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| Frances Ha is the best film so far this year. |
2013 has already reached its midpoint. It seems to be going
by so quickly, but the seasons of festivals and Oscar goodies can’t come soon
enough. These movies could be a welcome relief to cinemas since 2013 hasn’t
been an especially good year for films so far. Perhaps it was inevitable that
the new crop might suffer in comparison to the endless stream of strong films
that came out in 2012. I still haven’t given a five star review, although I was
tempted to upgrade Frances Ha, which
is far and away the best film to be released this year, when I saw it a second
time.
Originality will never die, though, as indie darlings like Mud, Frances
Ha, Before Midnight, and Stories We Tell continue to perform well
in limited release. (I should note that Stories We Tell doesn’t appear in any of the following lists because it was
released in Canada in 2012 and made my lists for The Best Canadian Films and for The Best Films of 2012.) There has been a great bunch of indies, docs, and
Canadian films to surface this year amongst the mindless junk. Some of the best
films have come and gone, while others debuted at festivals and await release.
I’ve decided to restrict my list of the best so far to films that have been
released, although I also offer a separate list of festival favourites so you
can keep an eye out for them.
Here, in alphabetical order, are my picks for the best films
so far:
Before Midnight
Few films tell a love story as tender and true as Before Midnight does. It’s impossible to
dissect (or appreciate fully) the heartache of Before Midnight if one hasn’t watched Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and
Céline (Julie Delpy) realize their fairy tale romance in Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, but the raw naturalism of Before Midnight should intoxicate even
those who are meeting the couple for the first time. Are the Before films the best trilogy since The Godfather?
(Before Midnight is currently playing at The ByTowne.)
Blancanieves
The Artist, for
all its charm and whimsy, pales in comparison to Pablo Berger’s Blancanieves. Everything old is new
again as Berger transforms the fable of Snow White into the imaginative tale of
a heroic matador. Capturing the story in stunning black-and-white and with
pitch-perfect appreciation for silent film aesthetics, Blancanieves could fool a well-versed film historian that it is an
archival treasure.
The Bling Ring
Fo’ shiz, Sofia Coppola’s satire on the social-savvy Twits
of Generation Y is so spot-on that one could easily miss it. It’s brilliant how
Coppola has the sense of humour to realize that shooting this true story in the
very home of one of its victims, Paris Hilton, encapsulates the inundation of celebrity
mania that’s creating a lost generation. Emma Watson is pitch perfect as one of
the spoiled Bling-ers and she offers another of the striking disillusioned young
girls of the Coppola canon.
(Now in theatres.)
Ernest et Célestine
I usually hate kids movies (and kids more generally), but
seeing Ernest and Célestine in a
theatre full of rug rats was a hoot. (The subtitles also make it easy to
appreciate the film above all their chattering.) The film is animated so
beautifully and with such meticulous care that it conjures the sensation of
seeing a bedtime story spring to life and animate its cuddly tale right before
your eyes. Adults will love this just as much as the kids do.
(Available to rent/own on DVD and iTunes.)
Frances Ha
Ahoy, sexy! Greta Gerwig gives a star-making performance as the
endearingly scatterbrained Frances makes an impressive leap as co-writer of the
screenplay with director Noah Baumbach. Frances
Ha is a delight that will have viewers, especially those with useless arts
degrees, grinning from ear to ear. Has any film captured the current generation
of twentysomethings with such verve and inspiring passion? No matter how sorry
your situation, Frances will lift
your spirits.
(Opens in Ottawa at The ByTowne June 28.)
The Ghosts in Our Machine
Liz Marshall’s The
Ghosts in Our Machine is one hell of a documentary. Few films at Hot Docs
this year (or in theatres and festivals any other year) bring the kind of
passion and urgency one sees in Ghosts. Marshall’s
tale of animal photographer and activist Jo-Anne McArthur is an astonishingly
compelling—and flawlessly executed—feat of cinema.
Mud
Jeff Nichols brought high expectations after the success of Take Shelter and he delivered with Mud. Mud
brings a literary-like vision as Nichols creates a poetic coming-of-age film that’s
firmly rooted in the atmosphere of the muddy Mississippi. Matthew McConaughey
and Reese Witherspoon give strong performances, but the film belongs to its
young star Tye Sheridan, who previously impressed us in The Tree of Life.
(Mud screens at The Mayfair July 26-30.)
The Sapphires
Why aren’t more people raving about The Sapphires? This Aussie pic is a true crowd-pleaser, as it
provides euphoric toe-tapping fun. The
Sapphires is hardly lightweight, though, as the film, which is based on a
true-story, offers a breezy backstage musical that’s fully driven by
Australia’s history of deeply-rooted cultural rifts and legacy of systemic racism.
If only Canadian films could take note!
(Plays at The ByTowne July 5 and at The Mayfair July 30-August 1)
Side Effects
If Side Effects is
indeed Steven Soderbergh’s last theatrical film, then he exits the cinema on a
very high note. Side Effects, a taut Marnie-esque thriller, is a
spell-binding mind game. Rooney Mara gives a sensational
performance as a potentially deranged (or maltreated) murderess and she proves
that her star-making turn in The Girl
with the Dragon Tattoo was no fluke.
(Now available on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital.)
Something in the Air
One of the few films to which I’ve had the fortune to return
since seeing it first at TIFF 2012, Olivier Assayas’s Something in the Air (Après
Mai) is just as impressive the second time around. Fans of Assays’s epic
masterpiece Carlos will undoubtedly
love the director’s supposedly autobiographical tale of the student riots in Paris in the early 1970s. It’s a beautiful, palpably revolutionary film.
(Something in the Air opens in Ottawa at The ByTowne July 5.)
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| 15 Reasons to Live |
Best Films Awaiting Release:
The best performances so far this year:
Best Actor:
Ethan Hawke, Before Midnight
Julie Delpy gets the showier part, but Hawke’s performance
is so honest, understated, and natural that it plays with a kind of
invisibility. He’s a marvel and a perfect balance to Delpy’s electric neuroses.
It’s the best work of his career.
Runners-up:
James Cromwell, Still Mine
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Great Gatsby
Best Actress:
Greta Gerwig, Frances Ha
Greta Gerwig makes me happy about life.
Is she the new queen of the indies?
Runners-up:
Julie Delpy, Before Midnight
Rooney Mara, Side Effects
Tatiana Maslany, Picture Day
Maribel Verdu, Blancanieves
Best Supporting Actor:
Ryan Gosling, The Place Beyond the Pines
The first act of Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond the Pines
is so strong that it makes the film worth seeing despite the gradual implosion
that occurs as the film progresses. Ryan Gosling is excellent as a desperate
bank robber/wannabe father, and the film suffers once he exits the picture.
Runners-up:
James Franco, Spring Breakers
Tommy Lee Jones, Emperor
Best Supporing Actress:
Jennifer Ehle, Love, Marilyn
It might seem strange to include a performance from a
documentary, but Liz Garbus’s Love,
Marilyn is best enjoyed as a performance piece. Jennifer Ehle steals the
show and eclipses a roster of Oscar winners/nominees with her fun
voicing of the writing of Marilyn Monroe. It’s one of the few turns in
the film to play like a true interpretation rather than a reading. Marilyn
would be proud.
(Love, Marilyn screens at The Mayfair July 17 & 18.)
Runners-up:
Nicole Kidman, Stoker
Janet McTeer, Hannah Arendt
Emma Thompson, BeautifulCreatures
Emma Watson, The Bling Ring
And just for fun, here are “best
of” picks by category since early films rarely make it to the award season:
Best Original Screenplay:
Frances Ha, Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig
Runner-up: Side Effects, Scott Z. Burns
Best Adapted Screenplay:
Before Midnight, Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
Runner-up: The Bling Ring, Sofia Coppola
Best Cinematography:
To the Wonder, Emmanuel Lubezki
Best Costumes:
The Great Gatsby, Catherine Martin
Runner-up: Beautiful Creatures, Jeffrey Kurland
Best Film Editing:
The Ghosts in Our Machine, Roland Schlimme and Roderick Deogrades
uan Sebastián
Zelada and Juan Carlos Maneglia
Runner-up:
Best Score:
Best Song:
Runner-up: “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody” by Fergie and Q-Tip, The Great Gatsby
Best Canadian Film:
The Ghosts in Our Machine
Runners-up: Molly Maxwell, Picture Day
Best Canadian Film:
The Ghosts in Our Machine
Runners-up: Molly Maxwell, Picture Day
