Lots of choices, including some of my Best Movies of 2013.
Recommended:
- American Hustle is the most gloriously entertaining movie of the year – with Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Jeremy Renner at their best.
- The French drama Blue Is the Warmest Color, with its stunning performance by 19-year-old actress Adèle Exarchopoulos, currently tops my list of Best Movies of 2013 – So Far.
- The Wolf of Wall Street, Martin Scorsese’s excessive, full-throttle con artist comedy – a movie that gives hedonism a bad name.
- The city of Rome dazzles in The Great Beauty, already a favorite for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.
- I really liked and admired the funny, poignant and thought-provoking family portrait Nebraska from Alexander Payne (Sideways, The Descendants).
- Philomena, with Judi Dench and Steve Coogan is an emotionally satisfying gem.
- The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is another fine thriller from that franchise, with another amazing performance by Jennifer Lawrence.
- Go for Sisters has three more great characters in a thriller from indie guru John Sayles.
- The spare survival tale All Is Lost has a grimly powerful performance by Robert Redford.
- I also like the wickedly subversive Holiday comedy White Reindeer, which is available streaming on Amazon, iTunes, Sundance Now, GooglePlay and XBOX.
Not So Much
- I found Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks to be sentimental and predictable.
- The Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis is about an unlovable loser – and I didn’t love the movie, either.