Best Movies 2013

I watched more movies in 2013 than I have ever watched and I still feel like there are great films I missed. Nonetheless, it's time to make the annual list. Here are the top ten films I saw in 2013.

1) Inside Llewyn Davis - The movie that stayed with me longer than any other this holiday season. Melancholic, melodic and humorous it's a film that shows the Coen Brothers at the top of their game. It's also nice to see one of their characters garner our sympathy a bit. [Some say he is unsympathetic but in my view he simply makes bad choices and knows when he screws up].
2) Gravity - Hollywood - with the talents of Alfonso Cuarón - found how to use IMAX 3D without overdoing the 3D and yet immerse us in an awesome story of survival.
3) Upstream Color - Shane Carruth jumbles his narrative in such a way that is at once perplexing and impressive. At the heart is a movie about doubts and loneliness that just happens to push the narrative envelope a bit so we pay attention.
4) Short Term 12 - If there was justice in the big bad film world then this SWSX winning film by Destin Cretton would be nominated for best picture and Brie Larson would win best actress.
5) Hannah Arendt - This movies dares to tread where few movies do; into the world of intellectual battles. At the heart this movie, by Margarethe von Trotta, is a woman who chose to defend a common
sense idea over common sense.
6) Stories We Tell - Sarah Polley went in search of the mom she
never knew and in the process she found herself.
What else are documentaries supposed to do?
7) All Is Lost - Robert Redford lost at sea for a couple hours, working hard to survive but doomed to sink all without saying anything except 'Fuuuuuuuckkkk!'. What's not to love? J.C. Chandor shows with only two films he has considerable range.
8) Tim's Vermeer - Penn & Teller take on Vermeer. Or more exactly Vermeer art historians in this fascinating, engaging documentary. The theory is certainly debatable but the process of creating a Vermeer is undeniable.
9) The Past - Asghar Farhadi makes films about the complexity of human relations. This is his second film about the effects of divorce and while it may not be as rich as his last film it still offers much more than the average 'divorce picture'.
10) Becoming Traviata - I know what you're saying; What is Becoming Traviata? It's a behind the scenes documentary about a staging of Traviata at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Presented by Philippe Béziat as a fly on the wall approach it avoids all the reality TV b.s and just shows us professional singers and a director doing what they do best. I was riveted.

The next twenty [alphabetical]:
American Hustle
The Attack
Blue Jasmine
The Company You Keep
Computer Chess
Drinking Buddies
Fill the Void
Frances Ha
The Great Beauty
Her
Lore
Mother of George
Museum Hours
Nebraska
Oblivion
Pacific Rim
Rush
Something in the Air
A Touch of Sin
Wadjda
The World's End