuss my top 10 favorite films from certain years that are celebrating a milestone anniversary (i.e. 10th, 20th, 25th, etc...)

So far, I have done 20th and 35th. I guess you can say I am going in no particular order; if anything, I am just going in the order of what year strikes me the most.

Next up, we will go with 2013 as these films are now a decade old.

My thoughts on 2013 would be that it was a very solid year for film. It was also a bit of a slight resurgence considering that 2011 and particularly 2012 were not as strong as 2010. 

This was a strengthening that would continue into 2014, which I considered to be an even better year than 2013...but that is a topic for another day.

2013-2015 was an era in which I sort of paid less attention to films, which mostly coincided with a lack of passion for films at the time plus I made a big move to NYC during that time period. It really wasn't until 2016 that I began to resume a lot of movie watching...and it took until that time to even watch some of the movies you will see below.

With that all said, here are my selections for the best films of 2013: a DEACADE OLD! 

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#10 - Captain Phillips

(Paul Greengrass)

I think Paul Greengrass is a director I can always count on when it comes creating tension. This was a man who was able to take such a well-known horrific terrorist attack (United 93) and made it with such integrity and passion. It was a prime example of a film that was dealing with a truly questionable subject matter for a film (considering it was only 5 years after 9/11) and he just made it work.

With Captain Phillips, he focuses on the real-life 2009 Maersk Alabama hijacking by Somali pirates.

I consider Captain Phillips to contain one of Tom Hanks' finest performances and I still think it was a shame he was left off the list of nominees for that year. 

One of the reasons I think his performance works so well is because of how much he paces himself when it comes to emotion. He does an amazing job at trying to remain calm and stable, but you can clearly see the fear underneath. This all builds to a magnificent climax where, when I first saw it, I literally cried when he cried. 

As Abduwali Muse, this was also a truly great debut for Barkhad Abdi. I mean..."I'm the captain now" has become one of the most iconic quotes from a film in the last two decades. I seriously think he would've made more of a worthy winner than Jared Leto that year...if we are basing it strictly on the nominees.

A truly well-made action/thriller and another homerun in the genre for Paul Greengrass.

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#9 - The Great Beauty

(Paolo Sorrentino)

I have never been an avid lover of the work of Paolo Sorrentino. His most recent film, The Hand of God, left me cold as if he was trying so hard to make his own kind of Fellini-esque memory piece but set during the 80s...only without the vibrancy and wit of Fellini. 

The only film of Sorrentino's that I responded highly to would've been The Great Beauty, which managed to win Best Foreign Language Film at that year's Oscars.

The Great Beauty is a love letter to Rome and in that sense, it almost feels like a more passionate take on how Woody Allen often would romanticize New York City at a time where that city was facing one crisis after another. 

There is just a very whimsical quality to the film and I would say that the vibrancy mixed with moments of quiet contemplation are what make this film seem far more successful in being something that would be worthy to be compared to the works of Federico Fellini. 

Some have criticized this film of being a bit self-indulgent and that it is a bit of "all style, no substance". I suppose I can sort of see that...and that might be why I rank it on the lower end of my top 10.

I just found it to be a truly rapturous experience to view...but that isn't to say that my feelings towards the film ever extended to his other works. Like I said, Sorrentino often leaves me cold. 

I just think this one happened to be at the right place at the perfect time for me.

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#8 - Ida

(Pawel Pawlikowski)

This is an example of including a film on my list based on the year in came out in its home country as opposed to when it came out in the U.S., which would've been 2014.

Ida actually won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar the year following The Great Beauty and I think I slightly preferred it more to that film...even if it seemed to divide people little more.

Ida is set in 1960's Poland and deals with a young novitiate named Anna who is set to take her final vows before the church when she meets with her aunt, a former Communist state prosecutor who tells her that her parents were Jewish and died in the Holocaust.

This film was my introduction to Pawel Pawlikowski, the Polish filmmaker who would go on to get a Best Director nomination for his fantastic 2018 film Cold War. 

He has become, more or less, the most well known filmmaker to emerge from Poland since the passing of the great Krystof Kieslowski in 1996.

I find that Pawlikowski's style reminds me a lot of a modernized take on Ingmar Bergman...or perhaps those of Robert Bresson.

His works can be classified as "slow-burn" and I know that Ida faced some criticism for being a bit too drab and, perhaps on more of a fun level, it pissed off a lot of the Polish right-wing nationalists for how it depicted Christian-Jewish relations at that time post WW-II.

BUT...the film is short (82 minutes) and it manages to tell the story it wants to tell, tells it very well, and doesn't drag it out. 

Sometimes, a movie doesn't have to be over 2.5 hours to be an award worthy epic.

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#7 - Like Father, Like Son

(Hirokazu Kore-ada)

While not quite on the same level as earlier works of his like Nobody Knows or Still Walking or his later masterpiece Shoplifters, I still think there is a lot to like about Hirokazu Kore-ada's Like Father, Like Son.

In terms of its plot, this is a film that deals with a subject matter that teeters on soap opera melodrama.

A successful architect named Ryoto is, perhaps, too focused on his work and neglects his wife Midori and their son Keita. However, in the midst of their rote routines, the hospital contacts them to say that their son Keita (6 years old) is actually not their biological son...and they now have the opportunity to exchange for their real biological son.

Talk about a truly difficult concept! I mean...what would YOU do if you were told your child wasn't actually your child? 

Like I said, this is a very melodramatic story but it is also a very basic story at the same time. Kore-ada manages to tell the story with a lot of quiet dignity without turning it into the potential melodrama it could've been.

I think it might suffer a little in the final act for being a little too eager to try to remain subtle, but that is just me grasping at straws. It is a very good film that still stands out as being a solid effort in 2013...even if it is not as potent as most of Kore-ada's other works.

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#6 - Before Midnight

(Richard Linklater)

When talking great film trilogies or just film series in general, I think one that has gotten a lot of passionate appraisals in the last decade is Richard Linklater's Before Trilogy.

Having begun in 1995 with Before Sunrise and continued with 2004's Before Sunset, the third installment of Before Midnight feels more like a emotionally darker epilogue.

It has been 18 years since Jesse and Celine met while traveling through Europe, and 9 years since they rekindled their relationship in Paris. Now, they are a couple with two twin daughters living in Greece.

   As expected, time has taken its toll on the two of them...and it does lead to an uncomfortable fight where you wonder if we may be witnessing their relationship coming to an end.

I feel like as a set of films, The Before Trilogy offers so many different qualities with each film that it is hard to choose which one might be my favorite...and as judging by multiple reviews on Letterboxd, each one seems to have an equal amount of selections as being "the best".

Perhaps Before Midnight isn't the most joyous, but it is easily the one of the strongest emotional punch.

And in the end, it is just worth seeking out each one for different reasons.

Before Sunrise: watching two people discover an intimate connection.

Before Sunset: seeing two people who have been apart realizing they have a second chance.

Before Midnight: reality sets in.

It is simply a perfect trilogy.

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#5 - The Wolf of Wall Street

(Martin Scorsese)

Part of me does wonder if it is really the right thing to like The Wolf of Wall Street as much as I do.

A lot of the style and story beats remind me so much of Goodfellas; the film could also use a good trim of about 20 minutes to its screen time; and it does seem to present its lead character in a truly heroic fashion.

And yet...I just found it to be so...to use a word that is used quite a bit in the film..."fucking" entertaining.

I have never really cared about the world of finance (something that has become even more apparent now that I work alongside a lot of finance people...some of whom that cite this film as a badge of pride which....dear lord...), but the kinetic energy of the film and also a performance by Leonardo DiCaprio that is some of his best work help make up for its setting.

You could say that the film glorifies Jordan Belfort...but if anything, I view the film as all of these people as being shallow idiots.

Belfort may have served his time and ended up doing a victory tour after his sentence, but he will always be a ridiculous and insane finance bro.

And the comedic tone the film takes helps with not taking these jerks too seriously.

A truly great effort from Scorsese and crew.

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#4 - Blue is the Warmest Colour

(Abdellatif Kechiche)

Movies like The Great Beauty divided people over whether or not it was style over substance while a movie like The Wolf of Wall Street angered some for presenting a story that seemed to glorify the actions of Jordan Belfort.

There is a sharper divide in the opinions towards Blue is the Warmest Colour, and the main critique is around one simple concept: it is basically softcore lesbian porn. 

Is it that? Well...yeah...

It got an NC-17 rating here in the U.S. due to its "explicit sexual content" but this is the United States of America, a country that would sooner allow children to watch the bloodshed of war before seeing a naked breast. 

There are certain aspects of the film that do play into stereotypes, such as someone who is bisexual still preferring to cheat on someone of the opposite sex....and the film does sort of meander.

However, the roughness around the edges works so well for this film...and it also doesn't hurt that the two leads (Adele Exarchopolos and Lea Seydoux) are sublime.

Exarachopoulos, in particular, is Oscar worthy in this and should've served as Cate Blanchett's biggest competition for Blue Jasmine that year.

Perhaps the biggest issue of the film is that this is a lesbian film made by a man...and you can really feel the "male gaze" throughout the whole film as if it plays into the fantasy of straight men longing to see hot lesbians play with one another.

I might've even given it my #2 spot if it weren't for that re-evaluation, but these two women together make it so compelling that it is worth the viewing if only for that.

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#3 - 12 Years a Slave

(Steve McQueen)

I have struggled with 12 Years a Slave pretty much from the first moment I saw it.

Just this past year, I feel like I joined the discourse regarding the movie Till and how it basically tied into the idea of making a film about a truly horrific racially charged event (the murder/lynching of Emmett Till) and turned it into a film that many on Twitter called "black trauma porn".

Now...Till was directed by Chinoye Chukwu, a Nigerian-American filmmaker...so it isn't like that film was put together by a group of white people. However, I do think that movie suffered from some tonal issues and tried a little too hard to be polished to seemingly appeal to a wider demographic.

With a film like 12 Years a Slave, I remember being truly uncomfortable when I first saw it...but yeah, that is obviously fair because it is a movie about slavery. If a slavery film ends up making you feel all warm and fuzzy then that is a problem in more ways than one.

The film was made by the great British writer/director Steve McQueen and up to that point, he was mostly known for his smaller indie films Hunger and Shame...and I was very fond of both of those.

I think where I struggled with 12 Years a Slave...and I get that it was based on a true story that Solomon Northup turned into a book...is that it ends up becoming a white savior narrative by the end. 

However...the one thing I cannot deny is that McQueen was truly successful in not shying away from the brutality...and the performances of everyone involved are fantastic.

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#2 - Inside Llewyn Davis

(The Coen Brothers)

The career trajectory of the Coen Brothers has been interesting.

Early on, their streak of films was highly impressive and their style was unmistakable and vigorously strong from Blood Simple to Raising Arizona to Miller's Crossing to Barton Fink.

THEN...they manage to top themselves with a movie like Fargo and nearly a decade after that, adapt a Cormac McCarthy novel, No Country for Old Men, that would lead to their (arguably) greatest critical and (definitely) awards success.

What I find fascinating is that amongst a lot of their great films, they occasionally will have a dud...and not just a basic dud, but highly forgettable and shocking in how weak they are.

I got the sense at the time that Inside Llewyn Davis was not going to be as well received at first...and while that was true of its awards haul (only receiving a couple of tech nods at the Oscars), I feel like the critical pedigree and also time itself has been glorious to the film.

I personally think Inside Llewyn Davis might be their best film of the last two decades. My opinions on  No Country for Old Men have grown since 2007, but I do feel like this is one film of theirs that they just truly nailed. (SHOUTOUT to 2009's A Serious Man as well)

The 60s Village setting is infectious and handled with such care...and I felt so drawn to everything that was happening that I couldn't help but succumb to yet another world that they put me into.

It is kind of remarkable how these two brothers have the ability of making you enjoy being in so many kinds of strange settings...but I think this is a case where they managed to really find lightening in a bottle.

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#1 - Her

(Spike Jonze)

Back while we were still in quarantine during 2020, I did a lot of movie watching...and this also consisted of me revisiting certain films that I felt a strong urge to take a second (or a third) look at.

Among these films would've been Her.

Now, I have already mentioned about how 2013 was a year in which I didn't really actively watch a lot of movies...but Her was one of the few that I remember going to see in theaters at the time.

My response back then was highly positive, and it was easily one of two films that I considered to be my favorite of the year (the other being Blue is the Warmest Colour, but I explained why it dipped from my #2 slot).

I was worried that when I would revisit Her that a lot of its impact and approach would not age well and that it might seem too cloying and sweet.

Instead, I might've even liked it a little more the second time. 

Most of you probably know the concept of Her:

A man by the name of Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) works as a ghost writer for people who may not be capable to write letters/documents for themselves. He is saddened over the impending divorce from his childhood sweetheart Catherine (Rooney Mara) and during his grief, purchases an AI operating system that is designed to adapt and evolve.

He chooses a female voice that is called Samantha (Scarlett Johannsen) and quickly becomes impressed with how much she is able to learn and grow and hold a conversation with him.

Her is the movie that can be dubbed as "that one where Joaquin falls in love with a disembodied voice" and might've been a colossal failure...but I think Her is one of the most enriching and satisfying and emotionally powerful films to have come out in the last two decades.

I didn't remember every single plot beat when I watched it for the second time, so a lot of it played out just as it had for me viewing it back in 2013.

It's a stellar script (Oscar winning at that) with equally fantastic direction and performances from a small ensemble that are splendid...but it is Joaquin Phoenix who holds this together so smoothly. Considering this is a man who had the year prior played the bombastic Freddie in The Master and would go on to win an Oscar for playing the iconic Joker, Phoenix often shows us how compelling he can be when playing such a quiet and sensitive soul...similar to how he was in 2021's little-seen C'mon C'mon.

    This is just a movie that is nothing but pure beauty...and it really makes you think about the idea of love as a concept/verb.

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IN CONCLUSION:

2013 was a year that I felt less compelled to write about at first because it was the year which was going to be the most recent of the series. 

Full disclosure, I do have drafts of other years lined up including 1993, 1983, 1978, and 1973...and for some reason, I looked at the list for 2013 and was like "Let's tackle this next!"

I would say that time has treated the films of 2013 rather well. 

Well, except for maybe Gravity, which actually did have a valid chance at winning Best Picture at the Oscars over 12 Years a Slave resting solely on great visuals and a solid performance by Sandra Bullock....but seriously, imagine THAT movie with THAT script winning over the likes of 12 Years a Slave, Her, The Wolf of Wall Street, Philomena, and Captain Phillips?

Also - was not a big fan of Dallas Buyers Club from that year...and while McConaughey was good, I still think DiCaprio, Ejifior, and the snubbed Tom Hanks would've been better choices in that race. Don't even get me started on Jared Leto...

As for what is next in the series, I would say look at for one of the years I listed above. Hopefully you are all still enjoying this stroll of sorts down memory lane...even if this one wasn't so far away.

To check out other installments of this series, please use the links below!

35th Anniversary Retrospective: The Best Films of 1988

20th Anniversary Retrospective: The Best Films of 2003

A 35th Anniversary Retrospective: LOOKING BACK AT THE BEST FILMS OF 1988

Welcome back to my next installment of the ANNIVERSARY RETROSPECTIVE series!

As you can probably tell, I am not going in any particular order. I started with 2003 and now I am jumping down to 1988.

However, I am choosing 1988 for one very key reason: that was the year in which I came into this world.

Yes, that is right. 1988 is the year to thank for that. Give it a round of applause!!

For a year of cinema, 1988 did offer some interesting selections...although I would argue that 1987 and especially 1989 both had the upper hand in terms of the number of films that would've fought for a slot on my top 10 list. 

1988 was seen at the time as being a year in which popcorn flicks reigned supreme, but I think there were some truly great indies and art house films to also come out that year.

The results for my list are actually rather eclectic in the end. You get period pieces and animation and comedies and even an action film....and it just goes to show you that sometimes you may not realize what films are going to be the ones that impress you most.

Perhaps it will even be a film about a killing spree in a high school...such as...

#10 - Heathers

(Michael Lehmann)

I went into Heathers almost completely blind as to what the plot was. I knew it was supposed to be something of a black comedy, but needless to say, I was surprised when it started going in the direction it did.

Not long after watching Heathers, the 2004 film Mean Girls came out and I remember thinking at the time that it sort of paled to Heathers. Then again, they were both drastically different and I have grown to consider Mean Girls great in its own right.

Even with the differences, you can sort of see the spiritual predecessor qualities in Heathers, but I think I just took to the darker nature of it...not to mention the fact that I think Winona Ryder is one of the more underappreciated actresses we have had.

1988 had a great indie scene in terms of films like Stand & Deliver, Hairspray, Talk Radio, A World Apart, and Patti Rocks, but I still love how vibrant and sardonic Heathers is.

I will always consider it a great example of a counterculture high school film.

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#9 - Die Hard

(John McTiernan)

Amongst the group of indies and foreign films that I was growing to love in my late pre-teen and early teen years, there was a certain action film that stood out to me in a way that no other action film had.

There is something about Die Hard that just works...and splendidly so.

The formula of Die Hard was so successful that it seemed for the next 3 decades that many action films were being presented or pitched as "Die Hard on a plane", "Die Hard on a boat", "Die Hard on a mountain", and so on.

It does seem a little crazy to think about now, but at the time, Bruce Willis was by no means known as an action star. 

If anything, he was rough-around-the-edges romantic lead solving cases along side Cybil Shepard on the genre-hybrid detective show Moonlighting. Even on that show, Shepard's Maddie Hayes mocked Willis's David Addison and his ability to be tough.

In the pilot, she calls him "a sissy fighter" who doesn't know how to throw a proper punch.

So, perhaps, that image explains why many laughed when Bruce Willis was shown in early trailers of the film as being an "action hero".

As it turned out, that quality and his own natural charisma are what served the role of John McClane well and made him iconic.

Very few action films have thrilled or delighted me as much as Die Hard. I often call it "the best"...and I will also go ahead and say that the late great Alan Rickman should've been nominated and won the Oscar for his incredible debut performance as the iconic villain Hans Gruber.

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#8 - Dangerous Liaisons 

(Stephen Frears)

Speaking of Alan Rickman, I do feel like it would've been amazing to see him on film in this as he had originated the role on the Broadway stage just a year or so before the film version was released.

John Malkovich was certainly good in his place, but I think a lot of what makes this film adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses so delicious is that of Glenn Close.

I think most of you will be very familiar with Dangerous Liasions and what the plot entails...or if you don't, you are probably familiar with it as the 1999 teen drama Cruel Intentions.

Because of that, I want to go more into Glenn Close and her performance.

In the 1980s, Close had an impressive streak of nominations that seemed to come close to rivaling that of Meryl Streep. With her debut film The World According to Garp in 1982, she received a Best Supporting Actress nod which was following with two more in 1983 (The Big Chill) and 1984 (The Natural) before getting Leading noms for Fatal Attraction and Dangerous Liaisons in 1987 and 1988.

A lot of pundits expected that Close would pull off the win here due to her overdue status and the fact it seemed like her race was kind of divided between contenders like Jodie Foster and Sigourney Weaver and Melanie Griffith. You also had Streep up for A Cry in the Dark and frankly, I feel like she was worthy to win her third for that film...but it seems like this was the beginning of when people began to tire of her.

I do think her loss for Fatal Attraction the year prior still stung for many and her she was again playing such an indelible villainous character.

As is often the case...except for cases like Kathy Bates winning for Misery two years later...it does seem like women playing villains end up losing Oscar glory. Close lost to Jodie Foster, who played a rape victim in The Accused. 

As of this writing in 2023, Close has yet to win an Oscar and many suspected she would finally pull it off for The Wife in 2019...but she famously lost to Olivia Colman (a win I support).

Close easily could've won the Oscar for Dangerous Liaisons. She also was worthy to win for Garp and especially for Fatal Attraction.

If you want to see a true masterclass in acting, check out her final moments of this film when everything she tried so hard to fight for is ruined and her true intentions are exposed. The "silence" from her as she wipes off her makeup speaks VOLUMES.

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#7 - My Neighbor Totoro

(Hayao Miyazaki)

Ah, Studio Ghibli and the works of Miyazaki...

You could make a case that Miyazaki has made the greatest animated films of all time; I certainly wouldn't fight anyone on that argument.

My Neighbor Totoro is one of the warmest and most lovable animated movies ever made...and the whole time you watch it, you can't help but have a smile on your face. It is truly like a warm blanket for your soul and even as I type this, I almost feel compelled to put it on as I am dealing with a couple of frustrating things at the moment.

I would probably say that Spirited Away is Miyazaki's masterpiece, but there is something truly special about My Neighbor Totoro. It is just such a fanciful and wonderful world that I don't think I would ever want to leave....and speaking of that, I guess I will point out one more thing:

The movie is too short! That is my only complaint.

If there was ever a movie that I felt warranted another 20 minutes of screentime, it would be this one. 

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#6 - A Fish Called Wanda

(Charles Crichton)

A Fish Called Wanda was one of those rare comedies that seemed to be fairly well embraced by the Academy. Even though it didn't get a Best Picture nomination, it still managed Director and Screenplay nods plus an upset win for Kevin Kline in Supporting Actor.

This was one of those films where I went into it fully expecting to love it because of the fact it was co-written by and starring John Cleese and featured his Monty Python co-star Michael Palin. I was already a huge Python fan by the time I watched Wanda, so the film just seemed tailor made for me. 

The film contains a particular moment that I find to be one of my favorites ever in a comedy, and one of the finest moments of John Cleese's career...and it also happens to contain solid comedic work from Kevin Kine as well.

This would be the "I apologize unreservedly" scene, for those who have seen the film.

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#5 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit? 

(Robert Zemeckis)

There was actually a time when I considered this to be the best film from 1988, but I feel like a lot of the fervor I have felt for the film has cooled down in the last decade or so.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is a groundbreaking film in how it managed to blend live action with animation, and while that isn't the main reason, I am including it on this list, it certainly does play a factor.

The late great Bob Hoskins stars as Eddie Valiant, a detective hired to spy on Jessica Rabbit, the wife of Roger Rabbit...only for things to take a turn when Roger is deemed the prime suspect in the death of  Marvin Acme.

I have to admit one thing though.

 Who Framed Roger Rabbit? contains a scene that I find TO THIS VERY DAY to be very difficult to watch...and by saying this, many of you may already know.

There is a moment where Judge Doom puts a cartoon shoe into what he calls "The Dip", a deadly chemical substance that destroys cartoon creations. The animation and the vocal work (done by Simpsons legend Nancy Cartwright) is so stark and if I were to see the film again, I might honestly pass over this part because it just makes me feel so sad.

But hey...kudos to a film for making me feel that much for a cartoon shoe!

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#4 - Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

(Pedro Almodovar)

Never has a director had such a hot color palate like that of Pedro Almodovar; his movies often smolder in shades of red or pink.

I would've first discovered Almodovar around 2001 after he had just won the Foreign Language Film Oscar for All About My Mother...and then in 2003, he won Original Screenplay for Talk to Her...which seemed like a mild upset at the time.

 

Those were the two films of his I saw first, but I had heard shortly thereafter that Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown was one I should check out.

Dear lord, what a glorious and delicious film this is...and perhaps the first thing I think about when I hear or see gazpacho. 

Much like Heathers, you could classify Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown as a black comedy. I mean...we are talking about a movie where all our protagonist Pepa (Carmen Maura) wants to do his commit suicide by eating her pill-laced gazpacho, but she keeps getting interrupted.

When it comes to male filmmakers, I would say Almodovar manages to excel in how he writes and presents women characters in film. You can't really get much better than the kind of characters than Almodovar can provide.

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#3 - Grave of the Fireflies

(Isao Takahaka)

And on the other end of the Studio Ghibli spectrum, we get Grave of the Fireflies which probably takes the cake for the most depressing animated film ever made.

Did you cry during the first 20 minutes of Up? Did you cry during the "When She Loved Me" sequence of Toy Story 2?

Well...you would probably cry for a whole day if you watched Grave of the Fireflies.

Set during the final days of WWII, the film revolves around two orphans named Seita and Setsuko who try to survive not long before the Japanese intend to surrender.

When people talk about Pixar and how their stories show what animated films can accomplish, I think that is selling Studio Ghibli incredibly short.

I look at a film like Grave of the Fireflies and it sounds like it could easily be some kind of whimsical though bleak live action film. 

I implore you to check out this film if you haven't seen it. I don't want to spoil anything else, but it is a truly remarkable achievement.

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#2 - Landscape in the Mist

(Theo Angelopoulos)

Perhaps the more well known movie from 1988 to have "in the Mist" as part of its title was Gorillas in the Mist, which was the movie starring Sigourney Weaver about Dian Fossey. While that movie is okay and does contain a good performance by Weaver, I responded a lot more rapturously to the other "misty" film.

Landscape in the Mist is a Greek film, and I have to admit, I don't have a lot of knowledge or experience with the cinema of Greece. In fact, as I type this, the only other Greek film I can think of that I have seen is another one directed by Theo Angelopoulos called Eternity and a Day.

Perhaps I should start to seek out more.

Anyways, Landscape in the Mist tells the story of two young siblings named Alexandros and Voula, who ask their mother about their long-lost father. She tells them that he lives in Germany and the children proceed to search for him.

This is one of those films that you could sort of compare to that of an odyssey. 

The film contains such beauty and kindness, but it also showcases the cruelty and the selfishness of the world...and all through the point of view of children.

In his own very delicate way, Angelopoulos made a film that deals so delicately with the concept of the human condition. It represents such a truly powerful and potent look at how to view life and how it can be both glorious and horrifying all at once.

It is also a film that contains one of my favorite quotes of all time:

"If I were to shout, who would hear me out of the armies of angels?"

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#1 - Cinema Paradiso

(Guiseppe Tornatore)

As much as I respect the filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, I had to laugh when he was recently quoted as saying Steven Spielberg's 2022 autobiographical film The Fabelmans was "the best film about cinema".

I get that art is subjective. I don't necessarily want to knock someone for their opinion, especially someone who has made some pretty excellent films like Villeneuve. Nevertheless, I found The Fabelmans to be a film that didn't say much about cinema when compared to the likes of Cinema Paradiso. 

On a basic level, you could classify Cinema Paradiso as a coming-of-age story but in truth, I think it is the ultimate love-letter to cinema that should speak deeply to those love who the art form and those who make the art form. 

The film begins with Salvatore Di Vita, a famous film director who is told by his girlfriend late one night that he received a call from his mother saying that a man by the name of Alfredo died.

With that, we flashback to Salvatore's childhood in post-WWII Sicily.

Young Salvatore is a bit of a mischievous child, but he has developed a passion for film. Despite something of a rocky start, he soon strikes up a friendship with the prickly projectionist named Alfredo who allows him to watch the films from the booth.

The cinema, called Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, is owned by a priest who insists that all scenes featuring kissing or any kind of intimacy must be cut out...much to the chagrin of Alfredo and the audience. The shreds of missing film are cast off to the side for Alfredo to splice back in before sending the reels to the next town.

Salvatore does decide he wants to pursue a career as a filmmaker and Alfredo insists to him that he must leave and never look back as the town and any nostalgia for it will stifle him.

Salvatore finds his success but decides to return to his hometown for the funeral of Alfredo. While there, he finds out that Alfredo left him a couple of mementos, including a film reel. He returns to Rome with the reel and watches the footage.

My god, this scene. 

I could make a case that this is my favorite ending to a movie ever made. It is such a great callback and when paired with such a glorious score by Ennio Morricone, I can't help but get emotional by it.

In fact, the first time I saw the film (which was as a teenager in 2002), it became one of the rare movies that made me cry...and not just cry, I was practically sobbing at the end.

I almost considered the movie as a spiritual experience for me, because it spoke so much to my passion and love for film that was truly blooming. I also think the idea of feeling stifled in a smaller town and finding solace in the world of the arts was a major factor in my connection to the film, too.

And as I mentioned in my introduction, 1988 was the year in which I was born...and I sort of love that I share a birthday with Cinema Paradiso. It makes it feel a little more special and like I have a sort of special kinship with.

And there you have it...my favorite film from the year I was born, and it is easily one of the finest films of the 80s and of the last 40 years. 

The true deserving film to be declared the official "love letter to cinema".

...and I will leave you all with that.

A 20th Anniversary Retrospective: A LOOK AT THE BEST FILMS OF 2003

 I need to say just one thing first:

IT HAS BEEN TWENTY YEARS SINCE 2003...HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!?!

Time is a very strange and peculiar concept.

Anyways, I haven't really done anything like this for the blog yet but on a lot of my personal social media profiles, I often like to acknowledge when some of my favorite films are celebrating a milestone anniversary...which I suppose is whenever it reaches a number that ends in a 0 or a 5. 

2003 would've been smack dab in the middle of a period when I was truly engrossed in my movie-loving life but was also right around the time I began to explore more of the "artsy auteur" films.

If I remember correctly, 2003 was the year I first saw Scenes from a Marriage, which was then celebrating its 30th Anniversary, which led to me seeking out more of Ingmar Bergman's work.

And truly discovering Bergman that year was sort of the tip of the iceberg.

As you will see, 2003 did have some very good-to-great films. However, what I find remarkable is how some of these films actually led me to seeking out different films that are considered true classics and opened my eyes to a whole other world of cinema...particularly films from around the world.

I will make sure address those cases, but a lot of the reason I wanted to do this series (which I will expand to also include other years ending in "3" such as 2013, 1993, 1983, and further into the past) is so that I could talk about some films that I haven't really had a chance to talk about yet.

A lot of that is my own fault. The way I have structured a lot of my blog is based on "Best of the Year" or "Best of the Decade" lists which obviously would more than likely favor my #1 or #2 selections from a given year leaving many films without a discussion.

Also - maybe there will be films on this list that have been somewhat forgotten about that I feel may deserve a second look...or perhaps a first look for some.

Here are ten films from 2003 that I have selected as my top 10 from that year.

**And in case anyone were to notice or call me out, a movie like City of God was technically released in 2002 even though most people in the U.S. didn't see it until 2003. Instead, I consider City of God my favorite film from 2002**

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#10 - American Splendor

(Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini)

I may have been...and still remain...a big geek when it comes to film and theatre and TV, but I was never the kind of geek that got into comic books. 

At that time, I was sort of aware of the world of the American Splendor comics and Pekar by way of watching the 1995 documentary Crumb, about the famous cartoonist Robert Crumb. Despite that, I was still very much a novice and didn't really know much.

What I particularly enjoyed about the film was how it blended live-action/fiction filmmaking along with a documentary film style and animation...and that documentary nature comes into play when the real-life Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner interact with their film counterparts played by Paul Giamatti and Hope Davis. 

I remember this being the film that truly seemed to put Paul Giamatti on the map in a lot of ways. Prior to this, he mostly had smaller supporting roles in movies like The Truman Show or Man on the Moon or playing the over-the-top comic villain in the horrible Big Fat Liar.

Him and Hope Davis both deserved Oscar nominations for their performances...and I do think that if the Best Picture roster included 10 films at that time, there was a chance this might've eeked out the 9th or 10th slot. It did get a screenplay nomination which showed some support.

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#9 - Elephant

(Gus Van Sant)

The sad truth about 2003 is that the idea of mass shootings, particularly those within the environment of a school, seemed so closely tied to Columbine. 

Nowadays, it has become a despicable and terrifying normality to the point where you sadly lose track of the numbers and the names and even the locations.

I suspect that Elephant is going to be the most controversial selection on this list. For every person who seems to give the film praise, there is always someone who hates it with a passion.

To be fair, I would never fight or argue with them. This is simply a film where I responded so well to the sense of dread and dreary world that Gus Van Sant created. The film does tend to meander, but it does feel like what a day in high school would feel like...and at the time, I responded to that considering I was a freshman in high school.

One common criticism I have heard given to the film is that it doesn't really take time to develop any characters. Instead, we just watch these people roaming around and going to classes with the expectation that a lot of them are going to get killed at the end.

Even typing that sentence out now, I almost feel uncomfortable because it does feel like a bit of sadistic voyeurism in a way.

However...I think the fact I saw the film in 2003 as a 15-year-old high schooler made me respond to it because the film just felt so real...and it made me uncomfortable in a way that very few films had up to that point.

I revisited the film around the time of its 10th Anniversary and I found that it still worked...but I actually wonder how I would feel if I tried to watch it again.

In light of everything that has happened in the last decade when it comes to shootings, I almost just want to put this film to bed.

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#8 - Dogville 

(Lars von Trier)

Ah yes, the Dark Prince of Denmark...or at least that is what I think of him as.

You could say that Lars von Trier is a bit of a problematic person, but in terms of his film output, he was among the earliest examples of a filmmaker that made me realize I responded strongly to films that might've been darker or depressing in their tone.

...I mean...in case you were wondering why I am so cynical as a thirtysomething...

Dogville is unique in that the action of the story is filmed on a barren soundstage with the neighborhood of Dogville being represented as map taped and painted to the black floor.

The film stars Nicole Kidman, in one of the earlier examples in her career of showing how she had no qualms taking on darker or quirkier or experimental projects.

Kidman plays Grace, who is on the run from a group of criminals pursuing her. The townsfolk agree to shelter her, but they don't really care about her truthfully. Instead, they use her for labor, and she obliges simply because she wants to curry their favor. 

Don't get me wrong...I found the whole film to be very compelling and a truly successful "avant-garde" experiment of sorts.

Even with that in mind, it is the ending that truly pushes this film over the edge. It is not a bold statement to say that Lars von Trier is a shocking filmmaker...and Dogville is by no means his most shocking film...BUT THE ENDING.

I could easily make a claim that the final scenes of Dogville are some of my favorite portions of film from the 2000s.

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#7 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

(Peter Jackson)

If there was ever a genre of film that was often hard to get me into, it was fantasy.

I can admit that simply classifying the Lord of the Rings trilogy as a fantasy is a bit of a cop-out...because I know that the effort that J.R.R. Tolkien put into creating this world was practically unheard of...and the fact that Peter Jackson was able to bring it to life with such care and with the ability to not piss off so many passionate and ardent fans is quite a victory in of itself.

These films were truly spectacular efforts from a technical standpoint, and sure, maybe it did have so many frequent "gotcha" endings that had me checking my watch back in the day...but hey, I will give all of the films credit where it is due.

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#6 - In America 

(Jim Sheridan)

Much like The Station Agent, it seemed like In America was one of those films that was just destined to be on the fringes of award season and wouldn't quite reach the top.

At the Oscars, it managed to get semi-surprising nods for Samantha Morton and Djimon Hounsou along with an Original Screenplay nomination. 

I think had the 10-picture rule been in place at that time, In America would've been an easy nominee. 

Jim Sheridan, the great Irish filmmaker who brought such greatness out of Daniel Day-Lewis in films like My Left Foot and In the Name of the Father, tells this story of an Irish-immigrant family moving to NYC in the 1980s. 

Samantha Morton and Paddy Considine play Sarah and Johnny and they have two young daughter Christy and Ariel, played by real life sisters Sarah and Emily Bolger.

A lot of the movie is driven by the culture shock and also a family looking for a sense of change/hope due to the death of their 5-year-old son Frankie.

They settle in a run-down tenement in Hell's Kitchen that is filled with drug-addicts and a reclusive Nigerian artist named Mateo (Hounsou) who is infected with AIDS, who ends up befriending the family. 

I could make a case that In America is my favorite Jim Sheridan film. It just feels so personal, and I like the directions it takes in the plotting, and I love that it is set in gritty 1980s New York...and the funny thing is that Hell's Kitchen is basically UNAFFORDABLE to most these days.

Times have changed.

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#5 - Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring

(Kim Ki-duk)

With this film, we have the first of three selections that came from the then-burgeoning South Korea.

2003 (and in the year or two that followed) would be the time that I truly began to develop a love for not just Korean cinema, but a lot of Asian cinema as a whole.

Kim Ki-duk is a filmmaker that doesn't get as much discussion these days as some of his contemporaries (particuarly the two I will be discussing shortly on this list), but due to his passing in 2020, I do have to wonder if maybe more people will seek out his work with the massive surge in popularity we've seen for Korean content in the last few years with KPOP, Parasite, and Squid Game.

For me, there is no question that Spring... (sorry, didn't feel like typing out the full title again) is Kim's masterwork. 

And here is what is so strange about that.

Kim was very transgressive as a filmmaker as his films often dealt with sexual parables and often took them in shocking directions.

Spring was, and I sort of hate that I am about to say this of his masterwork, more of a mainstream and accessible film. 

Sure, it is still a bit too basic in some ways, but there is a certain beauty to how he presented this very simple story.

What is the story? An old monk is lives in a small floating temple and he is teaching a young boy on what he would need to do to become a monk himself...and the film's title suggests how we observe this process through the passing seasons. 

This might be a drastic example, but I sort of liken the simplicity of the story to that of Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven, but it is told in such an effective way and filmed with such beauty that you can't help but feel captivated by it.

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#4 - The Station Agent

(Tom McCarthy)

There was something so genteel and quirky and inviting about The Station Agent...and it was where many of us first discovered Peter Dinklage. 

Although 2003 was a pretty big year for Dinklage as he did come very close to an Oscar nod for this role...and frankly, I think he should have. This was also the same year Dinklage had a memorable cameo in Elf as the volatile Miles Finch. 

In The Station Agent, he plays Finbar McBride, a man born with dwarfism who ends up moving to rural New Jersey to cope with the loss of his one and only friend. That friend, Henry, bequeathed Finbar a piece of land which contains an old, abandoned train depot, which Finbar decides to move into.

Once there, he encounters some of the locals and we get the ever trusty but wonderful trope of quirky and lonely people developing close friendships. 

We may see this kind of thing happen in movies all the time, but God help me, when done well it is often truly a wonderful experience to watch. 

Among these locals are Bobby Cannavale as Joe, who runs a food truck and Patricia Clarkson as Olivia, a local artist who is struggling due to the death of her young son and the toll it took on her marriage.

Tom McCarthy would go on to find success winning the Oscar for Original Screenplay for Spotlight, which also went on to win Best Picture...but I think this debut of his still remains the movie that spoke to me the most.

It is simply a beautiful look at how to cope with loneliness and grief...and I wish more people would seek out this film.

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#3 - Oldboy

(Park Chan-wook)

As the second of three films on this list to come from South Korea, Oldboy was my introduction to the brilliance of Park Chan-wook.

I don't know if the fire within me is the same as it used to be when it comes to this type of thing, but I LOVED anything that had a strong revenge plot.

I could make a case that Oldboy is strongly in contention of being the best revenge film ever made.

Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) has spent the last 15 years of his life being drugged and tortured with no clue as to why it is happening to him...and he is eager to seek out justice toward his captors.

Oldboy is one of those films where I don't like to discuss the plot in much detail as I feel its power is best witnessed when going in as blind as possible. The twists and turns of the plot are simply bracing and spellbinding...plus it STILL holds up on multiple viewings. 

When it comes to action films, you will seldom find one that is shot and executed as beautifully this one. 

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#2 - Lost in Translation

(Sofia Coppola)

Back in December, I wrote a couple of posts delving into the 1975 Belgian film Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, which directed by the late Chantal Akerman.

In one of the posts, I mentioned that I first discovered the film during the waning days of the 2003/4 Oscar Season which is when Sofia Coppola became the first American woman to receive a nomination for Best Director.

She was also only the third woman to even get nominated in the category. As of this writing, we have since had a few more women get nominated along with three actually winning: Kathryn Bigelow, Chloe Zhao, and Jane Campion.

At the time though, it felt as though the real discourse that needed to be discussed was FINALLY occurring. In the past, a lot had been said when Streisand had been left off the list twice for directing or when Randa Haines got snubbed for Children of a Lesser God...but this seemed like the start of something...even if it took another 6 years until Bigelow snagged the first ever female win.

I am beginning to ramble so let me try to get back to how I was trying to tie this in.

With Coppola's nod, some older film fans on film forums would often post lists of great films by female directors that should be seen...which had included Akerman's work but also the likes of Agnes Varda, where I discovered Cleo from 5 to 7. 

Yet another example of how this particular year led me to checking out films from around the world.

Lost in Translation was also set in Japan, which in its own way led me to checking out more Japanese works; that begin with Akira Kurosawa which then led to discovering Mizoguchi and Ozu.

I have gone on and on about directions the film led me in without actually discussing the film itself...but I think that it manages to thread a very fine needle in that the relationship between the older Bill Murray and the younger Scarlett Johannsen doesn't come across as creepy.

Coppola manages to create such a sweet and cerebral romantic comedy and sets in the truly dreamlike world of Tokyo, which felt so fresh at that time.

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#1 - Memories of Murder

(Bong Joon-ho)

I can't say that I am normally drawn to detective films, but when done well, they are some of the most engrossing and captive films you can imagine.

Since 2000, we have had a couple of truly fantastic detective films like Zodiac or Decision to Leave (by Oldboy's Park Chan-wook) but I think my favorite film of this genre of the last couple of decades is Memories of Murder, the film that introduced me to Bong Joon-ho and would be a clear inspiration to detective films like the two I mentioned.

Memories of Murder was loosely based on the case to find serial rapist and murderer Lee Choon-jae, whose identity was not actually discovered until 2019, right as Bong Joon-ho was about to make a big splash with Parasite.

The rape/murders occurred from 1986-1991, which is when most of the film takes place.

Much like a lot of Bong's work, the film deals with dark subject matter, but he is able to give it moments of levity to not let it drown in bleak despair. He manages to find ways to make his films feel so alive and fresh and different at every twist and turn...and perhaps not having a lot of knowledge of this case before helps with that, but all of his films are structured in such a way that I often find myself curious at every direction he will take.

With his twists, I feel like he succeeds in a manner that someone like M. Night Shyamalan often fails. 

The film also gives us the first collaboration between Bong Joon-ho and actor Song Kang-ho, who would go on to be featured in his other films The Host, Snowpiercer, and Parasite. 

Even if the case has now been solved, there is something that is still so effective about the film's simple "fourth wall breaking" ending...because, in the end, sometimes the people who do such heinous acts are "just...ordinary..."

An absolute masterpiece in every way.

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CONCLUSION:

I hope that if some of you that read this either seek out these films for the first time or perhaps feel the need to check them out again. Honestly, I haven't even seen some of these films in over a decade, but I still think back on them fondly.

I do want to continue this series and I will definitely plan to tackle 2013, 1993, 1983, and 1973.

If the readership seems high, I might even through in years that are celebrating 15th, 25th, and 35th anniversaries like 2008, 1998, and 1988 (which was the year I was born...so actually, I will certainly give that one a go!)

And with that, I bid you good day!