2013 Capsule Reviews

Saving Mr. Banks

rating: *****

review: An astonishing look behind the curtain of the creative process twice over as Tom Hanks in of his later great roles, Walt Disney himself, convinces P.L. Travers to let him adapt Mary Poppins. Colin Farrell has perhaps his best supporting role as Travers Goff, whom Disney figures out, eventually, is the key to understanding the author’s story.

Man of Steel

rating: *****

review: Zack Snyder begins his epic vision of Superman (and later, the whole Justice League), taking as mythic, and human, an approach to superheroes as cinema has yet achieved.

Star Trek Into Darkness 

rating: *****

review: A bold reimagining of the second Star Trek movie, with Benedict Cumberbatch and his marvelous voice in perhaps its perfect showcase.

The Lone Ranger

rating: *****

review: You can already see how little I care about popular opinion. This is an Americana masterpiece. Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean) reunite in their single best film together.

About Time

rating: *****

review: Just when you’re absolutely sure I’m crazy, there’s this miracle, Rachel McAdams in her second time travel classic (The Time Traveler’s Wife) along with Domhnall Gleason, Bill Nighy, and director Richard Curtis.

Frozen

rating: *****

review: When I did my original 2013 rankings I had a considerably more dim view of it, but that was before my niece helped me watch it...a million times. And it was worth it. It’s a classic.

Gravity

rating: *****

review: This was kind of the year Hollywood transitioned from what it had been to what it’s been since, which left a year of unexpected wonders that straddled both, and perhaps none embody that more than this one, a one-star (Sandra Bullock, cashing in the last of her popular credentials at the time) showcase from a director, Alfonso Cuarón, at the height of his powers.

Oz the Great and Powerful

rating: ****

review: Probably the purest cinematic expression of Oz on film to date. It’s also James Franco’s perfect starring vehicle.

Prisoners

rating: ****

review: I came very late to this party, having only later discovered the genius of Denis Villeneuve, but having done so it was then even easier to appreciate how great his Hollywood debut is.

The Way, Way Back

rating: ****

review: Nat Faxon and Jim Rash somehow still don’t get the credit they’ve earned. This is perhaps their lowest key movie, but it’s as good as anything they’ve done.

The Counselor

rating: ****

review: There was a period where Cormac McCarthy was Hollywood’s new favorite author, but inexplicably that ended the minute he created an original screenplay. I’ve got enough experience with his books that I can say, this movie has more clarity of purpose in its brutality than can sometimes be seen in his work. And a truly all star cast.

Dead Man Down

rating: ****

review: Colin Farrell subdued, with the Hollywood debuts of the original Swedish Girl with the Dragon Tattoo star (Noomi Rapace) and director, plus Terrence Howard in a typically killer supporting role.

Fast & Furious 6

rating: ****

review: I admit to sometimes having a hard time remembering what happens in which one of these starting in about the fifth one (debut of Dwayne Johnson, for those keeping score). This one is the dramatic return of Michelle Rodriguez, and so is probably as important as anything in building the family legacy of the series.

Her

rating: ****

review: Spike Jonze directs this not-as-far-fetched-as-it-seemed movie as Joaquin Phoenix officially cleanses himself of the bizarre documentary experiment of I’m Still Here.

Mud

rating: ****

review: Jeff Nichols emerges as one of the best new directors of the modern era while getting to crow about helping recast Matthew McConaughey as a mythic southerner.

Pain and Gain

rating: ****

review: I’ve only just seen this one, another key element in the mainstreaming of Dwayne Johnson, with a highly underrated supporting turn from Tony Shalhoub.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

rating: ****

review: The last great Ben Stiller vehicle is perhaps also the last great old Hollywood movie.

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints

rating: ****

review: The other big directing find of the year is David Lowery, sort of the second coming of Terrence Malick but with the instant artistic flourish of the Tree of Life Malick.

After Earth

rating: ****

review: M. Night Shyamalan officially ended this phase of his career by giving the spotlight to Will Smith’s kid, who will never have Will Smith’s charisma. But in this story, that didn’t really matter. Like a lot of Shyamalan’s work, pointlessly dismissed.

World War Z

rating: ****

review: Brad Pitt stars in the unexpectedly successful adaptation of the book originally presented without narrative.

Nebraska

rating: ****

review: In a different era, this Alexander Payne effort would’ve catapulted Will Forte to big success.

American Hustle

rating: ****

review: This is just David O. Russell shamelessly showing off how much clout he’d developed. Worth it!

Blue Jasmine

rating: ****

review: I honestly have no idea if this Woody Allen film has any other merit, but it’s another great Cate Blanchard performance. I have absolutely no idea why she’s not treasured far, far more.

The Great Gatsby 

rating: ****

review: The Pretty Good Gatsby adaptation.

R.I.P.D.

rating: ***

review: Honestly I love this one. The only reason I’m rating it so low is that I just haven’t gotten around to watching it again. A highly underrated cult classic.

The Wolverine

rating: ***

review: Almost, but not quite Logan.

Epic

rating: ***

review:  Never did get to find out my niece’s opinion on this one. I’m a Colin Farrell completist. I watched it. I enjoyed it.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues 

rating: ***

review: About as good as can be expected. Another step in Adam McKay’s later development as a dramatic director, considering its base satire of cable news.

12 Years a Slave

rating: ***

review: Obviously worth watching and considering but perhaps too obvious when it might have been bold.

Captain Phillips

rating: ***

review: The point doesn’t even come until a fleeting moment in the end when Tom Hanks gets a quiet showcase as the Everyman caught in events bigger than him. Hanks later attempted to duplicate this in Sully and his better 2013 movie with A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, just trying to be relevant again. I think he finally nailed it with News of the World.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

rating: ***

review:  Such is my disappointment with the acclaim afforded to a previous trilogy (the first of which I love, the other two...) that I think this one’s better but it doesn’t seem to be reflected in my rankings. To be revisited at some later point, perhaps.

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

rating: ***

review: Two movies in 2013, both in supporting roles for Jim Carrey. Unthinkable at the height of his career. Steve Carell is the nominal lead, already sliding down his high. The two previously traded off with Bruce Almighty/Evan Almighty.

A Good Day to Die Hard

rating: ***

review: To date the final in a consistently enjoyable series.

Thor: The Dark World

rating: ***

review: Often considered at or near the bottom of the MCU films, some of it’s quite good.

The World’s End

rating: **

review: The last of three to date Pegg/Frost/Wright collaborations is the one I find least satisfying, at least, perhaps, until a rewatch.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation 

rating: **

review: These films weren’t terrible. Could have been better. This one at least unabashedly has Dwayne Johnson carry it.

Despicable Me 2

rating: **

review: The first one’s a classic. I saw this one about five years back on a loop. Still couldn’t tell you much of what it accomplishes.

Jack the Giant Slayer

rating: **

review: I’ve watched this one twice now. It’s worth at least that much. Maybe the third time’s the charm.

Kick-Ass 2

rating: **

review: Like a lot of the things derived from the mind of Mark Millar, desperate for cult status. And like a lot of it, falls short. But has Jim Carrey!

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters

rating: **

review: Jeremy Renner probably still regrets cashing in for this. But it’s probably still as close to a Hawkeye movie as there’ll ever be.

Iron Man 3

rating: **

review: The twist with the villain is fine. The rest of it is a self-indulgent waste of time.

Riddick

rating: **

review:  After Chronicles of Riddick failed to stick, someone thought it was a good idea to return to the feel of Pitch Black. They were wrong.

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

rating: *

review: My sister’s a big fan of the books. She doesn’t like the movies at all. I liked the first movie. This one’s an insult.

Don Jon

rating: *

review: Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s desperate lob.

The Great Gatsby (2013)

rating: ***

the story: Nick Carraway becomes swept up in the epic life of Jay Gatsby.

review: Leonardo DiCaprio has frequently been a brilliant actor.  Not always.  And it's always strange to discover the exceptions.  The Great Gatsby is one of them.

Baz Luhrmann does the Moulin Rouge version of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic, and Spider-Man, I mean Tobey Maguire, is our host.  Maguire's casting, and performance, in the film is one of the textbook examples of failing to escape a well-known role.  Maguire had a career as someone other than Spider-Man, before he put on the spandex, but then he did and now, because he's an actor of limited range, it's going to be hard to see him as anything but Spider-Man.  And I find it difficult to believe that Lurhmann didn't on some level comprehend that.  Maguire has voiceover work in his Spider-Man movies, too, so it's even harder to understand.  He plays Carraway as the same Peter Parker dork persona, and Luhrmann dresses him as the same Peter Parker dork persona. 

And then in strolls DiCaprio, and by now it's clear that he's developed a worn-in face, but the voice, if he isn't careful, is that of a child actor who...just has a career that's inexplicably continued.  And that's Leo DiCaprio if he hasn't bothered to sculpt a performance.  And that's his Gatsby.  Anytime he opens his mouth, it's just Jack from Titanic in an alternate reality.  Which I suppose was half the point of casting DiCaprio in the role.

Carey Mulligan is Daisy Buchanan.  Mulligan was the It Girl at the time, but displays little reason for being It in the role.  Isla Fisher has a thankless tiny supporting role (as she tends to have), and Jason Clarke is in it, too.

The real reason, the only reason to watch this version of The Great Gatsby is Joel Edgerton's Tom Buchanan, is Joel Edgerton.  Following his Hollywood breakthrough performance in Warrior (2011), The Great Gatsby was Edgerton's first real chance to shine, and he obviously threw himself at the opportunity.  His even better performance in Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014), I suspect, has something to do with this one.  Edgerton's somewhat blank face has always been his biggest drawback, but his voice and his sheer acting talent, when he's been allowed to shine, are undeniably huge assets.  He clearly seized this opportunity.  He's the only one in the movie who simultaneously loses himself in the time period and dominates the screen every time he appears.  Some would call it overacting, or simply dismiss him as a ham.  Those I would call clueless idiots.  In another era, he would've instantly become a huge star.  In this one he's settled back into a fairly anonymous career in the years since. 

So the Jay Gatsby of this version?  Is its Tom Buchanan.

Sweetwater (2013)

rating: *

the story: A corrupt preacher in New Mexico territory faces judgment day at the hands of a widow and the new lawman.

what it's all about: Lest you think I generally only write about (or watch) movies I like or at least like things about, or have something interesting (in a positive way) about them...I give you Sweetwater.  I thought there would be things to like about it.  I like Ed Harris and Jason Isaacs a great deal.  Until Sweetwater I'd never seen either in something I didn't like.  Well, can't really say that anymore.  This movie is terrible.

These days we tend to talk about "terrible" movies in terms of creative decisions we don't agree with or in questioning their CGI.  But truly bad movies do exist, and I don't mean horribly, horribly incompetent filmmaking that shows up in Mystery Science Theater 3000, but stuff like, well, Sweetwater.  Stuff that's entirely convinced it's just a step or two away from, say, Tarantino or the Coen brothers, as the DVD packaging of Sweetwater suggests.  More like a few steps away from 3000, DVD packaging.  Said packaging also says this was a Sundance film festival selection.  I have no idea how that's even possible.  Maybe I don't know Sundance near well enough.  Maybe it has crap all the time?

But here's the thing.  Here's Sweetwater's Rotten Tomatoes page.  And technically, it features a pretty dismal rating, both from critics and audiences.  But...Take even a brief look at those critics and fans are saying, and I say, they don't seem to understand at all the scope of how terrible Sweetwater is.  They think it's somehow redeemable.  It really, really isn't. 

Let's start with Isaacs' preacher.  The idea is itself cartoonish, more a cult figure from some modern innercity than someone who should be the focus of a movie that's supposed to be taken seriously, some fever dream vision of Christians as they're viewed now than what their role was in the late 1800s, the actual setting of this movie.  And because this is a cartoon Christian, this preacher looks pretty much exactly like Jesus.  It's not that Jason Isaacs gives a bad performance.  He does what he can with the material.  I remember people saying his character in The Patriot was a parody; his Harry Potter work was admittedly designed to leave no doubt about Lucius Malfoy's status.  But they were both still excellent performances, as is his work in Sweetwater.  If there's truly a glimmer of a redemptive possibility, it's Isaacs.

Ed Harris fares worse.  He's the lawman who comes to town.  But he's asked to do bizarre things like dance weirdly for no discernable reason other than the movie thinks it's quirky enough to characterize itself.  But it's as stupid and prurient as the shopkeeper we see spying on women with his pants down.  Otherwise Harris is typically Harris, but I have no idea what possessed him to go along with the idiotic dancing.

The nominal lead is January Jones, best known for Mad Men and X-Men: First Class.  I've been of the suspicious that a lot of what's passed as popular TV entertainment in the past twenty years is actually of the same general quality as Sweetwater, and it's actors like Jones who keep suffering for it.  In Mad Men she was cast as one of the "ironic" babes the guys salivate over "in the era where this was acceptable," "because the show is teaching us a lesson."  But as with X-Men: First Class, as with Sweetwater, she's no doubt there merely to be a pretty face, not because anyone thought for a second whether or not the role suited her talents.  Because Sweetwater has no idea what her talents are, except to eventually have a nude scene for the sake of having a nude scene, and to be silent during her violent revenge.  When critics complain about silent heroines, they're really complaining about stuff like this.  If they complain when the actor fits the rest of the role, they're merely being misogynists, because male actors are silent in actions roles all the time and those same critics don't complain then...

And that about sums up what's wrong with Sweetwater...And what's wrong with people even sort of liking stuff like this?  It's clear admittance that they have no discernable critical ability.  And this is reflected in the popular culture far more often than anyone is prepared to admit.  In sum, this is the sort of thing to be embarrassed about.

Lone Ranger (2013)

rating: ****

the story: John Reid becomes the eponymous hero.

what it's all about: Basically this is a movie that flopped at the box office for an incredibly superficial reason, and that was the immense backlash at Johnny Depp playing Tonto.  For the kind of movie Lone Ranger is, the casting makes absolutely perfect sense.  Depp is literally the only actor who could've pulled it off.  It's quintessential Depp.  But he's also not exactly Native American, so there was immense backlash.

If the casting had been accepted, Depp's Tonto would've added to his collection of signature characters.  That was the whole point.  His Jack Sparrow revived Depp's career, and was the first time since Edward Scissorhands where Johnny Depp Being a Character Instead of a Generic Pretty Boy really worked, and that was the whole point.  So casting directors started trying Characters all over the place for him to play.  Robert Rodriguez scored a coup early on in securing Depp for Once Upon a Time in Mexico soon after the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie proved such a phenomenon, and, well, Depp's role and performance in it changed the tone of the Mariachi movies Rodriguez had been making, in such a way that still defines a Rodriguez movie to this day, but didn't really itch the scratch created by Jack Sparrow.  Then Depp appeared in Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as an Eccentric Johnny Depp Character.  But it again felt forced.  And so on and so forth.  Really, Depp's career always thanked him most when he was appearing as Jack Sparrow, but eventually...he had to do something else.  He had to become something else. 

So he became Tonto.  This Tonto dominates Lone Ranger.  He's the framing narrator, the unreliable narrator who's, again, perfectly cast for the story Lone Ranger is trying to tell.  Ironically, this Tonto exists at all because in the years since Tonto's creation he's become less accepted as the Native American Sidekick, and now every time "kemosabe" is uttered, someone has to explain what it means.  It can't just be a term of endearment.  It's got to a commentary.  And so when Tonto in Long Ranger explains what it means this time, it's part of a running joke that's at the heart of this version of the story.  It's very much in the vein of Jack Sparrow, the character everyone used to try and explain, why he walked the way he did.  Ah, and the answer's always been, because Johnny Depp created a really, really interesting performance.

So here I am, still talking about Tonto.  Tonto is inescapable in this movie.  Imagine what the character would be, in this context, if someone like Adam Beach had played him.  And no offense to Adam Beach, but I know Adam Beach, and he's no Johnny Depp.  That's part of the problem.  Native Americans aren't allowed to be Johnny Depp in general, even now, decades into redefining their role in stories like this.  We're still stuck in a one dimensional look at them, it just so happens that now it's supposed to be positive.  But they're static, and we like it like that, and so when we say we're complaining about Johnny Depp playing Tonto we're really criticizing our inability to think of Tonto in any other way than Stoic Native American, because the actors we have?  Totally incapable of playing this Tonto. Except, maybe, Graham Greene.  That guy's awesome.  But he's also older than Tonto ought to be.

Anyway, so Tonto's at the heart of understanding this movie.  He's even at the heart of understanding why Johnny Depp's casting is so perfect, despite everything.  Tonto is meant to be "a band apart," as explained, eventually, in his origin story, late in the movie, when it's explained why he became the screwy dude we see throughout the movie, why he becomes such a perfect Johnny Depp Character.  He's been traumatized, and all his quirks have developed from his attempts to cope with what happened to him, what he did, when he was a boy.  He's not weird for the sake of being weird.  There's a honest-to-god, genuine answer for it. 

And that's the rest of the movie, from the framing narration, which tries to explain what happened to Lone Ranger's legacy, both in the fictional and real worlds, and the pathos at the heart of the madness.  That's the story in a nutshell, pathos at the heart of madness.

It's about a corrupt businessman (Tom Wilkinson, doing brilliantly restrained work in extreme contrast to William Fichtner's showy Butch Cavendish, whose look seems to have been the one real concession to Depp and director Gore Verbinski's Pirates past) who tricks the public into believing his lies, even though the one character who most interacts with him (Ruth Wilson, who does wounded beauty so incredibly well) thinks he's scum mostly worth shunning as much as possible, even though it's continually impossible.  To watch Wilkinson at play is to know this movie has a beating heart, and knows exactly what it's doing at all times.  To watch him perform under a heavy beard that makes him unrecognizable is to know that this is a production that takes seriously immersing itself in its own reality.  We don't need to see Fichtner's bloody fingers as he works a loose nail free, but that's detail that rewards the viewer, that authenticates a movie that spends much of its time with, well, Tonto.

Then there's the Lone Ranger himself, Armie Hammer.  Armie's, surprisingly, had it rough since his breakthrough role(s) in The Social Network.  He's an actor who oozes charisma, but it's so hard to quantify, because like Depp he refuses to be just another pretty face.  So it's not surprising to see the two in a movie together.  Where Depp's instinct has always been to bury his looks under a gauzy character, Armie simply rejects expectations.  He looks like the classic leading man, but he's not afraid to make a fool of himself. 

Tonto is constantly complaining that the wrong brother survived.  The other brother is James Badge Dale, another actor who inexplicably finds it difficult to be appreciated.  He embodies the hero as the hero is supposed to be, in Lone Ranger, and makes an early exit.  Dale's biggest problem is that he commits so thoroughly to his roles that he doesn't mind taking the backseat.  His squinty eyes say he's a clever guy, but the rest of his performance says he'll hide the best of his work behind everyone else's.  It's not that he can't command a scene (my first and favorite experience with him to date is a glorified cameo in Flight, where his character is literally named Gaunt Young Man in the credits, where he absolutely dominates a scene with Denzel Washington), but that he never has a role big enough to fit his talent. 

So the brother is so heroically competent that Armie's Lone Ranger is stuffed ideals that are always comically backfiring on him, so that he can never live up to him.  That's this movie's version of the character, a thorough deconstruction calculated for cynical audiences who maybe don't trust Westerns as a source of popular modern entertainment, but somehow ending up rejected...because of that?  Because it didn't take itself seriously enough?

Again, only if you're looking only at the surface, and this is a movie with a lot of moving pieces, that's endlessly rewarding, that throws supporting stars at you without warning (Helena Bonham Carter!  Barry Pepper!  Stephen Root!), seemingly at random and with no regard to their narrative impact.  But it's all calculated.  Brilliantly.  The way Wilkinson's character thinks he's got all the angles figured out.  The way even Tonto believes he's got everything figured out. Certainly the way the Lone Ranger thinks he does.  Before he puts on the mask.

This is a story about why good men must wear masks, why the heroes aren't happy being paraded before the public, why even when the narrator is unreliable he's telling the honest-to-god unvarnished truth (even about that stupid bird on his head).  It contradicts basically every common conclusion about this sort of storytelling.  It's more clever than any of Depp and Verbinski's Pirates movies (even if they could be quite rousing and affecting).  It knows it's retelling a classic Hollywood story, one of the stories that made Hollywood, the Western at its zenith, as myth. 

And yeah, it features a classic Johnny Depp performance.  Don't believe what you've heard.  Watch it for yourself.  You'll feel its magic for yourself.

2013

Viewed/Ranked

1. Saving Mr. Banks
2. Man of Steel
3. Star Trek Into Darkness
4. Dead Man Down
5. After Earth
6. The Wolverine
7. Epic
8. 12 Years a Slave
9. Captain Phillips
10. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
11. Fast & Furious 6
12. Thor: The Dark World
13. Frozen
14. Iron Man 3

Other Notable Releases

1. 47 Ronin
2. A Good Day to Die Hard
3. About Time
4. Ain't Them Bodies Saints
5. American Hustle
6. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
7. Before Midnight
8. The Bling Ring
9. Blue Is the Warmest Color
10. Blue Jasmine
11. Broken City
12. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
13. The Counselor
14. Dallas Buyers Club
15. Dear Mr. Watterson
16. Despicable Me 2
17. Don Jon
18. Ender's Game
19. Evil Dead
20. Fruitvale Station
21. G.I. Joe: Retaliation
22. Gravity
23. The Great Gatsby
24. Grudge Match
25. The Hangover Part III
26. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters
27. The Heat
28. Her
29. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
30. The Iceman
31. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
32. Inside Llewyn Davis
33. Jack the Giant Slayer
34. John Dies at the End
35. Kick-Ass 2
36. Kill Your Darlings
37. Lee Daniels' The Butler
38. The Lone Ranger
39. Lone Survivor
40. Machete Kills
41. Midnight's Children
42. Monsters University
43. Mud
44. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
45. Nebraska
46. Now You See Me
47. Oldboy
48. Oz the Great and Powerful
49. Pacific Rim
50. Pain and Gain
51. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
52. Planes
53. Prisoners
54. R.I.P.D.
55. The Reluctant Fundamentalist
56. Riddick
57. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
58. Snitch
59. Spring Breakers
60. To the Wonder
61. Warm Bodies
62. The Way, Way Back
63. The Wolf of Wall Street
64. World War Z
65. The World's End