2013: The Year in Review

Well look at that: We made it another year.

And since we can’t stop (do we even want to?), we I gotta celebrate that (and the fact that, one year later, I am back home) with my traditional look back at the year that was up on the silver screen.

Because if you wanna have a clue where you’re going then you gotta remember where you came from. I remember and I know that now (in more ways than one).

Hope this review of our filmed 2013 shines a light on what we saw, and that some of it will illuminate what is yet to come.

Happy 2014!

10 Best Films of the Year (in alphabetical order):

American Hustle

Before Midnight
The East

Fruitvale Station
Gravity

Mud

The Place Beyond the Pines

Prisoners
Saving Mr. Banks

What Maisie Knew

Honorable Mention: Blackfish

Best Directors: Derek Cianfrance (The Place Beyond the Pines), Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity), Richard Linklater (Before Midnight), David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook), Dennis Villeneuve (Prisoners)

Best Bitch: Only God Forgives’ Kristin Scott Thomas

Best Cameoing Boy Band: Backstreet Boys, who surprised by turning up, literally and figuratively, in This Is the End and Girl Most Likely

Best Dressed: Onata Aprile in What Maisie Knew

Best Entrance: Leonardo DiCaprio’s as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby

Best Look: Ryan Gosling’s in Only God Forgives

Best Endearing Loser: Alexander Skarsgård in What Maisie Knew

Best Infuriating: The parents (Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan) in What Maisie Knew

Best Line: “I want to rob!” said by Emma Watson in The Bling Ring

Best Party: The one in Much Ado About Nothing

Best Tease: Don Jon’s Scarlett Johansson

Best Supporting Actors: James Franco (Spring Breakers), Jake Gyllenhaal (Prisoners), Tom Hanks (Saving Mr. Banks), Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club), Matthew McConaughey (Mud)

Can’t Wait to See More of – Female (tie): Gal Gadot, from Fast & Furious 6, and Jena Malone (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire)

Can’t Wait to See More of – Male (tie): James Badge Dale, from Iron Man 3 and World War Z, and Chris Hemsworth’s bum (as seen in Rush)

Should’ve Had a Better Year: Fast & Furious 6’s Luke Evans

Most Disturbingly Mesmerizing: Cameron Diaz’s car-f---in’ in The Counselor

Best Supporting Actresses: Melonie Diaz (Fruitvale Station), Naomie Harris (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle), Scarlett Johansson (Don Jon), Octavia Spencer (Fruitvale Station)

Most Edge-of-your-seat: The climax of Before Midnight

Most Ridikolous: The airplane runway at the end of Fast & Furious 6

Most Surprising: Gwyneth Paltrow in Iron Man 3

Most Welcome to the A-List: Henry Cavill

Wish I’d Seen It at the Movies (tie): Blue Jasmine and Enough Said

Worst Mother Figure: Julianne Moore, who did her part in What Maisie Knew and Carrie

Best Actors: Idris Elba (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), Hugh Jackman (Prisoners), Michael B. Jordan (Fruitvale Station), Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club), Tye Sheridan (Mud)

Best Actresses: Amy Adams (American Hustle), Sandra Bullock (Gravity), Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha), Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks), Shailene Woodley (The Spectacular Now)

Photos: Focus Features (The Place Beyond the Pines); Millennium Entertainment (What Maisie Knew); Warner Bros. (Prisoners); E! Online (Iron Man 3).