I am notoriously ambivalent about top ten lists but I compiled one for the lovely folks at IndieWire and figured I’d share it with you. They also invited me to sound off on something I noticed in 2013, and those short comments follow the list:
1. Nebraska
2 Stories We Tell
3. The Hunt
4. Before Midnight
5. Frances Ha
6. The Broken Circle Breakdown
7. Inside Llewyn Davis.
8. Blackfish.
9. Dallas Buyers Club.
10. American Hustle
The IndieWire folks also asked me for a random comment about 2013, and I came circling back to my thoughts following this year’s New York Film Festival. Although I often write about women in film, and pine for more women directors, I found inspiration in the work of a number of male directors with an independent spirit. What I wrote to Senior Critic Eric Kohn and company was:
The most notable trend for me coalesced out of the New York Film Festival and included films mentioned above and some that are being held. It’s the vibrant resurgence of the American independent maverick director, from Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska” to the Coens’ “Inside Llewyn Davis” to Richard Linklater’s “Before Midnight” to Noah Baumbach’s “Frances Ha” and Spike Jonze’s “Her.” I would also include Jim Jarmusch’s return to form with “Only Lovers Left Alive,” to open in 2014. I cannot really wrap my head around why James Gray’s brilliant period drama with Joaquin Phoenix, “The Immigrant,” has not been raised up as it should. It is one of my very favorite films of 2013 – and yet it has not opened theatrically.