Review Of The Year: 2013
In black and white or riotous colour, here’s a quick look back over the best and worst films of 2013 and a sneak preview of the movies to watch out for in 2014.
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The Missing Picture / L’Image Manquante (2013)
★★★★☆
A testimony to the horrors of the Khmer Rouge in clay, Rithy Panh’s The Missing Picture is a poetic and intelligent rumination on survival, memory and murder.
Age Of Uprising – The Legend Of Michael Kohlhaas (2013)
★★★★☆
Unpicking the tragic deadlock of a wronged man out for justice, Arnaud des Pallières’ Michael Kohlhaas is a fine tribute to people power and ruthless idealism.
Mandela – Long Walk To Freedom (2013)
★★★★☆
From boyhood to presidency, Justin Chadwick offers a solid biopic of Nelson Mandela, the iconic world statesman who achieved a political and moral miracle in South Africa.
All Is Lost (2013)
★★★★☆
All is Lost is a one-man tour de force that will either crown Robert Redford’s acting career so far or signal his return to it after concentrating on his Sundance Festival.
The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (2013)
★★★☆☆
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a charming, relatable and flawed film romanticising the virtues of escaping the tedium of reality with a hop, skip and a jump.
Fill The Void (2012)
★★★☆☆
Love and marriage inside a Jewish orthodox family, Rama Burshtein’s Fill The Void puts womanhood centre-stage in this moody relationship drama.
The Patience Stone (2012)
★★★★☆
A war movie like no other, Atiq Rahimi’s The Patience Stone leaves no woe unturned as a woman rails against man and the theatre of war.
Kill Your Darlings (2013)
★★★★☆
Will the circle be unbroken? John Krokidas’ Kill Your Darlings uncovers Allen Ginsberg’s dance with death as the Beat generation stage a writers’ revolution.
Nebraska (2013)
★★★★★
Determined to pick up a nonexistent million-dollar mailshot prize, an elderly father on the edge of dementia is driven across America by his long-suffering son.
Floating Skyscrapers / Plynace Wiezowce (2013)
★★★☆☆
Down and out in Warsaw, Tomasz Wasilewski’s haunting Floating Skyscrapers explores identity in flux and gay love in a hopeless place in contemporary Poland.
Scatter My Ashes At Bergdorf’s (2013)
★★★☆☆
Matthew Miele’s Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s is a suitably sleek star-studded behind-the-scenes documentary looking at New York’s über department store.
Saving Mr Banks (2013)
★★★★☆
A clash of cultures with a war zone in the writers room, John Lee Hancock’s Saving Mr Banks puts adaptation and that special relationship on trial
Young And Beautiful / Jeune Et Jolie (2013)
★★★★☆
Fathoming the sordid depths of taboo and transgression, François Ozon’s Jeune Et Jolie finds the unfathomable in a teenager trading innocence for money.