Best Films of 2013 - So Far

[numbersix]

Well, 7 months are up from this prime number year. What have your favourite flicks been? As always, we often get this year's US releases early the following year, but here's what I've seen so far:

THE GREAT
The Congress
The Pervert's Guide to Ideology (out in the US in Nov)
Mud
Upstream Colour
A Field in England

THE GOOD
To The Wonder
Spring Breakers
The Place Beyond the Pines
I'm so Excited
Star Trek into Darkness
Ilo Ilo
Byzantium
Before Midnight
The World's End
Breathe In
We Steal Secrets

THE OKAY
Good Vibrations
Pilgrim Hill
Shield of Straw
Behind the Candlebra
World War Z
The East
Only God Forgives
Frances Ha

THE BAD
Stoker
Life's A Breeze
Jimmy P

And films from last year that only came out in the US this year that would make my Top 10 include The Hunt, Sightseers, No, and War Witch.

[Buscemi]

Every 2013 film I've given a 9 or 10 on IMDB (only the first two are 10's):

1. Mud
2. Fruitvale Station
3. Only God Forgives
4. The Iceman
5. Pieta
6. Trance
7. Man of Steel
8. Ginger and Rosa
9. The Last Stand
10. Pain and Gain

[JohnErle]

My work schedule doesn't allow me to get to the theatres very often, so I'm way behind as usual.

There hasn't been anything this year I would call great, and I hesitate to call the best of what I've seen "Good". A lot of "Okay" or "Watchable" or "Flawed, But Interesting", such as The Conjuring, Mud, Lords Of Salem, The Company You Keep, Admission, The Place Beyond The Pines, Wolverine, or World War Z.

On the plus side, there's a lot of very intriguing movies coming this fall (Gravity, The Wolf Of Wall Street, Inside Llewelyn Davis) and there's only been one movie all year that I thought was total crap: Man Of Steel. Not even the awesomeness of Russell Crowe and the adorableness of Amy Adams could save that overblown mess.

[Buscemi]

The Lords of Salem was terrible. It's as if Rob Zombie was trying to make The Wicker Man and ended up making yet another 1980's slasher apologist movie.

As for Man of Steel, I didn't get how people were so harsh on it but gave the two-hour toy commercial that was Iron Man Three a free pass. Oh, it's because Marvel is blindly worshiped and people ignore the lack of a main plot, the terrible subplot in Tennessee (this could have been cut entirely from the film and you would have lost nothing) and the complete cop-out that was the Mandarin (along with the fact that the freaking suit was considered a higher priority in the script that half of the human characters).

[transformers2]

Seen 40 so far. Pretty good year thus far with everything besides Evil Dead, Only God Forgives, Man of Steel, Identity Thief and Warm Bodies being at least somewhat watchable to me. My current 10 is as follows:
1.This is the End
2.Fruitvale Station
3.Pain and Gain
4.Iron Man 3
5.Fast and Furious 6
6.The Last Stand
7.Star Trek Into Darkness
8.Pacific Rim
9.42
10.Gangster Squad

Honorable Mentions: 2 Guns, Trance, Now You See Me, Red 2, Snitch

[BanksIsDaFuture]

Hmmm, Top 6 in no order:

Spring Breakers
Man of Steel
Pain & Gain
The Great Gatsby
Pacific Rim
Star Trek Into Darkness

Above Average But Not Great:

Now You See Me
White House Down
Ryan Gosling's story in The Place Beyond The Pines

There's a lot of average films this year, like Iron Man 3, This Is The End, Monsters U, Oz The Great And Powerful, The Call, and Oblivion.

Bottom 6:

Movie 43
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
Fast & Furious 6
G.I. Joe: Retaliation
Gangster Squad
The Rest of The Place Beyond The Pines

[W]

Not a great year so far. I've seen 38 of this year's films, not including JP3D, and have six rated 8/10 for the high:

Olympus Has Fallen
Iron Man 3
Now You See Me
Pain and Fain
42
Oz

And I have three rated 3/10 for the lowest:

After Earth
Spring Breakers
The Last Stand

Plus six 4/10s:

Escape From Planet Earth
Die Hard 5
21 and over
RIPD
The Heat
G.I Joe 2

[Shrykespeare]

I'm in the same boat as a lot of you. A lot has been good, some very good even, but nothing's been spectacular. I have yet to award any film a 10 this year.

9/10
Turbo
Red 2
Man of Steel
Fast & Furious 6
Now You See Me
Star Trek Into Darkness

"Disappointing" for me would be any film I score less than a 5.

4/10
Bullet to the Head
The Lone Ranger

2/10
A Haunted House (utter crap)

[Chienfantome]

I will definitely post my own favourite films of the year so far once I finish unpacking and get a good night of sleep after that long road (don't get me wrong, I don't drive, my girlfriend did all the driving, but man it's tiring to sit in that car ).

[BanksIsDaFuture]

(don't get me wrong, I don't drive, my girlfriend did all the driving, but man it's tiring to sit in that car ).

Why don't you drive, Chien?

[Buscemi]

In the big city, would you even need a car?

[JohnErle]

Even in Paris, a car can come in handy sometimes:

[Chienfantome]

I don't drive because I grew up in a building that had a subway station right at its feet and that could take me to the center of Paris in 20 minutes. I didn't need to drive. Now I'm 31 and I don't see myself learning how to drive because I realize I just hate cars and be inside one. People drive so badly I think I'm gonna have an accident every time I'm in one. So I use subway, trains, buses, planes, and live happily

[Chienfantome]

Now, about those best films of the year so far. I have seen 151 films in theater since the beginning of 2013, excluding the oldies.
Out of that, in no particular order, here's what I think is the best (I'll exlude the film released in the US before 2013) :

The Top 4 :
- La grande bellezza
- Mud
- The Congress
- Prince Avalanche

Also highly recommendable :
- The Last Stand
- Rendez-vous à Kiruna
- Wadjda
- Elefante Blanco
- To the Wonder
- The Place beyond the pines
- Perfect Mothers
- La maison de la radio
- Oblivion
- The Act of Killing
- I give it a year
- Le temps de l'aventure
- Les gamins
- The Grandmaster
- What Richard did
- The Land of hope
- Iron Man 3
- Shokuzai
- Star Trek Into Darkness
- Man of Steel
- Room 237
- Before midnight
- Hijacking
- Ugly
- Blue ruin

I could also list a few dozen good films, but I think it's enough for a "Best Films" list.

[numbersix]

La Grande Bellezza is out here in 2 weeks, looking forward to seeing it.