Top Five Films of 2013

2013 has been a year where sequels and franchises have continued to dominate the Box Office. The top five films in the worldwide box office all fit into this category with Gravity and The Croods the only original films breaking into the top ten (although Frozen probably still has some business left to do).

Likewise R-Rated movies (or 15/18 certificate movies in the UK) are virtually dead box office wise. The Hangover Part III at number nineteen being the highest grossing film in this category.

Expect to see these trends continue in 2014 as audiences and studios alike enjoy the comfort that comes from familiarity.

Anyway, in all I reckon I’ve seen 52 of the films released in 2013 so one for each week of the year. I’ve managed to boil this list down to just five. So in true buzz feed style here is: The Top Five Films of 2013 only true movie fans will appreciate.

Top Five Films of Edinburgh International Film Festival

So Edinburgh International Film Festival is over another year. The festival has become a time of exhilaration and frustration for me. Exhilaration, in that I get to see lots of amazing independent films; and frustration in that one of the few downsides of having a full-time job as teacher is that I cannot take time off to see all the films I would like to.

This is Martin Bonner (EIFF 2013)

 

This is Martin Bonner is the second film I saw at EIFF that dealt with the relationship between Christianity and american society. The first being C.O.G.. Both films bring out the positives and negatives of belonging to a church community quite well as well as being great character studies in their own right.

Sanctuary (EIFF 2013)

Faro, or Sanctuary to give it its English title, is a film about the relationship between a father and his daughter who run away deep into the woods. The father is wanted for murder but Hella, who is around 12-years-old, is adamant that she will not be taken way from him. So they escape and must try and survive on tinned food, wild mushrooms, and any animals they can catch to survive.

It is a film almost entirely shot outdoors, and the ‘sanctuary’ that becomes their home has a kind of other-worldly feel to it. They live close to a beautiful lake with an astonishing forest of trees just below the surface. In some ways the mythic nature of the place betrays the fact in can only ever be temporary. This is reflected in the way in which the father longingly talks of running off to Faro in Portugal at some point in the future.

Leviathan (EIFF 2013)

The sea has often been a source of inspiration for filmmakers over the years.  Films like Jaws, The Perfect Storm and The Poseidon Adventure capturing something of the rage and isolation of this watery foe.

It is easy to see why a director might choose to make a film set out in the ocean.  Stories often work best when characters are brought together in close quarters, and a boat is just about perfect for this.  Then there is the common enemy of the sea, or what it contains, which can also cause immediate drama.  Something which is also captured in television shows like The Deadliest Catch.

Leviathan is also about the sea.  However, it is nothing like any of the works I have mentioned so far, and unlikely to be like anything you have ever seen before.  It is a documentary, although without a clear narrative we can grab onto.