10. Gravity
“It’s a miracle I’ve even made it this far.”
Morrissey, ‘Something Is Squeezing My Skull’
Everyone is all about ‘Gravity’ right now and, to be fair, there’s good reason for this. I’ve read lots about the huge technical lengths they went to in order to make the film and how they had to invent some of the technology to make it possible and so on – yet it was still all too easy to believe that they were actually filming in space. That’s how seamless it is. I’ve always been a sucker for ‘Apollo 13’ and this film shared much DNA with that one, with a seemingly simple mission suddenly plunged into a fight for survival. A film like this is a good argument for using movie stars (Bullock and Clooney, in this case) because we think we know them and so they can create a back-story just by showing up. We already like them, so we can drop right into the action and root for them regardless. And that’s what makes this film work. As much as the sights (and sounds, there’s amazing sound in this film) are new and genuinely stunning, the important thing is wanting the characters to get home in one piece from the most isolated and dangerous place you can imagine.
9. Lincoln
“I am so very tired of doing the right thing.”
Morrissey, ‘Dear God Please Help Me’
I wrote at greater length about this film when it was released and my opinion hasn’t changed. It is expertly-made entertainment, put together by the finest people working in the business, but it should not be put on a shelf as simply Oscar-winning worthiness. The story of a person doing what is clearly the right thing when every possible obstruction was in his way and the only personal reward was assassination should inspire anyone who watches it. Important and entertaining. Just like Abe himself.
8. Captain Phillips
“America, your head’s too big, because America, your belly’s too big.”
Morrissey, ‘America Is Not The World’
A big juicy metaphor; An American cargo ship cruising around the world laden with goods being chased by tiny fishing vessels filled with poverty-stricken African pirates, trying to get a share of the spoils. Paul Greengrass is currently the man for mixing blockbusters with a healthy dose of political comment and shaky cameras. Like ‘Lincoln’, this is an important true story, in this case, to try and get us to think about what our material comfort means for the rest of the planet. Like ‘Gravity’, it takes a star we already like and puts him in immense peril, in this case taken hostage by the pirates when they become increasingly desperate. Don’t be put off by my talk of politics, etc. For the most part, this works simply as a properly nail-baiting adventure-thriller. It feels almost redundant now to talk about how good Tom Hanks is, but this film (especially, the final moments) reminded me that you should never get bored of someone’s excellence. He is outstanding.
7. About Time
“At one time the future stretched before me, but now it stretches behind.”
Morrissey, ‘My Life Is A Succession Of People Saying Goodbye’
As you may expect from Richard Curtis, this is easily the soppiest and most sentimental of the entries in my top ten. ‘About Time’ is the romantic comedy with time travel. At least, it’s time travel in which the hero can go back and re-live moments in his life in order to do them better. Domhnall (rhymes with Tonal) Gleeson is clearly an actor on his way up and he plays the Hugh Grant role here with a well-judged heft of gawkiness. The mechanics of the plot, romancing Rachel McAdams, are less important than the overall sense of loveliness. Everyone’s lovely in Richard Curtis land: lovely, a bit quirky and surprisingly wealthy. Curtis isn’t so much tugging the heart-strings as spraying them with an AK-47, so it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but you need to give yourself over to it in a similar way to ‘Love Actually’. Will our hero discover that you can’t endlessly rewrite the mistakes of the past, start to appreciate what he has and live in the ‘now’? Let’s find out…
6. Rush
“If we can destroy them, you bet your life we will destroy them.”
Morrissey, ‘We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful’
I love a good sports film but I hate Formula 1. You can see my dilemma. ‘Rush’ solves that by first, filming the car like the rocket-fuelled death-machines they are (or were in the 70’s), all noise and close-ups of spinning wheels and wide eyes behind helmets and secondly, by telling a true story that is so right for a film that it feels like it should have been made-up instead. James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth on his day off from being Thor) is the wild-card, existing only a diet of booze, fags and blow-jobs, and driving seemingly without fear or discipline. Nicky Lauda (Daniel Bruhl, my first sight of him since ‘Inglourious Basterds’) is the Spock-like piece of clockwork engineering in human form, reducing the artistry of racing to the science of the best car driven in the most efficient way possible. You just know these two are not going to get on. But just like Rocky Balboa needed Apollo Creed and Sigourney Weaver needed the Alien, their rivalry makes them both raise their game and learn to respect each other as a worthy opponent. It’s a very straightforward kind of film. You know where it’s going and it doesn’t provide much in the way of surprises, but it does what it does very well. Ron Howard is at his best with true-life stories like ‘Apollo 13’, ‘Cinderella Man’ or ‘Frost/Nixon’, and ‘Rush’ was one of the most enjoyable cinema trips I had this year.
5. Iron Man 3
“I just want to see the boy happy, why is this such a bad thing?”
Morrissey, ‘I Just Want To See The Boy Happy’
‘Avengers Assemble’ was a tough act to follow, but Marvel jumped that hurdle by taking their biggest risk so far; hiring Shane Black as writer-director. RDJ was born to say Black’s words, but beyond the quips, it’s probably the most satisfying solo Iron Man adventure yet. Tony Stark remains a hugely appealing lead character and seeing the aftermath of his Avengers adventure take him to a fairly dark place (fairly dark – it’s still a family blockbuster), and seem to end the trilogy more at peace than he’s ever been, is extremely rewarding for an audience who’s spent a lot of time with this guy.
4. The Way, Way Back
“Disappointment came to me and booted me and bruised and hurt me.”
Morrissey, ‘That’s How People Grow Up’
Settling nicely in the awkward teenager coming of age niche (‘Stand By Me’ and ‘Almost Famous’ being my personal favourites of this genre), ‘The Way, Way Back’ is another heart-warmer. It takes all those humiliations and embarrassments and disappointments (specifically in parents and other adults) and reminds us that life aint so bad, really. 14-year-old Duncan (Liam James, superb) has to go away for the summer with his mum and her arsehole boyfriend (Steve Carell, enjoying the chance to be a nasty piece of work). Miserable as sin, and too self-conscious to have any social life of his own, he gradually gets taken under the wing of the staff of the local waterpark and starts to come out of his shell. I freely admit that any film which features Sam Rockwell as an idealised man-child mentor who teaches you that life is worth living, probably booked its place on this list when the ink dried on his contract.
3. Cloud Atlas
“Nobody know what human life is, why we come, why we go.”
Morrissey, ‘I Will See You In Far Off Places’
In some alternate universe somewhere, ‘Cloud Atlas’ is a box office smash, winner of, like, twelvety Oscars and a cinematic landmark. Instead, it flopped financially (after spending a huge budget) and no one really gave a toss. However, the fact that such a daring, uncategorisable, unholy mess of a film even got made these days is reward in itself. There is no point summarising the plot(s). The film cross-cuts between settings, centuries and genres (with Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent and Ben Whishaw, among others, recurring in a variety of roles) and leaves me unable to find a comparison point for what this film is actually like. Since making ‘The Matrix’, there’s been a whiff of the Emperor’s New Clothes about The Wachowskis (‘Speed Racer’, anyone? Anyone?), but this re-affirmed my faith that they are film-makers with a vision. More than any other film on this list, I can understand people not liking it and/or being baffled by it. Most likely, I don’t think I’ll ever sit down and watch it again. Someone once told me that certain films are a journey you can take only once (this was in relation to ‘Vanilla Sky’) – ‘Cloud Atlas’ is much the same. When I saw it, I wasn’t sure what I’d seen, but I knew I seen something.
2. Side Effects
“I am not naturally evil, such things I do just to make myself more attractive to you.”
Morrissey, ‘The Last Of The Famous International Playboys’
Another film where I look around bewildered as no one else seems to really notice and I think, ‘Holy ball-sack, this is amazing!’ – this may be due in part to Steven Soderbergh releasing two films in 2013 and the second being ‘Behind the Candelabra’, which grabbed the attention with its Liberace subject and graphic scenes of Matt Damon giving Michael Douglas a good seeing-to. ‘Side Effects’ is by far the superior film, however. Rooney Mara (her of the Dragon Tattoo and Social Networking) is the unstable young woman whose anti-depressants may have unwanted, wait for it, side effects. Jude Law is her psychiatrist. Law has spent much of the last few years either as part of ensembles (‘Contagion’, ‘Anna Karenina’) or as a sidekick (Dr. Watson). Here he’s back as leading man and still so handsome you want to spit in his face, but he doesn’t get enough recognition as a good actor. He’s great here and the plot is an extremely satisfying jigsaw-puzzle, with the main players laying traps and counter-traps for each other with ever-escalating consequences. It is a great example of what Roger Ebert named the ‘Fatal Basic’ genre – sexy people doing bad things in lovely homes.
1. Django Unchained
“I’ve had my face dragged in fifteen miles of shit, and I do not like it.”
Morrissey, ‘How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?’
Again, on this blog you’ll find a far more lengthy appraisal, but suffice to say, ‘Django Unchained’ has a writer-director at the top of his game – QT is out on his own at the moment. He is making superb films that blur the line of art and entertainment and ‘Django’ is staggering in the width and breadth of its humour, drama, music, dialogue, action and horror. It is simply matchless movie-making; for me, far and away the film of the year.
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