2013 - Films
Jan. 13th, 2014 08:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sulkyblueblogUnemployment may be bad for the bank account, but it's certainly good for the film watching, with nearly 7 months off work, 2013 was my most unemployed year ever and correspondingly a record breaker for number of films watched, with an unlikely total of 187, more than a film every other day. (See bottom of page for full list and links to individual reviews.) 90% of them were films that were new to me which is quite satisfying. It really wouldn't be possible to watch that number of films without a subscription service and I continue to endorse Lovefilm, with 144 of my films coming from there which comes out at roughly 80p per film (and I watched a fair amount of TV via either dvd or streaming as well). I still get the vast majority of my films via post (mostly blu ray), as the online availability tends to be fairly limited. There's usually *something* I don't mind watching, but it's rarely something from high on my list.
Cinema
I'm a bit surprised to see I've clocked up 27 cinema visits this year. Given the 80p per film from Lovefilm, the cinema is a phenomenally expensive experience in London (my 'local' is now over 11 quid for a non-3D film) and given the general public and questionable service the stuff around the actual film can be far from pleasant. But for pure experience of film, you still can't really beat it. I specifically avoided 3D most of the time, unwilling to pay the extra for and often poorer viewing experience. The exceptions were Gravity which while not necessarily better in 3D, certainly wasn't worse, and Frozen which I saw in 2d but think that the animation style would have been quite impressive in 3D.
Ages
Nearly a quarter of my films were from 2013, exactly a quarter were from 2012 and 56% of the films overall were from the 2010s. 15% were from the 2000s, 11% from the 90s and then a gradually decreasing scattering all the way back to one film from the 1930s. I'm actually quite pleased with that distribution. Over the years I've really tried to watch older films and so have really made quite a significant dent on the list of classics and find it harder and harder to find films from the past that I want to watch.
Genres
Trying to label the genre of films is increasingly hard as everything seems to be a mixture. Do you need wizards and magic to be fantasy, or do you just need some weird dream sequences (Beasts of the Southern Wild?) Should a comedy be defined as something that's supposed to be funny, or something that's actually funny? On basic assessment 20% of the films I saw this year were 'comedies' but I laughed in very few of them and the funniest films by far were the animations I saw. It was a pretty low year for science fiction (just 7% compared to 30% last year) and although the number of documentaries and world films were high (4 and 12 respectively) the percentages were less impressive (2% and 6%).
Quality
The average rating of the films I watched this year was 6.37, almost dead on the overall average of 6.35. Just under half of the films rated 7 or higher which I count as 'good', and 48% were middling (5-7) which leaves only 8% (15 films) as in the pretty miserable range. I'm a bit surprised it's that low, it felt like I regularly had to slog my way through awful offerings from people who should know better, but in fact the vast majority of films were actually at the very least, watchable.
2013 Films
43 films were from 2013, plus another half dozen or so that are technically 2012, but weren't released in the UK until 2013. The standout film of the year was Gravity, and in fact if my ratings are to be believed, it's the standout film of cinema in general. It's the only film that I've ever awarded a ten out of ten to, and I agonised for a long time over whether I should do so, but in the end, I couldn't think of a single thing that I didn't like about it, even after a second watch. I suspect it will drop eventually, but for now it's the most perfect film I've ever seen. That's not to say it's necessarily got the highest aims, it is at it's heart a disaster movie with spectacular cinematography, but I was utterly and completely engrossed and entertained for the entire 90 minutes of it's perfect runtime.
The only 9/10 films were actually all from 2012 in the US but I saw them in cinemas in 2013. Wreck-It Ralph was a seemingly effortless combination of originality, character and story, while Lincoln was an acting masterclass from Daniel Day Lewis, and in addition to being predictably fascinating, it was surprisingly humorous. Life of Pi was technically released in the UK just within 2012, but I saw it in the cinema early in the new year and was suitably impressed that the unfilmable book was so beautifully translated to the screen.
There were about a dozen 8s, interestingly they were almost all 'entertaining' films, rather than necessarily 'worthy' ones. Despicable Me 2 has unceasingly made me laugh over and over again at even the faintest hint of a references to the minions ("pfft, bottom", "eh... no.", "banana?!") and Frozen a beautiful and original story and songs that I haven't been able to get out of my head. Iron Man 3, Olympus Has Fallen and Pacific Rim were all massively entertaining romps, while Philomena, The Kings of Summer and About Time were all much more understated character pieces that drew me in and had me reaching for the tissue box. Side Effects was another film that, like Gravity, took its genre (psychological thriller) and elevated it to something beyond expectations while Warm Bodies and Robot and Frank both managed to completely avoid all traditional genres to form original and charming films that defy categorisation. Finally Behind the Candelabra and Pitch Perfect were both jaw droppingly engrossing and entertaining.
At the opposite end of the spectrum there were a few real turkeys, frequently scuppered by their over-indulgent run-times and lack of good editing. I had pretty low expectations for The Lone Ranger and it certainly met them, but the disappointment I felt at The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was crushing. It was just dull. The plot was stretched out paper thin and they failed to fill in the gaps with interesting characters, instead just using fairground ride action and melodramatic exposition. Mind you, Sharknado won the prize for the lowest rating, and that couldn't have been saved by reducing the runtime unless it was reduced to 20 seconds with someone just reading the title and premise out.
In the middle were a few "could have been better". World War Z was a perfectly fine "Brad Pitt saves the world from zombies" film, but wasted the amazing premise and structure of the book on an unrecognisable story. Star Trek Into Darkness was a rollicking action adventure spoilt by utter laziness when it came to pulling the plot together into something that made sense. The Great Gatsby on the other hand had a solid story (obviously) but I actually felt Luhrman was too subdued in his style!
Other viewing highlights
There were a number of recent films from the last couple of years that I picked up via Lovefilm. Hotel Rwanda (2004) was a devastatingly powerful film which taught me a lot about a story I knew embarrassingly little of, Don Cheadle's performance was just incredible. One Hour Photo (2002) demonstrates why Robin Williams is wasted in comedy as he's phenomenally creepy in this very well put together 'little' thriller. Margin Call is a relatively small film that people may have missed, but it has a great cast (Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Zachary Quinto) and is an informative look at the early days of the financial crisis. Perks of Being a Wallflower is another indie film that was easily missed in cinemas (I even tried to see if and couldn't find it) but is a charming and vibrant look at misfit teens.
Older films that I finally caught that actually live up to the label of classics - Dial M for Murder, Gregory's Girl and Local Hero. They're badly dated now of course, but each manages to raise above the imitators and descendants admirable. On the documentary front two standouts are Man on Wire and The The Imposter, both about French men performing amazing feats of nerve and balance - one a tightrope walker, the other a conman.
Other viewing lowlights
I waited until the full series was available before watching the Twilight film, but as it turned out I needn't have bothered waiting because I barely made it through the first film. I found the books thoroughly entertaining, but the film somehow manages to emphasise all the worst elements and the casting is cataclysmically awful.
Some 'classics' that turned out to be miserable - Blue Velvet (no idea what was happening and thoroughly unpleasant to watch), Hello, Dolly! (budgets over chemistry), La Dolce Vita (horrifically dull) and Gone in 60 Seconds (1974) (boring exposition followed by boring car chase). There were also a few of last year's critically acclaimed films that I was distinctly underwhelmed by - Zero Dark Thirty (utterly muddled messages and storytelling), Berberian Sound Studios (pretentious nonsensical mess) and Amour (stunning performances, utterly tedious)
Full list of films
Cinema
I'm a bit surprised to see I've clocked up 27 cinema visits this year. Given the 80p per film from Lovefilm, the cinema is a phenomenally expensive experience in London (my 'local' is now over 11 quid for a non-3D film) and given the general public and questionable service the stuff around the actual film can be far from pleasant. But for pure experience of film, you still can't really beat it. I specifically avoided 3D most of the time, unwilling to pay the extra for and often poorer viewing experience. The exceptions were Gravity which while not necessarily better in 3D, certainly wasn't worse, and Frozen which I saw in 2d but think that the animation style would have been quite impressive in 3D.
Ages
Nearly a quarter of my films were from 2013, exactly a quarter were from 2012 and 56% of the films overall were from the 2010s. 15% were from the 2000s, 11% from the 90s and then a gradually decreasing scattering all the way back to one film from the 1930s. I'm actually quite pleased with that distribution. Over the years I've really tried to watch older films and so have really made quite a significant dent on the list of classics and find it harder and harder to find films from the past that I want to watch.
Genres
Trying to label the genre of films is increasingly hard as everything seems to be a mixture. Do you need wizards and magic to be fantasy, or do you just need some weird dream sequences (Beasts of the Southern Wild?) Should a comedy be defined as something that's supposed to be funny, or something that's actually funny? On basic assessment 20% of the films I saw this year were 'comedies' but I laughed in very few of them and the funniest films by far were the animations I saw. It was a pretty low year for science fiction (just 7% compared to 30% last year) and although the number of documentaries and world films were high (4 and 12 respectively) the percentages were less impressive (2% and 6%).
Quality
The average rating of the films I watched this year was 6.37, almost dead on the overall average of 6.35. Just under half of the films rated 7 or higher which I count as 'good', and 48% were middling (5-7) which leaves only 8% (15 films) as in the pretty miserable range. I'm a bit surprised it's that low, it felt like I regularly had to slog my way through awful offerings from people who should know better, but in fact the vast majority of films were actually at the very least, watchable.
2013 Films
43 films were from 2013, plus another half dozen or so that are technically 2012, but weren't released in the UK until 2013. The standout film of the year was Gravity, and in fact if my ratings are to be believed, it's the standout film of cinema in general. It's the only film that I've ever awarded a ten out of ten to, and I agonised for a long time over whether I should do so, but in the end, I couldn't think of a single thing that I didn't like about it, even after a second watch. I suspect it will drop eventually, but for now it's the most perfect film I've ever seen. That's not to say it's necessarily got the highest aims, it is at it's heart a disaster movie with spectacular cinematography, but I was utterly and completely engrossed and entertained for the entire 90 minutes of it's perfect runtime.
The only 9/10 films were actually all from 2012 in the US but I saw them in cinemas in 2013. Wreck-It Ralph was a seemingly effortless combination of originality, character and story, while Lincoln was an acting masterclass from Daniel Day Lewis, and in addition to being predictably fascinating, it was surprisingly humorous. Life of Pi was technically released in the UK just within 2012, but I saw it in the cinema early in the new year and was suitably impressed that the unfilmable book was so beautifully translated to the screen.
There were about a dozen 8s, interestingly they were almost all 'entertaining' films, rather than necessarily 'worthy' ones. Despicable Me 2 has unceasingly made me laugh over and over again at even the faintest hint of a references to the minions ("pfft, bottom", "eh... no.", "banana?!") and Frozen a beautiful and original story and songs that I haven't been able to get out of my head. Iron Man 3, Olympus Has Fallen and Pacific Rim were all massively entertaining romps, while Philomena, The Kings of Summer and About Time were all much more understated character pieces that drew me in and had me reaching for the tissue box. Side Effects was another film that, like Gravity, took its genre (psychological thriller) and elevated it to something beyond expectations while Warm Bodies and Robot and Frank both managed to completely avoid all traditional genres to form original and charming films that defy categorisation. Finally Behind the Candelabra and Pitch Perfect were both jaw droppingly engrossing and entertaining.
At the opposite end of the spectrum there were a few real turkeys, frequently scuppered by their over-indulgent run-times and lack of good editing. I had pretty low expectations for The Lone Ranger and it certainly met them, but the disappointment I felt at The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was crushing. It was just dull. The plot was stretched out paper thin and they failed to fill in the gaps with interesting characters, instead just using fairground ride action and melodramatic exposition. Mind you, Sharknado won the prize for the lowest rating, and that couldn't have been saved by reducing the runtime unless it was reduced to 20 seconds with someone just reading the title and premise out.
In the middle were a few "could have been better". World War Z was a perfectly fine "Brad Pitt saves the world from zombies" film, but wasted the amazing premise and structure of the book on an unrecognisable story. Star Trek Into Darkness was a rollicking action adventure spoilt by utter laziness when it came to pulling the plot together into something that made sense. The Great Gatsby on the other hand had a solid story (obviously) but I actually felt Luhrman was too subdued in his style!
Other viewing highlights
There were a number of recent films from the last couple of years that I picked up via Lovefilm. Hotel Rwanda (2004) was a devastatingly powerful film which taught me a lot about a story I knew embarrassingly little of, Don Cheadle's performance was just incredible. One Hour Photo (2002) demonstrates why Robin Williams is wasted in comedy as he's phenomenally creepy in this very well put together 'little' thriller. Margin Call is a relatively small film that people may have missed, but it has a great cast (Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Zachary Quinto) and is an informative look at the early days of the financial crisis. Perks of Being a Wallflower is another indie film that was easily missed in cinemas (I even tried to see if and couldn't find it) but is a charming and vibrant look at misfit teens.
Older films that I finally caught that actually live up to the label of classics - Dial M for Murder, Gregory's Girl and Local Hero. They're badly dated now of course, but each manages to raise above the imitators and descendants admirable. On the documentary front two standouts are Man on Wire and The The Imposter, both about French men performing amazing feats of nerve and balance - one a tightrope walker, the other a conman.
Other viewing lowlights
I waited until the full series was available before watching the Twilight film, but as it turned out I needn't have bothered waiting because I barely made it through the first film. I found the books thoroughly entertaining, but the film somehow manages to emphasise all the worst elements and the casting is cataclysmically awful.
Some 'classics' that turned out to be miserable - Blue Velvet (no idea what was happening and thoroughly unpleasant to watch), Hello, Dolly! (budgets over chemistry), La Dolce Vita (horrifically dull) and Gone in 60 Seconds (1974) (boring exposition followed by boring car chase). There were also a few of last year's critically acclaimed films that I was distinctly underwhelmed by - Zero Dark Thirty (utterly muddled messages and storytelling), Berberian Sound Studios (pretentious nonsensical mess) and Amour (stunning performances, utterly tedious)
Full list of films
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Date: 2014-01-14 08:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-14 07:24 pm (UTC)Now corrected to About Time instead of Pacific Rim