TALKING TOP TENS

So it's January Fifth...

and I haven't yet written a review for this year, nor have I even compiled my official Top Ten list for 2014. As you probably know, this is a big deal to geeky movie critics, just so we can look back and go "oh, yeah, that was my Number Four movie in 2010!" One reason I hold out is I haven't yet seen every 2014 release I want to. It always happens that I try to put a list together, then, in the late winter or early spring, I see a movie from that year I'd always wanted to that was only in limited release or something, and it shakes the whole thing up after I already made an official list and posted it and got opinions on it. Last year, the movie that shook it up was Nebraska, the Alexander Payne-directed homecoming/road trip flick that was one of the year's most heartfelt and emotionally-rich movies. I also re-watched the well-acted and electrifying racing drama Rush, which I had seen in theaters in September and then largely forgotten about. As you will see below, both ended up on what I am calling my FINAL Top Ten Movies of 2013 List.

2013
1. Gravity
2. Captain Phillips
3. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
4. Rush
5. 12 Years A Slave
6. Nebraska
7. Star Trek Into Darkness
8. Fruitvale Station
9. Saving Mr. Banks
10. Her

There's an argument to be made that this list was a done deal as soon as I walked out of Gravity--I was walking on air and raving to anyone who would listen that it was one of the best movies I'd ever seen. I started to doubt its superiority when I was really impressed by the second Hunger Games film, and then re-watched Captain Phillips on DVD and was blown away (ironically, I was lukewarm on Captain the first time because I saw it, because it was at night on the same day I saw Gravity as a matinee and had yet to recover). I was so impressed by Captain when I watched it at home that I started to think it was the year's best. Happily, Alfonso Cuaron's space epic was back out in theaters, so I saw it again, this time in 3-D, and was, again, thoroughly impressed. So, despite a very strong Top 3 (and, basically, Top 6), Gravity remains on the top of the heap. But this was quite a strong group overall.

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Even though 2012 was the first year I started blogging and I saw tons of movies, I never did post a Top 10 list. Maybe I was overwhelmed--or underwhelmed. Anyway, this was tough, because I've only seen a couple of these movies once and it was two years ago, but, considering my remembrance of my original impressions, my thoughts in repeated viewings (for some of them), and their rewatchability (whether I've actually re-watched them or not), I decided on this order:

2012
1. Les Miserables
2. Skyfall
3. Argo
4. ParaNorman
5. The Avengers
6. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
7. Django Unchained
8. Lincoln
9. Silver Linings Playbook
10. The Perks of Being A Wallflower

This list was decided almost as soon as I saw Les Mis in theaters, and, though I would probably pop Skyfall into the DVD player more readily than Les Mis because of its higher entertainment value, it would be disingenuous to not put the musical epic first. It blew my mind, was all I could think about, almost re-shaped my taste in music, and became my obsession for several months. The movie is long and can be slow, so it's not the most re-watchable, but, as is arguably even more important for a musical, its soundtrack can be listened to over and over (and over). The rest of this list is a mixed bag. I only saw Argo once, but I know I greatly enjoyed it; I didn't think much of The Avengers when I first saw it but I have it on DVD and have watched it several times--at its best, it's as enjoyable as any of these movies. My impression of both Lincoln and Django improved with viewings at home, and I've never been able to fully decide what I thought of Silver Linings Playbook, since it's so different from the book (which, at the time I saw the movie, was an obsession of mine; so I was initially disgusted with the movie).

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2014? Well, I have yet to see the celebrated, much-ballyhooed likes of Boyhood, American Sniper, Birdman, Whiplash, Selma and Still Alice; I want to see them mainly because they're all expected to be major players at the Academy Awards this year, and I always like to have opinions for the Best of the Best shows.

On Friday, January 2, I saw The Imitation Game in theaters. I never got around to writing a full review on this blog, but I would have given it an A. Harkening back to the likes of The King's Speech (a movie I call one of my favorites now despite the fact that I was so-so on it after seeing it in theaters), The Imitation Game was a great balance of heavier material fraught with meaning, and real, crackling entertainment. The latter was particularly important, as a lot of this year's most celebrated movies (The Theory of Everything, Foxcatcher, Wild) have proven to be well-made, thought-provoking films, but ones that proved tough acts to sit through at times. So while I may have drawn something from each, I wouldn't watch them again as readily. I probably thought more of The Imitation Game than I would have had the other recent movies I'd seen not been so dull (both Unbroken and Into the Woods were duds), but Game was a well-written, well-developed movie that was more engaging than I expected, and had the big meaningful punch at the end. Benedict Cumberbatch was perfectly cast, Keira Knightley had her best role in years, and any movie that has  actors like Mark Strong and Charles ("Tywin Lannister") Dance in key supporting parts has serious street cred.

While I have not made an official list yet, David Fincher's indomitable, mesmerizing Gone Girl has the #1 vote in my book to this point, largely because it was the only movie I've seen this year that really shut me up and turned me into a viewer and not a critic. I was swept up by the movie's wild spell and dumped out the other side with my jaw agape, thinking I've never seen anything like that before. Holy cow! I'll be surprised if another movie catches it. But Imitation Game just slotted itself into #2 in the running, with Wild, Nightcrawler and Interstellar rounding out the Top Five (at this point, the likeable but slower, heavier flicks Foxcatcher and Theory of Everything are on the next wrung down). Hopefully some of the big titles I have yet to see will really impress me, even though their inclusion may push entertaining, likeable blockbusters Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Edge of Tomorrow and Guardians of the Galaxy out the door.

So I guess we'll see. But the 2014 list is shaping up to be a very strong one from top to bottom, with no guilty-conscience-picks or late additions. God knows when you'll actually see that final Top Ten list, though.