Read my "Top 10 Films of 2013" list at We Got This Covered

Every year, my favorite article to write is my year-end Top 10. I just love the feeling of looking over all the great experiences I had with cinema over the past 12 months, and I love how trying to concentrate all that into a qualified list of 10, stressful as it may sometimes be, invariably increases my appreciation for and understanding of the movies I choose. 2013 was a very special year for movies, though, and the titles on my Top 10 list this year are more remarkable to me than ever before. I explain all of my thoughts on this in my actual Top 10 list, of course, which means that if you want to see what I thought about the year in film, and want to read all about the movies I thought best represented this insanely great year for cinema, you'll want to head on over to We Got This Covered and give the full list a read.

Read my Top 10 Films of 2013 list here, at We Got This Covered.

As I say in the full piece, this is the first top 10 list I have ever made where I believe everything on it may well be a masterpiece, and as always, I hope readers are encouraged to check out all of these films for themselves.

On Monday, I will be posting an addition "Next-Best" list for We Got This Covered, which shall encompass 20 more titles and cover all the great, great movies I had to leave off the final Top 10. And there may be some more end-of-year celebrations after that as well. We shall see.

In any case, follow me on Twitter, @JonathanLack, for all updates, and enjoy The Top 10 Films of 2013.

Review: A free-form analysis of Spike Jonze's radiant "Her"

It is rare I feel completely stumped when sitting down to write a movie review – usually, while watching a film, I can at least get some hooks in the material, the foundations of a thesis that will take me where I need to go – but when it came to Spike Jonze’s Her, I found myself literally speechless. This is a great and complex film, and one that also bowled me over so completely that figuring out exactly what to say about it was a real challenge.

In the end, I did what I usually do in these situations, which is to write some free-form, stream of consciousness notes on the film until I feel I have exhausted all I have to say, hoping that an actual structure will come to me somewhere along the way. Usually, one does. This time, it didn’t. Perhaps I will be able to write more collected and coherently about Her one day in the future, but for now, in the interest of sharing my thoughts on this incredible film as quickly as possible, I took a different approach for this review. I have taken my free-form notes as I first wrote them, extending and expanding them into complete thoughts and sentences, and let the results stand as my formal review. Whether or not the finished product is at all coherent shall be up to the reader, though I think this stream-of-consciousness style actually fits the film rather well.

In any case, the review follows after the jump. It has no plot summary, so please refer to the film’s Wikipedia page or theatrical trailer if you are unfamiliar with the premise. There are no overt spoilers in this review, though it is possible my thoughts will make more sense after one watches the film. Read the review after the jump...

Review: Coen Brothers' "Inside Llewyn Davis" is an impossibly rich triumph

Inside Llewyn Davis is at once both a painfully honest portrait of what it feels like to be artistically spent, and a beautiful artistic masterwork impossibly rich with greatness. It tells the story of a frustrated folk singer in what may be the last week of his struggling career, but seems to exist at the height of creative ascendency for filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, who always seem to me to have nowhere to go but down before coming back and maintaining, if not climbing even higher still. Llewyn Davis finds them in particularly fine form, for the film is so absurdly packed with cinematic riches that I suspect any one of them could be isolated, extended to feature length, and would leave an impact just the same. Had it only Oscar Isaac’s remarkably lived-in lead performance to sing the praises of, that would be enough. Had it only he and a number of other musically talented cast members performing emotionally resonant renditions of wonderful folk songs, mostly old but sometimes new, that would be enough. Had it only Carey Mulligan spewing strings of increasingly creative profanities at the title character, I would be satisfied. Were it comprised entirely of the seemingly aimless car trip Llewyn Davis takes with a hilariously stoic Garrett Hedlund and a marvelously surly John Goodman, I would still be overjoyed. And were it only a string of comic set-pieces revolving around Llewyn Davis’ misadventures with a mistakenly-gotten cat, I would love it just the same. Inside Llewyn Davis is astonishing because it is all of this and so much more, its seemingly endless supply of artistic treasure contained in one delicate, poignant, stunningly affecting package.

Continue reading after the jump...

2013 Movie Review Round-up #2 - "Blue is the Warmest Color," "Thor 2," "The Hunger Games 2," & "Frozen"

As explained in this post, I'm playing catch-up with the films of 2013 after a very busy fall that kept me away from my reviewing responsibilities, and I'm chronicling that process with a multi-part feature, extend over the next few weeks, wherein each post shall offer mini-reviews for about four or five movies. Since the last regular review I wrote before my long break was in late September, and published in early October – for Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity – I decided to start this project by recapping all the films I saw in theatres during that period, new releases I had been to see relatively close to their debuts. This has been split into two columns – the one you are reading now, focusing on the films of November, and the first installment, on the films of October – and in the next column, we shall cover some screeners I have finally gotten around to catching up on. A mix of full reviews – published over at We Got This Covered – and more mini-review columns like these should bring us to the end of the year in good fashion.

Read on after the jump for mini-reviews of Blue is the Warmest Color, Thor 2, The Hunger Games 2, and Frozen...

2013 Movie Review Round-up #1 - Rush, Prisoners, Captain Phillips, & 12 Years a Slave

This has been a strange year for me. 2013 started out with one of the longest, most excruciating dearths of original cinematic content I have ever seen in my time as critic, and around August, a combination of bad-movie fatigue and other responsibilities – schoolwork, a new job opportunity, applying for a graduate school program, etc. – saw my movie review productivity drop to the lowest level I think it has ever been since I started writing about film.

And somewhere during that time period, 2013 got good. Not just good, but great. When I wasn’t quite looking – or was looking, but didn’t have time to write about it all, which is my main method of processing film – 2013 revealed itself as one of the deepest and most eclectic years for cinema in recent memory. I was seeing a lot of movies, and being slowly but steadily impressed by most of them, but I was also missing more than I would prefer to – and not writing about any of them, which for me was the biggest disappointment.

As 2013 enters the home stretch, however, it’s come time for me to start thinking about my year-end Top 10 list, and about what films and performances I feel worthy of merit, as I shall soon be voting alongside the Denver Film Critics Society for our annual awards. That means I’m up to my neck in screener DVDs – the studios routinely send out all their award hopefuls to guilds and critics groups for year-end consideration – and finally have a chance to catch up on everything I’ve missed.

That has been a fun process so far, and it also inspired me to go back and play catch-up on all the movies I failed or lacked the time to review. This will be a multi-part feature that will extend over the next few weeks, with each post offering mini-reviews for about four or five movies as I see and write about them. Since the last regular review I wrote before my long break was in late September, and published in early October – for Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity – I decided to start this project by recapping all the films I saw in theatres during that period, new releases I had been to see relatively close to their debuts. That will be split into two columns – the one you are reading now, focusing on the films of October, and another posting later in the week, on the films of November – and in the next installments, we shall cover some screeners I have finally gotten around to catching up on. A mix of full reviews – published over at We Got This Covered – and more mini-review columns like these should bring us to the end of the year in good fashion.

Read on after the jump for mini-reviews of Rush, Prisoners, Captain Phillips, and 12 Years a Slave...

Read my review of Hayao Miyazaki's stunning "The Wind Rises" at We Got This Covered

I don't update this blog very much any more, as the majority of my film review work now happens in my role as Associate Editor for We Got This Covered, but I just published a review I had been so very excited to write, and I wanted to share it with all my readers. Longtime followers will know that my favorite director is Hayao Miyazaki, and so it was with great anticipation that I was finally able to see his new film, The Wind Rises, releases this summer in Japan.

I cannot reprint the review here, of course, but I wanted to direct blog readers towards it. Follow this link to read my review of the film, and please feel free to leave comments, here or at We Got This Covered, with thoughts and questions. Suffice it to say, I am a very, very big fan of this film, and am excited for more fans to have the chance to experience it.

It's not that often a film comes along I am this excited to write about, let alone see, but The Wind Rises is a special case. Please enjoy the review, and follow me on Twitter @JonathanLack for updates on reviews, podcasts, and more!

Read my review of "The Wind Rises" at We Got This Covered.