Movies I saw in 2013, excluding Iron Man 3

The Gatekeepers – ☆☆ ½ Excellent historical document, docked half a star for the dumb CGI.

Stories We Tell – ☆½ Self-indulgent, occasionally touching. Didn’t like the non-biological dad.

Ordinary People – ☆☆ Should have been called Upper Middle Class People. Super American, I can see how it would have had a huge impact in its time.

Star Trek Into Darkness – ☆½ Fine, meaningless

Room 237 – ☆ Who cares about the infantile ranting of narcissistic morons?

Manborg – ☆ Kind of unwatchable, although I admire the effort and passion

Pacific Rim – ☆½ Good colors. Too old for this shit.

Pump Up The Volume (rewatch) – ☆☆ Rightfully beloved, incredibly badly edited – why is there no director’s cut??

Vampire’s Kiss – ☆☆☆½ Fucking tremendous. Suzie and I going as Nicholas Cage and Alva for Halloween this year.

This Is The End – ☆½ I laughed, meaningless

Spring Breakers – ☆☆☆ Benoit Debie drinks syrup

Oblivion – ½ couldn’t take more than 15 minutes, not Stephen Platt’s fault, you’re the best Stephen

Ai Weiwei – Never Sorry: ☆☆ Somewhat dull but a good biography of a major art world figure who isn’t in it for the money.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams – ☆☆☆ Wonderful, also deadly boring but worth it for the postscript

Skyfall – ☆☆ Stylish, dull, enjoyed the blue tux

Gwendoline – the height of orientalism, not for me

Killer Party – ½ basically unwatchable

Cutter’s Way – ☆☆ Kind of boring, decent performances, interesting to think of as a prequel to The Big Lebowski

Miami Connection – ☆☆ for enthusiasm, goofy as fuck and boring in the middle but joyful

Cash McCall – ☆☆ Many qualities lacking from modern film, interesting foreshadowing of the importance of M&A in American business life. Weiner sees it as an influence on Mad Men which is evident.

Stoker: ☆☆ Yay Chan-Woo Park and Mia, everything else eh. Plot somewhat predictable.

Sightseers – ☆ Good directing, believable acting, did nothing for me.

Argo – ☆½ Solid, no subtext at all, teaches nothing.

Skyfall – ☆ for great locations and solid direction, otherwise boring.

Evangelion 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo – ☆☆ Presumably a bitter parody of fan desire before an astonishing conclusion

Only The Young – ☆ Attempts Mike Mills, isn’t. Cute kids.

Upstream Color ☆☆☆ Brave and completely American. SECOND APPRAISAL: ☆☆½ Probably low on meaning once you connect circles; still striking.

The Master – ☆☆½ – great staging, some genuine humanity between the leads but a flat ending.

Celeste and Jesse Forever – ☆ for Rashida Jones and an ending I liked

Silver Linings Playbook – ½ for Jennifer Lawrence, otherwise fucking false garbage

Beauty is Embarrassing – ☆½ for enthusiasm.

Killing Them Softly – ½ for slow motion car shooting and opening bit with junkies. Otherwise cynical, obvious, dull.

John Dies at the End – ☆ for funtimes, also liked the handling of the ending and credits

Sleepwalk With Me – ½ didn’t connect with me at all

Flight – ☆ for great plane crash sequence, turned it off after 1:20

End of Watch – ☆½ should have called it “when will Michael Peña die” but good performances

The Dark Knight Rises – ☆☆1/2 – great tech, good holding off of Batman until 3rd act

The Queen of Versailles ☆☆ – somewhat touching portrait of excess and attendant anxiety

Total Recall (2012) – ☆ for Obama money and cityscapes

Savages – ½ for one cool transition and Salma Hayek

Black Rain – ☆☆ Nutty! Like Rising Sun w/ the fear-based racism, has good qualities.

Queue

The Spectacular Now

Computer Chess

Gerhard Richter

Neighboring Sounds

Return From The Ashes

Mr. Freedom

Joe