Wednesday, January 01, 2014

Movies I Watched in 2013



Last year I started tracking the movies I watch. Here's this year's list in viewing order: 

A Room With a View (James Ivory, 1985)
A Touch of Class (Melvin Frank, 1973)
Idaho Transfer (Peter Fonda, 1973)
Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, 1972)
Safety Not Guaranteed (Colin Trevorrow, 2012)
The Man in the White Suit (Alexander Mackendrick, 1951)
The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasdan, 1983)
The Imposter (Bart Layton, 2012)
Inspector Clouseau (Bud Yorkin, 1968)
House of Wax (André de Toth, 1953)
Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001)
Lenny (Bob Fosse, 1974)
Anne of the Thousand Days (Charles Jarrott, 1969)
The Dresser (Peter Yates, 1983)
Atlantic City (Louis Malle, 1980)
A Man for All Seasons (Fred Zinnemann, 1966)
War Horse (Steven Spielberg, 2011)
Joysticks (Greydon Clark, 1983)
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Stephen Daldry, 2011)
Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin, 2012)
Argo (Ben Affleck, 2012)
Les Misérables (Tom Hooper, 2012)
Life of Pi (Ang Lee, 2012)
Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012)
Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012)
Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell, 2012)
Dredd (Pete Travis,2012)
Lincoln (Steven Spielberg, 2012)
Happy Accidents (Brad Anderson, 2001)
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (Mike Judge, 1996)
Inland Empire (David Lynch, 2006)
Lost Highway (David Lynch, 1997)
Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1977)
Mrs. Miniver (William Wyler, 1942)
Empire of the Sun (Steven Spielberg, 1987)
Red Planet Mars (Harry Horner, 1952)
Dr. Who and the Daleks (Gordon Flemyng, 1965)
Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (Gordon Flemying, 1966)
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Edgar Wright, 2010)
The Cabin in the Woods (Drew Goddard, 2012)
Malibu Express (Andy Sidaris, 1985)
Cosmic Voyage (Bayley Silleck, 1996)
The Emigrants (Jan Troell, 1971)
Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972)
Sounder (Martin Ritt, 1972)
The Untouchables (Brian DePalma, 1987)
Holy Motors (Leos Carax, 2012)
Hard Ticket to Hawaii (Andy Sidaris, 1987)
Breaking Away (Peter Yates, 1979)
The Turning Point (Herbert Ross, 1977)
Life is Beautiful (Roberto Benigni, 1997)
Intolerable Cruelty (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2003)
The President’s Analyst (Theodore J. Flicker, 1967)
Dolemite (D’Urville Martin, 1975)
The Human Tornado (Cliff Roquemore, 1976)
Iron Man 3 (Shane Black, 2013)
The Valley of Gwangi (Jim O’Connolly, 1969)
The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen, 1998)
Battle Beyond the Sun (Francis Ford Coppola, 1959)
Star Trek Into Darkness (J.J. Abrams, 2013)
Space Battleship Yamato (Takashi Yamazaki, 2010)
Dial M for Murder (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
Dracula’s Daughter (Lambert Hillyer, 1936)
Son of Dracula (Robert Siodmak, 1943)
House of Dracula (Erle C. Kenton, 1945)
Son of Frankenstein (Rowland V. Lee, 1939)
Wrath of the Titans (Jonathan Liebesman, 2012)
Attack the Block (Joe Cornish, 2011)
The Ghost of Frankenstein (Erle C. Kenton, 1942)
House of Frankenstein (Erle C. Kenton, 1944)
Man of Steel (Zack Snyder, 2013)
Hello, Dolly! (Gene Kelly, 1969)
Z (Costa-Gravas, 1969)
The Avengers (Joss Whedon, 2012)
The Night Stalker (John Llewellyn Moxey, 1972)
The Night Strangler (Dan Curtis, 1973)
Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome (Jonas Pate, 2013)
Invasion of Astro-Monster (Ishiro Honda, 1965)
All Monsters Attack (Ishiro Honda, 1969)
Blow Out (Brian De Palma, 1981)
Licence to Kill (John Glen, 1989)
Terror of Mechagodzilla (Ishiro Honda, 1975)
King Kong vs. Godzilla (Ishiro Honda, 1962)
Devil (John Erick Dowdle, 2010)
Atragon (Ishiro Honda, 1963)
Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013)
Gorath (Ishiro Honda, 1962)
La Fin du Monde (Abel Gance, 1931)
La Decima Vittima (Elio Petri, 1965)
Coming Home (Hal Ashby, 1978)
Thor: The Dark World (Alan Taylor, 2013)
The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, 1988)
Red State (Kevin Smith, 2011)
Flash Gordon (Mike Hodges, 1980)
Oliver! (Carol Reed, 1968)
Splice (Vincenzo Natali, 2009)
The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius, 2011)
The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)
The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998)
Ted (Seth MacFarlane, 2012)
This is Cinerama (Merian C. Cooper, 1952)

That's 102 films, a few less than last year's 116. 

Films by Genre
Best Picture nominee: 33
Science Fiction: 24
Fantasy: 4
Western: 1
Horror: 12
Action: 4
Thriller: 2
Drama: 27
Comedy: 5
Documentary: 4
Superhero: 4
War: 4
Musical: 3
James Bond: 1 
Star Trek: 1

Top Directors
Ishiro Honda (6)
Erle C. Kenton (3)
David Lynch (3)
Steven Spielberg (3)
Gordon Flemyng (2)
The Coen Brothers (2)
Terrence Malick (2)
Andy Sidaris (2)

Films by Decade
1930s: 3
1940s: 5
1950s: 6
1960s: 16
1970s: 16
1980s: 12
1990s: 4
2000s: 5
2010s: 32

Final Thoughts
I had a lot of fun this year enjoying Ishiro Honda's kaiju spectacles, particularly the off-formula and much-derided All Monsters Attack; you can read my analysis here. 2013 was also the year I finished the filmography of David Lynch, one of my very favourite directors; here is my list of most-to-least comprehensible Lynch films. 

I'm surprised that I managed to knock 33 films off my list of Best Picture nominees to view; I haven't updated my master list yet, but I imagine by now I must be close to 60 percent finished. 

I'm also surprised that I watched only one western this year, considering it's probably my second-favourite genre. 

Of the few first-run pictures I caught in theatres, Gravity was by far the best. I enjoyed Man of Steel, but thought it made a better science fiction movie than a Superman film; Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World were fun sequels, and Star Trek Into Darkness was a huge, dumb disappointment. 

Colin Trevorrow's little-seen comedy Safety Not Guaranteed was this year's biggest pleasant surprise, and I thoroughly recommend it. Watch it cold, without knowing anything about the film.

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