Best In Show: Top Cinematic Discoveries of 2013

At the beginning of 2013, I decided that this was going to be a good year for cinematic discoveries. It was going to be a year where I would step off my cinematic comfort zone and simply explore more. But as it is the case of most New Years resolutions it was not to be. I mean, I tried, but then this particular year real life was not the best it could have been (to put it mildly) and the allure of new films and canon classics was too hard to get away from.

Even so, I think I did alright. I finally found out for myself what was so great about Ernst Lubitsch, further explored the works of Woody Allen and Pedro Almodovar, and even watched my first Larry Clarke film after being put off by what I heard about him (and the film indeed did not make me want to seek out more of his work for the time being). I watched all the Studio Ghibli full-length features I hadn’t had yet to watch, and even ventured into a couple of other non-Ghibli anime. And as it’s always the case, I watched a few classics that honestly had me wondering what people honestly saw in them, At the same time, I watched others that truly deserved to be as revered as they are.

October 2013- Best & Worst

Last October I set out to watch as many horror films as possible, for obvious reasons. But due to many things (binge-watching MTV’s Teen Wolf being one of them) not only did I only manage to watch two of them, but just nine films in total. This month I did much better, watching 21 films for the first time including 7 which can be considered horror. The best of these was easily Halloween, which I finally got around to see this year and it lived up to expectations despite being completely different than what I imagined.

As for the other films I watched, The Purple Rose of Cairo immediately jumped into my top 10 of all time. I also watched Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity two times in IMAX because it was an amazing experience that I knew I would never have again. It may not be quite my favorite film of the year, but it’s still among one of the best. And finally, films like The Best Little Whorewhouse in Texas, Enough Said, and Populaire reminded me that light and fluffy films can be just as powerful as any other.

And now, here’s my top 10 of the month, followed, as always by some awards and such.

Weekly Mini-Reviews: “Blackfish,” “Halloween,” “Misery” & More

October 20-26, 2013

Blackfish | Gabriela Cowperthwaite | 2013 | ★★★½

Blackfish is far from the pinnacle of documentary film making as far as art or intrepid journalism is concerned, but it’s also a highly effective piece of activism that simply must be seen. It chronicles the incidents that have happened in Sea World because of Tilikum, an orca that has been in captivity for more than 20 years. Experts believe that his violent behavior is caused by the captivity but Sea World keeps saying that whales are better off in captivity, which is false, of course. The film combines interviews and archival footage of various interviews to get their point across. There were moments when I felt like I couldn’t breathe, others when I couln’t hold back the tears, and others when I was angry at the dirty business that is Seaworld. Will I do anything to stop this besides boycotting Sea World? It’s unlikely, but it’s great that this film is out there for everyone to see and hopefully we will see some reach change soon.