2013 Favorites

We now return you to 2014, already in progress

Same rules as usual: winners are selected from the past year’s films that I’ve seen and written about on the blog.  This time around, I’ve limited each “Best” (including Pictures, Actresses, and Actors) to three winners instead of five (with an exception only if one film had two same-gender leads), and kept the single winner for the “body of work” category.  I’ve added “sleepers” this year as well.  First-time readers: note that each of the three listed items in each category are joint “winners” (not that they receive anything but my approval), not three nominees with one winner.  Use the left-side navigation to find my original write-ups of each film.

In some particular order:

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Best Pictures

Blue is the Warmest Color

Inside Llewyn Davis

Short Term 12

Sleeper: 12 Years a Slave

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Best Actress (single performance)

Brie Larson as Grace – Short Term 12

Judi Dench as Philomena Lee – Philomena

Adèle Exarchopoulos as Adèle and Léa Seydoux as Emma – Blue is the Warmest Color

Sleeper: Amy Acker as Beatrice – Much Ado About Nothing

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Best Actress (body of work)

Mia Wasikowska

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Best Actor (single performance)

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup – 12 Years a Slave

Oscar Isaac as Llewyn Davis – Inside Llewyn Davis

Michael Shannon as Richard Kuklinski – The Iceman

Sleeper: Forest Whitaker as Cecil Gaines – The Butler

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Best Actor (body of work)

Michael Fassbender

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Best Supporting Actress

Ellen Page as Izzy – The East

Lupita Nyong’o as Patsey – 12 Years a Slave

Oprah Winfrey as Gloria Gaines – The Butler

Sleeper: Jena Malone as Johanna Mason – Catching Fire

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Best Supporting Actor

Keith Stanfield as Marcus – Short Term 12

Matthew Goode as Charlie Stoker – Stoker

Jared Leto as Rayon – Dallas Buyers Club

Sleeper: Jake Johnson as Luke – Drinking Buddies

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Best Screenplay

Frances Ha – Greta Gerwig

In a World… – Lake Bell

The East – Brit Marling

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Best Director

Lake Bell – In a World…

Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave

Joel and Ethan Coen – Inside Llewyn Davis

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Favorite Characters

India Stoker (played by Mia Wasikowska) – Stoker

Llewyn Davis (played by Oscar Isaac) – Inside Llewyn Davis

Adèle (played by Adèle Exarchopoulos) – Blue is the Warmest Color

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Best Cameo

Cameron Diaz as herself – In a World…

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Worst of the Year

The Wolf of Wall Street

Note: The Desolation of Smaug was very, very close.  Maybe next year, PJ.

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Most Unfortunately MIA

Jessica Chastain

Note: I’m aware of her practice of filming 5 or 6 movies back-to-back, not appearing in anything for a year, then having all 5 or 6 of those released at once.  But someone’s habit of taking long absences does not make one miss them any less.

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Oddest Thing to Happen Involving Richard Lives

Wentworth Miller’s sister quotes me on her “Everything Wentworth” blog, but requires me to sign up for an account and wait a month to be “approved” before seeing what the quote is.

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Predictions for Next Year

Adam Driver will be on the list of winners, but not for the Star Wars sequel.

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Retrospective (July 2014)

I have since seen All is Lost with Robert Redford, and would have had that film and Redford on this list somewhere if I’d seen it before.  What a powerhouse of emotion.

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See you this year.  -RH