Killing your darlings is never easy, but in a year as bold, provocative, and exhilarating as 2013, it was damn near tragic. As Mike Murphy previously wrote, “Even if I had comprised a list of my Top 50 films of the year, some notable ones would still be left on the outside looking in.” That’s how brilliant 2013 was at the multiplex. With only 10 spots on a year-end-list (and only room for one tie), it was with great reluctance that I had to leave off the on-edge suspense of Captain Phillips, the hyperactive mania of Spring Breakers, the sensory thrill ride of Gravity, the ensemble-charged wonders of American Hustle, the head spinning mystery of Prisoners,the ferocity of Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine, and the stirring silence of Robert Redford in All Is Lost. But even without these remarkable works on my list, it’s…
View original post 1,546 more words
Last year, creating our end of the year lists was one of the most exciting processes. This year, it was the most difficult challenge. Over the past months, we’ve come out of press screeners raving about the movies we saw over and over again, so much so that numerous friends have chided, “Is there ever a movie you don’t like?” The fact of the matter is that 2013 will go down in history as one of the most remarkable years in movie history, with new classics being dropped every other weekend thanks to likes of Steve McQueen, Alfonso Cuaron, the Coen Brothers, Spike Jonze, David O. Russell, Paul Greengrass, Alexander Payne, and many, many more. While our friends may have grew tired of our never-ending praise, we were just as shocked that so many movies this year left us in wondrous cinematic highs. As you might expect, narrowing down all…
Last year, creating our end of the year lists was one of the most exciting processes. This year, it was the most difficult challenge. Over the past months, we’ve come out of press screeners raving about the movies we saw over and over again, so much so that numerous friends have chided, “Is there ever a movie you don’t like?” The fact of the matter is that 2013 will go down in history as one of the most remarkable years in movie history, with new classics being dropped every other weekend thanks to likes of Steve McQueen, Alfonso Cuaron, the Coen Brothers, Spike Jonze, David O. Russell, Paul Greengrass, Alexander Payne, and many, many more. While our friends may have grew tired of our never-ending praise, we were just as shocked that so many movies this year left us in wondrous cinematic highs. As you might expect, narrowing down all…
Last year, creating our end of the year lists was one of the most exciting processes. This year, it was the most difficult challenge. Over the past months, we’ve come out of press screeners raving about the movies we saw over and over again, so much so that numerous friends have chided, “Is there ever a movie you don’t like?” The fact of the matter is that 2013 will go down in history as one of the most remarkable years in movie history, with new classics being dropped every other weekend thanks to likes of Steve McQueen, Alfonso Cuaron, the Coen Brothers, Spike Jonze, David O. Russell, Paul Greengrass, Alexander Payne, and many, many more. While our friends may have grew tired of our never-ending praise, we were just as shocked that so many movies this year left us in wondrous cinematic highs. As you might expect, narrowing down all…
In Walt Disney’s 1964 children’s classic Mary Poppins, Best Actress-winning Julie Andrews sings, “Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down”, perhaps the most immortal line in movie musical history. For better and for worse, these lines do a damn good job at summarizing Saving Mr. Banks, Disney’s own re-telling of the contentious production behind Poppins. Though it was one of the studio’s biggest critical and financial hits, it took Walt (Tom Hanks) over 20 years to convince author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) to sign over the rights to her novel, and the film covers the 2 weeks the cantankerous Travers spent in Los Angeles helping Walt, screenwriter Bill Wash (Bradley Whitford), and songwriter’s Robert and Richard Sherman (B.J Novak, Jason Schwartzman) turn her beloved character into a movie screen icon. The result is harmless fluff, a tidy family-friendly drama neatly packaged with a big, bright…
Though it couldn’t quite match the box office total of last year’s November (Skyfall, Wreck-It Ralph, Breaking Dawn – Part 2), this month still marked the second time the November box office exceeded $1 billion and it’s all thanks to box office titans Thor: The Dark World and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Splitting the month in half – Thor opened on November 8th while Catching Fire bowed on November 22nd – these blockbusters kept audiences around the world riveted all month long, and the box office saw some unexpected extra power thanks to sleeper hits like The Best Man Holiday, Last Vegas, and Disney Animations’ Frozen, which set a new a record for biggest debut for a movie opening on the Thanksgiving 5-day weekend. After a hit-or-miss beginning to the Fall Season, the Holiday Movie Season has kicked things up a notch…
SHARF @ THE MOVIES 