The 24FPS Awards 2013

Whenever I sit down to write and record the review of the year in movies (a 3 part podcast series is underway) I end up asking myself one key question... what kind of year has it been?  Last year was, for me, an historic low, one that threatened my dedication to new cinema and saw me struggle to complete a Top 10, while at the same time having enough for a list of the 30 worst films of that year.  2013, to my immense relief, has been an improvement.

However, this hasn't for my money been the historically excellent year that many people have pegged it as.  2013 has been a year of highs and lows; it delivered the first film I've felt happy to call a masterpiece since I saw Dogtooth in 2009, but it also, for me, was jam packed with movies that, while not all of them were terrible, were extremely disappointing and baffled me with their critical reception.  On the whole, from what I've seen, it's been a perfectly middling year for film.  There are movies, good and bad, from 2013 that I'll carry with me in the future but there are many more I've already forgotten.

With all this said, here are the 24FPS Awards for 2013.  These are purely personal picks, not predictions for the upcoming award season (which I hate anyway).  The films I've considered eligible are those released in UK cinemas or as DVD or Blu Ray premieres in 2013 as well as the handful of festival films I saw that have not yet gained distribution deals in the UK.

BEST DIRECTOR
Kathryn Bigelow: Zero Dark Thirty
Fernando Franco: Wounded
Richard Linklater: Before Midnight
Francois Ozon: In The House
Park Chan-Wook: Stoker

WINNER: Park Chan-wook

I don't say this lightly but - deep breath - I think Stoker is essentially a perfectly directed film.  I don't mean that it is a perfect film as a whole, but it seems that it is an exercise in supreme and supremely beautiful directorial control from Park Chan-Wook. The watchword here is precision; Park conducts this film, the clarity of each moment and the rhythm of the piece as a whole are individually stunning and complement each other beautifully, revealing new depths every time you revisit the film (I'm on my sixth watch since March)


BEST ACTOR
Matthew Goode: Stoker
Ethan Hawke: Before Midnight
Caleb Landry-Jones: Antiviral
Matthew McConaughey: Mud
Jack Reynor: What Richard Did

WINNER: Ethan Hawke

For my money, Ethan Hawke is one of the most underrated actors working right now and if the Golden Globe nominations are anything to go by he's about to get screwed again because despite the fact that he turns in career best work in Before Midnight, adding a deeper melancholy to a now middle-aged Jesse, he has been passed over while his co-star Julie Delpy has been nominated.  Hawke rips your heart out with the smallest things in this performance; the hurt when Celine doesn't pass him the phone after speaking to his son; the way he receives one devastating line from Delpy and the quiet desperation of the film's final moments.  However, this is also still the Jesse we recognise; sometimes playful, sometimes pretentious, it's like seeing an old friend again and finding him the same but different.  It's masterful acting.


BEST ACTRESS
Marian Alvarez: Wounded
Julie Delpy: Before Midnight
Isabelle Huppert: Abuse of Weakness
Cosmina Stratan: Beyond The Hills
Mia Wasikowska: Stoker

WINNER: Marian Alvarez

I honestly thought about making this category a five way tie (and, so good a year was it for female leads, I could have added five more with no struggle), but ultimately I just can't deny or overstate how deeply I felt Marian Alvarez' performance in the as yet undistributed Wounded.  There is definitely a degree of personal experience leaking in to my admiration for this performance, because I've never seen the experience and the feeling of clinical depression and anxiety better captured on screen.  Alvarez' performance is scrupulously real, but what she and the film never lose sight of is the lengths people will go to to hide problems like this, and she draws distinctions between the (effective) mask she usually shows the world and the glimpses of the vibrant person the depression often hides.  It's a layered performance, and perhaps you need to have been there to get the most from it, but I was blown away.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Barkhad Abdi: Captain Phillips
Jason Clarke: Zero Dark Thirty
Matthew McConaughey: Bernie
Lars Mikkelsen: What Richard Did

WINNER: Jason Clarke

Jason Clarke has been cropping up in supporting roles and doing solid work for a few years now.  In fact, so good has he been that I've not spotted him from film to film, but Zero Dark Thirty is where he throws down a marker.  For me his character is one that gives the lie to the idea that the film simply brushes concerns about torture under the rug.  It's a subtle performance, but we do see how performing 'enhanced interrogations' affects this man, and the way he tries to mask it with bravado to Jessica Chastain's Maya.  He also shows a great ability to show how the character must slip between gears, whether in interrogations or from that active role to a more passive one sitting round tables in meetings.  The character seems thin to begin with, but Clarke does a lot with it; the mark of a real talent.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Doona Bae: Cloud Atlas
Kaitlyn Dever: Short Term 12
Cristina Flutur: Beyond the Hills
Rosana Pastor: Wounded

WINNER: Cristina Flutur

Beyond the Hills was a late entry into my Top 10, but I was knocked out both by the film and by the two central performances (each is as good as the other, but I decided I shouldn't have ties, which is why only Cristina Flutur has won her category).  Flutur is heart-wrenching as Alina; a young woman reunited with a friend (and likely lover) from her younger days in an orphanage, who finds that friendship changed because her friend has become an orthodox nun and now only want to take care of Alina.  Like Marian Alvarez, Flutur is playing a character with undiagnosed (and in this case misunderstood) mental illness, but while the way that storyline works out is tragic the real sadness comes at watching her try to find a way back into relationship that is now gone forever.  It's a raw performance, and easy to identify with.


BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
Adele Exarchopolous: Blue Is The Warmest Colour
Chloe Pirrie: Shell
Waad Mohammed: Wadjda
Keith Stanfield: Short Term 12
Marine Vacth: Jeune Et Jolie

WINNER: Waad Mohammed

I hope that we will be seeing much more from everyone on this list but, though I've been talking about it for well over a year now, Waad Mohammed's wonderfully sparky but entirely unforced performance in Wadjda still stands out for me, even in what is a good field.  I love how the film doesn't impose its themes on the character, but instead lets her simply be a kid and trusts that the larger themes will come good because there is something recognisable in Wadjda, even for someone who grew up in a completely different situation.  Mohammed strikes just the right notes in playing Wadjda's different relationships; to her Mother, her Father, her teacher and her cheekier interactions with the boy next door and other people she meets.  I think what I like most about this performance is what it lacks; the forced precociousness that you can feel from child stars, instead a natural charisma just jumps off the screen.


BEST SCREENPLAY
Brandon Cronenberg: Antiviral
Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Richard Linklater: Before Midnight
Skip Hollandsworth, Richard Linklater: Bernie
Francois Ozon: In The House
Fernando Franco, Enric Rufas: Wounded

WINNER: Francois Ozon

Thank God that Francois Ozon had two films out this year, because this way I can somewhat wash away the sour taste of Jeune et Jolie (perhaps his single worst film) by reminding myself that he also delivered In the House, which may not be his best film, but is almost certainly his most interesting and his finest screenplay.  The writing here is a masterclass in juggling tone; there is a playful vein of comedy as literature teacher Germain encourages a student to continue writing a voyeuristic story about the family of a fellow student, but Ozon also maintains a sense of tension; a threat underlying the whole story.  At yet another level the screenplay works as a very funny analysis of storytelling, with Ozon almost goading the audience, daring them to figure out where the narrative will go next.  It's a confident work that shows off Ozon at his best, which is why Jeune et Jolie baffles me so much.


BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Christos Voudouris: Before Midnight
Lukasz Zal: Ida
Yoliswa Gartig: Shell
Chung Chung-Hoon: Stoker

WINNER: Chung Chung-Hoon

I saw some dazzling sights in the cinema this year, but no award was more assuredly sewn up than this one, I think it was over by the time the opening credits ended the first time I saw Stoker.  The composition and lighting of Stoker are so precise, so perfect, that I can see how it might disconnect some viewers from the film.  For me it was quite the reverse, this was the first film for ages that I wanted simply to dive into, to break down shot by shot because I could tell just how much every frame might hold (there will be more of this in the Top 10 podcast).  For me the shot (and the edit) of the year was the moment that Park dissolves in a perfect match from a brush running through Nicole Kidman's hair to a field of reeds.  That moment, and a hundred others, have stuck with me since March.


BEST SCORE/SOUNDTRACK
Bikini Kill, Kathleen Hanna, Le Tigre, The Julie Ruin: The Punk Singer
Christophe Beck / Richard Lopez / Kristen Anderson-Lopez: Frozen
M83: Oblivion
Cliff Martinez: Only God Forgives
Clint Mansell: Stoker

WINNER: Frozen

I grew up on Disney movies, but had felt disconnected from their non-Pixar efforts for some time until Tangled came along a few years ago.  That film, along with Frozen, seems to be ushering in a new golden age for the studio.  Frozen is a brilliant film; driven by its characters and taking a slightly unusual approach to Disney tropes, retaining fairytale ideas, but not simply having a handsome guy save a princess.  It's combined with a great set of songs which range from the comedic to the heartwarming to the dramatic.  Let It Go (see above) is the crucial point of the film, establishing a different sort of 'villain' that you can still identify with, and Idina Menzel's barnstorming delivery of it turns what had looked like an entirely standard Disney movie into something else (something better) in three minutes.


SCENE OF THE YEAR
The hotel room: Before Midnight
Alina is read a list of sins: Beyond The Hills
Piano duet: Stoker
Richard tells his Dad what happened: What Richard Did
Killing Bin Laden: Zero Dark Thirty

WINNER: Before Midnight [SPOILERS BELOW]

Even with a great film (and all those listed above are great films) there will always be a moment or a scene that will stick out in the memory above the rest and 2013 brought many of them (I could have also picked moments from Wounded or Stop the Pounding Heart or Captain Phillips or... you get the idea), ultimately though this was another category with almost no competition in it.  The 25 minutes or so that Before Midnight spends with Jesse and Celine in a hotel room are the most heart in mouth moments of cinema that 2013 delivered.  We've grown to love these people, individually and as a couple and to see them have a real argument - not something that will go away in five minutes, but a fight that might end their relationship - is genuinely upsetting.  I was on the verge of tears the whole time, and then broke when Celine says a line I could never have imagined I'd hear going into this film.  That moment hits like a punch to the gut, and that's why Before Midnight has no real competition here.

My Top 13 Non-2013 Films

I try to watch as many new release films as I can each year, but inevitably there are still big gaps in my cinematic experience and every year I also spend a lot of time trying to plug those gaps by catching up with a lot of older films.

Since discussion of my Top and Bottom 10 of 2013 will be posted in the form of podcasts I decided that this year I'd do something a bit different and run down, in the order that I saw them, the 13 best older films that I watched for the first time this year.

The Lickerish Quartet

The Radley Metzger films I've seen, both softcore and hardcore, have all exceeded the expectations that you would typically have of sexploitation cinema, but The Lickerish Quartet really stands out.  It's a playful, surreal, film that intertwines film and reality in a way that has much to say about the way we relate to cinema.  The script is articulate and the acting strong, but Metzger's direction really stands out, he may be an exploitation filmmaker, but he has an artist's eye and sense of rhythm.

Onibaba

Kaneto Shindo was a great discovery for me this year, and another example of a director whose work I might never have discovered were it not for being a critic (I was assigned several of his films to review for other sites).  Onibaba was the standout; a brilliantly acted drama about a young wife living with her mother in law as they wait for the husband to return from war, which morphs slowly into a creepy ghost story.  It's strikingly shot, with the remote location in the midst of a swamp providing great atmosphere, but the threat also comes through in the performances, especially that of Nobuko Otowa as the mother. 

Rashomon

One of the most shameful oversights in my film viewing came to an end this year as I finally saw my first Akira Kurosawa films.  Rashomon is a movie that felt strangely familiar on a first viewing, because I had heard so much about it and seen so many films that spin off its central idea of using varying testimony to explore the 'truth' of a single killing.  That's not to say that Rashomon didn't grip me, from Kurosawa's use of light to Toshiro Mifune's fantastic performance, which manages to be both clownish and menacing at times, it impressed me throughout and made me kick myself for never having seen it before.

The Place Promised In Our Early Days

Makoto Shinkai is becoming one of my favourite directors, and is certainly one of the best I've discovered working in anime.  This film takes a grand sci-fi concept and marries it to a teenage love triangle that is depicted - despite eventually also taking place in a dreamscape - in a way that rings almost painfully true and painterly imagery that looks like what would happen if Terence Malick became an animator.  It's quite extraordinary to look at, and tugged my heartstrings in an unforced way.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Yes, really.  I passed this one by on its release as it looked like just one more would be blockbuster flop, what I found instead was a witty and relentlessly fun adventure movie that remixed all its influences (expressionism, noir, adventure serials, 50's sci-fi and more) into a distinctive and well realised universe of its own.  The performances are as much fun as the visuals and while it's not always totally coherent the freewheeling fun of the story kept me engaged.  The film Sky Captain reminded me of most was The Rocketeer, and it deserves a critical rehabilitation just as much.

A Swedish Love Story

A simple title for a simple film, and I mean that in the best way.  I've always been interested in coming of age stories, and am especially fond of those from Europe and Scandinavia, but I only heard of this film (on Twitter) earlier this year.  On tracking it down I found a heartfelt tale of first love, with the rough edges that Hollywood might smooth left intact.  The two lead performances are brilliantly naturalistic, which is also the approach taken by director Roy Andersson.  The film digresses in its last twenty minutes, but this is the only bad note it hits.

Love In The Afternoon ['72]

Eric Rohmer was another director that I discovered this year, having only previously seen one of his films (The Green Ray).  I thoroughly enjoyed Pauline A La Plage, but this film, about a man torn between his wife, who he still loves, and a woman he is tempted to have an affair with, was the one that really cemented my interest in Rohmer's work.  As is the case with all of the films I've seen from him, Rohmer manages to take difficult, dramatic, topics that could sit heavily and, while exploring them with great detail and import, treat them lightly.  It's a wonderful tonal balancing act that the director and his actors carry off and I can't wait to see more of it.

Solaris ['72]

From what I had heard about Andrei Tarkovsky and his films I was concerned that I would find Solaris dull and remote, it was anything but.  This slow moving sci-fi eases us into its more fantastical elements and this, along with the exceptional acting, allows it to credibly introduce unreal elements and have us question whether they are actually happening or a result of the main character losing his mind.  At the centre of the film is an achingly romantic story of a man desperate to have his late wife back, and Natalya Bondarchuck's performance as that wife - or an image of her - is one of the best I've seen for years.  I can't wait to see this multi-layered and immersive film again.

Tuesday, After Christmas

Another film about a man torn between two women, this one much more caustic than Love in the Afternoon.  This Romanian film finds a husband and father leaving his family for a younger woman.  Observed in a handful of long scenes, the film allows you to become invested in both the marriage and the new relationship by giving all of the characters rounded personalities and painting no one as either good or bad.  It's down to earth and true to life, often in the most uncomfortable way, especially in the climactic break up scene which, like the whole film, is perfectly played.

Seven Samurai

Yes, I know I should have got round to Kurosawa and to this film much earlier, does it help redeem me that the first time I saw it was at a cinema, projected from a beautiful 35mm print?  Anyway, primed by Rashomon earlier in the year (and because I wanted to retain at least a little critical credibility), I went in wanting to love Seven Samurai.  I was not disappointed.  A rather slight love story aside this old story of a band of warriors fighting against impossible odds was invigorated by its telling, which is energetic despite a running time north of three hours.  The battle scenes are incredible, but the film doesn't mark time in getting to them, it is riveting and beautiful throughout.

Spider Baby

Spider Baby is one of those movies that I had always heard about, but it remained obscure and all but impossible to get your hands on, until Arrow Video released it on Blu Ray this year.  It is a defiantly odd film, its closest relation as a dark, weird, horror movie inflected with comedy is perhaps Tod Browning's Freaks, and Spider Baby is not embarrassed by the comparison.  It's a surprise to find that director Jack Hill - best known for Blaxploitation fare like Coffy and Foxy Brown - is also behind this oddity, but while it's atypical of his work it's full of memorable moments and scenes that still stand out for their strangeness.  I'll have much more about this film on an upcoming podcast.

L'Effrontee

I've long been a fan of Charlotte Gainsbourg and have been wanting to see her early work for some time.  This, her second film, was the role that really brought her to notice and with good reason, she's exceptional as a young teenager who becomes obsessed with a concert pianist her own age, tracking her down after they meet by accident and convincing herself that they are friends.  Because of her character's youth Gainsbourg is more pitiable than frightening here, and her inexperience is turned on her in a sub-plot involving what begins as an innocent flirtation with an older man.  This is another fine example of how coming of age films from outside the US often deal better with the less pleasant aspects of growing up.

Heaven's Gate

Much maligned at the time of its release and subsequently hard to get hold of in the UK, Heaven's Gate has taken on almost mythical status as a great directorial folly.  This could hardly be further from the truth.  Though it could, for me, happily shed its prologue and epilogue, the 190 minutes that fall between them are essentially a masterpiece, telling a large sale story of the (real life) Johnson County War, but finding personal resonances in the stories of new immigrants to the US and a love triangle between Kriss Kristofferson, Christopher Walken and Isabelle Huppert as men on opposite sides of the conflict and the woman they both love.  It may be long, but both the exceptional performances (Walken has seldom been better) and the stunning imagery will reward your patience.

The Picture Show: The Worst of 2013

It's that time of year again, so Mike and I are back, bringing you a huge show with a rundown and discussion of the 10 worst films that each of us saw in 2013.  We discuss, debate and (inevitably) argue about films that include horror remakes, action blockbusters, auteurist statements and big budget musicals in this mammoth three and a quarter hour show.  You can listen to the show below, or you can go HERE to download it.

Enjoy, and check back soon for the Top 10 show.

The Month in Movies: August 2013

Film of the Month

Seven Samurai
Having seen and loved Rashomon earlier this year I decided to take the opportunity to fill this shameful hole in my viewing.  I saw Seven Samurai projected from a near pristine 35mm print at the Prince Charles Cinema, and it was an experience I won't soon forget.  The film is engrossing, beautiful and hugely exciting, full of jaw-dropping images.  The screening was amazing too; a respectful audience in rapt attention, and even a short interval which gave more of an old fashioned sense of occasion.

Worst of the Month

A Good Day to Die Hard
The fifth Die Hard film marks the series' 25th anniversary by desecrating further the legacy of the greatest American action movie with a teal and orange compendium of every lazy, boring, ugly aspect of the modern action film, carefully sanitised for a 12A.  It's an insult to the series and its audience.

Awards
I nicked these awards categories from my friend AJ, who has been asking people to fill them out each month for several years at the joblo.com message boards.

Best Actor: Toshiro Mifune - Seven Samurai
Best Actress: Lili Taylor - The Conjuring
Best Director: Akira Kurosawa - Seven Samurai
Best Screenplay: Akira Kurosawa / Hideo Oguni / Shinobu Hashimoto - Seven Samurai
Biggest Surprise: Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning / Haunter
Biggest Disappointment: Kick Ass 2 / Passion
Most Fucked-Up Movie: On Tender Hooks
Best Thing in a Bad Movie: The fight scene: Only God Forgives
“I’m Pretty Damn Sure No One Else Has Seen This”: The Madmen of Mandoras [a.k.a.: They Saved Hitler's Brain]
Person/Character I Never Want to Meet: Chuck Traynor (Peter Sarsgaard): Lovelace
“Why Is He/She Still in Movies?”: Brian DePalma - Director: Passion
Ultimate WTF? Moment: The bungee jump - On Tender Hooks
Movie I Finally Got to Friggin’ See: Seven Samurai
Coolest Title: Only God Forgives (shame about the film)
Hottest Lady: Karoline Herfurth - Passion

The Month in Movies: July 2013

Film of the Month

Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God

Another outstanding documentary from Alex Gibney.  The subject of sexual abuse of children in the church has been addressed well in the past (Amy Berg's Deliver Us From Evil), but Gibney has a powerful story to tell, and this is a film of great force and purpose.

Worst of the Month

Pacific Rim / The Men's Club

I expected little of Pacific Rim, but it still managed to be both one of the worst and by far the most disappointing film I've seen all year.  It's a massive, distressingly personality free, fall for Guillermo Del Toro.  The Men's Club is just about as far as you can get from Pacific Rim, it's not about robots punching monsters, rather it's an aggravatingly tedious and overwritten chamber piece about a group of awful men who form a club so they can get together and talk.  I watched it for Jennifer Jason Leigh, who is on the cover, but in the film for less than ten minutes.

Awards

I nicked these awards categories from my friend AJ, who has been asking people to fill them out each month for several years at the joblo.com message boards.

Best Actress: Mille Hoffmeyer Lehfeldt - When Heaven Falls

Best Supporting Actor: Francois Perier - Orphee

Best Supporting Actress: Sakura Ando - Penance

Best Director: Alex Gibney - Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God

Best Screenplay: Kiyoshi Kurosawa - Penance

Biggest Surprise: Deadgirl

Biggest Disappointment: Pacific Rim

Most Fucked-Up Movie: Deadgirl

Best Thing in a Bad Movie: Emma Watson - This is the End / The Bling Ring

“I’m Pretty Damn Sure No One Else Has Seen This”: Penance / Peppermint Soda

Person/Character I Never Want to Meet: ANY of the people at the table during the dinner scene in the middle of Frances Ha

“Why Is He/She Still in Movies?”: Robert DeNiro - Stone

Ultimate WTF? Moment: Double Trouble, in its relentlessly idiotic (but awesome) entirety.

Movie I Finally Got to Friggin’ See: Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains

Coolest Title: Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains

Hottest Lady: Emma Watson - This is the End / The Bling Ring

The Month in Movies: June 2013

Film of the Month
Tuesday, After Christmas

The best older film that I’ve seen this year; a searingly sad film about how a man’s affair with a younger woman tears his family apart. It’s a brilliantly acted and surprisingly low key drama, with a staggering centrepiece in the 15 minute break up scene in the middle of the film.


Worst of the Month
The Last Exorcism Part 2

An idiotic sequel to a film that seemed to commit suicide by illogical ending. The frights are pathetically generic, the writing abysmally poor and even Ashley Bell, so good in the first film, is lost.


Awards

I nicked these awards categories from my friend AJ, who has been asking people to fill them out each month for several years at the joblo.com message boards.

Best Actor: Ethan Hawke – Before Midnight
Best Actress: Julie Delpy – Before Midnight / Mirela Oprisor – Tuesday, After Christmas
Best Supporting Actor: Nathan Fillon – Much Ado About Nothing
Best Supporting Actress: Maria Popistasu – Tuesday, After Christmas
Best Director: Radu Mentuan – Tuesday, After Christmas / Richard Linklater – Before Midnight
Best Original Screenplay: Radu Muntean, Alexandru Baciu, Răzvan Rădulescu – Tuesday After Christmas
Best Adapted Screenplay: Joss Whedon – Much Ado About Nothing / Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy – Before Midnight
Biggest Surprise: Tourist Trap
Biggest Disappointment: Maniac Cop
Most Fucked-Up Movie: Maniac Cop
“I’m Pretty Damn Sure No One Else Has Seen This”: (and they should) In the Dark Half
“Why Is He/She Still in Movies?”: Zack Snyder – Director: Man of Steel
Best Scene: The hotel room – Before Midnight
Movie I Finally Got to Friggin’ See: Tourist Trap
Coolest Title: In the Dark Half
Hottest Lady: Maria Popistasu: Tuesday, After Christmas

Mid-Year Favourites

I have, of course, started making my end of year lists of the best and worst films of 2013 (it’s a 12 month process, if it weren’t I’d forget something at the end of the year). Yesterday I voted in Simon Kinnear’s poll to find the best film of the year so far (which is something you should do too).

Given that that idea has already been taken, I thought I’d ask a different question…

What are the Top 5 films NOT from 2013 that you’ve seen for the first time this year?

My list follows below, please add yours in the comments, or tweet it to @24FPSUK or email it to sam@24fps.org.uk. The actual midpoint of the year falls on July 3rd, so soon after that I’ll have a post with some of the recommendations that result from this little survey.

Top 5 NON 2013 releases I’ve seen this year
 5: Onibaba

My first Kaneto Shindo film, and it’s a strikingly creepy, extremely well acted, drama about extreme poverty and jealousy, inflected with supernatural themes.

4: Love in the Afternoon ['72]

A complex and well observed drama about a man tempted by infidelity, despite the fact that he loves his wife. Eric Rohmer directs unobtrusively and offers no easy moral escape for his protagonist.

3: The Place Promised In Our Early Days

Makoto Shinkai weds a big sci-fi concept to an intimately and touchingly observed love triangle plot that makes everything personal, and then shows it to us with images that look like an animated Terence Malick film. Breathtaking.

 

2: Solaris ['72]

Andrei Tarkovsky’s film is far from the austere, remote thing I feared it would be. It moves slowly, but inexorably, using its science fiction concept (and the fantastic performances at its heart) to tell a desperately moving and tragic love story.

 

1: Tuesday, After Christmas

The most brilliantly acted film I’ve seen for a long time; a brutally raw and real film about the breakdown of a marriage after the husband has an affair with a younger woman. It’s full of moments of pain, but equally of moments of joy. The 15 minute break up scene in the middle of the film is one of the best sustained pieces of acting and direction so far this decade.

 

So, those are my choices. What are yours?

The Month in Movies: May 2013

Film(s) of the Month

Love in the Afternoon ['72] Solaris ['72]
Both of these viewings were thanks to recommendations from my good friend and podcast co-host Mike Ewins. Solaris takes impenetrable metaphysical sci-fi concepts and boils them right down to an intensely emotional account of the relationship between a man and a woman. I’d always avoided it because I’d heard Tarkovsky was rigorous and not a little dull, but Solaris is as moving a film as I’ve seen for ages. Eric Rohmer may be my favourite discovery of 2013 so far, and Love in the Afternoon, a beautifully observed drama about a man trying to decide whether to give in to temptation and cheat on his wife (despite loving her) is engaging, amusing and credible throughout thanks to his understated direction and the cast’s brilliant performances.


Worst of the Month

Une Femme Est Une Femme
Of course I also have Mike to ‘thank’ for this. I haven’t got on with Jean-Luc Godard and was told this would turn me round. I LOATHED it, hated it from start to finish in a way I haven’t hated a film for a very long time. Again I find Godard’s showy, annoying, look at me pretensions as a director get in the way of storytelling and emotional engagement. God, I just hated it.


Awards
Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey - Mud
Best Actress: Natalya Bondarchuk - Solaris / Ann-Sofie Kylin - A Swedish Love Story
Best Supporting Actress: Jena Malone - Bastard Out of Carolina
Best Director: Andrei Tarkovsky - Solaris
Best Original Screenplay: Eric Rohmer - Love in the Afternoon
Best Adapted Screenplay: Fridrikh Gorenshtein / Andrei Tarkovsky - Solaris
Biggest Surprise - Solaris
Biggest Disappointment - Une Femme est Une Femme
Most Fucked-Up Movie - The Holy Mountain
“I’m Pretty Damn Sure No One Else Has Seen This”: Vinterkyss / Don’t Deliver Us From Evil / Black Legion
Person/Character I Never Want to Meet: Members of the ‘Black Legion’ [KKK analogue in 1937 anti-racist film Black Legion]
Ultimate WTF? Moment: The first 40 minutes of The Holy Mountain
Best Scene: Kris and Hari at the mirror - Solaris
Movie I Finally Got to Friggin’ See: Street Fight
Coolest Title: Don’t Deliver Us From Evil (watched it purely on the strength of its title).
Hottest Lady: Deborah Francois - Populaire

The Month in Movies: April 2013

Film of the Month

The Place Promised In Our Early Days
There was absolutely no contest this month. Makoto Shinkai’s anime marries soaring emotion, a strong sci-fi concept and visuals that call Terence Malick to mind. I’ve not seen very much like it, aside, perhaps, from Shinkai’s other work.

Worst of the Month

Spring Breakers

Awards
Best Actor: Ryan Gosling / Bradley Cooper - The Place Beyond The Pines
Best Actress: Cocco - Kotoko
Best Director: Makoto Shinkai - The Place Promised In Our Early Days
Best Screenplay - Shane Black / Drew Pearce: Iron Man 3
Biggest Surprise - Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Biggest Disappointment - Tabu [2012]
Most Fucked-Up Movie - Kotoko
“I’m Pretty Damn Sure No One Else Has Seen This” - My Sucky Teen Romance
Person/Character I Never Want to Meet - Kotoko (Cocco) from Kotoko
Best Line - “Lens Cap” Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Movie I Finally Got to Friggin’ See - Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Coolest Title - The Spook Who Sat By The Door
Hottest Lady - Gwyneth Paltrow: Iron Man series / Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow / Great Expectations

The Month in Movies: March 2013

Film(s) of the Month

Stoker / Rashomon

Worst of The Month

Welcome To The Punch

Awards
Best Actor: Ken Ogata – Vengeance is Mine
Best Actress: Mia Wasikowska – Stoker
Best Director: Park Chan-Wook – Stoker
Best Screenplay: Akira Kurosawa / Shinobu Hashimoto – Rashomon
Best Surprise: Sound of My Voice
Biggest Disappointment: The Tall Man / Maniac [2012]
Best Thing In A Bad Movie: Elosie Laurence in Broken
Most Fucked-Up Movie: Broken (so much so that it becomes laugh out loud funny)
Person/Character I Never Want to Meet: Enokizu (Ken Ogata) – Vengeance is Mine
“Why Is He/She Still in Movies?”: Stephenie Meyer (source material) – The Host
Ultimate WTF? Moment: The terrible, TERRIBLE ending of Broken
Best Scene: So many in Stoker, especially the opening credits and the final scene.
Movie I Finally Got to Friggin’ See: Rashomon
Coolest Title: Stoker
Hottest Lady: Mia Wasikowska – Stoker

A Month In Movies: February 2013

Film of the Month

Onibaba


Worst of the Month

To The Wonder

Awards
It was a pretty weak month, all told, so these awards tend towards a theme.

Best Actor: Tom McCamus – I Love a Man in Uniform
Best Actress: Nobukoko Otowa / Jitsuko Yoshimura – Onibaba
Best Director: Kaneto Shindo – Onibaba
Best Screenplay: Kaneto Shindo – Onibaba
Biggest Surprise: The Lickerish Quartet / Score
Biggest Disappointment: To the Wonder / I’m a Cyborg, But That’s Okay
Most Fucked-Up Movie: Vulgaria
“I’m Pretty Damn Sure No One Else Has Seen This”: Chameleon Street
Person/Character I Never Want to Meet: Yamazaki [Ren Osugi] – Exte
“Why Is He/She Still in Movies?”: Judd Apatow [Director] / Melissa McCarthy [Actor] – This is 40
Ultimate WTF? Moment: The mule – Vulgaria / Machine gun girl – I’m a Cyborg, But That’s Okay
Movie I Finally Got to Friggin’ See: I Love a Man in Uniform
Coolest Title: Mask of Satan
Hottest Lady: Emanuelle Seigner / Kristin Scott-Thomas – Bitter Moon

Thanks to my friend AJ Hakari for letting me use these categories, which he’s been asking people to fill in at the Joblo forums for years.