And My Oscar goes to … everyone has their 10 best films of 2013
WE are in the last few weeks of 2013 and the movie-awards events are rumbling into place. That means every actor, director and fashion guru in Hollywood is starting to plan their outfits and their speeches in the hope they will win.
Movie fans like me, however, will be deciding which films they would give awards to and which they would ignore. It goes without saying that we will disagree but that’s part of the fun. So, as the year ends, here are my 10 favourite films of 2013.
My January pick is Life of Pi, which was an entrant in this year’s Oscars — and took home four, including best director for Ang Lee. He gathered a cast of great actors — as opposed to movie stars — to tell this magical but gruelling story of a teenager adrift at sea in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger.
Lee’s shimmering images are so rich and beautifully accomplished that you can’t take your eyes off the screen.
February brought Les Misérables. I loved that the entire film was sung, which allowed some great actors to show their musical skills. Hugh Jackman is a professional singer and his Jean Valjean was impeccable. The big surprise was Russell Crowe, who sang with gusto in the role of Javert. The most unforgettable performance, however, came from Anne Hathaway as the tragic Fantine. Her impeccable rendition of I Dreamed a Dream earned her an Oscar too.
Quentin Tarantino takes a long time to makes his movies, but when they are done, they are imposing. Django Unchained fields an all-star cast that includes Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington and Christoph Waltz. It is Gone with the Wind meets Pulp Fiction and the last lethal showdown is shattering. It’s Tarantino at his excessive best and savage worst. It’s “love it or hate it” stuff with no apologies.
Ben Affleck covered himself in glory with Argo , an ingenious film based on a true situation. In 1979, the Shah of Iran was deposed and Ayatollah Khomeini imposed a new regime. A group of Americans sought shelter in the Canadian embassy and thus began a siege that lasted more than a year.
To get them out of Iran, a daring hoax was created. Affleck won best film and best director at the Golden Globes and best picture at the Oscars.
Steven Spielberg was at his best when he made Lincoln, starring Daniel Day Lewis. It was made with great historical accuracy about the abolition of slavery in the US. It is an intense and elegant scrutiny of the men and women who got caught up in a war that would define a nation.
The horror genre continues to deliver bone-chilling ghastliness and Mama is the most frightening film I have seen in years. Jessica Chastain gives a performance so true you believe the ghosts are real.
There have been several movie versions of F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, but Baz Luhrmann’s interpretation is dazzling. Leonardo DiCaprio revitalised the role and was well supported by Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire. Still, the best feature of the film was the expert use of the latest CGI special effects.
‘Mama’ is the most frightening film I’ve seen in years … you believe ghosts are real
A glorious surprise from Australia was The Sapphires, an exuberant true-life story about three sisters and a cousin in the early 1960s. Australia’s race laws precluded Aborigines from owning property in “white” towns and cities. They were forced to live in reservations, doing menial jobs, but this film centres on four girls who took inspiration from Diana Ross and the Supremes. Not only did they break through the race barrier, they also went to Vietnam to entertain the troops. A unique and wonderful film.
Mike Newell’s Great Expectations is the best of the several versions made of this film. He rounded up a solid cast, including Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter and Robbie Coltrane. The impeccable period sets and costumes bring the Charles Dickens novel to life.
Finally, there’s Behind the Candelabra, in which Michael Douglas gives one of his best performances as the flamboyant pianist Liberace, whose homosexuality and extravagant lifestyle embodied what novelist Tom Wolfe coined “The Me Decade”.
So that’s my “best of the best” for 2013 and I can’t wait to see what 2014 delivers.