My favorite films of 2013 (U.S. release date)
This is a list of films I watched this year that I really liked. Some of them were released in 2012 or earlier, but they were released in the U.S., where I live, this year. I may also be missing some really great films, but I haven't seen every film released either due to lack of time or other reasons.
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- DirectorEthan CoenJoel CoenStarsOscar IsaacCarey MulliganJohn GoodmanA week in the life of a young singer as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961.
- DirectorSteve McQueenStarsChiwetel EjioforMichael Kenneth WilliamsMichael FassbenderIn the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free Black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.
- DirectorAbdellatif KechicheStarsLéa SeydouxAdèle ExarchopoulosSalim KechioucheAdèle's life is changed when she meets Emma, a young woman with blue hair, who will allow her to discover desire and to assert herself as a woman and as an adult. In front of others, Adèle grows, seeks herself, loses herself, and ultimately finds herself through love and loss."Blue.." is a truly wonderful love story, but it's also a slice of a young person's life, who loves, makes mistakes, worries about her future, the same things in other words all of us go through. Adele is one of the most "Real" characters we have ever seen in a movie theater.
- DirectorSarah PolleyStarsMichael PolleyJohn BuchanMark PolleyA film that excavates layers of myth and memory to find the elusive truth at the core of a family of storytellers.Sarah Polley's documentary about her mother (a mother she lost at a very young age) deconstructs the documentary genre. Full of twists and turns, what really makes it stand out is its ability to show how subjective our memories can be.
- DirectorCate ShortlandStarsSaskia RosendahlKai-Peter MalinaNele TrebsAs the Allies sweep across Germany, Lore leads her siblings on a journey that exposes them to the truth of their parents' beliefs. An encounter with a mysterious refugee forces Lore to rely on a person she has always been taught to hate.Lore is a young girl in a Germany that has just lost the war. When her war criminal parents are arrested she attempts to cross the country with her younger siblings. The journey teaches us how the differences that separate us (whether they are ethnic or religious or something else) are completely ridiculous. In the end we are all people.
- DirectorWoody AllenStarsCate BlanchettAlec BaldwinPeter SarsgaardA New York socialite, deeply troubled and in denial, arrives in San Francisco to impose upon her sister. She looks like a million dollars but isn't bringing money, peace or love.I thought "Midnight in Paris" was Woody Allen's best film, but he somehow managed to make an equally powerful film again this year. Jasmine's story will make us ask ourselves what is truly moral. Her chance encounter with her stepson is probably one of the strangest and most powerful scenes we have seen in a long time.
- DirectorGilles BourdosStarsMichel BouquetChrista ThéretVincent RottiersSet on the French Riviera in the summer of 1915, Jean Renoir -- son of the Impressionist painter, Pierre-Auguste -- returns home to convalesce after being wounded in World War I. At his side is Andrée, a young woman who rejuvenates, enchants, and inspires both father and son.A film about Renoir, the father and painter, Renoir, the son and filmmaker, and their muse. Probably one of the visually attractive films of the last few years.
- DirectorRichard LinklaterStarsEthan HawkeJulie DelpySeamus Davey-FitzpatrickWe meet Jesse and Celine nine years on in Greece. Almost two decades have passed since their first meeting on that train bound for Vienna.The latest installation in the series that follows the life of a couple takes them to Greece, where now, as a married couple with children, and 10 years older, they have to deal with more mundane issues than ever before. Will they survive?
- DirectorNeil JordanStarsSaoirse RonanGemma ArtertonSam RileyResidents of a coastal town learn, with deathly consequences, the secret shared by the two mysterious women who have sought shelter at a rundown hotel.Finally a vampire film that delivers that gothic feeling I always associate vampires with.
- DirectorJonathan LevineStarsNicholas HoultTeresa PalmerJohn MalkovichAfter a highly unusual zombie saves a still-living girl from an attack, the two form a relationship that sets in motion events that might transform the entire lifeless world.A zombie movie, from the perspective of the zombie? While that is awesome, what made it stand out IMO is how perfectly it presents alienation in our world.
- DirectorHenry Alex RubinStarsJason BatemanJonah BoboHaley RammA drama centered on a group of people searching for human connections in today's wired world.
- DirectorMarkus ImhoofStarsFred JaggiRandolf MenzelJohn MillerAn in-depth look at honeybee colonies in California, Switzerland, China and Australia.
- DirectorPablo LarraínStarsGael García BernalAlfredo CastroAntonia ZegersAn advertising executive comes up with a campaign to defeat Augusto Pinochet in Chile's 1988 referendum.
- DirectorJeff NicholsStarsMatthew McConaugheyTye SheridanJacob LoflandTwo young boys encounter a fugitive and form a pact to help him evade the vigilantes that are on his trail and to reunite him with his true love.
- DirectorClaude MillerStarsAudrey TautouGilles LelloucheAnaïs DemoustierAn unhappily married woman struggles to break free from social pressures.
- DirectorDerek CianfranceStarsRyan GoslingBradley CooperEva MendesTwo men and their sons must deal with the unforeseen consequences of their actions.
- DirectorDanny BoyleStarsJames McAvoyRosario DawsonVincent CasselAn art auctioneer becomes mixed up with a group of criminals partners with a hypnotherapist in order to recover a lost painting.
- DirectorBaz LuhrmannStarsLeonardo DiCaprioCarey MulliganJoel EdgertonA writer and wall street trader, Nick Carraway, finds himself drawn to the past and lifestyle of his mysterious millionaire neighbor, Jay Gatsby, amid the riotous parties of the Jazz Age.
- DirectorNoah BaumbachStarsGreta GerwigMickey SumnerAdam DriverA New York woman apprentices for a dance company and throws herself headlong into her dreams, even as the possibility of realizing them dwindles.
- DirectorDestin Daniel CrettonStarsBrie LarsonFrantz TurnerJohn Gallagher Jr.A 20-something supervising staff member of a residential treatment facility navigates the troubled waters of that world alongside her co-worker and longtime boyfriend.
- DirectorMichel GondryStarsNoam ChomskyMichel GondryRichard FeynmanA series of interviews featuring linguist, philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky done in hand-drawn animation.
- DirectorWladyslaw PasikowskiStarsIreneusz CzopJerzy SzymkiewiWojciech WalasikA Polish man who returns home after the death of his father unearths a secret about the now-deceased Jewish residents of his village.
- DirectorSophie LelloucheStarsAlice TaglioniPatrick BruelMarine DeltermeAlice, a Woody Allen-obsessed pharmacist and hopeless romantic, meets a charming man named Victor but has trouble committing to him.
- DirectorPark Chan-wookStarsMia WasikowskaNicole KidmanMatthew GoodeAfter India's father dies, her Uncle Charlie, who she never knew existed, comes to live with her and her unstable mother. She comes to suspect this mysterious, charming man has ulterior motives and becomes increasingly infatuated with him.
- DirectorPaolo SorrentinoStarsToni ServilloCarlo VerdoneSabrina FerilliJep Gambardella has seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades, but after his 65th birthday and a shock from the past, Jep looks past the nightclubs and parties to find a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.