Ugetzu Monogatari

Kenji Mizoguchi (1953)

This major classic of Japanese cinema follows a clay pot crafter who makes good off the war and his friend who dreams of becoming a Samurai. Widely regarded as a forerunner for taking Japanese cinema west, Mizoguchi harnesses a dramatic use of shadow, supernatural elements and a generous helping of hubris for his moral tale of honour and indulgence.

Bernie

Richard Linklater (2011)

Jack Black gives a fine performance in this true life tale of a popular Carthage funeral director who kills the wealthy 81 year old widow (played by Shirley MacLaine) who he's been cozying up to. Dotted with interviews from after the fact, Linklater captures all the charms of his native Texans in his morally dense, quaintly funny and gosh darned honest film. Pre McConaissance Matt plays the slimey D.A.

Time plays an important role in the films of Richard Linklater. His debut feature Slacker was built from brief conversations over the course of an Austin Texas day; a tapestry of quick glances which expressed the whole lazy scene. It was fresh, 90's and so very generation X. This format would come to serve Linklater well over the course of his career; Dazed and Confused used it; Waking Life sort of did it too; perhaps his greatest achievement so far took, for now, three such days in three different countries only Linklater let 14 years go by between them.  The results were incredibly moving. The second part of that series, Before Sunrise, hadn't even come out when Linklater began shooting this remarkable film. It’s called Boyhood and shows us through a fictional piece of film, shot roughly one week per year since 2003, the growth of a young boy called Mason (Ellar Coltrane) from the age of 6 to 18.

Gathering Coltrane, his daughter Lorelei and stars Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as their separated parents, Linklater has crafted an entirely unique real-time story of what growing up in Texas must be like. We follow Mason and his sister Samantha as they go to school, their relationship with both parents, Mason’s first girlfriend and job, his mates and interests and everything else, before ultimately leaving for college.

Linklater pulls off an incredible trick in keeping such continuity of tone over such an enormous breath of production. The cuts are subtle and steady, facial hair, fashion and broken voice providing the clues. 

It’s all so impressive and yet somehow so tragically unmoving. When Linklater shoots outside his age bracket, he has a tendency to induce cringe. He made Slacker at 21 and Before Midnight at 52 and both of them worked a treat. Sadly seeing him depict free spirited youths comes off, well, like someone of a certain age depicting free spirited youths. But that only comes when Mason hits his teens, really what disappoints is how the director has failed to get to the guts of the human condition and with all that time and effort that is truly this film's tragedy. Still, Boyhood remains a wonderful, charming piece of work and an astonishingly impressive cinematic achievement. It really has never been done before. It might never be done again.

Well, for another 12 years at least...

Spoiler alert?

A few points to note before this all important ranking: These movies are picked from what I saw over the last 12 months so while Django Unchained, Stories We Tell, Spring Breakers and Paradise: Faith would certainly have crashed the party, I saw them a little before that. On the other hand this list contains a couple of titles which are yet to see the light of day in many territories but hey, it’s my list, so whatever. It’s also important to say that while I saw a great deal of films, I have obviously missed many more. This unfortunate list includes Blancanieves, The Wind Rises, No!, The Hunt, Pacific Rim, In A World..., Short Term 12, Wadjda, Rush, All Is Lost, The Great Beauty, The Selfish Giant and Hirokazu Kore-Eda's I Wish (although I did catch another of that directors films...). I blame many on the lack of English subs in Berlin. They could very well all be masterpieces.

Anyway, forget all that. This is nothing definitive, merely what pushed my buttons in 2013.

10 honourable mentions, in no particular order:

Star Trek: Into Darkness : J.J. Abrams gave hope for 2015 with this well executed sequel. Ubiquitous Cumberbatch at his Shakespearian best.

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom: Idris Elba showed us not the saint nor the sinner but a human being like us. Mandela died as the premier screened in Leicester square.

Blue Jasmine: Woody went back to the states and got back on form. Blanchet is brilliantly manic as the dishevelled lead.

Philomena: Judi Dench does a great Irish mammy and manages to loosen our tear ducts without breaking a sweat.

Nebraska: Bruce Dern gives a fine late performance in Alexander Payne’s surprisingly unsentimental road movie.

Mud: Jeff Nichol's great southern gothic saw McCaughnehey kick his remarkable comeback into gear.

Upstream Colour: Almost a decade after Primer, Shane Carruth returned to twist our collective melon.

A Field in England: Ben Wheatley sends us on a macabre civil war trip. No substances required.

Frances Ha: Greta Gerwig danced and despaired in this hip slice of melancholic monochrome.

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints: David Lowery’s film might dip in the second half but this was almost the Terrance Mallick film we had all been waiting for.

  

10. 

Inside Llewyn Davis

Joel & Ethan Coen

The Coens made it five in a row with this melancholic ode to early 60s folk New York. Newcomer Oscar Isaac boasts timbre and timing as the titular lead.

9.

Beyond the Hills

Cristian Mungiu

After five years waiting, Cristian Mungiu followed up his jarring Palme d'Or winning debut with this uncompromising look at forbidden love in an orthodox monastery. Subversive realism bubbles under Mungiu’s sensational plot.

Check out a slightly longer review here.

8.

Blue is the Warmest Colour

Abdellatif Kechiche

Kechiche used dance, sex and uncompromising close-ups to immerse us in all the terrifying ecstasy of that first great love.  Maturing her character throughout, Adele Exarchopolous gives the performance of the year.

7.

The Act of Killing

Joshua Oppenheimer

There’s been plenty written about Joshua Oppenheimer’s exploitation document on the re-enacting murderers of Indonesia so let’s just say it already looks a classic in the genre. Whatever genre that may be.

6.

Museum Hours

Jem Cohen

 A woman visiting her dying relative spends a few short days with a Museum attendant. Cohen takes the most tender of love stories and overlaps it with a video essay on Vienna for the year's most quietly beautiful film. Seek it out.

5.

Gravity

Alfonso Cuaran

Sandra Bullock and George Clooney go space station hopping in Earth’s orbit after a rogue fleet of satellites wreck the place. The script was clunky; the plotline superfluous; but Alfonso Cuaron and his production team, in the most sophisticated ways imaginable, allowed us to feel, for the briefest of moments, like we were up there too.

Check out a slightly longer review here.

4.

Before Midnight

Richard Linklater

Celine and Jesse close out their ineffable 14 year saga with another day of long shot conversations under the European sun. The question is no longer “will it happen?”, but “will it last?” as our lovers deal with life and mortality on the Greek Peloponnese. I hope we meet again in 7 years time.

3.

Prisoners

Denis Villeneuve

All this talk of zero-G and flying satellites might lead you to believe that Gravity was the year’s best thrill ride but one could argue that this terrific film left us with even less fingernails. It’s interesting to note that the films boasted two of America’s most prestigious cinematographers and while Emmanuel Lubezki’s earthly vistas offered us the year’s most memorable imagery, Roger Deakins found a far stranger, more malevolent beauty in the trees and waters of Pennsylvania. Its star, Jake Gyllenhall, is a blinking powerhouse as a determined detective on the hunt for two lost girls. We hold our breath till the very. Last. Second.

 

2.

12 Years a Slave

Steve McQueen

Steve McQueen managed to storm Hollywood, LA and the mainstream while staying true to his stern video art style. This brutal, wonderfully acted, slavery epic wasn't afraid to point the finger and could yet make McQueen the first black winner of Best Director at the Academy awards.

Check out a slightly longer review here.

1.

Like Father Like Son

Hirokazu Kore-Eda

As Cuaron, Oppenheimer and McQueen were busy creating there cinematic milestones, a director with a far more traditional ethos calmly delivered his masterpiece. His heart wrenching examination of nature vs. nurture had all the markings of a master. Kore-Eda has honed a purity of style and much like his spiritual father Yasijiro Ozu, patiently rakes the sands of family life to find a transcendental beauty within.  Astonishingly, his best might be yet to come.